ABSTRACT
In Yadav caste political rhetoric 'democracy' is portrayed as a primordial phenomenon passed in the blood from the ancestor warrior-god Krishna to the contemporary Yadavs. This chapter describes how caste, factions and personal interests are fought over in the local political arena. What is at stake here is the organisational ability of the Yadav caste associations and of the Samajwadi Party which not only shapes ideas of what the Yadav community is and what democracy is and should do, but also promotes the pursuit of power as a way to get economic benefits from the state and social status. The chapter shows that in order to understand the relation between caste and politics, special attention should be paid to the ways democracy is vernacularised. In Ahir Para/Sadar Bazaar the concept of the idea of 'representation' has been locally reinterpreted in a language which has roots in reinvented Yadav 'democratic' political traditions.
