"Elections will not change anything. But they can change my life". Manipulation of the electoral process and self-making of small politicians in Andhra Pradesh
Résumé
Based on an ethnographic case study of the 2014 electoral process in a small town of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, this article explores the tensions between the self-making of political entrepreneurs, the loyalties to political leaders and the everyday making of electoral manipulation. By looking at the Dalit henchmen of bosses-political candidates, it argues that electoral democracy is considered by henchmen as an issue of life and death: by performing electoral manipulation, they have the opportunity to appear as men of resources, capable of extraordinary actions, and to transform their precarious social and political positions.
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