Extreme People

Political parties in Bihar are trying hard to woo members of Extremely Backward Classes, a loose collection of more than a 100 small, heterogeneous castes

- Umesh Kumar Ray

SEATED in the verandah of his modest concrete home in Muzaffarpur, around 90 kilometres from Patna, 50-year-old Naresh Sahni speaks with quiet certainty. “Today, 36 per cent of the population is forming the government. Whichever side gets these votes will certainly form the government,” he says. The “36 per cent” he refers to are members of Bihar’s Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), a loose collection of more than a 100 small, heterogeneous castes. Around 10 per cent of them are from Muslim EBC communities. Sahni himself belongs to the EBC. The Sahni or Mallah community comprises nearly 20 sub-castes whose primary occupations are river-related, mainly fishing and boating. Recent political efforts to woo the EBCs, known as Panchpawania, show that Naresh Sahni's claim is no exaggeration.