Revision summary
Early elites were professional, urban and often upper caste. Dominant-caste rural notables joined under mass franchise. Mandal, BSP and regional parties diversified the caste profile. Liberalisation mixed business and office. Dynasty, money and weak gender-minority presence continue to close the top.
Model answer
Introduction
Political elites in India have changed from a small English-educated nationalist circle toward a more regional, caste-inclusive, and money-mediated set. The summit still looks narrow. The recruiting ground has widened.
Body
Older structure
- The nationalist elite that Desai analysed was professional, urban, and often upper caste, speaking a constitutional all-India language.
- After independence, the Congress system added rural notables: dominant castes in Srinivas’s sense who could deliver the village vote.
- Ghurye’s civilisational Brahmanical lens fits the early cultural capital of this elite, not its later composition.
What changed
- Adult franchise, Mandal, and BSP-type mobilisation brought OBC and Dalit elites into assemblies and cabinets, a disharmonic opening Beteille would recognise: equality as creed, hierarchy as residual honour.
- Linguistic states and regional parties federalised the elite. A chief minister’s court can matter more than a Delhi salon.
- Land reform and Green Revolution created rich-peasant politicians. Co-operatives and farmer unions became elite nurseries.
- Liberalisation added business-politician overlap, media owners, and contractors. Informal money sits beside formal office.
- Women entered through reservation at panchayat level more than at the top, so gender change is bottom-heavy.
Continuities
- Kinship and dynasty still organise many parties.
- Corporate and upper-caste networks remain thick in bureaucracy and national media, even when the MLA is from a new jati.
- Adivasi and Muslim representation in high office stays thin relative to population in many states.
Structure now
- A multi-layered elite: national professional-business, regional caste-peasant, and local panchayat. Circulation has increased. Closure has not ended.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD OE[Nationalist professional elite] --> DC[Dominant caste rural notables] DC --> NE[Regional OBC Dalit business elites] NE --> DY[Dynasty and money closure]
Conclusion
The structure of political elites has changed from a nationalist professional core plus dominant-caste brokers toward a federal, caste-diversified, and more monetised elite. Democracy widened recruitment. Property, dynasty, and media still filter who stays.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Discuss recent trends in the structure of migration .
Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q7(b)). View answer →
-
Has the elite been democratised?
Recruitment is wider by caste and region. Wealth and family still weigh heavily.
-
Are bureaucrats part of the political elite?
They are a power elite overlapping politics. The political elite proper is those who hold or directly broker elective office.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2022 · Q1(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Elaborate on M.N. Srinivas's structural functionalist approach to the study of Indian society. -
2022 · Q1(e) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Explain Leela Dube's concept of "Seed and Earth" -
2022 · Q2(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Critically examine GS Ghurye's Indological approach to the understanding of Indian society. -
2022 · Q3(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Discuss the material basis of patriarchy as an ideological system. -
2022 · Q5(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Discuss Law as an important instrument for women's empowerment. -
2022 · Q7(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Discuss recent trends in the structure of migration . -
2022 · Q8(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Critically examine the dialectics between 'development and environment'. -
2021 · Q1(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
What does Dr. B. R. Ambedkar mean by the concept of "Annihilation of caste" ?
More from this topic
Q7(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
"Educational development is the only Panacea for country's all ills and evils." Critically examine the above statement with reference to NEP-2020
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Education is necessary for mobility and anti-caste citizenship but not a solo panacea. NEP 2020 reforms structure, language, vocation and equity on paper. Without teachers, public finance and jobs, it becomes credentialism and a dual private-public system. Caste, land and informal labour reproduce ills that schooling alone cannot dissolve. Phule–Ambedkar were right to start with the school and wrong if we stop there.
Q7(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
What are the Private and Public network and support systems operative in Indian society for the aged? Suggest measures to curb down the challenges before care givers of the aged
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Private support for the aged is still mainly kin, plus a small paid-care market. Public support is pensions, NPHCE and the 2007 Maintenance Act, all thin relative to need. Nuclear residence and migration weaken the joint-family guarantee without ending dependence. Caregivers, mostly women, face time poverty and little respite. Measures must combine adequate pensions, home services and gender-equal family law.
Q5(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Bring out various factors responsible for declining of village Industries in India.
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Village industries declined through colonial competition, forest enclosure and the collapse of patronage. Post-independence mill goods, power-looms and plastics continued the squeeze. Credit, GST, and migration now pull youth out of hereditary crafts. Some clusters brand and survive; most artisan households enter informal labour. The process reorders caste occupations, not only GDP shares.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.