Nicolás Bas Martins
Biographic Data
| ID | 4508600 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicolás Bas Martins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicolás Bas |
| FAMILY NAME | Martins |
| SIGNATURE | MARTINS N B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7828-8209 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 42 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Anthropological Perspectives on Elections
This chapter highlights the contribution of anthropology to studying elections by combining long-term fieldwork with a holistic view of social life. It argues that to shed light on the processes that shape electoral outcomes requires a broader perspective, considering the social and temporal contexts that surround official electoral periods. Along these lines, anthropological research has provided in-depth analysis of the social dynamics that occ…
Challenging the Status Quo
Building on anthropological and sociological literature that has critically examined the “silent revolution” thesis, this paper challenges the notion that political and cultural assertion among the Dalit community signals revolutionary transformation. Drawing primarily on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork that explores the Dalit struggle for common land in the Sangrur district of Punjab, it argues instead that Dalit assertion, while symbolically po…
Mafia Raj
Offering ethnographic depth that will be invaluable to students and scholars of politics and anthropology in South Asia, Mafia Raj examines the everyday workings of bosses across seven towns in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The authors craft a cogent, but uniquely multifaceted, view of the personal struggles for sovereignty of seven distinct types of strongmen as they ascend the ladder of power
Thana-katcheri politics
This article is part of a Book Forum review of Shandana Khan Mohmand’s book Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy Voters (2019). The Book Forum consists of individual commentaries on this text by three interested scholars, followed by a response by the author. The article may be read individually or alongside the other contributions to the Forum, which together constitute a comprehensive discussion of the themes and arguments in the book
Democracy and Discrimination
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Indian and Pakistani Punjab, this paper focuses on how, despite membership in or conversion to majority religious communities, former untouchables in both countries continue to experience caste-based discrimination. In India, a rights-based idiom for caste politics is limited by fragmentation within the Dalit community and the compromises required by electoral politics, while the imposition of a totalising Islami…
Special issue
Despite official reports and widespread popular accounts of electoral fraud, manipulation, and violence in India and Pakistan, this topic has not been systematically addressed by the scholarly literature. This special issue explores how electoral malpractices are performed across a variety of settings (villages, small towns and cities) in criminalised political contexts. Our in-depth ethnographic studies of the electoral seasons show how fraud an…
Enforcing political loyalties in local elections
Ethnographic studies from the decades after Indian independence showed how subordinate castes once delivered their votes to upper caste patrons in exchange for patronage, credit and employment, and out of a sense of hierarchical deference. Literature on rural India suggests that such relations of dominance, and the vote banks associated with them, are a thing of the past, not least because the secret vote has enabled the lower castes to vote agai…
Corruption and Factionalism in Contemporary Punjab
Over the length of its current tenure, Punjab's Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has sought to become more a socially inclusive party, more responsive to popular demands, and even to improve service delivery and eradicate corruption. However, despite these lofty goals, it has also presided over what people refer to as 'goonda raj'-a rule of thugs-and has managed to alienate large sections of the population and, in the process, fuelled the rise of the an…
Protection Rackets and Party Machines
Control over means of violence and protection emerge as crucial in much research on corruption in non-South Asian contexts. In the Indian context, however, we still know little about the systems of organised violence that sustain the entanglement of crime, capital and democratic politics. This timely comparative ethnographic piece explores two different manifestations of what our informants identify as “Mafia Raj” (“rule by mafia”) across North I…
The Dark Side of Political Society
Development optimists in South Asia have argued that electoral politics and the reduced role of villages as centres of economic activity have largely put an end to exploitation by dominant castes. Although the political arrangements that have emerged out of these changes fall short of the idealized standards of civil society, various commentators have argued that they nevertheless benefit subordinate classes. Partha Chatterjee even argues that th…
The political economy of bonded labour in the Pakistani Punjab
This article examines economic and social relations in order to understand political assertion and mobilisation among rural bonded labourers in the Pakistan Punjab. Bonded labour, characterised by economic and extra-economic forms of compulsion together with vertical ties of patronage, remains widespread in the region. I propose that the perpetuation of these relations is largely explained by the capture of state institutions by a traditional lan…
The political economy of bonded labour in the Pakistani Punjab
This article examines economic and social relations in order to understand political assertion and mobilisation among rural bonded labourers in the Pakistan Punjab. Bonded labour, characterised by economic and extra-economic forms of compulsion together with vertical ties of patronage, remains widespread in the region. I propose that the perpetuation of these relations is largely explained by the capture of state institutions by a traditional lan…
Protection Rackets and Party Machines
Control over means of violence and protection emerge as crucial in much research on corruption in non-South Asian contexts. In the Indian context, however, we still know little about the systems of organised violence that sustain the entanglement of crime, capital and democratic politics. This timely comparative ethnographic piece explores two different manifestations of what our informants identify as “Mafia Raj” (“rule by mafia”) across North I…
Corruption and Factionalism in Contemporary Punjab
Over the length of its current tenure, Punjab's Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has sought to become more a socially inclusive party, more responsive to popular demands, and even to improve service delivery and eradicate corruption. However, despite these lofty goals, it has also presided over what people refer to as 'goonda raj'-a rule of thugs-and has managed to alienate large sections of the population and, in the process, fuelled the rise of the an…
The Dark Side of Political Society
Development optimists in South Asia have argued that electoral politics and the reduced role of villages as centres of economic activity have largely put an end to exploitation by dominant castes. Although the political arrangements that have emerged out of these changes fall short of the idealized standards of civil society, various commentators have argued that they nevertheless benefit subordinate classes. Partha Chatterjee even argues that th…
