Fluid identities, contested categories: Jats, Patels and the demand for reservation in India

ABSTRACT The most recent demand for reservation quotas in India has come from the regionally dominant castes of the Jats and Patidars in the arena of education and employment. However, given their status as ‘dominant’ castes, it is paradoxical that these castes are claiming a ‘backward’ status. This demand raises questions of two kinds. Firstly, what is the nature of caste identity that they wish to leverage for purposes of gaining access to state quotas? Secondly, what are the different ways in which identities, expectations and mobilisations are shaped by electoral politics? The paper argues that ethnic identities are fluid which take on newer features and markers as they interact with categories of recognition that the state establishes. These negotiations have been exacerbated by electoral politics and the policy of economic liberalisation which have together upset dominant caste equations.