Aspirant Academy

Polity, Governance and Current Affairs

Key Points at a Glance

Identity-Based to Issue-Driven Politics, Gender Participation, AI-Enabled Mobilization

Paper III · Unit 1 Section 1 of 11 0 PYQs 27 min
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Key Points at a Glance

  1. Identity Politics — Definition and Origin

    • Political mobilisation based on shared characteristics — caste, religion, language, tribe, gender — rather than class or ideology
    • In India, caste has been the primary axis of identity politics since the 1970s
    • Mandal Commission Report (1980) and its 1990 implementation triggered OBC political consolidation

  2. Issue-Driven Politics — Shift and Limits

    • Focuses on policy outcomes — economic development, corruption, governance quality, welfare delivery — rather than community identity
    • The 2014 General Election marked a partial transition: Modi campaign focused on "development" (vikas) and "corruption-free governance"
    • However, caste coalitions remained relevant sub-nationally — identity politics did not disappear

  3. Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023

    • Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023 — also called Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam
    • Reserves 33% of seats in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for women
    • Will be operative after the next delimitation and census (expected 2026–2028)

  4. Women's Representation — Current Numbers

    • Lok Sabha 2024: 74 women MPs (13.6%) out of 543 — below global average of 26.9%
    • India ranks 148th in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) gender ranking (2024)
    • Rajasthan Legislative Assembly 2023: 30 women MLAs out of 200 seats = 15% (16 BJP, 14 Congress/INC bloc)

  5. Caste-Based Politics — Evolution

    • The Mandal moment (1990) under V.P. Singh politicised OBC identity at the national level
    • Subsequent developments: SP-BSP alliance in UP (OBC+Dalit), Bihar's "MY" (Muslim-Yadav) coalition under Lalu Prasad, Tamil Nadu's Dravidian parties representing non-Brahmin identity
    • By 2024, caste census demand (nationwide caste data collection) emerged as a major electoral issue

  6. Communal/Religious Identity Politics

    • From Nehru's secular consensus, India witnessed periodic communal mobilisation — Jan Sangh (1951), RSS-BJP ideological platform, Hindutva as political identity
    • Babri Masjid demolition (1992) and subsequent Ram Mandir movement transformed religious identity into electoral politics
    • Ram Mandir consecration (January 2024) became a key BJP electoral issue in 2024 General Elections

  7. AI-Enabled Political Mobilization — Key Tools

    • Targeted advertising on social media using voter profiling by age, location, caste, and interests
    • Deepfakes and synthetic media for disinformation; AI-generated voice bot campaigns for voter outreach
    • NLP sentiment analysis on social media to track opinion; chatbot-based voter helpdesks
    • The 2024 Indian elections saw extensive use of AI-generated content; ECI issued guidelines against misuse

  8. Social Media and Political Mobilization

    • India has 760+ million internet users (2025), 500+ million WhatsApp users, and 360+ million YouTube users — world's largest base for each
    • Political parties maintain dedicated social media cells: BJP's IT cell, Congress's digital media team
    • WhatsApp forwards are key vectors for political messaging and misinformation in India

  9. Secularisation of Caste — Sociological View

    • Sociologist M.N. Srinivas described Sanskritisation — lower castes adopting upper caste practices for social mobility
    • Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar described the "second democratic upsurge" post-Mandal — lower castes and OBCs became assertive political agents, not just vote banks
    • Caste has been both an instrument of mobilisation AND a unit of welfare policy (reservation) in India

  10. Gender Gaps in Political Participation

    • Women face structural barriers: patriarchal family norms, financial dependency, violence threats, lack of party tickets, few women in party leadership
    • The Gram Panchayat 33%–50% reservation under 73rd Amendment has created lakhs of women panchayat representatives
    • However, proxy "sarpanch pati" phenomenon persists — male relatives effectively govern in place of elected women

  11. Dalit Politics After Mandal

    • Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's political legacy transformed into BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party, 1984) under Kanshi Ram and then Mayawati
    • BSP's Social Engineering formula combined Dalit-OBC-Muslim-upper caste ("rainbow coalition") — won UP 2007 with full majority
    • Post-2012, BSP's decline reflects the volatility of identity-based politics when issue expectations are unmet

  12. Intersectionality in Indian Politics

    • Women from Dalit/OBC/Muslim backgrounds face double marginalisation — gender + caste/religion combined
    • SHG (Self-Help Group) movements, ASHA workers, and Anganwadi networks have created new channels of political awareness for rural women
    • These pathways operate largely outside formal party politics, building bottom-up political agency