Gender, Religion and Caste

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• Questions
• Summary

Caste and Politics have both positive and negative aspects.

1. To win elections parties choose candidates from different castes and tribes.
2. Make appeals to caste sentiments – favor some caste, and are seen as their representatives.
3. One person – one vote, No parliamentary constituency in the country has a majority of one.
4. Single caste – so they need more than one caste, to win an election.
5. It brought a new consciousness among the people of caste that they were treated low.
6. The ruling party MP or MLA frequently loose election – will not happen if it was not Caste bias.

Unlike gender and religion, Caste Inequalities are special to India.

1. All societies had some form of division of labour, occupations passed from one generation to another.
2. Caste system is an extreme form of division of labour — it has hereditary occupational divisions sanctioned by rituals.
3. Political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jyotiba Phule, B.R. Ambedkar, Periyar Ramaswami Naicker promoted a casteless society.
4. Nowadays, the caste hierarchy is breaking down.
   1. Reason: Economic development, the growth of literacy and education, the loss of power and position by landlords in the villages and occupational mobility.
5. But caste has NOT totally disappeared from present-day India.
6. Caste continues to be linked with economic status and access to education.

It is not politics that gets caste-ridden, it is the caste that gets politicised. This takes several forms:

1. Each caste tries to increase in numbers by including sub-castes or neighbouring states.
2. Various caste groups get into a coalition with other castes during elections.
3. New caste groups come up, like backward and forward caste groups.
4. Caste politics have helped Dalit and OBC castes to gain better access to decision making.
5. Political parties make demands, agitate against discrimination on the basis of caste. They demand more dignity, more resources, more opportunities.