The document summarizes the role of caste in post-independent Indian politics from 1950 to the present. It discusses three phases: 1950-1977 when the Congress party dominated and upper castes supported it; 1977-1989 when non-Congress coalitions formed and middle peasants gained power; and post-1989 when the Other Backward Castes emerged as a political force following the Mandal Commission recommendations. It also examines the impact of policies like reservation, industrialization, and the green revolution on caste dynamics and politics in India.

1. CASTE IN INDIAN POLITICS-II
Dr Rajasri Basu

2. ROLE OF CASTE IN POST INDEPENDENT INDIAN
POLITICS
 1950-1977: Congress was the dominant Political party
 Upper castes sided with the Congress
 Schedule Caste & the other backward castes were not in
a position to pronounce their identity in a definite manner
 Between 1977 and 1989 several non Congress governments
were formed and the middle peasant category became very
powerful during this time
 In the next phase that began in 1989 and is still continuing
there emerged another variable- the Other Backward Castes
and the situation became more complicated
 Caste like religion is a part of the daily existence of every
Indian individual
 It should be the objective of the Indian state to use caste as a
category for social change

3. POST-INDEPENDENT INDIA
 Prof. Andre Beteille a noted sociologist pointed
out that outside family, the relation between caste
and politics had become much more transparent
during this period
 Prof. Dipankar Gupta who also pointed out that
caste as a system has declined in post independent
India
 but caste as an identity has become much more
transparent, and it is not that caste is as an identity
has been erased

4. RELATION BETWEEN CASTE AND POLITICS IN THE
POST-INDEPENDENT INDIA
 The basic thrust of the Indian Constitution was to
create an egalitarian democratic society
 1950-1977 : One-party dominance as described
by W H Morris Jones in India.
 Late 1960s: Cracks to the Indian National
Congress could be noticed

5. RELATION BETWEEN CASTE AND POLITICS IN THE
POST-INDEPENDENT INDIA
 Since 1977: Equation could be noticed between
caste and politics
 Rise of the middle peasants particularly in north
India and in UP and Bihar
 Existence of a centralized administration with
scope for people belonging to the Scheduled Caste
to be accepted as the members of that
administration through the policy of reservation
 So this centralized administration was created by
the Indian state to establish a kind of political
system where at least some kind of equality could
be noticed

6. INDUSTRIALIZATION IN INDIAN STATE
 With industrialization, modernization,
urbanization & the penetration, although limited
at that time of market economy, people at that time
so called lower castes also began to get accepted
into this new kind of a system

7. GREEN REVOLUTION
 Major agrarian policies were introduced by the
Indian government with some scientific and some
agricultural incentives that ushered in a green
revolution, that is an agricultural boom,
particularly in north India in Punjab, Haryana and
UP
 This created a very large section of peasants who
although did not have that much of land in their
possession, but by virtue of being agriculturalist
they could wield a kind of power during that period

8. ABOLITION OF THE ZAMINDARI SYSTEM
 Abolition created a kind of people who could not
hold land beyond a particular ceiling
 So the earlier zamindari class which controlled
both economic resources as well as political
resources came down to a very limited number
 They were deprived of their land and as well as
their political hold
 changes created a middle peasant category
particularly in northern India who became
economically resourceful and by virtue of that they
try to wield their power in their political scenario

9. POLITICAL CASTE EQUATION
 1981-During the occasion of the death anniversary
of Dr. B R Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram formed a party
which later became the Bahujan Samaj Party in
1984
 Arrival of this particular party disturbed the
traditional political caste equation in north India.
Along with it the Yadavs became prominent both in
UP and in Bihar
 With the rise of the Yadavs in these two states,
leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo
Prasad Yadav began to wield political power which
was not seen during the early phase of post
independent India

10. POLITICAL CASTE EQUATION
 creation of parties and their political manipulations
did not presume that the members of a particular
caste all vote for one particular party or all the
backward castes or all the scheduled caste voted
for one particular party
 Enormous divisions within a particular caste and
also different backward castes
 Both intra-caste and inter-caste divisions

