Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Between Women and the State: Rights Brokers and Capital Accumulation in West Bengal

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Sociology of South Asia

  • 297 Accesses

Abstract

Normative commitments to women’s rights remain uneven and contradictory in much of India. Yet, a range of actors intervene on women’s behalf when they experience abuse. Why do people help survivors of domestic violence? Using interview and ethnographic data from the state of West Bengal, this chapter delves into the motivations of those who work as brokers between women and the state. While they were not necessarily ideologically driven by their work, brokers did accrue significant cultural, social, symbolic, and economic capital by helping women. The author underscores how gender-based violence has become a site for capital accumulation, drawing people who may otherwise not be interested in advancing women’s claims into the business of rights.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Prior to IPC 498A, married women could seek limited remedies against domestic violence under matrimonial law. They could also use general criminal provisions against hurt, grievous hurt, and wrongful confinement. These days, women experiencing violence have a number of legal options. In addition to 498A and PWDVA, women have rights to alimony (maintenance) through CrPC 125. Those who face dowry-related harassment and abuse can also use the Dowry Prohibition Act.

  2. 2.

    Legal reforms have had one discernible positive effect: They have allowed women to make legal claims. Far greater numbers of women report domestic abuse in India today than they did in the past. Between 2007 and 2018, cases registered under criminal law increased by 38 percent, rising from 75,930 to 104,551. Women registered cases even as actual rates of violence decreased. In 2006, some 37.2 percent of surveyed women had experienced some form of domestic violence in their lifetime. By 2016, that average had fallen to 31 percent. For more, please refer to the National Crime Records Bureau Full Report 2017 and the National Family Health Survey 2015–2016.

  3. 3.

    I have used pseudonyms throughout the chapter to ensure anonymity and protect research participants’ confidentiality.

References

  • Agnes, Flavia. 2005. The Violence against Women Campaign: Where Have We Failed? www.infochangeindia.org.

  • Anand, Nikhil. 2017. Hydraulic City: Water and the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Aretxaga, Begoña. 2003. Maddening States. Annual Review of Anthropology 32 (1): 393–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Auerbach, Adam, and Tariq Thachil. 2018. How Clients Select Brokers: Competition and Choice in India’s Slums. American Political Science Review 112 (4): 775–791.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basu, Amrita. 1994. Two Faces of Protest: Contrasting Modes of Women’s Activism in India. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basu, Srimati. 2015. The Trouble with Marriage: Feminists Confront Law and Violence in India. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benford, Robert, and David Snow. 2000. Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment. Annual review of sociology 26 (1): 611–639.

