Jat Mahakumbh

Dear chaudhary
It is time to have have connectivity of Jats beyond regions, religions & faiths.

http://www.livemint.com/2012/01/24233008/How-caste-matters-and-doesn8.ht...
How caste matters and doesn’t matter
Although caste is indeed one of the operative parameters of Punjab politics, there seems to be very little competition among the caste communities of Punjab

Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) leader and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has urged the electorate of Punjab to vote for her party’s candidates in state assembly elections to fulfil the dream of BSP founder Kanshi Ram.

By AP
The late Kanshi Ram, who has become a symbol of contemporary Dalit assertion and political success, was born in Punjab and was active in the state’s politics for a long time. Notwithstanding its newly projected image of being a party of all, the sarvjan, the core constituency of the BSP has been and continues to be scheduled castes (SCs), or Dalits.
Together, the 39 SC communities of Punjab constitute nearly 29% of the total population of the state, close to double the national average. With such a large population, they are perhaps the largest cluster of caste communities of Punjab.

However, the BSP has hardly ever posed a challenge to the mainstream political parties of Punjab. This time, too, there is little hope of the party winning any seats. How do we explain this puzzle in a democracy where “caste” and “community” frame the grammar of politics? Or does this raise questions about the common sense of electoral behaviour?

The modernist leadership of India had a very clear notion of democratic politics. It was to be based on the idea of the individual citizen. The ties of community and caste were to be forgotten with time. This was not only a desirable state of things, but also a part of the natural and inevitable process of evolutionary change. Modern technology, industrialization and urbanization were to destroy all “parochial” community ties. This, they believed, was what had already happened in the West. There was no reason to think the trajectory of change in India would be any different. Even someone like B.R. Ambedkar, who always suspected the intentions of the largely upper caste-dominated nationalist leadership, hoped that modernization and urbanization would help the Dalits get out of the villages and break free from the oppressive social structure of caste.

Democratic politics and even the modernization process have, however, unfolded very differently. Soon after India introduced electoral politics, sociologists and political scientists reported that not only was democratic politics failing to destroy caste, but caste was in fact going through a process of transmutation and seemed to be surviving very comfortably with the electoral process. Individual caste communities were getting into horizontal alliances and forming what sociologist M.N. Srinivas described as “vote banks”. Soon, a new common sense of caste and democratic politics emerged.

By the 1980s, caste and electoral politics had become virtually inseparable. From the lay public to the psephologists of popular media and serious academic analysts, nearly everyone began to treat caste as the most important variable influencing democratic politics in India. According to this common sense, caste communities competed with each other and determined electoral outcomes. Even when they did not directly participate in electoral politics, they operated as pressure groups and influenced the governance agenda of the Indian state at the local, regional and national levels. Over the last three or four decades, several political parties have come to be identified with specific caste communities.

Punjab appears to be an odd case in this national framework of caste politics. Although caste is indeed one of the operative parameters of Punjab politics, there seems to be very little competition among the caste communities of Punjab. The Jats, who constitute only around one-fourth of the state electorate, have remained virtually unchallenged. The last non-Jat who could become chief minister of the state was Giani Zail Singh, and that was way back in the 1970s. The two major political parties, the Congress and the Akalis, are both Jat-led and Jat-dominated. Even the Khalistan movement was largely a Jat-dominated phenomenon.

A more surprising fact about caste in Punjab is the virtual absence of a challenge from the Dalits. Notwithstanding the positive effect of Sikhism and Islam on the nature and practice of untouchability in the region, the Punjabi Dalits have been quite a deprived population. Even though they are mostly rural, less than 1% of all the agricultural land is owned or tilled by them. In an agrarian society, land determines everything. Even though the Dalits of Punjab are less likely to be below the national poverty line, in relative terms their deprivation is quite stark, and in comparison to other communities they stand far below.

Interestingly enough, Punjab has also been witness to some of the most vibrant mobilizations by the Dalits. From the Ad Dharm movement of the 1920s to the recent movement for a separate Ravidassia religion, the Dalits of Punjab have often asserted their distinct identity.

Yet, the BSP seems to be an insignificant force in the regional politics of Punjab, although it succeeded in rising to power in Uttar Pradesh. How can we make sense of this? The answer perhaps lies in the way we have come to understand caste and the excessive heuristic value that we tend to attribute to it.

Notwithstanding its significance in the social and economic life of Punjab, caste has not been an idiom of Punjab politics. The dominant idioms of regional politics are shaped historically. Thanks to its history of partition and communal divide, the most dominant idiom of the politics of Punjab has been that of religious communities—the dynamic of communal relations between the Sikhs and the Hindus. The second important idiom of politics has been the region—the dynamics of relationship between Punjab and the Centre. And the third important idiom has been the social and economic class. At the local level in the region, caste seems to be closely tied to class, perhaps much more strongly than elsewhere.

Jat power is reproduced through a constellation of all these factors, and as of now remains unchallenged in Punjab.

Surinder S. Jodhka is professor of sociology and chair of the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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http://dailypioneer.com/nation/42237-cbi-harassing-innocent-people-bishn...

CBI harassing innocent people: Bishnois, Jats

Leaders of Bishnoi and Jat community at a large rally in Jodhpur on Sunday came down heavily on the CBI by alleging that its sleuths in the name of investigation in Bhanwari Devi case were harassing the innocent people. They also alleged that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is leaving no stone unturned to politically marginalise leaders these communities, which would prove counter-productive for him and the Congress party.

The leaders of Kisan Kesari Sangharash Samiti, clamed that it was the rally of all the Chhatis Kaum (36 castes and communities), but it was more of a show of strength of Bishnois and Jats. Supporters of sacked Minister Mahipal Maderna and Congress MLA from Luni, Malkhan Singh, who are behind bars for their alleged involvement in kidnapping and killing the nurse, were behind organsing the rally, which was held at Gaushala Ground.

Keeping in the view the charged atmosphere against the CBI, tight security arrangements were made at the venue, where people started arriving around noon. Kuldeep Bishnoi, Lok Sabha member from Hissar and patron of All India Bishnoi Samaj, said if harassment of innocent people was not stopped, they would take to the streets of Jaipur and Delhi. He said that they would soon meet the President of India to submit a memorandum against the style of functioning of the agency in this case. They would also meet the Chief Minister to desist him for systematically destroying the leadership of these communities in western Rajasthan to serve his political interests.

The rally was also addressed by former BJP Lok Sabha member, Jaswant Bishnoi and other leaders of the Jat community. Generally, women of these communities stays away from these rallies, but Sunday’s rally witnessed a good turnout of women members as well.

Speakers said that they had no objection in interrogating the culprits in this case by the CBI, but there is not justification in quizzing persons like the elderly Amari Devi, mother of Malkhan Singh and wife of stalwart Bishnoi leader, Late Ram Singh Bishnoi, who is not even remotely involved in the case

In fact, the CBI invited the wrath of social organisations for summoning Amari Devi for two days. As she could not bear the stress of questioning, she was taken ill and was hospitalised. Since then the CBI sleuths, who are getting ready to file the final chargesheet in the case, have become defensive. Speakers said that agency sleuths in this case were not impartial and working on a particular line of instructions.