30971231 akhil gupta corruption blurred boundaries

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Blurred Boundaries: The Discourse of Corruption, the Culture of Politics, and the Imagined

StateAuthor(s): Akhil GuptaSource: American Ethnologist, Vol. 22, No. 2 (May, 1995), pp. 375-402Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/646708

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blurredboundaries:the discourse of corruption,theculture of politics, and the imaginedstate

AKHILGUPTA-Stanford University

While doing fieldwork in a small village in North India(in 1984-85, and again in 1989) that

Ihave named Alipur, Iwas struckby how frequentlythe theme of corruption cropped up in the

everyday conversations of villagers. Most of the stories the men told each other in the evening,when the day's work was done and small groups had gathered at habitual places to shoot the

breeze, had to do with corruption (bhrashtaachaar)and "thestate."' Sometimes the discussiondealt with how someone had managed to outwit an official who wanted to collect a bribe; at

other times with "thegoing price"to get an electrical connection fora new tubewel Ior to obtain

a loan to buy a buffalo; at still other times with which official had been transferredor who was

likely to be appointed to a certain position and who replaced, with who had willingly helpedhis caste members or relatives without taking a bribe, and so on. Sections of the penal code

were cited and discussed in great detail, the legality of certain actions to circumvent normal

procedure were hotly debated, the pronouncements of districtofficials discussed at length. At

times it seemed as if I had stumbled in on a specialized discussion with its own esoteric

vocabulary, one to which, as a lay person and outsider, Iwas not privy.

What is strikingabout this situation, in retrospect,is the degree to which the state has become

implicated in the minute texture of everyday life. Of course north Indianvillages are not uniquein this respect. It is precisely the unexceptionability of the phenomenon that makes the paucityof analysis on it so puzzling. Does the ubiquity of the state make it invisible?Or is the relative

lack of attention to the state in ethnographic work due to a methodology that privilegesface-to-face contact and spatial proximity-what one may call a "physics of presence?"

In this article I attempt to do an ethnography of the state by examining the discourses of

corruptionincontemporary India.Studyingthe stateethnographically involves both the analysisof the everyday practices of local bureaucracies and the discursive construction of the state in

public culture. Such an approach raisesfundamental substantiveand methodological questions.

Substantively, it allows the state to be disaggregated by focusing on different bureaucracies

without prejudgingtheirunityorcoherence. Italso enables one to problematize the relationshipbetween the translocality of "the state"and the necessarily localized offices, institutions, and

In this article I attempt to do an ethnography of the state by examining thediscourses of corruption in contemporary India. I focus on the practices of lowerlevels of the bureaucracy in a small northIndian town as well as on representationsof the state in the mass media. Research on translocal institutionssuch as "thestate"enables us to reflect on the limitationsof participant-observationas a technique of

fieldwork. Theanalysis leads me to question Eurocentricdistinctions between stateand civil society and offers a critique of the conceptualization of "the state" as amonolithic and unitary entity. [the state, public culture, fieldwork, discourse,

corruption, India]

blurred boundaries 375

American Ethnologist22(2):375-402. Copyright? 1995, American AnthropologicalAssociation.



practices inwhich it is instantiated.Methodologically, itraises concerns about how one applies

ethnographic methods when the aim is to understandthe workings of a translocal institution

that is made visible in localized practices. What is the epistemological status of the object of

analysis? What is the appropriate mode of gathering data, and what is the relevant scale of

analysis?2

Anethnography of the state in a postcolonial context must also come to terms with the legacyof Western scholarship on the state. In this article I argue that the conventional distinction

between state and civil society, on which such a large portion of the scholarship on the state is

based, needs to be reexamined. Is it the "imperialismof categories"(Nandy 1990:69) that al lows

the particularcultural configuration of "state/civil society" arising from the specific historical

experience of Europe o be naturalizedand applied universally?Insteadof takingthis distinction

as a point of departure, Iuse the analysis of the discourse of corruptionto question its utility in

the Indian context. The discourse of corruption turns out to be a key arena through which the

state, citizens, and other organizations and aggregations come to be imagined. Instead of

treating corruptionas a

dysfunctional aspectof state

organizations,I see it as a mechanism

through which "thestate" itself is discursively constituted.3

Inaddition to description and analysis, this article also has a programmaticaim: to marksome

new trails along which futureanthropological research on the state might profitably proceed.The goal is to map out some of the most importantconnections in a very largepicture, thereby

providinga set of propositionsthat can be developed, challenged, and refutedby othersworkingon this topic. Inso doing, this article seeks to add to a fast-growing body of creative work that

is pointing the way to a richeranalysis of "the state"(some examples are Abrams1988; Anagnost

1994, in press, n.d.; Ashforth1990; Brow 1988; Cohn 1987a, 1987b; Handelman 1978, 1981;Herzfeld 1992a; Kasaba 1994; Mitchell 1989, 1991; Nugent 1994; Taussig 1992; Urla 1993;

Yang 1989).I should point out that much more needs to be done to lay the empirical basis for

ethnographies of the state. Very little rich ethnographic evidence documents what lower-level

officials actual y do in the name of the state.4 Research on the state, with its focus on large-scale

structures,epochal events, majorpolicies, and "important"people (Evanset al. 1985; Skocpol

1979), has failed to illuminate the quotidian practices (Bourdieu 1977) of bureaucrats that tell

us about the effects of the state on the everyday lives of ruralpeople. Surprisingly ittle research

has been conducted in the small towns (inthe Indiancase, atthe level of the subdistrict[tehsil])

where a largenumber of stateofficials, constituting the broad base of the bureaucraticpyramid,live and work-the village-level workers, land record keepers, elementary school teachers,

agriculturalextension agents, the staff of the civil hospital, and others. This is the site where the

majorityof people in a ruraland agriculturalcountry such as India come into contact with "the

state,"and this is where many of their images of the state are forged.

Although research into the practices of local state officials is necessary, it is not by itself

sufficient to comprehend how the state comes to be constructed and represented. This

necessitates some reflection on the limitations inherent in data collected in "the field." The

discourse of corruption,forexample, is mediated by local bureaucratsbut cannot be understood

entirely by stayingwithin the geographically bounded arena of a subdistrict ownship. Althoughin this article I stress the role of public culture and transnational phenomena, Ido not want to

suggest that the face-to-face methods of traditionalethnography are irrelevant. ButIdo want to

question the assumption regardingthe naturalsuperiority-the assertion of authenticity-im-

plicit in the knowledge claims generated by the fact of "being there" (what one may call the

"ontological imperative").Such claims to truthgain their force precisely by clinging to bounded

notions of "society"and "culture."Once cultures, societies, and nations are no longer seen to

map unproblematically onto different spaces (Appadurai 1986; Gupta and Ferguson 1992;

Hannerz 1986), one has to rethink he relationshipbetween bodily presence and the generation

376 american ethnologist



of ethnographicdata. The centralityof fieldworkas rite of passage, as adjudicator f the

authenticityf "data," nd as the ultimateground or the judgmentof interpretationsestson

the rarely nterrogateddea that one learnsabout culturaldifferenceprimarilyhrough he

phenomenologicalknowledgegainedin "the ield."This stresson the experienceof being in

spatialproximityo "theother,"with itsconcomitantmphasison sensoryperception,s linked

to an empiricist pistemology5hat is unable to comprehendhow the state is discursivelyconstituted.t s forthis reason hatIhave combined ieldworkwith anotherpractice mployed

by anthropologists, practicewhose importances oftendownplayed n discussionsof our

collectivemethodologicalool kit.This is the analysisof thatwidelydistributed ultural ext,the newspaperforanearlyexample,see Benedict1946;anexemplary ecentdiscussioncan

be found n Herzfeld1992b).6 have lookedatrepresentationsf the stateand of "thepublic"in English-languagend vernacular ewspapersn India.

By ocusingon the discursive onstruction fthestate, wish to drawattention o thepowerfulcultural racticesbywhichthe state ssymbolically epresentedo itsemployeesandto citizens

of the nation.7Thesepublicculturalpracticesareenactedin a contestedspacethatcannotbeconceptualizedas a closed domaincircumscribed ynationalboundaries.Folk,regional,and

national ideologies compete for hegemony with each other and with transnational flows of

information,astes,andstylesembodiedin commoditiesmarketedby multinationalapital.8

Exploringhe discursiveconstructionof the state thereforenecessarilyrequiresattention o

transnationalrocesses nthe interstateystem(Calhoun 989).The interstateystem, nturn,is not a fixed orderbut is subject o transformationshatarise romthe actionsof nation-states

and fromchangestakingplace in internationaloliticaleconomy, inthisperiod hat has been

variouslydesignated"latecapitalism"Mandel1975) or the era of "flexibleaccumulation"

(Harvey1989). Forinstance, he new liberalization oliciesbeingfollowedby the Congressgovernment n India since the 1990 elections can only be understood n the contextof atransnational iscourse of "efficiency" eing promotedby the InternationalMonetaryFund

(IMF)nd thecollapseof the formerSovietUnion,one of India'smostimportanttrategic ndeconomicpartners. imilarly,ntensediscussionsof corruptionn India n 1989,9centeringonatransactionn theinternationalrms conomy, bringhomethecomplex nterminglingf localdiscourses nd internationalractices.What sthe theoreticalmportanceftheseobservations?

Briefly,t is thatany theoryof the stateneedsto take intoaccount its constitutionhrougha

complexset ofspatiallyntersecting epresentationsndpractices.This snotto argue hateveryepisodeof grassrootsnteraction etweenvillagersand state officialscan be shown to have

transparentransnationalinkages;t ismerely o note hatsuchlinkageshavestructuringffectsthat may overdetermine he contexts in which daily practicesare carried out. Insteadof

attemptingo search orthe local-levelorgrassrootsonceptionof the stateas ifitencapsulatedits own reality ndtreating"the ocal"as anunproblematicnd coherentspatialunit,we must

pay attention o the "multiplymediated"10ontextsthroughwhich the state comes to beconstructed.

Indevelopingmy analysisIhave drawnsubstantiallyn otherethnographersf SouthAsiawho havepaidattention o thestate.Inheranalysisofthe rituals f developmentperformedtthe inaugurationf a largewaterproject n SriLanka, erenaTenekoon(1988)demonstratesthatthe symbolicdistribution f waterin all directionsacrossthe landscapeof the country

becomes a means by which the reach of the state is represented. n this case, the literalenactmentof traversinghespaceof the nationcomes to signify he ubiquityandtranslocalityof the state.Conversely,JamesBrow(1988)shows how a governmenthousingproject n SriLankamakes he stateconcretelyvisibleintheeyes of villagers.Here,theemphasis son the

possibilitiesf imagininghetranslocal hatareenabledbytheembodiment fthe state hroughspatialmarkers uchas houses."




Since the ethnography f the statedeveloped in this article focuses on the discourseof

corruption,nd sincecorruptionends tselfratherasilyto barelyconcealedstereotypes ftheThirdWorld,12t mightbe worthwhile o say somethingabout how I proceedto developa

perspective n thestate hat sexplicitlyanti-orientalist.When notionsofcorrupt underdevel-

oped"countriesarecombined with a developmentalist erspective, n which "state-societyrelations"ntheThirdWorldare seen as reflecting priorpositioninthedevelopmentof the"advanced" ndustrialnations, he temptationo compare"them"o "ourown past"provesirresistible o many Western scholars.13nstead,one needs to ask how one can use the

comparative tudyof ThirdWorldpoliticalormationso confront he "naturalness"fconceptsthat havearisen rom he historical xperienceand cultural ontextof the West.Focusingonthe discursiveconstruction f states and social groupsallows one to see that the legacyofWestern cholarship n the statehas been to universalize particularultural onstruction f

"state-society elations"n which specific notions of "statehood" nd "civil society"are

conjoined.'4 nstead f building n thesenotions, hisarticleasksifone can demonstrateheir

provincialismnthe faceof incommensurableulturalandhistorical ontexts.'5Ibeginwith a seriesof vignetteshatgive a sense of the local levelfunctioning f "thestate"

and the relationshiphatrural eoplehaveto state nstitutions. verydaynteractions ithstatebureaucraciesreto my wayofthinkinghe mostimportantngredientnconstructions f "thestate" orgedby villagersand stateofficials.Ithen look at the broader ield of representationsof "the state" n publicculture.Finally, attempt o demonstratehow local level encounterswiththe state come togetherwithrepresentationsn the mass media. This is followedbythe

conclusion,whichsystematicallyrawsout the largerheoretical ssuesraised nthe article.

encountering "the state" at the local level

For he majority f Indian itizens, he most immediate ontextforencounteringhe state s

providedbytheirrelationships ithgovernment ureaucraciest the local level.Inaddition o

being promulgated y the massmedia,representationsf the stateare effectedthrough he

public practicesof different overnmentnstitutions ndagents.InMandi, he administrative

centerclosestto Alipur,he officesof the variousgovernment ureaucracieshemselves ervedas siteswhere mportantnformationbout he statewasexchangedandopinionsaboutpol ciesor officials orged.Typicaly, largenumbers f peopleclusterednsmallgroupsonthegroundsof the localcourts, he districtmagistrate'sffice,thehospital,or thepolicestation,animatedly

discussing nddebatinghe latestnews. Itwasinplacessuch asthese,wherevillagersnteracted

with each other andwithresidents f the nearby owns,as much as in the massmedia,thatcorruptionwas discussedand debated.

