This paper examines the tourism regulatory framework in India following the economic reforms of 1990s. Tourism rose to prominence as an industry in this period of economic restructuring with the twin promises of generating (self) employment and of drawing in foreign exchange earnings. The resultant regulatory framework looks to balance these aims and reflects the tensions between them.
I focus on one instance of the state’s regulatory role in India’s tourism markets–the practice of issuing licenses to tour guides–, to examine the shifts in licensing, that include both the tightening and diversification of license rules, and how entrepreneurs navigate these. I zero in on litigations and bureaucratic procedures that entrepreneurs mobilize and utilize to negotiate the state apparatus.
Interactions between the state and its subjects have been characterized as centered on the idea of “waiting” for the state as well as the incomprehensibility or illegibility of the state, especially as characterized by bureaucratic processes (Das and Poole 2004; Auyero 2012). The state, it has been argued, displays its sovereignty over its waiting subjects through these mechanisms.
In this paper, I argue that entrepreneurs’ negotiations of the regulatory framework are informed by a shared and incrementally gathered understanding of the Indian state and its functioning. People subject to the state’s regulatory authority are able to bypass or challenge regulations by strategically employing these very features of delay and waiting. Furthermore, I argue that bureaucratic paperwork is not simply deemed as an incomprehensible or illegible red tape that is a deterrent to people, but rather, people see it as a useful tool to document and highlight the actions of state agents who harass them.
This paper is based on ethnographic research, conducted in the tourism market in Agra from 2012-2019. I focus on tour guides, government officials, and the police.
