Hindu nationalism and the rise of caste based parties in north india (1984 2004)

HINDU NATIONALISM AND THE RISE OF CASTE-BASED PARTIES IN NORTH INDIA Yamini Vasudevan A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SOUTH AS

HINDU NATIONALISM AND THE RISE OF

CASTE-BASED PARTIES IN NORTH INDIA

Yamini Vasudevan

A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES PROGRAMME

2007

Chapter 2: The Sangh Parivar and the

- Revival of religious nationalism in the 1980s 26

- Caste – The regional barometer of the north 33

Chapter 3: The BJP and caste-based parties (I):

- Politics of the post-Ramajanambhoomi phase 47

Chapter 4: The BJP and caste-based parties (II):

- Early 1990s: Expansion and consolidation of the BJP in UP 70

- Mid to late 1990s: Impact of post-Mandal developments 73

- Caste (mis-) management – The Kalyan affair 78

- The 1999 elections – Battling the odds 82

- Early 2000 to 2004 elections – Coalitions and challenges 85

- The 2004 elections – Picking up the pieces 92

- The 2004 elections and the BJP –

- In retrospect – Re-visiting the BJP’s journey 105

- Looking to the future: Whither the BJP, whither Hindutva? 108

Abstract

The rise of Hindu nationalism and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a major force in

Indian politics in the early 1990s is an oft-examined topic of contemporary Indian

political history However, the progress of the BJP in the 1990s met several challenges,

the strongest of which centred on the rise of caste-based parties as key state-level political

mediators in north India Whilst the Mandal Commission’s recommendations made caste

a central element of target voter bases and electoral appeal, deep-seated processes from

the 1970s spurred the rise of caste-based parties The rise of caste-based parties

challenged the pan-Indian overtones of Hindutva and the BJP’s attempts to consolidate

the ‘Hindu vote’ – for acknowledging caste-based parties as political partners meant a

dilution of commitment towards the Sangh Parivar’s call for a united Hindu society The

BJP’s handling of this ideological and political problematic, the effect this had on the

party’s character and functioning, and the transformation effected on Hindu nationalism

as a result of these challenges, forms the central queries of this thesis

Acknowledgements

This thesis was undertaken whilst in receipt of the Graduate Research Scholarship by the National University of Singapore The grant was very helpful, and is gratefully acknowledged

Several people were instrumental in the writing of this thesis Foremost amongst them was my supervisor, Dr Rajesh Rai – a friend, philosopher and guide in the true sense of every word His insightful comments and analysis were important to making this thesis complete, whilst his constant motivation kept me going till the end I also thank Prof Peter Reeves for his guidance through the years Whatever little I may have gained by way of knowledge in the realm of academic research, I owe it to him

Needless to say, my family played one of the most important roles during this time Despite being away from me, they never made the distance felt They were my constant source of encouragement and support Even though we were separated by time zones, it was very comforting to know they were just a phone call away, no matter what the time

A special thank you to Saras, my best friend She always made time to listen to my tales

of woe, helped to strengthen my resolve and enlivened my day – she was my Duracell battery Thanks also to Kumeresh, a special friend, for keeping my spirits high through one of the toughest stages of my writing, and for putting a smile on my face no matter how dark the day

A hearty thank you to all my graduate roommates for all the good times we spent together, especially Sathia I take back with me some very memorable moments

There are many others who have stood by me through these years, and touched me with their concern and words of encouragement Thank you to all

Yamini Vasudevan

Abbreviations

BJP: Bharatiya Janata Party

BJS: Bharatiya Jan Sangh

BSP: Bahujan Samaj Party

JP: Janata Party

MP: Member of Parliament

NDA: National Democratic Alliance

OBC: Other Backward Classes

RSS: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

SC: Scheduled Castes

SP: Samajwadi Party

UP: Uttar Pradesh

VHP: Vishwa Hindu Parishad

Introduction

Hindu nationalism and Indian politics

In the late 1980s, India witnessed a surge in support for militant Hindu nationalism

espoused by the umbrella group of organizations known as the Sangh Parivar The

change was a significant one in that it had occurred after nearly five decades of secular

post independence history, and prompted academics worldwide to ponder if the country

was on the verge of an identity crisis Their concerns were heightened when the

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its sibling Hindu nationalist organizations launched the

Ramjanambhoomi campaign, which sought to ‘liberate’ the birthplace of the Hindu god

Ram in Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 1990-91 Despite the fact that it left

behind a trail of communal riots and at least 2000 people dead, the movement became

extremely popular in the Hindi belt and acted as a launch pad for the BJP into Indian

politics In the 1991 General Elections, held in the aftermath of the Ramjanambhoomi

movement, the BJP emerged as the second largest party in the Lok Sabha with 120 seats

and 20 per cent of the vote share For a party that had scraped up a humiliating tally of 2

seats in 1984, this was a tremendous achievement In effect, the BJP seemed poised to

emerge as a plausible successor to the Congress’s mantle at the Center, and alongside it,

Hindutva as a possible alternative ideology in Indian politics.1

1

Jaffrelot, Christophe The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies

of identity-building, implantation and mobilization London: Hurst & Company 1996

Contrary to expectations, the post-Ramjanambhoomi movement period made it amply

clear that the BJP’s standing was far less secure than it appeared In December 1992,

members of the Hindu nationalist combine demolished the Babri Masjid in line with the

promised aim of building a Ram temple in its place However, in an ironical turn of

events, Ayodhya failed to capture the public imagination as it had the previous year The

violent backlash that followed in many parts of north India had an unsettling effect on the

population, and robbed the movement of its earlier credibility More importantly, the

impetus of regional politics had by this time shifted away from inter-religious differences

to caste cleavages and caste-based parties – with the result that religious majoritarianism

had lost much of its new found potency, and was instead challenged by the advent of a

new form of politics that centered on caste-based affiliations

The intersection of the differentiated trajectories of Hindu nationalism and caste politics

in the mid 1990s was not a coincidence, but rather the convergence of two parallel

movements that had been engendered, and later aided, by the institutional and electoral

decline of the Congress from the 1970s onwards In the post-independence period, the

Congress had instituted an extensive network of patronage politics that relied on local

notables to help bring together diverse social groups (including Upper castes, Scheduled

Castes (SC), and Muslims) under a common political umbrella, thereby allowing little

room for alternative parties to carve out their individual spheres of influence In the

1970s and 80s, the growing tendency towards centralization of decision-making and

operation processes by the Congress leadership led to the degeneration of the clientelistic

structure, and eroded the party’s control over its ‘coalition of extremes’ As the system

began to crumble, differentiated political voices and demands began to emerge from the

cracks, which became manifest in the form of political parties over time Along with the

