{"title":"Mapping Class and Electoral Participation in India from 1996 to 2019","authors":"Divya Vaid","doi":"10.1177/23210230231206649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231206649","url":null,"abstract":"This article studies the relation between class and electoral participation. While the relation between political participation and many demographic variables such as caste, gender, age and location has been well researched in India, the same is not the case for the relation between class and electoral participation. Multiple measures of class (income, asset-wealth, occupation and education) are explored and conceptualized in this article, following which these measures of class are operationalized using the National Election Study datasets covering a twenty-three-year period (1996–2019). Each of these measures is used to trace the relation of class with two outcomes of electoral participation (turnout and party vote share) over time. Disaggregation by gender, locality and caste is provided. Finally, regression analysis to study the impact of these variables on turnout and vote share reveals the complexity of class. We find a complex picture of turnout and party choice with variation across different class measures. More significantly, variations in results raise questions about the usefulness of existing class indices. Further, we find that the type of measure being used affects different outcomes differently. For turnout, income and wealth seem to be better predictors, and for party vote share, subjective class is a better fit, whereas asset-wealth displays opposite patterns to income and subjective class in some instances.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":" 8","pages":"225 - 257"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138610291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur (Eds), Internal Security in India: Violence, Order and the State","authors":"Sharmila Purkayastha","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203804","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203804","url":null,"abstract":"Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur (Eds), Internal Security in India: Violence, Order and the State. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023, 393 pp., ₹525.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":" 34","pages":"342 - 344"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138613116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Media Exposure and Vote Choice in India, 1996–2019","authors":"Shreyas Sardesai","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203795","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203795","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the relationship between media consumption and voting choices in India in the context of increasing exposure to media, both traditional and new. Using media exposure-related data from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies’ (CSDS) national election surveys since 1996, it makes a few key assertions. Historically, there has been a positive relationship between traditional news media exposure and voting for the BJP, i.e., the greater the voters’ TV and newspaper consumption, the higher their support for the BJP. With respect to the Congress party, the tendency has generally been the opposite. This pattern now extends to social media exposure as well. However, this impact of media exposure on voting preferences that’s visible at the broad level weakens considerably when slicing the data further by socio-demographic factors. It has been found that the trend of the BJP’s vote share rising with increasing exposure to media is not consistent across the categories of age, education, and caste during many elections. If there is one election, however, that bucked this trend, it was the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The article argues that the BJP was successful in recognizing this and capitalized on it through an extensive media and communications campaign in 2014.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":"151 1","pages":"317 - 334"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138621494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Teaching International Relations Through Films","authors":"Rajdeep Pakanati","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203789","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203789","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":" 8","pages":"335 - 341"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138614707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Mayur R. Suresh, Terror Trials: Life and Law in Delhi Courts","authors":"Sakshi Rai","doi":"10.1177/23210230231204673","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231204673","url":null,"abstract":"Mayur R. Suresh, Terror Trials: Life and Law in Delhi Courts. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2023, 272 pages, ₹1,135.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":" 4","pages":"351 - 352"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138621275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Atul Mishra, The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan: Post-partition Statehood in South Asia","authors":"Robert Mizo","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203794","url":null,"abstract":"Atul Mishra, The Sovereign Lives of India and Pakistan: Post-partition Statehood in South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021, 300 pp., ₹1,495.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":" 35","pages":"344 - 345"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138612581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dewan Chaman Lall: From Trade Unions to the Indian Union, 1946–1966","authors":"R. Ankit","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203771","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203771","url":null,"abstract":"This article is about the afterlife of Dewan Chaman Lall’s interwar internationalism. Exploring the trajectory of his public career from 1946, it shows how Lall, an Oxford-educated trade unionist, and an ally of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, took a nationalist turn in his later political interventions on/after (a) Partition of British India, (b) the dispute on the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, and (c) on the government of India’s worsening border relations with the People’s Republic of China. Simultaneously, his understandings on issues like press freedom/official secrets, evacuee property exchange/sale, Sikh linguistic autonomy and labour/capital equation turned status quo-ist. By putting together his contributions on these national questions and juxtaposing them vis-à-vis his earlier avatar, this article also signifies the shift that took place in the perspectives of those who, like Lall, hitherto enveloped by empire, emerged in nation-statehood post-1945.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":" 9","pages":"192 - 204"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138615960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Vasanthi Srinivasan, Virtue and Human Ends: Political Ideas From Indian Classics","authors":"Priyanka Jha","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203872","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203872","url":null,"abstract":"Vasanthi Srinivasan, Virtue and Human Ends: Political Ideas From Indian Classics. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2021, 202 pages, ₹685.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":" 69","pages":"349 - 351"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138614121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Shifting Trajectories of Hindutva: Bharat Sevashram Sangha and the Making of a Saffron Wave in Contemporary West Bengal","authors":"Koushiki Dasgupta","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203769","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203769","url":null,"abstract":"This article strives to explore the ways in which the politics of Hindutva, as represented by the Sangh Parivar, permeated new organizational and ideological spaces in Bengal following the Lok Sabha election of 2014. The article specifically delves into the case of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, a significant Hindu spiritual and philanthropic entity in Bengal. The Bharat Sevashram Sangha and the Sangh-Parivar represent distinct but interconnected manifestations of the broader Hindutva ideology. With a focus on the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s position on the configuration of Hindutva, this article revolves around deciphering the intricate interplay between religion and politics within the context of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s engagement with the Hindu right-wing organizations. Moreover, the article seeks to unveil how the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s spiritual and cultural visions converged with a strategic political consciousness and potentially paved the way for the emergence of new opportunities for right-wing political forces within the state.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":"123 10","pages":"180 - 191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138608060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Caste, Class and Vote: Consolidation of the Privileged and Dispersal of Underprivileged","authors":"Suhas Palshikar, Jyoti Mishra","doi":"10.1177/23210230231203792","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203792","url":null,"abstract":"This article attempts to examine the combined impact of caste and class on voting choices. By using data from National Election Studies conducted by Lokniti from 1996 to 2019, the article seeks to situate the findings in the larger temporal frame of a quarter of a century. This allows us to also examine if changing patterns of party competition affect the impact of caste–class combined. The article argues that two patterns emerge: one is the consolidation of the more privileged social sections in terms of class and caste and the other is the dispersal of the less privileged. The latter, by virtue of their political dispersal, are unable to shape as a political force in both electoral politics and in agenda setting. This finding is partly an extension of the earlier findings that politics of backward castes hit a dead-end and politics of the poor never emerged as an all-India political alternative. Together with the earlier experience, the findings in this article throw light on the limits of democratization and on the prospects of politics of the less privileged sections across the country.","PeriodicalId":42918,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Indian Politics","volume":"65 7","pages":"258 - 273"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138626676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}