In Bihar, a moment of generational change

The transition in Bihar comes at a moment when the nature of caste politics is mutating in the hinterland. Gaining office in a state that acted as the cradle of both anti-Delhi and caste politics is both an instrumental and symbolic victory for the BJP

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For a man destined to become one of India’s most-storied politicians, Nitish Kumar had a rather bumpy electoral start. Swept up in the post-Emergency fervour in 1977, Kumar, then 26, decided to take the electoral plunge from Harnaut — a region roiled at the time by clashes between Dalit farmhands demanding better wages, working conditions and land rights, and their landlords who hailed from the same caste as Kumar.

By then, Indira Gandhi had been deposed in the general elections. Facing him was another Kurmi, Bhola Singh— a family acquaintance who had driven Kumar and his new bride during their wedding in his Fiat four years before. Kumar's spirits were high. He had the Janata’s endorsement. Singh was an independent candidate.

Weeks before the June assembly polls, though, the calculations changed. ‘Around 11 am one May day, a Kurmi strongman landlord and 60 of his associates marched into a Dalit hamlet, hunted down the leader of the peasant mobilisation, rounded up 11 men, tied them up and chucked them into a pyre. The massacre made Belchi a national name and catalysed the return of Indira Gandhi from the political wilderness. But it also singed Kumar. Facing a storm of condemnation, Kurmis coalesced into a defensive group, looking for a candidate who'd defend the perpetrators of the atrocity. The socialist Kumar hesitated even as Singh embraced the mantle, and won.