The widespread violence in Rajasthan, with Gurjjars agitating for Scheduled Tribe status, is an ominous sign of the future shape of our politics. It is a microcosm of the myriad ways in which the Indian state has produced a fatal conjunction of identity politics and redistributive concerns. This violence is not simply an aberration but has deeper structural causes. These are more likely to be exacerbated rather than resolved by the strategies our political parties have adopted.

At the very basic level this agitation is an outcome of the fact that distribution of state benefits is based, not on any justifiable criteria, but on the raw assertion of community power. The entire edifice of reservations in Rajasthan has been based on this premise. The inclusion of the Jats — a community powerful along many axes — in the OBC category is an example. This inclusion has led to an escalation in caste politics. It increased the stakes for the Gurjjars who have, in terms of representation, been marginalised in many different ways. On the one hand, Jats now dominate the OBC quota; on the other, Meenas, who dominate Rajasthan’s police and civil services, zealously guard the portals of the ST category.

But the stakes have increased for the Gurjjars recently for three reasons. Gurjjars, historically, have had comparatively little political clout in Rajasthan. There is the imminent danger that the only constituency where Gurjjars claimed to have some nominal representation, Dausa, is likely to be declared a reserved seat, depriving Gurjjars of what shards of political representation they have. To his credit, Sachin Pilot does not himself appear to have fanned these fires, but the shadow of complete political marginalisation hovers over the community. The agitation has taken a violent form precisely because the Gurjjars cannot rely on normal political clout the way Jats and Meenas do. Moreover, as political scientist Leela Ram Gurjjar has pointed out, two traditional Gurjjar sources of livelihood, husbandry and agriculture, are both increasingly precarious because of various forms of land alienation under way. But their educational backwardness makes the Gurjjars less equipped to take advantage of other livelihood opportunities. They have almost no representation in the higher police force and civil services. Third, the few educated Gurjjars, particularly those returning from the army (who were important in this agitation), have a heightened sense of alienation precisely because they more viscerally sense their claims will not be heard without an assertion of power.

... contd.