The Bahujan Samaj party in North India: No longer just a Dalit party?

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 18, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 35-51

  Jaffrelot, Christophe ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION; RELIGION;

INDIA;

EID: 0032420543     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-18-1-35     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. I am most grateful to Owen Lynch for his comments on an earlier version of this article.
2. Interview with Kanshi Ram, New Delhi, November 12, 1996.
3. Parliament of India, Tenth Lok Sabha Who's Who, Delhi: Lok Sabha Secretariat, 1992, p. 326
4. Sunday, February 13, 1994, pp. 23-31.
5. Interview with Kanshi Ram.
6. Kanshi Ram still comes from the lower classes: two of his sisters got married to landless laborers in Punjab, a third one to a civil servant of the fourth category and the fourth one to a soldier. His first brother is welder at the thermion factory of Ropar, and the second one cultivates the 1.5 acre family farm. (Sunday, February 13,1994, pp.28-31).
7. Interview with Kanshi Ram.
8. According to another source, the birthday celebration of Lord Buddha was the reason (Sunday, July 7, 1996, p.16).
9. Interview with Kanshi Ram.
10. E. Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit, Delhi, Manohar, 1992, pp. 106-107.
11. In the central administration the share of Scheduled Castes has increased from 3 and 4 percent for the groups A and B respectively to 10 and 12 percent between 1972 and 1992. (Group A comprises under secretary to secretary level officers and group B, section officers.) India Today, April 30, 1994, p. 32.
12. R. Ramaseshan, "Dalit politics in U.P.," Seminar, January 1995, p. 73.
13. Ibid.
14. One of the Congress MPs from the Scheduled Tribes in Madhya Pradesh, Ajit Jogi, who joined the Indian Administrative Service before turning to politics, testifies that when Kanshi Ram called on him, as Collector in Sidhi district (Vindhya Pradesh), "He looked very determined and clearly there was a messianic zeal in the work he was doing." (Cited in Sunday, July 7, 1996, p. 16).
15. In Bilaspur, Daulat Ram Ratnakar, who was to become the BSP chief in Madhya Pradesh, was approached while an undergraduate by T.R. Khunte, an engineer in NPTC who had come from Delhi on behalf of BAMCEF. (Interview with D. Ratnakar, Bhopal, November 2, 1997).
16. G. Omvedt, "Kanshi Ram and the Bahujan Party," in K.L. Sharma (ed.) Caste and Class in India, Jaipur and New Delhi: Rawat, 1994, p. 163.
17. Kanshi Ram bears a grudge against Rajiv Gandhi for this and refused to ally with the Congress during the 1989 elections when, on the contrary, his party aggressively attacked the then ruling party. (Interview with Kanshi Ram.)
18. Interview with Kanshi Ram.
19. Interview with Indra Mani Prasad Verma, Bhopal.
20. Interview with Kanshi Ram.
21. "Marching to Awaken the Ambedkarite Masses," The Oppressed Indian, 5,1, April 1983, p. 16.
22. Kanshi Ram, The Chamcha Age - An Era of the Stooges, New Delhi, 1982, p. 90.
23. The DS-4 has not been dissolved. BSP workers told me that it was now the party's youth wing, in charge of agitations such as the one in favor of reservations. But no action has been held on behalf of the DS-4 over the last 15 years.
24. "Marching to Awaken the Ambedkarites Masses," The Oppressed Indian, op. cit.
25. "First phase of 100 Days Social Action Concludes in Delhi," The Oppressed Indian, cited in B. Joshi (ed.), Untouchable! Voice of the Dalit Liberation Movement, New Delhi: Selectbook Service Syndicate, 1986, p. 115.
26. "First phase of 100 Days Social Action Concludes in Delhi," The Oppressed Indian, cited in B. Joshi (ed.), Untouchable! Voice of the Dalit Liberation Movement, New Delhi: Selectbook Service Syndicate, 1986, p. 115.
27. Kanshi Ram also began many of his public speeches with an injunction to the upper castes who happened to be present, to leave the meeting-place.
28. Some of these slogans come from Kanshi Ram, Bahujan Samâj ke lye âshâ kî kiran, New Delhi: Bahujan Publications, 1992, p. 67.
29. Kanshi Ram, "Bahujan Samaj Party aur Haryana Pradesh ke chunav," in Kanshi Ram, Asha ki kîran, op. cit., p. 23.
30. Azadi ke 44 sal bad bhi bahujan samaj (anusuchit jati, janjati, pichre varg va dharmic alpasankhyak) anyaya tyachar ka shikar in ibid., p. 58.
31. One of the BSP slogans says: "Ba"ba [Saheb Ambedkar] terâ mission adhûrâ Kanshi Ram karenge pûrâ" (Baba your unfinished work will be fulfilled by Kanshi Ram.)
