Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the everyday politics of businessmen in granite business and the ways they negotiate caste and political relations in a small town of the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, south India.

Paper long abstract:

Mines and quarries in India have become economic sectors regularly identified with extra legal practices, political connections and state corruption.

However the everyday making of business and the establishment/reproduction of individual/caste positions within the political and business spaces (between the town and the global economies) remain hardly explored. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a small town of Rayalaseema, Andhra Pradesh, this paper draws on case-studies of two entrepreneurs of different castes related to two major political factions: a Reddy former MLA-candidate and nephew of the high ranked police officer who became a granite quarry owner exporting to global markets; a "Dalit lawyer" (Mala) who entered into the business but failed to secure his position.

This paper examines the everyday politics of businessmen in granite business and the ways they negotiate caste and political relations in a small town of the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, south India.