On my recent visit to a book store, I stumbled upon a book “IN SPITE OF THE GODS” by Edward Luce; and given its reviews I was tempted to buy it. Anyway, the book describes various aspects of Indian society - its lacunas, peculiarity and its impressive growth trajectory despite all the odds and contrasts. The book also describes in great detail the caste and religious dynamism existing in the society and the way they have been defining Indian politics, emergence of the leaders and very much the development story. Well, being born in UP and working in Bihar this is not something new to me; but with election approaching in Bihar the timing was impeccable to read this book.
The elections in UP and Bihar have been about caste, religion and vote bank politics more than anything else; I am not denying the fact that the same is not a ubiquitous phenomenon across all the states but the degree is a notch higher in these two states. The caste dynamism in these two states has decided the political future of the party and leaders for far too long. I think this election and the one scheduled in 2017 in UP would be no different; the book came out around 2005 and almost a decade after, the elections may see no different fate.
I would be following the Bihar election along with the one in 2017(scheduled UP elections) with great anticipation, anxiety and in the hope that these two elections would defy the caste politics and move India in to an era of mature democracy. The rising literacy rate and with a quantum of the voting population being youth; let’s surprise all -analyst, politician and every one generalizing it for far too long. The maturity of the Indian democracy would be dependent very much on the neutralization of the caste politics and ushering it into an era of developmental politics. This would be a dream come true for all the Gandhis, Nehrus, Ambedkars and all other nationalist; ultimately leading India in to an entirely new phase of evolution. It would be pleasant to see that voting the caste would turn in to nothing more than adage; the election would be contested largely on the developmental strategy, goals and means.
It may seem a little farfetched, idealistic but the beauty of the democracy is it provides you an opportunity every 5 years to realize this dream (sometimes even earlier). This dream may be farfetched but certainly not impossible; dissemination of information is the first and essential step towards realizing it.
- Abhishek Singh (can be reached at abhi1471989@gmail.com)
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