32. S. Dube, "Idioms of Authority and Engendered Agendas: The Satnami Mahasabha, Chhattisgarh, 1925-1950," The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 30 (4),1993, p. 385.
33. S. Dube, Untouchable Pasts - Religion, Identity and Power among a Central Indian Community, 1780-1950, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
34. Interview with R.K. Jangde, Bhopal, October 19, 1995.
35. India Today, August 11, 1997, p. 33.
36. For more details see the remarkable account by Badri Narayan Tiwari, "Symbol, Memory and Politics: A Social Documentary," Paper presented in the international seminar, "Popular Culture and Social Action," Pune, January 2-8, 1998, organized by the Centre for Cooperative Research in Social Science.
37. K. Chandra, "Why does the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Succeed? A Case Study of the BSP in Hoshiarpur." Paper prepared for presen-tation at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington D.C., March 28, 1998, p. 20.
38. O. Lynch, Politics of Untouchability: Social Mobility and Change in a City of India, New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
39. Interview with I.M.P. Verma, a Nai (barber) who has been returned MLA from Mauganj (Rewa district) in 1993.
40. India Today, August 31, 1996, p.53.
41. Interview with Kanshi Ram.
42. Interview in Sunday, May 16, 1993, pp. 10-11. With the elections won he admitted the tactical character of the alliance: "Up until now, neither Mulayam Singh nor me can stand alone in U[ttar] P[radesh]. That's why we are together" (Interview in Sunday, February 13, 1994, p. 26). Therefore, one cannot follow Sudha Pai when she writes that the BSP was converted "from a social/cultural movement to an opportunistic party" in 1995 when it made an alliance with the BJP; the party had started making tactical alliances in 1993 and its move reflected more pragmatism than opportunism. (See S. Pai, "Dalit Assertion in UP," Economic and Political Weekly, September 13, 1997, p. 2314).
43. Interview in Sunday, May 16, 1993, pp. 10-11. With the elections won he admitted the tactical character of the alliance: "Up until now, neither Mulayam Singh nor me can stand alone in U[ttar] P[radesh]. That's why we are together" (Interview in Sunday, February 13, 1994, p. 26). Therefore, one cannot follow Sudha Pai when she writes that the BSP was converted "from a social/cultural movement to an opportunistic party" in 1995 when it made an alliance with the BJP; the party had started making tactical alliances in 1993 and its move reflected more pragmatism than opportunism. (See S. Pai, "Dalit Assertion in UP," Economic and Political Weekly, September 13, 1997, p. 2314).
44. Interview in Sunday, May 16, 1993, pp. 10-11. With the elections won he admitted the tactical character of the alliance: "Up until now, neither Mulayam Singh nor me can stand alone in U[ttar] P[radesh]. That's why we are together" (Interview in Sunday, February 13, 1994, p. 26). Therefore, one cannot follow Sudha Pai when she writes that the BSP was converted "from a social/cultural movement to an opportunistic party" in 1995 when it made an alliance with the BJP; the party had started making tactical alliances in 1993 and its move reflected more pragmatism than opportunism. (See S. Pai, "Dalit Assertion in UP," Economic and Political Weekly, September 13, 1997, p. 2314).
45. In the educational sector 720 teachers out of 900 appointed in the districts of Garhwal and Kumaon had been chosen from among the Yadavs, according to a Congress MP whose informations had been collected district by district. In the police, of the 6,000 officers recruited, according to the BJP and the Congress whose figures appeared in the press, 4,200 were said to have been Yadavs. Similarly, 70 percent of the 3,500 policemen recruited by the Uttar Pradesh police were Yadavs. (India Today, October 15, 1994, p. 35). This way of acting particularly exasperated the Kurmis whose votes were coveted by the BSP (Frontline, January 13, 1995, p. 35).
46. In the educational sector 720 teachers out of 900 appointed in the districts of Garhwal and Kumaon had been chosen from among the Yadavs, according to a Congress MP whose informations had been collected district by district. In the police, of the 6,000 officers recruited, according to the BJP and the Congress whose figures appeared in the press, 4,200 were said to have been Yadavs. Similarly, 70 percent of the 3,500 policemen recruited by the Uttar Pradesh police were Yadavs. (India Today, October 15, 1994, p. 35). This way of acting particularly exasperated the Kurmis whose votes were coveted by the BSP (Frontline, January 13, 1995, p. 35).
47. The OBCs and the Dalits' class interests are clearly antagonistic since the Untouchables are often landless laborers or cultivators with a very small plot working for the OBCs.
