Culture and political agency: Gender, kinship and village politics in West Bengal

Abstract

This article demonstrates the importance of heeding the local meanings of politics for an understanding of political processes and agency, rather than subsuming alliance patterns under the general heading of 'factions'. The article, which is based on ethno graphic fieldwork in a village in West Bengal, India, during 1999-2000, explores the symbolic construction of politics. The main thrust of this article is to show how the domain of politics relates to the cultural construction of gender and kinship, and how this particular configuration of the concept of politics informs local political agency. It is the linkage between the domains of politics and kinship which makes parties efficient, but also makes politics a vulnerable and conflict-ridden business which allows national party organisations to intervene and consolidate their power through family disputes. In contrast to the view that portrays women as marginal to rural politics, gender is shown to be crucial to the political construction as a whole. As the concept of politics does not exclude home, kinship, and the women's domain, the gendered understanding of politics not only limits, but also enables, women's political participation and political action.