Breaking down the question

The command word is "comment", inviting a compact, evaluative response rather than an exhaustive survey. The subject is the increasing significance of caste in politics — the observable fact that far from withering under modern democracy, caste has become more, not less, prominent in political life.

The sociological insight to establish early is that this is a paradox only on the surface. Modernisation theory expected democracy to erode caste; instead, competitive electoral politics has given caste a new lease of life. Rajni Kothari's formulation — that it is not caste that has been politicised so much as politics that has been caste-ised, and vice versa — is the natural pivot for a strong answer.

For the analytical background on caste, see our note on the features of caste system.

How to approach it

Frame the answer around the mutual interaction of caste and democratic politics, then evaluate its consequences. A strong response will:

  • State the paradox — caste was expected to decline, yet its political salience has grown.
  • Explain the mechanisms — franchise, numbers, caste associations and vote-banks.
  • Use Kothari's argument on the interpenetration of caste and politics.
  • Offer a balanced closing judgement on whether this is wholly negative.

Model answer

The increasing significance of caste in politics overturns the expectation that democracy would dissolve caste. Instead, universal adult franchise turned caste into a political resource, because in a system decided by numbers a caste is a ready-made bloc of votes.

Rajni Kothari captured the process in his study Caste in Indian Politics. He argued that caste and politics have not remained separate spheres but have interpenetrated: politics has drawn on caste for mobilisation, while caste has entered the political arena to press its claims. It is not, he insisted, that a traditional institution has corrupted modern politics, but that both have been transformed by their engagement. Caste supplies parties with organised support; politics supplies castes with a new field for advancement.

Several mechanisms drive the trend. Caste associations — originally formed for social reform — have become vehicles for articulating collective demands, distributing tickets and bargaining with parties. Vote-bank politics, a term coined by M.N. Srinivas, describes how a dominant caste can deliver the votes of dependent groups to a candidate, making caste arithmetic central to electoral strategy. Reservation and the recognition of Other Backward Classes have further sharpened caste identity as a basis for entitlement and mobilisation, giving rise to assertive caste-based parties and movements.

This has had ambivalent consequences. On one side, the political use of caste can deepen social division, entrench identity over issues, and encourage patronage and casteism. On the other, sociologists note a democratising dimension: political mobilisation has empowered hitherto subordinate castes, given the lower orders a share of power, and enabled groups long excluded from public life to assert dignity and claim resources. The rise of backward-caste and Dalit political formations testifies to this levelling effect.

Andre Beteille's observation that caste, class and power have become distinct dimensions helps explain the pattern: as ritual hierarchy loosens its hold, caste survives most vigorously in the political domain, where numbers convert directly into power. Caste persists, in short, by migrating from the ritual to the political sphere.

In sum, the growing significance of caste in politics reflects the logic of electoral democracy itself, which rewards organised numerical identities. Whether one views it as the corruption of democracy or its deepening depends on emphasis — but sociologically it demonstrates that caste endures by transforming its function rather than disappearing.

Examiner's perspective

Examiners look for the candidate to resolve the apparent paradox — that democracy strengthened rather than dissolved caste — and to anchor the answer in Rajni Kothari's thesis on the interpenetration of caste and politics. Naming the concrete mechanisms of caste associations, vote-banks and reservation earns marks by grounding the argument.

The mark of a superior short answer is balance: recognising both the divisive effects and the empowering, democratising dimension of caste mobilisation. Weak answers moralise about the evils of casteism without explaining the underlying logic, or narrate party politics without sociological framing. A crisp closing judgement that caste survives by shifting into the political sphere signals analytical control.