Possible Impact of Praja Rajyam in the Next Assembly Elections of AP

Can he Impact ?
Konduri Veeraiah

With the Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam, once again, the political discourse is shifted to the emerging Caste loyalties vis-à-vis political parties in Andhra Pradesh. Discourses on caste and its manipulations in politics are not new. The process of secularisation and democracy gave a new fillip to the caste mobilisations as democracy represents in theory for majority. They can be traced back to Selig.S.Harrison’s ‘Caste and Andhra Communists’of the early 50s that threw light on the foundational role of caste in political mobilization. In this seminal work Harrison stressed the need for a special study on caste to comprehend its impact on representative institutions. In a continuation to this debate M.N.Srinivas has provided a data of the fascinating dynamics of ‘the caste’ in different walks of life in connection with the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tamilanadu, Karnataka by applying the same principle in the light of first general elections to judge the emerging trends and changing political affiliations.

As the colonial rule unravelled and de-linked social caste from religious caste, it has became “ a single term of capable of expressing, organising, and above all systematising India’s diverse form of social identity, community and organisation.” Caste forms in to a major element in the social organisation with its long-established authority at the bottom. Thus the interplay of Caste and political democracy has always been an issue of renewed interest and controversy in this country as the process of group dynamics and web of power alignments in Indian villages are infinitely complex. Though caste has been a crucial player in articulating political mobilisation in the state there are no enough studies that deal with the changing political allegiances and reasons behind it, particularly after institutionalising the democratic process. In view of the ever changing nature of the caste, an attempt has been made in this essay to examine M.N.Srinivas’s concept of Dominant caste to forecast the possible emerging scenarios of Chiranjeevi’s influence and role in the politics of Andhrapradesh.

Like in any other part of the country, in Andhra Pradesh also Caste has played an important role either directly or indirectly in political mobilisations. The only difference as far me is that due to the strong presence of communist movement, till 90’s caste played only discrete role while in some other states the political mobilisation of caste started as early as immediately after the independence. With emergence of Telugudesam in the state’s political landscape, the role of caste started functioning in open unlike in the 60’s and 70’s. Presently the Telugu society has, become busy with the same political discourse that the state had seen with the political entry of the actor turned politician, N.T.Ramarao(NTR), a kamma person by caste. N.T.R proclaimed that he was launching a party, the Telugu Desam Party(TDP),with the sole aim of protecting the Telugu people’s pride or self respect. But this time around ,after a quarter century, the state reverted back to a similarkind of debate with another cine star Chiranjeevi launching his Praja Rajyam party(PRP).

In the recent past realisation of numerical strength and articulation of interests in political spheres has seen a new phenomena called “social engineering”. The phrase “ Social Engineering” became popular in the wake of BSP’s upsurge first in UttarPradesh and gradually on the national political landscape. Way back in early 80s N.T.Rama Rao with his demigod like charisma succeeded in creating and consolidating a rainbow caste coalition by weaning away BCs and Dalits and considerable section of Muslims from congress fold. Telugu Desam organised social engineering by mobilising BCs, certain sections of SCs and Minorities to run together, under the leadership of a dominant caste, the Kamma caste, to question the hegemony of another dominant caste the reddy caste. Both these developments proves one more important thing which Dube emphasises in his article in Contributions to Indian Sociology exactly forty years ago, in 1968. Dube synthesises that mere caste is not a power wielding unit but the multi-caste alliance is. The difference between social engineering of TDP and that of BSP is in the leadership as to who are steering the wheel. In the case of BSP it is Dalits while it was and is, Kammas in the case of TDP. If we consider the TDP and BSP phenomenon we have to agree on Dube’s prophetic understanding of Indian villages and their power wielding structure. Though before BSP, TDP pioneered social engineering, social analysts missed the significance of this process.

To analyse the Chiranjeevi impact in politics of AP,I am relying on the theory of Dominant Caste developed by MN Srinivas in his studies of Rampura village in Karnataka, though I am not in full agreement with him about the criteria and functions of Dominant Caste. This compels us to dwell in to caste composition of the state with relevant details. As, there were no census based on caste after 1930 we have to depend on 1921 census conducted by Nizam’s administration that contained a column on caste to ascertain the respective percentages of each caste in the state of Andhra Pradesh. According to K.Srinivasulu ,in Andhrapradesh, the Brahmins form 3% , Reddys and Kammas, 6.5% and 4.8% respectively, and the other Backward Castes (OBCs) costitute 46.1%, of the State’s population.”

