IV. State Politics: Uttar Pradesh, 1984-2000s 1. Background and Socio-Political Milieu: pre-1980s Uttar Pradesh (UP) may be the only state where the notable Dalit-based political party has been flourished until the present time. The political contour in the post-independence UP until the 1980s, when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) started struggling to gain support from the lower-caste groups, was quite different from that of nowadays, however. Christophe Jaffrelot noted that northern India including UP lagged behind to include the newly emerging groups, i.e. the lower castes in the political system by not giving them appropriate representation in spite of their numerical strength. 1 He sought to find out the historical source of this distinction in its demographic feature and socio-economic situation. He suggested the two points reviewed below with contrasting to the region of Maharashtra. First of all, structure of the caste system and its demographic composition shows a big difference in the two states. As we already saw in the previous chapter on Maharashtra, 'three-fold' caste system with the absence of Kshatriya and Vaisha castes is prevalent in the South India and Deccan. In the northern states like UP, the caste system is traditionally the closest to the varna model with its four-fold orders and the Untouchables. The population of upper varna is more numerous in the North: according to the 1931 Census, the last Census which included the caste infotmation, upper varna represented 22.1 per cent of total population in United Provinces 1 Christophe Jaffrelot, India's Silent Revolution- The Rise of the Low Castes in North Indian Politics, New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003, p. 6. 126
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IV. State Politics: Uttar Pradesh, 1984-2000s
1. Background and Socio-Political Milieu: pre-1980s
Uttar Pradesh (UP) may be the only state where the notable Dalit-based
political party has been flourished until the present time. The political contour in the
post-independence UP until the 1980s, when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) started
struggling to gain support from the lower-caste groups, was quite different from that of
nowadays, however. Christophe Jaffrelot noted that northern India including UP
lagged behind to include the newly emerging groups, i.e. the lower castes in the political
system by not giving them appropriate representation in spite of their numerical
strength. 1 He sought to find out the historical source of this distinction in its
demographic feature and socio-economic situation. He suggested the two points
reviewed below with contrasting to the region of Maharashtra.
First of all, structure of the caste system and its demographic composition
shows a big difference in the two states. As we already saw in the previous chapter on
Maharashtra, 'three-fold' caste system with the absence of Kshatriya and Vaisha castes
is prevalent in the South India and Deccan. In the northern states like UP, the caste
system is traditionally the closest to the varna model with its four-fold orders and the
Untouchables. The population of upper varna is more numerous in the North:
according to the 1931 Census, the last Census which included the caste infotmation,
upper varna represented 22.1 per cent of total population in United Provinces
1 Christophe Jaffrelot, India's Silent Revolution-The Rise of the Low Castes in North Indian Politics, New Delhi:
Permanent Black, 2003, p. 6.
126
particularly. 2 Different land settlement system the British had introduced to the
different regions also made a distinctive development in societies. In northern India
where zamindari system prevailed, hierarchy of peasant society was solidified, while
south India where the ryotwati system was more systematically implemented, was more
conducive to the formation of social equality.
Land settlement system and caste structure together affected the north Indian
society to enlarge the dominant role of agrarian elites in the local power structure.3
Demographic and ruling dominance of upper castes in the hierarchical society, unlike
south India and Deccan, encouraged the conserv-ative ideologies and restricted the
opportunities for lower-caste movement. Pattern of colonial politics also contributed
to form the upper class, most of which constituted by upper castes, and let them
dominate the society. A study revealed that the most important men of the Congress
during the late colonial period, especially during the Civil Disobedience Movement,
were drawn from the ranks of small zamindars, pattidars and upper tenants and from
variety of upper castes and sub-castes. 4 With the middle and upper middle class
dominating the political milieu, bulk of landless group, mostly lower and avarna castes
could not establish their own base in the political field or in the social movement.
Though differehces in caste composition and land settlement system are the
probable hints to explain the socio-political backwardness of lower castes in UP, the
upward mobility and movement of lower castes were not totally absent from UP.
2 Extracted from the subsidiary table 1. Census of lndie1931. United Provinces of Agra and Awadh, vol. 18 part 1,
Report, Allahabad: The Superintendent, Printing and Stationery, United Provinces, 1933, pp. 619-20.
3 Jaffrelot, op. cit., pp. 7-8. 4 Zoya Hasan, 'Power and. Mobilization: Patterns of Resilience ~nd Change in Uttar Pradesh Politics', in Francine R.
Frankel and M.S. A. Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in Modem India: Decline of a Social Order vol. 1,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989, p.148.
