ABSTRACT
The chapter explores Gujaratis’ participation in the formal political system and examines how they used ethnic politics to resolve inter- and intra-community matters through competition for cultural space. The chapter then focuses on three events reflect attempts by ethnic communities to take control of ungoverned space for the purpose of becoming the producers and consumers of ethnic culture. The first event involved the public outcasteing of a Hindu family, and as such demonstrates the power of a caste committee to control its members, their social conduct, and even demand that they behave in a way that is good for caste. The second event began as an apparently insignificant request for planning made by a group of Gujarati Berelewi Baruchis who had decided to separate from Tayabiah Mosque, then under Deobandi Baruchi and ICC control. It illustrates how quickly local government was to take up a particular position, when confronted by an ethnic community that challenged the rules of the establishment.