11. 1977-1989: SECOND PHASE OF INDIAN POLITICS
SO FAR AS CASTE IS CONCERNED
 1977 : The 1st non congress government at the
union level in India was formed
 At that formation Charan Singh had a major say
whose party from UP also belonged to the middle
peasant category who became very powerful during
that time following the features that were initiated
by the Indian state during the first phase and it
continued till 1989 end
 1989 appears to be the end point of this particular
phase because at that time, another classificatory
variable within caste emerged and that was the
Other Backward Caste or what we called OBC

12. OBC
 not at par with the Schedule Caste because like the
Scheduled Caste they did not experience the kind
of social humiliation, social atrocities
 But at the same time, unlike the upper castes they
were deprived of many resources
 So they were a kind of like the middle caste
between the upper caste and the schedule caste

13. MANDAL COMMISSION
 1979: B .P. Mandal Commission came out with certain
suggestions for the other backward caste and identified more
than 3000 castes as belonging to that category
 Recommendations however were not included during that
time.
 In 1989 V P Singh was the Prime Minister of India and talks
were going on regarding the implementation of the
recommendations of the Mandal Commission
 1990: Recommendations were implemented.
 Nation-wide furore
 Youths committed suicide against these recommendations
 Scared with this kind of policies and they were skeptical
whether these kinds of reservations really beneficial for those
who actually needed them

14. ANDRE BETEILLE AND DIPANKAR GUPTA
 Recommendations that the Mandal Commission
suggested are not consistent with the Indian social
system primarily for 2 reasons:
1. Criteria created by Mandal commission for
determining the backwardness are not consistent
with the real identification of backwardness
 Criteria like whether women of a particular caste go
outside their homes and take jobs. This is the kind of
criteria which does not exist in many castes. This is
related to the issue of gender
 So this criterion is not conducive for a proper
identification of backward caste

15. ANDRE BETEILLE AND DIPANKAR GUPTA
2. Apart from 12% of the upper caste and 15% of the
tribal population and 22% of the scheduled caste
population, the rest belongs to these categories
 So if someone really wants to give some
suggestions and recommendations for the other
backward castes, all the remaining population in
fact belong to this category which is not getting
clear from the suggestions of the B P Mandal
Commission

16. ACADEMIC DEBATE & POLITICAL DEBATE
 Mandal Commission recommendations created a
new kind of Caste dynamics in Indian politics
 From 1989 onwards the 3rd phase of dynamics
and politics began and during this phase we come
across several kinds of conjunctions, co relations,
inter relations between not only caste and politics
but caste, gender, class on the one hand and
politics on the other

17. EVOLUTION OF THE CASTE DYNAMICS IN
INDIA IS NOT UNIFORM
 in some states of northern India, in some states of
southern India, while West Bengal, Assam, Kerala
they provide a different kind of caste dynamics
 So the third phase in fact provides a very
challenging task to find out the relationship
between caste and politics

18. POLICY OF RESERVATION- 10 YEAR POLICY
 Reservation at the time of adoption of the
Constitution was thought to be a 10 year policy
 Argued at the Constituent Assembly that after 10
years we will not have to address this issue
because the policy of reservation will be able to
penetrate into the furthest corner of the caste
system and there will not be no need of reservation
after 10 years
 Reservation policy continued. It is continuing…..

19. POLICY OF RESERVATION
 Creamy Layer
 It has been able to give a kind of education, the
kind of public employment and thereby give a
kind of social prestige and status which these
people would never been able to achieve if the
policy of reservation does not exist

20. CASTE
 whether caste which is a traditional category is
competent or consistent even in 21st century India
which is trying to be modernized in every aspect of
life
 Sociologist M. N. Srinivas during his study of
caste in early 20th century pointed out that the
ritualistic immobility of caste did not exist even
during that time
 ‘Sanskritisation’: the so called lower caste tried to
emulate certain features of the upper caste in order
to be at par with those castes

21. MYRON WEINER
 it was not the objective of the Constituent Assembly
neither it was feasible for the Indians to totally
erase or annihilate caste as a category
 Caste like religion is a part of the daily existence of
every Indian individual
 So we cannot just wish to annihilate the system
where caste simply does not exist

22. CASTE
 Dynamic and a very challenging field of study
 caste organizations, caste associations, caste
based political parties in the Indian political
scenario,
 Establish a kind of equality and justice
 New kind of indigenous justice and equality and
the Indian state would be able to usher in through
the dynamics and the inter play of these various
categories and politics, particularly the caste.