Democratisation without representation? The power and political strategies of a rural elite in north India

This paper examines how an agrarian elite in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), India, seek access to the local police force. I argue that rich farmers belonging to the intermediate Jat caste have been quite successful in perpetuating their economic and social advantage through placing relatives in the police force and nurturing political networks that link them to the police and politicians. The analysis complements macro-structural political economic accounts of Indiaʹs flawed democratisation by offering a ‘thick description’ (Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretative Anthropology. New York: Basic Books) of local state/society relations, including attention to spatial and symbolic dimensions of political networks. The paper provides a basis for re-evaluating popular accounts of the relationship between rural people and the local state in India and highlights the broader relevance of this research for political geography.