Regional Charisma

The Making of a Student Leader in a Himalayan Hill Town

Bibliographic Data

ID2634898
AuthorsLeah Koskimaki (0000-0003-4130-9955, University of the Western Cape, corresponding author)
Year2019
Issue22
Publication date2019-12-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1960-6060 • E-ISSN: 1960-6060
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/samaj.6503
OpenAlexW3035437157
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited55

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

Caste · Charisma · Ethnography · Language change · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Transactional leadership · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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