Caste politics in India
Encyclopedia
The politics of India
, in various levels, has been influenced by the prevailing caste system in the country. The caste system is essentially a five-tier social standing apparatus that comes from Hindu culture. At the top of the social hierarchy are the Brahmins, who are typically priests. At the bottom of the caste system are the untouchables who are usually latrine cleaners or street sweepers. Even though there have been recent attempts by the government to implement systems that give lower caste people more opportunities, the social stigma of their heritage still hinders their upward mobility.
Caste has been serving as the foundation for politics in India for decades. Many political parties favor a specific caste, and in return receive support from that same caste. This then establishes different clientelistic ties and creates votebanks. Caste also influences an individual Indian’s access to power through various aspects. The upper castes, for example, can easily manipulate the political system to gain substantial judicial and political power and receive assistance from the police. However, it is not just a caste's name that dictates ones access to power, the geographic location of castes also affects how influential a caste of people can be. Gender also plays a huge role in caste politics. Depending on the caste ascribed at birth, women have more (from higher castes) or less (from lower castes) political participation. The British institutionalized castes into the functioning of major government organizations. Due to this political legacy, the manipulation of caste politics became a way to gain political power. In India’s post-independence period, the role of caste in Indian politics has changed. The client-patron ties between parties and the people appear to also be on the decline.
The British institutionalized caste into the workings of the major government institutions within India
. The main benefactors of this indirect rule were the upper castes, which maintained their monopoly of control and influence over government institutes long after independence from the British. The state of post-colonial India promised development, rule of law, and nation building, but in reality, was a complex network of patronage systems, which solidified the upper-caste position of dominance and subjugated the lower castes. This network undermined the very promises of ‘nation building’ that postcolonial India had made and ushered in an area of upper-caste dominance that lasted for the next four decades.
Congress Dominance
1) Patron-Client Ties and Votebank Politics
Politics in India highly depended on patron-client ties along the caste lines during the Congress-dominating period. The caste that one belongs to serves as a strong determinant of his or her voting pattern. In India, different political parties represent the interests of different caste groups. The upper and merchant castes such as Brahmin, Rajput and Kayasth and the rich Muslim groups tend to express their interests through the Congress Party. The agrarian middle class such as the Jats tend to vote for the competing parties. Numerically minor parties, represented by the Jan Shangh, receive votes almost exclusively from the upper and trading castes (ibid). However, caste does not solely determine voting behaviors. Discrepancies occur especially for the upper caste groups. (ibid) This means that not everyone from the same caste would vote for only one particular party. The upper caste people have more freedom to vote by political beliefs.
Loyal groups of voters usually back a certain candidate or party during elections with the expectation of receiving benefits once their candidate is in office. This practice, called ‘vote bank’, is prolific throughout most regions of the country. Many political parties in India have openly indulged in caste-based votebank
politics. The Congress party used votebank to maintain power; the competing parties constructed votebanks to challenge the Congress dominance of politics.
Shifts in Caste Politics
By the early 1990s there began a shift in caste politics. The continuation of a one party system, which was the Congress party, composed mostly of upper-caste leadership, came to an end. This was partly due to economic liberalization which reduced the control the state had on the economy and thus the lower casts, and partly due to an upsurge in caste based parties that made the politics of lower cast empowerment a central part of there political agenda. It should be pointed out that these new political parties emerged not on a national level but on a village and regional level, and were most dominant in North India.
These parties view development programs and rule of law as institutions used by upper caste to control and subjugate lower castes. As a result, these new political parties sought to weaken these institutions and in turn weaken the upper caste domination in the political arena in India. Since ‘rule of law’ was seen as controlled by upper-caste, these new parties adopted a strategy that had to operate outside of this rule in order to gain political influence and lower-caste empowerment.
