Vernacularisation of Democracy

Dr Lucia Michelutti is Research Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE), Department of Anthropology. She has worked extensively on popular politics, caste, race, religion and democracy in North India (1998-2000; 2001; 2007) and more recently in Venezuela (2005-2006). She received her MA and PhD from the LSE. Michelutti currently holds a four year ESRC Research Fellowship for a project which comparatively investigates the social and cultural practices of popular politics and the dynamics of new forms of socialism in Latin America (Venezuela) and South Asia (India) including the role of religion in politics, and the dynamics of identity politics (caste and Muslim community in India and afro-Venezuelan community in Venezuela). The author has published various articles on caste and politics. Some of them include: ‘"We (Yadavs) are a Caste of Politicians": Caste and Modern Politics in a North Indian Town’ (2004); ‘The Vernacularisation of Democracy: Popular Politics and Political Participation in India’ (2007); ‘We are Kshatriyas but We Behave like Vaishyas: Diet and Muscular Politics among a Community of Yadavs in North India’ (forthcoming). Michelutti is presently writing her next book drawing from her recent fieldwork in Venezuela. The monograph, provisionally entitled Reborn Socialism: The Everyday Live of Hugo Chavez’s Revolutionary Venezuela, explores how anti-capitalist and socialist political discourses have regained power in contemporary times.

• 1. The Rise of Popular Democracy in North India 2. In the Yadav Neighbourhood: Mapping the Vernacular Domains of Democracy 3. Sons of Krishna: Dialogs With the Colonial and Post-Colonial State 4. Reshaping Kinship: The Making of a ‘Numerous Community’ 5. Religion, Kingship and Political Identities: Gods are Ancestors and Ancestors Can Become Gods 6. Krishna, the Democratic Leader: Political Rhetorics and Modern Political Charisma 7. ‘We are a Caste of Politicians’: A Folk Understanding of Democracy. Conclusion: Towards an Anthropological Understanding of Popular Politics

"Micheluttti’s engagement with this rather interesting puzzle of Indian democracy where poverty, illiteracy, corruption, and political violence co-exist with a commitment to the idea of democracy among the poor and the deprived makes this work a fascinating read for students of comparative politics and democratic theory." - Manish K. Thakur, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta; Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 18, No. 1, March 2010"The Vernacularisation of Democracy raises important questions about anthropological approaches towards the political and the importance of broadening not only the ethnographers’ thematic focus but also toolkit. The book will be of particular consequence for students and scholars of democracy, South Asia, state/society, popular politics, caste and religion across the humanities and social sciences." - Philippa Williams, Pacific Affairs: Volume 84, No. 4 – December 2011