127
Rather, it has developed various traditions of lower-caste movement from the colonial
period onwards, from sanskritization to socio-religious movement and political
mobilization. The late colonial period saw the boom of caste sabhas including those of
lower castes. But these caste sabhas failed to take the substantial issues like economic
inequality or material uplift: Instead, they stuck more to the socio-religious status of
their castes. Social movements targeting lower castes also existed in UP as we see the
cases of Arya Samaj, Adi Hindu movement, both of which were of religious
characteristics but with different implications, and the activities of Anti-Untouchability
League, later Harijan Sevak Sangh. While the Arya Samaj pursued social reforms
from the religious point of view within the existing social structure, Adi Hindu
movement, which developed in later period, claimed their 'pracheen nivasi' status of
India with adi Hinduism as their separate religion,5 aiming at 're-inheriting the ancient
rights which they had been deprived of. ' 6 The activities of Harijan Sevak Sangh, were
considerably active in the northern states like UP drawing a number of followers
' especially among the sweeper castes and co-opting them in the strong trend of GID,Idhl_~ .}
way of Harijan uplift movement, but still limited yet to achieve the structurat'social .. ··..::· -.
transformation or to change the social environment of untouchables. 7 Though the
leaders of Adi Hindu movement were not aloof from the political activities in the
institutional politics especially during the visit of the Indian Statutory Commission and
during the Round Table Conferences, it was Chamar caste who was most seriously
5 Nandini Gooptu, Th~ Politics of the Urbarr Poor in Early Twentieth-Century India, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press,2001,p. 176.
s Ibid., p. 163.
7 M.S. Gore, The Social Context of an Ideology: Ambedkar's Political and Social Thought, New Delhi: Sage, 1993,
pp. 139-40.
128
involved in the political activism for the independent political identity. The Chamar
movement included various facets of contemporary social movements from
sanskritization to political mobilization and religious conversion. 8
Politics in UP during the 1950s and 1960s was roughly assumed as a form of
coalition of district faction leaders.9 Factionalism formed an essential element in the
first phase of institution building in many states including UP. Politically advanced
groups who played an important role in the INC from the colonial period continued to
hold the essential position in the post-independence political scene.10 At the same time;
the INC traditionally has paid much attention to the SC, as a result of which it was
granted their electoral support. Strong tradition of Gandhian campaign of anti-
untouchability and the affirmative action to allow the SC to access to education and
bureaucracy facilitated the INC to successfully project itself as the natural
representative of the SC. The SC did not develop their own political organizations or
the base of social movement. Lower-caste movement in UP has seen a series of small,
widely separate and weak movement unlike in the southern states and the Bombay
Presidency. It did not develop a radical feature of anti-caste ideology, eit!J.er.
The early Ambedkar movement in UP grew in the context of political,
development of colonial period and the Ambedkar's emancipation ideology for the
Depressed Classes (DC) was infused among the most numerous untouchable caste,
Chamar or Jatav. This brief inflow of the Ambedkar movement in the 1940s and 1950s
a For Chamar movement, see Owen M .. Lynch, The Politics of Untouchability: Social Mobility and Social Change in a
City of India, New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1969.
9 About the factional politics in UP, see Paul R. Brass, Factional Politics in an Indian State, The Congress Party in
Uttar Pradesh, Berkeley: University of Ca~fomia Press, 1965.
to Jaffrelot argues that the local notables played a central role in the Congress in the 1950s and 60s throughout the
north India. Op. cit., pJ).48-88.
129
resulted in the establishments of branches of the Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) in
different places of the United Provinces, such as Agra and Allahabad. When the SCF
suffered decisive defeat winning only two seats in Bengal and in the Central Provinces
and Berar in the 1942 elections, the returns from the United Provinces suggests that the
SCF had succeeded in building up an urban organization in some towns. It had been
able to attract a modest degree of support, though not in the position to appeal to the SC
in rural area. 11 Despite the SCF was completely defeated in the provincial elections of
1946, it continued to grow and improve its organization, particularly outside the ·
Bombay Province where it had little importance previously. The branches of the SCF
established in UP area, later converted to the Republican Party of India (RPI) in 1957 in
accordance with their headquarter. The movement influenced the cultural life also, so
that a considerable number of the SC members, largely Jatavs, converted to Buddhism
after the death of Ambedkar in 1956.
It is interesting to point out that UP was the state where the RPI won most of its
seats, though Maharashtra remained its stronghold. Chhedi Lal Sathi 12 cardinally
constructed the organization of the SCF and later the RPI in UP. He started working
11 In urban places like Agra, Allahabad, and Kanpur, a number of the SCF candidates won in the primary elections
and some of them polled considerable votes in the general elections, while in rural constituencies only two
candidates were returned from the primary elections and did badly in the general elections. Jan Duncan, Levels,
the Communication of Programmes, and Sectional Strategies in Indian Politics, with Reference to the Bharatiya
Kranti Dal and the Republican Party of India in Uttar Pradesh State and A/igarh District (UP), Ph. D. thesis,
University of Sussex, 1979, pp. 218-9; P. D. Reeves, B. D. Graham and J. M. Goodman, A Handbook to Elections
in UttarPradesh 1920-51, Delhi, 1975, pp. 315andpassim.
12 According to Duncan, Sathi was from a poor Kewat (fishing caste) family but educated and taken care of by the
Congress leaders. He once worked as a typist in the UP Congress office and was a secretary of Lal Bahadur
Shastri, and then secretary to G. V. Pant when he was a Chief Minister. Later he was attracted by Ambedkar into
the SCF in 1952. Duncan, op. cit., pp. 107-8.
