Navigating the city: brokers and political order in Bangladesh

当我遇到利顿时，他正住在达卡市中心一家集市的一条小巷里。他的故事不同寻常。与我认识的其他离家出走、在街头长大的劳动者不同，利顿脱离了中产阶级的生活。他之所以走上街头，是因为他一直在守口如瓶的原因，要么是因为他的妻子死于精神疾病，要么是因为政治，似乎这个词就足以解释他的情况。他晚上搬运一袋袋蔬菜，白天睡觉，他对自己在一群工人中的卑微地位感到不满，这群劳工被称为Jupri(意思是棚屋)，几个月来他一直在努力恢复地位，再次成为一名“婆罗兄弟”。他经常向潜在的追随者描述他将如何加入执政政党人民联盟的一个分支，如何留住保镖来保护他，以及如何管理当地的敲诈勒索活动。随着Jupri集团的分裂，领导人因忠于反对党而面临警察案件和国家镇压，利顿决定采取行动争夺权力，但却戏剧性地失败了。(达卡工人利顿的案例)我的研究考察了孟加拉国城市中的日常政治，描绘了像利顿这样的人的生活，以及他们在城市中导航的方式。人们普遍认为，这样的叙述象征着一个严重失灵的社会，在这个社会，暴力被用来创业，腐败和犯罪行为普遍存在。这个项目建立在越来越多的挑战这种观点的文献的基础上(North等人，2009年；Khan，2010年；Goldstein和Arias，2010年；Arias，2017年)。将这种动态视为功能失调或失序，是对西方自由民主理想的分析(戈尔茨坦和阿里亚斯2010)，在西方自由民主制度下，政治秩序源于一个垄断暴力手段的国家。但中央国家很少主导社会，大多数社会的政治秩序实际上来自于平衡不同“暴力专家”的利益(Tilly 1985；North et al 2009)。这些组织形式多样，仅举几例，包括黑手党、黑帮、街头帮派、民兵、工会和政党，以及警察和军队等国家机构。这种方法不是将这些人物视为互不相容或相互矛盾的，而是着眼于它们实际上是如何相互依存和合作的，这一观察结果与世界各地的文学作品产生了深刻的共鸣(布洛克1974年；奥耶罗2001年；沃尔科夫2002年；贝伦肖特2011年；西尼亚乌2012年；咏叹调2017年；马丁和米歇尔提2017年)。我的博士论文提出了这样一个问题：这种政治秩序模式如何有助于理解孟加拉国的国家与社会关系？我提出的答案是，国家和社会关系是由“中间人”或“中间人”调停的，这些中间人要么是暴力专家，要么是深受暴力专家影响的人。在达卡的城市政治经济中，这包含了一个复杂的低级别经纪人网络，这些人迄今尚未受到审查，包括告密者(前“线人”)、敲诈勒索者(线人)、劳工领袖(萨达尔)、政治力量(‘杀手’、暴徒、马斯坦)，以及他们上方组织起来的与执政的人民联盟党有关的无数不同派别的政治领导人。到目前为止，我的研究考察了劳工、乞丐或拾荒者等下层群体是如何通过这些人物在城市中导航的，他们维持着以爱、友谊和支持为特征的复杂关系，以及暴力和压迫。这项建议将建立在这项研究议程和我广泛的人种学经验和网络的基础上，通过直接审查这些经纪人本身的角色和生活。通过运用生活史来研究这些经纪人如何驾驭大众和当权者之间的交汇点，我们可以更深入地揭示孟加拉国国家与社会关系的性质，并阐明暴力专家之间的复杂关系。

"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.