The Elite Origins of Shared Identity: Evidence from Colonial India

• In Event: Identity and Discrimination in South Asian Politics

Abstract

How do elites respond to threats to their elite status? I argue that one way that high-status elites in hierarchical societies preserve their elite status in the face of threats is through promoting shared identity between themselves and members of marginalized groups against whom they formerly practiced social discrimination. Drawing upon the case of colonial India during the early 20th century, I argue that some upper-caste elites reduced discrimination against Dalits, members of India’s lowest-ranked castes, and promoted a shared Hindu identity to preserve their power. Drawing on quantitative data sources from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, I show that
religious competition over lower-caste adherents spurred by Christian missionaries led to greater efforts by upper-caste Hindus to end the practice of untouchability through religious reform and legislative change. Qualitative archival evidence demonstrates that many of the upper-caste Hindu elites involved in these efforts explicitly explained their actions in terms of using identity to strategically preserve their power and press greater claims to political representation.

Author

• Sebastian Lucek, Stanford University