1 HIS 314 Lecture 18: Notes for Slideshow on Janata and Aftermath SLIDE ONE March 1977 Was a Historic Month. the Janata Party

HIS 314 Lecture 18: Notes for Slideshow on Janata and Aftermath SLIDE ONE March 1977 was a historic month. The Janata Party roundly defeated Indira Gandhi in the elections to the Lok Sabha and for the first time EVER, in independent India, the INC had not formed the government at the Federal level. SLIDE TWO • What WAS the Janata Party? Where did it come from? • The Janata Party was a direct product of the JP Movement (see last slide set) and had much of the same composition... and unfortunately, the same contradictions too! • There was the old guards of the INC, who were in a party called the INC (O), there were defectors from Indira Gandhi’s INC (I) such as Jagjiwan Ram ( who was Dalit [former untouchable] leader). There were members of the Socialist Party, such as Madhu Limaye, George Fernandes, and Madhu Dandavate. There were members of parties representating MIDDLE PEASANT and BACKWARD CASTE populations, such as CHARAN SINGH. Most significantly, there was also the JANA SANGH, political arm of the Hindu nationalist RSS. • All of these entities DISSOLVED their old parties, and joined a NEW organization called the JANATA (meaning PEOPLE’s) Party, to oppose IG in the 1977 elections. SLIDE THREE • If we were only interested in POLITICAL history, then the Janata era is neither attractive nor long lasting. • Politically, the Janata interregnum lasted only from March 1977 to Jan 1980. The much awaited alternative to the INC did not last long, and Mrs G was back in power in 1980. • First, there was immense bickering over who would get to be Prime Minister (PM). JP refused. Ultimately the 84-year old MORARJI DESAI, finally, became PM. Remember, he had been in contention in 1964 and 1966 as well. • Jagjiwan Ram (Dalit), Charan Singh (middle peasant) and Atal Bihari Vajapayee (former Jana Sangh) all get plum cabinet posts. • The lack of ideological unity and contradictions within the motely group soon surface. Their opposition to Indira Gandhi could not keep them together for long, once Indira herself was out of power. • Charges of corruption too emerge. INC leaders had had such charges against them too, but the Janata Party had promised the start of a different era in politics. People had not expected this new formation to behave like the “same old” so soon! 1 • It is also important to note, that outside of the Janata, two very significant REGIONAL parties also emerge in this time. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), abbreviated to CPM, won in Bengal, and a breakaway group from the DMK, called the AIADMK becomes important in Tamilnadu. CPM did not lose a state assembly in Bengal until 2011. The AIADMK and DMK have alternated in power in Tamilnadu since 1977. SLIDE FOUR • The Janata era is actually of historical significance because it crystallized some important emerging TRENDS in contemporary India which only now were allowed a POLITICAL expression. • The overwhelming presence of the INC since independence had more or less MASKED some very significant changes in the economic and social landscape of the country. • Ironically enough, the divided, bickering, uncohesive Janata Party in government, allowed these trends to find political expression. Although the Janata Party became history, these trends did not and THESE social and cultural trends rather than the sorry political history of Janata (which you can read up easily), will be my focus. • What WERE these trends? They relate to CLASS and CASTE. SLIDE FIVE • Let’s start with the HISTORY of a group scholars call “middle peasants”. These are farmers who own land, but not huge estates. They work the land themselves, but also employ labor to help cultivation. • Middle peasants used to be CULTIVATORS who primarily LEASED or RENTED land from huge Zamindars. British agrarian policies in the early 20th century gave these cultivators (who were also lower-caste, but not “untouchable”) a lot more RIGHTS than they had traditionally had. They had tenure on the land they leased, as long as they paid their rent, they could not be evicted. • The ABOLITION of ZAMINDARI after independence, though not entirely successful in ridding feudal landlords of holdings, also worked to benefit CULTIVATING groups, aka middle peasants. Many cultivators became owners of the land they had earlier leased. • After independence, many middle peasant groups also became backbone of Nehru’s lieutenants’ “vote banks.” State leaders such as Kamaraj mobilized these groups to vote for the INC. Later, they transferred their loyalty to regional parties such as the DMK in Tamilnadu. Middle peasants were the backbone of the CPM in Bengal too. • The GREEN REVOLUTION, started under Shastri and took off under Indira Gandhi, was to hugely benefit middle peasant communities in north India, particularly in Punjab. They were the ones who used the new technologies to grow more food, and make a lot 2 more