Books by Ritanjan Das
Routledge, 2023
This book explores the relationship between the production of new urban spaces and illiberal comm... more This book explores the relationship between the production of new urban spaces and illiberal community-making in contemporary India. It is based on an ethnographic study in Noida, a city at the eastern fringe of the state of Uttar Pradesh, bordering national capital Delhi.
The book demonstrates a flexible planning approach being central to the entrepreneurial turn in India’s post-liberalisation urbanisation, whereby a small-scale industrial township is transformed into a real-estate driven modern city. Its real point of departure, however, is in the argument that this turn can enable a form of illiberal community-making in new cities that are quite different from older metropolises. Exclusivist forms of solidarity and symbolic boundary construction - stemming from the differences across communities as well as their internal heterogeneities - form the crux of this process, which is examined in three distinct but often interspersed socio-spatial forms: planned middle-class residential quarters, ‘urban villages’ and migrant squatter colonies.
The book combines radical geographical conceptualisations of social production of space and neoliberal urbanism with sociological and anthropological approaches to urban community-making. It will be of interest to researchers in development studies, sociology, urban studies, as well as readers interested in society and politics of contemporary India/South Asia.
Routledge, 2018
Series: Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series This book presents a reappraisal of the po... more Series: Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series This book presents a reappraisal of the political economic history of the CPIM/Left Front regime against the backdrop of the Indian reform experience. It examines two distinct areas: the conditions that necessitated the regime to engineer a transition from an erstwhile agricultural-based growth model to a more pro-market economic agenda post-1991, and the political strategy employed to manage such a transition, attract private capital and at the same time sustain the regime's traditional rhetoric and partisan character.
Papers by Ritanjan Das
Journal of Peasant Studies , 2024
Analogous to the Euro-American context, Indian cities are usually conceptualised as socio-spatial... more Analogous to the Euro-American context, Indian cities are usually conceptualised as socio-spatial forms where communities at the peripheries of 'development' constitute 'urban margins'. However, such conceptualisations rarely interrogate the varied aspects of marginality within those spaces. Drawing from an ethnography with dispossessed peasantry (in 'urban villages') and migrant labour (in slums/jhuggis) in Noida, a north-Indian city, we unpack three aspects of marginality. First, the process of marginalisation; second, two communities negotiating their marginality differently; third, evolving social relations within each. We propose a relational framework: supra-sub levels of structural-spatial and economic-cultural marginalisation to better understand the fragmentations within urban margins.
Critical Asian Studies, 2024
Revisiting the citizenship regimes of Myanmar and India through a comparative lens, this article ... more Revisiting the citizenship regimes of Myanmar and India through a comparative lens, this article argues that a specter of the “potential foreigner” is decisive in the adjudication of citizenship in both countries. Citizenship is conceptualized not only on the basis of who is a citizen, but a perennial suspicion towards those who may not be. We frame this argument in the context of increasingly restrictive atmospheres in both countries, epitomized by violence towards the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Citizenship Amendment Act in India. This paper employs an historical perspective, tracing the evolution of citizenship since the partitions of Burma and Pakistan from India. It interrogates the very notion of foreignness that is embedded in these discourses, through a detailed description of the religious, ethnic, racial, and administrative "other" etched in the legislative and socio-political fabric of both countries. In order to develop the idea of potential foreigner as a key element of national identity and citizenship policy, the paper examines crucial legislation over the last three-quarters of a century, and the consequences of linking narrowing definitions of ethno-national belonging to citizenship status.
