The caste and class dynamics in India

Once prakash karat, CPIM leader when asked for the reasons of the failure of the communist
party in India, he replied that the CP in india failed because they failed to recognize the caste
character of the Indian politics. This shows the level of caste dynamics prevailing in India.
India is a multi-cultural land where the culture changes in few kilometers. In such a country
with so many distinct groups, paramonial identities like caste and class become an important
tool of social characterization. A person is easily able to recognize himself with the people of
his caste and to be more specific in “rural India” and in the new developed urban India with
the people of his class.
The voting pattern in India is also the same suffering from the fallacies of caste dynamics. We
all know about the anti-brahaminical movement of south India which led to the polarization
of lower caste votes for the anna parties. And the reason parties like DMK, AIADMK have
come to power is because of the caste dynamics of the country. The same case is in Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh. In Bihar, lalu Prasad ruled for several years without any developmental target
because of the caste factor. Similarly, a school headmaster who rose to become a defense
minister of the country and also the chief minister of the biggest state of the country none
other than Mulayam Singh yadav because of the caste factor or which is commonly known I
the Indian politics as the OBC movement. Mayavati became the chief minister of UP again
just because of the caste factor.
These all examples show us the level of caste dynamics and the roll caste plays in the politics
and governance of India. This caste dynamics has often led to violent clashes. The bathani
tola violence of 1999 in which hundreds of dalits and lower caste peoples were killed because
they had risen against their lords or above caste people. The recent mirchipur violence case of
Haryana, in which seven houses of dalits were set on fire because a dalit boy eloped with an
upper caste girl. This all shows the level of social stratification existent in the Indian society.
It is caste dynamics which has led the formation of groups like ranveer sena, dalit utthan
sangathan, kayastha mahasabha and etc.
The best example of class dynamics in India is the sugarcane politics. The big farmers or the
landlords having their political jacks lobby for prices which are detrimental for the fate of
small farmers. The privatization of all major sectors like education, medical all represents the
vested aims of a certain monopolistic class i.e. the capitalist class at the expense of the lower
class. As Marx had rightly pointed that the development of the core depends or rather is
detrimental at the underdevelopment of the periphery, the Indian class dynamics is a classic
example of Marx’s class struggle.