Why the politics of caste is being pushed in India?

On 25th August 2024, India's opposition leader makes a rather strange statement - "No Dalit, tribal or OBC women in Miss India list".

Since caste is the last thing when people think about Miss India one might wonder what's up?

To understand this let's evaluate India's politics up till now.

In 2014, the ruling congress party was beset with corruption allegations and faced growing dissatisfaction among the public.

A new alternative emerged in the form of the BJP leader Narendra Modi who promised to clean up all the corruption and take India on the path of development (vikaas).

Also of help in the rise of Modi was the image of a strong Hindutva leader. (For the sake of this article let's define Hindutva as a movement to protect and promote Hindu interests.)

2014 parliamentary elections saw major Hindu vote consolidation in the favor of BJP. Some casting their vote to Modi for vikaas and some for Hindutva and some for both.

With India being about 80% Hindu, it was no mystery that NDA (BJP and its allies) won a landslide victory in 2014. That 20% other religious groups didn't particularly vote for BJP didn't matter. NDA got 336 seats out of 543.

Interestingly BJP's policies were not specifically oriented towards Hindutva. Prime minister's tagline was 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas' (Supporting everyone and bringing development to everyone.)

Modi-led BJP pushed policies like tax reform, affordable housing, LPG connections, health insurance, highway development, rural electrification, port modernization, national & defense upgrades, startup India, digital governance and many other things.

NDA won an even bigger mandate in 2019 central elections and secured 353 seats.

The opposition's attacks on the government fell flat on their face and failed to make a dent in the Modi juggernaut.

But this time around in 2024, the opposition employed a new strategy. A time-tested one. The Romans called it 'divide et impera' (Divide and conquer). The British empire used it as well to great effect.

The strategy is to divide the Hindu vote base which has been powering Modi to victory. About 70% of Hindus in India are classified by the government as socially and economically 'backward' castes. They are assisted by the state in the form of affirmative actions in education and jobs called 'reservations'.

If it could be impressed upon these group of Hindus that they are being exploited by the other 30% of 'forward' caste Hindus, and if the opposition parties position themselves as the champion of these 'backward' caste Hindus, they now have a winning formula.

So once you see their actions in the light of this strategy, it becomes clear why they are saying what they are saying.

During the lead-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections:

1) The leader of opposition had promised a caste census to measure the population and economic status of each caste.

2) He promised redistribution of wealth once this is done.

3) He has said he will remove the 50% Supreme Court mandated limit on reservations in education and jobs,

4) His party had previously said that if voted in, they plan to extend the reservations to private sector jobs as well.

5) His party's allies were fear mongering that NDA seeks to change the constitution and remove reservations benefits for backward castes.

All of this serves to vitiate the atmosphere with regard to caste and make it a political issue. Instead of bringing various communities in India together, it seeks to separate them into opposing camps so people do not vote as an Indian, but a member of a caste seeking special privileges over other castes.

This strategy partially succeeded in bringing about the result that we saw in 2024 elections where NDA was campaigning to win 400 seats but got only 293 (still a majority but significantly less than the 353 seats they got in 2019 elections).

Since this tactic has proven successful, expect it to be leveraged again and again.

One can only hope that the people of India don't fall for it.