The ethics of efficacy in North India's goonda raj (rule of toughs). (25th March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Piliavsky, Anastasia; Sbriccoli, Tommaso
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Volume 22:Number 2(2016:Jun.)
• Page Start: 373
• Page End: 391
• Publication Date: 2016-03-25
• Subjects: Anthropology -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.12404
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-0987

Abstract

Abstract : This study of goondas (gangsters or toughs) in North Indian politics comes by way of a comment on intellectual method in the anthropology of moralities. More especially, it offers critical remarks on the recent adoption of 'virtue' as the cardinal moral co‐ordinate of human life. Drawing on field research conducted across northern India, we show that when people celebrate goondas as leaders, they do so not because they see in them virtuous men, but because they think them capable of 'getting things done'. This ethics of efficacy is neither merely instrumental nor is it but another variant of virtue ethics. It presents, instead, an altogether different moral teleology orientated towards effective action rather than excellent character. While challenging the self‐centred bent of the late anthropology of ethics, we also make preliminary remarks on the contrast between 'moral' and 'practical' judgement, and the limits of 'the moral' as such.