Many political scientists have argued that debates and conflicts after India's independence are where our current beliefs stem from. For example, many of our arguments have discussed who and under what conditions caste-based reservations should be accommodated. We see many ideological conflicts pertaining to this issue even today, in our everyday political conversations as well as in party positions.
Given the ever-evolving nature of India's political landscape, especially in terms of how we vote, we have been developing an instrument to measure political ideology in India. The idea here is that we must understand whether certain belief systems may affect who we vote for. Our previous post-poll reports tell us that as many as a third of us decide who to vote for within two days before the election, and about 42 percent follow the bandwagon when trying to vote; that is, they vote for the party they think will win the election. In other words, voting behavior is usually erratic and inconsistent — we usually do not even vote for parties that improve our own well-being, let alone those of others. Because of this, we decided to study the political behaviors of Indians, borrowing theories and methods from political science and psychology.
In one study, we administered the scale that we developed to check what the ideological profiles of Indians are. We found that with respect to social or cultural issues such as acceptance of queer rights, Indians can be divided into three groups. The first group includes those who are traditionally left-leaning, in terms of their positions on various issues, like queer rights and inter-religious marriages. They usually identify as left-leaning and vote for left-positioned parties such as the CPI(M). The second group includes those who are traditionally right-leaning, who not only identify as leaning right but also vote for right-positioned parties. However, they do not report themselves as right-leaning in terms of economic issues, such as the extent to which luxury goods should be taxed. The third group includes those who are tolerant towards minoritized groups but prefer obedience to authority structures such as the police. They primarily vote for right-positioned parties or prefer not to vote at all, and self-report as being right-leaning.
We named the first cluster "social reformists" because they leaned left in terms of both party preferences and their positions on various political issues. We named the second cluster "traditionalists," because they leaned right in terms of issue positions and partisanship. However, what especially piqued our interests were the third cluster of people, who we call "disguised traditionalists". On the one hand, they profess the need to change some elements of our broader social lives, such as allowing inter-religious marriages, but on the other, they are supportive of hierarchical systems such as the caste system Disguised traditionalists may accept and submit to the authorities that they believe are essential in their societies. This includes authorities such as political figures or leaders in the political realm, school teachers or principals, or organizational leaders. Though some degree of compliance may be helpful — for example during the pandemic, trusting and complying with authorities was critical — disguised traditionalists are especially uncritically submissive towards authority figures. That is, they may want to maintain the status quo. We also argue that they may not adhere to established social traditions and norms. For instance, they may not be nostalgic about nor endorse social norms in the past, such as the practice of Sati. In contrast, traditionalists believe that practices such as the "gift" of dowry are fundamental parts of our culture and such norms should not be tampered with. In dynamic times such as these, especially one where the importance of ideology in Indian politics is becoming more and more noteworthy, understanding the ideological profiles of Indian voters makes one realize that ideology and party preferences are not completely divorced in India. Of course, much is left to be explored in terms of how we, as citizens, and as people behave in a political scenario. However, the point of such an exercise is to understand that demographic groups, such as those of a particular caste or religion, are not homogenous. Instead, we all view our social and political worlds using different lenses, some of which are shaped by our demographic groups or social circles.
Arathy Puthillam
(The article was first published on News 9 live on the 30th of October 2021 https://www.news9live.com/india/psychology-politics-ideology-india-left-leaning-right-wing-elections-voting-behaviour-patterns-130076)
