Those who regarded India as yet another multiparty democracy have been rudely shaken by the results of the latest elections. It turns out that all the three major formations: respectively represent their own specific caste class identities. Thus the Bhartiya Janata Party which has emerged as the largest single party in the Lok Sabha comprises essentially the upper castes’ representative. These upper castes are headed by Brahmans. The party’s area of influence is limited to the Hindi speaking states of V.P., Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and the Marathi speaking Maharashtra and the Gurjarat is peaking Gurjarat. The party is almost completely absent in the entire south, the eastern states, Punjab and the coastal areas, The Congress (1) which has emerged as the second largest party, too, represents basically India’s upper castes and other elite and privileged castes and classes. Being an old organization with a history of more than a century behind its existence, the party’s influence is rather thinly spread all over the country and is not limited to the Hindi areas. The “third front” consists of minorities, backward and low castes, tribals and the miscellaneous groups. No wonder V. Singh, that astute Indian politician, has called India a coalition. What is left unsaid is that India is not a nation in the traditional western sense. It is a combination of different caste class dominated regions. Any vague talk of Indian nation having voted this or that party out of power or in power is wide off the mark.

Y.P. Singh is again right when he shrewishly observes that the Indian political situation at the apex level has come close to the ground level reality. Thus at the apex level, what has emerged is an unstable, feuding coalition which just adequately represents the existence of a variety of castes fighting among themselves for not only a proper share in the cake bur also a life of dignity and freedom denied to them by upper, privileged castes and the state dominated by them.

Article extracted from this publication >>  May 15, 1996