Navigating the city: brokers and political order in Bangladesh

"When I met Liton he was living in a side alley of a bazar at the centre of Dhaka city. His story was unusual. Unlike other labourers I knew who had run away from home and grown up on the streets, Liton had fallen from a middle class life. He moved to the streets for reasons he kept guarded, and was either because his wife had died, because of mental illness, or 'politics', said as if the word alone provided sufficient explanation of his circumstances. Transporting sacks of vegetables by night, and sleeping by day, he resented his lowly place within a group of labourers known by the name 'jupri' (meaning shack), and for months designed to regain status, and become a 'boro bhai' (big brother) once again. He would often describe to potential followers how he would join a wing of the ruling political party, the Awami League, keep 'bodyguard' to protect him, and run the local extortion racket. As the jupri group fractured, with leaders facing police cases and state suppression for their loyalty to the opposition party, Liton decided to make his move for power, only to fail dramatically." (case of Liton, a labourer in Dhaka)

My research examines everyday politics in urban Bangladesh, portraying the lives of people like Liton, and the ways in which they navigate the city. It is common to perceive such narratives as symbolizing a deeply dysfunctional society, where violence is used entrepreneurially, and corruption and criminality are widespread. This project builds on a growing body of literature which challenges such a view (North et al 2009; Khan 2010; Goldstein and Arias 2010; Arias 2017). To see such dynamics as indicating dysfunctionality or disorder is to base analysis in the ideals of a Western liberal democracy (Goldstein and Arias 2010), where political order stems from a state holding a monopoly on the means of violence. But central states rarely dominate society, and political order in most societies in fact comes from balancing the interests of diverse 'violence specialists' (Tilly 1985; North et al 2009). These take many forms, and to name only a few, include mafia, gangsters, street gangs, militia, trade unions and political parties; as well as state bodies such as the police and military. Rather than see such figures as mutually incompatible or contradictory, this approach focuses on how they are in fact interdependent and collaborative, an observation that resonates deeply with literature worldwide (Blok 1974; Auyero 2001; Volkov 2002; Berenschot 2011; Siniawer 2012; Arias 2017; Martin and Michelutti 2017).

My doctoral thesis asked the question: how does this model of political order inform an understanding of state-society relations in Bangladesh? The answer I proposed is that state-society relations are mediated by 'brokers' or 'intermediaries', who are either violence specialists themselves, or who are deeply influenced by those who are. In the urban political economy of Dhaka this incorporates a complex web of low-level brokers who have not been examined to date, including informers (former, "source"), extortionists (linemen), labour leaders (sardar), political muscle ('killer', goonda, mastan) and above them political leaders organised across a myriad of different factions associated with the ruling Awami League party. To date my research has examined how subaltern groups such as labourers, beggars or scavengers navigate the city through such figures, maintaining complex relationships characterized by love, friendship and support, as well as violence and oppression. This proposal will build on this research agenda and my extensive ethnographic experience and networks, by directly examining the roles and lives of these brokers themselves. By deploying life histories to examine how these brokers navigate the juncture between the masses and those in power, we can shed deeper light on the nature of state-society relations in Bangladesh, and illuminate the complex relationships between violence specialists.