In India, the question of whether voters are truly getting what they vote for remains a complex and often debated issue. While elections provide a platform for citizens to express their preferences and hold their representatives accountable, challenges such as electoral misconduct, corruption, and the influence of money and power continue to cast doubt on the efficacy of the electoral process. Moreover, the disconnect between campaign promises and actual governance outcomes further muddles the picture. Despite strides in transparency and electoral reforms, the gap between voter expectations and political realities underscores the need for sustained efforts to enhance accountability, strengthen institutions, and foster a more responsive and inclusive democracy.

Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India by Mukulika Banerjee is an anthropological study of the relationship of formal political democracy and the cultivation of active citizenship in one particular rural setting in India, studied from 1998 to 2013. It draws on deep ethnographic engagement with the people and social life in two villages, both during elections and in the time in between them, to show how these two temporalities connect. The analysis shows how an agrarian village society produces the social imaginaries required for democratic and republican values. The ethnographic microscope on a single paddy growing setting allows us to examine how the various social institutions of kinship, economy, and religion are critical sites for the continual civic cultivation of cooperation, vigilance, redistribution, inviolate commitment, and hope—values that are essential for democracy.

In this episode of BIC Talks, Author of 'Cultivating Democracy' & Professor of Social Anthropology at LSE - Mukulika Banerjee will present her findings and engage in a conversation with Professor of Public Policy & Governance, Azim Premji University - A Narayana and Political Consultant, Gender & Civic Activist - Tara Krishnaswamy. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in April 2024.

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