ABSTRACT

Why do communal provocations generate violence in some moments but not in others? Drawing on 52 interviews and archival and ethnographic evidence from Bhagalpur, Bihar, we develop a theoretical framework to explain how communal conflict might be controlled. In Bhagalpur, we find that a state-society partnership has helped the city to avoid active violence since 1989. Civil society elites gain and maintain local followings by drawing on their access to the state to resolve quotidian problems for their constituents. Doing so cements their status in their communities and imbues them with the credibility to calm communal tensions. These findings illuminate the governance strategies through which state actors might delegate the performance of important state functions, such as maintaining order, to non-state groups. They also reveal a range of tactics through which state-society partnerships might thwart communal conflict in divided societies like India.

摘要

为什么公共挑衅在某些时候会产生暴力，而在其他时候却不会？利用来自比哈尔邦巴加尔布尔的 52 次访谈以及档案和民族志证据，我们开发了一个理论框架来解释如何控制社区冲突。在 Bhagalpur，我们发现自 1989 年以来，国家与社会的伙伴关系帮助该市避免了积极的暴力行为。民间社会精英通过利用他们进入国家的渠道来解决其选民的日常问题，从而获得并维持当地的追随者。这样做可以巩固他们在社区中的地位，并赋予他们平息社区紧张局势的可信度。这些发现阐明了国家行为者可能将重要的国家职能（例如维持秩序）的执行委托给非国家团体的治理策略。