130
with the SCF in 1952 and became the first president of the RPI in UP. The brighter
results of the elections for the RPI candidates in UP came in the 1960s, when their
Maharashtrian colleagues seemed to fade away due to their poor performance in the
elections. The RPI won three Lok Sabha seats and eight State Assembly seats from UP
in the 1962 election,13 in which the factional strife within the INC enabled the RPI to
make valuable alliances with rebel Congressmen in some constituencies like Aligarh.
However the most important factor in this election Was the ability of the RPI to draw
together the supp~rt of the rural Jatavs and the urban Muslims. 14 Although the
supporters of the SCF and the RPI had built up substantial followings among Jatavs,
earlier under the political leadership ofB. R. Ambedkar, and in the late 1950s and 1960s
with a programme of radical economic demands, they had not had a numerical strength
to successfully challenge the INC without forming alliances with other groups. In
1962 the RPI was able to form a pact with the Muslims of the district who had generally
supported the INC in the previous elections. This alliance resulted in the victory of
eight RPI candidates in the Assembly elections, out of which three were Muslims,15 and
the party also won three Lok Sabha seats in UP, while the party suffered failure of
election with no winning candidate in other states. B. P. Maurya, 16 an MP from
13 Election Commission of India, Statistical Report on General Elections, 1962 vol.l, New Delhi, 196?, p. 63; Election
Commission of India, Statistical Report on General Election, 1962 to The Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh,
New Delhi, 1962, p. 15.
14 Detailed analysis on the 1962 Lok Sabha election in Aligarh constituency appeared in Paul R. Brass, caste,
Faction and Party in Indian Politics vol. 2 Election Studies, Delhi: Chanakya Publications, 1985, pp. 207-79.
1s Election Commission of India, op. cit.
16 He was from an agricultural labourer family and professor of law, by profession. He had learnt to read and write
with a Catholic priest and joined the Congress in 1941, inspired by Gandhi who visited his hometown. Later he
was associated with the Jatav movement, and joined the SCF in 1948 after meeting Ambedkar. Becoming the
most popular RPIIeader in UP, he contested the Aligarh Lok Sabha seat unsuccessfully in 1957, but won the same
131
Aligarh Lok Sabha constituency, showed the example of successful alliance between
Jatavs and the Muslims who were disgruntled by the INC, as his 1962 election slogan
says: 'Jatav Muslim bhai bhai; Hindu kaun kahan se aye?' 17 Though his electoral
success was on account of demographic concentration of Jatavs in his constituency, he
was able to broaden his base beyond his caste through the alliance with the Muslim
community.
Though the RPI started to instigate its socio-economic issue by launching the
land satyagraha in Maharashtra and recalled economic issues in its Charter of
Demands, 18 this political tradition declined from the mid-1960s onwards and UP branch"·
of the RPI became fragmented as its Maharashtrian headquarter was being disunified.
Moreover, the INC ably and actively co-opted local Dalit leaders, which accelerated
decline of the RPI. One of the notable examples is the case of B. P. Maurya, who
initially was a popular RPI leader and finally joined the INC in the early 1970s after
being defeated as a RPI candidate in 1967. He was made a Minister of State for
Agriculture and Industry later under the Congtess government. Chhedi Lal Sathi, who
laid the foundation stone of the RPI in the northern Indian region, particularly UP,
followed the same route. He joined the INC in 1970 and was made a General
Secretary ofUP Congress in 1973.19
For a long while since the collapse of the RPI, UP did not see a strong trend of
Dalit-centred party whose leadership is held by Dalits themselves. Most of the Dalit
seat in 1962. For the information on B. P; Maurya, see Jaffrelot, op.cit., pp. 108-9.
11 Lynch, op.cit., p. 102.
1s P. G. Jogdand, Dalit Movement in Maharashtra, New Delhi: Kanak Publications, p. 65; see previous chapter of this
thesis also.
19 Jaffrelot gives stories of their joining the Congress from his own interviews with Maurya and>Sathi. Jaffrelot, op.
cit., pp. 112-3.
132
leaders were co-opted to the INC and the local Dalit networks formally or informally
organized were fizzled out or merged into the local Congress organizations. Sociali~ts,
such as the Socialist Party led by Ram Manohar Lohia, acted as defenders of the lower
castes to fill the vacuum of the Dalit leadership with a certain degree of success. Soon
Charan Singh attracted the lower castes focusing on kisan identity amalgamating both
caste and class category.20 The merger of above two groups partly led to the formation
of· the Janata Party, whose government decided the implementation of Mandai
Commission's recommendation for the OBC quota, later in 1990. For Dalit groups,
the INC was still their cardinal agency for representation throughout the mid- and later
1970s and the 1980s. There was a short revival of the Bharatiya Republican Party in
the 1989 general elections, failing to win even a single seat. Even a small number of
votes the party gained21 were mainly non-Dalit Congress votes brought about from the
alliance with the INC and with the Samajwadi Party. The possibility of revival ofDalit
political party with its own force seemed to fade out in UP, similar to the experience in
Maharashtra.
