Transnational Advocacy Networks and Affirmative Action for Dalits in India

Abstract

In India, movements and parties representing the lowest ranking dalit caste groups have followed different strategies in their struggle against social, economic and cultural discrimination. In this article, a new dalit movement making use of a ‘transnational advocacy network strategy’ will be compared to a more ‘classical’dalit political party. The main policy target for the new movement is an extension of existing affirmative action policies, while the dalit BSP party focuses more on emancipatory issues. Based on an analysis of the impacts of the BSP and of the new movement at the grassroots level, it is argued that the achievements of the new movement are tempered by the fact that in order to make use of international discourses and political pressure, the movement has had to develop a strategy and policy proposals compatible with existing mainstream neoliberal discourses. This depoliticizes the policies, and hence makes them of less importance strategically. It is argued that this is likely to be a difficulty for transnational advocacy networks in general.

Swan song: Transnational advocacy networks and environmental policy in Chile – The case of the Cisnes de Cuello Negro

“…Thus, we argue that those who throw the boomerang from South to North, as Tarrow (2005) recommends, should be careful about what comes and does not come back with it. Finally, unlike Bob (2005) and Lerche (2008), we find that failure is also a possible outcome, not just diversion to other issues.…”

“…Jordan and van Tuijl (2000), Bob (2005) and Lerche (2008) alert us that weaker parties (usually the 'boomerang thrower') may adopt the values of stronger TAN members, shifting TAN objectives.…”

An ‘Expanded’ Class Perspective: Bringing capitalism down to earth in the changing political lives of Adivasi workers in Kerala

“…42 It would have been even more likely for the response to injustice to become stranded in a fierce, usually (sub)castebased, competition over welfare resources that characterizes so many other struggles in India today, 43 or for the response to translate into claims for reservations, which elsewhere in India have become the single most politicized issue for subaltern political assertion. 44 Instead, the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha has focused on collective redistributive claims, particularly for land. 45 It has managed to keep L U I S A S T E U R at bay political fragmentation and direct the frustration of people such as the inhabitants of Kottamurade towards a more abstractbut more 'real' 46 -class enemy actualized in the direction of the path of development that Kerala is going down.…”

Advocacy Networks Through a Multidisciplinary Lens: Implications for Research Agendas

“…The Indian diaspora, for example, has proven to exert a strong influence back in India to defend different causes with various strategies (Gandhi 2002). Some movements have confronted traditional structural characteristics with strong cultural roots, such as the caste system's oppression of Dalits in India (Lerche 2008). Other networks have sought to improve policies regarding the environment by including local knowledge in debates and proposed solutions to problems, as Dumoulin (2003) explains in the case of Mexico.…”