Politisoituva kastilaitos

Kirjoittajat

• Tapio Tamminen

Abstrakti

This article shows what a significant role caste plays in contemporary India. Changes are taking place in the meaning and legitimacy of the caste system. Caste is not on the way out. Its major domain is nowadays in politics. Electoral majorities are often built on coalitions of castes. The election campaigns are organised with the help of caste associations, although the leaders of the political parties have repeatedly condemned in public the use of caste in politics. There is also a significant link between caste and religious nationalism. The Hindu nationalist movement has traditionally drawn most of its support from the upper castes in North India. The movement has rhetorically stressed the need to combine untouchables and tribal groups in a single Hindu community. At the same time it has strongly opposed the claim of the Christian and Islamic untouchable groups to be granted official status as a scheduled caste. Among the urban middle-class the traditional caste system has nearly lost its traditional meaning. We may speak about some kind of ’symbolic ethnicity’ among them because their caste background does play a significant role in family life but not in public life. But even among the urban middle-class caste endogamy is still widely observed.