New Politicians and Low Caste Democratization in Uttar Pradesh, India

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

The last quarter of the twentieth century witnessed a remarkable shift in many countries from authoritarian to democratic rule. Yet this upsurge of formal democracy has often occurred in the absence of a significant change in the distribution of political opportunities on the ground. This project examines the possibilities of ethnographic research for understanding the relationship in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) between formal democratization, conceptualized as the adoption of various democratic procedures, and substantive democratization, defined as an expansion of the electoral arena to include previously disenfranchised people and a broader opening up of opportunities for people to express ideas and compete for social goods. This project contributes to on-going debates within geography, political science and anthropology about how party political change is affecting marginalized sections of society, such as India's Dalits (ex-untouchables). In May 2007 a low caste political party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), won a landslide victory in the UP elections. To examine whether how the rise of the BSP has improved Dalits' political power, the PI will conduct interviews with a cohort of youth political entrepreneurs who refer to themselves as 'new politicians'. The PI has conducted interviews with many of these men during previous research. The current project involves the PI interviewing new politicians in a rural and urban area of UP and also participating in their everyday lives. He will also organize informal focus groups during which political ideas will be discussed. Interviews and participant observation will enable the examination of the kinds of Dalit political entrepreneurship that are emerging in the context of the recent electoral victory of the BSP, the cultural lives of new politicians, and the shifting ways in which new politicians reflect on their political activity. This project will contribute to political geography, youth geography, and interdisciplinary debates on democracy through investigating the activities of youth political leaders in the wake of dramatic political change. Many scholars are arguing that a 'Dalit Revolution' is occurring in north India. But there has been little ground-level research on this issue. The project will also inform geographical and anthropological understandings of substantive democratization by exposing youth as key political agents; highlighting the limits of 'resistance' examining discursive, subjective and spatial dimensions of politics; and showcasing the value of ethnographic approaches to democratization. Additionally, the research may demonstrate the existence of a set of political facilitators at the local level who might serve as partners in the design and implementation of development programs. Governments, international organizations and activist groups are keenly aware of the role that youth, including unemployed young men, might play in the formulation and implementation of development projects, but they lack detailed material on the work already being carried out by youth leaders at the grassroots level. The project will also educate the public on the difficulties facing Dalits in India, especially marginalized men.