Therefore,ooking loselyatthesesettings llowsusto obtaina senseof thetexture f relations

betweenstateofficialsand clients at the local level. Inthis sectionIdrawon threecases that

togetherpresenta rangeof relationships etween state officialsand ruralpeoples.Thefirst

concernsa pairof stateofficials,occupying lowly but important ungsin the bureaucratic

hierarchy,who successfullyexploit the inexperienceof two ruralmen. The second caseconcernsa lower-casteman'spartiallyuccessfulactions o protecthimself rom he threats f

a powerfulheadman'6who has alliesinthe bureaucracy y appealing o a higherofficial.The

thirdexample

drawson a seriesof actionsconductedbythe powerfulBharatiyaKisanUnion

(literally,ndianPeasantUnion),a grassrootsarmers'movement hatoftenstrikeserrorntheheartsof local state officials. Becausethey give a concrete shape and formto whatwould

otherwisebe an abstraction"the tate"),heseeveryday ncountersprovideone ofthe critical

components hroughwhichthe statecomes to be constructed.

Small butprosperous,Mandi17 ousesthe lowest ends of the enormousstateand federal

bureaucracy.'8Mostof the importantfficialsof thedistrict,ncludinghosewhoseofficesare




in Mandi, preferto live in another, bigger town that serves as the districtheadquarters. Part of

the reason is that rental accommodation is hard to come by in Mandi (as I discovered to my

frustration);qually important,it enables them to stay incloser touch with theirsuperiorofficers.

Sharmajiwas a patwari, an official who keeps the land records of approximately five to six

villages, or about five thousand plots, lying on the outskirtsof Mandi. The patwari is responsiblefor registeringland records, for physically measuring land areas to enter them in the records,

and for evaluating the quality of land. The patwarialso keeps a record of deaths in a family in

the event of a dispute among the heirs about property,or the need to divide it up at some point.There are a number of officials above the patwariwhose main-if not sole-duty is to deal with

land records. On average, the total comes to about two officials for each village. Astonishingas this kind of bureaucraticsprawl might appear, itmust not be forgottenthat land is the principalmeans of production in this setting.

Sharmajilived in a small, inconspicuous house deep in the old partof town. Although Iwas

confused at first, I eventually identified which turns in the narrow, winding lanes would lead

me there. The lowerpart

of the house consisted of two rooms and a small enclosedcourtyard.One of those rooms had a large door that opened onto the street. This room functioned as

Sharmaji's"office."That is where he was usuallyto be found, surroundedby clients, sycophants,and colleagues. Two men in particularwere almost always by his side. One of them, Verma,himself a patwariof Sharmaji'snatal village (andthereforea colleague) was clearly in an inferior

position. He functioned as Sharmaji'salterego, filling in his ledgers for him, sometimes actingas a front and sometimes as a mediator incomplex negotiations over how much money it would

take to "get a job done," and generally behaving as a confidant and consultant who helped

Sharmaji dentifythe best strategyfor circumventing the administrativeand legal constraints on

the transferof land titles. The other person worked as a full-time Man Fridaywho did various

odd jobs and chores for Sharmaji's"official"tasks as well as for his household.Two of the side walls of the office were lined with benches; facing the entrance toward the

inner partof the room was a raised platform, barely big enough for three people. Itwas here

that Sharmajisat and held court,19and itwas here that he keptthe land registersfor the villagesthat he administered. All those who had business to conduct came to this "office." At any giventime there were usually two or three different groups, interested in different transactions,assembled in the tiny room. Sharmaji conversed with all of them at the same time, often

switching from one addressee to another in the middle of a single sentence. Everyone present

joined inthe discussion of matterspertainingto others.Sharmajioften punctuated his statements

by turningto the others and rhetorically asking, "Have I said anything wrong?" or, "Is what I

have said true or not?"Most of the transactionsconducted in this "office"were relatively straightforward: dding or

deleting a name on a landtitle; dividing up a plot among brothers;settling a fightover disputedfarmland. Since plots were separated from each other by small embankments made by farmers

themselves and not by fences or other physical barriers,one established a claim to a piece of

land by plowing it. Farmerswith predatory intentions slowly startedplowing just a few inches

beyond their boundaryeach season so that in a shortwhile they could effectively capture a few

feet of their neighbors' territory. Ifa neighbor wanted to fight back and reclaim his land, he

went to the patwari who settled the dispute by physically measuring the area with a tapemeasure. Of course, these things "cost money," but in most cases the "rates"were well-known

and fixed.

But however open the process of giving bribes and however public the transaction, there was

nevertheless a performative aspect that had to be mastered. I will illustrate this with a storyof

a botched bribe. One day, when Ireached Sharmaji'shouse in the middle of the afternoon, two

young men whose village fell in the jurisdiction of Verma were attempting to add a name tothe title of their plot. They were sitting on the near left on one of the side benches. Both were




probablyntheir ateteens. Theirrubber lippersandunkempthairclearlymarked hem to be

villagers, n impression einforced y clothes thathadobviouslynot been stitchedby a tailorwho normally atered othe "smart"et oftown-dwelling oungmen.Theyappearedllateaseand somewhatnervousnSharmaji'soom,animpressionheytriedhard o dispel byadoptinganoverconfidentone intheirconversation.

Although neverdid findoutwhy theywanted o add a nametothe landrecords, was toldthat t was inconniectionwith theireffortso obtain ertilizer n a loan forwhichthe landwasto serve as collateral.WhenIarrived n thescene, negotiationseemed to have brokendown

already:he men haddecided thattheywere notgoingto relyon Verma'shelp ingetting he

paperworkhroughhevariousbranches fthebureaucracyutwould insteaddo itthemselves.

Sharmajind the otherspresent someof whom were farmers nxious o gettheirown work

done)firstconvincedthe youngmen thattheywouldnever be able to do it themselves.Thiswasaccomplishedby aggressivelyellingthemto go ahead and first ry o getthe jobdone ontheirown andthat,ifall else failed,they couldalwayscome back to Sharmaji. Ifyou don't

succeed, I will alwaysbe willingto helpyou,"he said.Thereupon ne of the farmerspresenttold the young men thatSharmajiwas a verywell-connectedperson.Withoutappearingo

brag,Sharmaji imselfsaid that when big farmers nd importanteadersneeded to get theirworkdone, it was to himthattheycame.

Perhapsbecausethey had been previouslyunawareof his reputation,he nervousclients

seemedto lose all theirbravado.Theysoon started egging orhelp, saying"Tau father'slder

brother],you know what'sbest, why shouldwe go runningaroundwhen you are here?"

SharmajihenrequestedVerma o "help"heyoungmen."Help hemgettheirworkdone,"he

kept urging, o which Vermawould reply,"Inever refused o helpthem."The two patwaristhen went into an adjoiningroom,wherethey hada shortwhisperedconference.Sharmaji

reappearedand announced loudlythat they would have to "payfor it." The young menimmediatelywanted to know how much would be required,o which Sharmaji esponded,"Youshould ask him [Verma]hat."Shortly hereafter,Vermamade a perfectly imed reen-trance.Theyoungmen repeated he question o him.He said, "Giveas muchas you like."

Whentheyaskedthe questionagain,he said,"It s not forme to say. Givewhateveramount

youwantto give."The two clients then whispered o each other.Finally,one of them brokethe impasseby

reachingnto his shirtpocketandcarefully akingout a few folded bills. He handedRs. 10 to

Verma.20harmaji espondedby burstingnto raucous aughter nd Vermasmiled.Sharmajitoldhim,"Youwereright," aughing ll the while. Verma aid to theyoungmen,"I'llbe happy

to do yourwork even for Rs. 10, but firstyou'llneed the signatureof the headmanof yourvillage,that's he law."Sharmajiold them thattheydidn'tknowanythingaboutthe law,that

it tookmore hanRs.14 justfor the cost of theapplicationbecauseinorder o adda name to

a plot,the applicationwould have to be backdatedby a few months.Atthe mentionof the

headman, he young men became dismayed.They explainedthat relationswere not goodbetweenthem andthe headmanand thattheywere inoppositecamps. I sensed thatVerma

hadknown his all along.Sharmajihentold theyoungmen that heyshouldhave first oundout "what t cost" o "get

a nameadded o theregister"hesedays."Goandfindout the cost of putting ournameinthe

landregister,"etoldthem,"and hengiveVerma xactlyhalfof that."He immediatelyurned

to one of the farmerspresentand askedhim how much he hadpaidten yearsago.The mansaid it had been something ike Rs. 150. Then bothSharmaji nd Vermagot up abruptly nd

left or lunch.Theyoungmenturned o the otherpeopleandasked hemiftheyknewwhattheappropriate

sumwas.All of themgave figures angingromRs. 130-150 butsaidthat heir nformation as

datedbecause hat is howmuch it had costten or moreyearsago.Theyoungmentried o put




a goodface on thebunglednegotiationbysuggestinghat it would not be a big loss iftheydid

not succeed in theirefforts.Ifthey did notget the loan,theywouldcontinueto farmas they

usuallydid-that is,without ertilizer.

No one could tell them whatthe currentigurewas. EvenManFriday,who was stillsittingthere,refusedo answer, aying t wasnot orhim o intervene, ndthat twas allupto Sharmajiand Verma.The "practice" f bribegivingwas not, as the young men learned,simplyaneconomic transactionbut a culturalpracticethat requireda greatdegree of performative

competence.Whenvillagers omplainedabout hecorruptionf stateofficials, herefore,heywere not justvoicingtheir exclusionfromgovernment ervices because these were costly,

althoughhatwas no smallfactor.More mportantly,heywereexpressingrustrationecause

they lacked hecultural apitalrequiredo negotiatedeftly orthoseservices.21

Theentireepisodewas skilfullymanagedby SharmajindVerma.Althoughheycameaway

empty-handedrom hisparticularoundof negotiations,heyknew hat heyoungmen would

eventuallybe backand wouldthen have to payeven morethanthegoingrate o getthesame

job done. Sharmaji ppeared n turnsas the benefactorand the supplicantpleadingwith hiscolleagueon behalfof the clients.Vermamanaged o appear o be willing o do the work.The

actofgiving hebribebecameentirelya gestureofgoodwi Ion thepartofthe customers ather

thana consciousmechanismo grease hewheels.Interestingly, greatdeal of importancewas

attachedo notnaminga sum.Inthiscase, stateofficialsgotthe betterof a coupleof inexperienced lients.Pettyofficials,

however,do notalwayshave theirway. In the implementationf developmentprograms,or

example, ocalofficialsoftenhaveto seek out beneficiariesnorder omeettargetsetby higherauthorities.The beneficiariesof these programs an thenemploythe authority f the upperlevels of the bureaucracyo exertsome pressure n local officials.

Severalhouses have been constructednAlipurunder wogovernment rograms,he IndiraAwaasYojanaandthe NirbalVargAwaasYojana literally,he IndiraHousingProgramndthe

WeakerSectionsHousingProgram, espectively).Bothprograms re intended o benefitpoorpeoplewho do not have a brick pucca)house.The IndiraAwaasYojanawas meant or andless

harijansuntouchables),whereas he NirbalVargAwaasYojanawas forall thosewho ownedless than one acreof land,lackeda brickhouse,and had an income below a specified imit.22

Iwas toldthatone of the "beneficiaries" asSripal,o Ispoketo himoutsidehis new house.

