Uttar Pradesh is a state in India that very few abroad would have heard about. Yet with its 170 million people, it would be the world’s sixth most populous country were it a separate nation. It is a state that struggles with the entrenched social attitudes against the Dalits – the caste formerly known as the Untouchables – and is beset by problems of illiteracy and debilitating poverty.
The state went to the polls two weeks ago, and the result has been startling: the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – a party premised on the need for Dalit emancipation and led by India’s most prominent Dalit leader, Mayawati – has won a decisive victory. In a state that has not always given its political parties a clear mandate to rule, this is a significant victory indeed, since it means that Mayawati will be able to form a government in the 403-member legislative assembly without any outside support.
Mayawati has served as the Chief Minister of the state on three prior occasions and is no stranger to this role. But on each of the previous occasions, her party was in a coalition with others, and thus the governments in question did not survive long. The spate of coalition governments also meant that the scope for tackling the significant problems that needed to be addressed was often restricted to a political game between the various parties that formed each government.
The most remarkable feature about this election victory was the alliance that the BSP entered the election with. About two years ago the party, which grew out of the Dalit movement, decided to drop its anti-upper caste ethos, and instead sought to actively engage with the highest of the four broad castes that sit above the Dalits (who are traditionally considered below the caste system itself). The alliance formed between the Dalits and the Brahmins (traditionally the nemesis of the Dalits and in many ways the historical force in ensuring their impoverishment) was unimaginable in historical terms. Yet the BSP fielded 86 upper-caste Brahmin candidates alongside 91 Dalit candidates in this election, with dramatic results.
This history-making alliance between the groups has managed to stem the rising influence of the middle classes, particularly the Yadavs, who had benefited most from India’s strong stance on positive discrimination. In addition, the election victory is particularly significant in the message sent to the Congress Party and the Gandhi dynasty. Rahul Gandhi – the son of Rajiv Gandhi and the grandson of Indira Gandhi, both past Prime Ministers of the country – is considered heir-in-waiting to the Prime Ministerial office. He campaigned hard in his home state, and was usually greeted as a semi-deity among the state’s rural poor on the campaign trail. Yet in the final analysis his Congress party only managed to hold 22 seats in the assembly, thereby denting his credentials to a certain extent.
This election victory is a shot in the arm for the Dalit movement. There are estimated to be about 160 million Dalits in India, spread all over the country, who live in conditions of crippling poverty, performing menial tasks that are considered ‘unclean’ by other castes. The link to their occupation has often been justified on the basis of their religiously mandated ‘impurity’, and this has spawned centuries of stigma and discrimination against individuals from this group.
The Indian constitution has extended Dalits several affirmative action measures, but these have usually been either misdirected or poorly implemented, and have failed to address the striking inequality between the Dalits and the rest of Indian society. Instead, the measures themselves have come under pressure and been extended to what is referred to in India as ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs) who mainly consists of those at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, but above the Dalits.
It is hard to predict what direction the government of Uttar Pradesh will take, or the extent to which it will be successful in implementing its policies. The track record of Mayawati herself is not particularly good. In her last stint in power, she practised what the Guardian newspaper termed “the politics of patronage and symbolism” which significantly undermined her image and mandate among the population. Against this, it has to be said that the outgoing regime of Mulayam Singh Yadav has been equally guilty of this: having created employment and handed out jobs to members of his own community only. In many ways it could be argued that the politics of patronage are very much part and parcel of the political culture of the state of Uttar Pradesh – and, some would argue, of the whole country.
However, unlike in other recent elections elsewhere in the world, this election was one in which the minority succeeded in mobilising itself, outlining a political agenda, creating a coherent strategic alliance, and being rewarded for this by this landslide victory. Caste-based discrimination, it could be argued, is one of the oldest forms of discrimination in the world. This election victory does little to reverse that trend, but it does show that there is room by which minorities who are numerically significant can manoeuvre themselves to being able to garner some fruits of the democratic process. Reversing centuries of discrimination and providing equality to all Dalits? That is a different question altogether.
Joshua Castellino is Professor of Law at the Law School and Transitional Justice Institute at the University of Ulster in Derry
Mayawati has served as the Chief Minister of the state on three prior occasions and is no stranger to this role. But on each of the previous occasions, her party was in a coalition with others, and thus the governments in question did not survive long. The spate of coalition governments also meant that the scope for tackling the significant problems that needed to be addressed was often restricted to a political game between the various parties that formed each government.
The most remarkable feature about this election victory was the alliance that the BSP entered the election with. About two years ago the party, which grew out of the Dalit movement, decided to drop its anti-upper caste ethos, and instead sought to actively engage with the highest of the four broad castes that sit above the Dalits (who are traditionally considered below the caste system itself). The alliance formed between the Dalits and the Brahmins (traditionally the nemesis of the Dalits and in many ways the historical force in ensuring their impoverishment) was unimaginable in historical terms. Yet the BSP fielded 86 upper-caste Brahmin candidates alongside 91 Dalit candidates in this election, with dramatic results.
This history-making alliance between the groups has managed to stem the rising influence of the middle classes, particularly the Yadavs, who had benefited most from India’s strong stance on positive discrimination. In addition, the election victory is particularly significant in the message sent to the Congress Party and the Gandhi dynasty. Rahul Gandhi – the son of Rajiv Gandhi and the grandson of Indira Gandhi, both past Prime Ministers of the country – is considered heir-in-waiting to the Prime Ministerial office. He campaigned hard in his home state, and was usually greeted as a semi-deity among the state’s rural poor on the campaign trail. Yet in the final analysis his Congress party only managed to hold 22 seats in the assembly, thereby denting his credentials to a certain extent.
This election victory is a shot in the arm for the Dalit movement. There are estimated to be about 160 million Dalits in India, spread all over the country, who live in conditions of crippling poverty, performing menial tasks that are considered ‘unclean’ by other castes. The link to their occupation has often been justified on the basis of their religiously mandated ‘impurity’, and this has spawned centuries of stigma and discrimination against individuals from this group.
The Indian constitution has extended Dalits several affirmative action measures, but these have usually been either misdirected or poorly implemented, and have failed to address the striking inequality between the Dalits and the rest of Indian society. Instead, the measures themselves have come under pressure and been extended to what is referred to in India as ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs) who mainly consists of those at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, but above the Dalits.
It is hard to predict what direction the government of Uttar Pradesh will take, or the extent to which it will be successful in implementing its policies. The track record of Mayawati herself is not particularly good. In her last stint in power, she practised what the Guardian newspaper termed “the politics of patronage and symbolism” which significantly undermined her image and mandate among the population. Against this, it has to be said that the outgoing regime of Mulayam Singh Yadav has been equally guilty of this: having created employment and handed out jobs to members of his own community only. In many ways it could be argued that the politics of patronage are very much part and parcel of the political culture of the state of Uttar Pradesh – and, some would argue, of the whole country.
However, unlike in other recent elections elsewhere in the world, this election was one in which the minority succeeded in mobilising itself, outlining a political agenda, creating a coherent strategic alliance, and being rewarded for this by this landslide victory. Caste-based discrimination, it could be argued, is one of the oldest forms of discrimination in the world. This election victory does little to reverse that trend, but it does show that there is room by which minorities who are numerically significant can manoeuvre themselves to being able to garner some fruits of the democratic process. Reversing centuries of discrimination and providing equality to all Dalits? That is a different question altogether.
Joshua Castellino is Professor of Law at the Law School and Transitional Justice Institute at the University of Ulster in Derry
