Political representation in India: Enlarging the perspective

Lama-Rewal, Stéphanie Tawa

doi:10.1080/14736489.2016.1165552

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…A similar provision was recommended for the whole country in the National Perspective Plan 1988–2000, and was followed up in 1993, with the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments providing for one-third reserved seats for women in all local-level elected bodies. The policy was hardly discussed in parliament before it was passed (Lama-Rewal 2005: 192) and met with almost no political opposition (Kishwar 1997: 9). This is typically explained by the fact that local-level quotas would not affect the power of national-level politicians.…”

Section: The Quota Debate In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Competing Inequalities? On the Intersection of Gender and Ethnicity in Candidate Nominations in Indian Elections

Jensenius

2016

Gov. & oppos.

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Quotas for women and ethnic minorities are implemented to increase diversity in political institutions, but, as they usually target only one group at a time, they may end up increasing the inclusion of one under-represented group at the cost of another. Recent work has emphasized the institutional underpinnings of the variation in such outcomes. In this article I show how the intersectional effects of quotas may also vary within the same institutional context, as changes in the pressure to include excluded groups interact with the informal opportunity structures within political parties. Looking at the nomination of female candidates across India over time, I show that, as the efforts to include more women in politics intensified, much of the increase in female candidates occurred in constituencies reserved for ethnic minorities. This pattern may in part be the result of parties resisting changes to existing power hierarchies by nominating women at the cost of the least powerful male politicians, but can also be seen as evidence that minority quotas have created a political space that is more accessible to women.

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Section: The Quota Debate In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Competing Inequalities? On the Intersection of Gender and Ethnicity in Candidate Nominations in Indian Elections

Jensenius

2016

Gov. & oppos.

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“…Much has been written about the qualitatively differentiated experiences of marginalisation faced by the Dalits and Adivasis (e.g., Lama-Rewal, 2005; Thorat, 2009, 2010). One of the longstanding arguments has been that the oppression of Dalits is historical in nature while the oppression of Adivasis has both historical and geographical aspects to it.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Placing the Urban in its Rural Context: A Mixed Methods Case Study of a ‘Census Town’ in India

Sircar

2017

Urbanisation

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How do we understand the contemporary urban condition, especially in the context of the developing world? Through a mixed methods case study of a 'census town' in West Bengal, India, this article seeks to demonstrate that the contemporary urban, in form and content, is the imprint of the rural. Based on narrative analysis of oral history interviews and statistical data from a household survey, the article argues that the urban here is a spatial articulation of the specific historical experiences of people inhabiting the context and brings into relief the continuities between agrarian relations and urban forms.

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“…This suggests that for left political organizations, the meaning of declassing, and the representative call attached to it, is not universal and largely depends on one's social background. The term ‘representation’ will be understood not in terms of an achieved state of affairs (such as electorally based representation) but as micro and everyday claims of being representative by political actors (Saward 2006, Tawa Lama-Rewal 2016). Therefore, representative claim-making consists of proposals that ‘might or might not be accepted, rejected or rearticulated by the represented’ (Dutoya and Hayat 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Politics of Our Selves: Left self-fashioning and the production of representative claims in everyday Indian campus politics

Martelli¹

2020

Mod. Asian Stud.

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Through engaging with everyday practices among student activists in contemporary Indian campus politics, this ethnographic study examines the breadcrumb trail between the left and self-fashioning. It focuses on a performative modality of political representation in Indian democracy by tracing the formation of biographical reconfigurations that implement subject-oriented techniques. The article charts their relevance in producing political legitimacy. It engages with the way in which personal reconfigurations are mobilized to recruit and appeal to both subaltern and privileged communities, thus generating universalistic representative claims and political efficacy. The study discusses self-presentations among leading left activists who are members of five contending Marxist student organizations that are active in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. It shows that reconfigurations are a hallmark of practices of social ‘downlift’ which echo the notion of declassifying, a concept developed by philosopher Jacques Rancière. While embracing secularism and the legacy of political martyrs, the analysis illustrates how self-fashioning attempts to erase signs and habits attached to economic and social privileges through subverting and engaging creatively with sacrificial and ascetic tropes. Conversely, such practices find themselves critically questioned by activists at the bottom of the social ladder who aspire to social upliftment, including members of lower castes and impoverished Muslim communities. I find that the biographical effects of left activism are both long-lasting and renegotiable, shaping campus lives and subsequent professional careers. While such reconfigurations are not inspired by world renouncers of the Hindu mendicant tradition, these practices of the self might exemplify the historical cross-fertilization between long-standing cultural idioms and the Indian Marxist praxis.

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Political representation in India: Enlarging the perspective

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

Competing Inequalities? On the Intersection of Gender and Ethnicity in Candidate Nominations in Indian Elections

Competing Inequalities? On the Intersection of Gender and Ethnicity in Candidate Nominations in Indian Elections

Placing the Urban in its Rural Context: A Mixed Methods Case Study of a ‘Census Town’ in India

The Politics of Our Selves: Left self-fashioning and the production of representative claims in everyday Indian campus politics

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