Full Description
The Curious Trajectory of Caste in West Bengal Politics: Chronicling Continuity and Change critically engages with the dynamics of caste in the politics of West Bengal which unlike other parts of India has remained relatively free from large scale caste based political mobilisation. The insignificance of caste in West Bengal politics has remained an enigma. Yet Caste question in West Bengal politics has remained under-researched. However, there has been a growing interest in the politics of caste in West Bengal in recent years and this interest has grown due to the end of the world's longest serving democratically elected Communist government (1977-2011) that followed a class centric non-identitarian politics. It is in this backdrop that this book explores the reasons for the relative insignificance of caste in post-colonial West Bengal's politics and also assesses the future possibilities of caste-based identity politics in the state.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Tables
1 Introduction Setting the Agenda of Analysis
1 Posing the Problem: West Bengal's Exceptionalism
2 Contemporary Critiques of West Bengal's Exceptionalism
3 Research Rationale
4 Thematic Outline and Approach
2 Caste and Nature of Political Mobilization Emerging Trends
1 Rise of the Matua Factor
2 bjp's Matua Outreach: A New Relationship
3 'Politics of Memory' and Political Narrative
4 Contextualising Dalit Mobilisation in West Bengal
5 Interplay of Memory and Politics at the Grassroots
3 Analysing Patterns of Political Representation Continuity or Change
1 Explaining 'Rise of Caste' Hypothesis
2 Two Concepts of Representation: A Brief Theoretical Exploration
3 Mapping Trends of Political Representation in West Bengal
4 Decoding Political Outlook towards Representation
4 Caste and Politics of Numbers Delving Deep into Demography
1 Demographic Fragmentation of Caste Groups
2 Geographic Concentration of Caste Groups
3 Demography and Political Aggregation of Caste Interests
5 Material Basis of Caste Putting Political Economy into Perspective
1 Caste and Economic Aspects of Identity Politics
2 Caste Identity and Patterns of Landholding
3 Caste and Relative Deprivation
4 Land and Agrarian Politics
5 Other Economic Indicators
6 Economic Development and Politics of Caste Coalition
6 Micro-politics in Rural Society Social Imagination, Political Culture and Economic Reality at the Grassroots
1 Existing Findings about Micro-Dynamics of Caste in West Bengal: An Overview
2 A Note on Methodology
3 Geography and Demography of the Village under Study
4 Caste and Class: Converging, Diverging and Intersecting Identities
5 Cultural Dynamics of Caste
6 Locating Caste in Politics at the Grassroots
7 Summing Up
7 Unmasking Political Culture Workings of Cultural Dynamics in Mainstream Politics
1 Bhadralok: Decoding the Sociological Category
2 Emergence and Evolution of the Bhadralok
3 From Culture to Politics: Tracing the Roots of Bhadralok Hegemony
4 Dynamics of a Discourse: Political Culture in Operation
5 Break from Past: Towards a 'Critical Juncture'?
8 Conclusion Summing Up
Bibliography
Index
