Bihar caste survey outcomes problem BJP’s Hindutva unity narrative
Within the Sixties, Ram Manohar Lohia of the Samyukta Socialist Celebration (Sansopa) coined the slogan: Sansopa ne baandhi gaanth, Pichchde paaven sau me saat, Raj paat hai kiske haath, Angrezi aur unchi jaath (Who has all the facility now? The English-speaking higher castes. Sansopa vows that 60 of 100 seats will go to all of the backward castes.)
With the Bihar authorities, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a Lohiaite, releasing its caste survey knowledge on October 2, on the event of Gandhi Jayanti, the slogan is as soon as once more on everyone’s minds.
The survey numbers peg the OBC inhabitants in Bihar at 63.1 per cent, a quantity that has set alight a social and political debate throughout the nation because it prepares for the overall election subsequent yr.
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The discharge of the Bihar caste survey report, which places the State’s backward castes at 63.14 per cent, threatens the BJP’s fastidiously nurtured “Hindutva unity” and brings caste proper again into the political fray.
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Frontline Information Desk
Some have known as it Mandal 2. Many observers, hopeful of an opposition comeback, have even fairly prematurely dubbed it Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Waterloo. Instantly after the survey outcomes have been launched, a beaming Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) proclaimed: “When our authorities shall be shaped in 2024, we are going to perform a caste census in your complete nation and can oust from energy the anti-Dalit, anti-backward, anti-extremely backward, and anti-Muslim BJP.”
Additionally Learn | Is that this Mandal 2.0?
Nonetheless, there are a clutch of petitions within the Supreme Court docket that problem the legality of the survey. On October 6, the court docket refused to remain the publication of the survey. “That shall be unsuitable,” the court docket mentioned. “Sure, if there is a matter with regard to the information, that shall be thought-about. We’re going to study the opposite difficulty with regard to the correct of the State authorities to do it.”
The genie, nevertheless, can’t be put again into the bottle. The survey outcomes are out within the public area and the battle traces are firmly drawn. Despite the fact that feelings don’t run as excessive on the difficulty of caste and quotas now as they did in 1990 when the Mandal Fee report recommending 27 per cent reservation was applied, a political level has been made and its echo will doubtless reverberate throughout the nation for a while.
Has India modified with the instances? Or is the shortage of high-pitched protests a give up to the inevitable given how lengthy the survey was within the works? It isn’t clear but.
Caste and society
The final time caste knowledge have been included in a census was within the 1931 nationwide Census. Some 45 years have handed because the Karpoori Thakur authorities in Bihar applied the Mungeri Lal Fee report on OBC reservation in 1978, which got here to be generally known as the Karpoori Thakur formulation and supplied separate quotas for backward and most backward castes.
By releasing the information of its complete caste survey now, the Nitish Kumar authorities has paved the best way for the same train on a bigger airplane.
Enumerators accumulating data from residents for the caste survey in Bihar, in Patna on August 2.
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PTI
Whereas the BJP and its supporters have mentioned that caste surveys deepen caste-based inequalities, Prof. Anand Kumar, a sociologist, mentioned: “Indian society is organised on the premise of caste however with none uniformity. Whereas the range of caste has not been studied on the nationwide stage since Independence, it has not prevented quite a few initiatives for selling social justice and inclusive democracy. It’s time to finish the paradoxical scenario with a caste census.”
On the potential electoral affect of the survey, he mentioned: “In electoral phrases, the outcomes of the caste census will create a official demand for extra tickets for the [numerically] bigger castes. However this transformation shall be mediated via the dominant castes and neo-rich courses inside every caste. In different phrases, it would democratise the electoral course of with out essentially making it extra delicate about poverty or gender deficits.”
Nitish Kumar’s masterstroke
In the meantime, a day after the survey was launched, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar fairly astutely known as for an all-party assembly to debate the information. Additionally, he prolonged an olive department to the ahead castes by saying 10 per cent reservation in judicial providers and State-run regulation faculties and universities for the Economically Weaker Part (EWS) amongst them.
