Caste in Indian Politics

Role of Caste in Indian Politics

(While the Caste System is breaking down in social and cultural milieu; conflicts between castes tends to be intensified at least partially by party politics. The article looks historically at role of caste identity in India’s political arena)

Politics revolves around identity. In India the strong manifestation of person’s social identity has traditionally been Caste. Ambedkar pointed out that “An Indian cannot eat or marry with an Indian simply because he or she does not belong to his or her caste. An Indian simply can not touch an Indian because he or she does not belong to his or her caste.” He explained the caste system as “an ascending scale of hatred and descending scale of contempt” where castes were jealous of one another. Without going into the detail of historical emergence of caste as a dominating social identity in Hindu fold especially, it can be said that the caste has vestiges of feudal agrarian relations of productions in India historically evolved which has been carried to present day India. The basic agrarian relations that emerged in feudalism and resultant social consciousness associated with it thus has been the reason for emergence of caste system in India. Indian society as evolved is divided into caste hierarchies in which upper caste tend to dominate lower caste in socio-economic terms. Indian freedom movement and several social reform movement of nineteenth and early twentieth century have raised the issue of caste oppressions and exploitation in the country. Such efforts though have not been able to make the desired impact. Caste in India continued to be dominant mechanism of social exclusion.

Initial assertion during Independence movement

Politics in essence is struggle between different social groups and formations who seeks to gain power for furthering their interests. This being the case different social classes and groups assert them by putting in front their interests as concrete demands in any movement. It was the same with Indian independence movement when dalits organized themselves under the leadership of Dr. Ambedkar to formulate and assert their demands. The demand for separate electorate emerged in 1930’s as they reasoned that their interests and aspirations were different from caste Hindus. They demanded separate electorate from colonial government on the lines that has already been granted to Muslims and Sikhs.  National independence movement under the leadership of Gandhiji did not conceded to the demand as they argue that it will lead to breaking the unity of independence movement itself. Gandhiji further articulated that dalits would get their dues if Hinduism reform itself and get rid of malpractices of untouchablility. After much polemics on the issue it was agreed upon under Poona Pact that there would be reservation of seats for dalits and not separate electorates. Poona Pact in a way became the first major symbol of dalit assertion in political arena. Reservation agreed upon for dalits continued after independence through the constitutional mechanism of reservation of seats for SCs and STs in parliament and legislative assemblies. There were many other dalit assertions against brahaminical domination during independence movement significant of them was Dravidian movement in South India. But it largely confided itself to social arena and its reflections in politics was mainly after India’s Independence.

Caste identity in political sphere during phase of single party domination

Since India adopted model of parliament democracy with universal adult franchise in its constitution this provided much needed breathing space for articulation of backward caste identity in politics. However, the first-past-the-post electoral system, which Ambedkar himself actually felt inadequate to protect the interest of the Dalits, opened the gates for the caste identity of candidate to be an important source of garnering votes for the political parties from first general election onwards. Political parties started taking into consideration caste character of constituencies before granting tickets to candidates. In rural North India for ex upper and middle-ranking castes tend to dominate the ownership of land. They were able to transfer this control over wealth into political and administrative dominance over the state setup. Though India after independence embarked on industrialization in which economic production tends to be arranged on novel lines resulting in emergence of newer class identities but due to traditional social consciousness being still largely primitive in nature and the process of industrialization proceeding at snail pace, caste-class overlap persisted for long time in India and is visible even in contemporary times. Politics in India thus became highly depended on patron-client ties along the caste lines during the single party Congress domination during first two decades of independence.  Political parties resorted to cultivating relationship with strong man belonging to particular castes who can garner their caste votes for them. Loyal groups of voters under the patron influence usually back a certain candidate or party during elections for which patron reaps the benefit. The caste of a person started emerging as a strong determinant of persons voting pattern. Congress resorted to this political tactic successfully in initial decades when it dominated political scene nation wide. As being the case the upper and merchant castes such as Brahmin, Rajput and Kayasth and the rich Muslim groups continue to dominate the formation of policies of Congress Party in their interests. This set of a sought of reaction in backward castes in different states of India.

