Indian Politics & Policy Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 87

The Backwards Turn Right in the Hindi Belt: Trajectories and Implications
facing a deep existential crisis. A major
reason for this situation is the drift in
their core base of support, that is, the
OBCs. However, the drift of OBCs away
from social justice parties is incremental
rather than accidental as, for a variety
of reasons, it came off layer by layer
and in a gradual fashion. The 2014 LS
election was just the tipping point.
Interestingly, the drift of OBCs
appears unidirectional, as the BJP is
the lone gainer. As the BJP has now
emerged as the preferred political
choice of the backward castes, at least
in the Hindi belt despite being branded
as the party of the upper castes and
known for its ideological unease with
caste-based affirmative action, it has,
in a sense, heralded an era of postcaste
politics. But the BJP’s gain is not
by default. It is reaping the dividends of
putting in place and a long pursuit of a
well-crafted multipronged strategy.
The shift of a large chunk of
OBCs towards the BJP has contributed
to its phenomenal rise. It has come
to acquire hegemonic status, implying
several consequences for the nation’s
democratic politics and governance. Of
many consequences, it spells doom for
so-called social justice parties that fill
in the “third space” in the nation’s polity.
While this is not to say that the arrival
of the so-called post-caste politics
has rendered these parties completely
irrelevant, they are nevertheless faced
with formidable challenges to stage a
comeback.
Notes
1 I am extremely thankful to the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and inputs
that immensely helped improve the paper.
2 NES 1996, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019. CSDS, Delhi.
3 A vote bank may be defined as a section of electorate that consistently votes for a particular
political formation or a candidate.
4 Yogendra Yadav, “Reconfiguration in Indian Politics: State Assembly Elections, 1993–1995,”
Economic and Political Weekly 31 (1996): 95–104; Yogendra Yadav, “Electoral Politics in the
Time of Change: India’s Third Electoral System, 1989–99,” Economic and Political Weekly 34
(1999): 2393–99.
5 Marc Galanter, “Who Are the Other Backward Classes? An Introduction to a Constitutional
Puzzle,” Economic and Political Weekly 13 (1978): 1812–28; P. Radhakrishnan, “Backward
Classes in Tamil Nadu: 1872–1988,” Economic and Political Weekly 25 (1990): 509–20.
6 Marc Galanter, Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India (Bombay: Oxford
University Press, 1984).
7 Also see Galanter, “Who Are the Other Backward Classes?” for the debates, as well as apparent
confusion regarding this matter in the CA.
8 For instance, the state government of Bihar in 1947 made provisions for OBCs in post-matriculation
studies. Similarly, in UP educational concessions for them began in 1948; Galanter,
“Who Are the Other Backward Classes?” and Galanter, Competing Equalities.
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