CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LAW AND SOCIETY M a t “ h u This outstanding ethnography offers a rich glimpse of the workings of the r state in a remote area of India. It shows that the problem of the implementation of law in India is less a problem of corruption or of neo-liberal governmentality and more a problem of the way in which the Law, Bureaucracy and the Developmental social life of paper produces a strange combination of affect and effect at the local level. Bureaucratic rule is created through the materiality of State in Himalayan India documents, letters and written texts which implement the state rather than the law, a paradox which explains both the omnipresence of the state and its Nayanika Mathur limited effects on policy. This book will be of great interest to all students of the state, law and bureaucracy. Arjun Appadurai, New York University Demonstrating a stunning intimacy with the life of bureaucracy in a remote region of India, Paper Tiger brings alive the everyday forms of bureaucratic practice. The book is conceptually innovative and a model of ethnographic writing that will have a decisive impact on the study of the state in India and beyond. Above all, it is written with flair and an irony that makes it stand next to such literary classics as Krishna Sobti’s rendering of lower level bureaucracy in Yaaron ke Yaar. Veena Das, John Hopkins University Carefully researched and subtly argued, this book is a great Indian novel and an artful anthropological study in one. It first brings paper to life, and then pivots on the unforgettable tale of humans-as-prey and an all too slowly hunted, hungry leopard/tiger. ” Annemarie Mol, University of Amsterdam Nayanika Mathur is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Cover image: Popular poster bought by the author. Paper Tiger A big cat overthrows the Indian state and establishes a reign of terror over the residents of a Himalayan town. A welfare legislation aimed at providing employment and commanding a huge budget becomes ‘unimplementable’ in a region bedeviled by high levels of poverty and unemployment. This book provides a lively ethnographic account of how such seemingly bizarre scenarios come to be in contemporary India. Based on 18 months of intensive fieldwork, the book presents a unique explanation for why and how progressive laws can do what they do and not, ever-so-often, what they are supposed to do. It reveals the double-edged effects of the reforms that have been ushered in by the post-liberalization Indian state, particularly the effort to render itself more transparent and accountable. Through a meticulous detailing of everyday bureaucratic life on the Himalayan borderland Paper Tiger makes an argument for shifting the very frames of thought through which we apprehend the workings of the developmental Indian state. Nayanika Mathur holds a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. She is additionally a Research Fellow at Cambridge’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LAW AND SOCIETY Cambridge Studies in Law and Society aims to publish the best scholarly work on legal discourse and practice in its social and institutional contexts, combining theoretical insights and empirical research. The fields that it covers are: studies of law in action, the sociology of law; the anthropology of law; cultural studies of law, including the role of legal discourses in social formations; law and economics; law and politics; and studies of governance. The books consider all forms of legal discourse across societies, rather than being limited to lawyers’ discourses alone. The series editors come from a range of disciplines: academic law; socio-legal studies; sociology; and anthropology. All have been actively involved in teaching and writing about law in context. Series Editors Chris Arup, Monash University, Victoria Martin Chanock, La Trobe University, Melbourne Sally Engle Merry, New York University Susan Silbey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Paper Tiger Law, Bureaucracy and the Developmental State in Himalayan India Nayanika Mathur 4843/24, 2nd Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, Delhi - 110002, India Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107106970 © Nayanika Mathur 2016 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2016 Printed in India A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mathur, Nayanika. Paper tiger : law, bureaucracy and the developmental state in Himalayan India / Nayanika Mathur. pages cm. -- (Cambridge studies in law and society) Summary: ““Provides a unique explanation of the often-paradoxical effects of progressive legislations in India”--Provided by publisher”-- Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-10697-0 (hardback) 1. Rural development--Government policy--India--Chamoli District. 2. Wildlife conservation-- Government policy--India--Chamoli District. 3. Bureaucracy--India--Chamoli District. 4. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (India) 5. India. Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. 6. Chamoli District (India)--Politics and government. I. Title. HN690.C463M37 2015 307.1’412095451--dc23 2015014740 ISBN 978-1-107-10697-0 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Ravi and Tishya Contents List of Figures viii Glossary ix Acronyms xi Acknowledgements xii Prologue xvii Introduction 1 1. A Remote Town 36 The Paper State 2. The State Life of Law 60 3. The Material Production of Transparency 81 4. The Letter of the State 97 5. Meeting One Another 117 Paper Tiger? 6. The Reign of Terror of the Big Cat 140 Conclusion: The State as a Paper Tiger 165 References 177 Index 189 List of figures Figure Full page newspaper advertisement for NREGA 9 Figure Image commonly accompanying write-ups on NREGA 10 Figure Ministry of Hope 24 Figure 1.1 Gopeshwar town seen from afar in the monsoons 39 Figure 1.2 Gopeshwar from above (upar se) 44 Figure 2.1 Show it to Sarkar 66 Figure 2.2 The village where India ends 68 Figure 2.3 Village meeting goes on in hall beyond 73 Figure 3.1 Seeking to match job cards with muster rolls in Odisha 93 Figure 5.1 Heading up to the meeting room 117 Figure 6.1 Shrine at the very place the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag was hunted down by Corbett 141 Figure 6.2 The hunter posing with a slain leopard and state representatives 161 Figure Inside the bamboo house 168