This book is a compilation of 15 chapters that examine in ethnographic detail the ways in which democracy is actually experienced and implemented across South Asia.
The first part of the book comprises 9 chapters on Nepal. These provide diverse case studies of the actual practice of democracy in particular villages, ethnic organizations, historically evolving developmental processes, the politically volatile Tarai region and the areas controlled by the Nepalese Maoist movement. Other chapters examine the roles of leaders and of groups that capture control of state-owned resources in remote areas.
The second part of the book consists of studies from across South Asia, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The juxtaposition of these different studies brings out common themes relating to the struggle for gender equality, the challenge of ethnic and caste subordination, the rise to power of previously ‘backward groups’ and the ways in which patron-client links structure politics and resource allocation in the region.
This volume is unusual in its attention to ethnographic detail combined with its insistence on looking at how democracy actually does work, rather than how it should work according to some ideal schema.
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