The transfer is being seen as an try and woo the dominant castes, historically the vote financial institution of the BJP in Bihar, whereas lapping up the Extraordinarily Backward Courses (EBC) votes in toto. It was the EBC-Mahadalit-dominant caste mix, together with a fraction of minority votes, that introduced the BJP-Janata Dal (United) alliance to energy in Bihar in November 2005.
Additionally Learn | Bihar’s caste survey can spark a brand new political consciousness
Bihar is a bundle of contradictions in relation to id politics. Whereas it shares a border with Uttar Pradesh, the place the BJP has repeatedly come to energy driving on Hindutva sentiment, Bihar has eluded the saffron celebration, forcing it to play second fiddle to socialist events.
Whereas Bihar is known as the nation’s caste cauldron, having witnessed gory carnages within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, it has additionally been a singular harbinger of change. It was in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan that Jayaprakash Narayan gave the decision for whole revolution on June 5, 1974.
Highlights
- The Bihar authorities, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, lately launched caste survey knowledge displaying that the OBC inhabitants in Bihar is 63.1%, reigniting a social and political debate throughout the nation.
- The survey outcomes could have electoral implications, probably resulting in elevated demand for extra political illustration for bigger castes and a push to take away the 50% ceiling on reservations.
- Caste politics is as soon as once more a major issue within the political panorama of India, with potential penalties for upcoming elections and authorities insurance policies.
Focus again on OBCs
Bihar may be on the cusp of one other political realignment immediately, one which catapults OBCs into the mainstream political discourse as soon as once more. The caste survey has pegged the full OBC inhabitants at just a little over 63 per cent (a rise of 10 proportion factors from the 1931 Census), and extra importantly, it exhibits that 36 per cent of the full inhabitants belong to the EBCs, an information level that might determine the political narrative within the nation when the Meeting election course of is underneath method in 5 States and the subsequent Lok Sabha election is barely eight months away.
The Bihar authorities issued the notification for the survey in June 2022, and a couple of.64 lakh enumerators started accumulating knowledge from some 29 million registered households. Quickly quite a few petitions have been filed in court docket and the authorized battle went proper to the Supreme Court docket. These opposing the survey argued that census was a Central Record topic and past the ambit of the State authorities. In addition they mentioned that the train sought data that might compromise the privateness of residents.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad on his solution to a protest quick demanding the publication of caste census knowledge, in Patna on July 26, 2015.
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RANJEET KUMAR
After an preliminary order towards the gathering of information, in August this yr the Patna Excessive Court docket backtracked and allowed the federal government to compile the “scientific knowledge” research via a cell utility. The State authorities mentioned the information would assist it implement welfare schemes for weaker sections of society extra successfully.
Survey outcomes
As per the survey, 112 castes that fall underneath EBC account for 36 per cent of the State’s inhabitants, a discovering that might, sooner or later, throw up a requirement for an EBC Chief Minister, which might show uncomfortable even for Lalu Prasad’s RJD, whose core vote base is the Muslim-Yadav mix. After Karpoori Thakur, of the Nai (barber) caste who served as Chief Minister for 2 brief durations (December 1970 to June 1971 and June 1977 to April 1979), Bihar has not had a Chief Minister from the EBC class.
Among the many EBC, 3.5 per cent are Momins (Pasmanda Muslims), 2.8 per cent are Telis (thought-about Vaishyas), and a couple of.6 per cent are Mallahs (boatmen/fishermen). 5 communities integral to Hindu rituals and vulnerable to Hindutva outreach fall inside the EBC class. They’re Kumhar (potters), Nai (barbers), Dhobi or Razak (washermen), Lohar (ironsmiths), and Kahar (palanquin bearers).
Additionally Learn | Akhilesh Yadav: ‘Reservation needs to be on the premise of caste, not poverty’
In keeping with the survey, the Yadavs are 14.3 per cent of the inhabitants now, up from 12.7 per cent in 1931, whereas the Kurmis and the Kushwahas (two agricultural castes which are handled equally in political phrases) have gone down from 3.3 per cent to 2.9 per cent and from 5 per cent to three.5 per cent respectively.
