An Anthropological Study of Rural Jharkhand, India
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Understanding the State: An Anthropological Study of Rural Jharkhand, India Alpa Shah London School of Economics and Political Science University of London PhD. in Anthropology 2003 UMI Number: U615999 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615999 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ?O ltT tC A L AND uj. TR£££ S F ZZit, Abstract This thesis explores understandings of the state in rural Jharkhand, Eastern India. It asks how and why certain groups exert their influence within the modem state in India, and why others do not. To do so the thesis addresses the interrelated issuesex-zamindar of and ex-tenant relations, development, corruption, democracy, tribal movements, seasonal casual labour migration, extreme left wing militant movements and moral attitudes towards drink and sex. This thesis is informed by twenty-one months of fieldwork in Ranchi District of which, for eighteen months, a village in Bero Block was the research base. The thesis argues that at the local level in Jharkhand there are at least two main groups of people who hold different, though related, understandings of the state. There is a local elite, usually descendants of the zamindarsold , who both understands state ideas and interacts in its local processes. Understanding state ideas is, however, different to an internalisation of, or a commitment to, them. Indeed, the thesis argues that local elite interaction with the state is ultimately guided by their seeing state resources as for their own vested interests. A contrasting understanding of the state is held, however, by the second main group, the poorer tribal peasantry, who are usually descendants of the tenants of the oldzamindars. They see the state as a new, outside and foreign agency that is not legitimated in the world of their spirits. As such, they see the state as dangerous and exploitative and seek to minimise interaction with it. The thesis suggests that there is a political economy through which the tribal peasant idea of the state, as distinct from and separate to tribal society, is reproduced. It is suggested that, due to their desires to limit the number of people interacting with the state, the local elite enhances the reproduction of the tribal peasant view. Furthermore, the thesis suggests that even alternative state visions, which appear to be concerned about the welfare of the ‘exploited’ and ‘suppressed’ tribals of Jharkhand, such as that of the new tribal state movement or that of the extreme left-wing Maoist Communist Centre, only serve to further marginalize and suppress those they allegedly serve. 2 Contents Abstract......................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................7 Glossary of Organisations and Acronyms...............................................................................9 Glossary of Selected Hindi and Nagpuria Terms ....................................................... 11 Introduction..............................................................................................................................16 Preamble...............................................................................................................................16 The Events........................................................................................................................... 16 The Issues............................................................................................................................ 35 The Debates.........................................................................................................................39 The Approach......................................................................................................................46 Context of Fieldwork.........................................................................................................49 The outsideness of the state..........................................................................................49 Tapu................................... 52 Describing Tapu people.................................................................................................53 Doing the fieldwork.......................................................................................................56 Chapter Outline...................................................................................................................58 Chapter 2: Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power: The Relationship Between the Tenants and theZamindars ....................................................................................................78 The Events........................................................................................................................... 80 The Puzzle........................................................................................................................... 87 The History of Land Relations......................................................................................... 87 The rise of zamindars and the first settler status......................................................... 87 The development of Tapu............................................................................................. 92 The relationship between thezamindar and the tenants.............................................95 The fall of the Tapuzamindars prior to the abolition ofzamindari ......................... 99 The abolition of zamindari...........................................................................................100 Continuingzamindar power: from land to the state.................................................. 102 Decliningzamindar power...........................................................................................108 The Significance of thePahan andPaenbharra ............................................................110 The significance of thepahan and thepaenbharra for the Mundas....................... I l l The significance of thepahan andpaenbharra for the Qx-zamindars.................... 116 Munda perceptions of theex-zamindar view .............................................................121 Concluding Remarks........................................................................................................ 124 3 Chapter 3: Understanding the Developmental State: The Implementation of Ministry of Rural Development Scheme.................................................................................................127 The Events......................................................................................................................... 129 Elaborating on the DWCRA Shed..................................................................................137 The political elite understandings...............................................................................138 The tribal peasant understandings...............................................................................144 The political economy of understandings.................................................................. 149 Concluding Remarks: Changing Power Structures....................................................... 151 Chapter 4: Understanding the Democratic State: TheParha M ela .................................156 The Events.................................................................................. 158 Elaborating on theParha M ela ....................................................................................... 169 The tribal peasant understandings...............................................................................170 The political elite understandings...............................................................................172 The political economy of understandings.................................................................. 174 Concluding Remarks: An Inherent Problem of MLA Status....................................... 178 Chapter 5: Jharkhand State Threatened by the Love of Labour: Seasonal Migration to the Brick Kilns............................................................................................................................ 183 Migration as a Problem..................................................................j................................ 183 Escaping to the Brick Kilns............................................................................................ 186 The Misery of the Daisy Brick Factory? ........................................................................ 190 The Love of Labour......................................................................................................... 191 More Reasons for Migrating........................................................................................... 197 Putting Data Into Tables.................................................................................................