Everyday State and Politics in India ― Government in the Backyard in Kalahandi

Contrary to popular narratives of state-withdrawal in India, the state seems to be changing its form and morphing on the ground.

This book provides an ethnographic account of the changing forms of governmental actions in the development sector. It analyses the implementation of WORLP (Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project), a new generation watershed-based development project in Kalahandi district in Odisha and shows the morphings of the forms of the state on the ground, and the way agents and objects of statist actions perceive the state. Argueing that the changes in the institutions and practices of the state in India over the last three decades or so are better understood through the conceptualisation of state-fabrication, rather than of state-formation, the author describes five governmental tactics related to emergent modes of governmental action in the context of watershed development in Kalahandi (the ‘Somalia of India). The book identifies an increasing convergence in the everyday practices of governmental and non-governmental organisations, and the growth of ‘the social’ as a terrain and object of governmental action as two important effects of the process of deployment of these tactics.

Providing an alternative analysis of state and politics in India, this book adds to the literature surrounding the everyday state by illuminating recent changes in state-society relations. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Political Science, Development Studies, Social Anthropology/Sociology and South Asian studies.

Sailen Routray is a Visiting Faculty member at Azim Premji University (APU), Bangalore, India and a researcher, social sector consultant, writer, columnist, translator (between Odia and English), reviewer, and editor.