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

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.