Revision summary
Caste politics turns jati into votes, offices and honour. Kothari saw politics reshaping caste, not only caste capturing the state. Mandal, BSP and Dravidian parties defined new political selves. Dominant-caste land and numbers still organise local tickets. Endogamy and atrocity show identity is not only electoral branding.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Caste politics is the use of jati and varna as public identity for votes, offices, and honour. Identities are not ancient fossils; parties, censuses, and movements define who counts as a political ‘we’.
Body
Meaning
- Rajni Kothari argued that politics democratised caste as much as caste captured politics. Associations, federations, and parties translate ranked groups into blocs.
- Identity here is situational: a man may be a kisan in a mandi, an OBC in a quota form, and a jati in a marriage search.
- Andre Beteille’s disharmonic order fits: equality is the constitutional creed, while caste remains the organising fact of mobilisation.
How dynamics define identity
- Sanskritization once defined prestige as copying a higher ritual style. Electoral politics now defines prestige as numbers, alliances, and a share of the state.
- Mandal and OBC lists turned ‘backwardness’ into a census identity. The creamy-layer debate shows class inside that identity.
- The Bahujan Samaj Party and BAMCEF defined Dalit-Bahujan as a political people from an Ambedkarite reading of exclusion, not from temple rank.
- Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu defined a regional non-Brahmin self against Sanskritic honour. Yadav and Kurmi mobilisation in the Hindi belt defined kisan-OBC pride around land and office.
- Dominant castes, in Srinivas’s sense, enter politics as farmers’ unions and as gatekeepers of local tickets, so identity is land plus numbers.
Illustrations of definition, not essence
- Urban campuses and jobs mix occupations, yet hostels, marriages, and atrocity cases re-inscribe caste as identity.
- Online matrimonials make jati a search filter, a modern definition of the same endogamy Ghurye listed as a feature.
Limit
- Caste politics is not the whole of Indian politics. Class, region, and religion cut blocs. It remains a primary grammar of who is ‘us’.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD J[Jati rank] --> P[Associations parties quotas] P --> I[Political identity] M[Mandal BSP Dravidian] --> I DC[Dominant caste land] --> I
Conclusion
Caste politics is the conversion of ranked groups into democratic identities. Examples from Mandal, BSP, Dravidian parties, and dominant-caste farmer blocs show that caste dynamics still name the political self, even when the Constitution speaks equality.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Give an account of Ranajit Guha's approach in studying 'subaltern class'
Next question on this syllabus topic (2019 · Q3(c)). View answer →
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Does caste politics freeze hierarchy?
It can entrench blocs. It also lets excluded groups claim the state.
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Is it only rural?
Cities reroute it through hostels, jobs, and marriage markets.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2016 · Q3(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Comment on the increasing significance of caste in politics. -
2021 · Q2(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
What is identity politics? Discuss the main trends in Dalit movements in India
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