Issues

India. Castes in Politics

Eugenia Yurlova

Religiia i obshchestvo na Vostoke, Issue I (2017), p. 69-125.

 
The caste system is one of the oldest institutions of public life in India. Deeply rooted in the religious ideas of the Hindus and built on a strict hierarchical subordination, it played for many centuries a huge role in the cultural, social and economic relations in this country. Despite of the fact that the caste system has undergone many transformations adjusting to the changes of times, especially after India attained independence, caste remains an important feature of India’s socio-economic and cultural life and a serious factor for the development of the Indian society. Castes experience internal change and at the same time change the society. This process, as well as the role of the caste in politics, is largely a result of the complex processes taking place in today's India. It is, of course, not easy to reconcile the socio-economic and political interests of communities in a society as diverse as that of India, as its complexity of unique religious stratification does not lose its relevance even as it continues to reform.
The social and economic change experienced in India over the last century has been quite significant. However, caste continues to be an important, even critical, variable in the manner in which inequalities are structured and reproduced. Despite notable positive changes in Indian society, caste system manifests itself quite strongly in the realm of politics and in many respects continues to be the base of social organization. The Indian political system with its parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage, the role of caste based on the ancient Hindu worldviews has not only decreased, but even increased. And this in many ways paradoxical phenomenon requires further study.

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Keywords: caste, politics, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, conversion

Volume: 69-125