Nayanika Mathur

A big cat overthrows the Indian state and establishes a reign of terror over the residents of a Himalayan town. A developmental legislation aimed at providing employment and commanding a huge budget becomes 'unimplementable' in a region bedeviled by high levels of poverty and unemployment. Paper Tiger provides a lively ethnographic account of how such seemingly bizarre scenarios come to be in present-day India. This book presents a unique explanation for why and how progressive laws in India can do what they do and not, ever so often, what they are supposed to do. On the basis of detailing the everyday bureaucratic life on India's Himalayan borderland, it proposes an ethnographically derived concept - paper tiger - as a modality for the study of the state. This accessible monograph shifts the very frames of thought through which we will henceforth understand the implementation of law and the workings of the developmental Indian state.

Paper Tiger

Liana Chua

Who do “we” anthropologists think “we” are? And how do forms and notions of collective disciplinary identity shape the way we think, write, and do anthropology? This volume explores how the anthropological “we” has been construed, transformed, and deployed across history and the global anthropological landscape. Drawing together both reflections and ethnographic case studies, it interrogates the critical—yet poorly studied—roles played by myriad anthropological “we” ss in generating and influencing anthropological theory, method, and analysis. In the process, new spaces are opened for reimagining who “we” are – and what “we,” and indeed anthropology, could become.

Reimagining Alterity and Affinity in Anthropology

Who are 'We'?

Big cats—tigers, leopards, and lions—that make prey of humans are commonly known as “man-eaters.” Anthropologist Nayanika Mathur reconceptualizes them as cats that have gone off the straight path to become “crooked.” Building upon fifteen years of research in India, this groundbreaking work moves beyond both colonial and conservationist accounts to place crooked cats at the center of the question of how we are to comprehend a planet in crisis. There are many theories on why and how a big cat comes to prey on humans, with the ecological collapse emerging as a central explanatory factor. Yet, uncertainty over the precise cause of crookedness persists. Crooked Cats explores in vivid detail the many lived complexities that arise from this absence of certain knowledge to offer startling new insights into both the governance of nonhuman animals and their intimate entanglements with humans. Through creative ethnographic storytelling, Crooked Cats illuminates the Anthropocene in three critical ways: as method, as a way of reframing human-nonhuman relations on the planet, and as a political tool indicating the urgency of academic engagement. Weaving together “beastly tales” spun from encounters with big cats, Mathur deepens our understanding of the causes, consequences, and conceptualization of the climate crisis.

Beastly Encounters in the Anthropocene

Crooked Cats

Prologue: Of Two Reigns of Terror -- Introduction: The Beastly Tale of the Leopard of Gopeshwar -- Crooked Becomings -- Murderous Looks -- The Cute Killer -- A Petition to Kill -- The Leopard of Rudraprayag versus Shere Khan -- Big Cats in the City -- Entrapment -- Three Beastly Tales to Conclude.

Nayanika Mathur

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