This analysis examines what the ubiquitous presence of political “brokers” who mediate many people’s access to state institutions reveals about the Indian state and the complex causes of corruption in Indian public life. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Bihar since 2002, it reveals the role of brokers within both village power relations and the larger political system.

As long as the present generation of the powerful, whether the rulers in Washington or in New Delhi, persists with the practice of depending on its armed infrastructure to lord over the political space and establish hegemony over civil society, and fails to learn that such a policy invariably escalates a cycle of violence, the language of discourse in the relationship of the powerful and the powerless will be dominated by violence. In India today, how can there be a non-violent resolution of the major confl icts that are plaguing our society?

To understand people’s perceptions about the functioning of their representatives in the legislature, DAKSH, a civil society organisation in Karnataka, conducted a survey in October and November 2009 across 218 legislative assembly constituencies. The results from the survey reflect a stark gap between people’s expectations and their perceptions of the performances of the representatives. A summary of the report.

A milestone in gender power-sharing has been passed, but the “quota-in-quota” has to be addressed. (Editorial)

The Anna agitation is as much about the redistribution of power as the demand of the civil society activists for an effective Lokpal.

There are many problems with the Lokpal Bill 2011, the most serious being the lack of independence to the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation. There have been problems as well with the civil society approach to the negotiations with the government. Civil society should now put down the non-negotiable demand of a Lokpal with full control over investigation and prosecution, and for one law to operate nationally.

The Lokpal Bill deals with the issue of autonomy of investigation in anti-corruption cases with half-measures. (Editorial)