Congress’s decline, the party’s populist, inclusive rhetoric began to lose its importance,

and in its place, political appeal based on communal and community identities began to

dominate the electoral and political circles In other words, the Indian polity came to be

fragmented on religious and caste lines, freeing up the space and opportunity for

differentiated political parties to carve out niche vote banks from those population

segments hitherto appropriated by the Congress The BJP was one of the beneficiaries of

this change; caste-based parties were another

The developments mentioned above were subtle and had no perceptible impact on the

BJP’s career, especially in the early years following its formation in 1980 In the initial

period, the BJP decided to follow a moderate strategy that relied on Integral Humanism2

as its guiding principle and refrained from making direct overtures to religion However,

the strategy failed, and the party faced a humiliating defeat in the 1984 Parliament

elections when it managed to secure only 2 seats Faced with increasing pressure from the

Sangh Parivar to assert its core identity, the party reverted to a hard line Hindutva stance

and began to revive its efforts towards reinforcing ‘Hindu’ identity, with particular

reference to the opposing ‘Other’, which was centered on the Muslims in the

sub-continent It was an ironic coincidence that by the mid 1980s, the Congress too had begun

2

A treatise written in 1965 by RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya, ‘Integral Humanism’ set forth a moderate socio-economic agenda that rejected westernization, and advocated a Gandhian socio-economic model that focused on indigenous production, small-scale industries, and national culture based on traditionalist ideals as the best means of progress Integral Humanism was key to the foundation of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP, and played a crucial role in creating an alternative

ideological avenue for Hindu nationalists Upadhyaya, Deendayal Integral Humanism 1965 (Taken from

a series of four lectures delivered in Bombay in April 1965 Source: www.bjp.org/history/human.htm)

to rely on religious rhetoric and symbolism to revive its waning popularity, thereby

relaxing the strict adherence to secularism and legitimizing the incorporation of religion

into politics This proved a major advantage for the BJP, for the Congress had indirectly

sanctioned religious propaganda as a legitimate form of political appeal In addition, the

Congress’s lack of ideological coherence in its decisions over major politico-religious

issues like the Shah Bano case3 eroded popular faith in both the party’s capability for governance and the viability of secularism, and thrust Hindu nationalism forward in new

light as a viable political ideology

A significant feature of the Sangh Parivar’s efforts at religious revival in the 1980s

involved the organizations’ concerted attempts to conspicuously ‘incorporate’ lower

castes within the Hindu fold – a move that was a consequence of the Hindu nationalists’

vulnerability vis-à-vis the other religious groups that drew on the social stigma suffered

by lower caste groups to propagate proselytisation It is important to note that the stress

on inter-caste harmonization was not a new feature in Hindu nationalist ideology In the

early stages of the Hindu nationalist movement, there had been several initiatives by

reformers to ease the barriers of caste and commence the process of integration of lower

castes, such as through Shuddhi or purification rituals advocated by the Arya Samaj for

the reintegration of Untouchables into Hindu society The difference lay in the fact that

whilst these early initiatives were intended primarily to restructure the caste system so as

to diminish the stigma associated with ‘lower’ caste status, the Sangh Parivar, especially

3

The Shah Bano case concerned the Congress’s controversial decision to override the Supreme Court’s judgment over the alimony to be paid to a divorced Muslim lady called Shah Bano For more details, see Chapter 2, pp 31-32

the RSS, took the idea a step further and aimed to institute a pan-Hindu identity that

would subsume all internal sub-divisions completely over time

Whilst the RSS acted as the social medium of change from the grassroots, the BJP played

the role of the negotiator of Hindu nationalist interests in the political sphere

Conventionally, the BJP derived much of its electoral support from the upper-caste, urban

middle class segments, on account of their receptivity to the RSS’s traditionalist ethos

and culture In the early 1990s, the party had made better progress due to the popularity

of the Ramjanambhoomi movement, but its appeal was still restricted to the upper-caste

segments of the population Given the limited demographic presence of the upper castes

(about 15 per cent of the Hindu population), the party was hard pressed to expand its

support base amongst the lower caste segments in order to strengthen its standing This

was an ideological necessity as well, to complement the Sangh Parivar’s efforts to

institutionalize ethno-religious criteria as the primary determinant of identity In doing so,

however, the BJP was challenged by the rise of caste-based parties, which advocated a

contradictory form of politics that placed caste identity at the heart of their socio-political

agenda – one that demanded the redistribution of power to lower castes as the means of

retribution for the material and psychological deprivation suffered by them in the past

Rise of caste-based parties

The rise of caste-based parties in the Hindi belt was relatively delayed when compared to

the south, where they had begun to dominate the political scene since the 1950s and 60s

The lack of a collective political consciousness on part of the lower castes in the north

was a result of contextual limitations including the strong demographic presence of the

upper castes (10 to 15 per cent in the north as compared to 3 to 5 per cent in the south);

and the prevalence of the Zamindari system of land ownership, which concentrated

power in the hands of a select section of the population In addition, the perceived

superiority of upper-caste ethics led to the promulgation of a culture that relied primarily

on Sanskritisation or the emulation of upper-caste practices as the means of social

mobility, thereby strengthening the ‘moral’ authority of the upper castes on the one hand,

and diminishing the chances of socio-political organization of lower castes on the other.4

Lower caste empowerment received a strong thrust from two movements in the 1960s

and ‘70s – the peasant-based mobilisation led by Charan Singh and the socialism-oriented

movement initiated by Ram Manohar Lohia – which helped lay the foundations for the

rise of caste-based parties in the 1980s and 90s.5 More importantly, the two movements acted as a catalyst for the mobilization of lower castes into horizontal interest groups and

the propagation of the idea that the fulfillment of collective socio-political interests was

the key to the realization of personal benefits as well Caste-based parties carried this idea

further and prioritized the capture of political power as the primary means for the

emancipation of the lower castes from the suppression they had suffered to date The

argument rested on the premise that “the capture of political power will automatically

transform the composition of the bureaucratic elite”6 – a sign, as Varshney notes, that the

4

Jaffrelot, Christophe India’s silent revolution: The rise of lower castes in north India London: Hurst & Company 2003 See also Varshney, Ashutosh “Is India becoming more democratic?” in The Journal of Asian Studies Vol 59, No 1 Feb 2000 p 19

caste-based parties had realised that “it [wa]s time now to play the game of democratic

politics more equally.”7

Mandal and Mandir – Dual ideologies

The inherent ideological contradiction between caste-based parties and Hindu nationalists

came to light in 1989 when the incumbent Prime Minister V.P Singh announced the

implementation of the Mandal Commission reforms, which entailed the reservation of up

to 27 per cent of seats in government jobs and education for the Other Backward Classes

