Do Indians Vote Their Caste?

While in 2019 the electoral behaviour of Indians still has a basis in their caste background, new variables like class are increasingly playing a defining role

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Analysts of India’s politics commonly assume that “Indians vote their caste while casting their vote”. While that remains largely true, the 2014 general election reflected the growing importance of some class elements within caste, which is partly due to the socio-economic differentiation of caste groups. However, caste continues to play a significant role at the jati level, a more relevant unit of analysis than the large categories of upper castes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Castes. But some socio-economic differentiation is also taking place within jatis, and this process, along with other subdivisions, affects the voting pattern at that level too.

The ‘Neo-Middle Class’ Phenomenon

Traditionally, caste has been considered the most important variable that must be factored in to explain the electoral behaviour of Indians. Political parties carefully analyse the caste composition of every constituency at the time of candidate selection. Lately, however, there has been some erosion of the influence of caste, and for two reasons.

First, the promise of caste-based reservations has lost momentum. In the 1990s, in the wake of the pro-Mandal mobilisation, some parties could tell OBC voters, ‘Vote for me and you’ll get quotas.’ But such claims are not sustainable any more as quotas have reached 49 per cent—their saturation point. A similar dynamic can only be started again if reservations in the private sector became a realistic prospect, but that is not the case today.