7 The reign of terror of the big cat: bureaucracy and the mediation of social times in the Indian Himalaya

Abstract

This paper describes the arrival of a man‐eating leopard in a small Himalayan town in India and the local state's subsequent struggle to control the big cat. By focusing on what went on within the apparatus of the state during this period, this paper attempts to contribute to the study of modern time in bureaucracy. It argues that the startling inefficiencies in the effective governance and regulation of the big cat stemmed from a clash of various social times that were unfolding simultaneously. It outlines five distinct forms of social time that were in play during this period, which led to long periods of waiting and allowed for the articulation of a searing critique of the Indian state by town residents. Ultimately this paper contributes a rethinking of current theories of bureaucratic time that focus on the production of disempowered waiting, risk analysis, and anticipation. Instead it argues that a study of low‐level bureaucrats and citizens shows that a central task of bureaucracy is to attempt to mediate conflicting forms of social time. Moving away from accounts of bureaucratic indifference, this paper depicts failure as an impasse arising out of attempts to bring incommensurable forms and representations of time into congruence. These failures importantly imperil the legitimacy of bureaucrats and can lead to a radical critique of the state.

Animals in the Public Debate: Welfare, Rights, and Conservationism in India

“…Wildlife issues are mainly handled by forest officials working in the Wildlife Department who are also called upon to solve cases involving the so-called animal human conflict, where an animal belonging to an endangered species (particularly big cats) starts to become dangerous for humans-they become a so-called 'man-eater'. To deal with such cases, the Wildlife Department may occasionally appoint professional hunters (shikari) whose task is to conduct field enquiries (often within a team and alongside a veterinary doctor) to find the man-eater in order to capture or kill it (Mathur 2014).…”

“…I told him: "this is its normal round, I say, it is looking for something to eat". (Dasgupta, interview, 2016) The hunter's ability to resist shooting what they believe to be the wrong animal is often mentioned in their stories in contrast to the extreme pressure put on them by villagers who want the danger to their lives to be removed as soon as possible and by wildlife officials or politicians, who want to show villagers that they have the situation under control (Mathur 2014). News of furious villagers blocking the highway in protest or taking wildlife officials hostage in order to put pressure on them for hunting down a man-eater is not uncommon in certain areas.…”

“…Another legacy from the colonial period that has had an impact on the current public debate about animals in India, especially with regard to conservationism, concerns the hunter (Mathur 2014), a figure whose role, already in the later colonial period, had begun to shift from hunting animals to protecting (and photographing) them. Although hunting has been forbidden (save a few exceptions) in India since the introduction of the Indian Wildlife Act in 1972, these hunters are occasionally employed today by the wildlife administration whenever a conflict arises in a particular locality and whenever an animal whose behavior has become dangerous has to be captured or eliminated.…”

Sociality of Enforced Waiting in Rwanda's Postgenocide Legal Architecture

“…Anthropologists have recently pointed to how the waiting produced by bureaucracies creates new possibilities for social and political action (Harms , 347–57; Kwon ; Oka ). For example, Mathur () argues that “waiting” for state services did not render residents in the Indian Himalaya powerless or voiceless, but rather those residents “became the state's strongest and most articulate critics” (150). Jeffrey () similarly described how waiting can serve as a “basis for mobilization” (2).…”

“…For others, waiting was more negative, characterized by “uncertainty, ambiguity and contradiction,” as Harms (, 346) described about Vietnam; “boredom” as O'Neill () described about Romania; or a “long, hard slog,” as Abramowitz (, 186)) described about Liberia (see also Oka ). Anxiety generated by waiting in Rwanda could coexist, as Mathur () described about India, with “anger, fear, dark humour, along with politicized commentaries on the ‘value of life’ and the structural inequities” (150).…”