INDIA

Ang
Fojas
Quilatan
Quick Facts
Official name: Religion: Hindu, Muslim,
Republic of India Christian, Sikh, Buddhist,
Jain, others.
Year of Independence: Scheduled Castes:
1947 16.2% of population
Official Languages: Scheduled Tribes:
English, Hindi, Bengali, 8.2% of population
Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu,
Gujarati, Malayalam,
Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi,
Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi,
Sanskrit
Background
• Secular State
- a state or country purports to be officially
neutral in matters of religion, supporting
neither religion nor irreligion.

• India is regarded as the largest functioning

democracy in the world with such a variety of
cultures, creeds, races, languages, ethnic
identities and so on.
 POLITICAL CULTURE
• Political Culture is a set of shared beliefs,
values, and norms that define the relationship
between citizens and government, and
citizens to one another.

• Understanding a country's political culture

can help make sense of the way a country's
government is designed and how its leaders
make political decisions.
 Key Questions
• 1. How diverse is Indian Political culture?

• 2. What is the political culture of India as

seen through the 3 levels of analysis?

• 3. How does the Caste system affect the

political structure of India?
 1. How diverse is Indian Political
culture?
• Religion

Scheduled Caste - the official name given in India to the lowest caste, considered
‘untouchable” officially regarded as socially disadvantaged.

Scheduled Tribe - a tribe that is listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian
Constitution and recommended for special help in education and employment
• Tribal and Geographical Groupings
India’s Secularism
• 1. it has a commitment to multiple values - liberty and
equality.

• 2. The acceptance of community-specific rights

• 3. It does not erect a wall of separation between state and

religion.

• 4. the Indian government’s commitment to multiple values

and principled distance means that the state tries to
balance different, ambiguous but equally important
values.
What is the political culture of India as
seen through the 3 levels of analysis?
System Level
• Legitimacy – Low

•Diversity of Indian citizens (Religion & Ethnic)

Which leads to violence

•High Level of corruption

 Process Level
Indians vote through their religion or caste not through the
credibility of a candidate.
Example: Narendra Modi
Criticizes Congress for playing caste
politics and “manipulating” voters on such lines.
He was being criticized because he
came form a lower caste society and people think
that his politics are low level politics.
Policy Level
• Government health insurance for people below poverty
line in India

• the mortality rate from conditions potentially responsive

to services covered by the scheme (mostly cardiac
conditions and cancer) was 0.32%
How does the Caste system affect the
political structure of India?
What is a caste system?
- A caste is a
division of society based
on occupation and
family lineage.
How does the Caste system affect the
political structure of India?

ADVANTAGE
1. Continuity of traditions
2. Division of labor
3. Bonds of Brotherhood
4. Purity in lineage
5. Unity in Diversity
DISADVANTAGE
1. Exploitation of the weak
2. Disunity and division of loyalties
3. Foreign Domination
4.Low self esteem
5. Preferential Treatment
6. Instrument of Oppression
Political Socialization
• Political Socialization is a process
through which individuals become
aware of politics and develop political
values.

• Agents of socialization affect an

individual’s attitude, norms, values and
beliefs.
Key Question

What are the existing agents of

socialization in India and how do they
influence the political attitudes, norms
and beliefs of the people?
• Influence of Family

• The family is widely considered to be the

most important agent in the transmission of
political values to the children and
adolescents.

• Influence of Community
• The community socializes the individuals
hurriedly or with fewer paces depending
upon the socio-economic life of the context
Age wise group
Sex Wise Groupings
Religion Wise Groupings
Education Wise Groupings
Income Wise Groupings
• http://www.cprenet.com/uploads/archive/UJMSS_12-
1219.pdf
• https://www.opendemocracy.net/rajeev-bhargava/states-
religious-diversity-and-crisis-of-secularism-0
• http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/et
hnic-and-religious-conflicts-india
http://www.ias.ac.in/jbiosci/nov2001/533.pdf?q=ethnic-
populations-of-india-as-seen-from-an-evolutionary
http://irjs.info/index.php/irjs/article/viewFile/9130/4630