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Rajputs in Bihar are members of the Rajput community living in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. They traditionally formed part of the feudal elite in Bihari society. Rajputs were pressed with the Zamindari abolition and Bhoodan movement in post-independence India; along with other Forward Castes, they lost their significant position in Bihar's agrarian society, leading to the rise of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
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The Backward Caste movement in Bihar can be traced back to the formation of Triveni Sangh, a caste coalition and political party, in the 1930s, which was revived after the introduction of land reforms in the 1950s aimed at removing intermediaries from agrarian society. But, this drive could not succeed in bringing long-lasting changes in the condition of lower strata of society, as they lacked political representation and economic power. The period since land reform included caste conflicts and the class struggle which eventually led to a transfer of absolute political power in the hands of Backward Castes, who had been kept away from it earlier. The class struggle succeeded the struggle of some of the Upper Backward Castes against the sacerdotal authorities for improvement in their ritual status. By the 1990s, the conflict between upper-castes and the lower-castes continued, with nearly 17 massacres taking place during this time period. But with the advent of politics of social justice and the Janata Dal in the 1990s, the lower caste became more active politically.
The Upper Backward Caste is a term used to describe the middle castes in Bihar, whose social and ritual status was not very low and which has traditionally been involved in the agricultural and animal husbandry related activities in the past. They have also been involved in low scale trade to some extent. The Koeri, Kurmi, Yadav and Bania are categorised as the upper-backwards amongst the Other Backward Class group; while the various other caste groups which constitutes the OBC, a group comprising 51% of the population of state of Bihar, has been classified as lower backwards. The upper-backwards also called upper OBC represents approximately 20.3% of the population of Bihar. These agricultural caste were the biggest beneficiaries of the land reform drive which was undertaken in the 1950s in the state and they strengthened their economic position by gaining a significant portion of excess land under the ceiling laws, which prohibited the ownership of land above a certain ceiling.
The Luv-Kush equation is a political term used in the context of the politics of Bihar, to denote the alliance of the agricultural Kurmi and the Koeri caste, which was assumed to be approximately 15% of the state's population The alliance of these two caste groups has remained the support base of Nitish Kumar, as against the MY equation of Lalu Prasad Yadav, which constitutes Muslims and the Yadavs. Caste consciousness and the quest for political representation largely drive the politics of Bihar. The political alliance of the Koeri and the Kurmi castes, termed the "Luv-Kush equation" was formed when a massive Kurmi Chetna Rally was organised by members of the Kurmi community in 1994 against the alleged casteist politics of Lalu Yadav, who was blamed by contemporary community leaders for promoting Yadavs in politics and administration.
A dominant caste is one which preponderates numerically over other castes and also wields preponderant economic and political power. A large and powerful caste group can be more easily dominant if its position in the local caste hierarchy is not too low. The concept of dominant caste was introduced in 1959 by sociologist M. N. Srinivas.
References
- ↑ "Never leave home: Finding a slice of India in Mauritius". Indian Express. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
- ↑ The Indian Diaspora Archived 2011-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
- 1 2 Bates, Crispin (2016). Community, Empire and Migration: South Asians in Diaspora. Springer. p. 14. ISBN 978-0333977293 . Retrieved 2020-07-01.Some 'castes' in Mauritius in particular are quite unrecognizable from a subcontinental perspective, and may incorporate mutually antagonistic castes from an Indian setting into a single group. A 'Rajput' in Mauritius is of a sudra caste, the title having been usurped by this group in the nineteenth century. Ethnolinguistic distinctions differentiate Bhojpuri/Hindi speakers from Tamil speakers. Telugu and Marathi Hindus maintain regional endogamy. Gujaratis are also seen as a separate community, from a trading rather than an indenture background, and maintain a social distance from descendants of 'coolies'. The former Brahmin elite are referred to as the Maraz and together with the former Rajputs and other Kshatriyas, now called 'Babujis', enjoy the prestige conferred by high-caste status, whilst politically they complain of marginalization.
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