(OBC), apart from the existent reservation of jobs for the Scheduled Castes.8 The government’s announcement elicited a harsh response from the upper castes, which

included public immolation by several students, who viewed the measure as an

encroachment of their traditional dominance in the sectors of bureaucracy and higher

education Although a member of the ruling coalition government, the BJP condemned

Singh’s move and opposed the ‘positive’ discrimination measures as divisive and

eventually harmful to society at large The BJP’s reaction helped to strengthen the party’s

image as well as its standing amongst the upper castes, but it also added weight to the

caste-based parties’ allegation that Hindutva was a pseudonym for Brahmanism, and the

BJP was the political guardian of the upper castes

In the early 1990s, the polarization of opinion had little impact on the BJP due to the

party’s ability to deflect public attention to the realm of Hindu-Muslim relations through

the Ramjanambhoomi movement However, once the communal dust had settled,

based parties began to dominate politics at the state level The ability of caste-based

parties to stake their claim to regional power lay in their ability to fuse together ascriptive

categorization and socio-political connotation,9 which helped to overcome the presence

of multiple sub-divisions within the community as well as their lack of geographic

concentration The extent of the caste-based parties’ strength in representative politics

was made clear by the mid-1990s For example, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which

identified itself as the spokes-party of the Dalits, bolstered its standing from merely 2.5

per cent of the vote share in the 1985 elections to 16 per cent in 1989, and later 21 per

cent of the vote share in the 1998 elections Given that SCs and OBCs together

constituted nearly 60 per cent of the total Hindu population, caste-based parties had a

huge support base to tap into

It is important to note that the rise of caste-based parties was aided by shifts in the

political system at the center as well By the mid-1990s, the single-dominant-party

system prominent until the late 1980s had given way to a “bi-modal, multi-party

system”10 wherein “two major or national political parties [were] manoeuvring within a large vortex of small regional parties.”11 Major national parties, namely the Congress, the BJP and the Janata Dal, no longer functioned as individual political agents, but rather

acted as poles around which regional parties formed coalitions In other words,

9

Chandra, Kanchan The Transformation of ethnic politics in India: The decline of Congress and the rise of

the Bahujan Samaj Party in Hoshiarpur” in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol 59, No 1 (Feb 2000) pp

26-61

10

Wallace, Paul “Introduction: India's 1998 election – Hindutva, the tail wags the elephant, and Pokhran”

in Ramashray Roy and Paul Wallace 1999 Indian politics and the 1998 election: regionalism, Hindutva

and state politics New Delhi: Sage Publications p 17

11

Ibid

[By the 1990s], the overall logic of electoral politics in India had over the

last decade been transformed in such a way that the locus classicus of

political power in India – the one-party dominance at the centre which

remain[ed] the tantalizing object of BJP’s strategies – seem[ed] to have

become a thing of the past.12

Thus, to form alliances with regional parties as a means to obtain power was no longer an

option, but a compulsion However, the process of forming and maintaining steady

alliances with caste-based parties was fraught with ideological and practical concerns for

the BJP Unlike the RSS, which firmly believed in the long term transformation of

society as the primary aim of Hindutva, the BJP’s immediate concern was the need to

establish its presence beyond its niche support bases in order to maintain its place in the

running for power Yet, to acknowledge the caste-based parties’ presence and/or their aim

of empowerment posed an ideological dichotomy, for Hindutva advocated a pan-Hindu

identity that derided sectarian divisions Furthermore, the BJP’s emergence as a

prominent political agent was in large part derived from the shift of a large section of the

upper-caste vote in its favor in the post-math of the Mandal affair Hence, by forming an

alliance with caste-based parties, the BJP faced the threat of alienating its core support

base, in turn weakening its stability in the political sphere The need of the hour was thus

for a strategy that helped to balance the party’s traditionalist stance with the

accommodation of caste issues Whether the BJP was able to do so, and overcome the

challenge or not, forms the central query of this thesis

12

Hansen, Thomas Blom and Christophe Jaffrelot, eds 1998 The BJP and the compulsions of politics in India 2nd Ed New Delhi: Oxford University Press p 2

Literature review

A thesis that places Hindu nationalism as its central focus might seem redundant given

the glut of literature available on the subject With some exceptions,13 Hindu nationalism took the academic spotlight from the mid to late 1980s, when the Sangh Parivar began to

emerge as a prominent force in Indian society and politics With the rise of the

Ramjanambhoomi movement as a pan-north Indian concern, it was evident that the surge

in support for religious nationalism was the result of deep-rooted developments that had

altered the political landscape of the Hindi belt significantly It might be argued at this

point that such a development was imminent given the strong presence of traditional

Hindu elements in the social psyche of this region, even as part of the Congress’s

functional agenda, since the pre-independence period However, until the late 1980s,

there was little by way of formal support for religious majoritarianism as a political

ideology – as was seen from the failure of the BJS, and even the BJP in its early stages, to

attain a reasonable level of popular acceptance and success The change was thus one that

spanned many dimensions and hence, created a need to interpret the nature of Hindutva

as a socio-political ideology, and gain a better understanding of its influence in

contemporary Indian society and politics

Studies on Hindu nationalism have been so numerous and comprehensive that it is near

impossible to account for all of them Hence, this brief review takes up some of the broad

strands of study that encompass much of the relevant literature on this subject The first

amongst these is the focus on the ideological and socio-political origins of Hindu

nationalism Most studies place the genesis of Hindu nationalism at the late 19th century, wherein the conjunction of two strands of nationalist thought – Indian nationalism and

Hindu revivalism – produced a synthesized ideology that was secular as well as religious

The unique, or ironic, blend of elements was derived to a large extent from the influence

of European scholarship on the Indian elite, as a result of which the Indian elite attempted

to emulate the West subconsciously,14 yet outwardly sought to reinstate a national identity that was shaped by elements of Indian tradition and culture Significantly,

Hinduism was seen as the only religion capable of engendering and sustaining such a

transformation The centrality of Hinduism to the nationalist movement was further

strengthened by the formation of religious and socio-political organizations (Arya Samaj,

Hindu Mahasabha) and mass-based movements (the Cow Protection movement), which

helped to disseminate and strengthen a growing sense of religious consciousness.15 It is noteworthy that the influence was not limited to Hindu revivalists alone – the Congress’s

‘secular’ framework was itself constituted of traditionalist Hindu elements, especially at

the state level.16

There is common consensus that Hindu nationalist ideology was ‘formalized’ in the early

1920s when V.D Savarkar sought to provide a comprehensive definition of the ‘Hindu’

14

Chatterjee, Partha Bengal politics and the Muslim masses, 1920-47 in Hasan, Mushirul, ed 1993

India's partition : process, strategy, and mobilization Delhi: Oxford University Press; Prakash, Gyan

