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Constitutional Equality and the Politics of Representation in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Zoya Hasan
Zoya Hasan*
Affiliation:
Jawarhalal Nehru University, New Delhi

Abstract

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This paper is organized around the theme of political representation in India. Its first section deals with the changing politics of representation in India in the past two decades, the growing demands for proportional representation, and for political inclusion of two influential groups: the scheduled castes and tribes and Other Backward Classes. In the second section, representation is briefly explored in relation to women and minorities. The third section deals with some reflections on the challenges of political representation in India's diverse democracy. The author aims to account for the varied trajectories of caste, community and gender in Indian politics through an analysis of the politics of representation. The main argument developed here is that the politics of presence does not offer a resolution to the problems of under-representation nor to the more fundamental issue of the representation of the interests of constituents, especially the needs of the most vulnerable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , November 2006 , pp. 54 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2006

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