Caste and power: An ethnography in West Bengal, India * (original) (raw)

This paper explores the institution of caste and its operation in a micro-level village setting of West Bengal, an Indian state, where state politics at grass roots level is vibrant with functioning local self-government and entrenched political parties. This ethnographic study reveals that caste relations and caste identities have overarching dimensions in the day-to-day politics of the study villages. Though caste almost ceases to operate in relation to strict religious strictures, under economic compulsion the division of labour largely coincides with caste division. In the cultural-ideological field, the concept of caste-hierarchy seems to continue as an influencing factor, even in the operation of leftist politics. * The initial version of this paper was presented at an International Workshop entitled 'Politics of Adaptation to Environmental Challenges in South Asia in the 21 st century', Oslo University, Norway, 7-9 November 2008. I am thankful to all participants for their comments and especially to Arild E. Ruud, Pamela Price and Guro Aandahl for their suggestions. I am also thankful to Staffan Lindberg, Partha Sarathi Banerjee and Kenneth B Nielsen for their critical comments on my paper. I am indebted to Manabi Majumdar for her useful comments and suggestions on the initial draft. I am sincerely thankful to anonymous reviewers of Modern Asian Studies for their comments and suggestions.

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