GANG LEADER FOR A DAY--BOOK REVIEW

GANG LEADER FOR A DAY BY SUDHIR VENKATESH ; PUBLISHED BY THE PENGUIN PRESS; PAGES 302 ; PRICE U S $25.95.
*******************
One of the best-selling books last year was “Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner . In this book there is a chapter "Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?" for which the backbone was provided by the research provided by an Indian sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh. According to Stephen Dubner, "Sudhir Venkatesh was born with two abnormalities, “an overdeveloped curiosity and an underdeveloped sense of fear”.
Sociologist Venkatesh has spent seven years living and working among the urban poor in an effort to understand how people survive amid poverty. His previous books include ”American Project”, a historical study of housing projects and “Off the Books”, a bestselling study of illegal economies. Though the University of Chicago issued stern warnings to students 23 year old Venkatesh boldly entered the city’s most notorious housing projects. Most people have never dared venture inside a gang selling crack cocaine — not to do research, anyway. Armed with only a clipboard and a survey on what it meant to be poor and black in America, Venkatesh was promptly taken hostage. He was not one to be cowed down by threats and appeared the next day with another battery of questions. He spent seven long years and the result is the book under review. In the Indian context it is as if a researcher of Tata Institute of Social Sciences spent years with Arun Gawli or Chotta Rajan.
Stephen Dubner, wrote : "A lot of writing about the poor tends to reduce living, breathing, joking, struggling, sensual, moral human beings to dupes who are shoved about by invisible forces. This book shows, day by day and dollar by dollar, how the crack dealers, tenant leaders, cops, and Venkatesh himself tried to construct a good life out of substandard materials."
Venkatesh was accepted by John Henry Torrance –known as” J.T”,the gang-leader. After nearly three years of hanging out with him, he penetrated into the life of Black Kings and the ruthless charismatic J.T. The author had not forgotten how agitated J.T. became when he saw him branching out into the community. But beyond all that lay one simple fact: J.T was a man who led a fascinating life that Venkatesh wanted to keep learning about. J.T. seemed to appreciate having the ear of an outsider who would listen for hours to his tales of bravado and managerial prowess. He often expressed how hard it was to manage the gang, to keep the drug economy running smoothly, and to deal with the law-abiding tenants who saw him as an adversary. Sometimes he spoke of his job with the same dispassion as if he were the C.E.O of some widget manufacturer. He fancied himself a philanthropist as much as a leader. He spoke proudly of quitting his mainstream sales job in downtown Chicago to return to the projects and use his drug profits “to help others”. How did he help?. He mandated that all his gang members get a high-school diploma and stay off drugs. He gave money to some local youth centers for sports equipments and computers. He willingly loaned out his gang members to Robert Taylor tenant leaders, who deployed them on such tasks as escorting the elderly on errands or beating up domestic abusers. J.T. could even put a positive spin on the fact that he made money by selling drugs. A drug economy, he told the author was useful for the community since it redistributed the drug- addicts’ money back into the community via the gang’s philanthropy.
One cold February morning, as the author was shivering, still unaccustomed to the chilling winds, and trying hard to focus on what J.T. was saying. He spoke to his men about the need to take pride in their work. He was also trying to motivate the younger members to brave the cold and sell as much crack as they could. In weather like this, the youngest members had to stand outside and sell while the ones with more seniority hung out in a building lobby. When Venkatesh expressed his belief that J.T.’s job was no earth-shaking one, the latter readily puts the mantle on the author. Venkatesh accepts this offer of a lifetime. One glorious day J.T . lets the author get a taste of power and the problems that come with it. He allows him to make the daily rounds of the platoons under his command—six-man crews that deal in crack cocaine—and try to sort out the petty squabbles and mistakes endemic in a criminal enterprise comprising 250 underpaid, uneducated and violent soldiers All this is much better than toting a clipboard.” It was pretty thrilling to have a gang boss calling me up to go hang with him”, writes Venkatesh. Without question, Venkatesh is dazzled by J.T. and seduced by the gang life. He maintains enough distance, however, to appraise the information he is given and to build up, through careful observation, a detailed picture of life at the project. What he writes rests on a solid foundation of data, like the records of the gang’s finances turned over to him by T-Bone, its treasurer and his fellow officers like to describe the Black Kings as a social—service organization. “You need to understand that the Black Kings are not a gang ; we are a community organization, responding to people’s needs” one high-ranking member tells Venkatesh. The Black Kings operated a hugely successful drug ring, often selling crack in building lobbies, and extorted protection money from every project resident engaged in economic activity, no matter how trivial; prostitutes, street-corner car mechanics, home beauticians and even old women selling candy from their apartments to earn an extra $ 20 a week.
Venkatesh, thorough sheer persistence, unravels a complex, intertwined system of political and economic relationships that makes the housing project run the near-total absence of city services. The police and ambulance crews, in particular, regard Robert Taylor as a no-go area. In their stead local warlords like J.T. and quasi—political figures like the fearsome Ms Bailey, a building president who manipulates her connections to the Chicago Housing Authority, hold sway. They exact tribute and dispense favours. They mediate disputes. Ms Bailey, both ally and rival to J.T. acts as a go-between with city agencies and the police. Venkatesh is shocked to discover that foot soldiers in the drug operation barely make minimum wage. J.T .himself, when the author first met him, earned $ 30,000 a year, although thanks to a series of promotions, he ends up making five times that amount by the late 1990s. J.T. looms as a towering, problematic figure. Violent, paranoid and manipulative he offers a fascinating study in leadership and the author makes the most of his opportunity, trying desperately to maintain some saving skepticism.
Venkatesh’s book is a marvellous piece of sociological history venture –a period piece. The City of Chicago began demolishing the Robert Taylor Homes soon after he completed his research, dispersing the Black Kings. The book is an unusual achievement of one individual noted for his bravado and fearlessness.

P.P.Ramachandran