The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World

201 Pages·2006·1.67 MB·English

by  Partha Chatterjee

The Politics of the Governed
the leonard hastings schoff memorial lectures

The Politics of the Governed
Reflections on Popular Politics
in Most of the World
Partha Chatterjee
columbia university press new york
ColumbiaUniversityPress
PublishersSince1893
NewYork,Chichester,WestSussex
Copyright(cid:1)2004ColumbiaUniversityPress
AllrightsReserved
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Chatterjee,Partha,1947–
Thepoliticsofthegoverned:reflectionsonpopularpoliticsin
mostoftheworld/ParthaChatterjee.
p.cm.—(Universityseminars/LeonardHastingsSchoff
memoriallectures)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-231-13062-7(cloth:alk.paper)
1.Politics,Practical—India.2.Politicalparticipation—India.
3.Democracy—India.4.Equality—India.5.Citizenship—India.
I.Title.II.Series.
JQ281.C482004
320.954—dc22
2003060821
A
ColumbiaUniversityPressbooksareprintedonpermanentand
durableacid-freepaper
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
c10987654321
ReferencestoInternetWebSites(URLs)wereaccurateatthe
timeofwriting.NeithertheauthornorColumbiaUniversity
PressisresponsibleforWebsitesthatmayhaveexpiredor
changedsincethearticlesinthisbookwereprepared.
“The obstinate multitude yields last;
others vacillate endlessly.”
—Apocryphal (early modern)
To Edward Said (1935–2003),
scholar extraordinary
university seminars
LeonardHastingsSchoffMemorialLectures
TheUniversitySeminarsatColumbiaUniversitysponsor
anannualseriesoflectures,withthesupportofthe
LeonardHastingsSchoffandSuzanneLevickSchoff
MemorialFund.AmemberoftheColumbiafacultyis
invitedtodeliverbeforeageneralaudiencethreelectures
onatopicofhisorherchoosing.ColumbiaUniversity
Presspublishesthelectures.
DavidCannadine,
TheRiseandFallofClassinBritain1993
CharlesLarmore,
TheRomanticLegacy1994
SaskiaSassen,
SovereigntyTransformed:StatesandtheNew
TransnationalActors1995
RobertPollack,
TheFaithofBiologyandtheBiologyofFaith:Order,Meaning,
andFreeWillinModernMedicalScience2000
IraKatznelson,
DesolationandEnlightenment:PoliticalKnowledgeAfterthe
Holocaust,Totalitarianism,andTotalWar2003
LisaAnderson,
PursuingTruth,ExercisingPower:SocialScienceand
PublicPolicyintheTwenty-firstCentury
Contents
Preface ix
part i. the leonard hastings schoff
memorial lectures 2001
one: TheNationinHeterogeneousTime 3
two: PopulationsandPoliticalSociety 27
three: ThePoliticsoftheGoverned 53
part ii. global/local: before and after
september 11
four: TheWorldAftertheGreatPeace 81
five: BattleHymn 107
six: TheContradictionsofSecularism 113
seven: AreIndianCitiesBecomingBourgeoisAtLast? 131
Afterword 149
Notes 153
Bibliography 161
Index 167
Photographsappearasaninsertfollowingpage78

Preface
The Leonard Hastings Schoff Memorial Lectures were delivered in
November2001.IamgratefultotheUniversitySeminarscommittee
ofColumbiaUniversity,andRobertBelknapinparticular,forinviting
metodeliverthem.Itwasindeedanhonortofollowthedistinguished
members of the Columbia faculty who had delivered these lectures
beforeme.IamespeciallygratefultoAkeelBilgrami,NicholasDirks,
Edward Said, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak for their warm and
generous introductions to the lectures and to the members of the
audience,including manyof mystudents,fortheir enthusiasticpar-
ticipation in the discussions that followed. In preparing the lectures
forpublication,Ihavebeenmindfulofmanyofthequestionsraised
by my audience.
I must confess that it was a little daunting to speak under the
giantshadowofwhathadhappenedinNewYork,intheUnitedStates,
andinourhaplessworldintheweeksprecedingthelectures.Icould
not claim to offer any spectacular enlightenment, and certainly not
any magic solution to the world’s intractable problems. What I did
hope to bring to my audience then, and what I expect to presentto
my readers now, is a certain understanding—however hazy and in-
determinateit may be—of what it isthatisdrivingtheenergiesand
aspirations of numerous people in most of the world. This is not a
worldthatisfamiliartomanyofus,andIdonotclaimanyprivileged
insider’sknowledge.Ihavebeen,forthemostpart,myselfanobserver
from the outside, except that for the greater part of the year whenI
liveandworkawayfromColumbiaandNewYork,thisworldintrudes