ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the socio-historical and economic trajectories which led the processes of internalization of democracy into the caste in the state of Uttar Pradesh. I pay special attention to social, economic, and political transformations that have enabled low-caste political participation in north India and Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s and onwards. The chapter links low-caste rise to long term processes of internalization of democracy in the caste which have changed the structure and working of the Indian party system. Caste played important role in transforming the Indian political and party system. In so doing, the chapter looks at the links between identity, caste consciousness and democratic practices and illustrates the dynamics behind the appeal of caste in contemporary politics.
