This article examines the relationship between caste identities and electoral democracy in India. Drawing from fieldwork in Bihar, I suggest that at the center of what is popularly referred to as "caste politics" is the influence of local relations of dominance and subordination on electoral practice, resulting in what I refer to as "territorial democracy." The article examines how a politics of caste empowerment has challenged a long history of upper caste hegemony, contributing to a breakdown of state institutions as newly elected lower-caste politicians have clashed with an overwhelmingly upper-caste bureaucracy. The article seeks to demonstrate the radical potentiality of democracy and argues that an ethnographic mapping of the ways in which electoral practice is embedded within local power configurations is necessary in order to understand the dynamics and implications of democracy in the postcolonial world. [caste, politics, democracy, postcolonial, territoriality, crime, Mafia, Bihar, India] I was visiting a friend at his village situated about 60 kilometers west of Patna, the capital of Bihar. The region in which my friend's village is located is infamous for criminal activity, most notably the activities of a handful of men with reputations of being powerful "mafia dons." There were three main mafia dons in the region, all elected politicians. The most powerful of these three was recently elected as a member of parliament, and the brother of another was a previous minister in the Bihar government. Most importantly, these men are popularly perceived to be (upper caste) Bhumihar leaders, and this region is commonly referred to as a "Bhumihar belt," an area of Bhumihar dominance.Local people told me that these mafia dons patronize a large number of smallerlevel criminals. My friend's brother, Shiv, happens to be such a character, referred to locally as a goonda or, in English, as a "gangster." 1 Shiv's prize possession was his Kalashnikov assault rifle, and whenever I met him a younger sidekick armed with an American-made Springfield rifle accompanied him. My friend recounted that ten years earlier criminals had gunned down his elder brother, a postman, while he was delivering mail. His youngest brother Shiv took it upon himself to take revenge and acquired a gun for the purpose. After accomplishing the act of revenge, he had acquired a reputation as a goonda and continued with this lifestyle.My visit was just a few weeks before elections were to be held for local government bodies (panchayati raj) in April 2001, and there was a great deal of election-related