User:Shriya175/Caste politics

Legend:

plain text- original mainspace prose

bold text- my additions

italicised text- my copyedited prose

Caste-based mobilisation
'''The rise of caste-based mobilisation allowed marginalized caste groups to move past the mere consolations of legislative abolition, extending caste into the political frameworks. The term refers to the 'second democratic upsurge' from the late 1980s with high voter turnout and representation of lower-caste communities in state and national assemblies. Caste-based political mobilizations carried out by regional parties, like the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, challenged the long-standing majority of the Indian National Congress, especially in agrarian settings. The objective was caste-empowerment, aimed at resisting the inequalities perpetuated by the oppression of powerful upper-caste bureaucracies and governments. Regional political parties tapped into frustrations of marginalization by lower-caste communities. However the rise of caste politics has not necessarily resulted in developmental gains for those at the bottom of the caste ladder. '''

Studies have published which presented evidence would suggested that the influence of caste has been declining since the mid-1990s, including areas in rural India where the higher class castes held greater dominance over lower class castes, and also in urban interaction and hereditary occupations. Rather than a long-established, unchanging institution, caste is subject to political influence. Changes in political leadership throughout the history of India have led to changes in the structure of the caste system. India's colonial past has shaped caste into a flexible institution, generating a new system that has crucial influences on political mobilisation. In some regions of India, strategic reconstructions of the caste system have taken place. For instance, the Bahujan Samaj Party in the state of Punjab was first initiated by urban political entrepreneurs who belonged to the former lower caste groups. The pliable caste system in the post-independence era acts as a tool for identifying marginal groups and political mobilisation. Various political leaderships can alter and influence the caste system to give different groups of people unequal rights in accessing public services and political competition.

'''A distinct feature of lower caste mobilization in North India is the importance of ‘Sanskritization’ as ideological grounds; by comparison, ‘ethnicization’ has been more prevalent in West and South India. Sanskritization refers to the process of emulation that lower castes may adopt, to enhance their status in society by mirroring Brahminical (upper caste) rituals and values. In contrast, ethnicization endeavors to establish a separate identity for a lower caste group because the objective is to produce “nonhierarchical social imaginaries.” For instance, the Yadav caste group did not resort to inventing a Dravidian identity to position themselves against the Aryan identity, as leaders in the South and the West had done. Instead, the key logic was to enhance their status by identifying themselves within the Aryan group. At the same time, it is important to note that the two processes are not mutually exclusive and in fact, most leaders wanted to develop separate identities from the dominant culture. The prominent influence of Sanskritization meant that mobilizations in the North were restricted by conforming to the existing hierarchies, and in practical terms, this reinforced the dominance of elites within a specific region.'''