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Traditional Society and Representation A case study in Orissa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

F. G. Bailey
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Extract

In this essay I describe the relationship between politicians in Orissa (1) and the people whom they represent and govern. Demographic, cultural and social factors affect the politician's approach to his electorate. To be accepted, he requires a particular kind of reputation; to win an election he must take account of the structure of the society in which he lives; and, thirdly, he must create networks of relationship, which are not found in the traditional society but are a product of a society in transition.

Type
Industrial Society and Representative Government
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , June 1960 , pp. 121 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1960

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References

(1) I have analysed the development of Orissa politics during the last forty years in nine articles in the Economic Weekly of Bombay, published between August and November 1959, where I discuss statewide social cleavages and their effect on politics. In the present essay I describe politics at the level of the district and the constituency. I have endeavoured to make this article complete in itself, but the reader is referred to the Economic Weekly for a more complete historical and social background than can be here presented. Orissa has an area of 60,000 square miles and a population now of almost 15 million, of whom only 600,000 are town-dwellers (towns, in the convention of the Indian Census, contain a population of more than 5,000). The economy is based on paddy-cultivation, and, except in years of drought or flood, a surplus of grain is exported. The State has rich forests and large mineral reserves. In the last ten years heavy industries are being developed in the northern hill area.

(2) Every elector, irrespective of community, votes for reserved-seat candidates: but only members of privileged communities may stand for these seats.

(3) Economic Weekly, loc. cit.

(4) See Bailey, F. G., Tribe, Caste and Nation (Manchester University Press, 1960).Google Scholar

(5) See Morris-Jones, W. H., Parliament in India (London, Longmans, 1957), pp. 43–73.Google Scholar