TY - BOOK AU - Ruud, Arild Engelsen TI - Poetics of village politics: the making of West Bengal's rural communism SN - 0195662687 U1 - 306.2095414 PY - 2003/// CY - New Delhi PB - Oxford University Press KW - Politics and government KW - West Bengal KW - Communism N1 - 1. Anthropology and History of Village Politics -- Village and the State -- The Village Politics Studies -- Views from Below -- What is this Thing called Culture? -- 2. Small Communities in Landscape and History -- The Village Setting -- Gradual Political Radicalization -- Agrarian Relations and Increasing Poverty -- The Spark: A New Line of Thinking -- But Does It All Fit? -- 3. Two Stories about Power and Influence -- 'We were all in it Together?' -- Gopinathpur: The Story of an Enduring Alliance -- Udaynala: The Story of a Brittle Alliance -- Sources of Individual 'Power' in Village History -- Money-lenders as Political Leaders? -- Interested Patron-Client Relationships -- 'Power' -- As in 'Influence'? -- 4. Road, Poetry, and Some Crafty Young Men -- On Commensality and Other Changes -- The bhadralok and His Making -- Selimmaster's Notebook and a Critique of Village Society -- Implementing the Modern Tradition in Udaynala -- Family Ties, Education, and New-found Reading Material -- From the Epics to 20th Century Novels -- Modern Tradition in Village Drama -- Language and Status -- 5. Caste Stereotypes and Communist Mobilization -- Excesses and Typical Village Politics -- Udaynala and Gopinathpur and the United Front Period -- Caste and Class, ca. 1960 -- Dacoity -- 'We are bagdis!': The Bagdi Stereotype -- Bagdis in Udaynala Village Affairs -- The Shifting Alliances of the 1970s -- The Bagdi, and Assertion as Identity and Source of Influence -- 'We Made Ourselves Low': An Untouchable Identity -- Muchis in Village Public Affairs -- Hierarchy and Mobilization -- 6. Formal Politics and Informal Politics -- From the Discussion-House to the Office -- New Formal Institutions: 1960s -- Ohabsaheb's Exit -- How Important Were the Reformed Panchayats? -- Bichar -- an Informal Institution -- Informal Politics and Middle-Men -- 'Symbolic Capital' and Len-den -- Formal and Informal Politics: Two Interlocked Games -- 7. Gossip and Reputation: The Making of Village Leaders -- The Importance of Gossip -- The Making and Unmaking of Individual Reputations -- Towards Manikbhai's Bichar -- Gossip and The Village Agenda -- Manipulation -- 8. Conclusion -- A Space for Change? ER -