Offering ethnographic depth that will be invaluable to students and scholars of politics and anthropology in South Asia, Mafia Raj examines the everyday workings of bosses across seven towns in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The authors craft a cogent, but uniquely multifaceted, view of the personal struggles for sovereignty of seven distinct types of strongmen as they ascend the ladder of power.

Offering ethnographic depth that will be invaluable to students and scholars of politics and anthropology in South Asia, Mafia Raj examines the everyday workings of bosses across seven towns in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The authors craft a cogent, but uniquely multifaceted, view of the personal struggles for sovereignty of seven distinct types of strongmen as they ascend the ladder of power.