"The authors . . . illustrate the 'art of bossing'—techniques and methods used by such figures to climb to power and maintain their sovereignty." —A. Y. Lee, Choice"Mafia" has become an indigenous South Asian term. Like Italian mobsters, the South Asian "gangster politicians" are known for inflicting brutal violence while simultaneously upholding vigilante justice—inspiring fear and fantasy. But the term also refers to the diffuse spheres of crime, busines...

"Mafia" has become an indigenous South Asian term. Like Italian mobsters, the South Asian "gangster politicians" are known for inflicting brutal violence while simultaneously upholding vigilante justice—inspiring fear and fantasy. But the term also refers to the diffuse spheres of crime, business, and politics operating within a shadow world that is popularly referred to as the rule of the mafia, or "Mafia Raj."Through intimate stories of the lives of powerful and aspiring bosses i...

Originally published in 2003, this volume studies village politics and the changes brought about in rural society through political developments. It focuses on the social, political and cultural circumstances of communist mobilization in rural West Bengal. It analyses the emergence of rural communism in the local context of changes in the position of women, in caste practices, in economic conditions and in new efforts to create ‘development’. It investigates how this cultural change intera...

An exploration of Arctic tourism, focusing on tourist experiences and industry provision of those experiences; this is the first compilation to concentrate on the fundamental essence of the Arctic as being a geographical periphery, but also an experiential core that offers peak tourism experiences. Part 1 investigates the depth and dimensions of tourist experiences in the Arctic. Chapters examine the essence of diverse peak experiences and delve into the factors that give rise to these exp...

This book brings ethnographies of everyday power and ritual into dialogue with intellectual studies of theology and political theory. It underscores the importance of academic collaboration between scholars of religion, anthropology, and history in uncovering the structures of thinking and action that make politics work. The volume weaves important discussions around sovereignty in modern South Asian history with debates elsewhere on the world map.South Asia’s colonial history – es...

This edited book investigates how life is affected by the increasingly authoritarian regime in Bangladesh.Earlier a flawed but real electoral democracy, over the last several years Bangladesh has been characterised as a ‘hybrid regime’ in The Economist’s Democracy Index. Today it is a country in which law still rules and leaders are still chosen – but only on paper. The uniqueness of this book is not in defining regime type or investigating trajectories. It is in its efforts to study how t...

Taking cognisance of the lack of studies on leadership in modern India, this book explores how leadership is practiced in the Indian context, examining this across varied domains — from rural settings and urban neighbourhoods to political parties and state governments.The importance of individual leaders in the projection of politics in South Asia is evident from how political parties, mobilisation of movements and the media all focus on carefully constructed personalities. Besides...

Against the backdrop of rising authoritarianism, this open access edited volume investigates how states—small and large, strong and weak—silence critics across borders. This focus on transnational authoritarianism is underexplored in scholarship, and even more so for states in South and Southeast Asia—which many of our cases draw from. While NGO reports, including those by Freedom House, have exposed physical attacks, they rarely address subtler methods used to target exiles. Drawing on an...