Caste and Identity

The political trajectories of regions of India have been quite varied. Different regions have not only had diverse pasts but their post-colonial presents have also evolved differently. This has been despite the common colonial experience and a shared national framework of politics and economics over the last six decades. Caste has, for example, been an important axis of talking about social and political processes almost everywhere in India, but the nature of caste alliances and the framing of caste based politics have varied significantly across regions. As is suggested by its title, M.S.S. Pandian’s book is about the genealogies of two sets of caste identities, the ‘Brahmin’ and ‘non-Brahmin’, in Tamil Nadu. At some level the two categories appear quite obvious today in the larger context of national politics. However, they have had very specific history in the region.

Pandian provides us an account of the making of these two categories in Tamil Nadu, their changing meanings over time and the manner in which different actors mobilized them. The subject ‘Brahmin and non-Brahmin’ began to acquire significance in Tamil Nadu with the emergence of a strong movement against hegemonic position of Brahmins in the Tamil society. It was from within the nationalist movement in Madras presidency that in 1916 a group of prominent actors broke ranks with the Indian National Congress and issued a ‘manifesto’ of the ‘Non-Brahmin’.