The Logic of Affirmative Action in India: Clientelist Identity Politics

This paper expands an earlier argument about the logic of affirmative action in India (De Zwart 2000) which stresses the proliferation of social categories (castes) as a consequence of quota policy. This paper traces the simultaneous proliferation of political of parties and political divisions over this issue. The government of India redistributes government jobs and places in higher educational institutions to Scheduled Castes (Dalits), Scheduled Tribes (India's aboriginal population), and Backward Classes. The latter are a collection of lower castes, comprising roughly fifty percent of the population, for whom 27 percent of all government jobs and places in educational institutions is reserved. But their identity is not well established and under redistributive policy, castes tend to fission into ever smaller units. At present there are over 4000 backward castes recognised in the official lists of beneficiaries, and many others are trying to get listed. Indian politicians champion this process and build their clientele on the basis of promises for quota and quota within quota. The first part of this paper explains this particular form of clientelist politics and argues that it feeds on the difficulty of defining and establishing caste identities. The second part of the paper introduces a new development: In 2011 India decided, for the first time since 80 years, to introduce caste categories in the national census. The main reason is to finally solve the never ending controversies over the identity of the backward classes. The question is how this is going to effect clientelist politics.