ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses the characteristics and strategies of election campaigning in Northeast India’s Meghalaya, exploring particularistic identity concepts such as tribal identity as factor in political mobilisation. Arguing that election campaigns can be best understood as negotiation processes reflecting the social and political context in which they arise, the chapter starts by sketching the historical trajectories which turned tribal identity into a key denominator for invoking difference in Meghalaya. Subsequently, drawing on ethnographic data from field research, the chapter analyses the case study of the 2013 Legislative Assembly elections. Political parties in Meghalaya can be best understood as clientelistic parties or as what James Scott describes as ‘political machines’, who mobilize their support by facilitating particularistic favours to their electorate. Although tribal identity is absent from official statements and campaign documents, it still plays an important role in the aesthetics and practices of campaigning. The chapter concludes that elections in Meghalaya take place in a complex context, entangled with international flowing discourses which not only establish and confirm but also conceal that tribal identity is a major factor in mobilizing political support in Meghalaya.
