REcently, in the village in the Bhojpur district, Bihar, which is dominated by most backward cupboards (MBC), I heard a Sohar (birth song) sung by a few undisputed women. It's going: “Babua Hamar DM Hoyihe, Okara Upar CM Hoyihe (My son will become a district magistrate and he will also become a chief minister). “I also heard a slogan during a political meeting in the city of Sasaram, who goes:”Vote se lenge cm, PM, Aarakshan Se Lenge Collector, DM (I will become head minister with voices and district magistrate with reservation). “Both expressions reflect ambitions for social justice. They also show how the ambitions of backward communities become the essence of their politics. Together these anecdotes illustrate how social justice is the driving force in Bihar.
In North India, the Bhakti movement challenged social hierarchies for several centuries and promoted equality and inclusiveness. But the road to social justice is long and loaded. Leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Mahatma Phule and Ram Manohar Lohia have had their own visions and versions of social justice; This different imagination will continue to co -exist in India.
While in most parts of India the discourse of social justice usually remains centered around planned cupboards and planned tribes, the most dominant discourse of social justice in Bihar is other backward classes (OBCs). According to the Bihar Caste Survey of 2023, OBCs and extremely backward classes include more than 63% of the state of the state.
This is not new -Bihar -Politics is always largely dominated by OBC politics. OBC communities, in particular the Yadavs, Kurmis and Koirees, started to stand up as a lower and middle farmers because of various land-based reforms by both pre-independent and independent India. The leaders of these three communities formed the Triveni Sangh in 1934 and began to claim their voice for political representation. Other leaders also echoed the ambitions of OBC communities in later years. Apart from the OBC Social Justice Discours, Bihar has other social justice models, which can be loses categorized as Gandhian, Congressi, Nehrawadi, Ambedkarite, Lohiyaite and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -social justice modelSamgra Samajik Nyay model).
Bihar will go to polls later this year. During my fieldwork I discovered that the competition will mainly take place between two models. The first is the social justice model made by selective interpretations of the views of Ambedkar and Lohia. It emphasizes on caste-based historical inequality. The propagators of this model are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and congression leader Rahul Gandhi. The RJD and the congress are part of the Mahagathbandhan. This model seems to be unmindle because it focuses on the demand for a caste people and the expansion of reservations.
The second is the Samgra Samajik Nyay model. It combines the arguments of caste -based historical inequality with other forms of horizontal social inequalities that emerged during the distribution process of democratic means. The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, promotes this model, which combines the visions of Swami Vivekananda, Dendayal Upadhyaya and Ambedkar. In Mr.'s book Modes Samajik SamrasataWe can find the traces of the evolution of this model of social justice. This model combines historical injustices with injustices. It tries to tackle vertical and horizontal injustice that confronts marginal communities. Social justice seems to be a versatile strategy to combat disadvantage of different forms. Fighting Caste-based injustice is linked to the beneficiary politics, which refers to the use of welfare programs and benefits of the government for targeted communities. The beneficiary politics was created by the implementation of various social support schedules for backward cupboards, dalits, adivasis and women.
Both alliances therefore have two different but overlapping models for social justice. The difference is that the National Democratic Alliance guided by BJP has a few benefits. Both Mr Modi and Minister President Nitish Kumar enjoy a positive image. On the other hand, the Mahagathbandhan is represented by Mr. Lalu Prasad, whose regime was considered corrupt. The image of vice-minister-president Tejashwi Yadav as a popular youth leader does not seem to have served as a counter balance. And the advantage of the Caste Census, which argued the opposition led by the RJD, has been minimized by the announcement by the government of the Union of a caste opposition in the census.
Badri Narayan is director, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute
Published – June 23, 2025 02:08 am Ist
