Western policymakers, political activists and teachers alike see patronage because the leader enemy of open, democratic societies. Patronage, for them, is a corrupting strength, a trademark of failed and failing states, and the obverse of every little thing that reliable, smooth governance needs to be. South Asia poses a frontal problem for this consensus. the following the world's so much populous, pluralist and lively democracy can be a hotbed of corruption with again and again startling degrees of inequality. Patronage as Politics in South Asia confronts this paradox with calm erudition: 16 essays by way of anthropologists, historians and political scientists express, from a variety of cultural and old angles, that during South Asia patronage is not any feudal residue or retrograde political strain, yet a political shape very important in its personal correct. This quantity means that patronage is not any foe to South Asia's burgeoning democratic cultures, yet may possibly actually be their major using force.