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Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 17 33

Caste PublicationsThe Space for Upper CasteSubculture Politics

Sumit Chaturvedi

Sumit Chaturvedi (sumitartist@gmail.com) is an independent journalist and currentlymaintains a blog by the name of Opinion Tandoor.

Modern political culture has given viable incentive for various castes to develop their respective subcultures to consolidate their power in a competitive social world. Print media becomes the basis of these subcultures as it provides a viable option both for the consolidation of a shared identity as well as its communication. This article tries to illustrate the role played by print culture in materialising upper caste subcultures and their respective organisational politics through an empirical study of various registered upper caste publications in Uttar Pradesh.

Development of print culture is one of the most important ones in the world. As Benedict Ander-

son suggests “the development of print-as-commodity is the key to generation of wholly new ideas of simultaneity” (1991: 37). While Anderson’s focus, in discussing print, was on its p otentialities to render a phenomenal imagination of a nation possible, I will take my cue from his idea on the print culture for its own sake. In many ways it could be said that print culture marks a departure in the development of a community from that in which shared identities are com-municated via myths and folklores to one in which they are communicated through mass production of printed doc-umentation and their widespread circu-lation. In other words it marks a transi-tion from a traditional communication of a shared identity in community to a modern one.

To understand this we must make a distinction between imagination and the modalities of communicating those imaginations. The traditional commu ni-ties imagine themselves through m ytho-logies and tales of origin. The modern com-munities, for instance nations, as Ander-son illustrates, imagine themselves through scientifi c and modern notions of time and space such as geography and simultaneity. But the modes to commu-nicate the bases of these shared identi-ties in the former case have been folk-lore, myths, etc. While in the latter case these are communicated through mod-ern means of print culture and now via even newer innovations of wireless and telecommunication technology.

However, increasingly the traditional identities have also come to be i ncor-porated in the print and online c ulture.

Caste-based identity in the modern urban culture is an example of the tradi-tional identities, and the object of my analysis, for which print culture has be-come a resource to derive strength and vitality from.

As Dipankar Gupta suggests,

In pre-modern times, each attempt at caste identity assertion required the philippics of war and could not be carried out, as it is to-day, in a routine form within a democratic political format (2005: 412).

Print culture is compatible to the ut-most degree with the “democratic politi-cal format”. After all, this culture has evolved with fellow modern concepts of democracy, bureaucracy and republican politics in the 18th century.

Thus caste politics as it has emerged, characterised by direct competition be-tween various castes, has also acquired various modalities of the modern politi-cal culture including print media. Lloyd I Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph (1960: 9) had observed,

At the organisational level, the caste asso-ciation is moving away from the latent struc-ture of caste, towards manifest structure characteristic of the voluntary association. It has offi ces, membership, incipient bureauc-ratisation, publications, and a quasi-legisla-tive process expressed through conferences, delegates and resolutions.

These developments in caste politics have given rise to, especially in the u rbanised centres, a formation of a spe-cifi c caste “subculture”. Claude S Fischer (1995: 544) describes a subculture as

a large set of people who share a defi ning trait, associate with one another, are mem-bers of institutions associated with their d efi ning trait, adhere to a distinct set of values, share a set of cultural tools (Swi-dler 1986), and take part in a common way of life.

Although both upper and non-upper castes resort to association politics and print culture thereof, the process of u pper caste subculture formation is dif-ferent since it rarely involves question-ing of the established norms and cus-toms and involves more of staking claim to an “exalted past” (Gupta 2005: 420). This incentive provides reasons enough for the development of an upper caste

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april 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly34

Figure 2: Number of Publications Per Year in Uttar Pradesh (2001-10)

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Number of publications from upper caste associations,

per year(Uttar Pradesh)

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Source: Registrar of Newspaper for India (Verified Titles State-wise: Uttar Pradesh).

identity and its dissemination through the printed word.

Taking a cue from Ann Swidler’s idea of cultural tools, we observe that mod-ern print culture becomes that “cultural component” from which caste journal-ism emerges as one of the “strategies of action”,1 for the upper caste communi-ties. As Samuel Stroope insists “the sub-culture in question need not be histori-cally subjugated. The group could be

one that was once ascendant, but now has diminishing status, power, and per-ceives threat to its conception of moral order” (Stroope 2012: 502).

