The Origins of Ethnic Activism: Caste Politics in Colonial India

In: Journal of race, ethnicity and politics: JREP, Band 4, Heft 1, S. 148-179

Abstract

AbstractExisting accounts of ethnic mobilization have focused on the role of group size or state policy. This paper suggests that narrow identity activism was also non-linearly related to education since poorly-educated groups are unlikely to have an educated elite to participate in activism, while in very educated groups this elite existed but participated in the colonial state or anti-colonial nationalism. This theory is tested using a historical panel dataset of Indian caste groups, with petitions to the colonial census authorities being used as an index of caste activism.