Rise of the Plebeians? : The Changing Face of the Indian Legislative Assemblies

For decades, India has been a conservative democracy governed by the upper caste notables coming from the urban bourgeoisie, the landowning aristocracy and the intelligentsia. The democratisation of the ‘world’s largest democracy’ started with the rise of peasants’ parties and the politicisation of the lower castes who voted their own representatives to power as soon as they emancipated themselves from the elite’s domination. In Indian state politics, caste plays a major role and this book successfully studies how this caste-based social diversity gets translated into politics. This is the first comprehensive study of the sociological profile of Indian political personnel at the state level. It examines the individual trajectory of 16 states, from the 1950s to 2000s, according to one dominant parameter—the evolution of the caste background of their elected representatives known as Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs. The study also takes into account other variables like occupation, gender, age and education. Cover Rise of the Plebeians?: The Changing Face of Indian Legislative Assemblies Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations Glossary Foreword Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part I The Hindi Belt towards Social Engineering 1 The Marginalisation of the Savarnas in Uttar Pradesh? 2 Bihar: The New Stronghold of OBC Politics 3 The Uneven Rise of Lower Castes in the Politics of Madhya Pradesh Part II The North-western Pattern 4 Legislative Elite in Punjab: A Socio-political Study 5 Towards Jat Empowerment in Rajasthan 6 Gujarat: When Patels Resist the Kshatriyas Part III The Reign of Dominant Castes in the Deccan 7 Maharashtra or Maratha Rashtra? 8 Legislators in Karnataka: Well-entrenched Dominant Castes 9 Two Dominant Castes: The Socio-political System in Andhra Pradesh Part IV Tribal States? 10 Jharkhand: Between Tribal Mobilisation and the Rise of the OBC 11 Tribals, OBC, Reformist Movements and Mainstream Politics in Chhattisgarh Part V Where the Upper Castes Resist 12 The Resilient Bhadralok: A Profile of the West Bengal MLAs 13 Socio-Economic Background of Legislators in Kerala Part VI The Domain of Proportionality 14 Himachal Pradesh: Well-established Domination of Majoritarian Upper Castes 15 Changing Face of Delhi’s Politics: Has it Changed the Face of the Political Representatives? Part VII The Tamil Exception: The Subalternist Tradition 16 Caste and Beyond in Tamil Politics About the Editors Notes on Contributors This is the first comprehensive study of the sociological profile of Indian political personnel at the state level. It examines the individual trajectory of 16 states, from the 1950s to 2000s, exploring the evolution of the caste background of their elected representatives known as Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs. Contributed articles on the caste membership of the members of state-level legislative assemblies of India.