Navigating the city: brokers and political order in Bangladesh

“当我遇到利顿时，他住在达卡市中心一个集市的小巷里。他的故事很不寻常。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。他搬到街上的原因他一直保密，要么是因为他的妻子去世了，要么是因为精神疾病，要么是因为“政治”，好像这个词本身就足以解释他的处境。他在一群被称为“jupri”（意为窝棚）的工人中处于卑下的地位，为了重新获得地位，他花了几个月的时间重新成为“boro bhai”（大哥）。他经常向潜在的追随者描述他将如何加入执政党人民联盟（Awami League）的一个分支，雇佣“保镖”保护他，并在当地从事敲诈勒索活动。随着jupri集团的分裂，领导人面临警察案件和国家对他们对反对党的忠诚的镇压，利顿决定采取行动夺取权力，结果却惨败。”我的研究考察了孟加拉国城市的日常政治，描绘了像利顿这样的人的生活，以及他们在城市中穿行的方式。人们通常认为，这样的叙述象征着一个严重失调的社会，在这个社会中，暴力被企业化地使用，腐败和犯罪现象普遍存在。该项目建立在越来越多的文献基础上，这些文献挑战了这种观点（North et al . 2009; Khan 2010; Goldstein and Arias 2010; Arias 2017）。将这种动态视为表明功能失调或无序是基于西方自由民主理想的分析（Goldstein和Arias 2010），其中政治秩序源于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兼容或相互矛盾的，而是关注他们实际上是如何相互依存和协作的，这一观察结果在世界范围内的文学中引起了深刻的共鸣（布洛克1974；Auyero 2001；沃尔科夫2002；贝伦肖特2011；西尼亚沃2012；Arias 2017；马丁和米切卢蒂2017）。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帮助我们理解孟加拉国的国家与社会关系？我提出的答案是，国家与社会的关系是由“经纪人”或“中间人”来调解的，这些人要么本身就是暴力专家，要么深受暴力专家的影响。在达卡的城市政治经济中，这包含了一个复杂的低级经纪人网络，这些经纪人迄今尚未被调查，包括告密者（前，“来源”），勒索者（线警），劳工领袖（萨达尔），政治力量（“杀手”，goonda, mastan），以及在他们之上的政治领导人，他们组织了与执政的人民联盟党有关的无数不同派系。迄今为止，我的研究考察了诸如劳工、乞丐或拾破烂者等底层群体如何通过这些人物在城市中穿行，维持以爱情、友谊和支持以及暴力和压迫为特征的复杂关系。这个提议将建立在这个研究议程和我广泛的民族志经验和网络的基础上，通过直接检查这些经纪人自己的角色和生活。通过运用生活史来考察这些掮客是如何在群众和当权者之间的结合点上游弋的，我们可以更深入地了解孟加拉国国家与社会关系的本质，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.