The Visual Turn in Political Anthropology and the Mediation of Political Practice in Contemporary India

Mitchell, L. G.

doi:10.1080/00856401.2014.937372

Cited by 22 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Gamson's writing neglects the social context from which parties emerge. From this perspective, Mitchell's (2014) concept of protest leading to 'political arrival' is felicitous. The concept points towards formal political recognition, but also wider gains such as 'the right to visibility in the public arena ' (2014, p. 521) and the costs entailed in integration to a particular way of doing politics.…”

Section: Beyond Formal Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dalit Parties and the Dilemmas of Democratization in Tamil Nadu

Gorringe

2016

Studies in Indian Politics

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In 1999, the largest Dalit movement organization in Tamil Nadu abandoned a decade-long boycott of elections and entered party politics as the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panther Party, VCK). The focus of this article will be on the processes of institutionalization both into political institutions and into socio-cultural ways of doing politics. It will chart both how the party has changed as a result of entering formal politics, and the ways in which it has managed to change the institutions it entered. Looking at institutionalization in this way problematizes the usual focus on a party's electoral success or failure and compels us to analyze their political performance within its specific context. I show how institutionalization in Tamil Nadu has taken particular forms which have some benefits for VCK supporters, while also creating a rift between the party and its core support.

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Section: Beyond Formal Recognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dalit Parties and the Dilemmas of Democratization in Tamil Nadu

Gorringe

2016

Studies in Indian Politics

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“…He notes how Dalits are excluded from the 'commons' and denied rights to bid for 'common' government resources such as tamarind trees. It has taken the mobilisation of radical movements for Dalits to secure 'political arrival' (Mitchell 2014). Their arrival on the political stage, however, has intensified rivalries and sparked a counter-movement in the socio-political sphere.…”

Section: Caste Space and Politics In Contemporary Tamil Nadumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…She points to the routinization of road and rail blockades in the political repertoire “as a sign of Indian democracy’s success in recognising and incorporating participation from beyond the bourgeois public sphere” (p. 492). Indeed, such recognition of, and response to, a group’s actions by state representatives may be read as marking their “political arrival” (Mitchell, 2014). This evokes Chatterjee’s (2004) recognition that the strategic use of violence by members of what he terms “political society” may be followed by their “inclusion into the ambit of governmentality” (p. 76).…”

Section: Democratizing Caste Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Out of the Cheris

Gorringe

2016

Space and Culture

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Dalits (ex-Untouchables) in Tamil Nadu, as in many other places of India, have historically resided in 'cheris' or settlements set apart from the village or 'oor'. Cheris often lack amenities like schools, ration shops, health centres or panchayat buildings and are set off the main road down poorly lit and surfaced roads. This emphasises the significance of space and the spatiality of social relations to the caste system. As Dalits in Tamil Nadu have mobilised politically, therefore, they have challenged the hierarchical nature of social space. In their encroachments into such spaces, they have sought to create meaningful public spaces that are open to, and representative of, all castes. Their challenges to existing socio-political relations, however, has fuelled a backlash by castes with higher social status who often resort to violence to retain their social standing. This paper concerns the Dalit contestations over space and the wider ramifications of such struggles in the socio-political sphere. The paper argues that the process of democratisation requires alterations to social and well as political spaces and institutions.

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“…This is also the sense in which the term ‘visuality’ is employed, building on Foucault's concept of panopticism, that is, the insidious gaze of power underpinning colonial and other subjugating regimes. See Mitchell 1992; Dickerman 2000; Mitchell 2014; also Bennett 1993; Appadurai and Breckenridge 1995; Landau and Kaspin 2002; Bazylevych 2010.…”

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confidence: 99%

Beyond ‘Propaganda’: Images and the moral citizen in late-socialist Vietnam

Bayly

2020

Mod. Asian Stud.

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This article forges connections between two vibrant areas of current research within and beyond Asian studies: visual anthropology and the anthropology of morality and ethics. Its focus is on achieving moral citizenship as represented in Vietnam's visually spectacular capital, Hanoi, and on images as active and morally compelling, not mere reflections of the challenges of late-socialist marketization. The case of Vietnam compares intriguingly with other contexts where visuality has been fruitfully explored, including India and post-socialist Eurasia. The question asked is how images, both personal and official, can work either to provide or deny the viewer a quality of moral agency which they feel to be their due. The answer is found in the intertwining of silence and speech in relation to images. This includes what is said and unsaid in regard to public iconography, including memorial statuary and state message posters. It is proposed that the visuality of the urban street space is a continuum involving significant interaction with the intimacies of home and family image use. The article also seeks to add to our methodological ideas about treating fieldwork photographs as a basis for interaction with interlocutors, hence as active research tools rather than mere adjuncts to observation and analysis.

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The Visual Turn in Political Anthropology and the Mediation of Political Practice in Contemporary India

Cited by 22 publications

References 0 publications

Dalit Parties and the Dilemmas of Democratization in Tamil Nadu

Dalit Parties and the Dilemmas of Democratization in Tamil Nadu

Out of the Cheris

Beyond ‘Propaganda’: Images and the moral citizen in late-socialist Vietnam

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