The Materiality of Politics

Volume 1, subtitled The Technologies of Rule discusses the techniques of modern rule which form the basis of the post-colonial Indian state. Beginning with the rule of law, the volume analyses the nature and manifestations of constitutional rule, the relation between law and terror and the construction of 'extraordinary' sovereign power. The author also investigates the methods of care, protection, segregation and stabilization by which rule proceeds. In the process, the material core of the 'cultural' and the 'aesthetic' is exposed. Book jacket.

Ranabir Samaddar is the Director of the Calcutta Research Group and was earlier the Founder Director of the Peace Studies Programme at the South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Kathmandu