Social media discussions in India reveal that class-based arguments are used to justify opposition to caste-based reservation policies, reinforcing the notion of “merit” as a means to maintain social hierarchy.
Authors
Rahul Sambaraju, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh, UK, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Arti Singh, Assistant Professor, Jindal School of Psychology and Counselling, O. P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India
Summary
We examine how economic inequality is considered at the intersection of one form of structural inequity: caste in India. While caste and class intersections are topics of extensive study in social sciences, we focus on how people make sense of these intersections in rejecting or defending reservation policies. We undertake a discursive analysis of discussions on the social media platform Quora, with a particular focus on how class-predicates are ascribed to caste groups in downgrading or upgrading privilege normatively associated with caste groups. Posters ascribed features suggestive of class to caste groups to indicate relative economic privilege in questioning the use of reservations. Constructions of economic progress for oppressed caste groups meant that principles of meritocracy and egalitarianism could be used to treat caste-based reservations as unfair. These findings are discussed in relation to current qualitative psychological research on economic inequality and the cultural salience of intersecting inequities.
This paper engages with critiques of how psychological theories and knowledge have contributed to maintaining and justifying wealth and caste inequities through edifying ‘merit’. We employ discursive approaches that examine practices by which such inequalities are maintained and justified. Our focus is on how negotiating the nature of inequ(al)ities in contemporary Indian society, at the intersections of caste and class or not, is used to criticize or defend policies that aim to redress inequities. We offer novel insights into how merit is understood not only in terms of abilities to achieve economic gains but also to reject policies that might address wealth inequality.
Published in: Qualitative Research in Psychology
To read the full article, please click here.
