Big Men Politics and Insularity in the Maldivian World of Islands

Abstract

This chapter discusses the entanglements of Big Men politics and insularity in the Maldives. I argue that Maldivian Big Men build and maintain their statuses by exploiting insular resources in order to establish themselves as hubs in a portfolio of networks. I further suggest that their ability to transfer assets from one network to another is crucial to their ability to maintain superior societal positions. I elaborate on this by drawing connections with historical aristocratic figures known as bodung, by considering Simone’s concept of “people as infrastructure,” and by showing how their stakes in politics, the economy, and transport make these Big Men influential hubs in society. Moreover, the administrative ordering of terrestrial spaces, which I call the politics of archipelago zoning, feeds into their “bigmanity.” Finally, I scrutinize how the novel maritime public transport system and decentralization policies challenge Big Men’s power. I conclude that Maldivian Big Men politics is as much a cause as an effect of the archipelago’s spatial order.