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Bihar was the primary laboratory of optimistic discrimination in the Hindi belt. The crucible of India’s model of socialism, it initiated bold reservation insurance policies as early because the 1970s below Karpoori Thakur.
Another socialist, Lalu Prasad, who joined politics in the context of the JP Movement, ruled Bihar for 15 years, immediately or not directly and — in line with his upper-caste critics — “mandalised” the state. Did he? And has Nitish Kumar, one other OBC chief, continued in the identical vein?
In the opinion of Christophe Jaffrelot, a senior analysis fellow at CERI- Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, “in Bihar political power is with lower castes while economic surplus and bureaucratic rule remain decisively with upper castes”.
Bihar was definitely the epicentre of the post-1990 “silent revolution” that resulted, throughout the Hindi belt, in the switch of power from upper castes to OBCs. In the 1995 elections, OBCs have been 44 per cent of the MLAs (together with 26 per cent Yadavs), greater than twice the proportion of the upper castes, who had at all times had extra MLAs till then. In 2000, in Rabri Devi’s authorities, OBC ministers represented virtually 50 per cent of the full, whereas there weren’t greater than 13 per cent upper castes.
Similarly, OBCs have benefited from job quotas. After Brahmins and different upper castes, Yadavs did higher than every other caste group in jobs in line with the Indian Human Development Survey of 2011-12. Ten per cent of them had salaried jobs and Kurmis weren’t lagging as 9 per cent of them had a salaried job. The achievement was a tad greater than that of the Dalits, for whom affirmative motion insurance policies have been designed 40 years earlier than: In Bihar, 8.9 per cent of Paswans and seven.7 per cent of Jatavs had salaried jobs. Follow Bihar elections LIVE updates
“If OBCs have benefited from the so-called “mandalisation” of Bihar in phrases of political power and salaried jobs, they haven’t earned a lot in different domains. Upper castes proceed to compensate for his or her numerical weak spot by their ritual and socio-economic standing,” states Jaffrelot.
According to the final spherical of IHDS, Brahmins topped in common per capita earnings with Rs 28,093, adopted by different upper castes (Rs 20,655), while Kushwahas and Kurmis earned Rs 18,811and Rs 17,835 respectively. In distinction, Yadavs’ earnings is one of many lowest amongst OBCs at Rs 12,314, which is barely lower than the remainder of OBCs (Rs 12,617) and never far more than the Jatavs (Rs 12,016).
“Upper castes still have decisive control of state power. While Yadavs have made progress in terms of access to salaried jobs, the bureaucracy in Bihar is still controlled by upper castes,” writes Jaffrelot.
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