Small Transport Operators as Democratic Actors: Work, Politics, and Governance in Delhi

The paper broadly illuminates how livelihood pursuits and acts of democratic citizenship mutually constitute each other for the urban working poor in South Asia and argues this through the “democratic action” done by the auto-rickshaw drivers in Delhi. The paper shows how the drivers work their livelihoods and maintain stable work conditions while also trying to protect its very possibilities in the future. The paper does this by tracing first how government regulation envelopes the everyday livelihoods of these drivers, forcing them to master regulation. The drivers go on to perform two kinds of work—challenging regulation on its own terrain and performing electoral activities in lieu of changing regulation and policy. The paper argues that we can understand these two kinds of activities as pertaining to substantive and procedural democracy. The paper draws upon 24 months of dissertation fieldwork in Delhi with auto-drivers, other small transport operators, bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians, and others associated with the small transport economy.