CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT

India's SilentRevolution

The Rise ofthe Low Castes inNorth Indian Politics

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements page ν

Introduction 1

The North-South opposition 5

The two ages of democracy in India 6

Part I. CONGRESS IN POWER OR INDIA

AS A CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRACY 11

1. The Gandhian sources of Congress conservatism 13

Reformism and social organicism in Gandhi`s thought 14

The conflict between Gandhi and Ambedkar 19

The conservative influence of Gandhi on the Congress

in North India 25

Congress and social transformation: an empty discourse? 31

The thwarting of land reform: the case of Uttar Pradesh 32

The problem of planning and the agricultural cooperatives 45

2. The Congress: party of the intelligentsia, or party of

the notables? 48

The Congress intelligentsia - unevenly progressive 52

Congress 'Vote Banks' politics 64

3. The Congress Party and the Scheduled Castes:

reservations and co-option 89

The reservation policy: the smokescreen of the egalitarian

discourse 91

What party for the Scheduled Castes? 102

4. Indira Gandhi, the populist repertoire and the aborted

reform of Congress 115

Towards a new Congress? 116

How to transform Congress into a cadre-based party? 131

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The Emergency: suspending democracy, a condition forsocial reforms? 136

Part IL T H E UNEVEN EMANCIPATION OFTHE LOWER CASTES: NON-BRAHMINS

IN T H E SOUTH, OBCs IN T H E N O R T H 144

5. Caste transformations in the South and West:ethnicisation and positive discrimination 147

The non-Brahmin movement in Maharashtra: anideology of empowerment 153

From non-Brahminism to Dravidianism in Tamil Nadu 166

The Non-Brahmin as a bureaucratic creation: the questfor empowerment 172

Caste federations: the case of Gujarat 180

6. Were there Low Caste movements in North India? 185

The Kayasths os Chandraguptas 185

Sanskritisafion and Division among Yadavs and Kurmis 187

The Νοrth Indian Untouchables, Sanskritisation andbhakti 199

7. Caste as the building block of the Other Backward

Classes': the impact of reservations 214

How to discriminate positively? The constitutional debate 215The first 'Backward Classes'Commission or the partial

concealment of caste 221TheAIBCFand the quotas: an ephemeral low-castes

front 229Reservation policies: the North-South contrast 237

Part III. QUOTA POLITICS ANDKISAN POLITICS: COMPLEMENTARITY

AND COMPETITION 254

8. The Socialists as defenders of the Lower Castes,Jat politicians as advocates of the peasants 254

The Socialists and the Low Castes 256

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Kisan politics and the mobilisation of the Jat farmers 271Charan Singh's marginalisation within the Uttar

Pradesh Congress 289

9. The quest for power and the first Janata Government 305The BLD: a joint venture 305The Janata experiment 309The Mandai Commission: the reservation issue revisited

at the Centre 320When the North lags behind: reservation policies outside

the Hindi Belt in the 1980s 324The Lok Dal fighting for Mandai 327

10. The Janata Dal and the rise to power of theLow Castes 335Quota politics takes over 335Caste polarization around Mandai 343The electoral fallout of the Mandal affair 349Geographical unevenness 352Are the OBCs a social and political category? 363

11. The renewal of Dalit politics: The B.S.P. party of theBahujans? 387Kanshi Ram and the Bahujan Samaj: from interest group

to political force 388Towards a 'bahujan'front? 396Using Ladders to Attain power. . . and Consolidating

the Dalit vote bank 409

Part IV: THE UPPER CASTES' POLITICALDOMINATION ON TRIAL:

THE CONGRESS(I), THE BJPAND MANDAL 426

12. The Congress(I) and the 'Coalition of Extremes'revisited 427The end of a catch-all party 428The Congress accommodating strategy in MadhyaPradesh: a new version of the 'Coalition of Extremes'

pattern 435

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13. The Hindu Nationalist division of labour: SewaBharti and the BJP between Sanskritisation and'social engineeringThe welfarist strategy of Sewa Bharti 454

The BJP from Sanskritisation to graded 'socialengineering*

14. Conclusion

Select Bibliography

Index 501

TABLES

1.1. Distribution of operational holdings in India by size group,1953-72 4 4

2.1. Caste and religion of delegates to the Annual Sessions of theCongress, 1919-23 4 9

2.2. Profession of Delegates to the Annual Sessions of Congress,1919-23 50

2.3. Caste and community of non-Muslim members of the assemblyof Bombay Presidency, 1920-37 5 1

2.4. Caste and community of Uttar Pradesh Congress MLAs, 1952-62 67

2.5. Caste and community of Congress Cadres in Uttar Pradesh,1964-8 68

2.6. Caste and community of members of the Uttar PradeshGovernment, 1937-67 70-1

2.7. Caste and community of Congress MLAs in Bihar, 1957-62 72

2.8. Caste and community of members of the Pradesh CongressCommittee of Bihar, 1947-60 73

2.9. Caste of Congress candidates to the Rajasthan Assembly, 1952-67 75

2.10. Caste and community of Congress MLAs and in parentheses ofall MLAs in the Rajasthan Assembly, 1952-67 76

2.11. Caste and community in the Congress Government of Rajasthan,1952-67 77

2.12. Caste and community of Congress MLAs and (in parentheses) ofall MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, 1957-67 81

2.13. Caste and community of members of the Congress Governmentin Madhya Pradesh, 1953-67 82

2.14. Caste and community of Congress MPs and (in parentheses) ofall MPs elected in the Hindi Belt, 1952-67 83