India and Democracy : Promotion and Electoral Participation of the Low Castes and of the Untouchables

Globalization and democratic governance | India and democracy : promotion and electoral participation of the low castes and of the Untouchables. | | | | Semester one – 2012 | |

Table of contents Introduction: India and the system of castes. 2 I) The promotion of the low castes and the untouchables within the Indian political system: a "Silent revolution". 4 1) The processes of positive discrimination towards the untouchables: a political and social promotion at first limited which does not question the domination of elites. 5 2) The difficult expansion of the measures of positive discrimination towards the other low castes. 8 3) The advent of the caste inside the Indian political system and the effective promotion of the low castes and the untouchables. 10 II) The political and electoral participation of the low castes and the untouchables: general elements and case study. 13 1) The vote of the low castes and the untouchables or the necessity to overstep the illiteracy. 13 2) The electoral participation of the low castes and the untouchables: a community vote? 15 3) Case study: Kumari Mayawati and the political participation of the low castes and the untouchables. 17 Conclusion: The future of the low castes and the untouchables in India. 19 Bibliography: 20

Introduction: India and the system of castes. Nowadays, India is a country internationally recognized for the quality and the health of its democracy. India is indeed a democracy endowed with a stable parliamentary system for more than half a century and even a democracy with alternating for more than twenty five years. Besides, the justice is there independent, the political parties tend to pluralism and the press is free. India thus verifies for more than sixty years essential criteria of democracy, what makes it a unique case among developing countries. However, if the effective political democratization of India can’t be denied, the social

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