Community Warriors
State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar
Ashwani Kumar
Reviews
‘ A brilliant theoretical construct and iconoclastic exposition of contemporary reality of Bihar. The reason for emergence of Caste Senas and their diabolic ramification has not been researched so thoroughly earlier.’
Shaibal Gupta, Member Secretary, Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), Patna, India.

‘Community Warriors offers an incisive and novel analysis of the rather distinct phenomenon of private caste armies in the Indian state of Bihar. Hindu extremists, predatory politicians, Maoist revolutionaries, brutal landlords, peasants and other subalterns mingle together in this riveting narrative of oppression and resistance in a land characterized as much by its “fudal” social structures as by immense political vitality.’
Vinay Lal, Associate Professor of History, University of California at Los Angeles, USA.

Description
This book dissects the politicization of caste massacres and provides a provocative portrayal of the private caste armies operant in so-called ‘barbaric-Bihar’. Mediating between predatory politicians and radical Maoists, Kumar argues that these caste armies act as both a surrogate arm of the state and a violent defender of their community’s self-perceived purity. His focus on the state’s increasing powerlessness to deal with vicious agrarian conflicts challenges transcendental notions of the state’s autonomy and legitimacy. Kumar addresses the issues of the process of democratization, ethnic conflict, state power, social movements, Dalit politics and peasant unrest, providing a key to understanding contemporary India, with special respect to post-independence Bihar.


About Authors, Editors, and Contributors
Ashwani Kumar is Associate Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and is also associated with Global Governance Research network at German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn. He has published articles on political theory, modern India and governance, and Mahatma Gandhi in national and international journals.

The book is available at all Oxford stores.

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