The Commodification of Caste into Electoral Currency: Votes vs Justice
-Somudro
Any discussion about the role of identity in India is incomplete without taking caste into account. Although often ignored by those who have the privilege to ignore it, unless of course the discussion happens to be about reservations in competitive exams, caste has played and continues to play key roles in shaping social hierarchies, political representation, and economic opportunities throughout our nation’s history. It is fundamental to the Indian individual’s identity, and no one recognises this fact better than our politicians. For members of SC, ST and OBC communities represent that which governs the very force that allows them to stay in power - the vote bank.
The results of the 2024 General Elections in India proved that resistance from the Opposition on the grounds of caste based social justice and targeted welfare schemes were able to sway the vote of OBC and Dalit voters in critical Hindi heartland states. A report published by The Print notes how “the BJP and its allies have suffered a significant 5 percentage points loss in the Dalit vote share.” In light of these developments, the Centre’s sudden and uncharacteristic shift in favour of the caste census in May 2025, entirely contradicting the stance that they held the previous year when the same issue was brought up by members of the Opposition, accompanied by calculated attempts to change the narrative around and claim credit for the same, has raised a few brows. One cannot help but wonder whether the initiative is an earnest attempt at deepening social justice, or a calculated electoral rebranding to garner more votes.
The entire history of caste and caste politics in India is long, convoluted and well beyond the scope of this short essay. That being said, there are lessons one can learn from the past, and the following is clear. Caste based reservations alone are not a solution to the caste issue. Implemented in 1990, the Mandal Commission's function was to identify socially and backward castes (OBCs) in India and recommend quotas in government jobs and education to reduce caste-based inequality, a watershed development that expanded affirmative action beyond Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes. However, as noted by Aditya Nigam and Nivedita Menon in, Power and Contestation- India since 1989, following the government’s decision to implement the commission’s recommendations, “all hell broke loose. There were widespread violent agitations all over North India, with the sons and daughters of “respectable families” taking to the streets.”
Heated debates about ‘merit’ in online forums today, about reservations for SCs/STs and OBCs in government run educational institutions, oddly mirrors the upper caste backlash from decades ago. Menon and Nigam write, “The question was posed as one of dilution, if not the elimination, of merit at the cost of getting in “unworthy” and “undeserving” people simply because they happened to belong to certain castes. “Would you like to be operated upon by a doctor who had become one through reservations?” Politicians then were seeking to avoid the issue of caste, thinking that bringing caste into public discourse would set society off in a regressive direction, away from their idea of a secular and modern India. However the ground reality, (both past and present) diverges sharply from this ideal. Adequate representation is only one of many barriers faced by citizens belonging to SC/ST or OBC communities in India. For example, in October 2024, the Supreme Court had to intervene, to ensure that 18 year old Atul Kumar, a Dalit student from a working class family, was able to gain admission to IIT Dhanbad but faced a hurdle due to delayed fee payment, a case which highlights the inadequacy of reservations alone when it comes to helping push past caste based social and economic barriers. Citing Menon and Nigam again,“It needs to be remembered here that over the years, the banner of “reservations” has become a potent symbolic weapon of electoral mobilization used by most mainstream parties.”
Even today, the issue of caste is deeply ingrained in the psyche of the everyday Indian. A casual reading of the classifieds section of the newspaper, where parents seek prospective brides and grooms for their wards, mentions of ‘Brahmin’ or ‘Kayastha’ in the descriptions are far from uncommon. Stories of violence against members of Dalit communities are regular occurrences as well. Less than a month ago, as of writing this essay, a Dalit man was killed for allegedly addressing a teenage boy of a different caste as ‘beta’ (son). On the grassroots level, entities like the Bhim army and their political wing, the Azad Samaj Party, continue to actively engage with real problems by operating schools for Dalit children and organizing protests against lynching and land grabs. A Times of India report from February 2025 mentions that their demands include, “fair trial of SC/ST cases, with special courts established under Prevention of Atrocities Act; ban on closure reports by police, as there is a tendency to close SC/ST cases without probe; prompt distribution of compensation and financial aid; immediate arrests in SC/ST cases; and land protection for SC/ST communities, with action taken against people encroaching on their land.” In contrast to these measures, the Centre’s newfound insistence that the caste census is the ultimate solution to the social justice problems rampant in our country, does seem more performative than sincere, in a manner of speaking. It is undeniable that the initiative has potential, yes. We have had caste based surveys but no caste census since 1931. This data will absolutely be key in shaking up the status quo as things are, and pave the way for better and more inclusive policies and governance, and is a big part of why the Opposition has been pushing for this for so long. As to how it will be implemented, however, only time will tell. It is imperative that they follow through on this, and use the updated data for social betterment and progress.
Mainstream parties have an established history of capitalizing on the identity of individuals belonging to SC/ST/OBC communities and essentially reducing their existence to what really matters in any democracy - a vote bank. Welfare and affirmative action might be part of the solution, yes, but when undercut by the lack of a certain sensitivity or awareness in the populace, as a result of which individuals from SC, ST and Dalit communities continue to face persecution to this day, the solution does feel more like a band aid slapped hastily on to a gaping wound. Consequently, there is blood, and those in power continue to watch this blood flow, profiting in votes from systems they are yet to fix.
References:
Menon, Nivedita, and Aditya Nigam. Power and Contestation - India Since 1989. London, Zed Books Ltd, 2007.
https://theprint.in/opinion/the-sociology-of-2024-lok-sabha-elections-in-10-charts/2130168/
https://janataweekly.org/bjps-u-turn-on-caste-census-4-articles/
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