Corruption
Corruption thus translated into power and a means to enter the political arena, once only open to upper caste members. Corruption became a way to level the playing field. This struggle for empowerment that was forced to operate outside of the rule of law produced case-based mafia networks. These mafia-networks began to chip away at upper caste control over state institutions.
However, unlike their predecessor, these caste mafias groups were not concerned with ‘development’, but mainly viewed elections and democracy as a way of gaining control of the state, which would enable them to level social inequalities. This new state envisioned a government of “Social Justice” through caste empowerment. Within the context of “social justice" corruption pontificated by the caste mafias became tolerated, and in some cases, as in the town of Bihar, even celebrated.
The very nature of caste politics inherently means that there are no boundaries between “civil society” and “political society”, as demonstrated by the proliferation caste mafia. The mafia dons were the mayors, ministers, and even members of Parliament. Therefore, there was no alternative to fight against these mafia figures and political brokers. Because rule of law was perceived to be a mechanism of upper caste control, corruption used by caste mafia became popularly accepted, as it was perceived to be a means to achieve lower caste empowerment. The corruption elevated to such a level that nearly all elected officials in some towns and regions were also criminals. The upper caste who had used their control over the state to discretely plunder its institutions for their own gain, were now replaced by the mafia dons who now openly pillaged the state institutions. Many of these elected ministers/mafia dons were jailed for the illegal practices they employed; however, this was widely touted as the upper castes trying to regain dominance by eliminating “social justice” supporters. One of the more famous of these mafia dons was Lalu Yadav, who became the first elected chief minister in India to be sent to jail. Lalu, convicted of embezzling 9.5 billion rupees from the Animal Husbandry Department, still continued to run the government from his prison cell in Bihar, which was later coined as the “cell-phone raj”. Corruption and politics became so common that at a time it was not uncommon for election results to be contested from a prison cell.
Corruption therefore translated into power and a means to enter the political arena, once only open to upper caste members. In this way corruption was seen as a way to level the playing field, and as a result was tolerated and in some villages championed under the banner of “social justice”.
Congress Challenged
In the 1951 election, three ethnic parties challenged the Congress party: the Ram Rajya Parishad, the Hindu Mahasabha, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. These three sought to gain support from the Hindu majority. The All India Scheduled Caste Federation bid for support from the ex-untouchable castes. Three of the four ethnic parties gradually disappeared because they were not able to obtain enough votes. In the late 1980s, the Congress began to decline. More non-congress parties started to challenge the Congress dominance. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) descended from the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. It attempted to pit Hindus against Muslims. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Janata Dal ( JD) tried to seek support from the Scheduled Castes, and Muslims against the upper castes.
In the 1990s, many parties Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP), the Samajwadi Party
and the Janata Dal
started claiming that they were representing the backward castes. Many such parties, relying primarily on Backward Classes' support, often in alliance with Dalits and Muslims, rose to power in Indian states. At the same time, many Dalit leaders and intellectuals started realizing that the main Dalit oppressors were the so-called Other Backward Classes, and formed their own parties, such as the Indian Justice Party
. The Congress (I) in Maharashtra long relied on OBCs' backing for its political success. Bharatiya Janata Party
has also showcased its Dalit and OBC leaders to prove that it is not an upper-caste party. Bangaru Laxman
, the former BJP president (2001–2002) was a former Dalit. Sanyasin Uma Bharati, former CM of Madhya Pradesh
, who belongs to OBC caste, was a former BJP leader. In 2006 Arjun Singh
cabinet minister for MHRD of the United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) government was accused of playing caste politics when he introduced reservations for OBCs in educational institutions all around.
In Tamil Nadu
, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(DMK) party rose to power under the canard of "Brahmin oppression". Many upper-caste Brahmins have complained of reverse discrimination
, alleging that Tamil
Brahmins (Iyers, Iyengars, etc.) have left the state, due to a "hostile atmosphere" prevalent against upper castes in the region.
