Regional Charisma: The Making of a Student Leader in a Himalayan Hill Town

This article explores the production of “regional charisma” in youth politics in hill towns of Uttarakhand, India. Focusing largely on the narratives and experiences of a group of forward caste student leaders in the hills in the years after statehood (November 2000), the article offers an ethnograp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSouth Asia multidisciplinary academic journal Vol. 22; no. 22
Main Author Koskimaki, Leah
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Association pour la recherche sur l'Asie du Sud (ARAS) 2020
Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud
Subjects
charisma
clientelism
morality
regionalism
student politics
youth
regionalism
Uttarakhand
morality
clientelism
student politics
self-fashioning
youth
charisma
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Summary:This article explores the production of “regional charisma” in youth politics in hill towns of Uttarakhand, India. Focusing largely on the narratives and experiences of a group of forward caste student leaders in the hills in the years after statehood (November 2000), the article offers an ethnography of political aspiration. Student leaders worked to cultivate regional charisma through drawing on their caste affiliations and political genealogies, demonstrating localized knowledge, and referring to regional idioms of place. They fashioned themselves as appealing and caring moral leaders, orienting their political practices toward sacrifice and service, while disassociating themselves from perceived corruption in adult party politics. In this way, the article argues that regional charisma is a quality that is sutured in, rather than contradictory to, transactional political repertoires.
ISSN:1960-6060
1960-6060
DOI:10.4000/samaj.6503