'We (Yadavs) are a caste of politicians': Caste and modern politics in a north Indian town

Abstract

This article is an ethnographic exploration of the inter-locking relationships between politics, popular democracy, religion and caste/community formation in a North Indian town. This investigation is carried out through an analysis of the culture of political par ticipation of a community of Yadavs in Mathura town, western Uttar Pradesh. The Yadavs were traditionally a low- to middle-ranking cluster of pastoral-peasant castes that have become a significant political force in Uttar Pradesh (and other northern states like Bihar) in the last thirty years. The article demonstrates how the successful formation of a Yadav community , and the political activism of its members in Mathura, are partly linked to their descent view of caste, folk theories of religious descent, factionalism, and finally to their cultural understanding of 'the past' and 'the political'. It is concluded that Yadav socio-religious organisation directly and indirectly helped the Yadav community to adapt to the modern political world.