The Panchayat
In rural North India, upper and middle-ranking castes dominate the ownership of land. They were able to transfer this control over wealth into political dominance over the Panchayat decision. The Panchayat is a local government unit that is in-charge of resources disbursement. The upper caste groups monopolized leadership positions in the Panchayat, thus gaining more opportunities to government contracts, employment and funding.(ibid)
Police and Judicial Power
Access to police and judicial assistance also depends on which caste one belongs to. By bribing, influencing and intimidating the police and judicial officials, the rural north Indian middle to upper castes tend to manipulate the local police and judicial power more successfully. These types of political rent-seeking's have also helped secure the supply of rents to elites through other channels such as ‘rigging Panchayat elections, capturing electoral booths, and using pre-election intimidatory tactics in elections for the state assembly.’ Whether an individual or a group can raise enough money for constant bribes depends on the caste-based socioeconomic status. Hence, the advantage in accessing economic resources not only transfers into but also reinforces the political domination of the upper caste groups.
Caste Ascribed by Location of Birth
Caste, ascribed at birth, is also influenced by where one is born. Political lines in India have often been drawn along caste lines; however, this is only part of the story. Caste is often specific to a particular area. These caste pockets create a locally dominant caste. Because of the political structure in India, local dominance can translate into regional dominance. This concentration of caste population has meant that smaller, less influential castes have the opportunity stake there claims in the political power arena. However, if a non-dominant cast is not concentrated in a particular area, then they are not likely to get any representation without teaming up with another caste to increase there influence. This means, “localized concentration facilitates a space for contesting the domination of State-level dominant caste”. For instance, the Maratha-Kunbi caste has concentrations of populations all over the Indian states. They thus managed to receive maximum representation at the state legislature.(ibid)
Representation and participation of Women
Though the caste system factors greatly in determining who makes up the local elites, it also plays a huge role in determining women’s influence and representation in the political system. In India’s bicameral parliamentary system, women represent a meniscal amount of each house. Of the people's assembly, made up of 545 members, women represent a mere 5.2 percent; and in the State assembly, with 259 members, women make up only 8.8 percent. Both houses have seen an alarming decline in female representatives in the most recent decades. Of the 39 women representatives in the Indian Parliament most were members of higher castes. Caste, which eventually effects class, is one of the most important factors in determining a woman’s successful inclusion into the political system. This may be due to the fact that higher castes challenge the role of the traditional Indian woman and so their caste position gives them a greater range of options that are not available to lower more traditional castes. This inflated representation of elite caste in public offices has meant that the impact they have on public policy is disproportionately large in comparison to their actual numbers.
The Mandal Commission
was established in 1979 by the Janata Party
government under Prime Minister
Morarji Desai
with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward". The Commission was set up to consider the question of seat reservations and quotas
for people to redress caste discrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine "backwardness." In 1980, the commission's report affirmed the affirmative action
practice under Indian law whereby members of lower castes (known as Other Backward Class
es and Scheduled Castes and Tribes
) were given exclusive access to a certain portion of government jobs and slots in public universities, and recommended changes to these quotas, increasing them by 27% to 49.5%. L R Naik, the only Dalit
member in the Mandal Commission refused to sign the Mandal recommendations, as he feared that well-to-do OBCs would corner all the benefits of reservation.
A decade after the commission gave its report, V. P. Singh
, the Prime Minister at the time, tried to implement its recommendations in 1989. The criticism was sharp and colleges across the country held massive protests against it. Many alleged that the politicians were trying to cash on caste-based reservations for purely pragmatic electoral purposes. Rajiv Goswami
, student of Delhi University, threatened self-immolation in protest of the government's actions. His act further sparked a series of self-immolation
s by other college students and led to a formidable movement against job reservations for Backward Castes in India.
The Changing Role of Caste in Indian Politics
The role of caste in modern Indian politics has been in continuous change. In the past, caste and clientelism were considered as the foundation for India’s political organization. However, recent evidence suggests that the influence of caste has been declining. Rather than a long-established, unchanging institution, caste is subject to political influence.
