The state is the embodiment of the sovereign nation. It encompasses a set of rules and institutions. How the state engages with its citizens has been studied since the days of the classical political philosophers. Tanweer Fazal in his book, Practices of the State: Muslims, Law and Violence in India tries to address similar questions and concerns through a contemporary lens. The author does two things in the book—he looks at how states perceive their citizens and are perceived by the citizens on one hand, and on the other hand, he also analyses how the state engages with its citizens.
Cutting across class and caste dimensions, the book highlights some important aspects of such engagements. The state is perceived differently by citizens based on their varied socio-economic locations. For the marginalized communities, the state’s manifestations are different. Scholars engaging with the state’s role as a modernizing agent have often commented on its discriminatory practices—the state is often present in the margins as a policing agent and a regulatory body but absent as a developing agent.