Negotiating Order: An Empirical Investigation of Variation in Caste Discrimination in Gujarat, India by Priyamvada Trivedi A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science) in The University of Michigan 2018 Doctoral Committee: Professor Christian Davenport, Chair Professor Ronald Inglehart Professor Rory McVeigh, University of Notre Dame Associate Professor Brian Min Associate Professor Kentaro Toyama Priyamvada Trivedi [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6565-2737 © Priyamvada Trivedi 2018 DEDICATION Will H. Moore ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank my committee members – Christian Davenport, Brian Min, Ronald Inglehart, Kentaro Toyama and Rory McVeigh – for their support and encouragement in finishing this dissertation. Christian, thank you for giving me the freedom to explore questions from multiple perspectives. While it contributed to me getting lost several times, I think, it made me a better researcher. During the past few years I have asked myself repeatedly about how can we truly know something. Knowing that we can’t made me question the entire enterprise but then you have been a living example of doing our best to know something. Because doing our best is all we can do. Thank you for providing me opportunities to travel, meet people (who would change my life in ways I could never imagine) and build friendships. But most importantly thank you for helping me see that what makes us and our research is our community or like you say “our village”. I will endeavor to do the same wherever I go. Brian, thank you for having faith in me when I had none. Every time you said – “I believe in you. I know you can do it” – it gave my depleting faith-fund a huge boost. Thank you for guiding me through all the practicalities of finishing a dissertation. Working with you has taught me the huge difference between thinking and doing. While the doing has been very difficult, it was necessary to calibrate the thinking. Thank you for meeting with me regularly, to go over the prospectus until I had a defensible one. Thank you for all your patience and wisdom these past six years. Ron, thank you for your encouragement and reminding me of the importance of the topic. I think it easy to forget the larger picture once we are in the weeds of actually iii completing a dissertation. But your presence was a constant reminder of the larger picture. Kentaro, thank you for agreeing to be a part of my dissertation committee on a short notice. The few times we chatted were valuable and I hope we can work on something together in the future. Rory, thank you for rooting for me. I have been intimidated by you but I think that has helped me move in the direction of doing more thorough research. The data collection for this dissertation was made possible by funding that I received from the University of Michigan’s International Institute. The writing and final completion of the manuscript was supported by the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship. As a graduate student, I often heard Christian say that “it takes a village” in varying contexts from building datasets to publishing a paper and of course to completing a PhD. I never understood what he meant but with time the truth of that phrase began to sink in. Writing this dissertation was not easy. It could not have been completed without the friendship, humor, encouragement, love, patience and kindness of my village: My family - Arjun Trivedi, Poonam Trivedi, Ashok Trivedi, our dogs who made home truly feel like home, Boisahabi, Harry, Nalini Pandey, Gyanendra Pandey, Krishna Kant Tripathi, Shail Tripathi, Ravi Pandey, Rishi Pandey, Kushagra Tripathi, Krishaan Tripathi, Vandana Tripathi, Ajay Shukla, Manju Shukla, Anshu Shukla, Manu Awasthi, Pratima Awasthi, and Vasundhara Awasthi. My friends - Ambika Aiyadurai, Rajat Agarwal, Adrian Arellano, Alison Beatty, Meredith Blank, Rob Carroll, Charles Crabtree, Kanchi Daiya, Urvi Desai, Utpala Desai, Anamika Dey, Krishna Kanti Dey, Mridula Dey, Shammi Didla, Debarati Dutta, Manali Goswami, Rashmi Goyal, Meghna Jain, Manish Jain, Maanas Jain, Isaac Jenkins, Priyum Jyoti, Julia Kamin, Carla Maria Kayanan, Jane Kitaevich, Jule Krüger, Abhishek Kumar, iv Shailaja Kunda, Nihar Kumble, Reena Liberman, Thomas Leavitt, Leslee Lazar, Stephen Lett, Cyanne Loyle, Tamarie Macon, Kathryn Mansfield, Anil Ramachandran Menon, Vandana Mishra, Sangeeta Misra, Zachary O’Keeffe, Sandeep Pandey, Meenal Patel, Pedro Pombo, Heather Price, Shweta Ramdas, Mr. Barrett Robinson, Mrs. Sahewalla, Carter Scott, Juliet Seignious, Amita Shah, Albana Shehaj, Aditi Singh, Shaivalini Singh, Christopher Sullivan, Tameesh Suri, Carly Wayne, Alton Worthington, Seemaben, Motiben, Meenaben, Vijaybhai, Lalu Da, Sujata Didi, and