Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 344-345, December 2023.
Atul Mishra, The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan: Post-partition Statehood in South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021, 300 pp., ₹1,495.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications India: Studies in Indian Politics: Table of Contents
Book review: Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Where the Madness Lies: Citizen Accounts of Identity and Nationalism
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 347-349, December 2023.
Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Where the Madness Lies: Citizen Accounts of Identity and Nationalism. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2023, 287 pages, ₹950.
Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Where the Madness Lies: Citizen Accounts of Identity and Nationalism. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2023, 287 pages, ₹950.
Editorial Note
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 169-169, December 2023.
Mapping Class and Electoral Participation in India from 1996 to 2019
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 225-257, December 2023.
This article studies the relation between class and electoral participation. While the relation between political participation and many demographic variables such as caste, gender, age and location has been well researched in India, the same is not the case for the relation between class and electoral participation. Multiple measures of class (income, asset-wealth, occupation and education) are explored and conceptualized in this article, following which these measures of class are operationalized using the National Election Study datasets covering a twenty-three-year period (1996–2019). Each of these measures is used to trace the relation of class with two outcomes of electoral participation (turnout and party vote share) over time. Disaggregation by gender, locality and caste is provided. Finally, regression analysis to study the impact of these variables on turnout and vote share reveals the complexity of class. We find a complex picture of turnout and party choice with variation across different class measures. More significantly, variations in results raise questions about the usefulness of existing class indices. Further, we find that the type of measure being used affects different outcomes differently. For turnout, income and wealth seem to be better predictors, and for party vote share, subjective class is a better fit, whereas asset-wealth displays opposite patterns to income and subjective class in some instances.
This article studies the relation between class and electoral participation. While the relation between political participation and many demographic variables such as caste, gender, age and location has been well researched in India, the same is not the case for the relation between class and electoral participation. Multiple measures of class (income, asset-wealth, occupation and education) are explored and conceptualized in this article, following which these measures of class are operationalized using the National Election Study datasets covering a twenty-three-year period (1996–2019). Each of these measures is used to trace the relation of class with two outcomes of electoral participation (turnout and party vote share) over time. Disaggregation by gender, locality and caste is provided. Finally, regression analysis to study the impact of these variables on turnout and vote share reveals the complexity of class. We find a complex picture of turnout and party choice with variation across different class measures. More significantly, variations in results raise questions about the usefulness of existing class indices. Further, we find that the type of measure being used affects different outcomes differently. For turnout, income and wealth seem to be better predictors, and for party vote share, subjective class is a better fit, whereas asset-wealth displays opposite patterns to income and subjective class in some instances.
Caste, Class and Vote: Consolidation of the Privileged and Dispersal of Underprivileged
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 258-273, December 2023.
This article attempts to examine the combined impact of caste and class on voting choices. By using data from National Election Studies conducted by Lokniti from 1996 to 2019, the article seeks to situate the findings in the larger temporal frame of a quarter of a century. This allows us to also examine if changing patterns of party competition affect the impact of caste–class combined. The article argues that two patterns emerge: one is the consolidation of the more privileged social sections in terms of class and caste and the other is the dispersal of the less privileged. The latter, by virtue of their political dispersal, are unable to shape as a political force in both electoral politics and in agenda setting. This finding is partly an extension of the earlier findings that politics of backward castes hit a dead-end and politics of the poor never emerged as an all-India political alternative. Together with the earlier experience, the findings in this article throw light on the limits of democratization and on the prospects of politics of the less privileged sections across the country.
This article attempts to examine the combined impact of caste and class on voting choices. By using data from National Election Studies conducted by Lokniti from 1996 to 2019, the article seeks to situate the findings in the larger temporal frame of a quarter of a century. This allows us to also examine if changing patterns of party competition affect the impact of caste–class combined. The article argues that two patterns emerge: one is the consolidation of the more privileged social sections in terms of class and caste and the other is the dispersal of the less privileged. The latter, by virtue of their political dispersal, are unable to shape as a political force in both electoral politics and in agenda setting. This finding is partly an extension of the earlier findings that politics of backward castes hit a dead-end and politics of the poor never emerged as an all-India political alternative. Together with the earlier experience, the findings in this article throw light on the limits of democratization and on the prospects of politics of the less privileged sections across the country.
