On the politics of the Nishad community | Explained

Analysis of Nishad community's political influence in U.P. and Bihar, highlighting shifts in electoral dynamics and demands for representation.

The story so far: In his thanksgiving speech after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that Uttar Pradesh had shown the way to the nation while referring to the success of the INDIA-alliance in the State. The INDIA-alliance was able to get more of the Extremely Backward Caste (EBC) votes as compared to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In Bihar, the recently held caste survey puts the total population of the EBCs at 36%. When combined with the Other Backward Classes (OBC), backward castes make up 63% of the total population of the State. As the CSDS-Lokniti data suggests, in 2024 the grip of the NDA parties over EBC votes has dwindled as compared to previous elections and this includes the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), the party of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has till now enjoyed staunch support from EBC voters. On the other hand, the INDIA alliance has been able to make substantial inroads into the EBC vote bank. Among the EBC communities, the Nishad community which consists of almost 20 jatis, make up about 9% of the population of the State.

In U.P, unlike in Bihar, there is no separate category for EBCs that distinguishes them from OBCs. Castes such as Yadav, Kurmi, and Patel, who are landowners and politically strong, were visible during past elections. And despite not owning land, castes like Maurya and Kushwaha were also prominent in elections. Now, the Bhar and Nishad communities have also established a significant presence in U.P. According to data from the 2001 Hukum Singh committee, OBCs make up over 50% of U.P’s population, with Yadavs being the largest group at 19.4%. Among the non-Yadav castes which make up the rest of the OBCs in the State, Kurmis and Patels represent 7.4%, Nishads, Mallahs, and Kevats 4.3%, Bhar and Rajbhars 2.4%, Lodhs 4.8%, and Jats 3.6%. However, there is no concrete caste-wise breakdown of the OBC population.

Nishad is an umbrella term for dozens of riverine castes in north India. After the Mandal Commission report, they started introducing themselves as ‘Nishad’, a singular political and social entity. The Nishad community, one of the politically visible but less represented groups in the electoral landscape of U.P. in the past, is now being noticed. Although there is no clear demarcation between OBC and EBCs, they are considered EBCs and have rallied behind the Akhilesh Yadav-Rahul Gandhi duo. In adjoining Bihar too, the Nishad community rallied strongly behind Mukesh Sahani, also known as ‘son of mallah’, who is a member of the INDIA-alliance and was seen campaigning along with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejaswi Yadav.

The politics of the Nishad community has rarely seen any comparative analysis between the States of U.P. and Bihar. The fieldwork done by the authors on the Nishads took place across several districts of U.P. and Bihar such as Banda, Chitrakoot, Kaushambi, Prayagraj, Bhadohi, Chandauli etc, and Banaras, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Vaishali, Hajipur, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur.

It was found that the Nishads were drifting away from the BJP and had been mobilising for the INDIA block. In Varanasi, the female voters of the Nishad community were more comfortable with Narendra Modi in comparison to their male counterparts, but in other areas, they were more affiliated to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress. The support for Congress among Nishads is a new phenomenon in the last two decades of U.P.’s politics. As far as the SP is concerned, it was Mulayam Singh Yadav who brought this community to the political forefront. Phoolan Devi was given a Lok Sabha ticket from the SP in 1996. She won the seat from the Mirzapur constituency in U.P. and was also later re-elected in 1999. Thus, the Congress was absent among the Nishads in these areas from 1989. But this time, one could see a formidable political faith among Nishads for Congress, especially in Banda, Chitrakoot, and Prayagraj. This was partly due to the SP-Congress alliance and partly to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Constitution speeches’. Elders and youngsters of the community were discussing the ‘samvidhan’. This is a new takeaway from this election where the Indian Constitution is finding a social life in marginal spaces.

In Bihar, the Nishad community’s foray into electoral politics had been restricted to limited cases of representatives being promoted by different political parties such as Jai Narain Nishad in the 1990s-2000s who switched between JD(U) and BJP and Ramkaran Sahni, in the 1970s and 80s. The post-Mandal politicisation of different caste groups in Bihar was a missed opportunity by the Nishad community as its loyalty was fragmented across different parties in the absence of a strong political formation from within the community. Mukesh Sahani and his Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), since 2014, claim to be working towards the consolidation of the Nishad community as an important political force. With the caste survey of Bihar placing the community’s 22 sub-caste’s total population to be almost 10% of the State’s population, its numerical strength has assumed a new political significance. The 2024 elections saw the BJP winning the trust of the Nishad voters in Muzaffarpur, a constituency where Nishads have emerged as a ‘dominant caste’. The BJP has acknowledged this victory as a window of opportunity for further consolidation, evident from its inclusion of Muzaffarpur’s MP and first time parliamentarian, Raj Bhushan Choudhury in the Modi 3.0 Cabinet. Incidentally Mr. Choudhury contested on the same seat unsuccessfully in the 2019 parliamentary elections, but on a VIP ticket. This is also the pressing challenge faced by the VIP party in Bihar, that despite having built a decent party organisation and a good ground presence within the community, the party is unable to attract or put forward strong winnable candidates on its ticket, which reflects the paucity of leadership within the community.