Enforcing political loyalties in local elections: an ethnographic account from Punjab

Abstract

Ethnographic studies from the decades after Indian independence showed how subordinate castes once delivered their votes to upper caste patrons in exchange for patronage, credit and employment, and out of a sense of hierarchical deference. Literature on rural India suggests that such relations of dominance, and the vote banks associated with them, are a thing of the past, not least because the secret vote has enabled the lower castes to vote against their dominant caste patrons without fear of retaliation. While acknowledging broader shifts in power, this paper on local elections illustrates the persistent but shifting contours of vote-bank politics.