Rural Society, the State and Social Capital in Eastern India: A Critical Investigation

Abstract

The now-extensive literature on social capital asserts that relations of trust and cooperation between state representatives and the rural poor will help the latter. Using primary evidence from fieldwork conducted in two villages in Orissa, Eastern India, this claim is examined critically. Two questions are addressed. First, to what extent are there relations of trust and cooperation between officials and poor rural people, and - if there are - to what degree are such relations place-specific? Second, what are the factors that explain the observed level of trust and cooperation between state representatives and poor rural people? Two arguments are made here, both of which may have wider applicability beyond the study areas. Where the power of state representatives and the resulting social-economic inequality between them and the rural poor exist unchecked, therefore, the conditions for state-society synergy are indeed undermined. By contrast, where there is a pro-poor political organization - a factor that usually falls outside the scope of social capital enquiry, given its neo-liberal underpinnings - there may be greater levels of state-society synergy with some benefits for the rural poor.