Identity, Expertise and Electoral Mobilisation: Karnataka’s OBC Commissions and the Transformation of OBC Politics in a Regional Democracy
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The paper examines how Karnataka Other Backward Classes (OBC) commissions have changed caste identity, professionalized knowledge and mobilisation in electoral politics in a regional democracy. The paper argues based on the connections between the Miller Committee (1918-19) and the Chinnappa Reddy Commission and the post-1995 Karnataka State Commission on Backward Classes that the agencies are not mere technical fact-finding units, but political institutions that stabilise and even disintegrate OBC identities by repackaging them. According to their forms of classification, survey exercises and quota prescriptions, commissions give state certified backwardness which parties translate into electoral politics, especially the majority/subaltern OBC blocs. The article has a mixed methodology as a combination of a documentary analysis of a commission report and legislation and the review of current scholarly research on caste politics and affirmative action. It also entails the secondary analysis of 2015 Socio Economic and Educational Caste (SEEC) Survey and the deliberations of the 32/51 per cent reservation change of OBCs.
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
References
Ambedkar, B. R. (2014). Annihilation of caste. Navayana Publishing.
Assadi, M. (2006). The muted anti-reservation agitation. Economic and Political Weekly, 41(17), 1633–1636.
Assadi, M. (2009). Identity and politics of caste in Karnataka. University of Mysore.
Béteille, A. (2001). The backward classes in contemporary India. Oxford University Press.
Radhakrishnan, P. (1990). Karnataka backward classes. Economic and Political Weekly, 25(32), 1749–1754.
Srinivas, M. N. (1998). Social change in modern India. Orient Blackswan.
Azhar Khan, C. A. (2023). Need for a study of state policies towards the development of minorities in Karnataka (Working Paper No. 443). Institute for Social and Economic Change.
Backward classes movement in Karnataka. (2023). Paripex – Indian Journal of Research, 12(4), 45–48.
Decoding Muslim reservation under OBC in Karnataka: What does Chinnappa Reddy Commission report say? (2024, April 24). News18.
Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1995. (1995). Government of Karnataka.
Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes. (2025). Official website. Government of Karnataka. [suspicious link removed]
Karnataka: Caste surveys done, and undone: 107 yrs on, a story repeats. (2025, April 18). The Indian Express.
Panchayat Raj and OBC political empowerment in Karnataka. (2025). Arimaanokku Journal, 2(3), 15–27.
Politics of backwardness. (2020, December 3). Deccan Herald.
“Debate the efficacy of Backward Classes Commissions in addressing Karnataka’s socio-economic inequalities.” (2025, August 31). PSCNotes – Karnataka.
BJP woos Karnataka OBCs with development mantra. (2024, March 19). Deccan Herald.