Reactions along caste lines to Single party domination

The competing parties like socialists under Lohia constructed their own vote banks to challenge the Congress dominance of politics. They found their natural support under intermediate castes like Yadavs, Kurmis in North India as they were disillusioned with Congress. For the purpose they also adopted socialist rhetoric. The competing castes started aligning with different political parties in different states resulting in formation of regional parties. In Karnataka state politics there is rivalry between Okkaligas and Lingayats, numerically two leading castes. In Andhra Pradesh the chief contesting castes are Reddies and Kamas, in Bihar, Bhumidars, Kayasth and Rajput. Dravida Munnetra Kazngam (D.M.K) emerged as a non-Brahmin party to break the Brahmincal dominance in Tamilnadu state politics represented by Congress. At present D.M.K and A.D.M.K are two non-Brahmin political parties in Tamilnadu and both the parties are in politically advantageous position in comparison with other political parties such as Congress and Communist in that state. Janta Dal played that role initially in North India by riding on the plank of social justice and anti-congresism. They get an additionally opportunity politically due to Bofors scam in 1980s in which then erstwhile PM of Congress Rajeev Gandhi was alleged to be involved. Though Janta dal splited to form  Samajwadi party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, Rashtriya Lok Dal( RLD) in Bihar who found their major support in intermediate castes. Ever since the issue of Mandal Commission reservations in government jobs for the OBCs came to the national agenda in 1989, it has left an impact on the evolution of national politics as these regional parties which arose on plank of social justice made deep inroads in traditional support of Congress. Since the interests of backward castes and dalits don’t always coincide due to prevailing relations of production in agriculture where dalits largely work as landless labourers a parallel dalit political movement emerged in states of U.P and Bihar. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in U.P and Lokjan Shakti party in Bihar emerged as champions of dalit cause. PMK played that role to some extent in Tamil Nadu by espousing cause of dalits. In other states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa also regional formations emerged whose politics revolves around espousing regional aspirations along with resorting to caste politics. Rajani Kothari in “Caste in Indian Politics” studied how far caste is influencing the rural policy. He finds that caste is becoming more and more strengthened because these castes are forming caste association. In India, thus a situation emerged in which different political parties started representing the interests of different castes in some states at least. In other states caste of candidate according to the composition of constituency remained a way for garnering votes even for majority of national parties. West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura though emerged as honourable exceptions in this general trend of politics in the country because political parties there due to ideological leanings of them tend to emphasize on class identity more than the narrow caste identities. 

Conclusion

Although politics in India cannot be understood entirely in terms of caste, caste is an important element in the politics. Caste influences political activity from Panchayat right up to Parliament. Despite several parties espousing causes of backward and dalit castes in different states, caste as a social identity still remains a major forms of oppression especially in country side and social consciousness associated with it remained intact despite efforts to the contrary. This to some extent seems to be due to the reason that feudal productive relations in agricultural economy were never targeted by political parties representing interests of deprived castes because of their compromising character due to client-patron relations as elaborated earlier. In this context, any attempt to overthrow this sinful heritage of caste oppression by social-political program will have to target the elimination of the vestiges of feudal economic formations in agriculture. It doesn’t mean that such elimination, through a comprehensive agrarian program of land reforms will automatically eliminate the caste system and the entire range of social consciousness associated with it.  Even after the change in the land relations that assists in persistence of such backward social consciousness intense ideological and social struggle will be needed to eliminate sinful heritage of caste. But in that case such efforts will have a solid economic foundation to stand on and wouldn’t rely on mere moral and social appeal of change of heart or behaviour. Since first past the post system allows appeal to the caste of candidate to garner votes, electoral reforms such as proportional representation based on percentage of votes gained by any political party can also play a useful role in reducing the role of caste in elections.   

By Saurabh Naruka