The Everyday State and Society in Modern India focuses on how the large, amorphous and impersonal Indian state affects the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. All the eight essays in this book are original contributions and are based on empirical research. They dwell on a variety of issues, such as riot control, the Emergency, corruption, irrigation, rural activism and education and cut across academic disciplines.
Written lucidly on themes which preoccupy most people, these essays lend clarity and cogency to the confusion of everyday life, contributing to a better understanding of the Indian social and political environment.
C. J. Fuller is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Indian Society (Princeton University Press, 2004); The Renewal of the Priesthood: Modernity and Traditionalism in a South Indian Temple (Princeton University Press, 2003) and has co edited (with Jackie Assayag) Globalizing India: Perspectives from Below (Anthem Press, 2005).
Véronique Benei is Visiting Senior Fellow in Anthropology at the LSE . She is also Senior Research Fellow in Anthropology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (IIAC/LAIOS) and holds an Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches from Paris University. She is the author of Schooling India: Hindus, Muslims, and the Forging of Citizens (2009) and several papers in edited volumes and scholarly journals.