Locating the agency of marginalized people: nomadic and post-nomadic service populations in Rajasthan, India

Journal article

Using both ethnographic and survey data, this article explores the complex ways in which camp-dwellers on the margins of settled communities in Rajasthan, India, have interacted with state agents, services and systems of knowledge in a manner that articulates their limited but nonetheless significant agency. I explore three arenas through which the state's presence is felt in the lives of these marginalized people: access to land, to health services and to public schooling. I argue that marginalized people are not merely the victims of centrist powers but exhibit a resourcefulness and flexibility that redefines group boundaries and the impact of state policies on their lives.

Authors: Motzafi-Haller, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Anthropological Society of Oxford
• Journal: Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Online
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 22-54
• Publication date: 2012-01-01
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-j29dpxxyw
• ISSN: 2040-1876
• Language: English
• Keywords: JASO