money than they had before. • Indira’s populism also work to their benefit. She often declared the erasure of debts of rural electricity bills, for example. More than other farmers, the middle peasants used electricity to pump water to their green revolution crops. • Since independence, the middle peasant groups had been gaining in political clout in states. But though the INC pandered to their interests, they were denied a role in the CENTRAL or Federal politics. • NOW, they wanted their voice in the CENTER as well. And ,with CHARAN SINGH and his group being a very important part of the Janata Party, they had their time in the sun. • Middle peasants also had support from the SOCIALISTS in Janata. These were not socialists of the Nehru type, but often much closer to the Gandhian vision, and favored AGRICULTURE over industry. The ECONOMIC PLANNING in Janata years changed direction, and the new emphasis helped them. SLIDE SIX. OTHER BACKWARD CASTES • To placate middle peasants, the Nehru government had created the First Backward Classes Commission in 1953, that recommended that CASTE be used to determine “backwardness” or lack of privilege. However, the recommendations of the Commission were shelved, and report gathered dust for decades. • It was in the Janata era, with middle peasant represntatives in positions of authority, that they started to organize around the category of OTHER BACKWARD CASTES (OBC). • This is a VERY interesting example of how caste works in and has adapted to electoral politics. No classical religious text ever had this notion of “backward” and “forward” castes. This was a vocabulary that grew out of the politics of people who felt themselves to be dispossessed. • “Backward” was not used as part of some absolute scale of progress. Rather, Backward Caste was used in opposition to what were called “Forward” Castes. In the Forward category were the Brahmins, the Rajputs (aka Kshatriya) Kayastha and Bania (Vaisya) who had, Guha tells us, “historically monopolized literacy, scholarship, commerce, and political power” (530) to which must be added, historically, control over LAND. • A very important development in the Janata era was the creation of the MANDAL COMMISSION to look into the disadvantages suffered by the OBCs, and how to remedy them. Most government jobs, most teaching positions, even most private firms, only employed people from UPPER or FORWARD castes, as they were the ones who had education and resources to be get them. Unfortunately, the Janata government fell apart before the report could be delivered. Indira Gandhi, in her second term, simply shelved 3 the recommendations. SLIDE SEVEN • Together with Dalits, OBCs formed well over 60% of the population. While an OBC-Dalit combination had demographic majority, the two groups were difficult to bring together because of structural contradictions. • OBCs (middle peasants) employed DALIT LABORERS in the farms they cultivated, and as smaller farmers could not or did not want to give their laborers good wages. • Dalits, meanwhile, had political representation in the corridors of power since Ambedkar’s time. Reservations of jobs, seats, and school places for Dalits was part of the constitution. None, at this time for OBCs. • There was rising conflict between OBC and DALITs in the Janata era, which was exacerbated as OBCs sought to push their agenda, and were resentful of uppity Dalits!! • It was one these conflicts that actually allowed Indira Gandhi a way back into national politics! She made full capital of a massacre of Dalits in Belchi village in Bihar in July 1977, and undertook a very successful propoganda visit, consoling Dalits and showing how she and her party cared more for them than the OBC-led Janata Party. SLIDE EIGHT • The Janata Party’s ineptitude helped Indira no end too. • They botched her first arrest, soon after they came to power • After Indira Gandhi won her reelection to Parliament (she had lost her own seat in 1977), the Janata government sought to jail her for violating Parliamentary Privilege in her earlier terms. An appeal court judge threw out her jail sentence, but stripped her of her seat Parliament. No worries though, Indira sought and won re-election! • But Mrs Gandhi didn’t need much more help, because the Janata party was falling apart under own ideological contradictions. Former Jana Sangh members retaining their membership of the RSS was a big issue. But so were other politics, as Guha tells us, of “narrow stupid partisan men.... absorbed in their own self interest and self importance” (536) SLIDE NINE • But for all their failures, the Janata Party era has some important successes too. • They helped REPAIR the Constitution, via 44th amendment, to undo the excesses of the Emergency years, and repealed the 38th to 41st amendments that had perverted the basic stucture of the Indian Constitution. 4 • Another important contribution of this period was the DECENTERING of Indian politics.

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