Anthropology, politics, and the State : democracy and violence in South Asia

List of illustrations                                                                        page x

Acknowledgements                                                                               xi

1   The Strange Death of Political Anthropology                                  1

2   Locating the Political                                                                      19

3   Culture, Nation, and Misery                                                           48

4   Performing Democracy                                                                  72

5   States and Persons                                                                          96

6   The State and Violence                                                                 118

7   Pluralism in Theory, Pluralism in Practice                                   143

8   Politics and Counter-politics                                                        168

Bibliography                                                                                      186

Index                                                                                                  200

List of illustrations

1   'We are a caste of politicians' (All India Yadav Mahasabha

Convention, 1999).       Photo: Lucia Michelutti.                                 21

2   The 'dirty work' of politics (village meeting, West Bengal).

Photo: Arild Ruud.                                                                                 23

3   'Vote for this' (Communist slogan, West Bengal). Photo: Mukulika Banerjee.                                                                                              73

4   'I can do anything' (J. R. Jayawardene at Presidential election rally,

Sri Lanka 1982).      Photo: Jonathan Spencer.                                     75

5   The work of counter-politics (Batticaloa, 2006). Photo:

Jonathan Spencer.                                                                                   169