Acknowledgments  ix

Part One. Introduction  

1. Poverty as Biopolitics  3

2. The State and the Politics of Poverty  41

Part Two. Corruption  

3. Corruption, Politics, and the Imagined State  75

4. Narratives of Corruption  111

Part Three. Inscription  

5. "Let the Train Run on Paper": Bureaucratic Writing as State Practice  141

6. Literacy, Bureaucratic Domination, and Democracy  191

Part Four. Governmentality  

7. Population and Neoliberal Governmentality  237

Epilogue  279

Notes  295

References Cited  329

Index  355

“Gupta asks why India, with a rapidly growing economy and a government plus NGOs that actively conduct poverty alleviation programs, continues to have vast, extremely poor, and socially marginalized populations. He frames this as a question in the production of structural violence, supported by a impressively clear and thoughtful review of the strengths and weaknesses of that term. . . . Rarely is a perspective of systems inequality, and one of complexity and diversity, so effectively synthesized.”—Josiah Heyman, Anthropological Quarterly

“What is significant about this book is that it opens up a means to engage
with bureaucratic practices which embody the structural inequalities
and hierarchies of Indian society. Such an approach not only infuses
flexibility in the analysis of discursive practices and its effects but also paves
the way for a new range of scholarship on how recently introduced methods
of citizen-government engagement such as the Right to Information
law and e-governance mechanisms hold the potential to alter the power
equations between ruler and ruled.”—Vidya Venkat, Biblio

“[A] novel exploration of the various bureaucratic structures and institutions that make the poor both voiceless and invisible to decision makers and administrators, from Delhi down to the village. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate students through professionals.” —M. J. Frost, Choice

“Akhil Gupta’s Red Tape is one of the most insightful, probing and erudite studies that I have read on the Indian bureaucracy and its failures to significantly alter the destinies of millions of India’s poor. . . . Gupta’s findings are complex, multilayered, illuminating and thoughtful; the reader may not agree with all his conclusions, as I did not, but his work is refreshing for not being reductionist and simplistic, and for challenging many accepted assumptions”—Harsh Mander, Economic and Political Weekly

“...Gupta’s book provides a very important methodological base for all scholars who want to investigate the relationship between poverty and the state, and not only in South Asia.”—Tommaso Bobbio, Asian Affairs

“This is a lucid, powerfully original and rigorously argued book...The strength of Akhil Gupta’s writing springs from his consistent rejection of the axiomatic as well as the incidental.”—Tarangini Sriraman, Studies in Indian Politics

“Through careful ethnographic treatment of how bureaucratic rules are received, negotiated, and performed on the ground, Gupta brilliantly demonstrates that understanding seemingly mundane political processes provides surprising insights into contemporary forms of violence and power.” —Asher Ghertner, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Red Tape is written with matchless clarity and deliberation, and brims with ethnographic insight. More importantly, it is a profoundly moral book that joins outrage with cold-eyed analysis of abject poverty that kills. . . . Akhil Gupta has produced a tour-de-force: an argument that is ambitious, erudite, bold, and, best of all, generative to think with.”—Vinay Gidwani, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Red Tape is extraordinary. . . . Gupta’s ethnographic skills are keen and innovative, and they enable him to expose the arbitrariness—in both its positive and negative potentials—that always accompanies the presumptive rationality of the state’s bureaucratic apparatus.”—Sallie Marston, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Gupta’s processual approach to understanding structural violence offers a compelling corrective to a literature that often presents an overly static, agentless picture. . . . [A] landmark study.”—Elizabeth Oglesby, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Gupta’s ethnographic methodology and disaggregated framework for understanding state practice provide useful tools to uncover these mutually constitutive processes of social change agency and tactics of rule. Gupta’s work thus sets a powerful new agenda for social justice-oriented research; scholars and activists alike are deeply indebted to his contributions.”—Sapana Doshi, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“The greatest strength of this book is that its complex theoretical argument connects an easy-to-read narrative that transports the reader to the rural settings in Uttar Pradesh. Hence, its rich content will appeal to a wider audience mainly because it adds to the literature on the culture and politics of the state. Although it specifically relates to fieldwork in rural India, by using Foucault and Agamben, social theorists who have wider appeal, this book will extend its global readership.”—Rohit Madan, Gender, Place & Culture

“Gupta’s book provides a very important methodological base for all scholars who want to investigate the relationship between poverty and the state, and not only in South Asia.”—Tommaso Bobbio, Asian Affairs

“Red Tape is an engaging volume. Gupta raises critical questions about the connections between ‘the state’ and poverty, and is able to provide some answers through ethnographic data. . . . [T]he volume can be strongly
recommended to scholars studying the ‘state in India’, and poverty and development more generally.”—Terah Sportel, Progress in Development Studies

“Red Tape is the next work in Gupta's already-formidable intellectual trajectory.”—Hannah Appel, Social Anthropology

“Gupta asks why India, with a rapidly growing economy and a government plus NGOs that actively conduct poverty alleviation programs, continues to have vast, extremely poor, and socially marginalized populations. He frames this as a question in the production of structural violence, supported by a impressively clear and thoughtful review of the strengths and weaknesses of that term. . . . Rarely is a perspective of systems inequality, and one of complexity and diversity, so effectively synthesized.”—Josiah Heyman, Anthropological Quarterly

