From traditional biradarism to political biradarism: changing socio-political landscape in South Asia

Abstract

This paper attempts to address the core question of the research: why do people stick with political parties rejected by the guardians in establishmentarian democracies, by focusing on the rural powerless Punjabis’ political inclination towards party politics. Guardians of the country have been utilising electables from larger biradaris in rural constituencies to strategically manage dharas and smaller biradari networks within their respective constituencies, thereby influencing the decisions of the voters. The paper, however, reveals the shift from traditional biradarism to political biradarism.

Drawing on the ethnography conducting in rural Punjab and relying on the framework of politics from below (PFB) the paper argues that biradarism and dhara-based politics are not the key to winning elections in contemporary rural Punjab. The paper demonstrates that support for political parties is creating new bhaicharas, biradarism and political identification, rendering irrelevant the older identities. The paper further contends that rural voters now tend to align their political affiliations with the political parties of their choice rather than dhara and biradari networks. They are now inclined towards being identified as the members of a dhara representing a political party rather than as members of any traditional dhara representing individuals or biradaris. Furthermore, the paper asserts that it is not like party preferences emerged first and then the vote bloc system weakened but rather the vote bloc system weakened first, creating the vacuum that was subsequently filled by the party politics.