In this article therefore I shall attempt to examine, by analysing empirical evi-dences, the following: fi rst, the role played by print culture in upper caste subcultures by strengthening “the bond-ing capital” rather than “the bridging capital”2 within upper caste associations, and second, the increasingly changing role of print from a communication m edium to a “cultural tool”3 in material-ising strategies of action for the afore-mentioned associations.

The area of study shall be Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the period between 2001 and 2010. The study will be based on maga-zines registered by upper caste associa-tions or communities in various cities of UP. Only the publications whose registra-tion has been verifi ed have been included in this study. The data has been accessed from Registrar of Newspaper for India (Press Registrar), Government of India o ffi ce.4 Furthermore content of a select few publications, based on a vailability, will

be analysed to introspect the aforemen-tioned propositions of the study.

Outcomes of Study

Following are certain observations that came out from the study on the caste publications.

Between 2001 and 2010, a total of 44 magazines had been registered by or for upper caste associations.5 Twelve of these have been registered exclusively in

the name of the varna or have been reg-istered by varna associations. The var-nas being brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya and kayastha;6 one publication by the name of Savarna Morcha was registered apparently taking all savarna (as oppo-sed to avarna meaning without varna, i e, excluding the dalits) castes within its ambit. Rest of them have been registered by or in the name of various upper castes and sub-castes; publications with “Jain” in the title or caste association’s name have also been included due to their nonscheduled caste (SC) or Other Back-ward Class (OBC) status in the census of India.

These publications were registered from 21 cities in all. Figure 1 shows the number of publications that were pub-lished from different cities.

Among the 21 cities, Lucknow ac-counted for the highest, 11 publications, Agra for fi ve, Ghaziabad for four, Alla-habad for three, Bijnor, Meerut and L alitpur each with two and rest with one publication each.

Figure 2 illustrates a distribution of publications along a line graph across

various years between 2001 and 2010. As can be seen there is a peak in the number of magazines/journals in the years 2002 and 2007. Both these years were the years of state assembly elections.

Three of the total magazines are also brought out by the same owner of the publication, from cities in other states as well. Shri Palliwal Jain Patrika published from Mathura in UP by the Akhil Bhartiya Palliwal Jain Mahasabha caste associa-tion is brought out from Rajasthan as well. Sindhi Chaman published from Luc-know in UP is also brought out in Rajas-than in two versions, i e, a bilingual edi-tion and a Sindhi language edition. Tyagi Times published from Aligarh in UP is brought out by the same owner and pub-lisher from Haryana in Hindi and from Delhi in Urdu, English and Hindi as well.

Caste Publications – Urban Bias

Figure 1 suggests that more urbanised centres show higher number of caste publications. Lucknow, Agra and Ghazia-bad have higher number of publication than other cities. These cities have high urban populations7 and greater econo-mic opportunities due to greater eco-nomic prosperity8 than other cities on the whole. Using Fischer’s arguments Stroope suggests that “urbanism pro-motes social bonding for a variety of subcultures... More populated environ-ments intensify the solidarity and social involvement of subcultures” (Stroope 2012: 502). This is due to, as he suggests, greater “intra-group accessibility” and

“communication” and reinforced by “inter-group friction” (ibid). And while the former enhances the “bonding capi-tal” within the subculture, it also results in diminished “bridging social capital across groups” (ibid: 501).

Figure 1: Bar Graph Depicting Number of Publications in Various Cities (2001-10)12

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Others (1 each)

Cities of Publication

Source: Registrar of Newspaper for India (Verified Titles State-wise: Uttar Pradesh).

Agra

Allahabad

Bijnor

Ghaziabad

Lalitpur

Lucknow

Meerut

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Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 17 35

Figure 3: Number of Upper Caste Publications Registered from Lucknow (2001-10)6

5

4

3

2

1

02001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Source: Registrar of Newspaper for India (Verified Titles State-wise: Uttar Pradesh).

Number of upper caste publications registered from Lucknow

(2001-10)

Lucknow out of all these cities has the highest incidence of such publications and by a huge margin than other cities. This suggests some congruency with the city being the political nerve centre of the state, as its capital. What is impor-tant to notice is that the most number of these publications from Lucknow, as shown in Figure 3, have been registered in 2007, the second state assembly elec-tion year of the decade indicating that the trend gained momentum in the city throughout in this year but eventually wore off.