The final class castes have registered a decline in numbers: Brahmins from 5.5 per cent to three.7 per cent, Rajputs from 5 per cent to three.5 per cent, Bhumihars from 3.6 per cent to 2.9 per cent, and Kayasthas from 1.3 per cent to 0.6 per cent.
As for the Dalit inhabitants, the Ravidas or Mochi (Jatav in UP) caste has seen an increase in inhabitants from 4.6 per cent to five.3 per cent. After Yadavs, the Mochis are numerically the second largest (Yadavs number one.86 crore whereas Mochis are 68.69 lakh), however in contrast to their counterparts in UP, who consolidated underneath BSP chief Mayawati, the group has no correct political illustration in Bihar, the place the face of the Dalit management has largely been from the Dusadh group (often known as Paswan), comparable to Ram Vilas Paswan, and later from the Musahar group (often known as Manjhi), comparable to former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. Babu Jagjivan Ram was the tallest chief from the Ravidas group; he rose to develop into Deputy Prime Minister briefly in 1979.
The Dusadh inhabitants has risen from 5.1 per cent to five.3 per cent and the Musahars from 2.9 per cent to three.1 per cent. The overall Dalit inhabitants within the State in 2023 is 14.6 per cent, an increase of 1.3 proportion factors from 13.3 per cent in 1931.
Additionally Learn | ‘Pasmandas shouldn’t be taken without any consideration’: Ali Anwar Ansari
The survey outcomes may even ignite the Ashraf (dominant caste) versus Pasmanda (marginalised caste) debate amongst Muslims. It finds that Pasmanda Muslims represent 12.9 per cent of the inhabitants, whereas all Muslims account for 17.7 per cent. This establishes the numerical superiority of Pasmanda Muslims, which has been greeted with optimism in some circles. Ali Anwar Ansari, founding father of the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz and two-term Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar, mentioned: “Events will recognise their price and they are going to be given ample share in assets and political illustration”.
Within the wake of the survey, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi pitched for a nationwide caste census with the slogan “Jitni aabadi, utna haque” (assetsin keeping withinhabitants), thereby taking the chance of antagonising the dominant castes. Congress leaders from the dominant castes in Bihar and UP have repeatedly warned the celebration towards aligning with events such because the Samajwadi Celebration (SP) and the RJD.
The place BJP, Congress stand
Within the BJP, the survey evoked combined reactions; some leaders dismissed it completely, whereas others mentioned it was simply hyperbole on the traces of the Congress’ Nineteen Seventies “garibi hatao” slogan. Reacting to the survey a day after the discharge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereas addressing a rally in Bastar in Chhattisgarh, mentioned that for him the welfare of the poor was paramount and that the poor had the primary proper to assets.
Whereas Modi attacked Rahul Gandhi’s pitch for assets to be distributed as per inhabitants, in Bihar itself the BJP is at pains to clarify that it welcomes the survey, and factors to its backing of the Meeting resolutions in 2019 and 2020 in favour of a caste census, and its participation within the Nitish Kumar-led delegation to New Delhi in 2021 demanding a caste census.
There’s a stark distinction between the jubilation within the INDIA camp of opposition events and the trepidation within the BJP over the caste survey and what its final result will finally be. The explanations are usually not far to hunt. Underneath Modi, the BJP has taken nice pains to shed the picture of being a “Brahmin-Bania” celebration by reaching out to non-Yadav OBCs in UP and Bihar. Now, for the primary time, it faces the potential for a reverse consolidation of backward castes and its choices to counter it are restricted.
Dalit girls voters after casting their votes at a polling sales space in Gaya parliamentary constituency throughout the basic election, on April 10, 2014. The newest Bihar caste survey exhibits that Dalits account for 19.65 per cent of the inhabitants.
