Collaboration and Conflict: Artisanal Jati Panchayats and the Eighteenth Century Jodhpur State

Abstract

In an effort to move away from the entanglement of states with elite centres of power, this essay examines the interface of the Jodhpur State with artisanal caste councils orjati panchayats as representative of 'popular' non-elite organisations. It questions the perception of a hiatus between state and society and instead argues that despite tensions in their relationship, close collaboration of the Jodhpur State with locally rooted jati panchayats was a way of enrolling popular support for the rulers, and thereby facilitating the enforcement of order/governance. As such, it tries to expand our understanding of the dynamics ofpower politics, the processes of administration, and the nature of governance in pre-colonial India.