Sripalwas a thin,small-bonedman, not more than25 yearsold, who lived in a clusterof

low-caste(jatav)homesin the village.WhenIsaw the brickone-roomdwellingconstructednext to his mother'shouse, I could not help remarkinghatit lookedquite solid. ButSripal

immediately ismissed hat notion.Sripalwas selectedfor hisprogram ythevillageheadman,SherSingh.When his namewas

approved,hevillagedevelopmentworker 3tookhimto thetown,hadhisphotographaken,andthenopenedan account n hisnamein a bank.For hepaperworkewaschargedRs.200.After hat he was givena slip (parchi)hatentitledhimto pick up predetermined uantities f

buildingmaterial rom a storedesignatedby the village developmentworker.The money

requiredo get the materialransportedo the construction ite came out of his own pocket.Thevillagedevelopmentworkeraskedhim opayanadditionalRs.500 togetthebricks.Sripalpleadedthat he did not have any money."TakeRs.1,000 if you want from the cost of thematerial from he

portionof the house

grantreserved or

purchasingmaterials], ut don't ask

me to pay you anything."Sripal laimed hat hiswasexactlywhat hevillagedevelopmentworkerhaddone,providing

himwith materialworthonly Rs.6,000 outofthe Rs.7,000 allocated o him.24Once againhehad to forkout the transportationxpense to have the bricksdelivered rom a kilnnearthe

village. Sripal laimedthat the bricksgivento himwere inferior ellow bricks peelayeenth)thathadbeen improperly aked.He alsodiscovered hatthe costof laborwas supposed o be




reimbursedo him.Althoughhe had built he househimselfbecausehewas anexpertmason,he never received he Rs.300 allocated or laborcosts inthe program.

As ifthiswere notenough,Sripaldidnotreceiveanymaterial ora door anda window,so

it was impossibleo live inthe new house. No officialhadcome to inspect heworkto see if

therewas anythingmissing.Sripalcomplainedthat those whose job it was to inspectthe

buildings ustsat in their officesand approved he constructionbecausetheywere the oneswho hadtheauthorityocreate heofficialrecord "They re he oneswho havepenandpaper

[kaagaz-kalamnheekaypaashai]").Sripalhimself s illiterate.

Frustratedbouthisdoorlesshouse,he lodgedcomplaints t the Blockofficeandat the bank

thatlent him the moneyfor construction.Meanwhile,SherSingh,who hadbeen employing

Sripalas a daily laborer n hisfarm,becameangryatSripal orrefusingo come to workone

day. Sripal xplained hathe could notpossiblyhavegonebecausehis relativeshadcome over

thatdayand that o leavethemwouldhave beenconstruedas inhospitable.nanycase,Sripalsaid,he couldnot do any heavyworkbecause he hadbrokenhisarmsometimeago.

When SherSingh

oundout thatSripal

hadcomplained

abouthimandthevillagedevelop-mentworkerat the Blockoffice,he threatened o beathimup so badlythathe would never

enterthevillage again.Fearingheworst,Sripal ledfrom hevillageand wentto livewith his

in-laws.Despite he threato hislife,Sripalwas not daunted nhiseffortsoseekjustice.When

he sawthat hiscomplaints licitedno response,he approached lawyer o draft letter o the

DistrictMagistrate,hehighestadministrativeuthoritynthe area.Thisstrategy aidoffinthat

a policecontingentwas sentto the villageto investigate.WhenIaskedSripal o tell me what

the lettersaid, he produceda copy of it for me. "Whatcan I tell you?"he asked. "Read t

yourself."The letterallegedthatthe villagedevelopmentworkerhad failed to supplythe

necessarymaterial ndthatbecausethe headmanhad threatenedo beathimuphe hadbeen

forced o flee thevillage.After he policevisit,SherSinghmadepeace withSripal.He even hiredSripalo construct

a home foranotherpersonunder he same program. naddition,SherSinghstoppedasking

Sripalo come to laboron hisfarm.But hevillagedevelopmentworker hreatened ripalwith

imprisonmentnlesshe paidbackRs.3,000 toward he cost of completinghehouse.25 One

of myrelativess a jailwarden thanedaadr,"e reportedlyoldSripal."Ifyoudon'tpayup,I'll

haveyou putaway in jail."Sitting n frontof the emptyspacethatwas to be the doorto his

house,Sripalold methathe was resignedo goingto jail."What ifferencedoes it make?" e

asked."Livingikethisisasgood as beingdead."

Even houghhe was ultimately nsuccessfuln hisappealsforjustice,Sripal's ase demon-

strates hateven members f the subaltern lasseshave a practicalknowledgeof the multiplelevelsof stateauthority. acedwith thedepredationsf the headmanandvillagedevelopmentworker,Sripalhadappealed o the authority f a person hreerungshigher nthebureaucratic

hierarchy.Because hecentralandstategovernmentsretheoreticallyommittedo protectingscheduledcastepeoplesuchas Sripal,hiscomplaintregardinghe threat o his life was taken

quiteseriously.Sending he policeto the villagewas a clearwarning o SherSingh hatif he

dared o harmSripalphysically,he wouldriskretaliationrom he repressive rmof the state.

Before eavingthisepisodewith Sripal,I want to addressexplicitlywhat it tells us about

transnationalinkages.Clearly,one cannotexpectto find visible ransnational imensions o

every grassroots ncounter; hatwould requirea kind of immediatedeterminationhat is

empiricallyuntrueand analyticallyndefensible.Forexample, IMFconditionalitiesdo not

directly xplain hisparticularpisodein thehouse-building rogram.ButbyforcingheIndian

government o curtaildomesticexpenditure,he conditionalities o havebudgetarymplica-tions forsuch programs.These influencewhich programs re funded,how they are imple-mentedand atwhatlevels,who istargeted, nd forhow manyyearssuchprogramsontinue.

Similarly,fone wantsto understandwhy developmentprograms uchas buildinghousesfor




the poorexistinthe firstplaceandwhy theyare initiated ndmanagedbythestate,one must

place them inthe contextof a regimeof "development"hatcame intobeingin the postwarinternational rderof decolonizednation-statesEscobar 984, 1988; Ferguson 990).What

happensat the grassroots s thuscomplexlymediated,sometimesthroughmultiplerelays,sometimesmoredirectly,by such linkages.26

Sripal's xperienceof pittingone organization f the stateagainstothersand of employingthe multiple ayersof stateorganizationso hisadvantageno doubtshapedhisconstruction fthe state.Atthe sametime,heappeared efeated nthe endbytheprocedures f abureaucracywhoseruleshe couldnotcomprehend. ripalwasamong hosebeneficiaries f"development"assistancewhoregrettedveracceptinghelp.Hebecamedeeplyalienatedbytheveryprogramsthat the stateemployedto legitimatets rule. The implementationf developmentprogramstherefore ormsa key arenawhererepresentationsf the state areconstitutedandwhere its

legitimacys contested.One can also find contrastingnstanceswhere local officialsareon the receivingend of

villagers'disaffectionwithstate nstitutions. ome

examplesare

providedbyseveralactionsof

the BharatiyaKisanUnion(BKU).One of the mostfrequent omplaintsof farmerss that heyhave to pay bribesto officialsof the Hydel Departmento replaceburned-outransformers.Each uch transformerypically erves iveto tentubewells.Ayoungfarmer elateda commonincidentto me. Thetransformerupplying lectricity o his tubewell and those of 11 of his

neighborsblew out. So they contributedRs. 150 each (approximately10 atexchangerates

prevailinghen)and took the moneyto the assistant ngineerof the HydelDepartment. heytoldhimthat heircropsweredying or a lackof waterand that heywere indeeptrouble.He

reportedlyaid,"What anIdo?Wedon'thavethereplacementquipment tthepresentime."Sothey gavehimthe Rs.1,800theyhadpooledandrequestedhat hetransformere replaced

as soon as possible.He took the moneyandpromised hemthatthe jobwould be done inafewdays,as soon as theequipmentwas in.Beingan"honest"man(thats,one true o hisword),he had the transformernstalled hreedayslater.

Whenthe same situation ecurredhortlyhereafter,heyoungmanwent to the KisanUnion

peopleandrequestedhattheyhelphimgeta newtransformer.o about50 of them climbedontractors,wentstraightothe executiveengineer'shouseandcampedon his lawn acommonform of civil disobediencein India s to gherao [encircleand preventmovementofl a highofficial).Theyrefused o move untila new transformer ad been installed nthe village.Theexecutiveengineerpromisedhem hathe"would end menatonce."Sure nough, he linemencame the followingdayandreplaced t.

Not all such incidents ndedamicably.Thequickresponseof theseofficialswasdue to thefact that the KisanUnion hadalreadyestablished tselfas a powerful orce in thatparticulararea,as will be evident froma few examples.Inone incident,a crowdwalked off with sixtransformersrom an electricity tation n broaddaylight Aaj1989f).Thefarmersno longerfeared hepoliceandrevenueofficials, noccasion"arresting"heofficials,ying hem otrees,and makingthem do "sit-ups."Theyrefused to pay electricitydues (up to 60 percentof

agriculturalectordues remainunpaid n a nearbydistrict) nd forced"corrupt"fficials oreturnmoneyallegedlytakenas bribes.Ialso heardabout an incident n an adjacentvillagewhere employees of the electricityboardwere caught stealingsome copperwire fromatransformeryiratevillagerswhoproceeded o beat hemupand"jail"hem ina villagehouse.

Itshould be clearfromall the incidentsdescribed above that lower-levelofficialsplay acrucialrole incitizens'encounterswith"the tate."Obviously,no singular haracterizationfthe natureand contentof the interaction f villagersandbureaucratss possible.Incontrast o

Sharmajiand Verma,who manipulate heir gullible clients, stand the officialswho aremanhandledby the peasantactivistsof the BKU.Similarly, ustas localofficialsemploytheir

familiarity ithbureaucraticrocedureso carryoutorobstruct transaction y maneuvering




betweendifferentevels of the administrativeierarchy,o too do subalternpeople such as

Sripaldemonstrate practical ompetence nusing hehierarchical atureof stateinstitutionsto theirown ends. Atthe local level itbecomesdifficult o experience hestateas anonticallycoherententity:what one confronts nstead s much more discrete and fragmentary-landrecords fficials,villagedevelopmentworkers,heElectricity oard,headmen, he

police,and

the BlockDevelopmentOffice.Yet(andit is this seeminglycontradictoryact that we must

always keep in mind)it is preciselythrough he practicesof such local institutions hat atranslocalnstitutionuch as thestatecomesto be imagined.

The local-levelencounterswith the statedescribed n this sectionhelpus discernanother

significant oint.Officials uch as Sharmaji,who may verywell constitutea majority f state

employeesoccupyingpositionsat the bottomof thebureaucraticyramid, osean interestingchallenge o Westernnotionsof the boundary etween"state" nd"society"n someobvious

ways.TheWesternhistorical xperiencehasbeen builton states hatput people in locationsdistinct romtheirhomes-in offices,cantonments, ndcourts-to mark heir"rationalized"

activityas office holders n a bureaucraticpparatus.People such as Sharmajiollapsethisdistinctionnotonly betweentheirroles as publicservants ndas private itizens at the site oftheiractivity,butalso intheirstylesofoperation.27lmostallothersimilarly lacedofficials ndifferentbranchesof the stateoperate n an analogousmanner.One has a betterchance of

findingthem at the roadsidetea stalls and in theirhomes than in their offices. Whereasmodernizationheoristswould invariably nterprethis as further vidence of the failureofefficient nstitutionso take root in a ThirdWorldcontext,one might ustas easilyturnthe

questionaroundandinquire nto the theoretical dequacy(andjudgmental haracter) f the

concepts throughwhich such actions aredescribed.Inotherwords,ifofficials ikeSharmajiand the village developmentworkerare seen as thoroughlyblurringhe boundariesbetween"state" nd"civilsociety," t isperhapsbecausethosecategoriesaredescriptivelynadequateto the livedrealitieshat heypurporto represent.

