The Rise of Caste-Based Parties in Uttar Pradesh: An Analysis of their Social Justice Politics

An Analysis of their Social Justice Politics

Abstract

The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have dominated the space of social justice politics in Uttar Pradesh in the post-Mandal era. The SP targets the chunk of the Other Backward Class (OBC) votes, and the BSP targets the chunk of the Scheduled Caste (SC) votes. Both the SP and the BSP have been accused of bias within the OBCs and the SCs respectively, leading to Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) targeting the non-Yadav and non-Jatav votes that have splintered from the SP and the BSP respectively.

The splintering of the lower caste vote is not limited to some of it shifting to the BJP. There has been a rise of single-caste-based parties whose influence is limited to just one caste or a group of subcastes. These parties include: the two factions of Apna Dal whose support base is in the Kurmi community; Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) whose support base is in the Rajbhar community; NISHAD Party whose support base is in the communities whose traditional occupation centers around rivers, such as boatmen and fishermen; and Mahan Dal whose support base is in the Maurya, Shakya, and Kushwaha communities in Western UP.

The common feature of these caste-based parties is that their politics revolves around the social justice plank. Depending upon the demands of their support base and the needs of their specific caste group, each of these caste-based parties has adopted a different strategy. The social justice politics of these caste-based parties differs considerably from the social justice politics of SP and BSP. The strategies of these caste-based parties also differ within themselves. The paper will analyse the strategy of these caste-based parties to assess their social justice politics.

The paper will theoretically analyse how the politics of the caste-based parties fits the social justice framework. The emergence of specific caste-based parties further complexifies the caste-based social justice framework in India, making it even more difficult to separate status-based politics from identity politics. The small caste-based parties’ ambiguous relationship with the BJP and its Hindutva politics, which is often seen as in opposition to social justice politics will be brought out.