Subaltern Brokers: Unpacking Community Leadership in Urban India

This book spotlights the emergent patterns of community leadership. It focuses on the theoretical concepts of political sociology and its applications in day-to-day life, based on ethnographic evidence. From an insider’s perspective, it holistically integrates social, cultural, economic and political factors that determine the understanding of community leadership. It aims to bring a positive change in the behaviour, attitude and perception of common people about the new vocabularies of political mobilization at different levels.

This volume discusses various emerging issues that affect a large number of community members directly or indirectly. Its main strength lies in its evidence-based approach to the issues affecting community life. This entails participation in cultural events and the use of metaphors in everyday engagement with the State to assert new identities, thereby transforming the modalities of claim-making with the State. With an incisive examination of conceptual models, examples, and case studies, this book is written in lucid language for better understanding of the subject.

This book will be useful to the students, researchers, activists and teachers of subaltern studies, political science, urban sociology and political sociology. It will also be an indispensable companion to academics, policy makers and readers who are invested in subaltern political mobilisation.