05-13-2007, 01:52 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Lady who changed rules of the game </b>
Pioneer.com
Usual suspects: Swapan Dasgupta
The by-now irrelevant section of India which had been brought up to believe that casteism, if not caste itself, was a loathsome legacy, may have squirmed at the spectacle of Mayawati celebrating her famous victory in Uttar Pradesh with a grand show of atavism. It is not that caste mobilisation is unique to the BSP. Every political party of consequence has used caste and community solidarity to bolster its electoral prospects. Yet, this form of mobilisation was always tactfully covered and concealed in a veneer of ideology - either secularism or social justice.
But Mayawati has changed the rules of the game. Her modest proclamation of victory last Friday was marked by the flaunting of caste identities. She made it clear <b>she was first and foremost a Dalit leader who had succeeded in securing the support of Brahmins, backward castes and Muslims</b>. To drive home the point, she even had token representatives of all these communities seated besides her.Â
Those who consider symbolism as welcome evidence of a world turned upside down - the Brahmin and, for that matter, the OBC acknowledging Dalit hegemony -are missing a larger point. Mayawati has demonstrated that you don't need either a development vision or even a simple election manifesto but explicit caste mobilisation to win a majority in India's largest and most fractious State. More important, what Mayawati has tried to craft is not merely an election-oriented social combination but something akin to the paramountcy that, a century ago, saw the Indian Maharajas genuflecting before the British King-Emperor.
Mayawati is not paving the way for the breakdown of social and economic inequalities; she is trying to reinvent a caste hierarchy along political rather than ritual lines.
The question arises: Is this the beginning of a political revolution which will endure or just a one-off event? That the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime suffered from a massive bout of anti-incumbency is not in any serious doubt. <b>Since 2002, UP has witnessed a wave of lawlessness, rampant crony capitalism, muscle-flexing by radical Muslim outfits and astonishing shows of ministerial arrogance and insensitivity.</b> The revulsion against the Samajwadi Party was strong enough to have unseated Mulayam, even if it didn't lead to the unambiguous victory of the BSP.
Why, therefore, did a substantial chunk of the anti-Mulayam tilt in favour of Mayawati? After all, there was also the Congress which had been the natural home of the upper castes till 1989. And if supporting the Congress meant a wasted vote, there was the seemingly resurgent BJP.
There were, it would seem, two components of the vote for the BSP. First, there was Mayawati's rock solid and transferable Dalit vote which gave her an exceptional bargaining clout. Second, there was the tactical vote for the BSP as the most credible anti-Mulayam force.<b> In the past, this vote would probably have gone to the BJP but it was common knowledge that both the State party and important national leaders had been horribly compromised by the SP. The BJP in UP was literally the B-team of the SP in the same way as the Congress in West Bengal is the C-team of the CPI(M).</b>
<b>The BJP's on-again-off-again Hindu nationalism lacked conviction because it was essentially a diversion and bereft of moral integrity. Nothing short of a radical cleansing process can bring the BJP back to its old glory</b>.
As of now, the non-Dalit component of the BSP vote is its soft underbelly. Whether it endures and is replenished by opportunistic defections from the SP - <b>a Muslim exodus to the BSP is expected </b>- will depend on Mayawati's ability to modify her monarchical politics.
As of now, sections of the upper castes and OBCs have merely voted tactically for the BSP; they haven't yet digested the implications of a subordinate role in the so-called Bahujan Samaj.
Mayawati faces a daunting challenge. To maintain her staggering growth rate in politics she has undergo a variant of sanskritisation. From assuming Dalits are the vanguard, she has to settle for equal partnership in an enlightened Hindu dispensation.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pioneer.com
Usual suspects: Swapan Dasgupta
The by-now irrelevant section of India which had been brought up to believe that casteism, if not caste itself, was a loathsome legacy, may have squirmed at the spectacle of Mayawati celebrating her famous victory in Uttar Pradesh with a grand show of atavism. It is not that caste mobilisation is unique to the BSP. Every political party of consequence has used caste and community solidarity to bolster its electoral prospects. Yet, this form of mobilisation was always tactfully covered and concealed in a veneer of ideology - either secularism or social justice.
But Mayawati has changed the rules of the game. Her modest proclamation of victory last Friday was marked by the flaunting of caste identities. She made it clear <b>she was first and foremost a Dalit leader who had succeeded in securing the support of Brahmins, backward castes and Muslims</b>. To drive home the point, she even had token representatives of all these communities seated besides her.Â
Those who consider symbolism as welcome evidence of a world turned upside down - the Brahmin and, for that matter, the OBC acknowledging Dalit hegemony -are missing a larger point. Mayawati has demonstrated that you don't need either a development vision or even a simple election manifesto but explicit caste mobilisation to win a majority in India's largest and most fractious State. More important, what Mayawati has tried to craft is not merely an election-oriented social combination but something akin to the paramountcy that, a century ago, saw the Indian Maharajas genuflecting before the British King-Emperor.
Mayawati is not paving the way for the breakdown of social and economic inequalities; she is trying to reinvent a caste hierarchy along political rather than ritual lines.
The question arises: Is this the beginning of a political revolution which will endure or just a one-off event? That the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime suffered from a massive bout of anti-incumbency is not in any serious doubt. <b>Since 2002, UP has witnessed a wave of lawlessness, rampant crony capitalism, muscle-flexing by radical Muslim outfits and astonishing shows of ministerial arrogance and insensitivity.</b> The revulsion against the Samajwadi Party was strong enough to have unseated Mulayam, even if it didn't lead to the unambiguous victory of the BSP.
Why, therefore, did a substantial chunk of the anti-Mulayam tilt in favour of Mayawati? After all, there was also the Congress which had been the natural home of the upper castes till 1989. And if supporting the Congress meant a wasted vote, there was the seemingly resurgent BJP.
There were, it would seem, two components of the vote for the BSP. First, there was Mayawati's rock solid and transferable Dalit vote which gave her an exceptional bargaining clout. Second, there was the tactical vote for the BSP as the most credible anti-Mulayam force.<b> In the past, this vote would probably have gone to the BJP but it was common knowledge that both the State party and important national leaders had been horribly compromised by the SP. The BJP in UP was literally the B-team of the SP in the same way as the Congress in West Bengal is the C-team of the CPI(M).</b>
<b>The BJP's on-again-off-again Hindu nationalism lacked conviction because it was essentially a diversion and bereft of moral integrity. Nothing short of a radical cleansing process can bring the BJP back to its old glory</b>.
As of now, the non-Dalit component of the BSP vote is its soft underbelly. Whether it endures and is replenished by opportunistic defections from the SP - <b>a Muslim exodus to the BSP is expected </b>- will depend on Mayawati's ability to modify her monarchical politics.
As of now, sections of the upper castes and OBCs have merely voted tactically for the BSP; they haven't yet digested the implications of a subordinate role in the so-called Bahujan Samaj.
Mayawati faces a daunting challenge. To maintain her staggering growth rate in politics she has undergo a variant of sanskritisation. From assuming Dalits are the vanguard, she has to settle for equal partnership in an enlightened Hindu dispensation.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->