Caste as a Pliable Institution
Changes in political leadership throughout the history of India have led to changes in the structure of the caste system. India’s colonial past has shaped caste into a flexible institution, generating a new system that has crucial influences on political mobilization. In some regions of India, strategic reconstructions of the caste system have taken place. For instance, the Bahujan Samaj Party in the state of Punjab was first initiated by urban political entrepreneurs who belonged to the former lower caste groups. The pliable caste system in the post-independence era acts as a tool for identifying marginal groups and political mobilization. Various political leaderships can alter and influence the caste system to give different groups of people unequal rights in accessing public services and political competition.
Decline of the Client-Patron Ties
The influence of caste and the client-patron ties have weakened in the post-independence period due to a few factors.
First, education spread to the lower castes after India gained independence. The younger generations of all castes have had access to educational resources since the 1980s. The number of the Scheduled and Backward Castes people receiving education increased at a faster rate than that of the upper caste groups. ‘Not a single SC or ST person aged over sixty-five years had five or more years of school education, but 72 percent of the members of SCs between eighteen and twenty-five years of age and 53 percent of the members of STs of the same age group are educated to this level.’ The spread of education to all castes generated democratizing effects. Some representatives of the SC and ST groups obtained access to Congress in the 1950s-1960s. Due to their higher education levels, they are less likely to respond to the upper-caste patrons, but to the needs and interests of the lower castes.
Second, intense party competitions that started in the late 1970s have also weakened the influence of caste in Indian politics. Traditionally, Indian political parties have been constructed from top-down. Party leaders relied on pre-existing patron-client networks to collect votes. Hence, no parties established fixed organizations to keep constant contacts with the village-level. Since 1977, the number of youth participating in politics has significantly increased. Due to the lack of fixed organizations, political parties had to rely on the young village members for political mobilization. Often, these young villagers exert more political influence than the upper caste leaders and patrons. The status of these young people in the village depended on how much he could contribute to the economic development of the village. It is easier for the youth to maintain their status by rallying rather than remaining loyal to a specific party. This also weakend the influence of caste and clientelism on Indian politics.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, in various levels, has been influenced by the prevailing caste system in the country. The caste system is essentially a five-tier social standing apparatus that comes from Hindu culture. At the top of the social hierarchy are the Brahmins, who are typically priests. At the bottom of the caste system are the untouchables who are usually latrine cleaners or street sweepers. Even though there have been recent attempts by the government to implement systems that give lower caste people more opportunities, the social stigma of their heritage still hinders their upward mobility.
Caste has been serving as the foundation for politics in India for decades. Many political parties favor a specific caste, and in return receive support from that same caste. This then establishes different clientelistic ties and creates votebanks. Caste also influences an individual Indian’s access to power through various aspects. The upper castes, for example, can easily manipulate the political system to gain substantial judicial and political power and receive assistance from the police. However, it is not just a caste's name that dictates ones access to power, the geographic location of castes also affects how influential a caste of people can be. Gender also plays a huge role in caste politics. Depending on the caste ascribed at birth, women have more (from higher castes) or less (from lower castes) political participation. The British institutionalized castes into the functioning of major government organizations. Due to this political legacy, the manipulation of caste politics became a way to gain political power. In India’s post-independence period, the role of caste in Indian politics has changed. The client-patron ties between parties and the people appear to also be on the decline.
Caste Politics: A Trajectory
The British Colonial LegacyThe British institutionalized caste into the workings of the major government institutions within India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The main benefactors of this indirect rule were the upper castes, which maintained their monopoly of control and influence over government institutes long after independence from the British. The state of post-colonial India promised development, rule of law, and nation building, but in reality, was a complex network of patronage systems, which solidified the upper-caste position of dominance and subjugated the lower castes. This network undermined the very promises of ‘nation building’ that postcolonial India had made and ushered in an area of upper-caste dominance that lasted for the next four decades.