The Urban Voter: Emerging Trend and Changing Pattern
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 304-316, December 2023.
The recent phenomenon of growing urbanization in India has shifted the focus from rural vote to urban vote in electoral politics. The discussion on urban politics and urban vote revolves largely around two issues—first the issue of turnout and second, a somewhat different political choice among the urban voters compared to the rural voters. The two issues have been highlighted by the fact that urban constituencies have registered lower turnout compared to the turnout in rural constituencies. Among the former, the constituencies of big metropolitan cities register much lower turnout compared to the constituencies of small and medium towns. Results of various elections in the past indicate that the backbone of electoral support of the BJP during the late 1990s is its strong support among the urban voters. The BJP’s strong support base among the urban voters enabled it to emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha during the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections enabling it to form a coalition government along with other regional parties. This article tries to seek answers to the question, why do we see this distinct difference in voting patterns among rural and urban voters, especially till 2009 Lok Sabha elections, though it has changed somewhat during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections? Is it because the rural India and Urban India represent two different kinds of voters, or is it because the issues and concerns of rural and urban voters are vastly different from each other which make them vote differently?
The recent phenomenon of growing urbanization in India has shifted the focus from rural vote to urban vote in electoral politics. The discussion on urban politics and urban vote revolves largely around two issues—first the issue of turnout and second, a somewhat different political choice among the urban voters compared to the rural voters. The two issues have been highlighted by the fact that urban constituencies have registered lower turnout compared to the turnout in rural constituencies. Among the former, the constituencies of big metropolitan cities register much lower turnout compared to the constituencies of small and medium towns. Results of various elections in the past indicate that the backbone of electoral support of the BJP during the late 1990s is its strong support among the urban voters. The BJP’s strong support base among the urban voters enabled it to emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha during the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections enabling it to form a coalition government along with other regional parties. This article tries to seek answers to the question, why do we see this distinct difference in voting patterns among rural and urban voters, especially till 2009 Lok Sabha elections, though it has changed somewhat during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections? Is it because the rural India and Urban India represent two different kinds of voters, or is it because the issues and concerns of rural and urban voters are vastly different from each other which make them vote differently?
Electoral Participation and Political Choice Among Muslims
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 289-303, December 2023.
Muslims are the largest minority group in India. As a minority group, their electoral participation and expression has drawn wide religious attention of scholars. However, much of the discussion around Muslims’ electoral participation and political preference is either based on speculations or on sketchy field studies. This article, drawing upon large scale representative surveys, analyses Muslims’ electoral participation and choices since 1990s. It argues that inferences about the community’s electoral behaviour at the national level are misleading. Its electoral behaviour can better be understood by locating them in politically differentiated contexts.
Muslims are the largest minority group in India. As a minority group, their electoral participation and expression has drawn wide religious attention of scholars. However, much of the discussion around Muslims’ electoral participation and political preference is either based on speculations or on sketchy field studies. This article, drawing upon large scale representative surveys, analyses Muslims’ electoral participation and choices since 1990s. It argues that inferences about the community’s electoral behaviour at the national level are misleading. Its electoral behaviour can better be understood by locating them in politically differentiated contexts.
Anticipating the Threat of Democratic Majoritarianism: Ambedkar on Constitutional Design and Ideology Critique, 1941–1948
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 1, Page 66-84, June 2023.
This article analyses B. R. Ambedkar’s works written between 1941 and 1948, and it discerns a central set of concerns and arguments in this otherwise diverse corpus. It argues that since universal franchise as a political principle is uncontroversial, Ambedkar’s primary concern is geared towards the danger of democratic majoritarianism in a society riven by historically, legally and ideologically determined forms of inequality and their logic—a danger that can only be addressed at the dual levels of institutional design and ideological critique. Reading together Pakistan or the Partition of India and What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables, the initial sections argue that Ambedkar was critical of Congress and Muslim league politics because he saw in them both, albeit in distinct ways, the affirmation of religious identity as central to the formulation of political identity. Such an orientation, in the actual mechanics of mass politics and constitutional negotiation, is therefore read as inevitably leading to conflicts including demands for Partition, but at the same time such politics avoided fundamental questions of internal critique and instituted forms of socialized inequality. It is in this context, and the imminence of Partition, that the article analyses Ambedkar’s argument for the need of both a specific institutional design (constitutional provisions) and an ideology critique (his historical research including Who were the Sudras and The Untouchables). The analysis of the demand for partition and the category of the minority can only be understood through Ambedkar’s acute historical and theoretical understanding of the nation and its history, as well as the normative demands required for institutional justice, as will be shown through a reading of this corpus.
