Gharoghari Pudhari The Transformation of Political Competition in Villages

George, Anisha (2025) Gharoghari Pudhari The Transformation of Political Competition in Villages. Economic and Political Weekly, 60 (49). pp. 53-62. ISSN 2349-8846

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Abstract

Democratic decentralisation, while widely appreciated in principle, is similarly panned in practice for its suggested ineffectiveness in transforming village power structures. Drawing on village ethnography and longue durée analysis, this paper finds the above notions untenable in the past and present, suggesting that power has always been contested in the village. Further, reform, far from ineffective, has managed to formally end centuries of feudal authority and expand the scope of political competition within a few decades, however unevenly. Such competition is notable not only in relation to village structures in the past but also higher tiers of the polity in the present.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	George, Anisha
Document Language:	Language English
Subjects:	Social sciences > Political Science Social sciences > Public administration
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > School of Arts and Sciences
Full Text Status:	Restricted
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/6723
Publisher URL:	https://www.epw.in/

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