Congress Dominance
1) Patron-Client Ties and Votebank Politics
Politics in India highly depended on patron-client ties along the caste lines during the Congress-dominating period. The caste that one belongs to serves as a strong determinant of his or her voting pattern. In India, different political parties represent the interests of different caste groups. The upper and merchant castes such as Brahmin, Rajput and Kayasth and the rich Muslim groups tend to express their interests through the Congress Party. The agrarian middle class such as the Jats tend to vote for the competing parties. Numerically minor parties, represented by the Jan Shangh, receive votes almost exclusively from the upper and trading castes (ibid). However, caste does not solely determine voting behaviors. Discrepancies occur especially for the upper caste groups. (ibid) This means that not everyone from the same caste would vote for only one particular party. The upper caste people have more freedom to vote by political beliefs.
Loyal groups of voters usually back a certain candidate or party during elections with the expectation of receiving benefits once their candidate is in office. This practice, called ‘vote bank’, is prolific throughout most regions of the country. Many political parties in India have openly indulged in caste-based votebank
Votebank
A votebank is a loyal bloc of voters from a single community, who consistently back a certain candidate or political formation in democratic elections...
politics. The Congress party used votebank to maintain power; the competing parties constructed votebanks to challenge the Congress dominance of politics.
Shifts in Caste Politics
By the early 1990s there began a shift in caste politics. The continuation of a one party system, which was the Congress party, composed mostly of upper-caste leadership, came to an end. This was partly due to economic liberalization which reduced the control the state had on the economy and thus the lower casts, and partly due to an upsurge in caste based parties that made the politics of lower cast empowerment a central part of there political agenda. It should be pointed out that these new political parties emerged not on a national level but on a village and regional level, and were most dominant in North India.
These parties view development programs and rule of law as institutions used by upper caste to control and subjugate lower castes. As a result, these new political parties sought to weaken these institutions and in turn weaken the upper caste domination in the political arena in India. Since ‘rule of law’ was seen as controlled by upper-caste, these new parties adopted a strategy that had to operate outside of this rule in order to gain political influence and lower-caste empowerment.
Corruption
Corruption thus translated into power and a means to enter the political arena, once only open to upper caste members. Corruption became a way to level the playing field. This struggle for empowerment that was forced to operate outside of the rule of law produced case-based mafia networks. These mafia-networks began to chip away at upper caste control over state institutions.
However, unlike their predecessor, these caste mafias groups were not concerned with ‘development’, but mainly viewed elections and democracy as a way of gaining control of the state, which would enable them to level social inequalities. This new state envisioned a government of “Social Justice” through caste empowerment. Within the context of “social justice" corruption pontificated by the caste mafias became tolerated, and in some cases, as in the town of Bihar, even celebrated.
The very nature of caste politics inherently means that there are no boundaries between “civil society” and “political society”, as demonstrated by the proliferation caste mafia. The mafia dons were the mayors, ministers, and even members of Parliament. Therefore, there was no alternative to fight against these mafia figures and political brokers. Because rule of law was perceived to be a mechanism of upper caste control, corruption used by caste mafia became popularly accepted, as it was perceived to be a means to achieve lower caste empowerment. The corruption elevated to such a level that nearly all elected officials in some towns and regions were also criminals. The upper caste who had used their control over the state to discretely plunder its institutions for their own gain, were now replaced by the mafia dons who now openly pillaged the state institutions. Many of these elected ministers/mafia dons were jailed for the illegal practices they employed; however, this was widely touted as the upper castes trying to regain dominance by eliminating “social justice” supporters. One of the more famous of these mafia dons was Lalu Yadav, who became the first elected chief minister in India to be sent to jail. Lalu, convicted of embezzling 9.5 billion rupees from the Animal Husbandry Department, still continued to run the government from his prison cell in Bihar, which was later coined as the “cell-phone raj”. Corruption and politics became so common that at a time it was not uncommon for election results to be contested from a prison cell.
