topics: |  india | politics | social | caste |

Review

A classic collection edited by Rajni Kothari, much of which remains relevant in the Indian political scenario four decades since its compilation.

The work covers details of caste movements in Gujarat and Tamilnadu, both from a historical and a theoretical perspective. It also considers caste political movements in Rajasthan, Andhra, and also in urban areas of Pune and Agra.

In his introduction, Kothari posits the role of politics as a system that attempts to build on existing organisational forms in society, and clearly caste has been an important social structure across India. Also, in order to gain legitimacy, political change in a democratic society

 
	can proceed only by a conversation between the old and
	the new, a fusion of elements, and a readiness on the
	part of both the moderns and the ancients to be
	flexible and accommodative.

Thus, the claim by some modernist "doctrinaires" that the 
forces of caste should disappear in a democracy, are ridiculed.
Modernisation is a continuum, and the old persists with the new
until proved redundant.

Casteism - something that happens in "other" groups

Though there is widespread awareness of the role of caste, personally, I
never felt that I or any of my social circle were much influenced by our
caste.  As a bengali brahmin, caste played a relatively minor role in
life as I saw it.  

I was quite sure that caste played little role in the political
preferences of my friends and family (except for some hindutva leaning in
some).  Casteism is something that happened to others.  Reading this
work, I realize that our caste (and general social stratum) affects us in
many subtle ways, and its reflection in politics, especially among higher
caste groups, is often aimplicit.  Thus, the caste identity in politics
is more articulated among the lower caste groups, though it is present in
all.  

Here is Rosenthal (ch.10):  

	Thus in Agra the Jatavs (Chamars) dominated the local unit of the
	Republican Party of India (RPI) and seemed to treat it as an
	extension of the caste.  Similarly in Poona the RPI was dominated
	by the Mahars, another Scheduled Caste group.  Aside from members
	of the RPI, only two persons in Poona indicated that their
	candidates were the result of specific caste actions although many
	spoke of their victories as results of substantial caste support. p.325

An useful definition thrown up (for me, at least) is: 

	[politics is] identifying and manipulating existing and emerging
	allegiances in order to mobilise and consolidate positions. p.4

I believe this definition is true at many levels. 

from Introduction by Rajni Kothari

The prevailing dichotomy between tradition and modernity has created a
curious cognitive hiatus - in ideological thinking as well as in much of
social science theorising - between society on the one hand and polity on the
other.

By drawing the caste system into its web of organisation, politics finds material for its articulation and moulds it into its own design.

The former [society] is conceived, as if by definition, as 'traditional'·, the latter [polity] as 'modern' and 'developmental'. In reality, however, this is a false approach to the phenomenon of modernisation; it is especially misleading when the phenomenon takes place in the context of democratic politics.

Political and developmental institutions do not anywhere function in a vacuum. They tend, of necessity, to find bases in society either through existing organisational forms...

The doctrinaire orientation of much recent thinking on development
in India and in the West has produced an unhelpful dichotomy in
conceptualisation that stands in the way of a realistic appraisal of the
development process.  Fortunately, however, the processes of social
change transcend the inhibitions of intellectuals and social scientists.
This is especially true in an open and competitive polity. 

India was perhaps particularly fortunate in starting with a social system
that had traditionally been flexible and capable of absorbing large shifts in
the balance of social and political arrangements. It was further fortunate in
having adopted a political framework which, among other things, involved a
free expression of interests, made competition the great medium of change
through adaptation and integration, and thus avoided sharp discontinuities
and disruption in the process of political modernisation.

Social organization around caste structures

Everyone recognises that the traditional social system in India was
organised around caste structures and caste identities. In dealing with
the relationship between caste and politics, however, the doctrinaire
moderniser suffers from a serious xenophobia.  He begins with the
question: is caste disappearing?  Now, surely, no social system disappears
like that. 

A more useful point of departure would be: what form
is caste taking under the impact of modem politics, and what form is
politics taking in a caste-oriented society? Those in India who complain
of 'casteism in politics' are really looking for a sort of politics
which has no basis in society. They also probably lack any clear
conception of either the nature of politics or the nature of the caste
system.'(Many of them would want to throw out both politics and the
caste system.) 

Politics is a competitive enterprise, its purpose is the
acquisition of power for the realisation of certain goals, and its process
is one of identifying and manipulating existing and emerging allegiances
in order to mobilise and consolidate positions. The important
thing is organisation and articulation of support, and where politics is
mass-based the point is to articulate support through the organisations
in which the masses are to be found. 

Casteism: A natural for politics

It follows that where the caste structure provides one of the principal
organisational clusters along which the bulk of the population is found to
live, politics must strive to organise through such a structure. The alleged
'casteism in politics' is thus no more and no less than politicisation of
caste. It is something in which both the forms of caste and the forms of
politics are brought nearer each other, in the process changing both.

By drawing the caste system into its web of organisation, politics finds
material for its articulation and moulds it into its own design. In making
politics their sphere of activity, caste and kin groups on the other hand,
get a chance to assert their identity and to strive for positions. Drawing
upon both the interacting structures are the real actors, the new contestants
for power. 

Politicians mobilise caste groupings and identities in order to organise
their power.  They find in it an extremely well articulated and flexible
basis for organisation, something that may have been structured in terms of a
status hierarchy, but something that is also available for political
manipulation -- and one that has a basis in consciousness.  Where there are
other types of groups and other bases of association, politicians approach
them as well. And as they everywhere change the form of such organisations,
they change the form of caste as well.

Contents

--Part One
1. Introduction: caste in Indian politics 				3
	Rajni Kothari

Part Two

2. Learning the use of political means: The Mahars of Maharashtra 	27
	Eleanor Zelliot
3. Federating for political interests: the Kshatriyas of Gujarat 	66
	Rajni Kothari and Rushikesh Maru
4. Political and primordial solidarity: the Nadars of Tamilnad 	96
	Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
5. Caste and faction among the dominant caste: the Reddis and
   Kammas of Andhra 							121
	Carolyn M. Elliot.

Part Three

6. Caste and political factions in Rajasthan 				165
	Richard Sisson
7. Caste and political recruitment in Bihar 				215
	Ramashray Roy
8. Caste and political group formation in Tamilnad 			245
	Andre Beteille
9. Caste and political mobilisation in a Gujarat district 		283
	Anil Bhatt
10. Caste and political participation in two cities 			323
	Donald B. Rosenthal

Index 								353




---author bio

One of India's most remarkable intellectuals. Rajni Kothari has radically
changed the contours of the discipline of political science. Pushing
political analysis beyond the traditional format, he has given his readers
some path-breaking and seminal work -- work that has allowed Indian political
science to come of age. He pioneered a movement to move the discipline away
from mere intellectual formulations to a live, active intervention in the
politics of democracy and an understanding of its role in Indian society.

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