With the fall of the RPI, a political brainchild of Ambedkar failed to be
developed into a powerful Dalit-based party of the present day. Instead, the seed of
new movement of Dalit in north India was planted originally in Maharashtra under the
strong influence of Ambedkar movement, and its political outcome started to bear fruit
in UP later period under the banner of the BSP.
20 About the lower-caste politics against ~e Congress which was embracing the SC and upper castes in UP, see
ibid., pp. 254-304.
21 The Bharatiya Republican Party got 0.19 per cent of total votes and 7.99 per cent from 11 constituencies they
contested. Election Commission of India, Statistical Report on General Elections, 1989 to the Ninth Lok Sabha
vol. 1, New Delhi, 1990, p. 96.
133
2. Emergence ofKanshi Ram's Movement and its Ideology
As we observed above, many circumstances made UP lack of Dalit
consciousness and sustained Dalit movement. Though there was the meager SCF-RPI
tradition, it showed its limitations being unable to grow up as a fi.Ill-fledged Dalit party.
It was only after the 1980s when Kanshi Ram's new movement has increasingly
broadened its base to the northern India especiaily to UP and Punjab, where the RPI had
had a certain organizational base in the earlier decades. Though there have been the
RPI's renewed efforts to establish a unified Dalit political power under the name of
Bharatiya Republican Party in the late 1980s, it proved to be a failure. Coincidently, it
was in Maharashtra, homeland of the RPI, where Kanshi Ram started his first
organization as the form oflabourers' union in 1978.
Personality of Kanshi Ram and his devotion to the movement seem to have
been main reasons for its initial success to gain a footing in the northern states. Born
as a Raidasi Sikh, a community of Punjabi Chamar converted to Sikhism, Kanshi Ram
did not suffer from extreme poverty or caste discrimination in his early age.22 Family
background of Kanshi Ram follows the most common examples of the nineteenth and
twentieth century social reformers. With small landed background, he was educated
and got the B. Sc. degree thanks to his parents eager to educate their children. Then,
he secured a reserved position in the government office... When he was transferred to
the Department of Defence Production and started to work in a munitions factory in
Pune in 1958, the conditions of Maharashtrian Dalit workers shocked him because he
22 Following accounts on the life and early activities of Kanshi Ram are based on Mendelsohn and Vicziany, op. cit.,
pp. 219-22; Abh~y Kumar Dubay, Kanshi Ram, New Delhi: Rajkamal Prakashan, 1997; Kusum MedhwaJ,
Bharatiya Rajniti ke Alodankarta Kanshi Ram, Udaipur: Mulnivasi Prakashan, 2002, pp. 11-33.
134
had not encountered untouchability and discrimination until then. He was not involved
in the Dalit movement initially but his outlook underwent a sudden change in 1965
when he became caught up in a struggle initiated by other SC employees to prevent the
abolition of a holiday commemorating Ambedkar's birth anniversary. During this
conflict Kanshi Ram encountered profound prejudice and hostility of the upper-castes
members against Dalits, which was a revelation to him. Then he instantly absorbed
the radical ideas on caste, readingAmbedkar'sAnnihilation ofCaste.
Kanshi Ram was introduced to the political ideas of Ambedkar by D. K.
. . Khaparde, his Mahar Buddhist colleague and friend at the munitions factory. Kanshi
Ram and Khaparde together began formulating ideas of an organization for the educated
employees from the Scheduled and Backward castes. Such an organization would
work against harassment and oppression by upper-caste officers, and also enable the
often inward-looking occupants of reserved positions to give reward to their own
communities. They began to contact people of the same mind in Pune. Around this
time Kanshi Ram abandoned marriage and family life, largely because he felt it did not
fit into a life dedicated to the public concerns. He finally left his job in the munitions
factory in 1971 because he had already made up his mind to concentrate only on social
activities, and the organization was by then strong enough to meet his basic needs.
In 1971 Kanshi Ram and his colleagues established the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities Employees Welfare
Association, registered under the Pune Charity Commissioner. Despite the
Association's inclusive reach, its aggressively Ambedkarite stance ensured that the most
of its members were Mahar Buddhists. Within a year of its establishment, more than
one thousand members j-oined the·· association and it was able to open an office in Pune.
135
The organization attracted many of the members from the Defence Department and the
Post and Telegraph Department, and had its first annual conference addressed by the
then Defence Minister, Jagjivan Ram.
Kanshi Ram's next organizational step was to create the basis of a national
association of the SC government servants. As early as in 1973 he and his colleagues
established the All India Backward and Minority Employees Federation (BAMCEF),
and a functioning office was established in Delhi in 1976. Although the stated objects
of the new organization were essentially the same as those of the earlier body, the
rhetoric had grown bolder. It urged that deeply agitated government employees from
the SC, out of their inherent timidity, cowardice, selfishness and lack of desire, should
be rays of hope for their brethren in miserable situation?3 BAMCEF was relaunched
with greater fanfare on December 6, 1978, the death anniversary of Ambedkar, with two
thousand delegates joining a procession to the Boat Club Lawns in New Delhi.24
By the mid-1970s Kanshi Ram had established a broad network of contacts
throughout Maharashtra and the adjacent regions. During his frequent train trips from
Pune to Delhi, he adopted a habit of getting down at major stations along the way-
Nagpur, Jabal pur and Bhopal, among others-to contact sympathizers of his movement
and to try recruiting them to the organization?5 After shifting to Delhi in 1978, he
toured exhaustively Punjab, Haryana and UP, as well as further into Madhya Pradesh for
the purpose of organizing sympathizers. Parallel to his work among the educated
employees, Kanshi Ram was also contacting a wider audience with simple presentations
