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Paperwork, patronage and citizenship: the materiality of everyday interactions with bureaucracy in Tamil Nadu, India

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Version 2 2023-06-12, 09:14
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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-12, 09:14 authored by Grace CarswellGrace Carswell, Geert De NeveGeert De Neve
This article explores the material practices through which lower-caste and poor villagers engage with bureaucracy in contemporary India. We take documents and paperwork – such as ration cards and community certificates – as a ‘lens’ through which to explore how paper materiality is infused with the politics of power, patronage, and identity. The article brings ethnography from rural Tamil Nadu, South India, in conversation with two bodies of literature: one on the materiality of bureaucracy and one on the nature of political mediation in contemporary India. We demonstrate how everyday engagements with paperwork as well as processes of applying, form filling, and securing recommendations are constitutive of social and political relationships and, ultimately, of citizenship itself. Political mediation around paperwork and bureaucracy generates a hierarchy of citizens rather than equal citizenship for all, yet ordinary villagers transpire as anything but passive. Drawing on patronage networks, engaging in affective performances, and navigating a politics of identity, they actively negotiate access to the state in an attempt to claim their rights as citizens.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

ISSN

1359-0987

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

3

Volume

26

Page range

495-514

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-11-22

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-06-22

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-11-21

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