The Nils Klim Seminar 2018: “The Politics of Inclusion: Electoral Quotas in India”

The 2018 Nils Klim Laureate Francesca R. Jensenius presents her research and discusses the use of electoral quotas in India with Pradeep Chhibber, Pratap Mehta and Anne Waldrop. Electoral quotas have played an important role in Indian politics for the past century. Many groups have demanded and still demand quotas, often on the basis of arguments that quotas are needed to bring “their” perspectives into politics – that a guaranteed political presence will result in better representation of their group’s interests. In the book Social Justice through Inclusion: The Consequences of Electoral Quotas in India (OUP 2017), Francesca R. Jensenius provided evidence of the long-term effects of electoral quotas for one of India’s most marginalized communities, the Scheduled Castes (the former “untouchables”). Drawing on extensive qualitative and quantitative data she showed that the quotas to a limited extent have contributed to the mobilization around, and representation of, group interests for SCs, but that they have played in important role in breaking social boundaries by integrating SCs into the mainstream political elite. What are the implications of these findings for the discussion of other groups’ demands for quotas in India? In this seminar, Jensenius presents key findings in the book and discusses some of the implications these findings have for the debates about quotas for other communities in India – including the so-called Other Backward Classes, women and religious communities. The keynote is followed be talks by Drs. Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Vice-Chancellor, Ashoka University), Anne Waldrop (Professor, OsloMet), and Pradeep Chhibber (Professor, University of Californa Berkeley). The event is moderated by Professor Siri Gloppen, University of Bergen.