1. Hugo Gorringe University of Edinburgh; H.Gorringe@ed.ac.uk
‘Show me a better party & I’ll join it’: Dalits, Disillusionment, Disunity & the Durability of Dreams
Instead of an apology an analogy:
Ready Meals – pre-packaged, pre-seasoned and pre-cooked. Complete package – OR
Home Cooking; buy freshest ingredients – but need to peel, chop, cook and season. What you are getting today is as fresh as it could possibly be, but some of the theoretical and analytical seasoning is yet to be added. Your chance to spice it up a bit with pertinent questions, suggestions and recommended reading.
TM and I – multiple exchanges: but you say you are still in the party; I’m the last possible member. But way you are talking you should join another party. Show me a better party and I’ll hold a big press meet and print a banner and join them.
Hugo Gorringe
University of Edinburgh;

2. Dalit Politics in TN Dravidian Context Successive Challenges
Disregard of Dalit Issues
1999 Third Front
From Movement to Party
Dravidian Context > Successive Challenges> Dalits in Congress, Then Communists, Then DMK, Then ADMK > 1999 Third Front
Heady optimism BUT literature suggests that SMs struggle with institutionalisation. Sure enough:

3. Disillusionment: The Poverty of Panther Politics
Supping with the Devil?
Broad-basing Support
Big Man Politics
‘Thirumangalam Formula’
Downplaying Dalit Identity?
Professionalisation, seeking membership, search for funds, compromise mentality – could be the story of any movement turned party in any country in any part of the world. But, of course, there are specificities:
Supping with the Devil: Alternate Alliances
Reaching out to other caste voters: Tamil identity: Eelam, Language (names), Chastity
Big Man Politics: DPI > Thiruma; Land Rights to 50th B’day
Thirumangalam Formula: Everyday Corruption
Downplaying Dalit Identity?

4. Disunity: The myth of vote bank Politics?
‘Even when the PMK and DPI were in alliance why were they not able to win a single seat and Vijayakant could? … It means that the people were unhappy about something. The Dalit people rejected the Dalit parties.’
Can’t Win Alone
The Primacy of Caste?
The Wrong Candidate?
The Wrong Alliance?
Dalit Politics, but Caste Parties
Firstly can’t win on own anyway – need to show that can deliver sizeable number of votes BUT
Not all Dalits persuaded by alliances or candidates: Muduvarpatti
PMK+VCK = ???
But then again perhaps what these examples show is the strength of caste politics, afterall VCK is mainly a Paraiyar Party and emerged in opposition to the mainly Vanniyar PMK – hence in rejecting the allies of the party the voters are, in fact, staying true to caste.
Finally, of course, whilst we talk of Dalit politics, Intra-Dalit issues means it makes no sense to speak of a Dalit vote-bank.

5. Dreams: Strength of Symbols
Why the residual attachment?
Caste
Dreams: The Leader and the Legacy
Failure of Others
Not *just* symbolic
The Strength of Symbolism
SO – criticisms, disillusionment and failure of grassroots organisation and yet the critics remain in the party. What is the continuing appeal?
One factor is caste
2ndly – the leader and the legacy of his speeches
3rdly failure of other parties on Dalit issues – which we will return to in a minute
Fourthly – easy to dismiss Dalit parties as primarily concerned with identity and symbolism but such politics are not *just* symbolic: Ambedkar cartoon; Flags and banners; Statues

6. Show me a better party … Cong & BJP Dravidian Parties CPI(M): TNUEF
BSP
Alternate Front?
Dravidian Parties: Populism – neither let us live nor let us die. As M.C.Raj & Jyothi argue in Dalitocracy: have created an expectation of rewards.
CPI(M): TNUEF – good work: few Dalits in top posts, only taken up recently, focus on tangible/solvable instance of untouchability
BSP: No hope in TN – played cards wrong
Alternate Front? Others should take the lead.

7. Discussion Vernacularisation of Institutionalisation
Revisiting Caste Vote-Banks
Re-assessing ‘symbolic politics’
In rounding things up I wish to highlight three key issues raised in the talk thusfar:
Just as Michelutti speaks of the vernacularisation of Democracy so, I would
argue, processes of Institutionalisation are also vernacularised/ moulded and
shaped by the specificities of the socio-political context:
Thus, the VCK does not, as yet, have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Professionlisation … in local ways of doing politics not media, getting things done or winning elections. Have own magazine and are preparing to launch TV channel BUT Local committee meetings not held, cards not issued, elections not held.
Secondly, I think that we need to revisit what we mean by caste vote-banks.
The assumption as put forward by Kanchan Chandra and others is that
members of castes votes for one of their own in the expectation of advancing
their material interests. But politics is more messy than that:
Reserved seats
Coalitions
If they do vote with caste interests in mind then would expect vote to be
swayed by such issues– need more info here.
Finally, need to step back from seeing ‘symbolic politics’ as a pejorative term
and analyse the issues taken up and interventions made in a wider frame of reference. The concessions of politeness, as Bourdieu argues, are always already political concessions. In like manner, the significance of the politics of symbolism often extends beyond what is being signified: Ambedkar Statues, thus, are not just about the celebration of a Dalit leader but entail the encroachment of public space by Dalit movements. In this sense they are also concern the recalibration of rights to space and the redistribution of power. It is for this reason that they attract such antipathy and violence from higher castes.

8. Conclusion
‘It’s a blessing we lost [the 2011 elections] … The party would have disintegrated had we won. 10 MLAs enriching themselves? The party would have been ruined. Now at least we can rethink and restructure’.
Professionalisation … in local politics
Alternative Party not Alternative Politics
More of the Same ≠ Dalit Liberation
Institutionalisation has not quite killed the panthers off yet, but are at a cross-roads. Many still have one foot in the party in hope of change and for lack of alternatives. Borne up by mobilisation of 10years ago – not enough to sustain a party in the longer-term. It is clear that it is difficult to effect change without conducting an alternate politics. Institutionalisation into hegemonic ways of doing Tamil politics will serve to domesticate the panthers rather than realise their ideals.

9. Recent Online Papers (2012)
‘Party Political Panthers: Hegemonic Tamil Politics and the Dalit Challenge’, SAMAJ (South Asia Multi-disciplinary Academic Journal): <samaj.revues.org/pdf/3224>
‘Caste and Politics in Tamil Nadu’, Seminar 633, May (Special Issue: Caste Matters)
‘From Non-Brahmin to Non-Dalit: Dalit Politics in Dravida Land’, Centre Right India: 11 July <