The spatiality of social relations: an Indian case-study

Using ethnographic information, the paper asserts the significance of space–society relations in rural India. In particular, the paper shows that material interests of classes and other social groups are normally tied to particular geographical areas. So agrarian social relations are local relations. Similarly, given the territorial organization of the state, state–society relations are local relations too. Thus as locally dependent members of classes and other collectivities and as citizens dependent on local branches of the state, people often find themselves predisposed to interact locally. There is also a counter-tendency to this in that people try to escape local dependence and interact with distant places. In either case, social relations are spatial relations, and the fact that social relations are spatial relations makes some difference to the way society works, although the specific ways in which this spatiality makes a difference are place-specific. The paper shows that social processes such as economic development, class conflict, reproduction of caste and kinship relations and performance of public policies can be better understood if we analyse the spatiality of these processes in particular places.