Social Science Research Council

"The Force of Law: State Actors and Legal Orders in Contemporary India"

This project will investigate how those responsible for enforcement of law in contemporary India--primarily police officers, though also some judges, lawyers, and civil service administrators--come to inhabit and practice roles of authority, thereby participating in the production of concepts of state and governance, particularly what constitutes "legitimate" authority. Through interviews and informal discussions, participant-observations, and analyses of textual documents (from government reports and news archives to Bollywood films and police magazines and training manuals), I will explore the processes by which average citizens transform into state authority figures; how these processes change the ways in which these figures locate themselves in relation to "the Law" and "the (citizen) public"; and the relationship between public discourses about law enforcement, and the self-perceptions and self-representations of law enforcement officers. The research will analyze police education and training, as well as law enforcement work culture and organization in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in northern India. It is hoped that this study will provide critical insight into theories of sovereignty, security, state-civil society relations, and the purchase and politicization of catch-phrases such as "law and order" and "protectors of the peace."