‘This is Caste Power’: Youth Politicians, Vernacular Notions of Caste-Based Supremacy and its Reproduction in Contemporary North India

Drawing on a year-long, ethnographic fieldwork in western Uttar Pradesh, India, this paper explores privileged caste youth politicians’ practices vis-à-vis the reproduction of caste power and related inequalities in India. I argue that youth politicians reproduce inherent caste-based logics of supremacy in everyday life through the examination of vernacular terms such as varchasava (predominance), chaur (a form of fearlessness) and jaatiya gaurav (caste pride). By analysing the conceptual modalities of these vernacular terms, I show how privileged caste youth politicians operationalise notions of caste power via the making of public images, spatial engraving of ideas of superiority and caste differences, and everyday and spectacular activities revolving around ideas of caste pride and caste histories. In doing so, this paper argues that the reproduction of vernacular notions of caste power and pride reflect a sustained hardening of caste identities, specially built around inherent logics of difference and its perpetuation and lack of civility in contemporary North India.