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Paper short abstract:

Comparative historical analysis of two Indian states, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, to demonstrate how ideas of social justice promoting descriptive representation, interpreted as patronage in mainstream scholarship, were instrumental in generating the structural conditions for redistributive politics.

Paper long abstract:

India is widely described as a “patronage democracy”. Politicians in many regions have been known to prioritize narrow “identity politics” over development, as reflected in prioritizing ethnic quotas or appointing co-ethnics in positions of power. Existing scholarship explains this phenomenon as neo-patrimonialism, patronage, and even the politics of retribution. Most research, however, has focused on contemporary politics. This paper takes a longer perspective on the transformation of ethnic politics and development policy, through a comparative historical analysis of two states – Bihar and Tamil Nadu. Both states experienced strong lower-caste mobilization. Tamil Nadu’s robust welfare state is credited to lower-caste social movements, but caste politics in Bihar is believed to be detrimental to development. I challenge this dominant understanding by demonstrating that movements in both states were rooted in a broader notion of social justice that sought equalization of status, what I call the politics of dignity. The politics of dignity, manifested through descriptive representation, not only preceded redistribution, but in the context of ascriptive discrimination, representational policies also generated the structural conditions for redistributive politics. A closer examination of early twentieth century Tamil Nadu reveals decades of contentious politics surrounding identity before social development found political support. I draw on archival sources, memoirs of politicians and civil servants, public spending patterns, and evidence from fieldwork to uncover the mechanisms through which the identity of the individuals who run the state influences state capacity to deliver redistributive policies.