Election Euphoria

Figure 2 shows that 2007 in general saw a spike in the registration of these publi-cations. Similar spike was also observed earlier in 2002, the other year of the d ecade which witnessed the state assembly elec-tions. Having established a connection between the political nature of a city and the caste publication phenomenon, we also see that political activity on the whole accelerates this trend.

Election times are characterised by a heightened political activity. Election re-sults reveal evolving dynamics of social groups through voting pattern analyses. The 10-year period between 2001 and 2010, which witnessed two state assem-bly elections, was a period of changing vot-ing behaviour of the upper caste voters. In 2002, the incumbent coalition government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost the elections. It is a party that has been traditionally supported by the upper caste voters. In 2002 also, the party s ecured its fair share of upper caste votes; though with a decline of 0.3% in this fi g-ure from 1999 Lok Sabha elections.

However major gains in the upper caste vote share were recorded by Samaj wadi

Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which gained 7% and 2.2%, res pectively (Verma 2002: 1979). Within the fi ve years up to 2007, BSP and SP both remained in the government alternatively and then in 2007 BSP won with an overwhelming m ajority with a monumental increase in the upper caste voters voting for it.

BSP’s strategy of turning its agenda from exclusively bahujan (the non- upper caste, non-OBC castes) to sarvajan (meaning all) which was started in 2002 began to make it attractive to the upper castes. In 2007 the upper caste voters r eposed more faith in it than SP. This is probably because as Yogesh Kumar and Gupta suggest

These castes hold the S amajwadi Party res-ponsible for supporting and institutional-ising Mandal recommendations in both the state and in the country as a whole (2007: 3,389).

This slight detour into election analy-sis is to suggest that the two assembly elections were an indicator of changing voting behaviour of upper caste voters, however not because of a secularising tendency that saw them looking above their own caste interests but precisely because they saw new avenues of infl u-encing political power in favour of their community. As Stroope quotes Swallow,

Most [Indian] urban dwellers nominally a ccept the offi cial ideology of secularism and egalitarianism, but are often unhap-py with its practical consequences. Some a dmit when pressed that they really ad-mire, r espect and believe in the hierarchical principles underlying the caste order… (2011: 505).

The high incidence of caste publica-tions in election years, both in the pre-election and post-election periods, shows a heightened level of activity for upper caste subcultures. Print culture becomes an effi cient cultural compo-nent from which these subcultures d erive their strategies of action.

Content Analysis

Looking at the content of these maga-zines clears certain key points. The i ntra-group bonding is very important to these associations. Eight of the pub-lications which were looked into via their internet presence, all indicated to this trend. The website of Purwal

Vaishya Samaj, which brings out Pur-war Samaj Patrika, gives a description of the women of the community as home-bound, chaste, traditional wom-en who acquiesce to the male authority with consent and good humour. The detailed description of the status of women in the community seems like a patriarchal ascription rather than an authentic description of these women. The website also quotes the 1901 caste census enumerating the 42 sub-castes under the vaishya category.

While this is an example of a historical authentication of a shared caste identity, Agrawal Today attempts at creating a pan-Indian caste identity, sharing news of various important events and person-alities coming from the Agrawal caste and related communities across the country and even outside of it. Chouhan Chetna, the quarterly newsletter brought out for the “Rajput” community apart from using the same modality as Agrawal Today, also provides matrimonial servi-ces for the youth of the community. Mad-heshiya Samaj magazine also maintains a blog that strives to bring the members of their caste together from all across the subcontinent.

Bhatnagar Varta is the offi cial publi-cation of the All India Bhatnagar Upka-rak Fund Trust. It attempts to document an organisational history of the asso-ciation. The Jain Samaj which brings out two publications by the name of Shraman Bharti and Shri Palliwal Jain Patrika maintains an extensive website that includes whole range of services and information from members directory to business directory, matrimonial ser-vice and information about the commu-nity’s temples, saints, celebrities, etc.

Whereas a facebook group main-tained by the Akhil Bhartiya Brahaman Utthan Samiti is the most explicit with its iconography of “Parashuram” and the agenda regarding a shared brahmin identity, paradoxical to its stated objec-tive of doing away with caste based reser-vations and caste considerations. Simi-lar websites were also found for other caste associations and their respective publications, brought out from other states which had similar agenda as the aforementioned.

