Identity Politics of Representation and Reservation of Backward Communities in India | Manoj Kumar Mishra

The elevation of Draupadi Murmu, an Adivasi, as President of India succeeded by Ramnath Kovind, a Dalit, as the Constitutional Head of the country signaled adroit strategies by the BJP to represent marginalized sections communities in consonance with its efforts at forging national identities conferring it with electoral success. Much in a similar vein, of late, Mohan Majhi has been anointed as the Chief Minister of Odisha following the BJP’s win in the state in the General Elections, 2024.

The OBCs formed the support base of the BJP as early as 1990s. To defy the notion that the BJP is a party sympathetic to higher caste groups, Uma Bharati, had been chosen the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha being an OBC woman [1]. Leaders like Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh and Vinay Katiyar in UP belonged to backward classes. However, the shift of a significant section of lower caste groups and Dalits to the redefined Hindutva fold occurred since 2010s which assumed more pace with the passage of time as the results of the last few General Elections demonstrated.

The incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi who belongs to a backward class swayed the OBCs who account for more than 40 per cent of India’s population to his narrative of nationalism which incorporated Hindu mythologies and cultural symbols whereas caste-based parties such as SP and BSP of Uttar Pradesh and RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) in Bihar remained engaged in caste-based politics.

In the context of the results of the 2014 and 2019 General Elections in Uttar Pradesh, apart from the BJP’s successful construction of national identity, fieldworks also indicated that the smaller Dalit sub-castes preferred to vote for the BJP as they needed protection against the locally dominant Yadavs, who rose to positions of dominance in the 1990s and 2000s when the SP was in power.

Taking all these dynamics into account at the national level, the BJP leadership over the years accommodated more and more OBCs as candidates to assemblies and the Lok Sabha to win over the largest chunk of Hindu voters who stood divided. Nevertheless, with Modi, an OBC at the helm of government, ‘backward caste’ influence and representation were expected to rise further.

To demonstrate the unrepresentative character of the Congress Party, it was pointed out by the BJP as to how there were no cabinet secretaries or a foreign secretaries from the Dalit community in the successive governments formed and led by the party in the Post-independence era. It was as late as 2010 under the Congress regime that the country witnessed a Dalit as the head of the judicial system with Justice K.G. Balakrishnan as the Chief Justice of India. The BJP alleged that the Congress party while anointed Damodaran Sanjivayya as the first Dalit Chief Minister in the history of the country, he was only expected to keep the office as per the makeshift arrangements.

On the contrary, it was pointed out how the BJP appointed the late Bangaru Laxman, a Dalit, the President of the national political party. Further, it was the BJP-led NDA-I who made a Dalit, late G.M.C. Balayogi the first Dalit speaker of the Lok Sabha. Similarly, it was projected how almost all the reserved constituencies for the 2014 and 2019 general elections were won by the BJP candidates with insurmountable margins [2].

Reservation and Backward Communities

Many scholars credited the economic upliftment of Dalits and the emergence of a Dalit middle class to state policies such as reservation. While the BJP did not oppose reservation for SCs and STs provided by the Indian Constitution, it expressed its opposition to expansion of reservation on the basis of ethnic and ascribed values during the implementation of Mandal Commission’s report by the V.P Singh Government. The BJP’s opposition to increasing role of the Indian state in distribution of socio-economic resources attracted many to the party’s position. Many people who could not take advantage from government’s reservation policies, many who believed in the principle of merit and people who wanted a bigger market to compete were attracted to the party’s standpoint. For instance, many Dalit entrepreneurs argue free market can do more to elevate the socioeconomic situation of Dalits than traditional reservation policies, which allocate a certain number of government jobs and university seats to disadvantaged populations. Apart from the party’s criticisms against the state’s enhanced role in the distribution of socio-economic resources, its symbolic co-option of the non-dominant Dalits and OBCs was successful in breaking the hold of the so-called Mandal Parties over the OBC and Dalits.

Although the party reconciled its position to reservation policies for OBCs later on and it also tried to take credit from the fact that it was not the Congress but the Modi government which turned the Backward Commission into a constitutional body, it kept opposing any kind of reservation on religious grounds labelling it unconstitutional. It opposed the Congress party’s moves to provide for reservations on religious grounds in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It justified its stance by arguing that the socio-economically backward Muslims were getting reservation under the OBC category and the reservations under Scheduled Caste (SC) category was conceived as a means to reform the Hindu society by the founders of the Constitution whereas religious affiliation does not bar Scheduled Tribes (STs) from enjoying the benefits of reservations. Religion is not a criterion for specifying STs. The ST converts to Islam or Christianity will continue to have the status of STs. In this context, the BJP leader L.K. Advani observed: “For a long time, there have been demands for extending reservations to so-called ‘Dalit’ Christians and ‘Dalit’ Muslims. However, successive governments have not paid heed to these demands. Why? This is because the framers of the Indian Constitution were very clear in their minds that caste is a feature of the Hindu society. If some lower caste Hindus converted to Islam or Christianity in the past, it was because of the claim and the promise of these religions that they were casteless and hence offered an equal station to the converts vis-à-vis original Muslims or Christians” [3].

The 93rd constitutional amendment passed by the Congress-led UPA-I government provided for reservation of seats SCs, STs and OBCs in admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions whether aided or unaided by the state other than the minority educational institutions. However, minority educational institutions remained insulated from this. The Congress party-led UPA-II Government supported the measures that declared Central Public Educational Institutions (Central Universities) such as Aligarh Muslim University and Zamia Milia Islamia, minority institutes prohibiting reservations for all the backward castes including Dalits which has been criticised by the BJP leaders on the grounds of violating principles of equality and justice [4].

The Lokniti National Election Studies Survey, 2014 displayed data as to how Modi’s promises to eschew “tokenism” and “special privileges” resonated with Indian citizens who resented the politics of recognition and inflated its social base for they disliked state intrusions into the economic sphere.

However, Modi government’s policy to allow 10 percent reservation to economically backward upper-caste people brought forth the caste dynamic to undercut the BJP’s narrative of nationalism [5].

On the other side, the successive BJP-led NDA governments’ failure to conduct a caste census has sent a message that the party is not willing to accommodate the aspirations of backward communities considering their increasing population. Some states in India including the new BJP government in Odisha are mulling over increasing the percentage of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in their educational institutions considering the high population of these communities in the absence of a caste and socio-economic census since 2011. It seems pertinent as well as high time that the Central Government conducts a caste census and extend the reservations to all communities and all the institutions as well. Nityananda Gond, ST and SC Development Minister, informed the Assembly that 8% of seats for SCs and 12% for STs are currently reserved for admission in State Government Technical Colleges whereas the proposal for enhancement of reservation for SC and ST students for admission in State Government Technical Colleges is under consideration keeping in view of their enhanced population.

The BJP government’s inability to be the single majority party following the 2024 General Elections has perhaps signaled that the party has been unable to grasp the changing aspirations of the backward communities.

(Author: Dr. Manoj Kumar Mishra, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, SVM Autonomous College, Jagatsinghpur, Odisha)