The 'poverty' of political society: Partha chatterjee and the people's plan campaign in Kerala, India

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 31, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 295-314

  Mannathukkaren, Nissim ^a  

^a DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL SOCIETY; CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK; DECENTRALIZATION; DEMOCRATIZATION; MODERNITY; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION; SOVEREIGNTY;

INDIA; KERALA;

EID: 77951485249     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436591003712007     Document Type: Article

References (122)

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2. P Chatterjee, 'Beyond the nation? Or within', Social Text, 16(fall), 1998, p 60.
3. P Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, p 38.
4. Chatterjee, 'Beyond the nation?', p 27.
5. P Heller, The Labor of Development: Workers and the Transformation of Capitalism in Kerala, India, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000, p 7.
6. R Sandbrook, M Edelman, P Heller & J Teichman, Social Democracy in the Global Periphery, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
7. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, pp 34-35.
8. S Kaviraj, 'On state, society and discourse in India', in J Manor (ed), Rethinking Third World Politics, London: Longman, 1991, p 90.
9. P Chatterjee, 'Community in the East', Economic and Political Weekly, 7 February 1998, p 281.
10. Ibid, p 282.
11. Chatterjee, 'Beyond the nation?', p 60.
12. Ibid, p 27.
13. J Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 1, Reason and the Rationalization of Society, trans T McCarthy, London: Heinemann, 1985, p 285.
14. P Chatterjee, 'Democracy and economic transformation in India', Economic and Political Weekly, 19 April 2008, p 58.
15. A Baviskar & N Sundar, 'Democracy versus economic transformation', Economic and Political Weekly, 18 November 2008, p 88.
16. Chatterjee, 'Beyond the nation?', p 64.
17. P Chatterjee, 'Classes, capital and Indian democracy', Economic and Political Weekly, 18 November 2008, p 93.
18. S Corbridge, G Williams, M Srivastava & Rene Veron, Seeing the State: Governance and Governmentality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp 5, 7.
19. See also M Shah, 'Structures of power in Indian society: a response', Economic and Political Weekly, 18 November 2008, p 81.
20. Chatterjee, 'Community in the East', p 280.
21. For a critical understanding of the intellectual lineage of postcolonial theory, see V Chibber, 'On the decline of class analysis in South Asian Studies', Critical Asian Studies, 38(4), 2006, pp 357-387.
22. See C Upadhya, 'The concept of community in Indian social sciences: an anthropological perspective', in SS Jodhka (ed), Community and Identities: Contemporary Discourses on Culture and Politics in India, New Delhi: Sage, 2001, pp 32-58.
23. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, p 41.
24. Chatterjee, 'Beyond the nation?', p 65.
25. Heller, The Labor of Development, p 85.
26. A Gudavarthy & G Vijay, 'Antinomies of political society', Economic and Political Weekly, 17 July 2007, pp 3051, 3052.
27. Chatterjee, 'Beyond the nation?', p 68.
28. R Cox, 'Civil society at the turn of the millennium: prospects for alternative world order', Review of International Studies, 25, 1999, p 5.
29. Ibid, p 10.
30. Ibid, pp 10-11.
31. See Chatterjee, 'Community in the East', p 281.
32. D Chakrabarty, 'Radical histories and question of Enlightenment rationalism: some recent critiques of subaltern studies', Economic and Political Weekly, 8 April 1999, p 756.
33. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, p 75.
34. Ibid, p 74.
35. V Dhareshwar, 'Postcolonial in the postmodern: or, the political after modernity', Economic and Political Weekly, 29 July 1995, p PE-109.
36. Chatterjee, Nation and its Fragments, p 11.
37. MA Oommen, Essays on Kerala Economy, New Delhi: Oxford University Press and IBH, 1993, p 3.
38. O Tornquist, What's Wrong with Marxism?, Vol 2, On Peasants and Workers in India and Indonesia, New Delhi: Manohar, 1999, pp 31, 39.
39. But it should be noted here that the land question was not completely settled. Although Kerala was far ahead of other Indian states with regard to land reforms, land redistribution benefited different classes iniquitously with the actual tillers benefiting the least.
40. See TV Sathyamurthy, India since Independence: Studies in the Development of the Power of the State, Vol 1, Centre-State Relations: The Case of Kerala, Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1985, p 287.
41. O Tornquist, The Next Left? Democratization and Attempts to Renew the Radical Political Development Project: The Case of Kerala, Copenhagen, NIAS, 1995, pp 25-26.
42. This should not occlude the fact that there were some significant attempts at democratic decentralisation right from the first communist government in 1957, which did not succeed for a variety of reasons.
