CRIMINALISATION OF POLITICS: Caste, Land and the State

The phenomenon of ‘criminalisation of politics’ is much debated in the media in the recent past, but it has not attracted adequate scholarly attention. This phenomenon is not new for Indian democracy. Present study is a proper academic attempt to understand the phenomenon, whose roots lies in the very process of democratisation. In this book, the author traces the trajectory of the political economy of the state of Bihar and its engagement with the question of land and caste that has lead to the ‘criminalisation of politics’.

It is an important contribution to the literature on politics in India, in particular for its in-depth study of a particular region, and especially for its attempt to do so with the help of a so far inadequately developed analytical tool/framework (criminalization of politics). It is interesting also, how certain idioms and/or registers of politics which are seen as anachronistic to impersonal modern institutions of state and politics are quite central to this study. The patron-client relationships in Indian politics, which are affirmed and perpetuated through caste, community, kinship and family relationships, have been woven into the study giving it academic credence to what is otherwise relegated to the realm of idle rumour, hearsay and gossip.

Avinash Kumar is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has earlier taught at the University of Delhi and also worked with a an International Research Consortium on Religions and Development (University of Birmingham), the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi and the National Commission for Minorities, Government of India, New Delhi. He has published on issues of discrimination and exclusion based on caste and religion, social movements, political economy of land acquisitions and SEZs, and state politics in India. His current research interests are political-economy of the (Indian) state, globalisation and labour movements, and urban political problems.