Body politic in colonial India in Mitchell, Timothy 2000 Questions of modernity Minneapolis; London:

University of Minnesota Press

Gould, William 2004 Hindu nationalism and the language of politics in late colonial India New

York: Cambridge University Press

based on multiple markers of geography, race, religion and ethnicity in his thesis

Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? (First published in 1923).17 Savarkar’s work was instrumental to the development of Hindu nationalism for two important reasons: firstly,

the centrality of religion to the definition of the nation and its citizenry marked the point

of divergence between Hindu and Indian nationalism; and secondly, it provided a basis

for the creation of an inclusive socio-political identity that could effectively override the

presence of sectarian divisions within Hindu society Despite his not being a member of

the RSS, Savarkar’s work was to prove a central reference point for Hindu nationalists,

especially the RSS The borrowing of ideological precepts can be seen from RSS

ideologue Golwalkar’s work, We or our nationhood defined (first published in 1939),

which provides a similar set of defining features for the Hindu, albeit in an extreme,

fascist framework.18

The importance of Savarkar’s and Golwalkar’s works to contemporary Hindu nationalist

ideology derives from their ability to provide a firm theoretical basis that legitimizes the

exclusion of followers of other religions, especially Muslims, from the right to ‘belong’

in the country of their birth.19 Studies of the Ramjanambhoomi movement20 point to the centrality of this element to the campaign, especially with regard to the stress on the

moderated version of his ideological percepts in his next work, Bunch of thoughts Details: Golwalkar,

M.S 1966 Bunch of Thoughts Bangalore: Vikrama Prakashan

19

Pandey, Gyanendra, ed 1993 Hindus and others: The question of identity in India today New Delhi;

New York: Viking

‘Muslim’ origins of the mosque and the call for the demonstration of ‘Hindu’ pride

through participation in the effort to replace it with a temple Apart from this central

focus, the literature on the Ramjanambhoomi movement has dealt with several aspects

that relate to the larger socio-economic forces shaping the country’s psyche such as the

importance of media in shaping the public imagination, with particular reference to the

televised series, Ramayana;21 the means by which socio-economic grievances had been contextualized within religion;22 and the contributory factors to, and impact of, communal rioting and its impact on political and social structures.23

Another dimension of the study of Hindu nationalism concentrates on the core

organizations that constitute the Sangh Parivar Of these, the RSS has received

considerable attention, given its primacy as the foundation upon which the Sangh Parivar

was built On a general note, the RSS is often perceived as the progenitor and inheritor of

the fascist tradition of Hindu nationalism, largely because of the extremist leanings of the

organization in the 1930s and 40s Although the RSS moderated much of its rhetoric and

maintained its distance from politics in the post-independence period, certain elements

that continued to be retained, such as the para-military style of its training and

organization in the shakas24, sustained the stereotype of the organization This perception

21

Rajagopal, Arvind 2001 Politics after television: Religious nationalism and the reshaping of the

Indian public New York: Cambridge University Press

22

Nandy, Ashis et al 1995 Creating a nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi movement and fear of the self

Delhi: Oxford University Press.

23

McGuire, John, Peter Reeves and Howard Brasted, eds 1996 Politics of violence: From Ayodhya to

Behrampada New Delhi; Thousand Oaks: Sage; Hansen, Thomas Blom 1999 The saffron wave: Democracy and Hindu nationalism in modern India Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press

24

Shakas is the term used to refer to local branches or centers of the RSS

has been tempered to some extent by studies in recent times,25 which have highlighted the different aspects of the ideology, structure and functioning of the RSS In particular, these

studies have dealt with important issues including the spread and development of Hindu

nationalism in the post-independence period, the manner in which Hindu nationalism has

come to be ingrained within the social and political culture of north India, and the limits

to the RSS’s ‘non-involvement’ with politics

The steady growth in membership over the years from mere hundreds to over a million in

recent times is a result of the RSS’s modus operandi that institutes cadre based networks

throughout the country, which in turn implant memberships at the local level Underlying

this strategy is the RSS’s disregard for short-term social or numerical gain, with the sole

aim of transforming society over time from the grassroots The RSS’s strategy is

complemented by its social welfare wings such as the ‘Sewa Bharti’ and schools like

‘Sanskrit Kendra’ and ‘Saraswathi Shishu Mandir’, which work with lower-caste or tribal

groups In recent times, these initiatives have come under criticism on account of the

25

Andersen, Walter K and Shridhar D Damle 1987 The brotherhood in saffron: The Rashtriya

Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu revivalism New Delhi: Vistaar Publications; Basu, Tapan et al 1993 Khaki shorts and saffron flags: A critique of the Hindu right New Delhi: Orient Longman Viking

25

Basu, Tapan et al 1993 Khaki shorts and saffron flags: A critique of the Hindu right New Delhi: Orient Longman; Katju, Manjari 2003 The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Indian politics Hyderabad: Orient Longman; McKean, Lise 1996 Divine enterprise: Gurus and the Hindu nationalist movement

Chicago: University of Chicago Press

University Press.; Jaffrelot, Christophe 1996 The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics, 1925

to the 1990s: Strategies of identity-building, implantation and mobilization London: Hurst & Company;

Kanungo, Pralay 2003 RSS’s tryst with politics: From Hedgewar to Sudarshan Delhi: Manohar

Publisher and Distributors

organizations’ efforts to propagate a synthesized set of Hindu practices that could

promulgate attachment to the religion and the society simultaneously – a practice that is

seen as representative of the RSS’s underlying pro-Brahminical ethos, and contradictory

to its claims of a casteless agenda.26 Nevertheless, despite the questions raised over the nature of its ideological commitment, there is common consensus that the RSS is the

primary representative of Hindutva in Indian society over the years

Whilst other organizations within the Sangh Parivar such as the VHP27 have also received considerable attention, the BJP commands a special place in academic discourse on

account of its role as the sole envoy of the Sangh Parivar’s interests in the political forte

Although focus on the BJP intensified only in the late 1980s, the studies that have

emerged since have been extensive and numerous, especially when compared to the

works on the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS).28 The general themes of analysis include the BJP’s ideology, strategy and functioning.29 Amongst these, an oft-examined topic of analysis centers on the timing of the rise of the BJP in Indian politics Given the close-

26

Jaffrelot, Christophe 1996 The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics, 1925 to the 1990s:

Strategies of identity-building, implantation and mobilization London: Hurst & Company; Pandey,

Gyanendra, ed 1993 Hindus and others: The question of identity in India today New Delhi; New York: Viking; Basu, Tapan et al 1993 Khaki shorts and saffron flags: A critique of the Hindu right New

