COMMENTARY have been complaining of reverse discrimi- Rethinking State Politics in nation as in the case of Harit Pradesh. The above processes have contributed India: Regions within Regions to the regionalisation of polity with the states emerging as the prime arenas where politics and economy actually unfold.4 It is Ashutosh Kumar now the state level vernacular elites often belonging to the hitherto dormant identity From a dominant national ecent India has been witness to groups who influence or make the policy perspective, political analysis in the onset of the democratic pro- decisions and whose choices actually affect India has gradually shifted its Rcesses that have resulted in the economic and political happenings in their reconfiguration of its politics and eco- respective states. A study of the micro- unit of study to the state level. nomy. Among these processes, most sig- level mechanisms, which are shaping poli- There remains a dearth of nificant has been the assertion of identity tical actions and processes of mobilisation literature that employs intra-state politics. There have been struggles around at local level, has therefore now become or inter-state regional the assertiveness and conflicting claims of imperative for an understanding of the the identity groups, and of struggles inter nal dynamics of Indian politics and perspectives in a comparative amongst them, often fought out on lines of economy as well as for drawing the theo- political analysis framework. region, religion, language (even dialect), retical conclusions on a larger canvas. caste and community. These struggles have There has been a growing realisation that found expressions in the changed mode of it is at the state level that the “future ana- electoral representation that has brought lyses of Indian politics must concentrate” the local/regional into focus with the hith- (Chhibber and Nooruddin 1999). erto politically dormant groups and regions Greater level of recognition of state as finding voices. A more genuinely represent- the primary unit of analysis has led to the ative democracy has led to the sharpening emergence of state politics as an autono- of the line of distinction between or among mous discipline, whose study is now being the identity groups and the regions. considered essential for a nuanced under- The process has received an impetus standing of Indian politics. Ironically, the with the introduction of the economic re- new found exalted status of the discipline forms as the marginal groups as well as the is in sharp contrast to its earlier dismal peripheral regions increasingly feel left out state when it was treated merely as an with the central state gradually withdraw- appen dage of the discipline of Indian poli- ing from the social and econo mic sector tics (read “national politics”). and market economy privileging the privi- leged, be it the social groups or the re- Three Factors gions.1 Coastal states along with the high The lack of autonomy of the discipline of income states have benefited more from state politics at the time could be attri- the flow of foreign direct investment as buted primarily to three factors. First, compared to the states having peripheral within the grand comparative analytical locations, disturbed law and order situa- framework developed by the liberal tions, and poor economic and social infra- schools of political modernisation and structure (Kurian 2000; Ahluwalia 2000; poli tical develop ment to study the devel- Kohli 2006). Regional inequalities in in- oping societies that dominated “third come and consumption have been widen- world” political theory, the newly inde- ing. Interstate as well as intra-state dispari- pendent nation states were considered as ties in terms of per capita income have the prime movers in terms of economy and grown faster in the post-reforms period.2 politics and therefore were taken as the The author acknowledges his debts to the What may be called the “secession of the fundamental units of analysis. In the quest Lokniti network friends and also his students rich”,3 even the rich states, attracting huge of reaching about a general theory that at Panjab University for their collective inputs private investments and registering im- would have near universal application over the last decade that have been of immense pressive growth, have started resenting the ( recall stage theory of growth), the con- help while writing this research note. continued dependence of relatively under- stituent units within the nation state and Ashutosh Kumar ([email protected]) developed states on the central revenues their historical specificities were com- is with the Department of Political transferred to them. Similarly, the relatively pletely i gnored. Quite a few Indian Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh. developed regions within the states also p olitical theorists under the spell of the 14 may 9, 2009 vol xliv no 19 EPW Economic & Political Weekly COMMENTARY American P olitical Science Association s tate-specific papers that were basically followed suit. focused on enumerating the determinants