Why caste struggle is not class struggle in Bihar anymore

These pages, over the last couple of weeks, have carried detailed statistical analysis of political representation by caste in Bihar-both among all of Bihar's 3,629 MLAs from 1962-2020 and among the candidates of the two major alliances, namely the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Mahagathbandhan (MGB) in these elections.

- By Roshan Kishore, Nishant Ranjan and Abhishek Jha

The purpose of these was not to merely count caste or sub-caste among the state's politicians, but lay the statistical ground for a deeper understanding of the state's political economy. This three-part series will take this conversation forward by situating Bihar's political representation by caste in its overall political economy. The first part will explain why Bihar's caste battles today, unlike in the past, do not capture its class conflict. The second part will highlight how caste competition in politics is essentially a competition between elites, and the third part will show what can actually be a just political economy for the state.

Bihar's bloody land struggles are now passé because of the fall in agriculture's importance...