Ethnic Mobilisation vs. Ethnic Politics: Understanding Ethnicity in Trinidad and Tobago Politics

Abstract

This paper challenges the widely accepted view that politics in Trinidad and Tobago is driven by ethnic rivalry between the country's Africans and Indians, or ‘ethnic politics’. The paper demonstrates how this interpretation distorts the historical and sociological record. A subtler and more historically consistent understanding of the place of ethnicity in politics and society is presented, which is more complex, more fluid, and looser than the popular model. Finally, a suggestion for moving beyond the ‘African–Indian rivalry’ hypothesis is offered, distinguishing ethnic mobilisation from ethnic politics, and understanding ethnic mobilisation as a by-product of insecurity in a ‘half-made society’.