Anthropology, Politics, and the State: Democracy and Violence in South Asia (New Departures in Anthropology)

In recent years anthropology has rediscovered its interest in politics. Building on the findings of this research, this book, first published in 2007, analyses the relationship between culture and politics, with special attention to democracy, nationalism, the state and political violence. Beginning with scenes from an unruly early 1980s election campaign in Sri Lanka, it covers issues from rural policing in north India to slum housing in Delhi, presenting arguments about secularism and pluralism, and the ambiguous energies released by electoral democracy across the subcontinent. It ends by discussing feminist peace activists in Sri Lanka, struggling to sustain a window of shared humanity after two decades of war. Bringing together and linking the themes of democracy, identity and conflict, this important new study shows how anthropology can take a central role in understanding other people's politics, especially the issues that seem to have divided the world since 9/11. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Title......Page 7 Copyright......Page 8 Contents......Page 11 List of illustrations......Page 12 Acknowledgements......Page 13 ONE The Strange Death of Political Anthropology......Page 17 Politics and Culture......Page 21 Translation and the Problem of Culture......Page 27 Identifying the Political......Page 30 Introduction......Page 35 Nepal: Dissent in a Lordly Idiom......Page 40 Politics without Culture......Page 48 Politics without the State......Page 54 Culture and Conversation......Page 64 Malinowski’s Ambivalence......Page 72 The Nation and the Universal......Page 79 Coda: The Political Afterlife of Culture......Page 85 FOUR Performing Democracy......Page 88 Elections and Performances......Page 92 Voting as aMoral Phenomenon......Page 95 Excursus: The Passions and the Interests......Page 100 Politics as a Public Phenomenon......Page 103 After Politics......Page 107 FIVE States and Persons......Page 112 Biographies of State and Person......Page 116 Idea and Apparatus......Page 118 Blurred Boundaries......Page 122 Rough Governmentality......Page 125 Boundaries and Performances......Page 130 SIX The State and Violence......Page 134 The Anthropology of the 1983 Violence......Page 136 Towards a Topology of Violence......Page 147 Violence and Sovereignty......Page 149 ACoda onHope......Page 156 SEVEN Pluralism in Theory, Pluralism in Practice......Page 159 Pluralism in Practice......Page 161 The Political Production of ‘Pluralism’......Page 167 Pluralism and the Legal Order......Page 171 Pluralism and the Political......Page 178 Politics as Counter-pluralism......Page 180 Batticaloa, February 2006......Page 184 Counter-politics......Page 189 Politics, Anti-politics, Counter-politics......Page 191 The Political and the Past......Page 193 Anthropology as Counter-politics......Page 197 Bibliography......Page 202 Index......Page 216

In recent years anthropology has rediscovered its interest in politics. Building on the findings of this research, this book offers a new way of analysing the relationship between culture and politics, with special attention to democracy, nationalism, the state and political violence. Beginning with scenes from an unruly early 1980s election campaign in Sri Lanka, it covers issues from rural policing in north India to slum housing in Delhi, presenting arguments about secularism and pluralism, and the ambiguous energies released by electoral democracy across the subcontinent. It ends by discussing feminist peace activists in Sri Lanka, struggling to sustain a window of shared humanity after two decades of war. Bringing together and linking the themes of democracy, identity and conflict, this important new study shows how anthropology can take a central role in understanding other people's politics, especially the issues that seem to have divided the world since 9/11.

"In recent years anthropology has rediscovered its interest in politics. Building on the findings of this research, this book offers a new way of analysing the relationship between culture and politics, with special attention to democracy, nationalism, the state and political violence. Beginning with scenes from an unruly early 1980s election campaign in Sri Lanka, it covers issues from rural policing in north India to slum housing in Delhi, presenting arguments about secularism and pluralism, and the ambiguous energies released by electoral democracy across the sub-continent. It ends by discussing feminist peace activists in Sri Lanka, struggling to sustain a window of shared humanity after two decades of war. Bringing together and linking the themes of democracy, identity and conflict, this new study shows how anthropology can take a central role in understanding other people's politics, especially the issues that seem to have divided the world since 9/11"--Jacket Jonathan Spencer. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 186-199) And Index.