Power and influence in India : bosses, lords, and captains / editors, Pamela Price, Arild Engelsen Ruud.

Based on a conference in Norway, Dec. 2006.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction -- 2. Creating Followers, Gaining Patrons: Leadership Strategies in a Tamil Nadu Village / Bjorn Alm -- 3. Leadership and Political Work / Mukulika Banerjee -- 4. Wrestling with (Body) Politics: Understanding 'Goonda' Political Styles in North India / Lucia Michelutti -- 5. To Create a Crowd: Student Leaders in Dhaka / Arild Engelsen Ruud -- 6. Contradictory Youth Politics: Student Mobilisation in Uttar Pradesh / Craig Jeffrey -- 7. The New Caste Headmen? Dalit Movement Leadership in Tamilnadu / Hugo Gorringe -- 8. The Enduring Appeal of Populist Leadership in Contemporary Tamil Nadu / Andrew Wyatt -- 9. Leadership and the Power of Honour in a Corrupt System / Paul R. Brass -- 10. Beyond Clientelism: Digvijay Singh's Participatory, Pro-Poor Strategy in Madhya Pradesh / James Manor -- 11. Development, Drought and Campaign Rhetoric in South India: Chandra Babu Naidu and the Telugu Desam Party, 2003 -- 2004 / Pamela Price.

The importance of individual politicians and leadership in South Asian politics is easily visible in the functioning of political parties and movements, as well as in media coverage. Yet there is a noticeable paucity of academic work on the subject. This volume, a collection of articles documenting the leadership styles of individual politicians in the region, seeks to address this lack. By exploring such aspects of leadership as symbolic action, rhetorical usage, moral conviction, alliance-building, and modes of distribution, the articles illustrate the opportunities and constraints experienced by the politically ambitious. The spectrum of leadership strategies thus uncovered leads the editors to propose a tripartite arrangement of leader-types most commonly seen in the region: boss, lord and captain. In so doing the volume is able to provide important insight into the nature of South Asian democracies and electoral politics, and explain the relative stability of the body politic of what is a very large and complex socio-economic region.