Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Caste played a very marginal role in the politics of Left-ruled West Bengal. Due to the tendency of the Left Front to view politics solely through the prism of class, the field of political contestation was structured and configured in a manner that caste was robbed of its political possibilities. Today, the electoral decline of the Left has given rise to increasing speculation regarding the enhanced scope of caste-based mobilization. In this connection, this article seeks to understand whether the electoral decline of the Left has brought about in the existing socio-political configuration any fundamental change that can facilitate the rise of caste at the big stage of electoral politics. The investigation, attempted by this article in this context, reveals that the traditional limitations unfavourable to caste-based political mobilization largely continue in the same form. It may apparently seem that the electoral decline of the Left has created a perfect ground for caste-based identity politics to flourish, but the sustained assertion of caste identity is still beset by the traditional structural constraints due to the unaltered socio-political dynamics. As a result, the developments which a few years ago raised hopes about political incarnation of caste have largely petered out.

Keywords

Caste Left TMC Matua

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bakshi

(2008). Social inequality in land ownership in India: A study with particular reference to West Bengal. Social Scientist, 36(9–10), 95–116.

Banerjee

(2010). Leadership and political work. In Price

and Ruud

A. E.

(Eds), Power and influence in India: Bosses, lords and captains (pp. 21–42). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Bhattacharyya

(2011). Party society, its consolidation and crisis: Understanding political change in rural West Bengal. In Ghosh

, Thakurta

T. Guha

and Nair

(Eds), Theorising the present: Essays for Partha Chatterjee (pp. 227–249). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Chatterjee

(1997). The present history of West Bengal. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Chatterjee

(2009). The coming crisis in West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly, 44(9), 42–45.

Chatterjee

(2012). Historicising caste in Bengal politics. Economic and Political Weekly, 47(50), 69–70.

Chatterjee

(2016). Partition and the mysterious disappearance of caste in Bengal. In Chandra

, Heiestad

and Nielsen

K. B.

(Eds), Politics of caste in West Bengal (pp. 83–102). New Delhi: Routledge.

Government of India. (2015). Crime in India 2014. New Delhi: National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs.

Kohli

(1990). From elite radicalism to democratic consolidation: The rise of reform communism in West Bengal. In Rao

M. S. A.

and Frankel

(Eds), Dominance and state power in modern India: Decline of a social order (vol. 2, pp. 367–416). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

10.

Kohli

(1997). From breakdown to order: West Bengal. In Chatterjee

(Ed.), State and politics in India (pp. 336–366). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

11.

Kohli

(2006). The state and poverty in India: The politics of reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Kumar

, & Guha

(2014). The political future of caste in West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(32), 73–74.

13.

Mukherjee

(2014, December 6). For decades citizenship card rules Matua fate. Times of India, p. 15.

14.

Mukhopadhyay

(1994). Politics in West Bengal. The Indian Journal of Political Science, 55(3), 321–334.

15.

Nielsen

K. B.

(2015). ‘Community’ and the politics of caste, class, and representation in the Singur movement, West Bengal. In Nilsen

A. G.

and Roy

(Eds), New subaltern politics: Reconceptualizing hegemony and resistance in contemporary India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

16.

Nossiter

T. J.

(1988). Marxist state governments in India. London: Pinter Publishers.

17.

Ray

, & Ray

(1975). Zamindars and Jotedars: A study of rural politics in Bengal. Modern Asian Studies, 9(1), 81–102.

18.

Roy

(2012). Caste and power: An ethnography in West Bengal, India. Modern Asian Studies, 46(4), 947–974.

19.

Ruud

A. G.

(1999). From untouchable to communist: Wealth and status among supporters of the Communist Party (Marxist) in rural West Bengal. In Rogaly

, Hariss-White

and Bose

(Eds), Sonar Bangla? Agricultural growth and agrarian change in West Bengal and Bangladesh (pp. 254–278). New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

20.

Samaddar

(2013). Whatever has happened to caste in West Bengal. Economic and Political Weekly, 47(36), 77–79.

21.

Sinharay

(2012). A new politics of caste. Economic and Political Weekly, 47(34), 26–27.

22.

Sinharay

(2014). The West Bengal story: The caste question in Lok Sabha elections. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(16), 10–12.

Caste and Politics in West Bengal: Traditional Limitations and Contemporary Developments

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References