Seeing the State: Governance and Governmentality in India [Paperback]

The book focuses on the relationship between the poor and the state in India.How do poor people in India understand and make use of the state in their daily lives? Drawing on their fieldwork and broad range of expertise, the authors of Seeing the State consider key debates in development studies on participation and good governance to answer these questions. Their work analyses the extent to which poorer people are able to engage the political process as citizens. The book will be of interest to students of anthropology, politics and development, as well as to those studying India more specifically.How do poor people in India understand and make use of the state in their daily lives? Drawing on their fieldwork and broad range of expertise, the authors of Seeing the State consider key debates in development studies on participation and good governance to answer these questions. Their work analyses the extent to which poorer people are able to engage the political process as citizens. The book will be of interest to students of anthropology, politics and development, as well as to those studying India more specifically.Poor people confront the state on an everyday basis all over the world. But how do they see the state? This book considers the Indian example where people's accounts, in particular in the countryside, are shaped by encounters staged at the local level, and are also informed by ideas circulated by the government and the broader development community. Drawing extensively on fieldwork conducted in eastern India, the authors review a series of key debates in development studies on participation, good governance, and the structuring of political society in South Asia.Part I. The State and the Poor: 1. Seeing the state; 2. Technologies of rule and the war on poverty; Part II. The Everyday State and Society: 3. Meeting the state; 4. Participation; 5. Governance; 6. Political society; Part III. The Poor and the State: 7. Protesting the state; 8. Postcolonialilóh