Finally,tmaybe useful o drawout the implicationsf theethnographicmaterial resentedinthissection for what ittells us aboutcorruptionnd the implementationf policy.First,he

people describedhere-Sharmaji, the village developmentworker,the ElectricityBoardofficials-are not unusualor exceptional n the manner n whichthey conduct their official

duties, ntheirwillingnessotakebribes,orexample,or intheirconduct owarddifferentlassesof villagers.Second, despite the fact that lower-levelofficials'earningsfrom bribesare

substantial,t is importanto locate them in a larger"system" f corruptionn which their

superior fficersarefirmly mplicated. nfact,Sharmaji'sossesdependon his considerableabilityto maneuver land records for their own transactions,which are severalorders of

magnitude arger han his. His is a "volumebusiness,"heirsa "highmargin" ne. He helpsthemsatisfyheir lientsand,intheprocess,buysprotection ndinsuranceorhisownactivities.

This atter spectcalls forelaboration. t softenclaimed hatevenwell-designed overnmentprogramsail in theirimplementation,nd that the best of plansfounderdue to widespreadcorruptiont the lower evels of thebureaucracy.f his is intended oexplainwhy governmentprograms ail, it is patently naccurate as well as being class-biased).For it is clear thatlower-level fficialsareonlyone link na chainofcorruptpractices hatextends o theapexofstateorganizationsnd reaches arbeyond hem oelectoralpolitics Wade1982, 1984, 1985).

Politicians aise fundsthroughseniorbureaucratsor electoralpurposes, enior bureaucrats

squeezethismoneyfrom heirsubordinates s well as directly romprojectshat heyoversee,andsubordinatesollowsuit.Thedifference s thatwhereashigher-leveltateofficials aise argesums rom herelativelyewpeoplewho can afford opayittothem, ower-level fficials ollectit insmallfiguresand on a dailybasis froma very largenumberof people. It s for thisreasonthatcorruptions so muchmorevisibleatthe lower levels.




The"system" f corruptions of coursenotjusta brutecollectionof practiceswhose most

widespreadexecutionoccurs at the local level. It is also a discursive ield thatenablesthe

phenomenon o be labeled,discussed,practiced,decried,anddenounced.Thenext sectionisdevoted to the analysisof the discourseof corruption, nd especiallyto its historically nd

regionally ituatedcharacter.

the discourse of corruption in public culture

Analyzinghe discourseof corruption rawsattention o the powerfulculturalpracticesbywhich the state is symbolicallyrepresentedo its employeesand to citizens of the nation.28

Representationsfthestateareconstituted, ontested,andtransformednpublicculture.Publicculture s a zone of cultural ebateconductedhroughhe massmedia,othermechanicalmodesof reproduction, nd the visiblepracticesof institutionsuch as the state (Appadurai990;

AppaduraindBreckenridge988;Gilroy1987;Gurevitch t al. 1982;Halletal. 1980;Waites

et al. 1982).It s"the ite andstake"Hall1982)ofstrugglesorculturalmeaning.For hisreasonthe analysisof reportsn local andnationalnewspapersells us a greatdealabout he mannerinwhich "thestate" omes to be imagined.29

Theimportance f the mediawasbroughthome to mewhen, barely wo monthsafterRajivGandhiwas electedprimeministern late1984, a higher-caste illageelder whoseson was abusinessmanwith close connections to the Congress I)told me, "Rajivhas failed."I was

surprisedo hearhimsay this andaskedwhy he thoughtso. He replied, "Rajiv romisedoeradicatecorruptionn hiscampaignbut has ithappened?He hasn'tdone anything bout it."

AlthoughRajivGandhihadnot visited he area aroundAlipurduringhiscampaign,his manwaskeenlyawareof allof hiscampaignpromises.Likemanyothers nAlipur,he listenednightly

to the BBCWorld Servicenews broadcastn Hindias well as to the government-controllednationalradio(Akaashvaanl). e was well-informed n internationalventsand would oftenask me detailedquestionsregardingontemporaryventsinthe UnitedStatesor Iran.

Althoughradioandtelevisionobviouslyplaya significant ole as massmedia,newspapersareperhaps he mostimportantmechanismnpublicculture orthecirculation f discoursesoncorruption.30n hestudyoftranslocal henomena uchas"the tate," ewspapersontributeto the rawmaterial ecessaryor"thick"escription.This houldbecome evidentbycomparingnewspaperreports-conceptualizedas cultural exts and sociohistoricaldocuments-to oralinterviews. incenewspaper eports re nvariablyiledbylocallyresident orrespondents,heyconstitute,as do oral interviews, certain ormof situatedknowledge.Obviously,perceivingthem as havinga privileged elationo thetruth f sociallife is naive; heyhavemuch o offerus, however,when seen as a majordiscursiveormthroughwhichdailylifeis narrativizedndcollectivities magined.Ofcourse, he narrativesresentedn newspapers resifted hroughset of institutionalilters,buttheirrepresentationsre not,forthatreasonalone, moredeeplycompromised.Treatedwithbenignneglectbystudents f contemporaryife,theymysteriouslymetamorphizento nvaluable fielddata" ncetheyhaveyellowedaroundheedgesand allen

apart t thecreases.3 Andyetitis notentirely learbywhatalchemy imeturns he"secondary"data of the anthropologistntothe "primary"ataof thehistorian.

Apart romtheoreticalreasons hatmaybe adduced to support he analysisof newspaperreports,he importance f allvernacular

ewspapers,whether

regionalornational

dailies,ies

inthe fact thatthey carry pecialsectionsdevoted to localnews.32Thesearedistributednlyin the regionto which the news applies.Thus,if one picksup the same newspapern twodifferent ities in UttarPradesh, omeof the pagesinsidewill haveentirelydifferentontents.News about a particularrea,therefore, an only be obtainedby subscribingo newspaperswithin hatarea.Inthisrestrictedense,newspaper eports bouta particularreacanonlybeobtainedwithin"the ield."33

blurredboundaries 385



The methodof studyinghe stateadvanced n thisarticlerelates he discourseof corruptioninthe vernacular ndEnglish-languageress ostatementsmadeby villagers nd stateofficials.We will see that localdiscoursesandpractices oncerning orruptionwere intimatelyinkedwiththe reportageoundin vernacular nd nationalnewspapers.Thispointwill be demon-stratedbyfirst ookingat a few examplesfrom he national,English-languageressand then

mostlyatvernacular ewspapers.34Corruptionsan issuedominated wo of the threenational lections heldin the 1980s. In ts

summary f thedecade,thefortnightly ews magazineIndiaTodayheadlined he section on"The 80s: Politics"n the followingmanner:"Thepoliticsof communalism, orruption nd

separatismdominatesan eventful decade"(Chawla1990:18).35RajivGandhi'selection in

November 1984 was fought largelyon the slogans of the eradicationof corruptionand

preservinghe nation's ntegrityn the face of separatisthreats romSikhs.Preciselybecause

he was initiallydubbed"Mr.Clean," he subjectof corruptionatercameto haunthimas his

administrationame undera cloud forallegedlyacceptingkickbacksromBofors,a Swedish

small-armsmanufacturer.nfact,Boforsbecamethecenterpiece

oftheopposition's

uccessful

effort o overthrowhisregime.Inthe electionsof 1989, inwhicha non-Congress overnmentcame to power oronlythe second timein43 yearsof electoralpolitics,anotherMr.Clean,V.

P. Singh,emergedas the leader. He had earlierbeen unceremoniously ootedout of RajivGandhi's abinetbecause,asdefenseminister, e had started n investigationntothe"BoforsAffair." heeffectof Boforswaselectorally xplosivepreciselybecauseit became a symbolof

corruption t all levels of the state. Forexample,the conductoron the notoriouslynefficient

UttarPradeshStateRoadwaysbus justifiednot returninghangeto me by saying, "IfRajivGandhi an take 64 crore nbribes,what isthe harm nmy taking64 paisaon a ticket?"36

The discourseof corruption,however,went farbeyond justsetting he terms of electoral

competitionetween

politicalparties.tnot

onlyhelpedo define"the

political"utalsoserved

to constitute"thepublic"hatwas perceived o be reactingo corruption. incethiswasdone

largelyhrough he massmedia,we mustpaycarefulattentiono newspapers s cultural exts

thatgiveus importantluestothepolitical ulture ftheperiod. naseriesof majorpreelection

surveys, hewidelyreadmetropolitanEnglish aily,the Timesof India,attemptedo analyzethe political mpactof Boforsand set out to establishhow the electorateviewed corruption.One of its articlesbeginsby quotinga villagerwho remarked,"Ifone [politicalparty, .e.,

Congress]s a poisonous nake, he other[opposition arty]s acobra" Times f India1989:1).The articlewent on to say:"Whetherhe Congresss in poweror the oppositionmakes no

differenceo the commonmanandwomanwho hasto contend withproliferatingorruption

which affectsevery sphereof life ... Boforsdoesn'tbrushagainst heir ives.Thepay-off oraration ardor a jobdoes"(1989:1).Thearticle urther laborated he relationship etween the "ordinaryitizen"and the state

with referenceo the role of formalpoliticsandpoliticians:

InU.P.,themajorityeltthat[increasingorruption]temmed rom hegrowingcorruptionn politicalcircles.M.P.Verma,a backward lass leader romGondapointedout thatpoliticiansodayaredriven

bya one-pointprogramme-tocapturepowerat all costs.Andthevastsumsexpendedon electionsareobtainedby unfairmeans. "Withoutcorruptionhere is no politics,"said AminchandAjmera,abusinessmanromBhopal. Times f India1989:1

The hemeofcorruption asprominentn an articleon a centralgovernmentchemeto helpthepoorin IndiaToday,whichpointedout howthe resourcesbeingallocatedby thecentral

governmentwerebeingmisusedby the stategovernmentnMadhyaPradesh 1989).37 n his

example, formal politics was not reduced to competition among political parties and the

bureaucratic apparatus (where payoffs for jobs are given) was not confused with the regime

(where the benefits of Boforspresumably went). Instead,the discourse of corruption became a




meansby whicha fairlycomplex pictureof the statewas symbolically onstructed n publicculture.

Inaddition,I examinedthe local editionsof six Hindinewspaperswith differentpoliticalorientationsmost commonly read in the Mandi area: Aaj, DainikJaagran,Amar Ujaala,

Hindustan, RashtriyaSahaara, and Jansatta. There were significant differences between the

English-languagemagazinesand newspapersmentionedabove, with theirurban,educated,"middle-class"eadership,ndthe vernacular ress.The reasonlayin the structuralocation

of the nationalEnglish-languageailieswithin he "core" egions-the urban entersofcapital,

high politics,administration,nd education.The vernacularnewspapersmaintained richer

sense of the multilayered atureof the state because theirreportagewas necessarilyocused

on eventsin differentocalities,whichcorrespondedo lower evelsof the statehierarchy. heycould not, however,simultaneouslygnoreevents at the higherlevels of state(region)and

nation.Bycontrast,metropolitanewspapersocusedalmostexclusivelyon large-scalevents,with localbureaucracieseaturing hieflyinthe lettersof complaintwrittenby citizens about

cityservices.Thevernacularress herefore articularlylearlydelineatedhemultilayeredndpluricentric atureof "thestate."

The Hindinewspaperswithlimitedregional irculations, eadmostlybythe residents f the

manysmalltowns and largevillagesdotting he countryside,n factwere,as opposedto the

"national" Hindi dailies such as the Navbharat Times, much less prone to reifythe state as a

monolithicorganizationwith a singlechain of command.Theymadea practiceof explicitly

naming specificdepartmentsf the statebureaucracy.The vernacular ressalso seemedto

pursue toriesofcorruptionwithgreater eal than itsmetropolitan ounterpart.38Forexample, the daily Aaj had headlines such as the following: "Police BusyWarming Own

Pockets" (1989a),39 "Plunder in T. B. Hospital" (1989e), and "FarmersHarassed by Land

ConsolidationOfficial"1989d).Innone of these reportswas the state(sarkaa) nvokedas a

unitary ntity.In all of them,specificdepartments ere named,andveryoftenspecificpeopleas well. Theyalso documented n greatdetailexactlywhat thesecorruptpracticeswere. For

example, he articleon the tuberculosis ospital tated xactlyhow muchmoneywas"charged"for each step(Rs.5 for a test,Rs. 10 forthedoctor,Rs. 5 forthecompounder, nd so on) ina

treatmenthatwassupposedobeprovidedreeofcharge.Thearticleon the landconsolidation

officernamedhim and statedhow muchmoneyhe demanded nbribes romspecificfarmers

(also named).Similarly,he news storyon the police reported hata specific precinctwas

extortingmoneyfromvehicleownersby threateningo issueboguscitations.

