Why caste persists in politics

Households that receive a negative income shock receive support in cash and kind from relatives and other caste-members. In future,they reciprocate by providing the same support to disadvantaged members of their community.

My research with Mark Rosenzweig indicates that caste is the most important source of support,more important than banks or moneylenders,for major expenditures such as illness and marriage,as well as for consumption smoothing. As long as income risk remains a prominent feature and market insurance is unavailable,caste will continue to play an important economic role in rural Indian life. What is perhaps more surprising is the important role played by caste networks in the city.

Historical accounts indicate that rural castes supported the rural-urban migration that accompanied British rule and the growth of cities in the 19th century. Particular castes found niches in the urban labour market,and once networks were established they supported the movement of fresh migrants from the hinterland.

More than a hundred years later,Mark Rosenzweig and I surveyed the parents of Maharashtrian schoolchildren who entered schools in Dadar,Mumbai,over the period. Seventy per cent of the parents employed in blue-collar occupations reported that they received a job referral from a member of their caste,while about 35 per cent of white-collar professionals reported receiving such assistance. The chain migration that allowed castes to establish themselves in the city,often over the course of many generations,is not particular to India.

The establishment of mutual insurance networks in the village is also not unique. What are the prospects for caste networks in future? Many of the urban jobs once difficult to obtain without access to a network are now less important with the restructuring of the Indian economy. But this does not mean that urban networks will now be irrelevant. My own work on the diamond industry shows how a historically disadvantaged caste took advantage of a shock to the world supply of rough diamonds in the late s to move from agriculture and then industrial labour into the export business over the course of a single generation.

As long as such opportunities continue to arise and markets continue to function inefficiently,caste networks will retain their salience.

Evidence from surveys conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies indicates that caste still remains an important consideration of the voting choices for a sizable number of voters.

Caste-based voting is prevalent not only amongst voters of North Indian states like UP, Bihar, and Haryana but in southern regions as well. In Andhra Pradesh, the two politically dominant communities- the Reddy and Kamma have voted over the years. Similarly, the Nairs of Kerala vote for the Left Democratic Front mainly while other upper caste voters generally vote for the United Democratic Front.

Caste is very much alive and working in politics. It would not be very surprising to say that caste continues to affect our society and it surely matters in politics.

Talking to the Caravan, an Indian journalism magazine, Satish Despande, a professor of Sociology at the Delhi University said the media narrative reflects and amplifies this misrecognition. For a long time, the upper-castes have largely been able to control their own visibility as castes, whereas the lower castes have been forced to be hyper-visible.

This misrecognition or distorted view has been systematically reproduced. The origin lies in the fact that Indian independence was a transfer of power from the British elites to the Indian elites but without any significant change in the social or economic structure.

Since the freedom movement was led mainly by the upper castes, they were able to claim power in an easy way. After independence, caste discrimination was abolished in principle and law, but not in practice.

Caste was not just a social evil, as it was often called but a was an entrenched social or economic structure.

In the Nehruvian era, the formal abolition of caste was taken literally. The evidence of these inequalities and exclusions, especially in the political sphere can be traced to the Mandal explosion of the s. The exclusion became undeniable after a few decades. The Nehruvian silence on caste was already being breached by the Dalit Panthers which was an anti-caste movement started in There were discoveries of caste atrocities and massacres across rural India.

This does not mean that caste atrocities were not happening previously. Only these were earlier reported as disturbances, but now acquired the name of caste atrocities.

But the dominant caste-class coalition continued to cultivate the illusionary idea that the evil caste system was somewhere far away in villages. This was also politics because if you look at the Nehruvian era, a vast majority of chief ministers were Brahmins. It was also an empirical fact that the leadership of all political parties, from Left to Right consisted of Brahmins. So, caste was always present in politics. It was not as if the castes were not dominant before, but earlier, the castes that were common- Brahmins, Rajputs, etc.

It is only when the people of backward castes acquired power, the need was felt to name them as dominant castes. In the wake of the Green Revolution in the s, the process of politics began to mature because of the realisation that the people rule, or at least they are supposed to decide who rules.

The vast majority have always been the lower caste and upper castes are actually roughly per cent of the population. India is a democratic country and caste is a quintessential Indian social institution which grades people based on the accident of birth.

So, looking at caste politics which is technically based on caste mobility, it can be an imprecation to democracy. Caste is a stigma attached from the birth and it is not changeable. If the work is not appreciated, it can lead to a backward going society. The eradication of the caste system is the only solution to overcome caste-politics. LawSikho has created a telegram group for exchanging legal knowledge, referrals and various opportunities.

You can click on this link and join:. Follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more amazing legal content. Buddha responded to the caste system and his message spread far and wide.

His teachings were later countered by the formulations around those of Manusmriti. Further evolution of feudal society and the division of labour put the seal on the system. There was ideological opposition to this structure from the Bhakti saints in medieval period. Saints opposed this inequality in the name of religion. However, Brahmanical Hinduism and its scriptures continued to be the bulwark for the perpetuation of caste system.

The process of significant change in the social system begins with the coming of British. Education and industrialization helped free people from the clutches of caste slavery. The social changes began, albeit slowly. This social transition ran parallel to the freedom movement. The issues of eradication of caste were linked to the abolition of landlordism and Brahmanism.

Landlordism and Brahmanism go hand in hand. The colonial powers were not interested in abolishing landlordism; rather, they built on this exploitative system to fulfil their own plunder project. This is unlike many other countries where industrialization did away with feudal system. During this period, many social movements picked up further. In , ordinary people were being encouraged to take part in the Non-Cooperation Movement. A section of the elite perceived these movements as a major threat to the prevailing social hierarchies, including the caste system.

They began to view these changes as detrimental to their social interests and their hegemony. Faced with this twin opposition to the hegemony of the landlords and Brahmins, some elites of Hindu society formed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS in Savarkar picked up on caste hierarchy in Aryan society and took it further. Ambedkar was for the abolition of caste while Hindutva ideologues want to retain and perpetuate the caste system, shrewdly disguised in a new language, as Samajik Samrasta Social Harmony.

The process of social transformation that began in the 19 th century picked up speed after Independence as the reach of industrialization and education in society became wider and deeper in society. Its results became obvious when Dalit-OBCs started leading social movements and they could be ignored no longer. On the other hand, the polarization of the middle class Brahmin, Bania and rich peasants started taking place all over the country from around The trigger was the issue of reservations for the lower castes.

This is what gave rise to caste violence directed against the lower castes. These anti-reservation agitations played a key role in consolidating the base of communal politics Hindutva involving the upper castes and upwardly mobile middle classes.

The issue of affirmative action became an irritant for the affluent upper castes. The upper castes struck back in the form of anti-reservation riots. In Gujarat, for example, the educated middle classes, mainly the Brahmans, Banias and Patidars, rose up against reservations.