Contemporary South Asia, 2024
In this viewpoint article, we analyse the consolidation of Abhishek Banerjee as the future leader... more In this viewpoint article, we analyse the consolidation of Abhishek Banerjee as the future leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the dominant political party in West Bengal and one of the most influential opposition parties at the pan-Indian level. While the TMC has gone from strength to strength for over a decade under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee (who is also Abhishek’s aunt), it has recently found itself in an unprecedented crisis, mired in allegations of corruption and misgovernance. Yet, every crisis presents new opportunities, and in this contribution, we show how the TMC has worked to simultaneously rejuvenate the party’s orientation while taking forward a long-unfolding project of political dynasticism whereby ‘the nephew’ Abhishek is being positioned to take over the party leadership. Our analysis proceeds from an overview of the crises that have engulfed the TMC, to a discussion of how it has been used as a window of opportunity for raising Abhishek’s standing. Towards this end, we focus on a series of recent party initiatives – particularly a mass outreach programme called Nabo Jowar (new wave) – as well as the recent 2023 panchayat elections where Abhishek played a key role in securing a landslide victory for the TMC.
Contemporary South Asia, 2023
This article contributes to the growing literature on political dynasticism in contemporary South... more This article contributes to the growing literature on political dynasticism in contemporary South Asia and shifts the focus from the much-debated national level dynasties to the usually ignored dynasties operating at subnational and regional levels. Analytically, it investigates the ‘moment’ of succession, conceptualised as the period when new heirs are actively enrolled in a dynastic formation. Such moments of succession can be perilous moments for dynastic formations, potentially disrupting its routine functioning style. And yet, these moments allow a clear identification and opportunity for analysis of the specific dilemma that all political dynasties have to negotiate. This dilemma can be described as follows: how to reconcile (1) the need to project emerging dynastic heirs as extraordinary beings embodying the special qualities of the original dynast, with (2) the equally pressing need to downplay inherited dynastic privilege – conceptualised here using Louis Dumont’s idea of ‘shamefacedness’ – often portrayed as an illegitimate source of power and influence in postcolonial South Asia. A successful succession, as this article argues, relies on the ability to negotiate this dilemma. To demonstrate this negotiation in practice, the article analyses two cases of dynastic succession: Abhishek Banerjee in West Bengal, India and Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah in Barishal, Bangladesh.
Contemporary South Asia, 2023
This article focuses on a relatively overlooked dimension of urban development in India: the natu... more This article focuses on a relatively overlooked dimension of urban development in India: the nature of community-making in new urban spaces. Using concepts from sociological and geographical literature on community formation, it examines the relationship between specific forms of urbanisation in contemporary (neo-liberal) India and community-making processes. The study is situated in the city of Noida within the national capital region in northern India. Examining two habitational forms, that of urban middle-class enclaves and urban villages, we suggest that a model of urbanisation involving eminent domain (the state’s power to acquire private property and convert it into public use) to produce gentrified urban spaces may promote conditions for rival forms of exclusivist community-making, including nativist ‘othering’.
The Raw Data set details out the political composition of the 46 village councils, NREGS expendit... more The Raw Data set details out the political composition of the 46 village councils, NREGS expenditure and registration patterns between 2013-2018.
Contemporary South Asia, 2021
This article examines two simultaneous dynamics in contemporary India: the development of new urb... more This article examines two simultaneous dynamics in contemporary India: the development of new urban spaces, and an intensification of Hindu nationalism (Hindutva). Examining the case of Noida (a township adjacent to Delhi), this article suggests that the entrepreneurial mode of urban development [Harvey 2006. Spaces of Global Capitalism. New York: Verso] has restructured local spaces, which in turn may give rise to rival attempts at group making, seeking to recreate exclusive identities out of choice and resentment to mobilise political action. Such rival attempts may enable Hindutva to entrench itself in local milieus through multiple modes, including the soft mode of 'neo-Hindutva'. Overall, the article outlines the dynamic association between new urban processes and exclusivist/nativist forms of politics in contemporary India.
