Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Politics at the Central Level
- Politics at Provincial Level
- Politics at Urban & Town Level
- 5 Land Use in Bombay: Institutional Effects and Political Outcomes
- 6 Understanding Local Politics, Democracy and Civil Society: Environmental Governance in Urban India
- 7 Political Institutions, Strategies of Governance and Forms of Resistance in Rural Market Towns of Contemporary Bengal: A Study of Bolpur Municipality
- Rural Politics
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
7 - Political Institutions, Strategies of Governance and Forms of Resistance in Rural Market Towns of Contemporary Bengal: A Study of Bolpur Municipality
from Politics at Urban & Town Level
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Politics at the Central Level
- Politics at Provincial Level
- Politics at Urban & Town Level
- 5 Land Use in Bombay: Institutional Effects and Political Outcomes
- 6 Understanding Local Politics, Democracy and Civil Society: Environmental Governance in Urban India
- 7 Political Institutions, Strategies of Governance and Forms of Resistance in Rural Market Towns of Contemporary Bengal: A Study of Bolpur Municipality
- Rural Politics
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This essay investigates the nature of urban governance in a rural market town in India in order to understand the process of what political scientists often call the crisis of governability. The choice of a rural market town in this study is deliberate, as existing studies on urban governance in India generally focus on large cities. According to the 1991 census, nearly 34.8 per cent of urban dwellers in India reside in towns comprising populations ranging between 5,000 and 99,000 people. Most of these populations live in dispersed rural market towns. Politically, these towns constitute the lowest nodal point of the hierarchy of diverse types of institutions of the Indian state. Even panchayat (rural government) offices are located in these small market towns. These institutions link rural market towns with larger urban centres such as district towns, regional capitals and finally the national capital. Economically, rural market towns act as emporia of indigenous export-import trade: exporting rural products into the vast national market grid comprising larger urban centres and importing finished industrial products for rural consumers. Thus such towns constitute the crucial interface between rural areas and large urban political, administrative and economic centres.
These political-economic links are also informed and influenced by social and cultural nexuses between urban and rural areas through rural market towns.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Rethinking Indian Political Institutions , pp. 125 - 150Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2005