Development as Dignity: Dissensus, Equality and Contentious Politics in Bihar, India

Abstract

This paper makes an analytical case for the understanding of development as a process that enables people to reclaim their dignity and interrogate inegalitarian social relations. It is motivated by the ongoing debate within development studies between those who propound a teleological view of development and those who adopt the opposing view that the process must not obliterate historical and cultural difference. The former view is informed by an assumption that the human condition can and should be improved, and the trajectory of such improvement is predetermined and predictable. The latter view is ambivalent, not only about the possibility of improvement, but also about its desirability. Against this dichotomy, this paper urges scholars of development to consider that people might envisage that the social inequalities they experience could be reduced, irrespective of "improvement". The ethnography on which the paper draws cover show the way in which a group of agricultural labourer households stigmatised as "untouchable" -and alleged to be illegally squatting on public property-stand their ground violent opposition by local elites. While servility to and quiescence with elite opinion would allow them to "improve" their lives by relocating to a less contentious space, community members assert their ethical claims on the disputed property without flinching. They do this not because they like to live in squalid conditions, but because complying with elite diktats is an affront to their dignity. JEL Classification: D63, D72, P48, Q15 Vikas hua hai, badlaw aaya hai. Abhi hum jamindar ke ankhon mein ankh daal kar baat kar barabari se saktey hain. [Development has taken place. Change has happened. Today, we can look the landlord in the eye and speak as equals. 1 ] (Medha Devi Rishi, 32, Landless Labourer, Sargana, Bihar, 2 April 2010)Egalitarian effects occur only through a forcing, that is, the instituting of a quarrel that challenges the incorporated, perceptible evidence of an inegalitarian logic. This quarrel is politics.

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“…They are described as 'Dalits among Dalits' (Kumar, 2006: 4281), and they face greater subordination than some other Dalit castes (Kunnath, 2012). The general perception in Bihar is that the state bureaucracy and police are not just dominated by upper castes; they also favour the landowning communities, and exhibit hostility towards the agricultural labourers, especially the Dalits and Adivasis (Corbridge et al, 2005;Roy, 2013). An important factor in the caste dynamics of Bihar is the phenomenal rise of backward caste politics, most prominently signified by the election of Lalu Prasad Yadav, a backward caste leader who became the Chief Minister of the state in 1990; between them, he and his wife Rabri Devi held power (separately but consecutively) until 2005.…”

“…They are described as ‘Dalits among Dalits’ (Kumar, : 4281), and they face greater subordination than some other Dalit castes (Kunnath, ). The general perception in Bihar is that the state bureaucracy and police are not just dominated by upper castes; they also favour the landowning communities, and exhibit hostility towards the agricultural labourers, especially the Dalits and Adivasis (Corbridge et al., ; Roy, ).…”

“…An important factor in the caste dynamics of Bihar is the phenomenal rise of backward caste politics, most prominently signified by the election of Lalu Prasad Yadav, a backward caste leader who became the Chief Minister of the state in 1990; between them, he and his wife Rabri Devi held power (separately but consecutively) until 2005. This period saw a serious attempt to weaken the largely upper‐caste dominated state bureaucracy by means of bolstering middlemen and local bahubalis (literally, henchmen) who were devoted to the ruling party (Roy, ). This led to an increase in the number of extra‐governmental actors in and around government offices.…”

“…A sign of their destitution is the fact that even today, at various places, they are left to eat mice for survival in the fields where they work as agricultural labourers. The Musahar caste group symbolizes a set of characteristics embedded in deprivation and social backwardness (Roy, ). Socially, they are considered ‘untouchables’ as they often work as scavengers.…”

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“…That the agriculturalists had been at the forefront of the emancipatory struggles which had politicized questions of social equality and dignity (Frankel 1989, Roy 2013, Witsoe 2013 was not lost on my interlocutors. But there was a sense of betrayal when the agriculturalists persisted with socially treating them as 'untouchable'.…”