List of Tables and Maps; Acknowledgements; Introduction: The Anti-Politics Machine in India; Chapter 1: The Idea of 'Anti-Politics'; Chapter 2: The Indian 'Anti-Politics Machine'; Chapter 3: The Anti-Politics Watershed Machine: The Making of Watershed Development in India; Chapter 4: Two Landscapes of Decentralization; Chapter 5: Depoliticizing Local Institutions? Panchayats and Watershed Committees; Chapter 6: The Dialectics of Consent in Participatory Practice; Conclusion; Notes; References; Index

This book assesses the validity of 'anti-politics' critiques of development, first popularised by James Ferguson, in the peculiar context of India. It examines the new context provided by decentralization of state functioning where keeping politics out of development (development as the anti-politics machine) can no longer be taken for granted. The case of a highly technocratic state watershed development programme that also seeks to be participatory is used to illustrate the tensions between prescriptive development policy and a growing political democracy.