World Development , 2021
Despite a strong state and a slew of poverty reduction/welfare programmes, the provision of basic... more Despite a strong state and a slew of poverty reduction/welfare programmes, the provision of basic services to the rural poor in India remains puzzlingly inadequate. Moving away from the usual trend of aggregate welfare impact analysis that characterises most studies on this theme, we explore the on-ground distributive politics around the implementation of India’s flagship social welfare programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Based on a mixed-method study in the state of West Bengal, using observational primary data and ethnographic material across 46 sample village councils (gram panchayats) from 2013 to 2018, we draw attention to the non-homogeneity in the way political incentives of welfare provision are orientated towards different parties and individual stakeholders. In doing so, we traverse across multiple domains of political economic concepts, particularly that of partisan alignment, clientelism and patronage, and unpack the differentiated constellation of localised political incentives founded on a unique form of transactional paradigm called settings. We show how these on-ground transactions provide a multitude of political incentives for ruling/opposition political parties and panchayat functionaries, often going beyond conventional ethno-favouritism ideas of patronage and assuming a more personalised context. In turn, we also argue that the idea of settings is useful in providing a deeper understanding of local state-society relations and the political geography of welfare provisions in rural eastern India.
Journal of Contemporary Asia , 2019
This article examines the political narrative around a two-decade old process of land acquisition... more This article examines the political narrative around a two-decade old process of land acquisition and development in the ‘global city’ Rajarhat, a former rural settlement in the Indian state of West Bengal. The narrative – exploring the development politics in Rajarhat - is built against the backdrop of a neo-liberal state in the global South acting as a corporate facilitator, particularly in matters of land, and the concomitant dispossession. The multifaceted politics of Rajarhat takes shape in contrast to the erstwhile communist regime in West Bengal, the dichotomy of a Left state engaged in forceful and violent land acquisition thus forming an interesting paradox. The paper also presents evidence against the long held political myth of caste-relations being irrelevant in Bengali politics, by examining the upper-caste dominated social relations in Rajarhat and the formation of low-level cartels or ‘syndicates’ in the area. In conclusion, the article points to the reinvention and redeployment of caste relations – even in increasingly urban spaces where ‘hierarchical’ caste practices are usually taken to be on the decline - rooted in the duality between land-struggles and development.
Contemporary South Asia, 2019
This paper presents a theoretical reassessment of a much debated chapter in India’s economic libe... more This paper presents a theoretical reassessment of a much debated chapter in India’s economic liberalisation - the case of West Bengal, a state ruled by the pro-labour Left Front coalition, led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) from 1997 to 2011. The onset of neoliberalism in India had naturally created a serious political dilemma for the CPIM, but it eventually transitioned to a private-industrialisation agenda, thus prompting serious questions about its ideological deviation from a Leftist path. While the political-economy of the CPIM/Left Front and its industrial fortunes have been under extensively scrutinised, this study introduces a rather different theoretical perspective on the story. Going back to the initial period of the policy transition (c.1994), it uses the analytical categories of local neoliberalisms and populist transition to show how the state of affairs in West Bengal under the CPIM was demonstrative of a particular variant of interventionist neoliberal governmentality, characterised by a gradual intensification of pro-market impulses in both action and discourse. Furthermore, the study also contextualises West Bengal within wider political economic trends, arguing that pro-market transitions by populist regimes tend to be characterised by a series of mobile calculative techniques of governing, embedded in local historical and geographical specificities and localised relationships.
South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (SAMAJ) , 2019
This paper explores the political churnings around an almost twenty year old process of land acqu... more This paper explores the political churnings around an almost twenty year old process of land acquisition and development in Rajarhat, an erstwhile rural settlement in the Indian state of West Bengal. The narrative takes shape against the backdrop of a neo-liberal state in the global South acting as a corporate facilitator, the concomitant dispossession, and particularly the transformation of the villages and rural livelihoods. The paper tries to trace the nature of this transformation by mapping the socio-economic changes on the one hand, and the reinvention of traditional caste-based social hierarchies brought about by such changes on the other, and highlights the formation of ‘syndicates’ (low-level cartels) in the area as a unique manifestation of the latter. Such developments, the paper argues, symbolise a qualitative shift in rural social relations, brought about by rapid urbanisation in neoliberal India.
