Revision summary
Early mobilisation ran through the Congress coalition, language states and dominant-caste farmers. Mandal made OBC politics central; Dalit parties institutionalised Ambedkarite identity. Mandir and regional parties reordered religion and federal identity. Media, the new middle class and DBT welfare added new glues. Caste, class and region did not vanish; their hierarchy of importance shifted.
Model answer
Introduction
Independent India’s politics never floated free of society. The social bases of mobilisation have been caste, class, language, region, religion and, later, a welfare-beneficiary identity. Over seventy years the mix has shifted from a Congress catch-all to a more segmented and mediated arena.
Body
Early decades
The national movement bequeathed a coalitional Congress (Rajni Kothari’s Congress system): Brahmins and other elites plus dependent rural votes, with socialist and communist class pockets. Language reorganised states. Farmer and landed dominant castes (Srinivas) captured state politics. Religion was never absent (Hindu Code debates, communal riots) but was not always the master frame.
The long shift
Mandal (1990) and Indra Sawhney (1992) made OBC the central arithmetic in the Hindi belt; Christophe Jaffrelot called it a silent revolution. Dalit parties (BSP) turned Ambedkarite identity into a vote. Mandir politics from the 1980s–90s recentred religious polarisation. Regional parties (DMK, TDP, Shiv Sena, Akalis, TRS/BRS) mobilised linguistic and sub-national pride. After 1991, a new middle class and private media changed campaign style. The last fifteen years added direct benefit transfer, welfare delivery and digital campaigning as a social base of their own: the beneficiary household.
Women vote more autonomously in some surveys; they are not yet a single bloc. Class remains: farmers’ protests, union belts, and informal labour, but class is usually spoken through caste and region. Yogendra Yadav described a democratic upsurge of the socially disadvantaged; later work asked whether that upsurge was captured by new elites of the same groups.
Social media and WhatsApp do not invent new bases so much as intensify religious and caste publics that already existed. Farmer identity in 2020–21 showed that class can still break through when prices and law hit a landed constituency. Adivasi belts mobilise around jal-jungle-zameen more than around a national Left.
- Change, then: from one-party accommodation to competitive caste-religious federalism, then toward a national religious-welfare combination—without the older bases disappearing.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD C[Congress system] --> M[Mandal OBC Dalit] C --> R[Regional linguistic] M --> H[Mandir plus welfare] R --> H
Conclusion
- Mobilisation still sits on caste, region and religion. What changed is the ranking: OBC and Hindu-majoritarian frames rose, Congress catch-all fell, and welfare media now glue coalitions that land reform once promised to.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
What are the major problems faced by the labour migrants while working in informal sectors of Indian States? Discuss.
Next question in the 2025 paper (Q5). View answer →
-
Has class replaced caste in politics?
No. Farmer and labour protests exist, but electoral blocs are still largely caste-religious-regional.
-
Did 70 years secularise mobilisation?
Institutions secularised the vote. Campaigns often re-sacralised community. Both trends are real.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2024 · Q3(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Education is a key to social development. Elucidate -
2024 · Q6(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Critically examine the relevance of development planning in India -
2021 · Q5(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Analyze the idea of developmental planning in India -
2021 · Q6(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Explain the sociological significance of the New Education Policy and its thrust on vocationalization and skill development -
2021 · Q7(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
The problem of displacement is inherent in the idea of development. Analyze the statement critically -
2020 · Q6(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Discuss in detail the main issues of development planning in mixed economy like India -
2019 · Q6(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
Examine the importance of Development Planning in India Mixed Economy, and analyze its problems and prospects -
2018 · Q6(a) · Sociology GS 2 · 20 marks
How do you relate the growth of development of metropoles and its impact on the mental and social life of people in India.
More from this paper
Q1(a) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
'Textual perspective is important in understanding of Indian Social System.' Discuss.
Rural and Agrarian Social Structure
The textual perspective explains Indian society through Dharmashastra, epics and related canons. Ghurye and Dumont used that archive to theorise caste as a hierarchical whole. The approach is strong on civilisational categories and weak on labour, gender and local power. Srinivas’s field view and Desai’s Marxism correct the book without discarding it. Texts remain part of the social system because groups still quote them in law and ritual.
Q1(b) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
Justify that the Indian traditions are modernizing. Also discuss its contributing factors.
Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Yogendra Singh treats modernization of Indian tradition as internal and external change together. Sanskritization, westernization and the Rudolphs’ modernity of tradition describe recasting, not simple death. Law, education, media, the developmental state and the post-1991 market are the main levers. Caste, household and religion persist in new organisational forms. Unevenness remains: mobility in class can coexist with control in marriage.
Q1(c) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Sociology GS 2 · 10 marks
According to you, which social reform movement has played the most effective role in uplifting the status of women? Explain.
Social Movements in Modern India
The most effective women’s social reform is the Phule–Ambedkar anti-caste line, not only bhadralok campaigns. It tied girls’ education, a critique of endogamy, and constitutional legal personhood. Sati abolition and widow remarriage opened the public question but had a narrower class-caste base. Hindu Code, later feminist litigation and Shah Bano debates inherit that citizenship frame. Patriarchy continues; effectiveness means a changed legal and educational grammar, not a finished utopia.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.