B ackward C lass C astes M ovements The emergence of backward castes/classes as political entities has occurred both in the colonial and post-colonial contexts. The colonial state often distributed patronage on the basis of caste. It made sense, therefore, for people to stay within their caste for social and political identity in institutional life. It also influenced similarly placed caste groups to unite themselves and to form what has been termed a ‘horizontal stretch’.
Caste, thus, began to lose its ritual content and become more and more secularised for political mobilisation (recall the discussion on secularisation in Chapter ).