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Is Caste Politics Assertion Politics?

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I was reading a piece during elections in an independent news website. Check the link to the article in the end. It was titled: Assertion Politics: Not identity Politics. I must say it had hell of an insight. Nobody thinks it that way; atleast I never did. Only those who have been themselves affected by Caste-inequality at some point of their lives could feel it in that manner. Or those who have a firsthand experience of working with people of oppressed caste could think that way. For me, it was something entirely new. I had always seen caste-politics as something unfortunate, primitive, illogical and anti-development. While it is true that it does qualify for all these adjectives, however it forgets the fact that for some, caste is as basic as food and water. They live in a society which had associated their entire life around a particular 'class'. And this has been from centuries. Democracy is relatively ve

State Assembly Elections 2017

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Implications of State Elections 2017 The past month begin with a series of elections throughout India for five states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand. Uttar Pradesh elections have always been more than just another state elections. One of the biggest states of the Indian geography, this region sends maximum number of MPs from any state. Most Prime Ministers have been from UP. However this time it has become even more significant in the wake of intolerance debate, ghar-wapasi, demonetisation and Modi's performance after coming into power. Let us see what does this election and other state elections really mean to the politics of India. Modi wave has not burned out. His landslide victory in a agricultural-based state economy ,where a sizeable population is small farmers , landless labourers despite the inconvenient demonetisation drive which hit poorest the hardest, proves his charishma over the people of the country. And these el