Studies in Critical Social Sciences, volume 221. Leiden: Brill, 2022. 312 pp. US$174.00, cloth. ISBN 9789004511811.
West Bengal is a unique state of India where the Dalit (lower castes downtrodden traditionally by upper caste Hindus, particularly Brahmins) population is substantial but there is no political party for them, unlike in many other states. Ayan Guha has critically engaged with this paradoxical scenario often referred to as “West Bengal’s exceptionalism.” Scholars have argued that articulation of an independent Dalit voice has been silenced by the upper-caste dominated parties like Congress (Indian National Congress or INC), Hindu Mahasabha, and alliances like the Left Front. It is in this backdrop that Guha analyzes recent political assertions by the Matua-Namasudra community that have gathered pace since the electoral erosion of the Left Front, a party that had previously followed a class-based mobilization strategy which largely ignored the possibility of caste-based mobilization. Guha does not characterize the recent mobilization of the Namasudras as a typical form of caste politics although he concedes that the successor of the Left Front, the ruling Trinamool Congress (All India Trinamool Congress or AITC) regime did indulge in sporadic caste politics by appealing to the caste identity of the Namasudras. Highlighting the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) successful efforts to build a solid support base among the Namasudras, Guha demonstrates how the BJP has politicized the Namasudras’ collective historical memory of religious persecution in East Pakistan (and later in Bangladesh) to generate sympathy for Hindutva politics. This form of mobilization, which Guha calls “politics of memory,” exhibits greater affinity to Hindutva politics rather than caste politics since the underlying consciousness directing such mobilization is informed by religious sentiment rather than caste-based allegiance. Further, through a detailed analysis of political representation, Guha has also shown that lower caste political representation, an indicator of the politicization of lower caste identity, has also not grown since the decline of the Left in West Bengal. Thus, Guha has masterfully built a case in favour of continuing the inconsequentiality of caste in West Bengal politics.
After arguing against the tendency to see the recent assertion by the Namasudra community as the emergence of caste politics in West Bengal, Guha moves to the analysis of structural factors which have created unfavourable conditions for the political articulation of caste identity and political mobilization along the lines of caste. The author’s meticulous exploration of caste demography has revealed several factors, such as absence of a dominant caste, lack of demographic strength of major lower and intermediate castes, fragmentation of intermediate castes, and the uneven and limited geographic spread of major lower and intermediate castes, which de-incentivize caste-based social engineering.
As Guha investigates the structure of political economy he uncovers a few significant factors that also do not augur well for a politics of caste. One important factor which Guha has particularly emphasized—marshalling sufficient evidence from an array of economic indicators—is the lower level of relative deprivation suffered by the Dalits vis-à-vis the higher castes in West Bengal compared to other states. Another significant factor he highlights is the enormous mismatch in the economic situation of the different lower caste groups, which has made the political aggregation of caste interests extremely difficult.
Guha devotes a significant portion of the book to the analysis of West Bengal’s political culture and it is this interpretation that constitutes the most interesting part of the book. He resorts to both ethnography and historical analysis to make sense of the connection between the silence of caste as a political idiom and West Bengal’s political culture at both macro and micro levels of politics. On one hand, Guha’s analysis of the political culture of West Bengal divulges how the dominant political culture of the state has been shaped by an uncanny marriage between Bhadralok values and Left politics. On the other hand, his analysis highlights how a deep hangover of a left-minded political culture that has outlived the electoral demise of the Left continues to inform the legitimate template of doing institutional politics in West Bengal. This has led to the scenario of whether TMC’s political praxis and discourse—far from being a departure from the political template of the Left—has ended up reproducing the Left’s politics to a considerable extent. Thus, the institutionalization of a particular type of political culture configured through a complex interplay between a Bhadralok value system and left-wing ideology hinders the emergence of a brand of politics much more amenable to the emergence of caste as an effective political idiom of interest articulation. And yet, Guha’s analytical frame also keeps open the possibility for the transformation of the entrenched political culture of the state with the increasing inroads of Hindutva politics. The scope for caste politics still remains bleak as Hindutva politics is likely to subsume caste identity into the overarching identity of being Hindu.
Guha has largely succeeded in his endeavour to offer a holistic and multi-faceted explanation of the insignificance of caste politics in West Bengal. He has taken into account an entire gamut of factors spanning multiple spheres of society. His multi-dimensional scrutiny offers fresh perspectives on the issue, going beyond the conventional method of approaching the political insignificance of caste in West Bengal through the prism of partition, the induced displacement of lower castes, or the class politics of the Left. Despite relying too much on the case study of Matua-Namasudra community to arrive at some of his conclusions, this is a well-researched book that is likely to have a long shelf life, especially considering that it is the first book-length work on the question of caste in West Bengal politics.
Pratick Mallick
Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, Kolkata