THE IMPACT OF SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS ON ELECTORAL POLITICS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INDIA AND SRI LANKA

Abstract

Electoral participation is a key indicator of democracy that consists of a range of methods, including voting, participate in election campaign, donating money and/or labour for organizing campaigns, address meeting, contesting, and educating voters etc. Political leaders, candidates, party members and voters are key persons and organizations that involved in the elections. There are several socio-economic, cultural and political factors that shape electoral behavior and voters' decision. These factors include caste, class, gender, language, religion, dynasty, regionalism, age, personal attitudes and believes, political contexts, economic development or concerns, political manifestos and political ideology. This research examines the interplay between social and cultural factors and electoral politics in South Asia, with focusing on India and Sri Lanka. The study limits to examines three socio-cultural factors: caste, religion and language due to constrain of resources and time. This qualitative research utilized secondary data which gathered through research articles, books, official reports including election reports, videos, and other digital platforms. The analysis emphasizes how caste, religion, and language influence on political parties, voter behavior and election outcomes. A model of primary voter behavior is proposed to explain patterns in electoral participation. The research findings show that caste highly influence in several activities related to electoral politics in both India and Sri Lanka. These include influence on voters' decision making on vote, selection of candidates by political parties and build up political allegations and caste-based narratives. Although there are many evidence for caste based movement in India, there are no any clue to prove such situation happened in Sri Lanka. The research findings show that India has deep rooted influence of caste, religion and language on electoral politics when compare to Sri Lanka. Drawing on existing literature, the article provides an in-depth understanding of how identity politics shapes democratic processes in these countries.