India's Silent Revolution Analysis

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Christophe Jaffrelot’s India’s Silent Revolution maps out different political conflicts and struggles of the lower castes like the Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in North Indian politics, which contributes a lot towards the sociological aspects of Northern India. His work is commendable and enlightening at some areas but at some point fails to stand the test of reality and criticisms. The very beginning of the book reveals Jaffrelot’s ethnocentric perspective and a contradicting view too. “India claims the status of a democracy- ‘the world’s largest democracy’-and it holds serious arguments to defend this pretension (p.1)”. India’s Silent Revolution is a compact account of the rise of the lower castes in North India, which is giving…show more content…
His style is quite non-judgmental. Its political history and pragmatic details makes India’s Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Caste in North India an impressive book. It gives scholarly account of the rise of the lower caste politics in north India and an important feature of silenced majority since 1960s. This comparative study between the lower caste of north India and the non-Brahmins of the south has also given rise to the quota politics. The book’s core argument is the transformation of India from elite dominated conservative democracy to social democracy with the fall of congress in 1970s. The involvement of caste with politics and the increased representation of the lower caste in the Indian political system were mainly responsible for democratization of Indian…show more content…
Jaffrelot has given instances such as in Maharashtra, Jyoti Phule blamed Brahmins for the deprivations of the lower caste and also for many unjust in societies. Consequently in these regions lower castes were questioning the superiority of the Brahminic Hindu Religious traditions at the same time when they were going through indigenous religious reform movements. There is very little evidence in the north India regarding their revolts of the lower castes activity in particular with a permanent focus. Laloo Prasad Yadav’s critical view of opposition to upper caste or caste privileges, Mulayam Singh’s context of upper caste revolt through the peasantry and further Mayawati’s power agenda of the Dalits were the uprising movements in the lower caste politics in India. With improper strategies, vision and program of work, they end up in struggles and conflicts which fail to challenge the exploitation. Uttar Pradesh has a different storylilne, which even now have failed to achieve its target because of immense imbalance in the upper and lower caste and their continuous political and cultural
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