    Google Scholar 

  • Björkman, Lisa. 2015. Pipe Politics, Contested Waters: Embedded Infrastructures of Millennial Mumbai. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. The Forms of Capital (1986). Cultural Theory: An Anthology 1: 81–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowles, Jeremy, Horacio Larreguy, and Shelley Liu. 2020. How Weakly Institutionalized Parties Monitor Brokers in Developing Democracies: Evidence from Postconflict Liberia. American Journal of Political Science 64 (4): 952–967.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bureau, National Crime Records. 2018. Crime in India 2017 Full Report. New Delhi: Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burt, Ronald. 2005. Brokerage and Closure: An Introduction to Social Capital. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, Barbara, Nata Duvvury, Anuradha Rajan, and Nisha Varia. 2000. Domestic Violence in India, Part 2: A Summary Report of Four Records Studies. New Delhi: International Center for Research on Women.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, Barbara, Anuradha Rajan, and Nandita Bhatla. 2002. Domestic Violence in India, Part 5: Women-Initiated Community Level Responses to Domestic Violence. New Delhi: International Center for Research on Women.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandra, Kanchan. 2007. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chatterjee, Partha. 1999. The Nationalist Resolution of the Women’s Question. In Recasting Women, ed. Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, 233–253. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbridge, Stuart, Glyn Williams, Manoj Srivastava, and Rene Veron. 2012. Politics of middlemen and political society. In Re-framing Democracy and Agency in India: Interrogating Political Society, ed. Ajay Gudavarthy, 171–200. London: Anthem Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleeson, Shannon. 2014. Brokering Immigrant Worker Rights: An Examination of Local Immigration Control, Administrative Capacity and Civil Society. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41 (3): 470–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson, Rebecca, and Patricia Richards. 2019. Harassed: Gender, Bodies, and Ethnographic Research. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Holland, Alisha C., and Brian Palmer-Rubin. 2015. Beyond the Machine: Clientelist Brokers and Interest Organizations in Latin America. Comparative Political Studies 48 (9): 1186–1223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holston, James. 2008. Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil. Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsing, You-tien. 2006. Brokering Power and Property in China’s Townships. The Pacific Review 19 (1): 103–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jeffery, Patricia, and Amrita Basu. 2012. Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kannabiran, Kalpana. 2005. The Violence of Normal Times. New Delhi: Women Unlimited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochanek, Stanley, and Robert Hardgrave. 2007. India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation. Boston: Thomson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larreguy, Horacio, Cesar E. Montiel Olea, and Pablo Querubin. 2017. Political Brokers: Partisans or Agents? Evidence from the Mexican Teachers’ Union. American Journal of Political Science 61 (4): 877–891.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LCWR. 2013. Staying Alive: Sixth Monitoring and Evaluation Report on PWDVA, 2005. New Delhi: Lawyers Collective.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lodhia, Sharmila. 2009. Legal Frankensteins and Monstrous Women: Judicial Narratives of the Family in Crisis. Meridians 9 (2): 102–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahapatra, Dhananjay. 2014. No Arrests under Anti-dowry Law without Magistrate’s Nod: SC. Times of India, July 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Novaes, Lucas M. 2018. Disloyal Brokers and Weak Parties. American Journal of Political Science 62 (1): 84–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Obstfeld, David, Stephen P. Borgatti, and Jason Davis. 2014. Brokerage as a Process: Decoupling Third Party Action from Social Network Structure. In Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks, 135–159. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Posner, Daniel N. 2005. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rao, Sandhya, S. Indhu, Ashima Chopra, and S.N. Nagamani. 2000. Domestic Violence: A Study of Organizational Data. In Domestic Violence in India II: A Summary Report of Four Records Studies. Washington, DC: International Center for Research on Women.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray, Raka. 1999. Fields of Protest: Women’s Movements in India. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodrigo Zarazaga, S.J. 2014. Brokers beyond Clientelism: A New Perspective through the Argentine Case. Latin American Politics and Society 56 (3): 23–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roychowdhury, Poulami. 2016. Over the Law: Rape and the Seduction of Popular Politics. Gender & Society 30 (1): 80–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2021. Capable Women, Incapable States: Negotiating Violence and Rights in India. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruud, Arild Engelsen. 2001. Talking Dirty About Politics: A View from a Bengali Village. In The Everyday State and Society in Modern India, ed. Christopher Fuller and Veronique Benei, 115–136. London: Hurst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salzman, Philip Carl. 1974. Tribal Chiefs as Middlemen: The Politics of Encapsulation in the Middle East. Anthropological Quarterly 47: 203–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar, Tanika. 2001. Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation. New Delhi: Permanent Black.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sciences, International Institute for Population. 2017. National Family Health Survey 2015–2016: India. Mumbai: Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, Rukmini. 2010. Women’s Subjectivities of Suffering and Legal Rhetoric on Domestic Violence Fissures in the Two Discourses. Indian Journal of Gender Studies 17 (3): 375–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sharp, Gwen, and Emily Kremer. 2006. The Safety Dance: Confronting Harassment, Intimidation, and Violence in the Field. Sociological Methodology 36 (1): 317–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Small, Mario. 2006. Neighborhood Institutions as Resource Brokers: Childcare Centers, Interorganizational Ties, and Resource Access among the Poor. Social Problems 53 (2): 274–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spaan, Ernst. 1994. Taikongs and Calos: The Role of Middlemen and Brokers in Javanese International Migration. International Migration Review 28 (1): 93–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steinmetz, George. 2006. Bourdieu’s Disavowal of Lacan: Psychoanalytic Theory and the Concept of Habitus and Symbolic Capital. Constellations 13 (4): 445–464.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stovel, Katherine, and Lynette Shaw. 2012. Brokerage. Annual Review of Sociology 38: 139–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Super, Gail. 2016. Volatile Sovereignty: Governing Crime through the Community in Khayelitsha. Law & Society Review 50 (2): 450–483.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaishnav, Milan. 2017. When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watkins, Susan Cotts, Ann Swidler, and Thomas Hannan. 2012. Outsourcing Social Transformation: Development NGOs as Organizations. Annual Review of Sociology 38: 285–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Witsoe, Jeffrey. 2012. Everyday Corruption and the Political Mediation of the Indian State: An Ethnographic Exploration of Brokers in Bihar. Economic and Political Weekly 47: 47–54.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Poulami Roychowdhury

Authors
  1. Poulami Roychowdhury
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Poulami Roychowdhury .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA

    Smitha Radhakrishnan

  2. Department of Sociology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA

    Gowri Vijayakumar

Additional information

Thanks to Jennifer Bussell, Sarah Khan, Francesca Refsum Jensenius, Pavithra Suryanarayan, and members of the 2021 Gender & Politics in South Asia Workshop at UC Berkeley. A big thanks to the editors of this book for reviewing multiple drafts of this paper and providing such insightful comments.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Roychowdhury, P. (2022). Between Women and the State: Rights Brokers and Capital Accumulation in West Bengal. In: Radhakrishnan, S., Vijayakumar, G. (eds) Sociology of South Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97030-7_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97030-7_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97029-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-97030-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation