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Caste, Class, and Clientelism: A Political Economy of Everyday Corruption in Rural North India

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  • Craig Jeffrey

Abstract

Corruption has reemerged as an important issue in research on geography and development, but there has been little research on the relationship between corruption and class reproduction in rural areas of poorer countries. This article presents insights into how low-level economic corruption actually works within institutions that are responsible for purchasing sugarcane in rural western Uttar Pradesh, India, and the role of this corruption in perpetuating material inequalities within rural society. The discussion is based on 12 months of intensive field research on the economic and social strategies of a dominant caste of rich farmers in Meerut District, western Uttar Pradesh. In this article, I note periodic rural protest against the government’s mismanagement of sugarcane marketing and corruption and describe everyday, disguised, and discrete forms of corruption that allow rich farmers to obtain privileged access to lucrative marketing opportunities. I also show how discourses surrounding corruption are politicized along the lines of caste and class. I conclude by relating my empirical material to debates on local state-society relations in India. I stress the need to understand corruption with reference to local political economy and the broader distribution of social and economic opportunities in rural society and point to future avenues for geographic research on corruption in the Indian countryside.

Suggested Citation

  • Craig Jeffrey, 2002. "Caste, Class, and Clientelism: A Political Economy of Everyday Corruption in Rural North India," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(1), pages 21-41, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:78:y:2002:i:1:p:21-41
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2002.tb00174.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Gans-Morse, Jordan & Borges, Mariana & Makarin, Alexey & Mannah-Blankson, Theresa & Nickow, Andre & Zhang, Dong, 2018. "Reducing bureaucratic corruption: Interdisciplinary perspectives on what works," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 171-188.
    2. Ray, Tridip & Roy Chaudhuri, Arka & Sahai, Komal, 2020. "Whose education matters? An analysis of inter caste marriages in India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 619-633.
    3. Wagle, Udaya R., 2007. "Are Economic Liberalization and Equality Compatible? Evidence from South Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1836-1857, November.
    4. Sandhyarani Patlolla & Rachael E. Goodhue & Richard J. Sexton, 2015. "Managing Quantity, Quality, and Timing in Indian Cane Sugar Production: Ex Post Marketing Permits or Ex Ante Production Contracts?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 606-630.
    5. Gregory L Simon, 2010. "Mobilizing Cookstoves for Development: A Dual Adoption Framework Analysis of Collaborative Technology Innovations in Western India," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(8), pages 2011-2030, August.
    6. Kijima, Yoko, 2006. "Caste and Tribe Inequality: Evidence from India, 1983-1999," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 369-404, January.
    7. Mason, Michael, 2022. "Infrastructure under pressure: water management and state-making in Southern Iraq," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Nandi, Alita & Bhattacharya, Anindya & Kar, Anirban, 2017. "Local institutional structure and clientelistic access to employment: the case of MGNREGS in three states of India," ISER Working Paper Series 2017-14, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    9. Anindya Bhattacharya & Anirban Kar & Alita Nandi, 2016. "Local Institutional Structure and Clientelistic Access to Employment: The Case of MGNREGS in Three States of India," Working Papers id:11549, eSocialSciences.
    10. Kathleen O’Reilly & Richa Dhanju & Elizabeth Louis, 2017. "Subjected to Sanitation: Caste Relations and Sanitation Adoption in Rural Tamil Nadu," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 1915-1928, November.
    11. Mosse, David, 2018. "Caste and development: Contemporary perspectives on a structure of discrimination and advantage," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 422-436.
    12. Smita Yadav, 2020. "Precarity as a Coping Strategy of the Gonds: A Study of Insecure and Long-distance Seasonal Migration in Central India," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(1), pages 7-22, April.
    13. Soumyanetra Munshi, 2021. "Criminality and clientelism: a game-theoretic exploration," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 375-403, December.
    14. Agnihotri, Anustubh, 2022. "Transfer preferences of bureaucrats and spatial disparities in local state presence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    15. Sanjeev Vidyarthi & Charles Hoch, 2018. "Learning from groundwater: Pragmatic compromise planning common goods," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 629-648, June.

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