Hailing the State
Indian Democracy Between Elections
Published on 5. April 2023
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-4780-1612-0 (ISBN)
Description
In Hailing the State, Lisa Mitchell explores the methods of collective assembly that people in India use to hold elected officials and government administrators accountable, demand inclusion in decision making, and stage informal referendums. Mitchell traces the colonial and postcolonial lineages of collective forms of assembly, in which-rather than rejecting state authority-participants mobilize with expectations that officials will uphold the law and fulfill electoral promises. She shows how assembly, which ranges from sit-ins, hunger strikes, and demands for meetings with officials to massive general strikes and road and rail blockades, is fundamental to the functioning of democracy in India. These techniques are particularly useful for historically marginalized groups and others whose voices may not be easily heard. Moving beyond an exclusive focus on electoral processes, Mitchell argues that to understand democracy-both in India and beyond-we must also pay attention to what occurs between elections, thereby revising understanding of what is possible for democratic action around the world.
Reviews / Votes
"In redefining democratic practice to include collective assembly, Mitchell weaves an intricate picture of how people understand themselves as democratic citizens. Deftly combining approaches from anthropology, history, and political theory, she brings alive the mosaic of actions that they employ in what she terms "hailing the state." She draws on very rich archival and ethnographic material to tell us the ways in which people have and continue to hail the state." - Lipika Kamra (Review of Politics) "Mitchell weaves an intricate picture of how people understand themselves as democratic citizens. Deftly combining approaches from anthropology, history, and political theory, she brings alive the mosaic of actions that they employ in what she terms 'hailing the state.'" - Lipika Kamra (Review of Politics) "A critical intervention in socio-political thought." - Chinmaya Lal Thakur (Contemporary South Asia) "Michell's book is historically rich, ethnographically grounded, and theoretically innovative. Her intervention is at once timely and cautionary for Indian democracy, as it highlights and situates the stakes of political recognizability for marginalized populations. Readers interested in political anthropology and history and subaltern and South Asian studies will no doubt find this book insightful."- Roderick Wijunamai (Exertions)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
21 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
616 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4780-1612-0 (9781478016120)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lisa Mitchell is Professor of History and Anthropology in the Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Language, Emotion, and Politics in South India: The Making of a Mother Tongue.
Content
A Note on Transliteration and Spelling ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction. Hailing the State: Collective Assembly, Democracy, and Representation 1
Part I. Seeking Audience
1. Sit-In Demonstrations and Hunger Strikes: From Dharna as Door-Sitting to Dharna Chowk 43
2. Seeking Audience: Refusals to Listen, "Style," and the Politics of Recognition 67
3. Collective Assembly and the "Roar of the People": Corporeal Forms of "Making Known" and the Deliberative Turn 94
4. The General Strike: Collective Action at the Other End of the Commodity Chain 122
Part II. The Criminal and the Political
5. Alarm Chain Pulling: The Criminal and the Political in the Writing of History 151
6. Rail and Road Blockades: Illiberal or Participatory Democracy? 168
7. Rallies, Processions and Yatras: Ticketless Travel and the Journey to "Political Arrival" 197
Conclusion. Of Human Chains and Guinness Records: Attention, Recognition, and the Fate of Democracy amidst Changing Mediascapes 216
Notes 225
Bibliography 265
Index 287
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction. Hailing the State: Collective Assembly, Democracy, and Representation 1
Part I. Seeking Audience
1. Sit-In Demonstrations and Hunger Strikes: From Dharna as Door-Sitting to Dharna Chowk 43
2. Seeking Audience: Refusals to Listen, "Style," and the Politics of Recognition 67
3. Collective Assembly and the "Roar of the People": Corporeal Forms of "Making Known" and the Deliberative Turn 94
4. The General Strike: Collective Action at the Other End of the Commodity Chain 122
Part II. The Criminal and the Political
5. Alarm Chain Pulling: The Criminal and the Political in the Writing of History 151
6. Rail and Road Blockades: Illiberal or Participatory Democracy? 168
7. Rallies, Processions and Yatras: Ticketless Travel and the Journey to "Political Arrival" 197
Conclusion. Of Human Chains and Guinness Records: Attention, Recognition, and the Fate of Democracy amidst Changing Mediascapes 216
Notes 225
Bibliography 265
Index 287