43. See TMT Isaac & EM Sridharan (eds), EMSum Adhikara Vikendrikaranvum (EMS and the Decentralisation of Power), Thiruvananthapuram: Chintha Publishers, 2002.
44. Ibid, p 36.
45. R Herring, 'Dilemmas of agrarian communism: peasant differentiation, sectoral and village politics', Third World Quarterly, 11(1), 1989, p105.
46. and Tornquist, What's Wrong with Marxism?, pp 33, 37.
47. P Heller, KN Harilal & S Chaudhuri, 'Building local democracy: evaluating the impact of decentralization in Kerala, India', World Development, 35(4), p 631.
48. For details of the Plan process, see TMT Isaac, 'Campaign for democratic decentralisation in Kerala', Social Scientist, 29(9-10), 2001, p 13.
49. Heller et al, 'Building local democracy', pp 643, 644.
50. N Menon & A Nigam, Power and Contestation: India Since 1989, London: Zed Books, 2007, p108.
51. N Mannathukkaren, 'The conjuncture of late socialism in Kerala: a critique of the narrative of social democracy', in K Ravi Raman (ed), Development, Democracy and the State: Critiquing Kerala Model of Development, London: Routledge, forthcoming.
52. Rajan Gurukkal, 'When a coalition of conflicting interests decentralises: a theoretical critique of decentralization politics in Kerala', Social Scientist, 29(9-10), 2001, p 62.
53. Muralidharan, secretary, CPM Muvattupuzha Area Committee, interview, 22 August 2004. There is also the recognition that, since material issues like land reforms and labour rights have been won, it is imperative that the left take up other vital issues and also the concerns of the middle classes. Santhosh, lower level communist activist, interview, 21 August 2004. While the move to non-class concerns like ecology and gender is welcome, it also erroneously seems to suggest that the class question is settled.
54. J Devika et al, Gendering Governance or Governing Women? Politics, Patriarchy, and Democratic Decentralisation in Kerala State, India, Thiruvananthapuram: Centre for Development Studies, 2008, pp 14, 187.
55. A Fung & EO Wright, 'Thinking about empowered participatory governance', in Fung & Wright, Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance, London: Verso, 2003, p 35.
56. J Chathukulam and MS John, 'Five years of participatory planning: rhetoric and reality', Economic and Political Weekly, 7 December 2002, p 4918.
57. K Stokke & G Mohan, 'The convergence around local civil society and the dangers of localism', Social Scientist, 29(11-12), 2000, p 6.
58. Shah, 'Structures of power', p 80.
59. E Laclau & C Mouffe quoted in Anna Marie Smith, Laclau and Mouffe: The Radical Democratic Imaginary, London: Routledge, 1998, p 7.
60. TM Thomas Isaac, interview, 26 May 2003. Isaac is a Marxist intellectual and one of the architects of the People's Plan. He was the head of the State Planning Board during the 1996 left-wing government; presently he is the Finance Minister of the Kerala Government; and MA Baby, Minister for Education, Kerala Government, interview, 7 August 2004.
61. Chathukulam & John, 'Five years of participatory planning'.
62. KP Kannan, 'People's planning: Kerala's dilemma', Seminar, 485, 2000, pp 92-97.
63. KSSP's significance can be gauged from the fact that it has grown from 139 units with 3313 members in 1978-79 to 2190 units with 66093 members in 1991-92.
64. Tornquist, The Next Left?, p 70.
65. See Devika et al, Gendering Governance, pp 13, 198.
66. For example, KSSP, while using science as an instrument to raise the social consciousness of people and promote 'rationality', was at the same time trying to promote a development that was not entirely modernist in tenor. In fact, it has been one of the main forces pushing the left to adopt an environmentally sustainable approach to development. Of course, this has generated a lot of conflict within the communist movement, especially drawing opposition from the trade union wing within it, which has alleged that the KSSP is anti-industrialisation.
67. The Hindu, 23 September 2003.
68. Chathukulam & John, 'Five years of participatory planning'.
69. Chatterjee, 'Democracy and economic transformation', p 57.
70. Tornquist, What's Wrong with Marxism?.
71. and Ramachandran Nair, retired government employee and communist activist, interview, 29 July 2004.
72. Chathukulam & John, 'Five years of participatory planning', p 4924.
73. TV Thomas, contractor, interview, 17 May 2003.
74. and Government of Kerala, Report of the Committee for Evaluation of Decentralised Planning and Development, Thiruvananthapuram, 2009, p 85.
75. Government of Kerala, Report, pp 86, 85.
76. PM Ismail, CPM leader and former Chairman, Muvattupuzha municipality, interview, 26 July 2004.
77. and Kannan, 'People's planning'.
78. J Devika & B Thampy, 'Between "empowerment" and "liberation": the Kudumbashree initiative in Kerala', Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 14(1), 2007, pp 47, 57.