of Ambedkar's teachings. Thus in 1980 he organized a road show called 'Ambedkar
23 BAMCEF Bulletin, February 1974, p. 2.
24 The· Oppressed Indian vol. 1 no. 2, Apr!! 1979, pp. 18-22.
25 Mendelsohn and Vizciany, op. cit., p. 221.
136
Mela on Wheels', which he kept up for more than 2 months with a team of activists. It
was an oral and pictorial account of Ambedkar's life and views, together with
contemporary materials on oppression, atrocities and poverty. Between April and June
1980 the show was carted to thirty-four destinations in nine States of the north.26 It not
only unified the local leaders of BAMCEF but also appealed to the intellectuals outside
the organization, who sympathized with Ambedkar's ideology.
Though the SC constituted most part of the membership of BAMCEF,27 its
monthly organ, The Oppressed Indian, showed constant efforts to embrace other parts of
the downtrodden and minorities, such as the tribal, Muslims, backward castes etc.
Volumes of its organ covered issues related to the tribal people, along with the religious
minorities?8 The issue of reservation for the OBC w~ also dealt in depth in the
volumes published around 1981, which would draw attention of the OBC members.29
The personnel of other minority groups also participated in the activities of BAMCEF.
Among its contributors and speakers of various meetings including 'Ambedkar Mel a,'
Muslim and Christian name& were shown along with some of the known names from
OBC, such as Dauji Gupta, former Mayor of Lucknow and Jang Bahadur Patel, who
later became a President of UP branch of the BSP. BAMCEF also endeavoured to
broaden its regional basis throughout the country. Its organ continuously conveyed the
news on the organizational efforts including the openings and activities of its branches,
26 The Oppressed lnqian vol. 2 no. 4, June 1980, pp. 1f~20; vol. 2 no. 5, July 1980, pp. 7-17.
27 Mendelsohp and Vizciany estimate the proportion of membership as ninety per cent of Untouchables and ten per
cent of the tribal and, backward caste people. Mendelsohn and VtZciany, op. cit., p. 222.
28 For example, one issue of the magazine covers the function for celebration of Prophet Mohammed's birthday at
Nagpur. The Oppressed Indian vol. 2 no. 1, 1980, p. 6.
29 The Oppressed Indian vol. 3 no. 1, 1981, for example, had several special r-eports on reservation issue and more
articles on OBC reservation and debates.
137
especially the local offices scattered over many states like West Bengal, Karnataka etc.
But its organizational base still remained in Maharashtra in the initial period and rapidly
spread to the northern regions like UP, Delhi and Punjab. In the early volumes of The
Oppressed Indian, we can notice a strong influence of the Maharashtrian Dalit
movement, especially of Buddhism, probably related to its origin and human resources
of the organization.
From its beginning, BAMCEF had overtly propagated Ambedkar's ideology.
BAMCEF's motto, 'Educate, Organise and Agitate', was adopted from Ambedkar, and
its activities were formally divided into a number of welfare and proselytizing objects.
Its organ spared some space for the writings of Ambedkar in most of the issues.
BAMCEF propagated not only Ambedkar's ideology but also introduced other non
Brahmin social reformers such as Jotirao Phule, 30 Periyar, 31 Shahu Maharaja/2 and the
religious leaders with reform mind such as Guru Ghasidas. 33
BAMCEF has a special significance as a backbone of the movement since it
has long been able to support the movement as its fmancial source. The major
contribution of BMCEF to the movement was supplying funds and a dedicated cadre of
workers regularly to the BSP. As a trade union of the government servants, its
members belonged to the middle class and BAMCEF collected regular membership fee
and even extra fund for the BSP after its formation. 34 One of the Maharashtrian
30 The Oppressed Indian vol. t nos. 6-7, 1979, pp. 9-16; vol. 3 no. 6, 1981, pp. 14-25.
31 The Oppressed Indian vol. 2 no. 7, 1980; pff. 6-10.
32 His portraits along with other leaders were presented and garlanded at the functions appeared a video clip made
for 'Bahujan Film.' This clip was given by a BAMCEF member in Mumbai.
33 The Oppressed Indian Vol. 2 no. 12, 198.1, pp. 16-7; vol. 3 no. 10, 1981, pp. 20"-1. Guru Ghasidas is a leader of
the Sathnamis from Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh.
34 Sudha Pai, Dalit Assertion and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution-The Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttat Pradesh,
138
workers recalled an occasion of delivering Kanshi Ram a purse of forty thousand rupees
collected from Maharashtra in 1984.35 Kanshi Ram himself also affirmed at a press
conference that the half of the 8C officials in UP were the sympathizers of the B8P and
they supported financially through BAMCEF. 36 A constant need for fund to run the
political body caused dissent within BAMCEF and fmally became one of the important
reasons of its split.
