Caste domination, factionalism and political power (Answer in 150 words)

- Caste domination, factionalism and political power (Answer in 150 words)
Introduction
Local power in the Indian village rests on a caste that combines numbers with land, and on the factions its rivalries generate.

Body
1. Dominance: Srinivas, writing from Rampura, defined the dominant caste by preponderant numbers, control of arable land, a ritual rank not too low, and increasingly Western education and office. Dominance works through tenancy and credit, patronage of service castes, and control of the panchayat.
2. Factionalism: Oscar Lewis's Rampur showed factions to be vertical, kin-cored blocs recruiting clients across caste lines through land, loans and protection. They are unstable and shift between elections, and Bailey's Bisipara shows the same rivalry inside the dominant caste.
3. Conversion into political power: numbers became votes. Srinivas's vote bank and Kothari's Congress system described the brokerage; caste associations and reservation politics then carried dominant peasant castes — Jats, Yadavs, Marathas, Reddys — into state power.

Conclusion
Dominance supplies the resources, factionalism the machinery, elections the prize. Recent quota agitations by dominant castes show the ritual claim abandoned and the numerical one retained.