Corruption therefore translated into power and a means to enter the political arena, once only open to upper caste members. In this way corruption was seen as a way to level the playing field, and as a result was tolerated and in some villages championed under the banner of “social justice”.
Congress Challenged
In the 1951 election, three ethnic parties challenged the Congress party: the Ram Rajya Parishad, the Hindu Mahasabha, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. These three sought to gain support from the Hindu majority. The All India Scheduled Caste Federation bid for support from the ex-untouchable castes. Three of the four ethnic parties gradually disappeared because they were not able to obtain enough votes. In the late 1980s, the Congress began to decline. More non-congress parties started to challenge the Congress dominance. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) descended from the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. It attempted to pit Hindus against Muslims. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Janata Dal ( JD) tried to seek support from the Scheduled Castes, and Muslims against the upper castes.
In the 1990s, many parties Bahujan Samaj Party
Bahujan Samaj Party
The Bahujan Samaj Party is a centrist national political party in India with socialist leanings. It was formed to chiefly represent Bahujans , referring to people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes as well as Buddhists. The party claims to be inspired by the...
(BSP), the Samajwadi Party
Samajwadi Party
Samajwadi Party is a political party in India. It is based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It describes itself as a democratic socialist party...
and the Janata Dal
Janata Dal
Janata Dal is an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Congress, and the Jan Morcha led by V. P...
started claiming that they were representing the backward castes. Many such parties, relying primarily on Backward Classes' support, often in alliance with Dalits and Muslims, rose to power in Indian states. At the same time, many Dalit leaders and intellectuals started realizing that the main Dalit oppressors were the so-called Other Backward Classes, and formed their own parties, such as the Indian Justice Party
Indian Justice Party
Indian Justice Party is a political party of India that was established by Dr. Udit Raj.-External links:* *...
. The Congress (I) in Maharashtra long relied on OBCs' backing for its political success. Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
has also showcased its Dalit and OBC leaders to prove that it is not an upper-caste party. Bangaru Laxman
Bangaru Laxman
Bangaru Laxman is an Indian politician. He was a minister of state for railways in Government of India from 1999 to 2000. Later he became President of Bharatiya Janata Party but resigned soon after Tehelka corruption case.-Early life:...
, the former BJP president (2001–2002) was a former Dalit. Sanyasin Uma Bharati, former CM of Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
, who belongs to OBC caste, was a former BJP leader. In 2006 Arjun Singh
Arjun Singh
Arjun Singh was an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress party. He was the Union Minister of Human Resource Development in the Manmohan Singh cabinet from 2004 to 2009....
cabinet minister for MHRD of the United Progressive Alliance
United Progressive Alliance
The United Progressive Alliance is a ruling coalition of center-left political parties heading the government of India. The coalition is led by the Indian National Congress , which is currently the single largest political party in the Lok Sabha...
(UPA) government was accused of playing caste politics when he introduced reservations for OBCs in educational institutions all around.
In Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...
(DMK) party rose to power under the canard of "Brahmin oppression". Many upper-caste Brahmins have complained of reverse discrimination
Reverse discrimination
Reverse discrimination is a controversial term referring to discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, including the city or state, or in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group such as African Americans being slaves. Groups may be defined in terms of...
, alleging that Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
Brahmins (Iyers, Iyengars, etc.) have left the state, due to a "hostile atmosphere" prevalent against upper castes in the region.
