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Paper short abstract

Based on an ethnography of the police in north India, this paper parses what the police call ‘parasites.’ Parasites can include lawyers, journalists, and viral videos. They can shapeshift and morph, and keep a check on the police who, in turn, fear the parasites' watchful gaze and presence.

Paper long abstract

In India, a range of brokers, fixers, and middlemen negotiate access to all levels of the state. However, little is known about how state-level bureaucrats respond to these para-state actors. Based on an ethnography of the police in a small city in Uttar Pradesh, India, this paper parses what the police call ‘parasites.’ Parasites, the police argue, thrive on vulnerabilities of both the state and their commercial clients, especially in the digital era. This paper shows how the police fear ‘being acted upon’ by the parasites. These parasites can include lawyers, journalists, viral videos, and even the jinns. They can shapeshift and morph, and in the eyes of police, become indiscernible from one another. This paper shows how the police fear the parasites' watchful gaze and presence, highlighting their inability to accurately assess threats to their power. Overall, the paper makes two contributions: one is that it shows how the police operate under a fear of threats they cannot fully comprehend. Second, it highlights how the brokers keep a check on the police.