Honor and morality in contemporary rural India

Abstract

There have been major shifts in relations of power and authority in rural society in many areas of India since independence in 1947. Millions of people among the approximately 70% of the population who live in villages have challenged the dominance of high caste and/or major landholding village lords. These challenges have contributed to what Yogendra Yadav has termed the two democratic upsurges, as expressed in the results of elections to state and national assemblies (Yadav 2000). In the first democratic upsurge in the 1960s, voter turnout increased and new political parties emerged to undermine the nation-wide dominance of the Congress Party. Increasingly persons from lower status castes entered electoral politics. The second democratic upsurge occurred in the 1990s with the dramatic expansion in political participation of those low in caste ranking and in economic class. New political parties in parts of India emerged campaigning with direct reference to the status and well-being of Scheduled Castes (SC) and/or Backward Castes (BC, also called OBC). © 2007 Springer-Verlag New York.