Delhi: Orient Longman

27

Basu, Tapan et al 1993 Khaki shorts and saffron flags: A critique of the Hindu right New Delhi: Orient Longman; Katju, Manjari 2003 The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Indian politics Hyderabad: Orient Longman; McKean, Lise 1996 Divine enterprise: Gurus and the Hindu nationalist movement

Chicago: University of Chicago Press

University Press

knit framework of the Sangh Parivar, the BJP had a strong member network built up by

the RSS since the 1920s to tap into for support However, the BJP failed to make its mark

as a prominent political force until the late 1980s The reason for this delay lay in the lack

of an opportune political moment, which was created by the convergence of specific

socio-political conditions that provided the Sangh Parivar with an opportunity to

implement its strategy of ethno-religious mobilization and validate the notion of the

threatening ‘Other’.30 In particular, the ineptitude of the Congress in the 1970s and 80s31and the inability of the state to adapt its secular ideology to suit a changing social polity32resulted in the weakening of the secular principle and ‘legitimized’ the growth in support

for religious nationalism in the early 1990s

Much has been said on the BJP’s ability to capitalize on the shifting trends through the

Ramjanambhoomi movement It is important to note that apart from its larger

implications for Indian society and politics as a whole, the significance of the movement

lay in its ability to provide the BJP with an opportunity to reconcile its roles as both a

movement and a political party.33 However, the post-Ramjanambhoomi movement period brought to fore challenges that restricted the BJP’s rise and expansion, and more

importantly, put to test the resilience of the BJP’s commitment to the social agenda of the

Sangh Parivar As a result, the academic spotlight moved away from the dominant

discourse on the communal leanings of the party to an assessment of the manner in which

30

Jaffrelot, Christophe 1996 The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics, 1925 to the 1990s:

Strategies of identity-building, implantation and mobilization London: Hurst & Company

31

Hasan, Zoya 1998 Quest for power: Oppositional movements and post-Congress politics in Uttar

Pradesh Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press

32

Nandy, Ashis 2002 Time warps: Silent and evasive pasts in Indian politics and religion London:

Hurst & Company

33

Basu, Amrita The dialectics of Hindu nationalism in Atul Kohli, ed 2001 The success of India’s

democracy New York: Cambridge University Press

the BJP had accommodated itself within Indian politics and the factors that tested its

expansion

Given the instability of governance in the 1990s, reflected in the holding of four general

elections in quick succession in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999, much of the work on the BJP

from the mid 1990s onwards centered on a comparative analysis of the party’s strategies

and performance in the different sectors and states.34 When the BJP-led coalition emerged as the ruling alliance at the center in 1999, after a shaky term in power for one

year, the party seemed to have finally found its footing in the political scene However,

the unexpected defeat of the BJP-led NDA coalition in the 2004 general elections and the

re-emergence of the Congress gave rise to a new set of questions that aimed to better

understand whether the BJP’s failure was more the verdict of an electorate afflicted by an

anti-incumbency mood, or the end result of party’s inability to adapt to challenges and

changes at the national and regional levels.35

In the discussion above, a commonly referred to but relatively unexplored factor has been

the impact of the rise of caste politics and caste-based parties on the BJP’s strategy and

functioning Needless to say, extensive ground has been covered on the social and

34

Gould, Harold and Sumit Ganguly, eds 1993 India votes: Alliance politics and minority governments

in the ninth and tenth general elections Boulder: Westview Press; Hansen, Thomas Blom and Christophe

Jaffrelot, eds 1998 The BJP and the compulsions of politics in India New Delhi: Oxford University Press; Varshney, Ashutosh 1998 India’s 12th national elections New York: Asia Society; Roy, Ramashray and Paul Wallace, eds 1999 Indian politics and the 1998 election: Regionalism, Hindutva

and state politics New Delhi: Sage Publications; Roy, Ramashray and Paul Wallace, eds 2003 India’s

1999 elections and 20 th century politics Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications; Jenkins, Rob, ed 2004 Regional reflections: Comparing politics across India’s states New Delhi; Oxford: Oxford University

Press

35

Adeney, Katharine and Lawrence Saez eds 2005 Coalition politics and Hindu nationalism New York:

Routledge

political significance of caste,36 the rise of caste-based parties, and their role in contemporary Indian politics.37 Furthermore, Froystad’s38 account of the shifts in the relationships between the different families in her study town of Kanpur in the state of

Uttar Pradesh provides an excellent account of the manner in which this change

manifested itself at the ground level However, these studies have focused largely on the

social and political processes that led to the rise of caste-based parties as a significant

force in the 1980s and the manner in which they have transformed contemporary Indian

politics They point to the fact that the significance of the rise of caste-based parties lay in

their ability to rephrase the demand for equality of opportunity and outcomes as one that

called for the redistribution of power and resources to the underprivileged sections of

society Needles to say, the change was a relatively subtle one, and the extent to which

caste had become ingrained in the socio-political psyche of the population became more

evident in the fallout over the implementations of the Mandal Commission’s

recommendations

As mentioned earlier, the BJP’s challenges came to fore only in the post-Mandal period

The Babri Masjid issue had lost its significance by the mid-1990s; the Hindutva

bandwagon could no longer rely on religion as the sole basis of its propaganda, and the

36

Rudolph, Lloyd I and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph 1967 The modernity of tradition: Political

development in India Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Bayly, Susan 1999 Caste, society and politics in India from the eighteenth century to the modern age New York: Cambridge University Press;

Gupta, Dipankar 2000 Interrogating caste: Understanding hierarchy and difference in Indian society New Delhi; New York: Penguin Books; Shah, Ghanshyam ed 2004 Caste and Democratic Politics in

India London: Anthem

37

Hasan, Zoya 1998 Quest for power: Oppositional movements and post-Congress politics in Uttar

Pradesh Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press; Pai, Sudha 2002 Dalit assertion and the unfinished democratic revolution: The Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications;

Chandra, Kanchan 2004 Why ethnic parties succeed: Patronage and ethnic head counts in India

Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press

38

Froystad, Kathinka 2005 Blended boundaries: caste, class, and shifting faces of 'Hinduness' in a

north Indian city Delhi; Oxford: Oxford University Press

party leadership was faced with the need to find new means of integrating their ideology

within the larger political discourse Given the BJP’s lack of support in terms of alliance

partners at the centre and the restricted appeal of its ideology at the ground level, the

choice of maintaining its ideological stringency and rejecting co-option with caste-based

parties was a difficult choice to make The need to form alliances with caste-based parties

was further pressed by the fact that caste-based parties had been aided by the growing

regionalization of politics and the resultant decentralization of power, and emerged as the

power brokers at the state level However, the process of forming and maintaining such

alliances, and the larger challenge of integrating the issue of caste within the Hindu

nationalist framework proved to be a far bigger challenge for the BJP than expected

