Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

People belonging to the Scheduled Castes have had a long history of being discriminated against, exploited and placed at the bottom of caste society. After the enactment of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, measures such as quota within ordinary seats in the Panchayats as well as among the office-bearers have been introduced to overcome indignities endured through history by members of the Scheduled Castes. Notwithstanding these reservations, there is still strong resistance among those of higher castes (just above that of the Scheduled Castes in many cases), who have not been enthusiastic about reservations of the post of Panchayat president for Scheduled Caste people. What needs to be seen is whether the people of Scheduled Castes are able to participate, or whether they have been prevented from doing so, by the castes that are higher to them, as well as those that are dominant in the area of the Grama Panchayats. This article discusses certain issues that are related to the participation of Scheduled Castes in the Panchayats of Karnataka.

Keywords

Panchayats reservation Scheduled Castes dominant caste participation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Banerjee

Abhijit

Somanathan

Rohini

(2007). The political economy of public goods: Some evidence from India. Journal of Development Economics, 82(2): 287–314.

Buchanan

Allen

(2002). Political legitimacy and democracy. Ethics, 112(4): 689–719.

Chandrashekhar

(2009). Caste, party and democratic decentralisation in Karnataka. In Baviskar

B. S.

Mathew

(Eds), Inclusion and exclusion in local governance: Field studies from rural India. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Chauchard

Simon

(2013). Can electoral quotas affect beliefs about a disadvantaged group? Evidence from rural India. Retrieved 14 July 2013, from http://www.brown.edu/initiatives/india/sites/brown.edu.initiatives.india/files/uploads/ElectQuotas_CHAUCHARD_final.pdf

Childs

Sarah

Lovenduski

Joni

(2012, forthcoming). Political representation. In Waylen

Georgina

Celis

Karen

Kantola

Johanna

Weldon

Laurel

(Eds), The Oxford handbook of gender and politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Desai

Sonalde

Dubey

Amaresh

(2011). Caste in 21st century India: Competing Narratives. Economic & Political Weekly, 46(11): 40–49.

Grafstein

Robert

(1981). The failure of Weber’s conception of legitimacy: Its causes and implication. The Journal of Politics, 43(2): 456–72.

Inbanathan

Anand

Sivanna

(2012). Politics of exclusion: The case of Panchayats in South India. Social and Economic Change Monographs (No. 29), ISEC, Bangalore.

Inbanathan

Anand

Gopalappa

D. V.

(2003). Fixers, patronage, ‘fixing’ and local governance in Karnataka. Sociological Bulletin, 52(2): 164–85.

10.

Inbanathan

Anand

(1999). Decentralisation and affirmative action: The case of panchayats in Karnataka. Journal of Social and Economic Development, 2(2): 269–86.

11.

Kapur

Devesh

Bhan

Prasad, Chandra

Lant

Pritchett,

Shyam

Babu, D.

(2010). Rethinking inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the market reform era. Economic & Political Weekly, 45(35): 39–49.

12.

Kaviraj

Sudipta

(2012). The empire of democracy: Reading Indian politics through Tocqueville. In Chatterjee

Katznelson

(Eds), Anxities of democracy (pp. 21–49). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

13.

Leiten

G. K.

Srivastava

(1999). Unequal partners: Power relations, devolution and development in Uttar Pradesh. New Delhi: SAGE.

14.

Leiten

G. K.

(1996). Panchayats in western Uttar Pradesh: ‘Namesake’ members. Economic and Political Weekly, 31(39): 2700–05.

15.

Manor

James

(1972). Political change in an Indian state, Mysore 1917–1955. New Delhi: Manohar.

16.

Manor

James

(2010). Local government. In Jayal

Mehta

(Eds), Oxford companion to politics in India (pp. 61–79). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

17.

Mansbridge

Jane

(1999). Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? A Contingent ‘Yes’. The Journal of Politics, 61(3): 628–57.

18.

Mathew

George

Baviskar

B. S.

(2009). Inclusion and exclusion in local governance: Field studies from rural India. New Delhi: SAGE.

19.

Phillips

Anne

(1995). The politics of presence. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

20.

Pitkin

Hanna F.

(1967). The concept of representation. Berkeley, Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

21.

Shah

Ghanshyam

Mander

Harsh

Thorat

S. K.

Deshpande

Satish

Baviskar

Amita

. (2006). Untouchability in rural India. New Delhi: SAGE.

22.

Srinivas

M. N.

(1987). The dominant caste in Rampura. In The dominant caste and other essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

23.

Stillman

Peter

(1974). The concept of legitimacy. Polity, 7(1): 32–56.

24.

Young

Iris Marion

(2002). Inclusion and democracy. Oxford: OUP.

Politics of Exclusion: The Case of Scheduled Castes in the Panchayats of Karnataka

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References