Aruna Didi. I would like to especially thank Manu Awasthi, Charles Crabtree, Jule Krüger, Shailaja Kunda, Aditi Singh and Arjun Trivedi for quick and helpful feedback on my chapters. Jule Krüger kept me accountable. The thought of giving her updates every Monday on my dissertation progress for the last few months pushed me to actually keep my promises. I have had the opportunity to interact and work with some great faculty through my time as a graduate student. I would like to thank David Armstrong, Christian Davenport, Phoebe Ellsworth, Christopher Fariss, Robert Franzese, Richard Gonzalez, Ronald Inglehart, James Lepkowski, Arthur Lupia, Rory McVeigh, Rob Mickey, Brian Min, Will Moore, Ragnhild Nordås, Sarah Soule, Christian Smith, Mim Thomas, Rocio Titiunik, Kentaro Toyama, Ernesto Verdeja, and Yuri Zhukov. I thank the Conflict & Peace, Research & Development (CPRD) group in Michigan. Honestly, I have always been terrified of presenting my work but the feedback I received from these workshops made me work harder, gradually feel more confident and truly realize the indispensability of a research community. The Dissertation Writing Group (DWG) organized by the Sweetland Writing Center was a very valuable experience. I would like to thank Elise Bodei, Kathryn Cardenas and Nicole Rutherford for guiding me through the Political Science Graduate program at Michigan. I don’t think there is a question that they cannot answer or help find the answer! Catherine Morse, the Law and Political Science librarian at The Hatcher Graduate Library made it possible to v acquire the entire The Times of India archive in a text format. Jeffrey Martin, the Librarian for South Asian Studies and anthropology helped me track down data sources. Thank you for your resourcefulness! The staff at the Advanced Research Computing - Technology Services - Charles Antonelli, Mark Champe, Bennet Fauber, Nancy Herlocher, and Mark Montague were very helpful. Thank you for meeting with me whenever I needed your help and for answering all my questions. There was no question that was too small or big for you. In Ahmedabad, I would like to thank the Navsarjan team - Martin Macwan and Manjula Pradeep, the team at the Center for Social Knowledge and Action (SETU) - Achyut Yagnik and Ashokbhai Shrimali, and Keshab Das and Minal Sheth at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research. I think anyone who works on any aspect Gujarat, must visit Achyut Yagnik. He is welcoming and is willing to chat for long lengths of time over cups of chai! Others who I have not met but who have helped me with my research – Francesa Refsum Jensenius, Raphael Susewind and John Wood. Thank you for your generosity, sharing your experiences, and your data. And still others who have been with me on this journey and who I have forgotten to mention, thank you. And lastly, Manu, you have truly demonstrated what it means to love unconditionally. Thank you for being a living example of what I aspire to be someday. Although you really need to start separating the dishes in the sink! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x ABSTRACT xii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1.0 Introduction 1 1.2.0 The What and Why of Caste and Untouchability 5 1.3.0 Literature Critique 8 1.4.0 The Argument in Brief 24 1.5.0 Research Design and Methods 26 1.6.0 Dissertation outline 30 1.7.0 Appendix A – 1911 Census of Baroda State 31 Chapter 2: A Framework for Understanding Variation in Untouchability 2.1.0 Introduction 32 2.2.0 Colonial India – PriVatizing Caste. 35 2.3.0 Making Caste Legal and Untouchability Illegal in an Independent Nation 42 2.4.0 Independent India – Bargaining Between the State and Village-Level Upper-Caste Elites 45 2.5.0 Independent India – Reinterpretation of Caste Rules at the Village-Level 48 2.6.0 The Joint Production of Untouchability 53 2.7.0 Conclusion 55 vii Chapter 3: An Exploratory Investigation Into How Caste Discrimination is Framed in The Times of India 3.1.0 Introduction 57 3.2.0 Research Design: Data, Methods and Results 59 3.3.0 Conclusion 78 Chapter 4: Quantifying Untouchability 4.1.0 Introduction 79 4.2.0 Conceptualization 80 4.3.0 Data 87 4.4.0 Operationalization 93 4.5.0 Conclusion 106 4.6.0 Appendix B – 98 forms of untouchability 107 Chapter 5: Analyzing the Variation in Caste Discrimination Using a Regression Framework 5.1.0 Introduction 113 5.2.0 Data and Research Design 115 5.3.0 Results 125 5.4.0 Robustness Checks 130 5.5.0 Conclusion 133 5.6.0 Appendix C – Village-Level Dataset (extra variables) 134 Chapter 6: Conclusion 6.1.0 Introduction 139 6.2.0 Summarizing the Dissertation 141 6.3.0 Contributions of the Dissertation 147 6.4.0 Identifiable Shortcomings and Future Research Agenda 150 References 153 viii LIST OF TABLES