Despite the vast literature on Hindu nationalism and caste, there is a lacuna in the

analysis on the manner in which the trajectories of caste and Hindu nationalism have

interacted, and the extent to which caste has come to affect the progress of the BJP, and

the character of Hindu nationalism Primarily, the discourse has centered on the

discrepancy between the upper-caste nature of the BJP’s character and composition, and

the leadership’s efforts to present it as a ‘catch-all’ party, in much the same mould as the

Congress, to gain popular acceptance Nevertheless, much of the discussion has been

situated within the larger discourse of the Sangh Parivar’s efforts to ‘integrate’ the lower

castes within the Hindu fold, and hence, place greater emphasis on the ideological and

social initiatives of the Sangh Parivar as a whole In other words, there is relatively little

detail on the effects of the intricacies of political negotiation on the BJP’s rank and file on

the one hand, and the manner in which its character and functioning have been affected

these changes Focus on these issues is crucial to understanding the ideological and

identity-based challenges faced by the party, which in turn point to the larger question of

whether or not Hindutva has indeed managed to gain acceptance as an ideology of

pan-Indian significance Yet, given the concentration of RSS members and alumni within the

BJP’s hierarchy and the strong ties between the two organizations, the challenges and

issues specific to the BJP as a political party are oftentimes underplayed in light of the

larger social and ideological perspectives

Chapter descriptions

This thesis aims to address this concern by taking up the relationship between the BJP

and caste-based parties, with emphasis on three specific dimensions of analysis: firstly,

the manner in which relations with caste-based parties affected the party’s functioning at

the state level; secondly, the effects of caste politics on the internal ranks of the BJP; and

finally, the impact of these factors on the resilience of Hindutva and the extent to which

the party has been effective in handling this challenge Hence, the analysis is centered on

key issues that affected the party’s functioning and the leadership’s response to these

developments, with the discussion based on a chronological order of events from the

party’s inception in 1980 to the latest general elections in 2004 Whilst it is very difficult

to view the BJP in isolation from the workings of the RSS and other components of the

Sangh Parivar, effort has been made to shed light on the ‘political’ pressures and issues

that affect the party’s structure and functioning

Chapter 2 takes up the progress of the BJP through the 1980s up to the early 1990s when

the BJP could finally lay claim to the political spotlight A closer look at some of the

developments through the passage of the 1980s helps to highlight key socio-political

vulnerabilities that resulted from the decline of the Congress, which were instrumental to

the resurgence of Hindu nationalism; selfsame processes that also functioned as a catalyst

for the deepening of caste boundaries and the rise of caste-based parties It also examines

the inherent tensions between caste and Hindu nationalism that came to light with the

fallout over the Mandal issues, but were undermined by the progress of the

Ramjanambhoomi movement

Chapter 3 picks up the thread of the discourse at the point immediately preceding the

1991 elections and traces the development of the BJP through the 1990s, with the

impetus resting on an analysis of the main challenges faced by the BJP in its attempt to

adapt to the constraints of caste and coalition politics Consciousness of caste coupled

with the limitations imposed by the RSS’s organicist philosophy was instrumental in

reshaping the character of the BJP The impact of these factors on the party’s strategy and

functioning, and the depth of these changes helps to better understand the multi-faceted

nature of the caste challenge, and the BJP’s calibre in handling it

To better illustrate the nature of these challenges, chapter 4 takes up a case study of the

BJP’s career in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Regarded as the barometer of politics in

the Hindi belt, UP was central to the Ramjanambhoomi movement and the rise of

caste-based parties The case study helps to elaborate the difficulties faced by the BJP in its

attempt to formulae a coherent strategy to suit the demands of multiple caste bases, and

the difficulty in internalising caste divisions completely within a party structure

traditionally indoctrinated with the organicist philosophy of the RSS

The concluding chapter traces the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s dismal

performance in the 2004 elections and its implications for the BJP’s progress in the

coming years In particular, it takes up the retrospective view and highlights the BJP’s

struggle with the need to maintain a balance of support bases whilst retaining its

distinctiveness – a tough challenge that was accentuated by the constant need to sustain a

harmony of interests with the RSS This chapter thus provides a brief account of the key

facets of the party’s strategy through the 1990s, the manner in which the BJP has

‘matured’ over the years and the extent to which it has managed to ascertain its identity in

the political sphere, ending with a comment on its future prospects

Chapter 2: The Sangh Parivar and the Revival of Hindu Nationalism

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the ‘new’ face of Hindutva

The Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS), formed in 1951, was the first step of Hindu nationalists’

involvement in post-independence Indian politics The BJS was formed primarily as an

anti-Congress alternative that sought to reinforce a pro-Hindu, pro-Hindi perspective on

Indian politics Throughout its career, the party remained a largely marginal player,

despite its one shot at power with the Janata coalition after the 1977 elections However,

the inability to balance the different voices within the coalition led to the collapse of the

Janata experiment within 30 months, following which the BJS was disbanded, and

reorganised as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980

The BJP’s entry into the political foray was marked by two significant factors Firstly, its

predecessor had left behind little by way of a coherent political legacy for the party to

follow To a great extent, the BJS had oscillated between a strident Hindu nationalist

stance, and a moderate position that was geared towards socio-economic issues Over

time, the party’s reliance on the RSS for physical and moral support made the choice of

adopting a liberal tone a difficult one, and the leadership started “showing an increasing

tendency to choose isolation and doctrinal purity”39 typified by the combination of puritan leanings with a call to Hindu unity, as was made explicit in the BJS’s manifesto:

39

Graham, Bruce Desmond Hindu nationalism and Indian politics: The origins and development of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press 1990 p 42

Unity in diversity has been the characteristic feature of Bharatiya culture

which is a synthesis of different regional, local and tribal growths, natural

in such a country It has never been tied to the strings of any particular

dogma or creed All the creeds that form the commonwealth of the

Bharatiya Rashtra have their share in the stream of Bharatiya culture

which has flown down from the Vedas in an unbroken continuity

absorbing and assimilating contributions made by different peoples, creeds

and cultures that came in touch with it in the course of history, in such a

way as to make them an indistinguishable part and parcel of the main

current.40

It must be noted though that the BJS consistently refrained from alluding to a particular

sect, caste or even book, in line with its aim to “offer a notion of Hinduism as a means of

transcending the limitations of sect and of achieving the ultimate ideal of Hindu

