Andrew Sanchez: Criminal Capital. Violence, Corruption and Class in IndiaMascha Schulz

ASIEN – Nr. 146 (2018) pp. 139–41

New Delhi, London, New York: Routledge, 2016. 185 S., 45,40 EUR

This book is a fascinating ethnography that offers intriguing insights about the role of corruption and coercion in reinforcing class power in contemporary India. Based on extensive fieldwork in the north-eastern steel town Jamshedpur, Andrew Sanchez explores emic discourses of the labour force about corruption as a critical consciousness on the politicaleconomic conditions. The historical Tata steel company has seen enormous levels of casualisation after India’s turn to economic liberalisation in the 1990s. Conducting research among the “criminal entrepreneurs”, he shows that these vague discourses reference actual structures, and highlights the mutually beneficial relations between unionists, businessmen, politicians and violent enforcers. Sanchez argues that it is this particular political-economic configuration that also enabled the extreme casualisation and prevented union resistance…