This article analyses B. R. Ambedkar’s works written between 1941 and 1948, and it discerns a central set of concerns and arguments in this otherwise diverse corpus. It argues that since universal franchise as a political principle is uncontroversial, Ambedkar’s primary concern is geared towards the danger of democratic majoritarianism in a society riven by historically, legally and ideologically determined forms of inequality and their logic—a danger that can only be addressed at the dual levels of institutional design and ideological critique. Reading together Pakistan or the Partition of India and What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables, the initial sections argue that Ambedkar was critical of Congress and Muslim league politics because he saw in them both, albeit in distinct ways, the affirmation of religious identity as central to the formulation of political identity. Such an orientation, in the actual mechanics of mass politics and constitutional negotiation, is therefore read as inevitably leading to conflicts including demands for Partition, but at the same time such politics avoided fundamental questions of internal critique and instituted forms of socialized inequality. It is in this context, and the imminence of Partition, that the article analyses Ambedkar’s argument for the need of both a specific institutional design (constitutional provisions) and an ideology critique (his historical research including Who were the Sudras and The Untouchables). The analysis of the demand for partition and the category of the minority can only be understood through Ambedkar’s acute historical and theoretical understanding of the nation and its history, as well as the normative demands required for institutional justice, as will be shown through a reading of this corpus.
Democracy in South Asia: An Expanding ‘Imagination’
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 1, Page 39-48, June 2023.
Democracy has become an accepted lexicon among ruling elites and the general public through the twentieth century. However, there are also doubts about its strength in the current century. Looking at survey data, this article attempts a first-cut analysis of citizens’ commitment to democracy. Taking an elected government as the primary principle of democracy, do citizens make concessions to non-elected decision-making processes? This article focuses on the five countries of South Asia to answer this question and arrives at the conclusion that there is often a large gap between a broader acceptance of democratic government as a principle and the more nuanced acceptance of democratic government as a necessary element of democracy.
Democracy has become an accepted lexicon among ruling elites and the general public through the twentieth century. However, there are also doubts about its strength in the current century. Looking at survey data, this article attempts a first-cut analysis of citizens’ commitment to democracy. Taking an elected government as the primary principle of democracy, do citizens make concessions to non-elected decision-making processes? This article focuses on the five countries of South Asia to answer this question and arrives at the conclusion that there is often a large gap between a broader acceptance of democratic government as a principle and the more nuanced acceptance of democratic government as a necessary element of democracy.
On the Editions of Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s The Buddha and His Dhamma
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 1, Page 85-101, June 2023.
This article seeks to outline the history of the addition of references to what is often considered Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s magnum opus, his posthumously published The Buddha and His Dhamma (1957). It discusses the original edition, the 1961 Hindi translation by Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan, which was the first to add references, the 1992 reprint of the original edition as Volume 11 of the collection Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches published by the Government of Maharashtra, and the 2011 ‘critical edition’ edited by Aakash Singh Rathore and Ajay Verma and published by Oxford University Press. Through a critical appraisal of these editions, the article aims to press the general need turned urgent for scholars of Ambedkar to produce competent scholarly editions of Ambedkar’s texts, especially his later writings, which were left incomplete and unpublished during his lifetime.
This article seeks to outline the history of the addition of references to what is often considered Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s magnum opus, his posthumously published The Buddha and His Dhamma (1957). It discusses the original edition, the 1961 Hindi translation by Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan, which was the first to add references, the 1992 reprint of the original edition as Volume 11 of the collection Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches published by the Government of Maharashtra, and the 2011 ‘critical edition’ edited by Aakash Singh Rathore and Ajay Verma and published by Oxford University Press. Through a critical appraisal of these editions, the article aims to press the general need turned urgent for scholars of Ambedkar to produce competent scholarly editions of Ambedkar’s texts, especially his later writings, which were left incomplete and unpublished during his lifetime.