Caste Politics
Ramy Mostafa
111313
Political Science gr.2
The Political System in India Caste Politics
Introduction
India is a multicultural and multilingual country. Indian society is broadly divided into four groups. Forward communities (FC) are communities from caste and religion who do not qualify government of India reservation benefits; Backward Communities (BC), Scheduled Castes (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were the underprivileged groups. D.r Br. Ambedkar introduced the reservation and preferential quota which guarantees seats in the government for the BC, SC and ST. India has a multi party system ruled by small regional parties. In Andhra Pradesh (AP) exist a conflict between the two caste, the Reddy’s and the kamma’s. Presently two political parties Congress and Telugu Desam Party constitute A.P politics. The central questions investigated are twofold: (1) is caste being perpetuated by politics in Andhra Pradesh, India? (2) Does the selection of leaders on the basis of caste hinder the economic, social, political development of a state? To answer these questions we use questionnaires and interview data from the ruling party officials, and also a focus group of people from the districts that I will use in my case study.
Literature review
This section reviews the relevant literature that would help me gathering information on the political system in India. This section begins by providing past issues concerning casteism in Indian politics and than describes the economic, social and political development of a state.
With regard to this literature, division of human beings based on a hierarchal system of caste can be first seen in the ancient Indian text, Manusmriti written by Manu in 200 BCE. In India Hindu is a dominating religion. There is a division of the society based on Manusmriti dividing the Hindu caste into four different principal categories. The Brahmins representing the
111313
Political Science gr.2
The Political System in India Caste Politics
Introduction
India is a multicultural and multilingual country. Indian society is broadly divided into four groups. Forward communities (FC) are communities from caste and religion who do not qualify government of India reservation benefits; Backward Communities (BC), Scheduled Castes (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were the underprivileged groups. D.r Br. Ambedkar introduced the reservation and preferential quota which guarantees seats in the government for the BC, SC and ST. India has a multi party system ruled by small regional parties. In Andhra Pradesh (AP) exist a conflict between the two caste, the Reddy’s and the kamma’s. Presently two political parties Congress and Telugu Desam Party constitute A.P politics. The central questions investigated are twofold: (1) is caste being perpetuated by politics in Andhra Pradesh, India? (2) Does the selection of leaders on the basis of caste hinder the economic, social, political development of a state? To answer these questions we use questionnaires and interview data from the ruling party officials, and also a focus group of people from the districts that I will use in my case study.
Literature review
This section reviews the relevant literature that would help me gathering information on the political system in India. This section begins by providing past issues concerning casteism in Indian politics and than describes the economic, social and political development of a state.
With regard to this literature, division of human beings based on a hierarchal system of caste can be first seen in the ancient Indian text, Manusmriti written by Manu in 200 BCE. In India Hindu is a dominating religion. There is a division of the society based on Manusmriti dividing the Hindu caste into four different principal categories. The Brahmins representing the
Bibliography: Caste, society and politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the modern age, Susan Bayly Caste in Indian politics – Rajni Kothari The Times of India – Netas woo devtas, 8 November 2003 Earnings inequality in India: summon Kumar Bhaumik and Manisha Chakrabarty Practical research methods for media and cultural studies, Maire Messenger Davies and Nick Mosdell Dirty politics: Reddy’s and Kamma’s caste politics in Andhra Pradesh Writing your dissertation, Derek Swetnam