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Yogendra Yadav
National President, Swaraj India
What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules? This was the title of a classic book on Marxist theory by Swedish political scientist Göran Therborn. If the title was not enough, the book also carried an equally wordy subtitle: ‘State Apparatuses and State Power Under Feudalism, Capitalism and Socialism’. I could never read the entire book, but the mouthful of a title stayed with me.
Someone should write an Indian sequel: What Does the Ruling Caste Do When It Rules? State Apparatuses and State Power under Brahminism in a Constitutional Democracy. The book could be a study of the myriad ways in which the caste order continues to rule India, using all forms of formal and informal State power. The story of how various governments of different political hues conspired to not count Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the Census must find a place in this book.