This paper provides a historical perspective on a rather unique chapter in the era of economic re... more This paper provides a historical perspective on a rather unique chapter in the era of economic reforms in India—the case of the state of West Bengal. In 1991, the Government of India began to pursue a policy of economic liberalization, causing serious political challenges for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM)-led Left Front coalition in West Bengal. Historically, the CPIM had strongly opposed economic reforms, but was compelled to undertake a policy 'transition' owing to the stagnating economy of the state. The transition, and the motivations behind it, was a topic debated often—especially once the party started courting private investment, pushed for large-scale industrialization, and eventually suffered a historic defeat in 2011 after 33 years in power—but rarely has a coherent historical narrative of what caused the transition been brought to the forefront. This paper attempts to address that gap by examining the following question: what were the local political conditions that compelled the CPIM/Left Front take upon itself the task of engineering such a transition? While acknowledging the larger forces of globalization and Indian federalism, the analysis focuses on the rarely discussed local socioeconomic priorities in West Bengal, and constructs a dual narrative of instrumental and political–ideological arguments.
South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, Apr 2016
FOCAAL-European Journal of Anthropology , May 2009
Opinion Pieces and Conference Articles by Ritanjan Das
Contemporary India is showing increasing signs of ‘competitive’ authoritarian populism (Levitsky ... more Contemporary India is showing increasing signs of ‘competitive’ authoritarian populism (Levitsky and Way, 2010). The mainstream political discourse in the country is dominated by the sectarian religious forces of Hindu nationalism or Hindutva, serving as the agency of a development narrative that promises to return India to its ‘greatness of yore’. In this paper, we examine the case of Noida, an upcoming satellite township adjacent to the capital New Delhi, to describe a process of spatial upheaval that is leading to continuous practices of ‘othering’. These processes are enabling the Hindutva forces to take root locally. In effect, we argue that local space-making has an intrinsic relationship with authoritarian populism, and it therefore needs to be at the analytical forefront.
South Asia@LSE Blog, 2020
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Books by Ritanjan Das
The book demonstrates a flexible planning approach being central to the entrepreneurial turn in India’s post-liberalisation urbanisation, whereby a small-scale industrial township is transformed into a real-estate driven modern city. Its real point of departure, however, is in the argument that this turn can enable a form of illiberal community-making in new cities that are quite different from older metropolises. Exclusivist forms of solidarity and symbolic boundary construction - stemming from the differences across communities as well as their internal heterogeneities - form the crux of this process, which is examined in three distinct but often interspersed socio-spatial forms: planned middle-class residential quarters, ‘urban villages’ and migrant squatter colonies.
The book combines radical geographical conceptualisations of social production of space and neoliberal urbanism with sociological and anthropological approaches to urban community-making. It will be of interest to researchers in development studies, sociology, urban studies, as well as readers interested in society and politics of contemporary India/South Asia.
Papers by Ritanjan Das
Opinion Pieces and Conference Articles by Ritanjan Das
The book demonstrates a flexible planning approach being central to the entrepreneurial turn in India’s post-liberalisation urbanisation, whereby a small-scale industrial township is transformed into a real-estate driven modern city. Its real point of departure, however, is in the argument that this turn can enable a form of illiberal community-making in new cities that are quite different from older metropolises. Exclusivist forms of solidarity and symbolic boundary construction - stemming from the differences across communities as well as their internal heterogeneities - form the crux of this process, which is examined in three distinct but often interspersed socio-spatial forms: planned middle-class residential quarters, ‘urban villages’ and migrant squatter colonies.
The book combines radical geographical conceptualisations of social production of space and neoliberal urbanism with sociological and anthropological approaches to urban community-making. It will be of interest to researchers in development studies, sociology, urban studies, as well as readers interested in society and politics of contemporary India/South Asia.