Major Caste wise Population in Andhra Pradesh
Backward castes % Forward castes % Scheduled castes % Others %
Golla/ yadava 6.3 Kapu 15.2 Mala 9.7 Muslims, Chirstians 7.0
Telaga 5.2 Reddy 6.5 Madiga 7.3
Chakali 4.2 Kamma 4.8
Mutarasi 3.3 Velama 3.0
Balija 3.0 Komati 2.7
Padmsale 2.9 Kshatriya 1.2
Kammari 2.1
Devangana 2.1
Goundla 2.0
Waddera 1.9
Mangali 1.3
Kuruma 1.3
Idiga 1.0
Kummari 0.9
Munnuru Kapu 0.8
Boya 0.7
Besta 0.7
Uppara 0.4
Gavara 0.4
Jangama 0.4
Others 5.4
Total 46.1 36.4 17 7.0

Source:K.Srinivasulu, Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh: Mapping Differential Regional Trajectories.

Major caste groups in the state are geographically distributed in different regions and each region has its own “Dominant caste” (in M.N.Srinivas’s understanding) that capitalized the opportunities such as education, land, power.,etc. It is also interesting to observe that different dominant castes of different regions are knitted together in to the web of power structures in same manner, thus drawing our attention to underlying factors of these relations. These web of power structures preconditions the political actors to forge a rainbow coalitions with different dominant castes of different region. In the case of Andhra Pradesh, so far the rainbow caste coalitions in the state are centering around the dominant castes; Reddys associated with the Congress party and Kammas of the of TDP. These groupings emerged out of 30 years of political churning and are in tact, though there are minor adjustments with the ground level voting shifts. Emergence of Telugu Desam and consequent ending of Congress’ monopoly created political dualism that is continuing for nearly three decades.

Undoubtedly people are vexed with dualism and hegemony, at every level including the polity and economic resources mainly because they are, in fact, not an alternative to each other but two sides of same coin. This is evident from the fact that the polices they are pursuing are one and same. The communities of Reddys and Kammas are, though numerically small, acquired multiple characteristics of dominance thus established themselves as Dominant Castes. Their dominance is evident not only in political arena, but also their hegemonic presence in academic, administrative, economic and land relations helped them to play leading roles in respective coalitions. Here comes a necessity of more structured debate over the characteristics and manufacturing of Dominant Caste. This debate is particularly important in the context of rise of subaltern castes to power. Another important fact we need to stress here is that these two castes in Andhra Pradesh occupied highest levels in local caste hierarchy also, unlike the jats in UP and Rajastan, Yadava in UP, Bihar. Coupled with the accrual of multi-factors, these two castes established themselves as dominant ones in the state.

A caste may said to be ‘dominant’ one when it preponderates numerically over the other castes, and when it also wields preponderate economic and political power. A large and powerful caste group can more easily be dominant if its position in the local caste hierarchy is not too low (MNSrinivas). Srinivas laid down four criterion of a dominant caste. First, it should be numerically large . Second, it should wield economic strength in the given area. Third, it should also wield political power. Lastly, it should not be too low in caste hierarchy. The characteristics of a Dominant Caste were expanded and strengthened when Dumont, Dube and Peter Gardner, Oomen etc. engages with MN Srinivas. If my understanding of MN Srinivas is correct, he basically relied on numerical preponderance in the first place for any caste to establish itself as dominant one.

Now we shall turn to see how these characters individually and collectively functions in establishing a caste as dominant caste particularly with reference mainly to Andhra Pradesh with often UP for comparison. Considering this definition, a question may arise as to whether mere numerical predominance is a sufficient prerequisite for a caste to become Dominant? In the case of Andhra Pradesh the forward castes that have been ruling so far are numerically not preponderant ones. But the influence they exert is so enormous that they uphold the existing caste hierarchy in society. Which means though the Kamma and Reddy communities of Andhra Pradesh are acted as dominant castes though they are numerically small. Being numerically low doesn’t affect their chances of occupying highest echelons of power. This proves about the existence of other factors that contributed to their dominance. They are also in forefront in ensuring the status-quo of social hierarchy in the basic unit, i.e. village. For this ensuring the status-quo, they even resorted to discriminative policies.

In essence they coupled the social discrimination with political and economic discrimination to wean away the opportunities from lower stratum of the village. In other words, thus they are discharging another important function of dominant caste, i.e. maintain the social order as it is. The experience of UP also defies the criteria of numerical preponderance. Though Dalits’ numerical preponderance does not always contributed to their dominance as it is evident from BSP experience. Master in social engineering, BSP could not dominate the state politically until it diversified its base and get a few upper castes in to its fold despite its numerical domination. Thus we are having two contrasting experiences to show that the first criterion, numerical preponderance, is not a basic/sufficient criterion for a caste to become a dominant caste.

