Mapping elites as a scholarly quest seems challenging for more than one reason. The first reason is the difficulty in accessing elites who occupy positions of power and the second is the lack of acknowledgment that a sophisticated methodology of ‘studying up’ into hierarchies of power has not yet been identified. Specifically, in the case of political elites who are key political actors in societies, is a social category distinct from the masses which makes them interesting but difficult subjects of study. Most studies of elites have resorted to various methodological tools such as ethnographies of elite clubs, and prosopographic studies of business leaders. However, the studies of political elites seem to have been slowed by the subject matter itself due to disagreements over key terms, lack of data, or confusion over separating normative from empirical theory. On account of studying up, my paper proposes to locate political elites and argue for a methodology of studying power and privilege at locations of marginality. Most study of political elites has been rooted in the context of the First World, largely ignoring the vast swathes of elite formations in other contexts. Placed in the context of India, one of the largest democratic states in South Asia, my paper will identify the trajectories of political elites that emerge in post-independent India, especially in the marginal regions of India. More specifically my paper argues that ethnographic studies of the political elite in India need to consider the diversity of elite structures and acknowledge the research emerging on the elite from so-called marginal communities. Argued by Laura Nader in the 1960s, as anthropological sites are expanding; there is a need to ‘study up’ and explore methodologies that challenge the long-drawn reputation of anthropology as studying the ‘other’ or the ‘marginal' alone.