Sangathan”.41 However, adherence to the organicist nature of the Hindu community coloured the party’s ideology with a ‘Brahminical’ hue that implicitly seemed to

encourage the acceptance of the traditional social hierarchy As a result, the BJS’s

support base was restricted to the upper caste and urban middle class sections, making it

difficult for the party to stretch its political appeal to encompass a wider spectrum of

population even within the Hindi belt This limitation was to prove the dead albatross

around the BJP’s neck in later years, especially in lieu of the compulsions of caste

politics, when the party finally found its momentum in Indian politics

Yet, the BJS’s failure to emerge as a viable competitor was not a result of the party’s

structural or ideological shortcomings alone Rather, it was compounded by the

Congress’s status as the political guardian for the umbrella amalgam of upper castes,

lower castes and Muslims in the post-independence period The Congress’s ability to

forge the loyalties of the disparate groups derived largely from the party’s ability to

position itself within the electorate such that it maintained a balance between elite

representation and popular appeal

The classical Congress structure of the Nehruvian period was an intricate

institutional mechanism negotiating power, resources, and mandates

among districts and between the states and the center, distributing fiscal

resources and arbiting social and political conflicts Its resilience was

premised on the inclusion of most important elite groups within a structure

of negotiation, bargaining, and aggregation of the discrete powers and

constituencies of local elites upward to the center.42

It is important to note that the Congress’s maintenance of a rainbow coalition of castes

and communities did not translate to equal political representation for the different groups

within the party structure or government The party’s higher ranks were dominated by

42

Hansen, Thomas Blom The saffron wave: Democracy and Hindu nationalism in modern India

Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1999 p 135 (Emphasis added)

members of the upper castes with little opportunity provided to members of the lower

castes, in tandem with the Congress’s reliance on a network of upper-caste notables and

landlords for electoral support

The Congress’s ability to maintain a monopoly over much of the electorate, despite the

lack of a corresponding programme that benefited all sections equally led to the

establishment of a system that relied on the support of loosely demarcated socio-political

segments, all of which relied on a single political party as their representative As

Graham has noted, “The central paradox of Indian politics in the 1950s and 1960s [was]

that the party system, although highly differentiated in terms of programmes and

doctrines, was unable to organize the mass electorate into clearly defined and separated

sectors of social and regional support”.43 The deficiency of opposing forces that could capitalise on the disparity between rhetoric and reality in the Congress’s policies was a

central reason behind the ability of the latter to maintain electoral harmony between the

different social segments in popular politics in the 1950s and 60s The breakdown of this

idyllic balance was the second important factor that was to affect the BJP’s rise and

growth in the 1980s and 90s

Revival of religion and nationalism in the 1980s

The early years of the BJP’s career, from the early to mid-1980s, were influenced by

different undercurrents of change, the conjunction of which created a volatile

43

Graham Hindu nationalism and Indian politics p 53

atmosphere At the national level, the proliferation of communal sentiments by ethnic

factions in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Punjab raised doubts over the legitimacy of

secularism as the governing policy, and led to the re-emergence of communal politics in

the Indian nation state The growing presence of conditions conducive to the propagation

of religious majoritarianism apart, the Congress’s conscious departure from its

commitment to Nehruvian secularism to regain its waning popularity was a key factor in

instigating a turnaround in the priorities of political competition and governance The

Congress essentially relied on a “…combination of contradictory elements for it appealed

alternatively to Hindu, Muslim or anti-Sikh feelings However its general effect was the

establishment of communal idioms in political discourse at the expense of secular

themes”.44 After decades of being confined to the margins of the Indian polity, Hindu nationalists found that the stage was set for them to legitimately embark on their long-

standing ethno-religious program of creating a Hindu rashtra (Hindu nation)

The Sangh Parivar was quick to take advantage of the Congress’s inability to uphold its

secular agenda to set in place a concerted strategy, at the heart of which was the attempt

to posit the genesis of the Hindus’ real and perceived insecurities vis-à-vis the Muslim

community This was to act as a corollary to the primary aim of disseminating the

message of Hindu sangathan, or organised Hindu unity, as embodied in the Ekmata Yatra

campaigns organised by the VHP in 1982-83.45 The Ekmata Yatra campaigns incorporated the image of the Bharat Mata (Mother India) as their main icon alongside

44

Jaffrelot, Christophe The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics, 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies

of identity-building, implantation and mobilization London: Hurst & Company 1996 p 332

45

Hansen The saffron wave p 154

other Hindu deities, and were organised to run from north to south and east to west to

symbolically depict the internal harmony within the territorial boundaries of India

Essentially, the VHP and RSS were making a strong “bid to dominate the public space

with symbolic manifestations of religious community in order to give material body,

concrete crystallisation, and emotional affiliation to the imaginary national space”,46 and

in doing so, attempted to present Hindu nationalism “as a spontaneous surge of Hindus

irrespective of caste, class, gender and sect”.47 The Sangh Parivar’s campaign was well timed as the 1980s had witnessed a growing sense of vulnerability amongst the Hindu

community on account of events such as the Meenakshipuram conversions in south India

in 1981, and the Shah Bano case in 1985

The Meenakshipuram conversions were a case in point wherein analogous socio-political

grievances were situated within the dominant communal discourse to bolster its popular

appeal On 19 February 1981, about 1,000 members of Scheduled Castes converted to

Islam in the village of Meenakshipuram, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.48Interestingly, the conversions were timed to precede the laying of the foundation stone

for a mosque in the village in early March The Meenakshipuram incident acted as a

catalyst for further such conversions in the following months, thus sparking off

widespread debate over the issues of caste and proselytisation It is noteworthy that the

main justification given for the conversion by those who had embraced Islam was the

social stigma of being born into a lower caste Amongst those who had converted, some

were educated and economically mobile, but chose to convert to another religion to

escape the brunt of caste discrimination

The Meenakshipuram conversions became notoriously popular because they were

reinterpreted by sections of the media as part of an “International Islamic conspiracy”49 to increase the demographic presence of Muslims in India through proselytisation.50 This gave rise to a host of doubts including the nature and extent of involvement of

organisations like the Jamaat-i-Islami and Arab countries in this ‘plan’, and the resultant

possibility of the Hindu community diminishing over time – all of which contributed to a

heightened sense of susceptibility on the part of the Hindu community to external

‘threats’ In an attempt to reinforce the message, an article in the Indian Express

published statistics that predicted the decline of the Hindu population to a minority

position in India by the year 2281 or 2231 if the conversions were allowed to continue.51

The anxiety over religious encroachment provided an ideal context for the Sangh Parivar

to resound its call for a united Hindu society By making it apparent that lower castes

were most susceptible to proselytisation, the Meenakshipuram incident had brought up

the need to address the issue of caste discrimination as well As Mahant Avaidyanath, a

prominent BJP candidate from eastern U.P pointed out, there had been an underlying

concern that the trend of lower caste conversion might mushroom in north India as well.52