Two featuresof these reportswere particularlytriking.First, tateofficialshigher up thehierarchywereoftendepictedascompletelyunresponsiveocomplaints ndeven ascomplicitwith the corruptpractices."Despite everalcomplaintsby citizens to the head of the region,

nothinghas been done,"was a familiar efrainn the reports.For nstance,one shortreportstated hat he dealerwho had he contract o distributeubsidized ations fsugarand kerosene

wasselling hemon the blackmarketwithpoliticalprotection nd hefullknowledge fregional

supervisorsAaj1989b).Similarly, notherstory,"To Get TelephoneTo Work,FeedThem

Sweets"(Aaj 1989c), reported hat corruptemployees of the telephone department old

customers hatthey could go aheadandcomplainas much as theywanted, but,unless the

telephoneworkers ottheir avorite weetmeats,40hecustomers'elephoneswould not work.

Thesecondnoteworthyeaturen regionalnewspaperaccountswas theiremphasison, andconstruction f, thepublic.A common discursivepracticewas to talkof "thepublic" janata)thatwas beingopenly exploitedbythe police,or "thecitizens" naagarik) ho were harassed

by blackmarketeering,r "thepeople"(log)whose clear accusationagainst he hospitalwas

givenvoice in the paper,or "simple armers"bholaay-bhaalaay isaan)who were ruthlessly

exploited by the landconsolidationofficer.Inall cases, the functionof the pressappeared o




be thatofcreating spaceinwhichthegrievances f themassescould be airedandthecommon

good (janhit)pursued.Thepresswas of coursedoing muchmorethansimplyairingpreexisting rievances.The

stateconstructedherewas one thatconsistedof widelydisparatenstitutionswith littleor nocoordination mongthem,of multiple evelsof authority, one of which wereaccountable o

ordinarypeople,andemployees(secure n the knowledge hattheycould not be fired)whotreated itizenswithcontempt.Atthesametime, hesereports lsocreated ubjects41 howere

represented s being exploited,powerless,andoutraged. foregroundhe newspapers'unc-tions in order to drawattention o the rhetorical trategydeployed by the mass media to

galvanize ntoactioncitizenswhoexpectstate nstitutionso be accountable o them.

AlthoughI have sharplydifferentiatedhe English-languagend vernacularpress in their

representationsf "thestate"andthe construction f subjects,one mustkeeptwo caveatsinmindat alltimes.First,fone looks atnewspapersromdifferent egionsof UttarPradesh, nd

published notherlanguages forexample,Urdu),wide variations re to be found within hevernacular

ress.42econd,the massmedia s notthe

only importantource orthecirculation

of representationsf "the tate"npublicculture.Policeandadministrationfficialsrepeatedlyvoice their rustrationt theirinabilityo counter"wild tories" nd "rumors"hatcontestandcontradictheofficialversionofevents.Policeofficialsnanadjoining istrict requoted ntheTimes f Indiaassaying,"They o aboutspreadingumours ndwe can'tfight hemeffectively.Theserumours elp gather rowds.And heagitated rowd henturnsonthepolice,provokinga clash" Mitra ndAhmed1989:12).The"bush elegraph"sic] spreadsrumorsquicklyand

convincinglyMitra 989).43Unlikeother echnologiesofcommunicationuch asnewspapers,radio,andtelevision,rumor annot be controlledby simplyclampingdown on the source of

production Coombe 1993). Rumor hereforebecomes an especially effective vehicle to

challengeofficialaccounts,especiallywhenagenciesof thestatetransgressocal standards fbehavior.

By definition, corruption is a violation of norms and standards of conduct.44 The other face

of a discourse of corruption,herefore, s a discourseof accountability.45 erzfeldputsthe

emphasis ntherightplacewhen he says hat"accountabilitys a sociallyproduced, ulturallysaturatedmalgam f ideasaboutperson,presence,andpolity... [whose]meaningsculturallyspecific... [andwhose] management f personalor collectiveidentity annot break ree ofsocialexperience" 1992a:47).Expectationsf "right" ehavior, tandards f accountability,and normsof conduct forstateofficials, n otherwords,come fromsocial groupsas well asfrom"thestate."46ometimes hese standards nd normsconverge;moreoften,they do not.

Thus, herearealwaysdivergent ndconflicting ssessments fwhethera particularourseofaction is "corrupt."ubjects'deployment f discoursesof corruptionrenecessarilymediated

by their structuralocation(thispointis developedfurther elow).Butstate officialsarealso

multiplypositionedwithin different egimesof power: n consequence, they simultaneouslyemploy,and aresubject o, quitevaryingdiscoursesof accountability.The manner n whichthese officialsnegotiatehe tensions nherent ntheir ocation ntheirdailypracticesbothhelpsto createcertainrepresentationsf the stateandpowerfully hapesassessmentsof it, therebyaffectingtslegitimacy. nfact,strugglesorlegitimacy an be interpretedntermsof the effortto construct he stateand "thepublic" ymbolicallyn a particularmanner.

Moreover,fone were to document hetransformationsnthe discourseof corruptionrom

colonialtimes to the present aprojectbeyond hescope of thisarticle), t would be clearthatthe postcolonial tatehas itselfgeneratednew discoursesof accountability.Actions oleratedor considered egitimateundercolonial rulemaybe classifiedas "corrupt"ytherule-makingapparatusesof the independentnation-statebecause an electoral democracy is deemed

accountable o "thepeople."The sense ofpervasive orruptionna country uch as Indiamightthenitselfbe a consequenceof thechanges nthe discourseof accountability romulgated y




postcolonialnationalists.naddition, ignificant hangesduring he postcolonialperiodhave

arisen rom hepressures f electoralpolitics asevidencedbytheBofors ontroversy)ndfrom

peasant mobilization.In the Mandiregion,the Kisan Union has been very successful in

organizing easantsagainst hestatebyfocusingon the issueofcorruption mong ower evels

of the bureaucracy.

Althoughhere are variationsn the discourseof corruptionwithinregionsand during hepostcolonial ra,the end of colonialismconstitutes significantransition.One of the reasonsforthis is that nationalist s opposedto colonial regimes eek the kindof popular egitimacythatwillenablethem to act inthe name of "thepeople."Theythusplacenew responsibilitieson stateemployeesand vest new rights n subjectswho are then constituted s citizens. The

postcolonial tateconsciouslysets out to createsubjectpositionsunknownduringhe colonialera:"citizenship"oes notjustmark nclusivenessna territorial omainbutindicatesa set of

rightsheoreticallynvested nsubjectswho inhabit he nation.47 neofthe crucial ngredientsof discourses fcitizenshipnapopulistdemocracy uchasIndiahas been thatstateemployeesare consideredaccountable o "thepeople"of the country.Thediscourseof corruption,bymarkinghose actions hatconstitutean infringementf suchrights,hus actsto representhe

rights f citizens o themselves.48The role of the KisanUnionfurther ighlights ignificant egionalvariationsnthe discourse

of corruption.WesternUttarPradesh,he regionwhere Mandi s located,has been the centerofverysuccessful grarianmobilizationsedbytheclassofwell-to-dopeasants.Thismovementwas first edbyChaudharyCharanSingh,a formerprimeministerwho consistentlymountedan attackonthe "urban ias"of statepolicies.It s nowbeengivena newdirectionbythe KisanUnion edbyMahendar inghTikait.49helandowningastes nthisregionhavebecomefairly

prosperousstheyhave been the chief beneficiaries f thegreenrevolution.But hisnewfoundwealth has

yetto be translated ntobureaucratic owerand cultural

apital.Inotherwords,

giventhecentralrolethatstate institutions layin ruralife,thesegroupsseek to stabilize heconditionsor hereproductionftheirdominance.Because heyperceive he state o beactingagainst heir nterests,hey deploythe discourseof corruptiono undermine he credibility fthe stateandto attack he manner nwhichgovernment rganizationsperate.50

The discourseof corruptions central o ourunderstandingf the relationship etween thestateand socialgroupspreciselybecauseitplaysthisdual roleofenablingpeopleto constructthe state ymbolicallynd o define hemselvesascitizens.Fort isthroughuchrepresentations,andthroughhe public practicesof variousgovernment gencies,thatthe state comes to bemarkedanddelineated romotherorganizations nd institutionsn social life.The state itself

and whatever s construed o standapart romit-community, polity, society, civil society(Kligman 990),political ociety-are allculturallyonstructednspecific deological ields.Itis hence imperativehat we constantlycontextualizethe constructionof the state within

particular istorical nd cultural onjunctures. haveemployed hediscourseof corruption sa means o demonstrate owthe statecomesto be imaginednone such historical nd culturalcontext.The discourseof corruption erefunctionsas a diagnosticof thestate.

the imagined state

Banwari,scheduledcasteresident f Ashanwad

hamlet,25 kms. rom

Jaipuraid,"Ihaven't een the

vidhansabhaor the LokSabha.51 heonly partof thegovernment see is the policestation ourkms.frommyhouse.And hat scorrupt. hepolicedemandbribes nddon'tregister omplaints f scheduledcastepeoplelikeme."[Timesof India1989:7]

So far, this article has dealt with the practices of local levels of the bureaucracy and the

discourses of corruption in public culture, respectively. Together, they enable a certain

construction of the state that meshes the imagined translocal institution with its localized




embodiments.Thegovernment,n otherwords,is beingconstructedhereinthe imaginationandeverydaypracticesof ordinary eople.Ofcourse,thisisexactlywhat"corporateulture"and nationalism o: they makepossibleandthen naturalize he construction f such nonlo-calizable institutions. t then becomes very importanto understandhe mechanisms,ormodalities,hatmake tpossible o imagine he state.What stheprocesswherebyhe "reality"

of translocal ntitiescomes to be experienced?Toanswer hisquestion,one mustgrasp he pivotalrole of publicculture,whichrepresents

one of the mostimportantmodalities or the discursive onstruction f "the tate."Obviously,noteveryone magineshestate nquitethe samemanner.Sofar,verylittleresearchhasbeendone on the relationshipetweendiverselyocatedgroupsof peopleandtheiremployment fthe differentmediaof representationndof varyingresourcesof cultural apital n imagining"the tate."Forexample,RamSinghand his sonsarerelatively rosperousmenfromone ofthelowestcastes(jatav)nAlipur.Theyhadrecentlyacquireda televisionset as partof thedowryreceived nthemarriagef one ofthe sons. RamSingholdme, ina confessionbornof a mixtureof prideandembarrassment,hatsince thetelevisionhad arrived heir armworkhad suffered

because,insteadof irrigatinghecrop,theywouldall sitdown andwatchtelevision. Bothhe

pumpsetsused for irrigationndthe televisionset weredependenton erraticandoccasional

suppliesofelectricity.) elevisionwasa constantpointofreferencenRamSingh'sonversation.IinterviewedRamSingh nthecontextof the impending lections(theelections ookplace

inDecember1989;theconversation ates from ateJuly).He said:

The public is singing the praises of Rajiv[Gandhi].52He is paying really close attention to the needs of

poor people [Bahut gaur kar raha hain]. Rajiv has been traveling extensively in the ruralareas and

personallyfindingout the problemsfaced bythe poor. For his reason, Iwill definitelysupport he Congress(I).

We consider the government which supports us small people as if it were our mother and father [Usiko ham

maa-baap keysamaan

maanteyhain]. If it weren't for the

Congress,no one would

pay anyattention to the smaller castes [choteejaat]. Not even god looks afterus, only the Congress.

At this point, his son intervened:

The Congress is for all the poor, not just for the lower castes. It is exerting itself to the utmost, tryingtodraw people into [government]jobs [Bahut or laga rahen hain, naukrimein khichai kar rahen hain].

RamSinghreturnedo thediscussion:

Although the government has many good schemes, the officials in the middle eat it all [beech mey sabkhaajaate hain]. The government is making full efforts to help the poor, but the officials don't allow anyof the schemes to reach the poor.

