[Reader-list] Who Rules India - by Aakar Patel in THE NEWS

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Who rules India?








Sunday, September 14, 2008
Aakar Patel

Political power in India has shifted from the three upper castes to the fourth 'middle' caste through elections since 1952. A parallel cultural process has blurred identities within that fourth caste and it no longer sees itself as defined in Hindu doctrine. Hindu doctrine defines four castes: Brahmin, Kshtriya (warrior) and Vaishya (merchant) are the upper castes, which are twice-born. The fourth, Shudra, is the peasant caste, banned from learning, but not untouchable.

Everyone who is not of these specific castes (Dalits, Muslims, Christians) is outside the caste system and an untouchable, by doctrine. In 1950, the Constitution of India abolished doctrinal Hinduism, under Articles 15 and 17. Article 15 opens up free access for all citizens to all public places, including "wells, tanks, bathing ghats...". Article 17 abolishes untouchability. The Supreme Court of India ruled that it was not necessary to be Brahmin to officiate at temples, ending a 3500 year monopoly.

In terms of population, about 50 per cent of all Indians would be Shudra, but a cultural process known as Sankritization has led to Hindus, especially Shudras, rejecting their lower caste and defining themselves in terms of Jati or sub-caste, through which they claim higher status.

India's Constitution was finished on November 26, 1949 and adopted on January 26, 1950, Republic Day. After India's first general election in 1952, the structure of power was not dissimilar to what came before it. However, over decades of elections, the structure has changed; one could say it has inverted itself. In the years after Independence, the most populous states of India were ruled by upper caste chief ministers, who were in power in 13 out of these 15 states. Ten of these chief ministers were Brahmin.

At the centre, India had a Brahmin prime minister (Nehru) and a Brahmin president (Dr Rajendra Prasad). The man considered the nation's leader, Gandhi, was of the merchant caste. In Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, the chief minister was Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant (Brahmin). Today the state of UP, with a population of 190 million, is headed by a Dalit woman, Mayawati. It is possible she will become prime minister after the next elections, the first untouchable to hold that position.

Politics in Maharashtra, India's second biggest state with 97 million people, is dominated by Marathas, a peasant caste that claimed martial ancestry through enlistment in the Muslim armies of the Deccan, and then through ruling large parts of India after the collapse of the Mughals. The state's first chief minister (YB Chavan) and current one (Vilasrao Deshmukh) are both Marathas.

Bihar's first chief minister was from the warrior caste, Sri Kumar Sinha. India's third biggest state with a population of 83 million, it is ruled today by a leader of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Nitish Kumar, who is a Kurmi peasant. India's fourth biggest state is West Bengal, with 81 million people. Its current chief minister is Budhdhadeb Bhattacharya of the CPM. He is a Brahmin, the only one on this list, though being Communist he denies caste. The first chief minister of his state was PC Ghosh, from a caste that defines itself by its sub-caste, Kayastha but is actually part of the peasantry.

The fifth biggest state in India is Andhra Pradesh, with a population of 78 million. Its first chief minister was VN Menon, a Brahmin. Its current chief minister is a Christian from an OBC caste, YSR Reddy.

Next is Tamil Nadu with 68 million people. Its leader is the fiery Dravidian leader Karunanidhi, whose party's identity rose from an anti-Brahmin, anti-Aryan movement. Tamil Nadu's first chief minister, founder of the Dravidian political movement, was CN Annadurai, who came from a caste of weavers. Madhya Pradesh's first chief minister was Pandit Ravishankar Shukla, a Brahmin. Today its leader is the BJP's Shivraj Chouhan, of the warrior caste. The state's population is 62 million.

The first chief minister of Rajasthan, home of the Rajputs and with a population of 58 million, was HL Shastri, a Brahmin. Today the chief minister is a woman, and a Maratha, the BJP's Vasundhara Raje Scindia. Martial Rajputs accept her because she is from a family of Marathas that ruled over large parts of central India. Her patronymic 'Raje' is from Raja, and Scindia is a corruption of the Marathi name Shinde. Gujarat has a population of 55 million and its first chief minister was Dr Jivraj Mehta, from the merchant caste and married to a Brahmin. Narendra Modi, its current leader, is from an OBC caste of oil pressers, called Ghanchi in Gujarati. Despite coming from an OBC caste, and one that is not populous, Modi has retained his power by owning a Gujarati identity rather than a caste-based one. The dominant caste in Gujarat is the peasant community of Patels.

Karnataka with 54 million people also has a BJP government, with BS Yeddyurappa of the Lingayat community as its current chief minister. The Lingayats are followers of a 12th century saint who preached ecumenical Hinduism, and the group rejects caste. In India, naturally, they are The-caste-that-rejects-caste. The first chief minister of Karnataka was also Lingayat, K Hanumanthaiah.

The eastern state of Orissa with 38 million people was headed first by a Brahmin, Hare Krushna Mahtab, and now by Naveen Patnaik of the caste of merchants.

Kerala in the south has 32 million people and its first chief minister was the Brahmin EMS Namboodiripad, a Communist. The current chief minister is also Communist, VS Achuthanandan of the OBC caste of Ezhavas.

Assam in the north-east has 27 million people. Its first chief minister was Gopinath Bordoloi, a Brahmin. It is headed currently by Tarun Kumar Gogoi, from an OBC caste.

Punjab has 26 million people and its first chief minister was Dr Gopi Chand Bhargava, a Brahmin. Since the mid-60s it has been ruled by the Sikhs, most of the peasant caste of Jats including the incumbent, Parkash Singh Badal.

Haryana has 21 million people. Its first chief minister was a Brahmin, Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma. Since the 70s (the state was formed when East Punjab was divided in 1966) the state has been ruled mostly by Jats of the peasant caste. The present chief minister is Bhupinder Singh Hooda, also a Jat. The oligarchy of Nehruvian India has come to an end, and the bottom caste has seized power.

Even the BJP, India's party of Hindu high culture, has been forced to shift its position.

Its ideologues and founders were Brahmins from SP Mookerjee to Vajpayee. The RSS is entirely Brahmin from its ideologues - Savarkar, Hedgewar, Golwalkar, Upadhyaya - to all its chiefs, except one. But the BJP has been forced from within to cede power to middle and lower caste leaders because religion is not an identity for Hindus as much as first sub-caste and then language are.

English-speaking Indians, most of whom would be from upper castes, have removed themselves from politics. They first lost their position as the middle and low castes pressed their democratic advantage through elections. Then, as the economy changed, they exited politics fully because they did not need to depend on the state any longer.

In India, the state offers protection and employment, the two promises politicians hold out to their supporters.

Upper-caste, English-speaking Indians are not vulnerable to India's mindless violence and do not depend on the state for employment. Political discourse in India is emotional and cannot deliver itself in English. But the language of governance is English.



The writer is a former newspaper editor. He lives in Bombay. Email: aakar @hillroadmedia.com
 
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