Caste Politics and Access to Power
The caste system has traditionally had significant influence over people’s access to power. The privileged upper caste groups benefit more by gaining substantially more economic and political power, while the lower caste groups have limited access to those powers. The caste system distributes to different castes different economic strength. The upper caste groups can then manipulate the economic and political system to transfer economic strength into political power.The Panchayat
In rural North India, upper and middle-ranking castes dominate the ownership of land. They were able to transfer this control over wealth into political dominance over the Panchayat decision. The Panchayat is a local government unit that is in-charge of resources disbursement. The upper caste groups monopolized leadership positions in the Panchayat, thus gaining more opportunities to government contracts, employment and funding.(ibid)
Police and Judicial Power
Access to police and judicial assistance also depends on which caste one belongs to. By bribing, influencing and intimidating the police and judicial officials, the rural north Indian middle to upper castes tend to manipulate the local police and judicial power more successfully. These types of political rent-seeking's have also helped secure the supply of rents to elites through other channels such as ‘rigging Panchayat elections, capturing electoral booths, and using pre-election intimidatory tactics in elections for the state assembly.’ Whether an individual or a group can raise enough money for constant bribes depends on the caste-based socioeconomic status. Hence, the advantage in accessing economic resources not only transfers into but also reinforces the political domination of the upper caste groups.
Caste Ascribed by Location of Birth
Caste, ascribed at birth, is also influenced by where one is born. Political lines in India have often been drawn along caste lines; however, this is only part of the story. Caste is often specific to a particular area. These caste pockets create a locally dominant caste. Because of the political structure in India, local dominance can translate into regional dominance. This concentration of caste population has meant that smaller, less influential castes have the opportunity stake there claims in the political power arena. However, if a non-dominant cast is not concentrated in a particular area, then they are not likely to get any representation without teaming up with another caste to increase there influence. This means, “localized concentration facilitates a space for contesting the domination of State-level dominant caste”. For instance, the Maratha-Kunbi caste has concentrations of populations all over the Indian states. They thus managed to receive maximum representation at the state legislature.(ibid)
Representation and participation of Women
Though the caste system factors greatly in determining who makes up the local elites, it also plays a huge role in determining women’s influence and representation in the political system. In India’s bicameral parliamentary system, women represent a meniscal amount of each house. Of the people's assembly, made up of 545 members, women represent a mere 5.2 percent; and in the State assembly, with 259 members, women make up only 8.8 percent. Both houses have seen an alarming decline in female representatives in the most recent decades. Of the 39 women representatives in the Indian Parliament most were members of higher castes. Caste, which eventually effects class, is one of the most important factors in determining a woman’s successful inclusion into the political system. This may be due to the fact that higher castes challenge the role of the traditional Indian woman and so their caste position gives them a greater range of options that are not available to lower more traditional castes. This inflated representation of elite caste in public offices has meant that the impact they have on public policy is disproportionately large in comparison to their actual numbers.
Caste Politics in the Post-Independence Period
Mandal CommissionThe Mandal Commission
Mandal commission
The Mandal Commission was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward." It was headed by Indian parliamentarian Bindheshwari Prasad Mandal to consider the question of seat...
was established in 1979 by the Janata Party
Janata Party
The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the state of emergency imposed by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Indian National Congress...
government under Prime Minister
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
Morarji Desai
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the fourth Prime Minister of India from 1977–79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...
with a mandate to "identify the socially or educationally backward". The Commission was set up to consider the question of seat reservations and quotas
Reservation in India
Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well being of socially backward and underrepresented communities of citizens in India. There are laws in place, wherein a certain percentage of total available slots in Jobs and Education are set aside for people from...
for people to redress caste discrimination, and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine "backwardness." In 1980, the commission's report affirmed the affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
practice under Indian law whereby members of lower castes (known as Other Backward Class
Other Backward Class
The Central Government of India classifies some of its citizens based on their social and economic condition as Scheduled Caste , Scheduled Tribe , and Other Backward Class . The OBC list presented by the commission is dynamic and will change from time to time depending on social, educational and...
es and Scheduled Castes and Tribes
Scheduled Castes and Tribes
The Scheduled Castes , also known as the Dalit, and the Scheduled Tribes are two groupings of historically disadvantaged people that are given express recognition in the Constitution of India...