"Doesn't the governmentknows that officials are corrupt?" asked. "Whydoesn't it doanything?" amSinghreplied:

Itdoes know a little bit but not everything.The reason is that the voice of the poor doesn't reach peopleat the top [Garibonki awaaz vahaan takpahuchti nahin]. If,forexample, the government sets aside fourlakhs for a scheme, only one lakh will actually reach us-the restwill be taken out in the middle.53

RamSingh'spositionheredisplays omecontinuitywith anolder,hierarchical isionof thestate.54Typically,n suchviews,the rulerappearsas benevolentand charitablewhereasthelocal official is seen as corrupt.While this may verywell be the case, I thinkthat one can

adequately xplainRamSingh'soutlookbyexamining ontemporary ractices atherhan hesedimentation f beliefs.55One should ook atpracticesof the statethatreinforce his outlook.

When a complaintof corruptions lodgedagainsta localofficial, he investigations alwaysconductedbyan officialof a higherrank.Higherofficialsarethusseen asprovidingedressalsforgrievancesandpunishingocal officials orcorruptbehavior.

RamSingh's ase reminds sthatall constructions f thestatehave o be situatedwithrespectto the locationof the speaker.RamSingh'sparticular osition helps us understandwhy he

imagineshestateashe does. He is anolder,scheduled-castemanwhose householdnow owns




one of the five televisionsets in the village,a keysymbolof upwardmobility.Severalof his

sons are educated,and two of them have obtainedrelativelygood government obs as a

consequence.56The scheduledcastes of this areaingeneral,and thejatavs nparticular, ave

historically upporteduccessiveCongressregimes.The irsthingthatmpresses ne aboutRamSingh'snterpretationf "the tate"s howclearly

heunderstandstscomposition s anentitywithmultiple ayersanddiverse ocalesand centers.Althoughhe word forregimeandstate is the same in Hindi(sarkaar),57amSinghmaintains

a distinctionbetweenthe regimeand the bureaucracy.He sees the regime'sgood intentions

toward he lowercastesbeingfrustratedyvenalstateofficials.Clearly,RamSinghhas a sense

thatthereareseveral ayersof "government"bove the one thathe hasalwaysdealt with(the

very op personified ythen-PrimeMinisterRajivGandhi), ndthat he differentevelscanexert

opposingpullson policy (specifically, hose thataffect a scheduled-castepersonlike him).

Interestingly, amSinghreproduces n apologetics or the failureof policy(theformulations

all right, t isthe implementorshatareto blame)pervasivelyound n India's"middle lasses,"deliveredby politiciansbelongingto the regimein power, and reproducedn the workof

academics,higherbureaucrats,ndsympathetic fficialsof internationalgencies.The second striking act about Ram Singh'stestimonyis that apartfrom his nuanced

descriptionof the state as a disaggregated nd multilayerednstitution, is analysisclosely

parallelsa discourseon the state that is disseminatedby the mass media and is therefore

translocal.RamSingh's xampledemonstratesheimportancefpublicculturenthediscursive

construction f the state:he talksknowledgeably bout "thepublic's" erception f Rajivand

of Rajiv'stinerary.Hisson'sperception f theCongress s being"for ll thepoor" learlyalso

owes a greatdeal to mass-mediatedources.

My suspicionthat the close associationwith RajivGandhiandthe explanationabout the

corruptmiddle evelsofthe statewas influenced

bythe

impactof television

gainedforcewhen

one of his sons explained:58

We are illiteratepeople whose knowledge would be confined to the village. Thisway [i.e., by watchingtelevision], we learn a littlebit about the outside world, about the differentpartsof India,about how other

people live, we get a little more worldly [Kuchduniyaadaariseekh laayten hain].59

In hebuildupotheelections, hegovernment-controlledelevisionnetwork,Doordarshan,

spentmostof the nightlynewscast ollowingRajivGandhion hiscampaign ours.Obviously,it was notjust hecountryhatwas being imaginedon television hroughherepresentationf

its differentpartsbut also the national state throughthe image of "its" leader. Popular

understandingsf the state herefore reconstitutedna discursive ieldwherethe mass mediaplaya criticalrole. RamSingh'swords reveal the important art hat nationalmediaplay in

"local"discourseson the state.Clearly, t is notpossible o deduce RamSingh'sunderstandingof "the state"entirely rom his personalinteractionswith the bureaucracy; onversely,it is

apparenthathe is notmerelyparrotinghereports e obtains rom elevisionandnewspapers.60Rather,what we see from this example is the articulationbetween (necessarily ractured)

hegemonicdiscoursesand the inevitably ituatedand interestednterpretationsf subaltern

subjects.RamSingh's veryday xperiences eadhimto believe that heremustbegovernmentofficialsand agencies(whosepresence,motives,and actions arerepresentedo himthroughthe massmedia) nterestedn helping people like him.Only thatcouldexplainwhy his sons

have succeeded in obtaininghighly prized government obs despitetheirneglect by localschoolteachers nd their ll-treatmenty local officials.Yet when he talksabout "thepublic,"andwithafirst-personamiliarityboutRajv'sefforts n behalfof thepoor,he isclearlydrawingon a mass-mediated nowledgeof what thatupper-levelof government omprises,who the

agents responsible or its actions are, and what kinds of policies and programs hey are

promoting.61




There sobviouslynoArchimedeanoint romwhichtovisualize"the tate," nlynumeroussituatedknowledges Haraway 988). Bureaucrats,orexample,imagine t through tatistics

(Hacking1982), officialreports, ndtours,whereascitizens do so throughnewspaper tories,dealingswithparticularovernmentgencies, hepronouncementsf politicians, nd so forth.Constructions f the stateclearlyvaryaccording o the manner n whichdifferent ctorsare

positioned.Itisthereforemportanto situatea certainsymbolicconstruction f thestatewithrespecto theparticularontext nwhich it isrealized.The mportancef themassmedia houldnotblind us to thedifferences hatexistinthe waythatdiversely ituatedpeople imagine hestate.62

Fornstance,RamSingh'spositionas arelativelywell-to-do ower-caste erson,whosefamilyhas benefited fromrules regarding mploymentquotas for scheduledcastes, explains his

support or the higherechelons of government.At the same time, his interactionwith localofficialshastaughthim hat hey, ike hepowerfulmeninthevillages,have ittleor nosympathyfor lower-castepeople like him.Therefore,he has a keen sense of the differencesamongdifferent evelsof the state. On the otherhand,if he seemsto sharewiththe middle-classa

particulariew of thefailure fgovernment rograms,t is theresult f theconvergence fwhathe has learned romhiseveryday ncounterswiththe "state"withwhat he hasdiscerned,ashis son indicates, romthe massmedia.Congressrhetoricaboutbeingthe partyof the poorobviouslyresonateswithRamSingh's xperience;hat swhyhe callstheCongress overnmenthisguardiansmaa-baap) ndblames heofficials nthemiddle or notfollowing hroughwith

government rograms.RamSingh's iewof thestate husisshapedbothbyhisownencounterswith local officials and by the translocal maginingof the state madepossibleby viewingtelevision.

conclusion

Inthis articleI have focused on discoursesof corruptionn publiccultureand villagers'everyday ncounterswithlocalgovernmentnstitutionsnordero work oward nethnographyof the stateincontemporaryndia.Sucha studyraisesa largenumberofcomplexconceptualandmethodological roblems, f whichIhaveattemptedoexplore hosethatIconsider entralto anyunderstandingf state nstitutions ndpractices.

The irstproblemhas odo with hereificationnherent nunitary escriptionsf "the tate."63When one analyzes he mannernwhichvillagers ndofficialsencounter hestate, tbecomesclear that it must be conceptualizedn termsfar moredecentralizedanddisaggregatedhan

has been the case so far.Rather hantakethe notionof "thestate"as a pointof departure,weshould leave open the analyticalquestionas to the conditions underwhich the state does

operate as a cohesive and unitarywhole.64All the ethnographicdata presentedin thisarticle-the cases of Sharmaji, ripal,RamSingh,andthe KisanUnion,and the reportsromthe vernacularpress-point to a recognitionof multiple agencies, organizations, evels,

agendas,and centers hatresists traightforwardnalytical losure.The second majorproblemaddressedin this articleconcerns the translocality f state

institutions. havearguedhatany analysis f thestaterequires s toconceptualizeaspacethatis constitutedby the intersection f local, regional,national,and transnational henomena.Accordingly,havestressed heroleof

publicculturenthe discursive onstruction f the state.

Bringingheanalysisofpubliccu ture ogetherwiththestudyof theeverydaypractices f lowerlevelsof thebureaucracy elpsusunderstand ow the reality ftranslocal ntitiescomes to befeltby villagersandofficials.

The third mportantrgument dvanced nthisarticle,also tied to thesignificance f publicculturefor an analysisof the state,has to do with the discursiveconstruction f the state.

Foregroundinghequestionofrepresentationllows us to see the modalitiesbywhichthe state




comesto be imagined.Thediscourseof corruptionndaccountabilityogetherconstitute ne

mechanism hroughwhich the Indianstate came to be discursivelyconstructed n publicculture.Itmust be keptin mind that the discourseof corruption ariesa greatdeal fromone

country o another,dependentas it is on particularhistorical rajectories nd the specific

grammars f publicculture.Taking he international ontext of nation-states nto account,

however,bringstheir substantial imilarities nto sharprelief.65 n orderthat a state may

legitimatelyepresent nation n the internationalystemof nation-states,t has to conformat

leastminimallyo the requirementsf a modernnation-state. he tensionbetweenlegitimacyin the interstateystemandautonomyandsovereigntys intensifyingornation-stateswiththe

continuedmovement owardan increasinglyransnational ublic sphere.The acceleratingcirculationof culturalproducts-televisionand radioprograms,news, films, videos, audio

recordings,books,fashions-has been predicatedon giganticshifts n multinationalapital.Whenthis is tied to the reduction f tradebarriers,heworldwidedebt crisis(especiallyvisiblein LatinAmerica,Africa,and EasternEurope), ffshoreproduction,and the restructuringf

marketsexemplifiedby

theEuropeanUnion),

apattern

of extensivecrisscrossing merges(Appadurai990). Thesecomplex culturaland ideologicalinterconnections evealthatdis-

coursesof corruptionandhence of accountability)re from heverybeginningarticulatedn

a fieldformedbythe intersection f manydifferentransnationalorces. Inshort, o understandhowdiscoursesof corruption ymbolically onstruct"the tate,"we must nspectphenomenawhose boundariesdo not coincide with those of the nation-state.At the sametime, however,thesediscoursesdo notoperatehomogeneously cross he world.Rather,heyarticulatewithdistinctivehistoricalrajectorieso formunique hybridizationsnd creolizations n different

settings GuptaandFerguson 992).The fourthsignificantpoint, which attends to the historicaland culturalspecificityof

constructions f the state, has to do with vigilancetowardthe imperialism f the Westernconceptualapparatus.Rather hanbeginwiththe notionsof state and civil societythatwere

forgedon the anvil of European istory, focuson the modalities hatenable the state(and,

simultaneously,hatwhichis notthestate) o be discursivelyonstructed.Looking teverydaypractices, ncludingpracticesof representation,ndthe representationsf (state)practice n

publicculturehelpsus arriveat a historicallypecificand ideologicallyconstructedunder-

standingof "thestate."Such an analysissimultaneouslyonsiders hose othergroupings ndinstitutionshatare imagined n the processesof contestation,negotiation, nd collaborationwith "thestate."There s no reasonto assume hatthereis,or shouldbe, a unitary ntity hatstandsapart rom,and inopposition o, "thestate,"one that s mutually xclusive andjointly

exhaustiveof the social space. WhatI havetriedto emphasizeinthis article is thatthe verysameprocesses hatenableone to constructhestatealsohelpone to imagineheseother ocial

groupings-citizens,communitiesChatterjee990),socialgroups Bourdieu 985), coalitions,classes, nterest roups, ivilsociety, polity,ethnicgroups, ubnational roups,politicalparties,tradeunions,andfarmers rganizations.For he purposesof my argument, ssemblinghese

groups nto someoverarchingelationwas unnecessary. therefore id notemploythe notionof "civil ociety,"whichusually illssucha need,inthisanalysisof thediscoursesofcorruptionin India.Furthermore,t is not a concept indigenously nvokedin the variousprocessesof

