Opening of a Pandora's box?
Vikas Pathak, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, May 26, 2010
A caste census, if it happens, will sharpen identity politics, but
may, ironically, end up harming other backward classes (OBC) politics.
Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata
Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad see the caste census demand as a
reactivation of the dwindling OBC agenda, which brought them to power
in UP and Bihar around 1990. The result may, however, be precisely the
opposite.
For, a caste count may politically divide the OBC category into
smaller groups — meaning, individual castes — that may begin to
question dominant OBC castes.
There are 1,963 castes centrally listed as OBCs in India.
Bihar has 131 such castes and UP 75, but the leadership of OBC
politics has been with the Yadavs.
The intermediary peasant castes — OBCs now — became prosperous in
these states from the 1960s onwards. The Yadavs (an estimated 8.7 per
cent in UP and 11 per cent in Bihar) were the most prominent, followed
by the Kurmis (estimated to be 3-3.5 per cent in both UP and Bihar),
if we leave the powerful Jats of western UP (estimated at 1.5 per cent
of UP's population).
The backward castes shunned the Congress — which nurtured an upper
caste-Muslim-Dalit support base — and went with socialist politics and
farmer politics associated with Charan Singh, who later became prime
minister.
The Congress lost power in 1989 and V.P. Singh became PM, with Mulayam
and Lalu emerging as key players.
Singh announced that the Mandal report would be implemented, leading
to agitations against and for it.
OBC politics had been consolidated.
But it soon began to unravel. In the 1990s, Nitish Kumar broke with
Lalu Prasad, signifying a rift in the Yadav-Kurmi, or intra-OBC,
relations.
The Bahujan Samaj Party's handsome victory in UP in 2007 was partly a
result of non-Yadav OBC consolidation behind UP Chief Minister
Mayawati to throw Mulayam Singh Yadav out of power.
A caste census may speed up this splitting up of OBC politics.
"People start identifying with their own caste rather than category
when the numbers are known. They then organise on these lines and
press their demands," said O.P. Shukla, president of the National
Coordination Committee for Revision of Reservation Policy, an
Ati-Dalit platform that wants scheduled caste sub-quotas.
Shukla speaks from his experience of Dalit politics. For Dalits (SCs),
the census collects detailed caste data. This has made Valmikis of
Haryana, Punjab and Madigas of Andhra question the dominance of the
cobbler caste and the Malas, respectively.
The BJP — which officially supported the demand — and the Congress are
now internally divided on the issue.
The opponents of the caste census within each fear that this would
further divide society on caste lines. Those supporting it say that
the state must have data on OBCs, as it gives benefits to castes
included in this category.
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