The Color of Politics: Skin Tone and Attitudes towards Caste-Based Voting

• In Event: Identity and Discrimination in South Asian Politics

Abstract

Skin color's effects on political outcomes, including voting, are often studied in multiracial societies, where Skin color is a marker of group identity and is politicized. In these settings, it is difficult to separate effects of race politics from ones produced by skin color. The relationship between skin color and group identity-based voting, then, has to be investigated in contexts where skin tone is neither politicized, nor a marker of group identity. In this paper, we turn to one such setting, India, to study the relationship between an individual’s skin tone and their attitudes towards caste-based bloc voting. We document the lived experience of skin color through 76 one-on-one interviews of individuals with different skin complexion. We discover that the preferences for fair skin and against dark skin are strong and experienced among family and friends' ties. We suggest that alienation experienced by dark skinned individuals among such ties could potentially undermine attachment to caste networks which facilitate caste-based voting. We operationalize attitudes towards caste-based voting in several ways in a survey of 5100 voters. We ask whether or not respondents think it important to vote with fellow caste members, as well as whether or not they think caste interests are important in choosing parties and candidates. We find that dark-skinned individuals are less inclined towards caste-based voting than their fair counterparts.

Authors

• Susan L Ostermann, University of Notre Dame

• Amit Ahuja, University of California, Santa Barbara