Political Fixers and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism in Gujarat, India: Lubricating a Patronage Democracy

Abstract

Political fixers are intermediaries who use political contacts and knowledge of official procedures to facilitate the interaction between citizens and state institutions. Fixers have become a prominent feature of India's democracy as facilitators of clientelistic exchanges between voters and politicians. Through a discussion of the functioning of political fixers in Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad, this article argues that changes in voting behaviour can be explained by looking at (changes in) the way political fixers provide access to state resources. I argue that Hindu nationalist organisations managed to gain popularity among backward castes in Gujarat because of the dependence of these communities on political fixers. As the networks of older political fixers collapsed, Hindu nationalist organisations could win a local following by offering political fixers from backward castes new channels to access state resources.