imagining dentityhatIhavedescribedhere.66Thefinalquestion hat his articleaddresses oncernspoliticalactionandactivism, oncerns

thatshouldbe includedin the fieldof appliedanthropology. nthe context of the state,thecollaboration/resistanceichotomyis unhelpfuln thinkingof strategiesorpoliticalstruggle.The reason s thatsuch a grossbifurcation oes not allow one to takeadvantage f the fact hatthe state saformationhat,as StuartHal puts t,"condenses"ontradictionsHall1981 1986a,1986b). It also hides fromview the fact thatthere is no positionstrictlyoutside or insidethestatebecausewhat isbeingcontested stheterrain f the ideological ield.Anystruggle gainst




currently egemonicconfigurationsfpowerand domination nvolvesa culturaltruggle,whatGramscihas called the "war f position."What s at stake s nothingess thana transformationinthe manner nwhichthe statecomesto be constructed. t sa strugglehatproblematizeshehistoricaldivide between hose who choose to do politicalwork"within"he stateand thosewho work"outside"t,because he cultural onstruction fthestate npublicculturecan result

from,andaffect,both inequalmeasure.Bypointingout thatadvocatesofappliedworkandthose who favoractivist nterventionmay

sometimesunintentionallyhare a commonprojectof reifying"thestate"andthen locatingthemselveswithrespect o thattotality theone inside,the otheroutside),I neither ntend o

equatedifferentmodesof engagementnorto belittle he oftenpolitically ophisticated nder-

standingshatpractitionersring o theiractivities.All Iwish to emphasize s thatone'stheoryof "the tate"doesgreatlymatter nformulatingtrategiesorpoliticalaction.Justas Gramsci'snotionof hegemony edhimto believe that 1917 mayhave been the lastEuropean xampleof

vanguardismwhathe called the "warof maneuver"),o my analysisof "the tate" eadsto the

conclusionthatwe canattempt

o exploit hecontradictory rocesses hatgo intoconstituting"it."Thesecontradictions otonlyaddresshedivergentpullsexertedbythemultipleagencies,

departments, rganizations,evels,andagendasof "thestate"but also the contested errain f

public representation.fit is precisely n these practicesof historicalnarrativend statistical

abstraction,n equalparts hinfiction and brute act,that the phenomenonof statefetishism

emerges,we mustrememberhow unstableandfragile his self-representations and how it

couldalwaysbe otherwise.Forexample,Ihave shownhow thediscourseof corruption elpsconstruct"the tate"; etatthe sametime it canpotentially mpower itizensby markinghoseactivities hat nfringe n theirrights.

Onewayto thinkaboutstrategies f politicalaction,aboutsuch dichotomiesas applied/ac-

tivist, nside/outside,olicyanalysis/classtruggle,nd

developmentalism/revolution,stodraw

an initialdistinctionbetweenentitlement nd empowerment.67he"machinery"f develop-ment,with its elaborateyet repetitive ogic,focuseson thegoal of delivering ntitlements.As

JimFerguson1990)hasargued, tdoes so infactonlyto removealldiscussion fempowermentfrom he discursive orizon hencethe titleof hisbook,TheAnti-PoliticsMachine).Yet hetwo

are not mutuallyexclusive. And it is here that seizing on the fissuresand ruptures,he

contradictionsnthepolicies,programs,nstitutions,nddiscourses f"the tate" llowspeopleto createpossibilitiesorpoliticalactionand activism.68see critical eflection n the discourse

of developmentas a pointofdepartureorpoliticalaction,not as a momentof arrival.Evenas

we beginto see that we need, as ArturoEscobar1992) hasfelicitouslyputit, alternativeso

development, nd notdevelopment lternatives, e must earnnot oscoffat aplebeianpoliticsof opportunism,trategieshatare aliveto theconjunctural ossibilities f themoment.Keynesserved o remind conomistsandutopianshat"inthelongrunwe arealldead."69hepoor,I

mightadd,liveonlyhalfas long.

notes

Acknowledgments.amgratefuloPurnimaMankekar,amesFerguson,DavidNugent,DonMoore,LataMani, Jane Collier, John Peters, Elizabeth Perry,Atul Kohli, and three anonymous reviewers for detailedcomments. This article was originally presented at a workshop on State-SocietyRelationsat the Universityof Texas at Austin, February8-11, 1990. It has benefited from the criticalcomments of participantsof the

SSRC/ACLSointCommitteeon the Near & Middle East's"Vocabulariesof the State"workshop in Hanover,NH, March 24-25, 1990. I am also grateful for the input received from seminar participantsat the MIT

Center for InternationalStudies and the Anthropology Colloquium at the Universityof California, Irvine.

Many interestingquestions were raised at presentationsat StanfordUniversity,October 12, 1992, Columbia

University, February8, 1993, and the Universityof Pennsylvania, February22, 1993, some of which will

have to await the development of a much longer manuscript. I am gratefulto the Fritz Endowment of the

School of InternationalStudies, Universityof Washington, and to Fulbright-Haysor supportingfieldwork

in the summer of 1989 and the 1991-92 academic year, respectively.




1. Insteadof adopting the cumbersome technique of putting "the state" in quotation marksthroughoutthe text, I will henceforth omit quotation marksexcept at points where I want to draw attention explicitlyto the reified natureof the object denoted by that term.

2. Similarquestions were raised earlierby Nader (1972:306-307).3. Such an analysis has important implications for political action, as it suggests that the struggle for

hegemony is built into the construction of the state. It rejects the reification of the state inherent both in

vanguardistmovements that seek to overthrow "it"and reformistmovements that seek to work within "it."

4. Herzfeld remarks:"Thusanthropology, with its propensity to focus on the exotic and the remarkable,has largely ignored the practices of bureaucracy.... Yet this silence is, as Handelman has observed, aremarkableomission" (1992a:45). Handelman's work (1978, 1981) develops a call made by scholars suchas Nader (1972) to "study up," and attempts to do for bureaucracies what ethnographers such as Rohlen

(1974, 1983) have done for other institutions such as banks and schools.

5. It should be obvious that Iam makinga distinction between an empiricist epistemology and empiricalmethods. Iam definitely not saying thatempirical research needs to be abandoned.

6. The largerproject has a significantoral historical and archival dimension as well as a wider samplingof the various media. See also Achille Mbembe's (1992) wonderful article for itssuggestive use of newspaperreports.

7. See the articles by Mitchell (1989) and Taussig(1992) on this matter.

8. Handler's work (1985) very nicely demonstrates how these struggleswork out in the case of objects

thatthe regional government of Quebec wants to designate as the region's patrimoine.9. The scandal, which came to be known as the Bofors Affair,allegedly involved a kickback in a gun

ordered by the Indiangovernment from a Swedish manufacturer.What gave the scandal such prominenceis that it was widely believed that the kickback went to highly placed members of the government and the

Congress party, perhapseven the prime minister.Naturally,the rulingpartydid not pursue the investigationwith great enthusiasm, and no concrete proof was ever uncovered.

10. The phrase is LataMani's (1989).11. Michael Woost's (1993) fine essay also addresses similarquestions.12. The term "ThirdWorld"encapsulates and homogenizes what are in fact diverse and heterogenous

realities (Mohanty 1988). It implies further hat "First" nd "Third"worlds exist as separate and separablespaces (Ahmad 1987). I will thus capitalize it to highlight its problematic status. In a similar manner, "theWest" is obviously not a homogenous and unified entity. I use it to refer to the effects of hegemonicrepresentationsof the West rather han its subjugatedtraditions.Itherefore use the term simply to refer,not

to a geographical space, but to a particularhistoricalconjuncture of place, power, and knowledge.13. A phenomenon that Johannes Fabian(1983) calls "allochronism."14. Thispoint has been made by ParthaChatterjee 1990) in response to CharlesTaylor(1990); his recent

book (1993) restates it and develops the argumentfurther.15. Iam grateful o Dipesh Chakrabartyor firstbringingthis to my attention. See the excellent concluding

chapter of his monograph of the working class in Bengal (1989), in which he tackles this question head on.16. The headman is an official elected by all the registered voters of a village. Political parties rarely

participateinvillage elections inthe sense that candidates do not representnational or regional partieswhen

contesting these elections. Headmen are neither considered part of the administration nor the grassrootsembodiment of political parties, although they may play important roles in representing the village tobureaucraticand partyinstitutions.

17. Like all the other names in this article, this too is a pseudonym. In addition, owing to the sensitivenature of this material, the identities and occupations of all the people mentioned here have been altered

beyond recognition.18. Since the word "federal" is rarely used in India, I will refer to it by its Indian equivalent, that is,

"central."19. Iuse the term "hold court" because Sharmaji'smode of operation is reminiscent of an Indiandarbaar,

a royal court.20. At the exchange rate prevailing at the time of the incident in 1989, $1 = Rs. 18, the client in effect

handed Verma the equivalent of 56 cents. That figure is misleading, however, since it does not indicate

purchasingpower. Tenrupees would be enough to buy a hearty nonvegetarian lunch ata roadside restaurantfor one person or one kilogramof high quality mangoes, but not enough for a pair of rubberslippers.

21. IfindJudithButler's(1990) concept of gender as performance very useful in thinkingabout this issue,

particularly as it emphasizes that the agents involved are not following a cultural script governed byrule-following behavior. Iam gratefulto Don Moore for emphasizing this point to me.

22. This level was defined as Rs. 6,400 (approximately$215) per year for the 1992-93 fiscal year.23. The village development worker is a functionaryof the regional government who is responsible for

the implementationof "development programs" n a small circle of villages, the number in the circle varyingfrom three to a dozen depending on their populations. Like other government officials, the villagedevelopment worker is subject to frequenttransfers,at least once every three years.

24. Sripalclaimed to know the exact amount by consu ting "people who can read and write."Theofficialsat the Block office told me, however, that a sum of Rs. 8,000 was allocated for such projects.

25. I later learned that Rs. 3,000 of the total cost is given as a loan that has to be paid back in 20installmentsstretchingacross ten years.




26. To have explored the implications of the full chain of mediations for each ethnographic examplewould have taken the article farafield in too many differentdirections and made it lose its focus. This is atask that Ipropose to undertake in a full-lengthmonograph. Here, Iwanted to stress that we not forgetthatthe detailed analysis of everyday life is overdetermined by transnationalinfluences.

27. Iwould like to thankJoel Migdal for pointing this out to me.28. The symbolic representation of the state is as yet largely unexplored territory,with a few notable

exceptions. BernardCohn, for instance, has demonstrated how theImperialAssemblage

of 1877 enabledthe British colonial state to represent its authorityover India at the same time as it made "manifest and

compelling the [colonial] sociology of India" (1987b:658). See also Nicholas Dirks's study of a small,independent state in precolonial and colonial South India(1987).

29. Ihave deliberately avoided use of the term "public sphere" in this article. As Habermas(1989[1962])makes clear, the "public sphere" is the space where civil society emerges with the rise of bourgeois socialformations. It s there thatcritical, rationaldebate among bourgeois subjects could take place about a varietyof topics, including the state, and it is there that checks on state power emerge throughthe force of literate

public opinion (Peters 1993, in press). Since the argument that follows raises doubts about the wholesale

importof these categories to the particularcontext being analyzed, this notion of the "public sphere" is not

particularlyhelpful. I should hasten to add that I am by no means implying that "the West" is unique in

possessing a space for public debate and discussion. The notion of the public sphere, however, denotes a

particularhistorical and cultural formation shaped by feudalism, kingly rule, the rise of capitalism, the

importance of urbancenters, and the dominant role of the church as an institution that is notreplicated

inthe same form elsewhere in the world.

30. For hose unfamiliarwith the Indiancontext, itmight be useful to point out thatthe reason why Iam

concentratingon newspapers is thatwhereas radio and television arestrictlycontrolled by the government,the press is relativelyautonomous and frequentlycritical of "thestate."The only other importantsource ofnews in ruralareas, transnationalradio, remains limited in its coverage of India in that it remains focusedon major stories and hence lacks the detail and specificity of newspaper accounts.

