Caste Associations in the Post-Mandal Era: Notes from Maharashtra
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Caste Associations in the Post-Mandal Era: Notes from Maharashtra Rajeshwari Deshpande Department of Politics & Public Administration, University of Pune 1 Preface We are happy to bring out this Occasional Paper under the series of Occasional Papers under the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) of this Department. The series of Occasional Papers will mostly consist of research work done by the faculty members of the Department. The purpose of this series is to make available to students, researchers, college teachers and colleagues the ‘work-in-progress’ that has benefited from the resources of the CAS. The Department is currently running the first phase of the CAS after successful completion of three phases of Special Assistance Programme of the UGC from 1991 onwards. During those fifteen years, the Department initiated the practice of publishing Occasional papers and many have been subsequently revised and published separately or as part of edited books. We hope that this series will also help in disseminating the research work of the Department and benefit students and researchers. The CAS was granted by the UGC for the period 2008-13 and was inaugurated in January 2009. The thrust area of research is Indian Politics with the theme of State of Democracy in India in Global Context. This paper by Professor Rajeshwari Deshpande is based on her ongoing work continuing from her research project for the BCUD on Caste Associations. We are thankful to her for preparing the draft and giving the same to CAS for publication. We are also thankful to the reviewer who did the peer review of the draft. Coordinator, CAS 2 Caste Associations in Maharashtra Introduction Three kinds of processes shaping around caste have attracted attention of students of Indian politics and society towards the study of caste in the more recent period. The first kind of changes are in the economic sphere where the traditional links between caste and occupation are breaking (although slowly) and complex patterns of intra and inter caste economic stratification are emerging. The second type of changes are related to the processes of politicization of caste. These processes have unleashed intricate patterns of interaction between caste and democratic politics in India and have become extremely important as politics enters the post Mandal era. The third kind of changes are taking shape in the sphere of caste identity. There are two opposite and yet related processes shaping around caste. On the one hand, the attempts to construct caste blocs and thus redefine boundaries of caste; are going on. On the other hand, the rediscovery of caste as a resource has meant the rise of single caste organizations. Investigations about the contemporary location of caste acquire an immensely interesting character in the wake of these changes. The present paper tries to investigate a slice of the contemporary caste reality and the complications surrounding it in its study of select caste associations from Maharashtra. Unlike the traditional caste panchayats, the caste associations emerged in a more modern setting and mainly served mobilisational/political rather than regulative/ sanctimonious functions. The arrival of these associations symbolized an important adaptive moment in the journey of caste, as caste prepared to operate in the modern democratic context. We try to investigate here the most recent phase of the journey in which caste became the dominant idiom of politics and caste associations contributed in myriad ways to the shaping of the idiom. We may highlight three distinctive moments in India’s political history when caste was exposed to democratic power play. These moments decisively influenced not only the nature of caste but also altered the ways in which democratic politics was conceptualized and practiced. The first moment came in the early 1920s when the idea of democracy was introduced to the Indians as a 3 part of the official colonial discourse. The constitutional reform package, what was popularly known as the Montagu Chelmsford reforms, extended in 1919, initiated a wide debate on issues related to democratic rights and representation and caste rights were articulated for the first time at that moment. These debates were revived, albeit in a new context, with the formal inaugural of the democratic project in the post independence period. This phase was marked by the process of politicization of caste- both in the context of unfolding of the electoral democracy and also in the wake of the state practices legitimizing caste through policies of affirmative action. The institutional logic behind the policies of affirmative action combined with the patterns of post independence capitalist development and unevenly shaped democratic claims during the past five odd decades ushered in the most recent phase of caste politics interaction in the Indian politics. This phase emerged in the context of mandalisation of politics in which backward caste groups articulated caste rights mainly in terms of rights of representation. Associations of castes and caste groups always played an important role as mediating agencies at all these stages of development of the caste politics interaction. Earlier studies of caste associations (Kothari, 1970; Rudolph and Rudolph 1967; Shah, 1975; Hardgrave, 1969) discussed their role in the process of secularization, politicization and democratization of caste. For Kothari, the emerging democratic framework in India had two implications for the working of the caste system. One is that the caste system provided structural ideological bases for political mobilization. On the other hand, in its efforts to appropriate the power structure of the caste system, modern politics had to make consultations with the local bases of power. These two processes led to emergence of a more complex power structure of the caste system and the newly emerging caste associations became an important aspect of this power structure (Kothari, 1970: 9-10). The complex power structures led to formation of new caste identities on the basis of more secular- political/ material interests. The first efforts to mobilize caste in the secular democratic context arrived in the late colonial period. The history of most of the present day caste associations therefore typically goes back to the late 19 th / early 20 th century when they prepared ground for caste to operate in the changing social context. Carroll argues that the arrival of caste organizations in particular and caste polemics in general in the late 19 th early 20 th century was an unintended but direct consequence 4 of the foreign definitions of Indian society (Carroll, 1978; 233). The colonial classifications and categories of division had important political and economic repercussions in the changing social context. In order to manage these repercussions the early caste associations put forward twin demands of material and cultural- ritual up gradation of the community to the colonial power (Carroll, 1975 and 1978; Templeman, 1996; Khare, 1970). The practices of democracy in the post independence context altered the role of caste associations in a significant way. There was a clear shift from sacred to secular in the work of these organizations and that undermined the hold of traditional culture and society. The organizations acquired a secular form as they made demands on the state for up gradation of the position of their caste in social hierarchy, for extension of privileges and rights for the community and generally worked towards upward mobility of the group. These claims were essentially political in nature. The leadership of the caste organizations depended on the capacity to articulate and represent these claims in the political sphere. In order to operate effectively in politics the organizations became moral formal with elected office bearers and registered members. Caste associations of the sixties created conditions under which local sub castes could be linked together in geographically extended associations. Rudolphs refer to them as ‘para communities’ that resemble voluntary associations or interest groups (Rudolph and Rudolph, 1967; 36). Caste associations of the early post-independence period acquired the form of an adaptive institution where traditional and modern social features can meet and fuse. They contributed a great deal in gradually leveling the sacred, hierarchical caste order and replacing it under the new political circumstances. Formation of caste associations led to homogenizing of the caste identities on the one hand and also to the democratization of caste in the long run. Although the democratic politics introduced several profound changes in the working of the traditional caste system, caste did not completely disappear as a result of these. Instead, from a static system of stratification caste changed its form to a more dynamic base of competition and integration and accommodated itself with politics. The dynamic interactions of caste and democratic politics in the sixties traditionalized Indian politics and caste became a legitimate platform for political 5 mobilization. Politics, on the other hand, secularized and politicized caste leading to complex versions of identity politics in the later period. Politics of caste acquired a new tone in the post Mandal phase and provided a new visibility to the associations of castes. The politics of Mandal contributed to the process of regionalization of politics and to the already emerging multipolar competitions in the electoral arena.