) were given exclusive access to a certain portion of government jobs and slots in public universities, and recommended changes to these quotas, increasing them by 27% to 49.5%. L R Naik, the only Dalit
Dalit
Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as Untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous castes from all over South Asia; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions...
member in the Mandal Commission refused to sign the Mandal recommendations, as he feared that well-to-do OBCs would corner all the benefits of reservation.
A decade after the commission gave its report, V. P. Singh
V. P. Singh
Vishwanath Pratap Singh was the seventh Prime Minister of India and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda.-Early life:...
, the Prime Minister at the time, tried to implement its recommendations in 1989. The criticism was sharp and colleges across the country held massive protests against it. Many alleged that the politicians were trying to cash on caste-based reservations for purely pragmatic electoral purposes. Rajiv Goswami
Rajiv Goswami
Rajiv Goswami was a former commerce student at the Deshbandhu College, Delhi University student who had attempted self-immolation to protest against V.P. Singh's implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations...
, student of Delhi University, threatened self-immolation in protest of the government's actions. His act further sparked a series of self-immolation
Self-immolation
Self-immolation refers to setting oneself on fire, often as a form of protest or for the purposes of martyrdom or suicide. It has centuries-long traditions in some cultures, while in modern times it has become a type of radical political protest...
s by other college students and led to a formidable movement against job reservations for Backward Castes in India.
The Changing Role of Caste in Indian Politics
The role of caste in modern Indian politics has been in continuous change. In the past, caste and clientelism were considered as the foundation for India’s political organization. However, recent evidence suggests that the influence of caste has been declining. Rather than a long-established, unchanging institution, caste is subject to political influence.
Caste as a Pliable Institution
Changes in political leadership throughout the history of India have led to changes in the structure of the caste system. India’s colonial past has shaped caste into a flexible institution, generating a new system that has crucial influences on political mobilization. In some regions of India, strategic reconstructions of the caste system have taken place. For instance, the Bahujan Samaj Party in the state of Punjab was first initiated by urban political entrepreneurs who belonged to the former lower caste groups. The pliable caste system in the post-independence era acts as a tool for identifying marginal groups and political mobilization. Various political leaderships can alter and influence the caste system to give different groups of people unequal rights in accessing public services and political competition.
Decline of the Client-Patron Ties
The influence of caste and the client-patron ties have weakened in the post-independence period due to a few factors.
First, education spread to the lower castes after India gained independence. The younger generations of all castes have had access to educational resources since the 1980s. The number of the Scheduled and Backward Castes people receiving education increased at a faster rate than that of the upper caste groups. ‘Not a single SC or ST person aged over sixty-five years had five or more years of school education, but 72 percent of the members of SCs between eighteen and twenty-five years of age and 53 percent of the members of STs of the same age group are educated to this level.’ The spread of education to all castes generated democratizing effects. Some representatives of the SC and ST groups obtained access to Congress in the 1950s-1960s. Due to their higher education levels, they are less likely to respond to the upper-caste patrons, but to the needs and interests of the lower castes.
Second, intense party competitions that started in the late 1970s have also weakened the influence of caste in Indian politics. Traditionally, Indian political parties have been constructed from top-down. Party leaders relied on pre-existing patron-client networks to collect votes. Hence, no parties established fixed organizations to keep constant contacts with the village-level. Since 1977, the number of youth participating in politics has significantly increased. Due to the lack of fixed organizations, political parties had to rely on the young village members for political mobilization. Often, these young villagers exert more political influence than the upper caste leaders and patrons. The status of these young people in the village depended on how much he could contribute to the economic development of the village. It is easier for the youth to maintain their status by rallying rather than remaining loyal to a specific party. This also weakend the influence of caste and clientelism on Indian politics.
Further reading
- Bashiruddin Ahmed. Caste and Electoral Politics. Asian Survey, Vol. 10, No. 11, Elections and Party Politics in India: A Symposium (Nov., 1970), pp. 979–992