ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates some actual occasions when factions were mobilized in the villages and local areas. The verdicts in the 1957 case emphasized the structure of a situation that the land seizure itself had drawn attention to: namely, that Kulwant S. was a powerful man in the Doraha-Payal area, that his power was, for a time, being sanctioned by support. Villagers campaigned for certain candidates on the basis of paarti loyalties. State politicians visiting the area to make speeches in favour of candidates did so on a strictly party political basis, for example, Congress ministers would support Congress candidates. The personal enmities that were at the basis of paarti rivalry in the area were thus, at least publicly, given an ideological cover.