48. P. Swami, "Conflicts in UP," Frontline, March 11, 1994, pp.4-12.
49. A. Mishra, "Challenge to SP-BSP Government," Economic and Political Weekly, February 19, 1994, p. 409, and S. Chandra, Dalits versus the OBCs," Sunday, February 27, 1994, pp. 10-13. In March 1994, the Times of India cited an intelligence report according to which 27 out of 54 cases of atrocities perpetrated against Untouchables were carried out by OBCs - half a dozen of them involved Yadavs. (Times of India, March 2, 1994).
50. A. Mishra, "Challenge to SP-BSP Government," Economic and Political Weekly, February 19, 1994, p. 409, and S. Chandra, Dalits versus the OBCs," Sunday, February 27, 1994, pp. 10-13. In March 1994, the Times of India cited an intelligence report according to which 27 out of 54 cases of atrocities perpetrated against Untouchables were carried out by OBCs - half a dozen of them involved Yadavs. (Times of India, March 2, 1994).
51. A. Mishra, "Challenge to SP-BSP Government," Economic and Political Weekly, February 19, 1994, p. 409, and S. Chandra, Dalits versus the OBCs," Sunday, February 27, 1994, pp. 10-13. In March 1994, the Times of India cited an intelligence report according to which 27 out of 54 cases of atrocities perpetrated against Untouchables were carried out by OBCs - half a dozen of them involved Yadavs. (Times of India, March 2, 1994).
52. D. Mukerji, "In the Name of Ambedkar," The Week April 24, 1994, p. 60.
53. On the notion of "rituals of provocation" in the Hindu-Muslim context, see M. Gaborieau, "From Al-Beruni to Jinnah - Indian Ritual and Ideology of the Hindu-Muslim Confrontation in South Asia," The Anthropologist, 1,3 (January 1985).
54. India Today, April 10, 1994, p. 56.
55. "BSP withdrew support in 1995 because Mulayam [Singh Yadav] tried to attract some of our people and because of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes, especially by the Yadavs. That was the main reason. I tried to warn him but he could not or did not want to do anything." (Interview with Kanshi Ram).
56. A. Mishra, "Limits of OBC-Dalit Politics," Economic and Political Weekly, June 10, 1995, p.1356.
57. The Times of India, June 24, 1994.
58. Interview with Kanshi Ram in Frontline, June 28, 1996, p. 35.
59. Ambedkar himself thought pragmatically that the Scheduled Castes should try to reach power in many ways - including collaboration with the British - because they should not have any inhibition in the conduct of their fight against untouchability.
60. Cited in Gurmukh Singh, "Power of Maya," The Times of India, June 11, 1995.
61. The same year her family converted to Buddhism.
62. Cited in G. Singh, "Power of Maya," op.cit.
63. The book had been proscribed there in 1969.
64. S. Pai, "Dalit Assertion in UP," op. cit., p. 2314.
65. BSP, Mukhya lakshay evan apil, New Delhi, 1996.
66. During his first term, M. S. Yadav transferred 419 members of the Indian Administrative Service and 228 members of the Indian Police Service between December 1989 and June 1991. His BJP successor Kalyan Singh transferred 460 IAS and 319 IPS between June 1991 and December 1992. M. S. Yadav during his second term reversed the proportions with respectively 321 IAS and 493 IPS transferred between December 1993 and June 1995. After one month of exercise of power, Mayawati had already transferred 82 IAS and 96 IPS. (India Today, July 31, 1995).
67. Frontline, December 1, 1995, p. 31.
68. K. Chandra and C. Parmar, "Party Strategies in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections," Economic and Political Weekly, February 1, 1997, pp. 215.
69. S. Pai and J. Singh, "Politicization of Dalits and Most Backward Castes," Economic and Political Weekly, June 7, 1997, p. 1358.
70. The results of the general elections had to serve as a base for seat adjustment at the elections in Uttar Pradesh, but the Samajwadi Party - a constituent part of the United Front - had reached the top (or was second) in a large number of constituencies, and if the SP could present more candidates than the BSP it would give the ad-vantage to Mulayam Singh Yadav in the race for Chief Ministership because this post, in application to the agreement, would go to the United Front's party having the largest number of MLAs.
71. K. Chandra and C. Parmar, op. cit., p. 216.
72. Interview in Frontline, April 18, 1997, p. 15.
73. Such as home, general administration, finance, power, information, civil aviation, excise, forest, justice, planning, industrial development, export promotion, vigilance, secretarial administration, appointment, administrative reforms, small-scale industries, estate and Ambedkar villages development.
74. The Times of India, September 18, 1997.
75. The Times of India, March 23, 1997.
76. Interview in India Today, August 11, 1997, p. 33.
77. Cited in The Times of India, August 21, 1997.
78. Interview with Kanshi Ram.
79. National Mail, May 24, 1997. Pal was subsequently rehabilitated.