Kanshi Ram's first attempt to shift the movement from social level to more
political one was to form a body capable of mobilizing the larger part of Dalits. The
Dalit Soshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (D-84) was formed as 'an organisation for
agitation' in December 1981.37 It was conceived as a political organization parallel to
BAMCEF, which was a trade-union type of social organization. But finally it was
formulated as a quasi-political party, partly because the government servants were
forbidden to participate in the electoral politics. Two organizations had the same
President, Kanshi Ram, shared the office, and many of the members. As D-84 was
claimed to be for agitation, its activities were separate from those of BAMCEF, an
organization of educated employees to strengthen the non-political roots of the
oppressed and exploited society.
Beginning his political activities, Kanshi Ram started to utter his political ideas.
New Delhi: Sage, 2002, pp. 10~7.
35 Mendelsohn and Vicziany, op. cit., p. 222.
36 He further said there was no .economic crisis for the party since they[BAMCEF] got him 1 0 lakh for the convention.
Amar Ujala, Decer'nber 9, 1986. He said BAMCEF donated money which helps in running the party as late as in
1990. Kanshi Ram's interview in Sarita, March 2, 1990. Reprinted ir. ~.4. RAkela (ed.}, Kanshi Ram-Press ke
aine men, Aligarh: Anand Sahitya Sadan, 2001, pp. 47-50.
37 While Sudha Pai says it was formed on September 24, 1982, I will follow the BAMCEF organ announcing its
launch on December 6, 1981, death anniversary of Ambedkar. Pai, op. cit., p. 91; The Oppressed Indian vol. 3
no. 10, 1981, p. 4.
139
Kanshi Ram mentioned 'munber game' when he announced the launch of D-S4 saying
as follows:
The SC, the ST, the OBC and the religious minorities accounted for
about 85 per cent of the total population-··have been the most subjugated···and
oppressed society [of India]. After the exit of the British and with the
introduction of adult franchise, ···the ruling class required to go to these 85 per
cent oppressed and exploited Indians for votes. For this purpose, ···felt the
necessity of-··political pimps produced from these 85 per cent helpless Indians.
···these political pimps stand exposed causing deep frustration amongst the 85%
helpless masses.··· In such situation a strong need was felt for an organization
which could launch struggles for the 8? percent helpless Indians.·· ·38
This logic of political agitation was continued to 'Poona Pact Denunciation Programme'
and again reflected in Kanshi Ram's book, Chamcha Age. This book, published in
1982, the 50th anniversary of the Poona Pact, blamed the Pact as anti-Dalit: The Poona
Pact, deprived the SC of the right of separate electorate, made the political elites from
the Scheduled and the backward castes dependent upon the upper castes. Now they
have to reject the role of chamchas of upper-caste-centered mainstream party and begin
to work for their own community breaking the caste hierarchy and inequality. 39
D-S4 or~anized 'prachar yatra' to awaken the masses, among which the main
event was the 'message of the D-S4: miraele of two feet and two wheels' between
38 Ibid.
39 Kanshi Ram; Chamcha Age-Era of Stooges, New Delhi, 1982. Hindi version was also published later. Kanshi
Ram, S. S. Gautam (tr.), Chamcha Yug, New Delhi: Sidharth Books, 2006.
140
March 15 and April 17 1983. Hundreds of cyclists including Kanshi Ram himself
rallied 3,000 km distance covering thirty-five places in seven states of northern India in
forty days.40 The Oppressed Indian proposed that the objective of this rally was 'to
awaken and educate our people.' It continued to argue as follows:
···their [85 per cent of the oppressed and exploited people] movement
today become the tools in the hands of the ruling castes. Their habits have been
so spoiled that they never fee] shame when they are used by others. Whenever
raJJies are organized by political parties to show their strength, these poor SC/ST,
OBC and minorities people rush to ride their vehicles and are paid for this. They
are happy to go and strengthen the hands of their oppressors and exploiters.··· 41
Most of the so-caJJed Ambedkarites shout the slogans of 'Ambedkar
Zindabad' and immediately after that they fall at the feet of Indira Gandhi or Atal
Behari Vajpayee and ask for a ticket.42
A"slogan coined after the formation of D-S4 well expressed the ideology of 15
per cent rule over 85 per cent, which read 'brahm[i]n, bania, thakur chor, baki sab he[i]n
D-S4'. Roughly translated, this slogan means that Brahmins, Banias and Raj puts are
thieves, while the rest of society are their victims. The same article cited above gave .-:·
the meaning of an important symbolism bicycles stand for. Bicycles are most common
means of transportation for the most part of Indian masses. Though they are
habituated to go by buses and trucks as they are always doing for other political parties,
