Social movements & the politics of caste, language and region
India's post-1947 social movements: caste mobilization, language agitations, regional and tribal assertion, and their constitutional resolution.
From Reform to Power: The Trajectory of Caste Politics
Independent India inherited two distinct streams of anti-caste politics. The southern non-Brahmin movement, crystallized in the Justice Party (founded 1916) and radicalized by E.V. Ramasamy 'Periyar' through the Self-Respect Movement (1925) and the Dravidar Kazhagam, fed directly into the electoral rise of the DMK, which captured Madras in 1967. The northern stream flowed from B.R. Ambedkar, whose insistence on separate constitutional safeguards produced reservations under Articles 15(4), 16(4) and 46 and the abolition of untouchability under Article 17, given teeth by the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 (renamed 1976) and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The Mandal Watershed
The Kalelkar Commission (First Backward Classes Commission, 1953) had floundered for lack of objective criteria. The decisive intervention came from the Mandal Commission (Second Backward Classes Commission, chaired by B.P. Mandal, 1979), which reported in 1980 that Other Backward Classes constituted roughly 52% of the population and recommended 27% reservation in central services. Prime Minister V.P. Singh's implementation announcement on 7 August 1990 triggered nationwide upheaval, including the self-immolation of student Rajeev Goswami. The Supreme Court in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992) upheld the 27% quota but excluded the 'creamy layer', barred reservation in promotions (later restored for SC/ST by the 77th Amendment, 1995), and crystallized the 50% ceiling on total reservations.
Bahujan Assertion and Dalit Politics
The period from the 1980s witnessed Dalit and OBC self-assertion translating into independent political vehicles rather than dependence on the Congress umbrella. The Bahujan Samaj Party, founded by Kanshi Ram in 1984 and led to power in Uttar Pradesh by Mayawati, articulated the 'Bahujan' coalition of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs. The Dalit Panthers (Maharashtra, 1972), influenced by the American Black Panthers and Ambedkarite thought, brought literary and street militancy. In Bihar and UP, the OBC churn produced the leadership of figures like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav. This 'second democratic upsurge' (Yogendra Yadav's phrase) marked the deepening of participatory democracy: turnout among lower castes began exceeding that of the upper castes, inverting the older pattern. The candidate must grasp that reservation jurisprudence is a continuing dialogue between Parliament and the judiciary, from the First Amendment (1951, validating Article 15(4)) through the 103rd Amendment (2019) introducing 10% Economically Weaker Sections quota, upheld in Janhit Abhiyan (2022).