In response, the executive wing of the RSS called for a meeting on 12 July 1981 to vote

for a law against involuntary conversions In the course of the meeting, the RSS pressed

the need for internal transformation by asking “…the entire Hindu society to bury deep

the internal caste dissensions and the pernicious practice of untouchability and stand up

as one single homogenous family, so that the neglected and down-trodden sections will

be assured of a place of equality, security and honour in the Hindu fold”.53

Two days later, a Hindu Solidarity Conference was organised by the VHP at

Meenakshipuram A proclamation, similar to that of the RSS, but grounded in strong

theological terms, was made:

We, the religious heads assembled today at Meenakshipuram solemnly

declare that our Vedas and Shastras have not mentioned untouchability in

any form, anywhere but have propounded only complete brotherhood […]

We therefore ardently appeal to all our Hindu brethren to individually and

collectively throw out these evils lock, stock and barrel and strive to

ensure equality and fraternity among all sections of our Hindu people.54

A series of such Solidarity conferences were organised in the south, and then later in

other parts of India, in order to increase awareness of the dangers of proselytisation and

52

Avaidyanath’s comments on the Meenakshipuram incident were recorded in an interview regarding the

hardline Hindu stance at a later date See Joshi, Ishan “Beating Vajpayee to pulp” Outlook Feb 18 1998

the need for Hindu cohesion to guard against the same.55 Symbolic socio-religious practices were integrated within the conferences to reinforce the message of inter-caste

solidarity For example, in one of the conferences, religious leaders organised a sacrifice

ceremony and held a banquet after, during which they shared a meal with 2,000 people

from the Scheduled Castes.56 The aim was to present a complete socio-political

‘package’, which illustrated the socio-theological basis of a traditionalist Hindu society

that could overcome the presence of internal differences for the greater goal of defending

against ‘external’ elements

The Sangh Parivar’s attempt to encourage an inclusive Hindu brotherhood also received a

strong boost from the perceived unanimity of Muslim conservatism over the Shah Bano

case Shah Bano was a Muslim woman who was divorced by her husband in 1978 after

46 years of marriage Following her divorce, she sued her husband and established her

right to alimony In 1980, she demanded a review of her allowance, which was contested

by her former husband on grounds that he was not obliged to continue payment after 3

months following divorce according to the Shariat law The Supreme Court dismissed his

claim and established Shah Bano’s right to alimony The Supreme Court’s decision to

dismiss the claim based on Shariat and the judges’ regret over the lack of a common civil

code was regarded by Muslim organisations and leaders as interference with religious

edicts, leading to widespread rallies and protests across India

Public remonstrations over the Shah Bano affair were viewed by the Hindus as an unfair

assertion of minority rights – a sentiment further stoked by Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to

override the Supreme Court’s verdict to appease the Muslim population Popular

resentment against the Congress’s ineffective handling of the case, coupled with

mounting apprehension over the ‘unity’ of the Muslim community, deepened social

cleavages and made the Hindu populace more receptive to the communal undertone of

Hindutva The Shah Bano case had exposed a key deficiency of the ‘secular’ Indian

constitution, a side effect of which was the raking up of dormant fears generated by the

Meenakshipuram conversions In brief, “Muslim mobilisation over the ‘Shah Bano’ affair

was seen…as part of the same pattern as an earlier renewal of Islamic militancy”.57

The early to mid-1980s were thus marked by a growing tendency towards communal

mobilisation – an important factor that enabled the Sangh Parivar to garner support for its

majoritarian Hindu agenda In contrast to its surrogate organisations’ active efforts,

however, the BJP chose to maintain a low profile in the early 1980s and voted to continue

with the moderate policy of the Jan Sangh, based on Integral Humanism and peppered

with socio-economic concerns The BJP’s decision to tone down its majoritarian rhetoric

was probably based on the experience of the 1977 elections, when the BJS had managed

to accumulate 92 seats by pedalling a ‘soft’ form of Hindutva Nevertheless, the decision

proved costly for the BJP, especially in lieu of the growing communal sensitivity, and the

party suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1984 general elections when it scraped a tally of

57

Jaffrelot The Hindu nationalist movement pp 338-339

just 2 seats Following the 1984 elections, the BJP bowed to pressure from the RSS and

steered its agenda towards an aggressive Hindu nationalist stand

Despite the lack of electoral returns, the Sangh Parivar’s efforts were instrumental in

effecting a perceptible shift towards religious majoritarianism, especially in the Hindi

belt However, although the Hindu nationalists were able to propagate their political

ideology in the public arena, they failed to foster a mutual identity that could bond the

disparate Hindu sections under the umbrella of religious solidarity This was on account

of the continued dependence on the rhetoric of the “Other” and Hindu-Muslim

antagonism, the constricted focus of which was challenged by the rise of an alternative

form of representative politics based on caste in the mid to late 1980s

Caste – The regional barometer of north India

Caste politics in the north experienced a delayed thrust when compared to the south,

which had seen the entry of the lower castes in the state power structure as early as the

1950s The increased demographic presence of upper castes and the Zamindari system of

land ownership in north India were some of the main reasons behind the political

suppression of lower castes Furthermore, the ‘clientelistic’ policies of the Congress

resulted in an overrepresentation of upper-caste members in the parliament till the early

1970s, thereby prolonging the political suppression of the lower castes.58 The roots of lower-caste empowerment in the north lay in two broad movements In the 1960s, Ram

58

Jaffrelot, Christophe “The rise of the Other Backward Classes in the Hindi belt” in The Journal of Asian Studies Vol 59, No 1 Feb 2000 p 86

Manohar Lohia’s socialist principles, housed in an anti-Congress manifesto began to gain

importance in the Hindi belt, especially amongst the backward sections of the population

The socialist principles were reinforced by capitalist developments in this region in the

1970s, following the advent of the Green Revolution, which led to the strengthening of

the farmers’ lobby in Uttar Pradesh (UP)

The beneficiaries of the Green Revolution were constituted mainly of members of middle

and backward castes, who increasingly began to press for greater political participation

alongside their newfound economic mobility The need to fulfil the void created by a lack

of access to power and party positions formed the central premise of Charan Singh’s

demand for greater benefits and power to be channelled to the farmers.59 Whilst both Lohia and Singh represented different strands of anti-Congress politics, it was evident

that regional politics was witnessing a deeper change In effect,

Social change arising from the breakdown of traditional pre-capitalist

relation exerted a major influence on political development The

expansion of democracy and electoral politics attracted non-elite sections

who desired greater participation…Both processes played a key role in

political transformation The pattern of vertical relationships and political

aggregation gave way to more horizontal relationships and conflicts…”60

59

Hasan, Zoya Quest for power: Oppositional movements and post-Congress politics in Uttar Pradesh Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press 1998 See also, Jaffrelot, Christophe India’s silent revolution: Yhe rise of the lower castes in north India London: Hurst & Company 2003

60

Hasan Quest for power p 70