THE POLITICS OF CASTE BANS

CM Yogi uses an HC order to stir the political pot

- By Avaneesh Mishra

IDENTITY AND CASTE ARE COMMON CURRENCY DENOMINATIONS in Uttar Pradesh—for the privileged as much as for caste-emancipatory politics. The government has now issued a directive that outlaws a central piece of that vocabulary: the public invocation of caste. Columns for ‘caste’ in FIRs and arrest memos are to be replaced with parental names. Two, and of far more import, there are to be no political rallies around caste identity. Thirdly, displays signalling community pride on vehicles and streets will be subject to fines or removal.

In the three domains, the act is loaded with different kinds of value. Caste-free police recording is liberating, being a relic of colonial-era policing. The other two are more ambiguous in terms of what they signify. Politics of social justice and collective bargaining by less privileged groups revolve precisely around caste—it names the cause of their exclusion from networks of power.

A blanket ban on caste rallies muddies the waters for parties that rely on caste-based mobilisation—the Samajwadi Party’s PDA formula gestures directly at caste, as does the BSP’s Dalit politics or the entire being of any number of BJP allies anchored in narrower caste groups.