31. This is not to imply that anthropologistshave not incorporated newspapers into their analysis in the

past (see for example Benedict 1946). Herzfeld explains the marginal role of newspapers very clearly:"Journalisms treated as not authentically ethnographic, since it is both externallyderived and rhetoricallyfactual.... Inconsequence, the intrusionof media language intovillage discourse has largelybeen ignored"(1992b:94). Herzfeld makes a strong case for close scrutiny to newspapers even when the unit of analysisis "the village";others such as Benedict Anderson (1983) and Achille Mbembe (1992) have stressed thetheoretical importance of newspapers in the construction of the nation and for the analysis of "the state,"

respectively.32. This analysis of newspapers looks at connections between local and transnational discourses of

corruptionbut not at the links between transnationalcapital and local newspapers. Forexample, althoughnone of the locally distributednewspapers (English-languageor vernacular)are even partiallyowned bytransnationalcorporations, many of them depend on multinational wire service bureaus for internationalnews. A detailed study would also have to account for the complex relationship between domestic andinternationalcapital accumulation. Further, he connection between the ownership and content of news-

papers is an incredibly difficult one to establish and is quite beyond the scope of this article and the

competence of the author. Iwish to thank an anonymous reviewer for raisingthese stimulating questions.33. Herzfeld has issued a warning that we would do well to heed: "We cannot usefully make any

hard-and-fastdistinctions between ruraland urban, illiterateand learned (orat least journalistic), local andnational. These terms-urbanity, literacy,the national interest,and theirantonyms-appear inthe villagers'discourse, and they are partof that discourse ... the largerdiscourses about Greece's place in the world

both feed and draw nourishment from the opinions expressed in the tiniestvillage"(1992b:11 7). "Attacking'the state' and 'bureaucracy'(often furtherreified as 'the system') is a tactic of social life, not an analyticalstrategy.Failure o recognize this is to essentialize essentialism. Ethnographically, t would lead us to ignorethe multiplicity of sins covered by the monolithic stereotypes of 'the bureaucracy' and 'the state'"(1992a:45).

34. Although literacyrates are relatively low throughout the region, the impact of newspapers goes far

beyond the literatepopulation as news reportsare orallytransmittedacross a wide rangeof groups. Politicalnews on state-runtelevision, Doordarshan, by contrast, is met with a high degree of skepticism, because

everyone concerned knows that it is the mouthpiece of the government.35. India Todayis published in a number of Indian languages and has a largeaudience in small towns

and villages. Corruptionalso figures prominently in the vernacularpress,and inwhat follows I will comparethe coverage there with magazines such as India Today.

36. Atprevailing exchange rates, Rs. 64 crore = $36 million. Therefore,64 paise was equal to 3.6 cents,

less than the cost of a cup of tea.37. The programin question is the IntegratedRuralDevelopment Programme.38. Thisfactshould dispel the myththat the discourse of corruptionis to be found only among the urban

middle class of "Westernized" Indians.39. To warm one's pockets is a metaphor fortakinga bribe. Ihave translatedall the titles fromthe Hindi

original.40. The sweet in question is a regionally famous one-pedaas, from Mathura.41. It would perhaps be more accurate to talk of "subject-positions"rather han "subjects"here.




42. Inthis article my analysis is limited to Hindi newspapers thatpublish local news of the Mandi region.43. An excellent study of the importance of rumor in the countryside is to be found in Amin 1984. A

fuller analysis would draw on the role of radio and television (both state-controlled) in all of this.44. It is in this sense of violation of norms that the term is often extended to moral life quite removed

from "the state,"to mean debasement, dishonesty, immorality,vice, impurity,decay, and contamination.The literatureon corruptionhas been bedeviled by the effort to find a set of culturallyuniversal, invariablenorms thatwould

helpdecide ifcertain actions are to be classified as

"corrupt."Thisfoundational

enterprisesoon degenerated into ethnocentrism and dogma, leading to a prolonged period of intellectual inactivity.Of course, not all the contributions to the corruption literature ell into this ethnocentric trap;some quiteexplicitly set out to undermine the assumptions of modernization theory. The only reason I have chosennot to spend too much space here discussing the corruption literature is that it has very little to say aboutthe chief concerns of my article, namely, the ethnographic analysis of the everyday functioning of the stateand the discursive construction of the state in public culture. The only exception is to be found in the seriesof studies by Wade (1982, 1984, 1985), which ethnographically describe corruptionthrough observationand interviews with state officials. A representative sample of the different viewpoints in the corruptionliteraturecan be obtained from Clarke1983; Heidenheimer 1970; Huntington1968; Leff1964; Leys1965;Monteiro 1970; Scott 1969, 1972; and Tilman 1968. Fora recent monograph, see Klitgaard1988.

45. Iam gratefulto LataMani for stressingthis point to me.46. For example, a highly placed official who fails to help a close relative or fellow villager obtain a

government positionis often

roundlycriticized

by peoplefor not

fulfillinghis

obligationsto his kinsmen

and village brothers. On the other hand, the same people often roundly condemn any official of anothercaste or village who has done precisely that as being "corrupt"and as guilty of encouraging "nepotism."

47. The modernism of the postcolonial nation-stateisexemplified bythe conceptofcitizenship enshrinedin the Indianconstitution, a notion clearly rooted in Enlightenmentideas about the individual. My use ofthe term "citizens" might seem to harkback to a notion of "civil society" that Iargue against in the rest ofthe article. What I am attemptingto stress here, however, is that in a postcolonial context the notion of

citizenship does not arise out of the bourgeois public sphere but out of the discourses and practices of themodern nation-state.Citizenship is therefore a hybridized subject-position that hasverydifferentresonancesin a postcolonial context than itdoes in places where it is inextricablyblended with the emergence of "civil

society."48. The discourse of accountability opened up by the rhetoricof citizenship need not become politically

significant.Whether it does or not has to do with the level of organization of differentgroupsthatare affected

byit.

49. Interestinglyenough, although the rhetoric of the Kisan Union predicates itsopposition to the stateintermsof the state's anti-farmerpolicies, most of itsgrassroots protestsareorganized around local instancesof corruption.The behavior of corruptofficials then becomes furtherevidence of the state'sexploitation offarmers. Except at the very lowest levels, all officials have jobs in which they are transferredfrequently.Althoughthe circle in which they can be transferredvaries by rank,in a state as largeas UttarPradesh,whatAnderson (1983) has termed "bureaucraticpilgrimages"usually cover quite an extensive area. Officialscannot be posted to their "home"village, block, tehsil, or district(depending on their circle of responsibility).

50. Ifone were to analyze the discourse of corruption in a region where dominant landed groups andlower levels of the statewere more overtlycomplicit (as, forexample, in certainregionsof Bihar),one would

probably find that it attains a very different texture.51. The Vidhan Sabha is the upper house of Parliament and the Lok Sabhathe lower one.52. At the time this interview took place, RajivGandhi was the prime minister of India.53. One lakh= 100,000. Atthe time of the interview, Rs. 1 lakh were

approximately equalto $6,000.

54. Iam gratefulto an anonymous reviewer for raisingthis importantquestion.55. Other peasants who believe that lower, but not upper, levels of government arecorrupt may not hold

that belief for the same reasons as Ram Singh.56. Allgovernment positions have reservations or quotas forthe scheduled castes-a certain percentage

of jobs at any given rankare kept aside for people from the lowest castes.57. Sometimes the word shaasan, which is closer to "administration,"s also employed.58. Iam by no means implyingthatthe viewing of television explains why RamSingh holds this opinion

of the corruptmiddle levels of the state. He may very well believe in itfor other reasons as well. Television,however, seems to have influenced his views on this matter: "we get a little more worldly."

59. His reference to "illiteracy"must not be taken literally.60. This point has been emphasized by Herzfeld in his discussion of the Greekvillage of Glendi and the

provincial town of Rethemnos:"Therehas never been any serious doubt about the importanceof the mediain

connecting villagerswith

largernational and international events. Like the folklore of earlier

times,the

media spawn an extraordinarily homogenous as well as pervasive set of political cliches. Much less

well-explored, however is how this discourse is manipulated" (1992b:99; emphasis in original). Talk of

manipulation sometimes seems to make itappearas ifthere is a "deep" intentionworkingtoward particulargoals; Ipreferto think of employability, the diverse ways in which such discourse can be used in differentcircumstances.

61. It s not surprising hat RamSingh, like other people, neither occupies a space of pureoppositionalityto dominant discourses and practices nor is simply duped by them. Maddox (1990) suggests that scholars

may have their own reasons for looking so hard for resistance. Forms of unambiguous resistance are rare




indeed, as Foucault recognized (1980:109-145), and the simultaneityof co-optation and resistance bafflesthe familiarantinomies of analyticalthought (Abu-Lughod1990; Mankekar1993). Indeed, the effortto showresistance even in overt gestures of deference requires the positing of hyperstrategicrational actors, an

analytical strategythat is of dubious value.62. Itmightbe objected that this kind of statement involves an analyticalcircularity:constructions of the

state are contextual and situated; yet any attempt to define context and situation involves the use ofdiscourses that

maythemselves have been

shaped byconstructions of the state,

amongother

things.Following Foucault and especially Haraway (1988), Iwant to argue that the search to escape the mutualdetermination of larger ociopolitical contexts and discursive positions is untenable. The analyst, too, is partof this discursive formationand cannot hope to arriveat a description of "situatedness" hat stands above,beyond, or apart from the context being analyzed. This is precisely what "scientific" discourses seek toachieve-a universally verifiable description that is independent of observer and context. Harawaybrilliantlyunderminesthe claims of objectivity embodied in these discourses by showing that the "theviewfrom nowhere," or what she calls the "god-trick,"masks a will-to-power that constitutes its own politicalproject. She arguesthat all claims to objectivityare partialperspectives, context-dependent, and discursivelyembedded visions that are not for thatreason unimportantor unredeemable. Inotherwords, the recognitionthat the truthsof scientific discourse are themselves located within specific webs of power-laden intercon-nections does not signal a slide toward "anything goes" randomness where all positions are subjectivelydetermined and hence irrefutable(see also Bernstein 1985). My effort to describe Ram Singh's position

accordingto class, caste,

gender,and

agehierarchies flows out of a social scientific discourse and a sense

of political engagement as a postcolonial subject in which inequality, poverty, and power are the centralconcerns. Idoubt if an upper-caste villager would describe RamSingh in this way; neither in all likelihoodwould a government official;nor would an official of the World Bank. While being a particulardescription,it is, Iwould argue, anythingbut an arbitraryone. I am gratefulto an anonymous reviewer for forcing meto clarifythis point.

63. Frustratedwith the reification of the state and convinced that it was just a source of mystification,Radcliffe-Brown(1940:xxiii) argued that the state be eliminated from social analysis! One of the most

thoughtfuldiscussions on this topic is to be found in Abrams 1988.64. RichardFox's fine studyof the colonial state in Punjabdemonstrates the mutual construction of Sikh

identities and "the state." He stresses that "the state" is "not a 'thing' but a 'happening'" (1985:156) and

that it is riven by internalcontradictions, incomplete consciousness of interests,incorrect implementationof projects aimed at furthering ts interests, and conflict between individual officials and the organization(1985:1 57).

65. Anderson points to the similarityof nation-statesby emphasizing the "modularity" f "the last wave"of nationalism (1983:104-128), and Chatterjee (1986) stresses the "derivative"character of ThirdWorldnationalisms.

66. I am not defending the naive possibility of "indigenous"theory, for it is not clear to me what such a

concept could possibly mean in the era of postcolonialism and late capitalism. Instead, I am arguingthatthe use of concepts thatoriginate in "the West" to understand the specificity of the Indian context enablesone to develop a critique of the analytical apparatus itself (Chakrabarty1991). Jim Ferguson (personalcommunication, July8, 1992) reminds me that even in the United States, the notion of "civil society" has

very littlepurchase outside academic circles.67. AmartyaSen's study of famines (1982) employs a theory of entitlements to explain who suffers in a

famine and why. See also Appadurai 1984.68. It should be clear that Iam not suggesting that it is only here thatpossibilities for intervention exist.69. The source is A Tracton

MonetaryReform

(Keynes1971 [1923]).

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submitted November 1, 1991revised version submitted July28, 1993revised version submitted February17, 1994

accepted May 3, 1994

30971231 akhil gupta corruption blurred boundaries

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