Casteism and Electoral Politics in India-English Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 9, 10, 11 and 12 Students.

Casteism and Electoral Politics in India

It is an established fact that no democratic system is immune to religious and casteist influences. The fate of the candidates contesting an election is directly proportional to the sectarian votes they can garner. All political parties make tall claims in their election manifestoes, cleverly concealing their casteist and parochial bias.

Casteism, as practiced in India, is the bane of our body politic today. The Election Commission has no powers to prevent parties from exploiting their various sectarian planks to establish and woo their vote banks. It can only make appropriate noises expressing displeasure. Filing petitions in our courts against using the casteist plank in elections is a long and wearisome process. In this context, all our elections have not been free or fair.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, when the process of social reform was set in motion by some enlightened reformers, casteism has become the bane of Indian polity. The process of social reform has no doubt improved the lot of millions in India, but it has brought about some adverse after-effects as well. With the introduction of democracy based on adult franchises, and consequent upon the emergence of vote banks, the scourge of caste-based politics got a new boost. Today, the poison of caste-based politics seems to have percolated down to the grassroots of our body politic. Whether it is Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra or Manipur, Punjab or Tamil Nadu, Haryana or Himachal Pradesh, casteism has taken a heavy toll. In every State and every region, some one or the other so-called high or low caste group is fighting tooth and nail against some other so-called low or high caste group. It will not be an exaggeration to say that a sort of caste-based civil war is going on in almost every part of the country. In other countries, elections to the legislatures are fought and won on the basis of issues concerning the welfare of the masses and the larger interests of the nation concerned. But in India the election process is almost always tainted with casteist politics. There is no crime against humanity which is not committed to promote the interest of one caste against some other caste/castes at the time of elections.

The origin of the casteist elements in electoral politics in India can be traced to the Minto-Morley Reforms of 1909 when the principle of separate electorates for the Muslims was conceded. It instantly divided the Indian society into two hostile camps-Hindus and Muslims. The Hindu candidates, in their anxiety to catch the maximum number of Hindu votes, had to speak against the Muslims before an exclusively Hindu audience, while the Muslim candidates, in their eagerness to catch the largest number of Muslim votes, had to pour venom against the imminent Hindu domination before an exclusively Muslim audience. In both the com- munities, the candidate, who could pour forth the deadliest venom against the other community, was sure to win.

In 1919, under the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms, the sys- tem was extended further and Hindus were further divided into several subgroups. Under the Communal Award, it was sought to separate the Depressed Classes from the Hindus. Mahatma Gandhi undertook a fast unto death and saved the situation only partially. Although separate electorates were not introduced for the Depressed Classes, reservation of seats was ensured for them. This introduced an element of vested interest in the perpetuation of caste-based politics.

Under the Constitution of India, untouchability was abolished only on paper and discrimination based on caste, etc., was banned, but reservations were provided for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes initially for a period of ten years. As this gave rise to vote banks, the system of reservation was not only continued in definitely but also enlarged to cover other backward classes. Recommendations of the Mandal Commission and their implementation further aggravated the situation. An appeal to the caste sentiments of a dominant section of the electorate became a shortcut to power. This unleashed new political forces. Caste-based politics, along with the politics of opportunism, began to play havoc with Indian polity. Sometimes political parties, which had traditionally been considered poles apart, began to form coalition governments. In Uttar Pradesh an alliance between the BJP, traditionally associated with high-caste Hindus, and the BSP, claiming to be the champions of the Dalits, was formed to oust the Samajwadi Party, claiming to be the champion of the cause of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Criminalisation of politics has given a new dimension to caste-based politics.

The rise and growth of regionalism and casteism are rooted in the failure of our political system to meet the aspirations of the people. A single party for most of the time dominated the political Kurukshetra in India after 1947, forgetting the cardinal fact that “democracy” is a government in “which everyone has a share”. In the words of Harimann, today Indian democracy is “the paradise of the stricken, the word-spinner, the flatterer and the tuft-hunter”.

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