Varieties of Political Behavior among Nadars of Tamilnad

Abstract

The spectre of caste has increasingly come to haunt both Indian politics and Indian political analysis. Caste is so tacitly and so completely accepted by all, including those most vocal in condemning it, writes M. N. Srinivas, it is everywhere unit of social action. I Srinivas argues that development of modern communications, spread of education and literacy, and rising prosperity have contributed, not to disintegration of caste, but to its strengthening. As caste solidarity has increased, caste has been politicized and drawn into political system as a major actor. The role of caste in modern Indian politics has been decried, on one hand, as a fissiparous threat to national unity,2 and, on other hand, lauded as a channel of communication which acts as a link between mass electorate and the new democratic political processes and makes them comprehensible in traditional terms to a population still largely politically illiterate. 3 Students of Indian political scene have come to speak of Reddy or Ezhava bloc, just as in United States we often talk in terms of Negro, Irish, or Italian vote. To what extent, however, can we ever meaningfully speak of a caste, as such, as an actor in politics? What are factors which affect political behavior of a caste or of a religious, racial, tribal, or ethnic group? Is there, in fact, a caste interest which disposes members of a caste community to vote in same way or to act politically as a united bloc? In order to explore these questions, let us select a single caste community for analysis, Nadars of Tamilnad. In course of past one hundred and fifty years, under impact of economic change and social mobilization, Nadars have experienced accelerated change. Traditionally, caste was engaged in its hereditary occupation as toddy-tappers, climbers of palm, and, defiled by their ritually-impure calling, they suffered social disabilities of a lowalmost untouchable-community. At beginning of nineteenth century, Nadars-or Shanars, as they were then known-were almost entirely engaged in cultivation and climbing of palmyra, and community was heavily concentrated in palmyra forest of southeastern portion of Madras in Tiruchen-