Table Of ContentDESPITE THE STATE
M. Rajshekhar started his career as a business reporter in 1997. He
began reporting on environmental issues as a freelance journalist in
2005. After a brief stint with the World Bank, an MA at the University of
Sussex, and two years of independent research—spent studying the
village-level impact of an agribusiness model in central India and the
drafting process which produced India’s Forest Rights Act—he joined
the Economic Times to report on rural India and environment in 2010.
During this period, he won two Shriram Awards for Excellence in
Financial Journalism (2013 and 2014).
He joined Scroll.in in 2015 to do a thirty-three-month-long
reporting project, Ear to the Ground, which became the substrate for this
book. This series won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism
Award (2015), the Bala Kailasam Memorial Award (2016), and two
more Shriram Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism (2015 and
2016).
He now writes on energy, environment, climate change, political
corruption and oligarchy. His reportage can be found at
www.mrajshekhar.in.
‘With cases meticulously explored in six states spanning the length and
breadth of the country, Rajshekhar conveys the resilience of people faced
with the State’s failure to deliver what it champions. Lacing its way
throughout this book is evidence for political centralisation, domination,
patronage and predation. This is the nearest to a holistic account of
India’s everyday economy and its development and democratic failings
that we are likely to have for a long while.’
BARBARA HARRISS-WHITE, emeritus professor of
Development Studies, University of Oxford, UK
‘When a sensitive journalist puts his ear to the ground, as Rajshekhar did
for three years, travelling and living in six states, he can be expected to
hear the heartbeat of the land. But Despite the State is far more than
sensibility and reportage of development challenges. It is, to use the
author’s words, a hitchhiker’s guide to democratic palsy, lucid and
informed by a unique perspective shaped by inquiries into everything
from the human brain to political philosophy.’
T.K. ARUN, consulting editor, Economic Times
‘If the rich have ceased to belong to India, the Indian states have seceded
from the poor; their object being to extract greater resources and
accumulate power bereft of accountability. Despite the State is a
frightening account of India’s neglect of basic functions of governance
and minimal democracy.’
TRIDIP SUHRUD, writer and translator, Ahmedabad
‘This journey through six different states—not as a travelogue but as an
effort to have a deep understanding on how peoples’ lives have been
changing, the emerging concerns and its connections with the State and
its politics—makes for a fascinating reading. Each state is different, each
page tells us a distinct story, each one of these is a Tolstoyesque story of
unhappy family where the relationship between the citizens and the mai-
baap sarkar, the government, is being redefined as a patron-client
relationship, a customer-provider relationship, a dole seeker–provider
relationship, or as an episodic relationship of gratification, and not
necessarily the relationship between an empowered citizen and the
sevaks, including the pradhan sevak.
It is a book full of stories: stories of real people making the best of
their potential, uncomplaining and leading their lives towards
contentment, and so self-contained—aatmanirbhar—that they do not
even notice that the State is absent. There are no expectations, and thus
there are no expectations to be met. It is a book that makes for an easy
reading, just flows through, but at the same time makes you pause.
Makes the reader introspect and wonder if the larger picture is indeed
true. Or how much more worse it can get. This is deeply insightful, and
therefore deeply disturbing.’
M.S. SRIRAM, IIM-Bangalore
‘By turns provocative, serious and humorous, Despite the State unravels
the facade that passes off as democracy in India. Written in a terse
staccato, Rajshekhar’s travelogue style is deceptively simple but backed
by well-researched conclusions. Guided by the author through six states,
the reader confronts the ways in which a democracy can be made
dysfunctional, unnoticed by the people who believe in its existence. An
important book for our times.’
MADHU RAMNATH, botanist and author of Woodsmoke and
Leafcups: Autobiographical Footnotes to the
Anthropology of the Durwa People
‘Despite the State is a remarkable, involved, engaging narrative that
captures the voices and lived experiences of people, their aspirations,
their despair and the ways in which they find the next possibility when
what they have begins to crumble. We see the State as the people
encounter it, woefully, often, as the entity that dismantles what the
people have crafted for themselves and for their survival. It parses
political economy into more than just the formal and the informal, and
introduces us to a precariat which is made by State action and inaction. It
is not a pretty tale; but it does help us identify the fault lines in our
politics, and in our economy, and urges us to do something about it,
now.’
USHA RAMANATHAN, scholar on the jurisprudence of law
and poverty
‘This is a book that I saw develop ever since Rajshekhar began his
project and asked me what to look for in the ability of state governments
to deliver. In fact, I ended up learning much more from it than I could
advise on. While state government priorities, their administrative
capacity and centre-state fiscal dynamics were what I thought he should
concentrate on, his findings on non-State actors were far more
interesting. I suppose that is why the title: Despite the State. But can
people cope with failures of the State? While not necessarily conclusive,
what emerges is a fascinating and very well-written quilted story of
hope, anxiety and guile. Do read on.’
ABHIJIT SEN, economist and former member of Planning
Commission
First published by Context, an imprint of Westland Publications Private
Limited, in 2020
1st Floor, A Block, East Wing, Plot No. 40, SP Info City, Dr. MGR
Salai, Perungudi, Kandanchavadi, Chennai 600096
Context, the Context logo, Westland and the Westland logo are the
trademarks of Westland Publications Private Limited, or its affiliates.
Copyright © M. Rajshekhar, 2020
ISBN: 9788194879015
The views and opinions expressed in this work are the author’s own and
the facts are as reported by him, and the publisher is in no way liable for
the same.
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written
permission of the publisher.
For M. Lalitha and M. Madhu
And in memory of M. Ramam, Shashi Rajagopalan and Samir Acharya:
How I wish they were around to see this book.