Democracy and Discrimination
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Indian and Pakistani Punjab, this paper focuses on how, despite membership in or conversion to majority religious communities, former untouchables in both countries continue to experience caste-based discrimination. In India, a rights-based idiom for caste politics is limited by fragmentation within the Dalit community and the compromises required by electoral politics, while the imposition of a totalising Islami…
Special issue
Despite official reports and widespread popular accounts of electoral fraud, manipulation, and violence in India and Pakistan, this topic has not been systematically addressed by the scholarly literature. This special issue explores how electoral malpractices are performed across a variety of settings (villages, small towns and cities) in criminalised political contexts. Our in-depth ethnographic studies of the electoral seasons show how fraud an…
Thana-katcheri politics
This article is part of a Book Forum review of Shandana Khan Mohmand’s book Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy Voters (2019). The Book Forum consists of individual commentaries on this text by three interested scholars, followed by a response by the author. The article may be read individually or alongside the other contributions to the Forum, which together constitute a comprehensive discussion of the themes and arguments in the book
Enforcing political loyalties in local elections
Ethnographic studies from the decades after Indian independence showed how subordinate castes once delivered their votes to upper caste patrons in exchange for patronage, credit and employment, and out of a sense of hierarchical deference. Literature on rural India suggests that such relations of dominance, and the vote banks associated with them, are a thing of the past, not least because the secret vote has enabled the lower castes to vote agai…
The political economy of bonded labour in the Pakistani Punjab
This article examines economic and social relations in order to understand political assertion and mobilisation among rural bonded labourers in the Pakistan Punjab. Bonded labour, characterised by economic and extra-economic forms of compulsion together with vertical ties of patronage, remains widespread in the region. I propose that the perpetuation of these relations is largely explained by the capture of state institutions by a traditional lan…
The Dark Side of Political Society
Development optimists in South Asia have argued that electoral politics and the reduced role of villages as centres of economic activity have largely put an end to exploitation by dominant castes. Although the political arrangements that have emerged out of these changes fall short of the idealized standards of civil society, various commentators have argued that they nevertheless benefit subordinate classes. Partha Chatterjee even argues that th…
Protection Rackets and Party Machines
Control over means of violence and protection emerge as crucial in much research on corruption in non-South Asian contexts. In the Indian context, however, we still know little about the systems of organised violence that sustain the entanglement of crime, capital and democratic politics. This timely comparative ethnographic piece explores two different manifestations of what our informants identify as “Mafia Raj” (“rule by mafia”) across North I…
Corruption and Factionalism in Contemporary Punjab
Over the length of its current tenure, Punjab's Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has sought to become more a socially inclusive party, more responsive to popular demands, and even to improve service delivery and eradicate corruption. However, despite these lofty goals, it has also presided over what people refer to as 'goonda raj'-a rule of thugs-and has managed to alienate large sections of the population and, in the process, fuelled the rise of the an…
Special issue
Despite official reports and widespread popular accounts of electoral fraud, manipulation, and violence in India and Pakistan, this topic has not been systematically addressed by the scholarly literature. This special issue explores how electoral malpractices are performed across a variety of settings (villages, small towns and cities) in criminalised political contexts. Our in-depth ethnographic studies of the electoral seasons show how fraud an…
Enforcing political loyalties in local elections
Ethnographic studies from the decades after Indian independence showed how subordinate castes once delivered their votes to upper caste patrons in exchange for patronage, credit and employment, and out of a sense of hierarchical deference. Literature on rural India suggests that such relations of dominance, and the vote banks associated with them, are a thing of the past, not least because the secret vote has enabled the lower castes to vote agai…
Mafia Raj
Offering ethnographic depth that will be invaluable to students and scholars of politics and anthropology in South Asia, Mafia Raj examines the everyday workings of bosses across seven towns in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The authors craft a cogent, but uniquely multifaceted, view of the personal struggles for sovereignty of seven distinct types of strongmen as they ascend the ladder of power
Thana-katcheri politics
This article is part of a Book Forum review of Shandana Khan Mohmand’s book Crafty Oligarchs, Savvy Voters (2019). The Book Forum consists of individual commentaries on this text by three interested scholars, followed by a response by the author. The article may be read individually or alongside the other contributions to the Forum, which together constitute a comprehensive discussion of the themes and arguments in the book
Democracy and Discrimination
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Indian and Pakistani Punjab, this paper focuses on how, despite membership in or conversion to majority religious communities, former untouchables in both countries continue to experience caste-based discrimination. In India, a rights-based idiom for caste politics is limited by fragmentation within the Dalit community and the compromises required by electoral politics, while the imposition of a totalising Islami…
Anthropological Perspectives on Elections
This chapter highlights the contribution of anthropology to studying elections by combining long-term fieldwork with a holistic view of social life. It argues that to shed light on the processes that shape electoral outcomes requires a broader perspective, considering the social and temporal contexts that surround official electoral periods. Along these lines, anthropological research has provided in-depth analysis of the social dynamics that occ…
Challenging the Status Quo
Building on anthropological and sociological literature that has critically examined the “silent revolution” thesis, this paper challenges the notion that political and cultural assertion among the Dalit community signals revolutionary transformation. Drawing primarily on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork that explores the Dalit struggle for common land in the Sangrur district of Punjab, it argues instead that Dalit assertion, while symbolically po…
Politics (10 works) · South Asian Studies and Conflicts (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East (6 works) · Democracy (4 works) · Economics (4 works)