MANOHAR As for Marxist writings on Indian poli- of the state level political dynamics in NEW ARRIVALS tics they have remained under the spell of great empirical details. For the scholars neo-Marxist critiques in the form of under- contributing to these volumes, regional AGRICULTURE AND FOOD IN INDIA development/dependency/world systems states provided more or less a self- A Half-century Review from Independence to Globalization that again took the “post-colonial state” as contained universe (called “microcosm” Bruno Dorin and Frederic Landy the unit of analysis. Second, due to the as well as “macro cosm” by Weiner 1968: 978-81-7304-812-8, 2009, 280p. Rs. 695 prevalence of what used to be called the 4) within which their politics (mainly elec- “Congress system”, the politics and eco- toral) were conducted and analysed. INDIAN HEALTH LANDSCAPES nomy (refer the development planning Based on state-specific empirical details UNDER GLOBALIZATION model) at the state level at the time was about the political history, the politico- Alain Vaguet (ed) very much guided by a dominant centre administrative structure, changing pat- 978-7304-722-0, 2009, 386p. Rs. 950 with the “high command” pulling the key terns of political participation, the nature FEEDING INDIA strings of power. State politics thus ap- of party system and the performance of The Special Parameters of peared merely as a poor copy of the poli- the political regimes; the volumes’ papers Food Grain Policy tics unfolding at the national level. Third, presented descriptive analyses of the na- Frederic Landy in the then euphoria of the Nehruvian era, ture and dynamics of the political pro- 978-7304-796-1, 2009, 310p. Rs. 775 when the whole emphasis was on institu- cesses in the particular states. Employing MEDICINE, DISEASE AND ECOLOGY tion/state/nation building under the lead- a political sociological approach, which IN COLONIAL INDIA ership of a nationalist and modernising was hugely inspired by the modernisation Laxman D. Satya state elite that commanded tremendous theory literature, the essays in the vol- 81-7304-314-0, 2009, 310p. Rs 775 degree of confidence and legitimacy, it umes essentially privileged the “political” was inevitable that politics at the state level while relatively ignoring the “economic”. MAPPING CRIMINAL JUSTICE would be studied from the national per- The two volumes, edited by Rao and DELIVERY IN INDIA spective even if it was at the cost of missing Frankel, however, belonged to a some- Towards Development of an Index Pramod Kumar and Rainuka Dagar the esoteric details concerning the regional what different genre, much more in tune 978-81-7304-791-6, 2009, 278p. Rs. 695 states (Yadav and Palshikar 2006). Argua- with the then emergent trend in the study bly there was an all-pervading feeling of state politics, as the essays focused on LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN INDIA shared by the intelligentsia of the time that the historical patterns of political trans- Policy and Practice too much attention to state affairs was a formation taking place in particular states. With Special Reference to a Field mark of parochial attachments.5 The varying relationship between caste Study of Decentralization in Kerala Rashmi Sharma and class in the states, especially in terms 978-81-7304-805-0, 2009, 278p. Rs. 675 The 1967 Elections of the land question, came up in several The defining moment for the discipline essays for theoretical inquiries while try- COLONIALISM AND URBANIZATION IN came in the form of general elections held ing to unravel the problematic of “the de- INDIA in 1967 which marked the beginning of cline of dominance” of the traditional The Punjab Region the veering away of different states, at dif- elites in the rural hinterlands. Reeta Grewal 81-7304-619-0, 2009, 256p. Rs. 645 ferent points of time and through diffe rent Similar in tenor to the then prevailing ways, from the Congress system (Kothari trend, all the edited volumes, mentioned WE ARE AS FLEXIBLE AS RUBBER! 1970). The grudging recognition of the above and others contained essays that Livlihood Strategies, Diversity and the states, once considered the bane of Indian focused on one state. There was hardly Local Institutional Setting of Rubber unity, as the “mainstay of India’s demo- any effort on the part of the contributors Small holders in Kerala, South India cracy and the crucial building block of the to use their state-specific studies for build- Balz Strasser Indian nation” (Mitra 2006: 46) also facili- ing up a larger argument about the emer- 978-817304-803-6, 2009, 275p. Rs. 695 tated the emergence of state politics as a gent nature of Indian politics. Almost all PERFORMING ECSTASY discipline in its own right. Consequently, of them studiously avoided employing a The Poetics and Politics of Religion the next two decades that followed saw comparative interstate framework or in India the publication of the volumes on state d eveloping a theoretical framework for Pallabi Chakravorty and Scott Kugle politics edited by Myron Weiner (1968), their empirical analyses.6 978-81-7304-814-2, 2009, 256p.