Opinion In Bihar and beyond, caste has moved on. The caste ‘experts’ have not
Bihar verdict calls for a new matrix to examine the role of caste in politics. That matrix must not read rural and urban in binaries, and should factor in the impact of migration, technology, social media and the aspirational new generation of youths, for whom, more often than not, Champaran is about Champaran handi meat rather than Gandhi’s satyagraha
The Bihar verdict, in this sense, announces the eclipse of caste-supremacists. It questions the herd mentality. 
Assembly elections in Bihar this year were preceded by Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath Puja. Sitting in Delhi, I was curious about who was making the Durga idol this time in my village. Earlier, I was told that the people of the Kumhaar caste, who have traditionally been doing this, had left the occupation. Apparently, the young man who was making the idol this time came from one of the traditionally/erstwhile “untouchable” castes of the village.
His story goes like this: Years ago, he migrated to West Bengal in search of a job, and ended up in Kumortuli in North Kolkata, famous for idol making. This is where he learnt the skill. As he returned to his village, this man from the Dash-tola, as we used to call it around four decades ago, silently broke the purity-pollution model.
Caste and its structures are intimately tied to this land. Its locality and power relations work in perfect sync. However, things changed with the migration of not just the non-landed castes but also the castes whose dominance stemmed from their ownership of land. The new generation of the land-owning castes preferred the comforts of the corporate offices in a distant Bengaluru or Chennai. Rugged rural and its communitarian grid seems to have lost out to the anonymous, private, cosy cocoons in a distant metropolitan land.
This eventually led to the loosening of the grip of the dominant caste. Caste seems to have left the moribund and straitjacketed ideological framework. This facilitated the caste-neutral possibilities in terms of job opportunities, career options and political choices.
The Bihar verdict, in this sense, announces the eclipse of caste-supremacists. It questions the herd mentality. Herds are predictable. Individuals are experimental, aspirational and logical. The transition from collective to individual identity, particularly in the context of caste, has been undermined or underplayed in our understanding of Bihar. A state long known for politics of social justice and empowerment of the people on the margins gradually became a fiefdom of a few families. The emancipatory agenda of caste politics got sidelined once the likes of Karpoori Thakur left the stage.
The Bihar verdict calls for a new matrix to examine the role of caste in politics. That matrix must not read rural and urban in binaries, and should factor in the impact of migration, technology, social media and the aspirational new generation of youths, for whom, more often than not, Champaran is about Champaran handi meat rather than Gandhi’s satyagraha. The thing is, caste has moved; not the caste experts. They are still doing armchairism and looking at caste through M N Srinivas’s Sanskritisation model. The election verdict of Bihar invites the caste specialists to hit the ground and meet the young man who made the Durga idol in this Dussehra in my village in Bihar.
The writer teaches Sociology at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi. His recent book is The Deras: Culture, Diversity and Politics
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