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april 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly36

It was diffi cult to gauge the advertise-ment pattern of these publications from their websites. However it was found that most such magazines were run on sponsorships, donations and advertise-ments from the members themselves. Matrimonial advertisements also pro-vided for some funding. One of the pub-lications had even commissioned a com-mercial matrimonial service through their website.

Clearly the upper caste subculture is not taking a back seat anytime soon. From efforts at building organisational solidarity, to those of mobilising shared identity based on common heritage, his-torical accounts, origin tales and justifi -cation of caste system, all still prevail and work for intra-group bonding. Fischer notes “as modern technologies allow interaction without proximity.... subcultural processes are revealed to be fundamentally about intragroup accessi-bility” (1995: 549).

The Symbolism of Print

Swidler writes on culture as a resource, Culture consists of such symbolic vehicles of meaning, including beliefs, ritual practices,

art forms and ceremonies.... These symbolic forms are the means through which ‘social processes of sharing modes of behaviour and outlook within a community’ take place… (1986: 273).

Print culture also becomes for the caste subculture this resource from which the caste associations derive the symbolic vehicles of meaning in form of caste publications.

The study of caste publications tells us a lot about the nature of these caste as-sociations as to what form do they imag-ine themselves in, how do they commu-nicate and mobilise this imagination, how does the modern caste identity take shape in the form of horizontally competing groups instead of vertically ordered hierarchy, when do the need for this mobilisation and solidarity emerge within these caste groups and most im-portantly what sets upper caste subcul-ture apart from other caste subcultures. In answering these questions we reveal out fi rst set of conclusions.

The lives of the urban upper castes re-main unsettled amidst a changing social order where they have to compete with erstwhile deemed lower castes, but now

legally equal to them in every way, for economic, professional and political re-sources. In the qualitative component of this study this fact emerged clearly. From publications committed exclusively to the anti-caste status, there are also those which exalt the origin tales of their castes and also the teachings of ideologues such as Swami Vivekananda who have extolled the virtues of caste order. Caste hierarchy is not the only traditional virtue that these publications value. As observed, patriarchy also be-comes a prized value for these associa-tions. Perhaps in a changing social o rder, gender equality is another unset-tling factor for the established patriar-chal upper caste order.

Caste identities have been found to be solidifi ed on the basis of origin tales, o rganisational history, census data, his-torical logic, etc. The agenda seems to be strengthening the intra-group solidarity and accessibility. Matrimonial services were a common feature of most of these magazines to help fi nd prospective grooms and brides their partners within the same castes. Business interests also play their part as these publications

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Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 17 37

b ecome a vehicle for bringing together entrepreneurs and traders from within the same castes. All these observations are stated features of the bonding social capital.

But what are the political factors i nvolved in these publications? This study reveals that sociopolitical activity d irectly infl uences the political con-scious ness of caste associations. Meas-uring the activeness of these caste as-sociations through the registration data of the caste publications, we fi nd that caste a ssociations in urban centres, with a heightened political activity reg-ister more such magazines and jour-nals. Perhaps the caste associations and more importantly the caste subcultures have a tendency to absorb the political nature of the urban centres in which they develop.

Another indicator of political activity infl uencing caste subcultures are the periods of democratic political pro-cesses such as elections. In periods of elections more caste publications are registered than otherwise. Almost all elections, in this day and age of hyper-media c overage, are f ollowed by exten-sive voting analyses not excluding caste and community based voting pattern illustrations.

This study shows an increased activity in the post-election period among the upper caste associations. The need to mobilise the message of caste solidarity is felt more during these times. As is common knowledge, urban population follows more proactively the electronic media coverage. The impact of post-election analyses in media could be an important factor in this increased fi gure of registration of publications.

The second set of conclusions is with the reference to the role of print culture in the development of urban upper caste subcultures. My focus in this article, as I stated in the beginning was to show how the print culture, a feature of modernity, has come to be used to communicate no-tions, ideas and identities which may not come into the fold of modernity. As we have looked through this study, caste subcultures have amply used print cul-ture to mobilise shared identities for their ends.