The next criteria of M.N.Srinivas was the economic and political preponderance of a caste in a given area. Here his sequencing of the terminology is fascinating. He uses political preponderance next only to economic preponderance. This implies that economic influence is essential for a caste to construct a working alliance at village level to have political preponderance at the larger level. Economic lead empowers a caste to move across different sections of the economy by controlling and expanding resources. Land has been the mainstay of economic power in our society where the castes with rural orientation are holding the key. Now with the widespread capitalist relations of economy not only the ability to own and control the land constitutes economic hegemony but also its presence in trade, industry matters as it imparts the ability to spend counts. Unfortunately, though there is scarcity of data about the caste wise landholdings in general through out the country and particularly in AP. This forces us to analyze the role of these two criterion in establishing a caste as dominant caste on mere perceptions or assumptions.

To support our assumptions, Government of AP’s Land Committee under the chairmanship of Urban Development ministry pointed out the ever increasing concentration of land in to the big hands thus leaving the down stratum of society is loosing its landholding. Though it did not mentioned the caste wise landholdings, the essence it gives us is the same. One more example I can place here. In 1995 I was part of a team that surveyed one village, Lingarao Palem of Guntur district, where we found more than 80 percent of arable land under the village limits is concentrated in the hands of dominant caste in that village. As the village inhabits more than a dozen castes, the remaining 20 % of land is scattered among the left over castes of that village. A different kind of situation than this in the rest of the state is certainly ruled out. Except for the fact that the governments are forced to implement the reservations in local bodies, since the establishment of that village which we surveyed, the reins or in the hands of dominant caste only. Even after the reservations came in to force the BC and SC panchayat presidents are for the sake of record only. With this we can conclude that the though numerically small the dominant caste with considerable landholdings and say in the political affairs is ruling the roost.

Going by this evidence we can say that in the case of AP, the dominant castes presence in economic fields and political structures need not to be explained separately as the experiences of over 60 decades are in front of us. Even in some parts of northern India, subaltern casts like Jats, Yadava, Kurmis are able to influence the political structures only after they attained considerable presence in economic spheres of society. Thus these two criterion are primary for any caste which wishes to be a dominant one to poses. Because the overarching presence in these areas gives that caste or community to upkeep the existing socio-economic relations in tact and to ward of if necessary any attempts to change those structures of relationship. The last criteria is about the position of a caste on the hierarchy. By mentioning hierarchy in local caste system, Srinivas agrees that the caste hierarchy differs from place to place and even village to village. This doesn’t’ need an additional explanation. The Dalit as caste, irrespective of textual differences among them in terms of each other, could not constitute dominant caste primarily they would not have any interest in maintaining status-quo in social and political structures. May be this lead to BSP’s inability to establish its key constituents as dominant caste until it diversified its caste base by absorbing prominent figures across the social spectrum.

While articulating the caste mobilization politics is influenced by the dominant caste syndrome, it needs to be ascertained whether that particular caste constitutes a dominant caste or not. It should be in a position to sustain these social relations if it wants to sustain as a dominant caste. Thus assertion as dominant caste and ability to sustain the social relations structure based on the dominant caste syndrome are reinforcing each other.

With the above understanding of dominant caste, now we shall turn to the possible impact of Chiranjeevi and his Prajarajyam in the forthcoming elections. Now there is a common understanding or impression in the state in the well informed sections as well as in the press that the well of sections of Kapu community are behind the propping up of Praja Rajyam with Chiranjeevi at its fountain head. The question of whether Chiranjeevi would be able to steer the political scene in the state or not is entirely depends up on the fact that whether his caste can become a dominant caste or not. We will outline the three possible scenarios about the possible impact of Chiranjeevi’s party in the forth coming elections in the state and provide logical support in terms of above discussion about the dominant caste syndrome.

First,it can hamper the winning chances of a good number of candidates belongs to rival parties, there by leading to a hung assembly. Second possible scenario may be winning on his own provided forming a rainbow caste coalition on sustainable basis as precondition. The last scenario may be winning majority of seats in the community dominant constituencies and impacting the winning chances in other parts. For the first scenario to become reality the present process can be considered sufficient such as projecting him and his party as benefactor of his community. This leads to direct political articulation of caste mobilization. The realization of the second and third scenarios depends on the ability of his community rather than his own ability to lead the caste coalition only when the Kapu community becomes a dominant caste. This kind of rainbow caste coalition will also infuse confidence among the dissatisfied sections in other parties which will come handy to tilt the results decisively.