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RANJEET KUMAR
Whereas the saffron celebration has no qualms about roping in subaltern communities and providing them welfare schemes and illustration in authorities posts, its whole assist for a caste census is prone to antagonise the dominant castes within the Hindi heartland.
Though subaltern Hindutva will not be in battle with the BJP’s dominant caste and Vaishya vote base, any wholehearted backing for a caste census will set off contradictory pulls and pressures for a celebration whose professed intention is to create a bigger Hindu id that subsumes caste divisions and is invoked purely for vote consolidation.
In a bid to cease the Bihar authorities’s caste enumeration train, the Centre filed an affidavit within the Supreme Court docket on August 28, during which it mentioned {that a} census was a statutory course of ruled by the Census Act of 1948, Part 3 of which empowers solely the Central authorities to conduct a census. It did, nevertheless, revise its earlier place that no different physique underneath the Structure or in any other case was entitled to conduct both a census or any motion akin to a census.
Additionally Learn | Siddaramaiah on the horns of a dilemma over caste survey in Karnataka
Beforehand, in February 2021 and July 2023, Nityanand Rai, Minister of State for Dwelling Affairs, informed Parliament that there was no plan to gather caste knowledge within the upcoming census. (After it was delay due to the pandemic, the census has been indefinitely postponed.) In September 2021, the Centre informed the Supreme Court docket that “caste-wise enumeration within the census was given up as a matter of coverage from 1951 onwards”.
Whereas UP Chief Minister Adityanath has categorically denied any plan for a caste census, declaring that census falls underneath the Central Record, the BJP’s allies in UP—Apna Dal, Nishad Celebration, and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Celebration—have made a robust pitch for it. Whether or not this may push the BJP to rethink its choice will not be recognized.
Ramifications for Maharashtra
In Maharashtra, the place the caste census demand already has robust roots, the difficulty has received recent impetus. The Marathas have been asking for reservation for the final 30-odd years. Having given in to the calls for of Manoj Jarange Patil to offer the Marathas of Marathwada the Kunbi certificates, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde)-BJP-NCP (Ajit Pawar) alliance authorities now faces a backlash from different OBCs, particularly in Vidarbha, the place the BJP hurriedly introduced the OBC Jagar Yatra in 9 Lok Sabha and 44 Meeting constituencies. The federal government additionally needed to inform Kunbi leaders {that a} caste census could be thought-about on the proper time. The Maratha and OBC difficulty would possibly simply develop into the largest hurdle for the BJP in Maharashtra.
The Bihar survey can be prone to result in a requirement for eradicating the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation fastened by the Supreme Court docket in 1992. The Mandal Fee, which pegged the OBC inhabitants at 52 per cent of the full inhabitants (on the premise of the 1931 Census), supplied for 27 per cent reservation to OBCs. Bihar’s caste survey places the OBC inhabitants at just a little above 63 per cent. A census in different States could throw up larger OBC numbers than what was enumerated in 1931.
Additionally Learn | The battle for social illustration in training and employment
The demand for extra reservation will not be one thing the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, the RSS, is comfy with. It usually talks of samrasta (concord) fairly than samanata (equality) as a result of the latter requires drastic actions like reservation that aren’t in sync with the Sangh Parivar’s bigger Hindutva plank, which is strongly Brahminical.
Any pronounced assist for a caste census, and, consequentially, quota politics, goes towards the Sangh Parivar’s samrasta line. Due to this fact, the BJP is prone to eschew it regardless that it could permit some voices inside the celebration to talk in favour of it. For the Congress, it’s simpler to voice assist for the concept now because it has just about misplaced your complete dominant caste vote even when the dominant castes do see the celebration as a second selection in UP and Bihar, supplied the Congress maintains its distance from the SP and the RJD. It was thus simple for Rahul Gandhi to go the entire hog for a caste census, marking a clear break from the celebration’s lengthy held centrist place on the difficulty.
