Description
The General Elections in the worlds largest democracy concluded in July 2024, with the incumbent government taking over for a third term, albeit through the return of coalition politics. While religious sentiments, social justice, representation and development were the most vocal issues during the election campaign, there was a sociological factor that transformed in to a visibly invisible element that took the centre-stage in 2024 Indian Elections- Caste. The caste based rhetoric in the electoral politics was not quite pronounced, however the invisible considerations of caste permeated all aspects of elections ranging from candidate selection, electoral mandates, voting behaviour and formation of political alliances. This paper proposes to analyse how the traditional social structure of the 'graded inequalities' of caste get transposed upon the modern systems of democracy. The research work entails a critical examination of the process and outcomes of the General Elections to the Loksabha in India to understand how the muted reality of caste permeate the shaping of political power in the South Asia, specifically in the case of India.
