(Mis)Use, Agency, and Acceptance

The chapter examines how those who are often targets of police violence relate to the institution, and in the process raises questions about agential location of those in the margins in their interactions with the state. The attempt is to uncover the ideas of people in the margins, about what the state should be, and what role it is expected to play, for them to accept it as legitimate. It is argued that the interactions of marginal sections with the state despite its violence, is marked either by selective appropriation or by resigned participation, which often create some spaces for people, but at the same time also help in letting the state further reach the locales. The chapter draws on observation of policing practices, conversations with families of people who died in custody, post-mortem reports, FIRs, and other government records etc.