Reservations in India

Taking the discussion in EPW on caste in West Bengal further, a comment on the mobilisation and autonomy of the lower-caste movement post-Partition, the reduced scope for the lower castes to develop a hegemonic politics or strategy, and the importance of a bahujan samaj in this context.

On 11 July, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, comprising justices Uma Nath Singh and Mahendra Dayal, issued an interim order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a local lawyer, Motilal Yadav, banning caste-based rallies throughout Uttar Pradesh (UP) with immediate effect a

Dalit efforts to move from the ordinary and explode into the extraordinary as millionaires may look spectacular, particularly when they do not have a known history of capital accumulation. But what does this sudden rise of a few dalits to the position of millionaires signify? Using Debord's framework of the ideology of spectacle as false consciousness, which forges a fake association between a person or a social collectivity and the spectacle, this essay analyses the dalit millionaire as a spectacle within the context of caste, the corporate sector and the state.

A profi ling of the caste backgrounds of candidates fi elded by the four main political parties in Uttar Pradesh in the assembly elections, the elected legislators and ministers reveals some interesting trends. There is a stable presence of upper caste candidates from all major parties, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress continuing to fi eld them predominantly, while the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have become more of "catch-all" parties, similar yet very different from the Congress Party of the past. The study of ministers and MLAs reveals a more complex picture of upper caste strength in representation.

The debate on equality and non-discrimination is certainly not a new one, but the way it is incorporated in that on social exclusion leads to several shifts within the discourse on social justice. The term social exclusion is multidimensional although its western use in a selective way about markets promoting equality separates it from the Indian emphasis on social justice as linked to ending discrimination of dalit groups. The concept of social exclusion is inherently problematic as it faces three major challenges in India: the first relates to the historical discrimination of certain groups and their exclusion; the second is about the political economy of the excluded; and the third questions the way in which equality responses are restricted within the framework of social exclusion.