ABSTRACT
This essay explores how transnational migrants from the regional land-owning Bunt caste have retained and reinvented political roles in their hometowns and agrarian villages in coastal Karnataka, South India. Successful migrants have gained in wealth and prestige, translating their earlier position as landlords into ideals of leadership and entrepreneurship. They reconfigure political influence by engaging in and patronizing agrarian rituals, maintaining political connections and refashioning themselves as development agents and local leaders. Based on ethnographic research in India and the UAE, the chapter outlines the regional and historical configurations of these connections and transformations.