40 The Oppressed Indian vol. 5 no. 2, 1983, pp. 22-4.
41 Ibid., p. 23.
42 Ibid.
141
all convenient transportations including trucks, tractors, buses, cars and rail are in the
hands of capitalists and power holders. These facilities cannot be available for the
oppressed; therefore, bicycles are the only and best weapon for them in their agitation.43
A report on the 1988 Lok Sabha by-election in Allahabad 44 briefed the
ideology of agitation flowing under the political strategy of the BSP. It said Dalits,
Muslims, Christians and Shudras were the original inhabitants of India while Hindus
came from outside and enslaved them. It seems to have been drawn from the reversed
version of Aryan theory by Phule, 45 but the BSP version put Muslims and Christians in
addition to Dalits and Shudras, unlike the Phule's one. Message in it is clear that the
BSP wanted to include not only Dalits but also others like Shudras and the religious
minorities in the category of 'Bahujan.' Kanshi Ram once emphasized that the BSP
did not talk only for Dalits but for Bahujan and he did not even use the word Dalit but
Bahujan, in an interview with media. 46 While the first point gives the historical
identity of Bahujan, the second point talks about the present situation of them: 'Upper
castes have treated us like animals. No one was ready to coronate Shivaji because he
was a Shudra. Upper castes never have respected us till today, and they will hot do in
the future.' And the third, 'the oppressed has full right to avenge the oppressors.' It
was a typical form of anti upper-caste ideology. Sometimes, he n~ver minded using an
expression like 'python' to refer to the Lok Dal, the BJP, the Janata Dal (JD) and the
43 Ibid., p. 24.
44 India Today, June 30, 1988, p. 35.
45 Jotirao Phule, P. G. Patil (tr.), Slavery, Collected Works of Mahatma Jotirao Phule Vol.1, Bombay: Education
Department, Government of Mahara.shtra, 1991. (En!J!ish translation ot·Gulamgiri, first published in 1873)
46 Chouthi Duniya, April2-8, 1989. Interview with Kanshi Ram. Reprinted in M~ R Akela (ed.), op. cit., pp. 23-30:
142
Communist Party, categorizing them the 'upper-caste parties. ' 47
Though D-S4 fielded forty~six candidates for the 1982 Assembly elections in
Hariyana, 48 it had limitations of a quasi-political party. The organization too much
overlapped with BAMCEF in matters of finance and human resources. So, Kanshi
Ram took the plunge and formed the BSP which was a full-fledged political party. D-
S4 organized another bicycle rally which was planned to end at Delhi and to proclaim
the formation of the BSP in 1984. And within just one year, it became one of the
important players in UP politics because Mayawati, for the first time, made a prominent
step at the Lok Sabha by-election in the Bijnor constituency. Many activities of D-S4
had been done by old members from the Pune days, most of whom were still in the
position of government servants. Moreover, their political loyalty was mainly toward
the various factions of the RPI. So the appearance of the BSP, a potential rival of the
RPI, as a sister organization of BAMCEF may be uncomfortable for those old members
from Maharashtra. There were also strains arising from Kanshi Ram's will for the
total domination of all three organizations. These strains grew more severe over the
next two years, and in early 1986 a major split took place. 49 Kanshi Ram announced at
that time that he was no longer willing to work for any other organization than the
BSP.50
This positional change of Kanshi Ram in the organizations seems to have been
caused by the evolvement of Kanshi Ram's understanding of and strategy for social
47 Ibid.
48 The Oppressed Indian vol. 4 no. 4, 1982, p. 18.
49 There were more splits in BAMCEF even after Kanshi Ram got off his hands from the organization. There are
four different bodies under the name of BAMCEF. On the first division of BAMCEF in 1994, see DVvol. 14 no. 2,
1994, p. 10.
~ Mendelsohn and Vicziany, op. cit., p. 222.
143
change. He no longer believed in the primacy of social reform. Rather, the capture
of political power emerged as a main object of the movement, as is the case of all other
political parties. It was the administrative power that would bring about the desired
social change, not vice versa. So this perspective led him to 'power first, policy later'
attitudes, as he declined to spell out policies on the basic issues such as the
liberalization of the Indian economy or the land reforms. 51 His view was that such
issues were irrelevant to the project of gaining political power, and that the appropriate
policies would fall into place once the power is attained. His political scenario of
India is a kind of holy war on the part of the bahujan samaj against their manuwadi
oppressors. This was a stance of pure fundamentalism, but it also set him and his party
free to engage in the most ruthless pragmatism in the name of capturing power, 52 which
we will trace in the later part of this chapter.
3. Development of the BSP in Early Phase:
Consolidating Dalit Vote under the Name of Bahujan
The BSP first started off their political activities in Punjab, Kanshi Ram's home
state, but his primary political task in the real sense was to break off the connection
between the Chamars of UP and the Congress. Approach to the Chamar may have
been possible without a great difficulty because of the party's earlier history, originated
from the soil of the Ambedkar movement in Maharashtra, which the UP Chamars partly
shared with. It was the time of political transformation that the long-term Congress
51 Chouthi Duniya, Apri12-8, 1989. lnterview.witb.Kanshi Ram. Reprinted in M. R. Akela (ed.), op. cit., p. 28.
52 Mendelsohn and Vicziany, op. cit., 223.
144
decline became a landslide, when Kanshi Ram started to set up the party organization
and to make trenches. In its initial steps, the BSP could not but to make some
dissonance with the RPI in the course of absorbing the human resources of the latter.
