Lucia Michelutti

Protection Rackets and Party Machines: Comparative Ethnographies of “Mafia Raj” in North India

Control over means of violence and protection emerge as crucial in much research on corruption in non-South Asian contexts. In the Indian context, however, we still know little about the systems of organised violence that sustain the entanglement of crime, capital and democratic politics. This timely comparative ethnographic piece explores two different manifestations of what our informants identify as “Mafia Raj” (“rule by mafia”) across North India (Uttar Pradesh and Punjab). Drawing on analytical concepts developed in the literature on bossism and “mafias”, we explore protection and racketeering as central statecraft repertoires of muscular styles of governance in the region. We show how a predatory economy together with structures of inter- and intra-party political competition generate the demand for and the imposition of unofficial and illegal protection and shape different manifestations of Mafia Raj. In doing so, the paper aims to contribute to debates on the relationship between states and illegalities in and beyond South Asia.

“We Are All Chávez” Charisma as an Embodied Experience

The current chaotic post-Chávez political and economic scenario affords a little certainty: Chávez is still very present in the everyday life of contemporary Venezuelans. Chávez as a martyr, as the second Bolívar, as a saint, as a spirit, is becoming part of the religious and social life of a great number of people. Despite being dead, he continues to shape Venezuelan revolutionary selves. An examination of Chávez’s legacy through the lens of divine kinship provides important clues to understanding how charisma is embodied in people and things and circulates through networks of kinship (and fictive kinship) from gods, spirits, and ancestors to democratically appointed leaders and their ordinary followers. El caos que permea el panorama político y económico post-Chávez ofrece cierta certeza: Chávez todavía está muy presente en la vida cotidiana de los venezolanos. Chávez se está convirtiendo en parte de la vida religiosa y social de un gran número de personas: Chávez como mártir, como el segundo Bolívar, como santo, como espíritu. A pesar de que está muerto, Chávez sigue moldeando la personalidad revolucionaria venezolana. Un examen del legado de Chávez a través del prisma del parentesco divino nos ofrece claves importantes para entender cómo el carisma se encarna en la gente y en los objetos y circula a través de redes de parentesco (y parentesco ficticio) de los dioses, espíritus y ancestros a los líderes elegidos democráticamente y sus seguidores.

Parivar Raj (Rule of Family): The Role of Money and Force in the Making of Dynastic Authority

This article explores the making of a political dynasty in action in a district in western Uttar Pradesh. The founder of the dynasty is a dabang: a self-made violent political entrepreneur. It is argued that the figure of the dabang offers a special ethnographic entry point to contrast forms of power that are achieved versus forms of power that are acquired (inherited) and examines the existing tensions between paternalistic and autonomous models of power. Importantly, such exercise highlights the challenges that dabangs have in cultivating their individual charismatic authority and simultaneously establishing their Parivar Raj (rule of family) by using force and money. On the whole, the presented case study helps us to reflect on the very diverse ways in which dynasties form and work according to the type of authority that is passed through generations.