“What is significant about this book is that it opens up a means to engage
with bureaucratic practices which embody the structural inequalities
and hierarchies of Indian society. Such an approach not only infuses
flexibility in the analysis of discursive practices and its effects but also paves
the way for a new range of scholarship on how recently introduced methods
of citizen-government engagement such as the Right to Information
law and e-governance mechanisms hold the potential to alter the power
equations between ruler and ruled.”—Vidya Venkat, Biblio

“[A] novel exploration of the various bureaucratic structures and institutions that make the poor both voiceless and invisible to decision makers and administrators, from Delhi down to the village. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate students through professionals.” —M. J. Frost, Choice

“Akhil Gupta’s Red Tape is one of the most insightful, probing and erudite studies that I have read on the Indian bureaucracy and its failures to significantly alter the destinies of millions of India’s poor. . . . Gupta’s findings are complex, multilayered, illuminating and thoughtful; the reader may not agree with all his conclusions, as I did not, but his work is refreshing for not being reductionist and simplistic, and for challenging many accepted assumptions”—Harsh Mander, Economic and Political Weekly

“...Gupta’s book provides a very important methodological base for all scholars who want to investigate the relationship between poverty and the state, and not only in South Asia.”—Tommaso Bobbio, Asian Affairs

“This is a lucid, powerfully original and rigorously argued book...The strength of Akhil Gupta’s writing springs from his consistent rejection of the axiomatic as well as the incidental.”—Tarangini Sriraman, Studies in Indian Politics

“Through careful ethnographic treatment of how bureaucratic rules are received, negotiated, and performed on the ground, Gupta brilliantly demonstrates that understanding seemingly mundane political processes provides surprising insights into contemporary forms of violence and power.” —Asher Ghertner, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Red Tape is written with matchless clarity and deliberation, and brims with ethnographic insight. More importantly, it is a profoundly moral book that joins outrage with cold-eyed analysis of abject poverty that kills. . . . Akhil Gupta has produced a tour-de-force: an argument that is ambitious, erudite, bold, and, best of all, generative to think with.”—Vinay Gidwani, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Red Tape is extraordinary. . . . Gupta’s ethnographic skills are keen and innovative, and they enable him to expose the arbitrariness—in both its positive and negative potentials—that always accompanies the presumptive rationality of the state’s bureaucratic apparatus.”—Sallie Marston, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Gupta’s processual approach to understanding structural violence offers a compelling corrective to a literature that often presents an overly static, agentless picture. . . . [A] landmark study.”—Elizabeth Oglesby, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“Gupta’s ethnographic methodology and disaggregated framework for understanding state practice provide useful tools to uncover these mutually constitutive processes of social change agency and tactics of rule. Gupta’s work thus sets a powerful new agenda for social justice-oriented research; scholars and activists alike are deeply indebted to his contributions.”—Sapana Doshi, Society and Space: Environment and Planning D

“The greatest strength of this book is that its complex theoretical argument connects an easy-to-read narrative that transports the reader to the rural settings in Uttar Pradesh. Hence, its rich content will appeal to a wider audience mainly because it adds to the literature on the culture and politics of the state. Although it specifically relates to fieldwork in rural India, by using Foucault and Agamben, social theorists who have wider appeal, this book will extend its global readership.”—Rohit Madan, Gender, Place & Culture

“Gupta’s book provides a very important methodological base for all scholars who want to investigate the relationship between poverty and the state, and not only in South Asia.”—Tommaso Bobbio, Asian Affairs

“Red Tape is an engaging volume. Gupta raises critical questions about the connections between ‘the state’ and poverty, and is able to provide some answers through ethnographic data. . . . [T]he volume can be strongly
recommended to scholars studying the ‘state in India’, and poverty and development more generally.”—Terah Sportel, Progress in Development Studies

“Red Tape is the next work in Gupta's already-formidable intellectual trajectory.”—Hannah Appel, Social Anthropology

"This long-awaited book is a masterful achievement that offers a close look at the culture of bureaucracy in India and, through this lens, casts new light on structural violence, liberalization, and the paradox of misery in the midst of explosive economic growth. Akhil Gupta's sensitive analysis of the everyday practices of writing, recording, filing, and reporting at every level of the state in India joins a rich literature on the politics of inscription and marks a brilliant new benchmark for political anthropology in India and beyond."—Arjun Appadurai, author of Fear of Small Numbers

"Why has the postcolonial state in India seemed so incapable of improving the life chances of the country's poor? In his brilliant book Red Tape, Akhil Gupta argues that the structural violence inherent in the state operates as a form of biopower in which normal bureaucratic procedures depoliticize the killing of the poor. Whether exploring corruption, literacy, or population policy, Gupta provides an utterly original account of the deadly operations of state power associated with the ascendancy of new industrial classes and of neoliberal practice in contemporary India. A tour de force."—Michael Watts, author of Silent Violence

"This is a landmark study of bureaucratic practices through which the state is actualized in the lives of the poor in India. Akhil Gupta's theoretical sophistication and the ethnographic depth in this book demonstrate how South Asian studies continues to challenge and shape the direction of social theory. This book is a stunning achievement."—Veena Das, author of Life and Words

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