79. In the setting up of benami (fraudulent) beneficiary committees many contractors (and engineers) have benefited, some of whom have been Communist Party members or sympathisers. Brig KG Nair (now deceased), retired army officer and communist activist, interview, 26 June 2003.
80. The expert committees did not have the power to reject project proposals, they could only suggest financial and technical improvements. Voluntary experts were recruited from among retired professionals. The constitution of the expert committees through volunteers was an important step meant to aid the de-bureaucratisation of the plan process. Isaac, 'Campaign for democratic decentralisation in Kerala', pp 13, 29, 36.
81. According to a daily wage labourer, it is the vesting of power in the bureaucracy that leads to patronage. He feels that the scope for favouritism has been reduced with the People's Plan. Joykunju, interview, 28 July 2004. With the formation of beneficiary committees, the number of complaints from people has increased, as they now know exactly how much money is being spent under what heading. The Plan Campaign has demonstrated, especially in the areas where it has been successful, that the bureaucracy can be bent if adequate political will is there, especially with the new powers enjoyed by the grama sabha.
82. MJ Jacob, president, Thirumarady Panchayat, interview, 21 July 2004.
83. Government of Kerala, Report, p 60.
84. Devika & Thampy, 'Between "empowerment" and "liberation"', p 49.
85. Chathukulam & John, 'Five years of participatory planning', p 4920.
86. and Government of Kerala, Report, p 60.
87. Heller et al, 'Building local democracy', pp 632-633.
88. Ibid, pp 638, 641.
89. S Chaudhuri & P Heller, 'The plasticity of participation: evidence from participatory governance experiment', ISERP Working Paper 03-01, at http://www.iserp.columbia.edu/research/working_papers/downloads/2003_01.pdf, accessed 1 March 2009.
90. and Heller et al, 'Building local democracy'.
91. Heller et al, 'Building local democracy', p 643.
92. Government of Kerala, Report, p 25.
93. Devika & Thampy, 'Between "empowerment" and "liberation"'.
94. and TT Sreekumar & G Parayil, 'Interrogating development: new social movements, democracy and indigenous people's struggles in Kerala', in J Tharamangalam (ed), Kerala: The Paradoxes of Public Action and Development, Hyderabad: Orient Longman, pp 215-257.
95. Devika et al, Gendering Governance, p 18.
96. R Kuttoor, 'Trade unions strengthen blockade at Chengara', The Hindu, 15 September 2008.
97. Gudavarthy & Vijay, 'Antinomies of political society', p 3056.
98. For an influential statement, see E Laclau & C Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, London: Verso, 2001.
99. A Dirlik, The Post-Colonial Aura: Third World Criticism in the Age of Global Capitalism, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997, pp 96, 101.
100. Chatterjee, 'Beyond the nation?', p 67.
101. Thomas Isaac, interview.
102. Dirlik, The Post-Colonial Aura, p 90.
103. See A Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
104. and Laclau & Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy.
105. W Graf, 'The state in the Third World', Socialist Register, 1995, pp 157-159.
106. Chakrabarty, 'Radical histories and question of Enlightenment rationalism', p 757.
107. A Heller, 'On formal democracy', in J Keane (ed), Civil Society and the State: New European Perspectives, London: Verso, 1988, p 142.
108. Cox, 'Civil society at the turn of the milennium', p 7. However, in the long run, Gramsci, too, envisioned the abolition of the state.
109. Heller, 'On formal democracy', p 142.
110. and Gurpreet Mahajan, 'Civil society and its avatars: what happened to freedom and democracy?', Economic and Political Weekly, 34, 1999, pp 1188-1196.
111. J Keane, 'Introduction', in Keane, Civil Society and the State, p 7.
112. See WD Graf, 'Democratization "for" the Third World', Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 1996, pp 37-56.
113. R Unger, 'Towards a high energy democracy', Seminar, 506, 2001, pp 36-39.
114. and P Evans, 'Development as institutional change: the pitfalls of monocropping and potentials of deliberation', Studies in Comparative International Development, 38 (4), 2004, pp 30-52.
115. See Fung & Wright, 'Thinking about empowered participatory governance', pp 22-23.
116. F Osella & C Osella, Social Mobility in Kerala: Modernity and Identity in Conflict, London: Sterling, 2000, p 259.
117. Chatterjee, Nation and its Fragments, pp 11, 225.
118. Escobar, Encountering Development, p 229.
119. For Foucault, discourse of any kind always produces 'domains of objects and rituals of truth'. Quoted in ibid, p 104.
120. Aliyar Kunju, Communist activist and retired worker, interview, 6 August 2004.
121. and Ibrahim, CPM activist, and councillor, Muvattupuzha municipality, interview, 29 July 2004.
122. See Gurukkal, 'When a coalition of conflicting interests decentralises', p 60.