Poetics of Village Politics: The Making of West Bengal's Rural Communism Book

	List of Tables
	Acknowledgements
1	Anthropology and History of Village Politics	1
	Village and the State	1
	The Village Politics Studies	4
	Views from Below	7
	What is this Thing called Culture?	9
2	Small Communities in Landscape and History	13
	The Village Setting	13
	Gradual Political Radicalization	18
	Agrarian Relations and Increasing Poverty	24
	The Spark: A New Line of Thinking	28
	But Does It All Fit?	30
3	Two Stories about Power and Influence	33
	'We were all in it Together?'	33
	Gopinathpur: The Story of an Enduring Alliance	35
	Udaynala: The Story of a Brittle Alliance	42
	Sources of Individual 'Power' in Village History	47
	Money-lenders as Political Leaders?	55
	Interested Patron-Client Relationships	59
	'Power' - As in 'Influence'?	63
4	Road, Poetry, and Some Crafty Young Men	70
	On Commensality and Other Changes	70
	The bhadralok and His Making	72
	Selimmaster's Notebook and a Critique of Village Society	75
	Implementing the Modern Tradition in Udaynala	78
	Family Ties, Education, and New-found Reading Material	84
	From the Epics to 20th Century Novels	88
	Modern Tradition in Village Drama	95
	Language and Status	99
5	Caste Stereotypes and Communist Mobilization	105
	Excesses and Typical Village Politics	105
	Udaynala and Gopinathpur and the United Front Period	109
	Caste and Class, ca. 1960	115
	Dacoity	118
	'We are bagdis!': The Bagdi Stereotype	122
	Bagdis in Udaynala Village Affairs	128
	The Shifting Alliances of the 1970s	130
	The Bagdi, and Assertion as Identity and Source of Influence	134
	'We Made Ourselves Low': An Untouchable Identity	137
	Muchis in Village Public Affairs	142
	Hierarchy and Mobilization	146
6	Formal Politics and Informal Politics	152
	From the Discussion-House to the Office	152
	New Formal Institutions: 1960s	154
	Ohabsaheb's Exit	157
	How Important Were the Reformed Panchayats?	160
	Bichar - an Informal Institution	164
	Informal Politics and Middle-Men	168
	'Symbolic Capital' and Len-den	175
	Formal and Informal Politics: Two Interlocked Games	178
7	Gossip and Reputation: The Making of Village Leaders	183
	The Importance of Gossip	183
	The Making and Unmaking of Individual Reputations	188
	Towards Manikbhai's Bichar	190
	Gossip and The Village Agenda	198
	Manipulation	200
8	Conclusion	205
	A Space for Change?	209
	References	212
	Index	221