type

Book Review

source publication

Democracy and Autocracy, 'The Troubling State of India’s Democracy'

Abstract

Anthropologist Mukulika Banerjee and political scientist Sushmita Pati have a conversation about their recently published books set in rural Bengal and Delhi’s urban villages, respectively. They situate their analyses of the intersections between democracy, capitalism, urbanization, and globalization in events, relations, and cultures of the everyday. Their exchange offers important insights for how political subjectivities and social ties are differently constituted or, to use Banerjee’s term, “cultivated” in these two settings. The two books offer a fine-grained view of how active citizenship in rural and urban India is refracted through distinct social and institutional structures. India is home to some of the world’s largest cities while more than 900 million people continue to live in the countryside. Its democratic future is therefore inextricably tied to the evolution of political behavior and political economy in both contexts, and, as Banerjee and Pati’s joint response indicates, to how urban and rural dynamics shape each other through (but not only through) migrants and their networks.

Contents:

Review of Mukulika Banerjee’s 'Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India' by Sushmita Pati

Response from Mukulika Banerjee

Review of Sushmita Pati’s 'Properties of Rent: Community, Capital and Politics in Globalising Delhi' by Mukulika Banerjee

Response from Sushmita Pati

Joint Commentary from Banerjee and Pati

Year

11-2023

Download

Share

COinS