Anderson writes about the develop-ment of print as a commodity,

...the search was on, so to speak, for a new way of linking fraternity, power and time meaningfully together. Nothing more precipitated this search, nor made it more fruitful, than print-capitalism, which made it possible for rapidly growing numbers of people to think about themselves, and to relate themselves, and to relate them-selves to others, in profoundly new ways (1991: 36).

Although Anderson wrote this with reference to the nation, but perhaps nothing else suits the purpose of this study more aptly than this quote. The idea of a caste subculture to increase its bonding capital, as opposed to bridging capital, for consolidating its power through a shared identity, de-fi nes the use of print journalism for the caste associations. Print is that tool for intra-group accessibility that keeps the caste subculture relevant amongst its proponents.

The use of print journalism by upper caste associations is compatible with the other modern rituals, characteristic of modern democratic culture. Since castes are not territorially bound communities, it becomes diffi cult for these associations to formulate concrete structures of p ower for their organisations. It is, then, that print media also serves as the space to observe the functioning such as elec-tions, matrimonial services, fund collec-tion and distribution, etc, and other par-aphernalia associated with the caste subculture and preserve its relevance. At the same time it also documents the caste’s history, geography, organisation and sociology and serves as an archive of the activity of respective caste com-munities. All these notions provide a b asis for caste identity to sustain and stand the test of time.

Thus print capitalism serves the inter-est of the modern urban individuals who despite their claims for objectivity, secu-larism and egalitarianism can still main-tain a caste identity for personal and p olitical ends, without explicitly partici-pating in caste practices, but by merely subscribing to a print commodity. The print culture thus becomes a cultural component of the caste subculture and also the space for its observance.

Notes

1 Swidler defi nes “strategies of action” as persist-ent ways of ordering action through time (Swi-dler 1986: 273).

2 Stroope explains “bridging capital” as those in which social interaction crosses group bounda-ries and “bonding capital” in which social in-teraction crosses group boundaries (Stroope 2011: 501).

3 The term “cultural tools” as used by Fischer to explain Anne Swidler’s idea of culture as a tool kit (Fischer 1995: 544).

4 “Verifi ed Titles – Statewise, State: Uttar Pradesh.” Registrar of Newspapers for India: Government of India, viewed on various dates in March 2013 (http://rni.nic.in/rni_display_state.asp).

5 The Offi ce of Registrar of Newspapers for In-dia, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in response to an RTI appeal asking for the to-tal number of magazines registered by caste associations and their proprietors, place of publication and years of registration, answered “RNI has no mechanism to categorise maga-zines/newspapers owned or registered by caste associations” (with reference to correspond-ence no: FNo 612/853/2012-13(RTI)/NPCS). Thus the identifi cation of these publications has been solely done by the author on the basis of the titles of these magazines and the organi-sations that have registered them or own them. Those publications have been omitted which fall in the scheduled caste or Other Backward Class categories.

6 Since it is not well established whether Ka-yastha falls under caste or varna category, for convenience it has been put under varna cate-gory.

7 “Census Provisional Population Totals 2011: U ttar Pradesh”, Census of India 2011, viewed on 3 June 2013 (http://censusindia.gov.in/2011 census/censusinfodashboard/index.html).

8 Department of Planning, Government of Uttar Pradesh (2007): The Second Uttar Pradesh Hu-man Development Report (Table 5.5: Districts with Highest and Lowest Share of Different Sectors in District Income 2004-05).

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Gupta, Dipankar (2005): “Caste and Politics: Iden-tity over System”, Annual Review of Anthropol-ogy, 34: 409-27.

Gupta, Dipankar and Yogesh Kumar (2007): “When the Caste Calculus Fails: Analysing BSP’s Vic-tory in UP”, Economic & Political Weekly, 18 Au-gust, 42 (33): 3388-96.

Rudolph, Lloyd I and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph (1960): “The Political Role of India’s Caste A ssociations”, Pacifi c Affairs, 33 (1): 5-22.

Stroope, Samuel (2012): “Caste, Class and Urbani-zation: The Shaping of Religious Community in Contemporary India”, Social Indicators Re-search, 105 (1): 499-518.

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– (2007): “Reverse Social Osmosis in Uttar Pradesh”, Economic & Political Weekly, 42 (10): 817-20.