Description
Political space for Scheduled Castes in the law-making bodies was envisioned for their social mobility and emancipation from the traditional structural rigidities. The book delves into the history of Dalit movements in Coastal Andhra and Telangana regions of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Western education and Dalit literature spurred social movements involving the educated Dalit youth. This is a critical study on the behavioural pattern of the so-called Dalit leaders in the combined state of Andhra Pradesh. The scholar has adopted Western and popular concepts in political science such as ?Clientalism? and ?Elite? to capture the nuances of political sociology of Andhra Pradesh.
Though the spearheads of the movements entered electoral politics after India’s independence, the system of ‘Joint electorate’ and politics of co-optation adopted by the dominant political parties have diluted the movement for social structural change. This is reflected in the persistent social exclusion and occasional atrocities against Dalits, especially in rural areas. The dominant caste resistance to policies of inclusion, and various incidents of violence perpetrated against the Dalits, and the failure of their political representatives to rise to the occasion to either protect or accord relief to the victims is discussed here.
Yet, there were phases of Dalit mobilisation and a transition towards competition from clientelism. Analysing the trajectory of clientelism, the inroads of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the strategies adopted to compete with the entrenched political parties are critically examined in this book. The book concludes with strategies for mobilisation and political power in the light of changing political equations in the state and the country. The present study is an important addition to the limited literature on the subject to advance our understanding on the political transition in Andhra Pradesh.
