Return of the Indian Brahmin

Elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh have thrown up an interesting equation.Mayawati who is the president of the biggest Dalit party in India became the chief minister with the support of both Dalits and Brahmins( Dalits are people from the backward caste and Brahmins from the upper priest class)

There are two aspects to this alliance that can sustain it:
1) The major contention between a Dalit and Brahmin alliance is the divide created by reservation for government jobs. Since the opening up of private sector, public sector jobs are anyways not that lucrative and Brahmins would not mind leaving them. What they do get, and really want, is political voice. 51 of them got elected on the tickets of BSP, and they can use this new found political strength to stop the slide towards complete marginalization.
2) As Brahmins get political voice, they can start pushing for economic status based reservation. According to the recent census, only around 20% of Brahmins can be classified as rich and in terms of economic status, they are not doing well. Like any other caste, they clean toilets, pull rickshaws and do other menial jobs. Gone are the days when they could get on with their lives by just interpreting the scriptures. Now they would rather become a Narayan Murty then some priest in the village temple.

On a macro level, reservations have had some desired results. Certain opportunities did become available to some of the most backward castes and there are numerous examples of true beneficiaries. India's last president was a Dalit and that probably is a statement in itself. Overall, the level of discrimination has come down though one can still hear incidents that happen in some of the northern states. Accompanying reservations was also the general apathy that Brahmins suffered at the hand of the political parties. It made numerical sense as well. Brahmins constitute less than 5% of Indian population as against Dalits who constitute more than 15% of the population. While southern India already had very strong anti-Brahmin movements, last 20 years have seen the rise of strong anti-Brahminism in North India as well. Uttar Pradesh, which has the largest population of Brahmins, has not seen a Brahmin chief minister for the last 20 years and will definitely not see another one for some time to come.

Apathy of political parties meant that Brahmins lost faith in the political system and stopped going to the voting booths. The number of Brahmins elected in the Hindi belt came down from 20% to 10%. While the idea of wooing backward castes obviously made sense, time has probably come to see if Brahmins also constitute a vote bank. Both political parties as well as Brahmins themselves have realized this fact. While some, like Amarmani Tripathi and before him Sriprakash Shuka, decided to express themselves in militant ways, Brahmins in general have been forced to think tactically and find new partners to gain political voice. If they thought that the political system was corrupt and too lowly for them to consider it, they are now ready to jump into the mud for the political fruits that have been denied to them. Does this augur well for the state of Uttar Pradesh or other states where similar alliance can happen? Definitely not but this was probably their only chance to gain power and change the status-quo.