For example, in the 1984 general elections, the BSP fielded the former RPI
(Khobragade) member Man Singh for the Agra constituency.53 There was a clash on
the party symbol between the two parties in the 1985 Assembly elections.54 Since the
BSP tired to make a foothold among Chamars, this clash seemed to be natural.
From its initial phase, Chamar/Jatav in UP constituted the most important base
of the BSP. Chamars are the most numerous caste among the SC in UP as are the
Mahars in Maharashtra. Sections of Chamars, called themselves Jatav, especially from
the western UP area had been actively involved in the movement led by Ambedkar from
the mid-twentieth century, as mentioned earlier. Their recent political history, that they
had provided the strongest base for the SCF and its successor, the RPI in UP, apparently
made it easy to impart their support to the BSP. Though the BSP had clashed with the
RPI and its supporters during the process of transfer of support, the tactics of agitation
of D-S4 and the early BSP, blaming the Dalit politicians by calling them 'chamcha,'55
seems have worked effectively. Chunk of Chamar/Jatav voters switched to the support
for the BSP from their traditional support for the RPI-INC. Moreover, castes of the
party leaders would have affected people's sentiment in the level of undercurrent.56
Both the strength and the weakness of the party is that the primary 'vote bank',
53 Amar Ujala, December 14, 1984.
54 Elephant has been a traditional symbol of the RPI and again recognized as the RPI symbol in1985 in UP. Amar
Ujala, February 10, 1985.
55 Hindi word meaning yesman or flatter.
56 It is not coincidental that Ghamar-caste; with its comparative advance in the economic and educational level and
the political awareness of its member, produced eminent political leaders.
145
Chamars, are relatively evenly spread across the state. As a researcher rightly pointed
out, this spread gives the BSP a chance of a large number of seats, but at the same time,
makes it logically impossible to win even a single seat without strong support from
other communities. 57 But the result of the early elections proved that the BSP has not
solved the problem of how to mobilize all or, at least, most of the SC. In its early
phase, it gained 9.41 per cent of the total votes in the 1989 UP Assembly Elections,
while the SC population constituted 21.05 per cent of UP population, as appeared in the
1991 Census report. 58 The problem that dogged Ambedkar has thus repeated itself in
UP, though Kanshi Ram's Chamars are both more numerous and numerically more
dominant among the Untouchables than were Ambedkar's Mahars in the western part of
the country.
The formal entry of the BSP into UP was made in a by-election in 1985 for the
Lok Sabha seat of Bijnor, in which its candidate was Mayawati. She is a Jatav, a
daughter of a minor government official in Delhi, and her father impressed on his
children the importance of education for upward mobility and gave interest in
contemporary Dalit's problems. She had completed her BA and LLB from the
University of Delhi and started to teach in a government school from 1977 while
preparing for the examination for the Indian Administrative Service. Mayawati had
made a contact with Kanshi Ram at a BAMCEF meeting in 1977 and had gradually
been drawn into his organization. Impressed by her forthright speech, Kanshi Ram
57 Mendelsohn and Vicziany, op. eft., p. 219.
58 Election Commission of India, Statistical Report on General Election, 1989 to The Legislative Assembly of Uttar
Prades.'J, New 091ni, 1989, p. 15; Office 0f Registrar Gene!a!, Gov~mm~mt 0f !nd!a, Scheduled' Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, Census of India 1991, Data Production No.: 00-052-1991Cen-CD, 1991.
146
persuaded her into joining the political arena. 59 Her opponents in the Bijnor
constituency included Ram Vilas Paswan from the Lok Dal and Meira Kumar, Jagjivan
Ram's daughter, representing the INC, who won the seat as expected. Mayawati held
the third position following the two prominent Dalit leaders, securing more than sixty
thousand votes, 60 and attracted public attention. She was described as a threatening
candidate with a vulgar language by a local media. 61
By 1989 the BSP had put in five years a solid organizing work in UP and also
in the neighboring regions of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, and parts of Haryana.
Their growing agitational work in UP was so active that it caused a worry to the
Congress leadership. 62 Meanwhile the political contour in UP has been changed in the
vortex of Ram Janmabhumi movement and following communal politics instigated by
the Sangh Parivar organizations. The BSP tried to favorably use this opportunity to
broaden its support base. Since the BSP in this early phase wanted to form an alliance
ofBahujan Samaj, among which the Muslim community was one of the most important
participants, the party made its efforts to gain Muslim supports. Kanshi Ram had
selected organizers and candidates from a variety of social backgrounds, especially from
the Muslim community, which was a significant effort to overcome its innate limitation
as Dalit-based, or more narrowly Chamar-based party. One of his organizers was Dr.
Mahsood Ahmed, a lecturer of the Aligarh Muslim University who had become
s!J About Mayawati's life, see Shailendra Sengar, Mayawati Bahujan se Sarvajait'tak, Delhi: Book li Publishing
House, 2008, pp. 1-19; Ajoy Bose, Behenji A Political Biography of Mayawati, New Delhi: Viking, 2008.