Explain the phenomenon of ethnic politics in India in recent times. (2013, 20 Marks)
Ethnic politics is the conversion of a believed common descent, language, tribe or faith into a basis for political claims: votes, quotas, territory or recognition. It is a modern phenomenon, produced by electoral competition and the state’s categories rather than handed down unchanged from antiquity. Since the 1990s its focus has moved from language and national unity towards indigeneity, the Scheduled Tribe list, domicile and cultural survival.
How ethnic politics is explained
- Primordialism: Clifford Geertz (1963) saw “primordial attachments” of blood, speech and custom as given and intensely felt. This accounts for passion but not for timing.
- Instrumentalism: Paul R. Brass (Ethnicity and Nationalism, 1991) holds that elites competing for state resources select and reshape cultural markers. Ethnicity is real, but it is switched on politically.
- Constructivism: Kanchan Chandra (Why Ethnic Parties Succeed, 2004) links it to patronage democracy. Where the state is the main source of jobs and benefits, voters use visible ethnic markers to judge who will deliver, so ethnic parties grow.
- James Manor (1996) adds that Indians hold several overlapping identities (jati, language, religion, region) and move between them, which keeps any single cleavage from hardening.
Why it has intensified recently
- Competition for the ST list: scheduling converts identity into entitlement, so inclusion is contested by those already listed. The Meitei claim to ST status became the trigger for the violence in Manipur in 2023. The Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Act, 2024 added the Paharis, provoking protest from Gujjars and Bakarwals. Six Assamese communities, including the Tai Ahom and Koch-Rajbongshi, still await ST status.
- The state as a classifier: Neera Chandhoke argues that the state’s mapping of its population creates the identities it then has to manage. With Census 2027 set to count caste, the Jharkhand Chief Minister wrote in May 2026 seeking a separate Sarna religion code for Adivasis.
- Education, media and new elites: education and communication have produced an educated younger leadership that makes sharper demands. The Bharat Adivasi Party, carrying the Bhil Pradesh demand, won the Banswara Lok Sabha seat in 2024.
- Regional and linguistic parties: the DMK and the Shiv Sena built politics on linguistic pride and nativism. Maharashtra’s 2025 order making Hindi a third language from Class 1 was withdrawn in June 2025 after Uddhav and Raj Thackeray mobilised against it. In Tamil Nadu, Vijay’s TVK won in 2026, showing that regional politics can renew itself outside the Dravidian duopoly.
- The majority as an ethnic actor: Hindu nationalism uses the same logic at national scale, treating religion as a quasi-ethnic basis of the political community.
How the state manages it
The state’s repertoire is well established: affirmative action, autonomous councils, asymmetric provisions and devolution. The Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority, agreed on 5 February 2026, is the latest of these, granting autonomy without a new state.
Significance and limits
Ethnic politics has brought marginalised groups into the system and made representation more plural. Yet it also fragments society, turns ST lists into zero-sum contests and can spill into violence, as Manipur shows. Dipankar Gupta warns that much of this mobilisation is created by vested interests rather than arising spontaneously among the people.
Conclusion
Recent ethnic politics in India is best explained instrumentally: democracy and a classifying state reward group claims, and elites supply them. Because identities overlap, it has mostly produced bargaining rather than secession. It becomes dangerous where the stakes are land and exclusive lists rather than shares.