Morality, corruption and the state: insights from Jharkhand, Eastern India

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Shah, Alpa

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Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-134698

Abstract	Corruption is analysed by addressing the interrelations between the moral and political economy regulating state-based welfare provision in Jharkhand, India. On the one hand, the article focuses on the rural elite to show that 'corrupt' practices are not just guided by financial utility but also by non-material interests, underpinned by a multivarious moral economy. On the other hand, the article shows that the poorest in the rural areas (adivasis or Scheduled Tribes) keep away from the state, seeing it as beyond the moral pale, and instead resurrect an alternative sovereign structure. The adivasi perspectives are influenced by a political economy of historical experiences of the state and interrelations with the elites. The paper concludes that a particular political economy is intimately connected with a moral economy, and that transformations in political economy affect the moral economy.
Classification	Sociology of Economics; Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnosociology; Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords	corruption; government, state policy, ideologies; morality; India; anthropology
Document language	English
Publication Year	2009
Page/Pages	p. 295-313
Journal	Journal of Development Studies, 45 (2009) 3
DOI	http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220380802600866
Status	Postprint; peer reviewed
Licence	PEER Licence Agreement (applicable only to documents from PEER project)