When caste articulation transcends the boundary line of individual social life aided by issues such as under representation, discrimination, identity, it will propel this articulation beyond the limited sphere of individual in to a larger sphere of society and turns in to political articulation. As mentioned above the first scenario is possible if Chiranjeevi and Kapu community succeed in generating awareness about the above mentioned issues, to establish himself as leader of that community. Still it won’t be sufficient to project him as a leader of under privileged or under represented backward castes. That needs to accommodate the issues of other castes and communities also in to his agenda. As the above table indicates there is nearly half of the population falls under the category of Backward castes that include Munnuru Kapu and Balija, two important sub castes of Kapu community. As the caste wise population is also distributed in different geographical scales as Kapu is mainly concentrated in coastal districts, Munnuru Kapu concentrated in Telangana region, Balija concentrated in Rayalaseema region. If all these three are put together in to single head it comes around 22 % of total population. If he succeeds in inculcating the sense of caste mobilization around discrimination, under representation and other such issues he may prove himself as a sole representative of that caste and can win considerable seats from the areas of community domination and also split proportionate voting in other parts of the state. So far except certain well off sections of this community in coastal region, general masses are with the congress party.

According to some observers Kapu, Balija, Munnuru Kapu communities are already started drifting their political loyalties towards Chiranjeevi. Various individual Kapu leaders are quiting their parties to join him. In this case the main looser will be Congress party which is camping with majority of general masses from that community. Even if his party loose he can play a spoiler’s role for congress. Realizing the potential threat of Chiranjeevi’s presence in the political battle YS Rajasekara Reddy’s government ,strategically, has moved pawns to show that his government can protect the interest of Kapu community and there is no need to shift their political loyalty. Steps initiated by government a day before the Tirupati Public meeting of Chiranjeevi, saying that the students of Kapu community are also eligible to get equal amount of scholarship at par with other students from BC communities must be seen in this backdrop . At the same time another issue he digged out is the notification that seeks to consider Kapus as BCs which was released and kept unimplemented for a decade. With these two steps Congress government initiated to divert the attention of Kapu community from Chiranjeevi. If Chiranjeevi picks up the issue of enumerating Kapu as BCs that may boil the political scene in the near future which may become too hot to handle even for Congress government.

As far as the next two scenarios are concerned a particular caste that wants to be the pillar of rainbow caste coalition needs to meet the other criteria also. Kapu community meets one criteria to become a dominant caste, i.e. numerical criteria. Being numerically largest populated caste among the forwards of backward castes, it can serve as dominant caste to lead the rainbow caste coalition which includes rallying of remaining backward communities, a section from SCs and minorities. In comparison to the other backward castes, Kapus are relatively on higher side in the case of prosperity, wealth, education but on the lower side in comparison to the dominant castes in forward communities. Though the exact data of caste wise ownership of assets in the state is not available we can say out of general perceptions that the Kapu community is having lesser share than that of its proportion to the population. Thus they may be lacking the economic criteria of a dominant caste that is coupled with political under representation.

If Chiranejeevi’s party succeeds in bringing about this kind of coalition he is definitely a winning choice in the state. Once this situation emerges the two dominant castes of the state won’t take much time to flirt with Chiranjeevi’s party to protect their economic interests if situation arises as they had done with Communists in late 50’s and early 60’s, though the comparison between Chiranjeevi of today and Communists of 50’s is an odd one. But to project this kind of rainbow caste alliance it needs time to construction, and resources to pour in. This proving sustenance can only be achieved once it infuses confidence among the disgruntled voters of the coalition in particular and other populace in general. And to face the electorate this caste coalition has to prove its sustainability. As the general elections is round the corner in Aprill2009 it may be difficult for Chiranajeevi and his outfit to form a rainbow coalition and prove its sustenance in this sharp and short gap. Even when consider the nature of work undertaken on the eve of the launching of his party like a construction of ready made building, this lack of time will prove costly for his entity. In a state where people are dis-satisfied by both major ruling parties, they are looking for a new one at the same time viable alternative which can focus on the length and breadth of their problems.

For the last criterion, the data shown in the above table it self gives an imprint about the hierarchic position of Kapu community in different geographical scales. As mentioned above Kapu with its two sub castes constitutes a single caste. The sub castes are occupying a downward position in the local hierarchy where as the principle caste occupies an upwardly position. But the fact that at the state level principle caste does not constitute an upper caste status in general, unless the caste community in a particular village dominates numerically as well as in terms of asset owning. Thus we can conclude that Kapu caste including its sub castes does not satisfy the criterion of a Dominant Caste. This itself informs that the caste in question is not in a position to lead a rainbow coalition of castes. Thus it could not influence the electoral prospects on its own in a decisive way.

References:
1.M.N.Srinivas,Castein Modern India
2.Nicholas Dirks , Castes of Minds
3.K.Srinivasulu, Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh: Mapping Differential Regional Trajectories.
4. Dube, in Contributions to Indian Sociology
5. Aditi Phadnis, Back to the future in Business Today, Sept 6, 2008