When the BJP-led NDA stormed to power in the summer of 2014, there was a lot of talk of how the newly-anointed Prime Minister Narendra Modi would scale up the ‘Gujarat model’ of development at the national level. The UPA years were seen as those tainted by doles. Welfare schemes for the poor were seen as a relic of a ‘socialist’ past and growth and reforms were the new mantra that would reverse the inertia of the UPA years and usher in prosperity. 

The reality, however, turned out quite differently with the Modi government relying as much on welfare schemes – Jan Dhan, Swachch Bharat, Ujwala – 

albeit perhaps with better last-mile delivery. 

But in the early part of the Modi era there were doubts over the future of MGNREGA. A group of worried academics, both based in India and abroad, even dashed off a letter to the Prime Minister advising him against taking any hasty action on the world’s largest anti-poverty scheme. The scheme, fortunately, survived, but not before Modi took a dig at the Congress in Parliament, calling the scheme a legacy of Congress years. 

This incident finds mention in MR Sharan’s interesting book, Last among Equals: Power, Caste, and Politics in Bihar’s Villages. The book is an account of the author’s field study in a group of villages in Bihar that he undertook as part of his PhD programme. 

Hurly-burly of rural life 

Sharan, who teaches economics at the University of Maryland, US, takes us far away from the arcane and rarefied world of policy-making and thrusts us into the hurly-burly of everyday life in rural India. This is a world where economics and politics collide and the results are startling even if it is a little depressing. The book lays bare how the best of policies, crafted with the best of intentions, get subverted by local village-level power structures. 

The hero of this book is the little-known Sanjay Sahni, an immigrant from Bihar eking out a comfortable living as an electrician in Delhi. A chance encounter at a local internet café changes Sahni’s life. He gives up his life and career in Delhi and heads to his village in Bihar to organize a group of villagers to fight against the corruption and leakages in the MGNREGA Scheme. 

He fights against the powerful Mukhiyas (village headmen) who were happily fudging muster roles, creating ghost workers and siphoning off money from the MGNREGA scheme and denying genuine workers their dues. 

Sharan spent a great deal of time with Sahni and other activists in the villages of Bihar and describes how they overcame the odds and succeeded in demanding and getting their due. This success did not come easily, the workers had to deal with not only bureaucratic apathy but even constant threat of violence from the village elite. 

The 1991 economic reforms is not surprisingly seen as a seminal moment in India’s development path. But Sharan says an equally revolutionary legislation – the Constitution (Seventy-Third Amendment) Act, passed in Parliament just a year after reforms hardly gets the attention it deserves. 

‘Bottom-up’ development approach 

This path-breaking Act, “created the space for formal Panchayati Raj Institutions across the country” and for first time since Independence tried to devolve power to the village body to instill a “bottom-up” approach to development. The Bill also paved the way for “reservations of weaker sections like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes’. But for Bihar this path was strewn with many a roadblock. 

Sharan takes a close look at how all this worked in the villages in Bihar with the Mukhiya still calling the shots. Sharan says things are changing now, albeit slowly, with financial powers being devolved to the Ward members and the Mukhiya’s reins on the purse strings being loosened, but there is still long way to go. 

His assessment of Nitish Kumar’s reign is largely positive though he feels after 2010 Nitish hasn’t quite delivered on the promises he made. 

But Nitish comes for appreciation for bringing in the Grievance Redressal Act, where a concerted effort was made to make the state machinery more accountable. 

Sharan’s dissection of the legal and political tangle over reservations in Panchayat bodies in Bihar is the most interesting part of the book. His analysis of Lalu Prasad Yadav, the “subaltern Saheb” is particularly revealing. 

Though Lalu is largely credited for empowering the OBCs in the State, interestingly he was lukewarm towards reservation for Dalits in Panchayat bodies. Lalu, it seems, could not quite understand the potential of Panchayati Raj institutions in bringing development. . 

The Patna High Court played its part in stalling reservations by declaring it unconstitutional in the 1990s. It was only in 2006 that the legal decks were cleared for reservations in local bodies. 

Quality of lives 

But do Dalit Mukhiyas make a real difference in development outcomes? Yes, says Sharan, reservation did improve the quality of lives of Dalits and reduced inequality. Sharan also says that the reason local elites oppose reservations is not just immediate loss of power or wealth but a fear of the reversal of “the natural order of Indian society”. 

The book ends with Sanjay Sahni’s valiant attempt to fight the Bihar Assembly elections as an independent in 2020. Despite the early momentum and support from India and abroad and campaigning from well-known activists – Jean Dreze, Nikhil Dey — Sahni lost his deposit. Despite the promise and potential of Indian electoral democracy it is still incredibly hard for candidates outside the established political party network to win elections. 

But Sahni, ever the optimist, quickly dusted off his electoral debacle and plunged headlong into his next mission – launching a new collective for migrant workers. 

Sharan’s love for Bihar and its people shines through brightly. The book – which is an interesting mix of reportage, travelogue, commentary and analysis – is a must read for those interested in understating the heady collision of economics, power and caste in rural India. 

Title: Last among equals: Power, Caste and Politics in Bihar’s villages 

Author: MR Sharan 

Publisher: Context 

Price: Rs 599

Check the book out on Amazon

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