Middle-Class and Slum-Based Collective Action in Bangalore

Abstract

This article contributes to further our understanding of factors shaping collective action in urban India. Based primarily on fieldwork conducted in slums and middle-class neighbourhoods in Bangalore, the article strengthens the case against a dualistic reading of collective action by identifying some important convergences between actions of middle-class and slum-based associations. It argues that new urban governance initiatives have been worked by slum-based associations to make claims in ways that are reminiscent of the ‘insurgent citizenship’ observed among middle-class associations. The article also highlights how slum-based mobilizations are driven not merely by patron–client political networks or the politics of stealth, but also inspired from larger identity-based movements. Middle-class associations, on the other hand, reveal increasingly deeper engagement with formal politics, a realm that the ‘new politics’ had not earlier engaged with.

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