With Dalits having gone to the Bahujan Samaj Celebration (BSP), the Brahmins to the BJP, and the Muslims to the regional events within the Hindi heartland, the Congress is rewriting its Dalit-Muslim-Brahmin formulation. This, although many inside the celebration are uncertain about abandoning the higher castes, significantly Brahmins, and shifting into the uncharted territory of OBC politics, with the OBCs traditionally having been anti-Congress, each in UP and Bihar. The 2 States collectively ship 120 members to the Lok Sabha.
In reality, Rahul Gandhi’s slogan mirrors the BSP’s “Jiski jitni sankhya bhaari, Uski utni hissedari” (As a lot illustration as inhabitants). Understandably, Mayawati mentioned on October 7 that Rahul’s newest pitch was a “new election stunt” by the Congress. Sensing the temper, Rajasthan’s Congress Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot shortly introduced on October 6 that his authorities would perform a caste survey on the traces of Bihar, and his celebration colleague and Chief Minister-hopeful in Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath promised the identical.
The Congress’ backing for a caste rely has come as a shocker to celebration old-timers, who recalled that in 1980 Indira Gandhi had coined the favored slogan: “Jaat par na paat par, Indiraji ki baat par, mohar lagegi haath par” (Not on the premise of caste, however on the premise of Indira’s phrases, votes will go to the hand image). Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, can be the place an OBC consolidation led by Mulayam Singh Yadav ousted the Congress from energy in December 1989, a loss from which the celebration has not recovered.
‘A sport changer’
Chatting with Frontline, Rasheed Kidwai, a political author and analyst, known as the caste survey and the noise round it a “sport changer”.
He mentioned: “At a time when the nation was taking a look at Narendra Modi and the particular session of Parliament to give you a masterstroke or sport changer, the INDIA bloc sprang a shock with its concerted demand for a caste-based census and quota inside quota within the Ladies’s Reservation Invoice. For the primary time since 2014, Modi is confronted with a scenario the place the mixed opposition is setting the agenda and his authorities is on the defensive or responding to it.”
Additionally Learn | Editor’s Notice: Can India’s Davids overcome the Goliath of caste?
Rahul Gandhi appeared to have realised the necessity to woo the OBCs and the EBCs again in December 2011 itself. Within the run-up to the 2012 UP Meeting election, whereas addressing a rally of most backward courses, he mentioned that the technocrat Sam Pitroda, who pioneered the IT revolution throughout his father Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, belonged to the carpenter group. “Badhai ho [congratulations],” he informed the gathering, “You may change the world however you could have been ignored and so you’re backward.”
It led to an enormous controversy then, but it surely provides an inkling of how Rahul Gandhi had set his eyes on EBC votes in UP way back to 2011. However it’s a totally different story that the BJP underneath Modi has had far larger success in reaching out to the EBCs, who’ve helped it stay in energy in UP since 2014.
Whereas the 2 nationwide events have been revising and remodeling their stand on caste, for Nitish Kumar the caste survey was the end result of the social engineering he started scripting for his celebration in Bihar by establishing a Mahadalit Vikas Fee in 2007, anointing the primary Mahadalit Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in 2014-15, making certain reservation for the EBCs, and selling the pursuits of Pasmanda Muslims. A considerable portion of EBC votes had moved from the JD(U) to the BJP in Bihar and the survey report is anticipated to stem the bleeding.
Additionally Learn | Will the BJP implement the Rohini Fee report?
In Uttar Pradesh, the SP’s Akhilesh Yadav hailed the Bihar caste survey because the “mathematical foundation of social justice”.
It appears the BJP has already begun to see the logic behind the arithmetic. Many inside the celebration imagine the one efficient counter to the caste survey clamour shall be to implement the Rohini Fee report.
Arrange by the Modi authorities in 2017, the fee really helpful the division of OBCs into 4 subcategories and prescribed graded quotas for various subcastes at totally different ranges of growth. Regardless of the future holds, one factor is definite. Caste is again in pressure in Hindi belt politics and every little thing any more shall be in response to it.
