SOROOR AHMED traces the history of Gujjars and Meenas, analyses the situation in Rajasthan and neighbouring States and opines that the deteriorating situation may harm the interests of BJP in Rajasthan and adjoining States.
Promises are made to be broken. Vasundhara Raje, the Rani who preferred Raj-hinsa (state violence) to Raj-dharma (the religious responsibility of the rulers) was well aware of this distorted adage, when during the run-up to the December 2003 assembly election, she gave word to Gujjars that once in power she would include them in the Schedule Tribes’ list. Three and a half years later now she expresses her helplessness stating that this can be done only by the Centre, where the UPA is in power since May 2004.
To quote Shakespeare, this is ‘an excellent falsehood’ and if the Gujjars are feeling let down they have every reason to do so. According to an estimate they form about five per cent of Rajasthan’s population. But they have literally fallen between two stools. The BJP has stabbed them in the back.
When the BJP-led NDA government under Atal Behari Vajpayee came to power in Delhi on October 13, 1999 one of the first steps it took was the inclusion of the Jats of Rajasthan in the Backward Classes list. The 15 per cent strong Jats are considered relatively well off and politically much more influential when compared to many other castes of that state. Yet they were rewarded, as a large number of them switched their loyalty from Congress to the BJP in that election.
If the BJP lost no time in granting the Backward Classes status to the Jats, why didn’t it show the similar alacrity after coming to power in December 2003? True, the party bigwigs never expected that the BJP would be voted out of power from the Centre in May 2004, but had the intention been clear they would have declared Gujjars the Schedule Tribes before the announcement of parliamentary election and won their support. But Gujjars were perhaps taken for granted.
The inclusion of Jats in the Backward Classes list came as a big blow to the Gujjars as in the last over seven years – since late 1999 – the Jats cornered most of the benefits meant for the backward castes. Obviously, the Gujjars felt cheated. The demand for their inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list started gaining ground.
And when they took to streets to press their demand they had to face the bullets of police and the onslaught of the Meenas, the most influential Schedule Tribe of Rajasthan. Meenas, who form 10 per cent of the state’s population, corner the biggest chnuk of Schedule Tribes quota in the Civil Services and other government jobs. The other Schedule Tribes such as Bhils, Sahariyas, Patelias, Koknas, etc. have very insignificant presence in these jobs.
Sandwiched between the interest of Jats and Meenas, the Gujjars are fighting with their back to the wall. These three communities are spread in large numbers in north-western part of the subcontinent, mostly west and north to Delhi. While the Jats, an agriculture caste, are quite influential, Meenas, centuries back a ruling caste of Rajasthan, saw their downfall after the emergence of the Rajputs as a powerful ruling group.
Gujjars, on the other hand, trace their history to Central Asia, to be more precise modern-day Chechnya and Georgia and claim that they came to India with Huns. Sometimes they are also called Gurjars. Gur means enemy and jar defeating. Many anthropologists are of the view that the modern-day Georgia was in fact Gurjaristan or Gorjestan. Similar sounding names can be traced all over north-west India, be it Gurgaon in Haryana, or Gujarat State of India, or a town having the same name in Pakistan or Gujranwala, also in that country. During the Muslim rule many Gujjars embraced Islam, too.
Whatever be their ancient and medieval past the British in 1871 declared Gujjars and Meenas as the Criminal Tribes. In fact they declared about 150 such communities all over the country as Criminal Tribes. It was only after independence that the Indian government repealed the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871.
While Gujjars opposed the British in 1857 many around Delhi indulged in looting the Muslims who fled the city after the British carried out wholesale massacre and mass rapes in that city.
Meenas were declared criminals by the British as a reward to those Rajputs who supported them in 1857. Meenas never forgot that they were replaced by the Rajputs as the ruling caste centuries back.
The caste and tribal politics in the western and northern India is much different from that in the eastern and southern parts of India. Some of these disempowered groups, Gujjars in particular, try to link themselves with the invading foreign armies of the past. That is not the case with the tribes further east and down south, who are aboriginals.
Similarly Meenas, who till the 19th century fought with Rajputs to take back their lost kingdom, though being declared a criminal tribe, are not rated badly in the Hindu caste hierarchy. Some anthropologists are of the view that they are also Kshtriya caste who, along with the Rajputs, migrated from Central Asia in the seventh century. Therefore Brahmins, as they do for other upper castes, perform all the rituals for Meenas from birth to marriage and death. Gujjars too consider themselves to be a sort of Kshtriyas.
The problem with the BJP government in Rajasthan is that the Gujjar-Meena tussle is likely to spill over to other states of the country, too. Gujjars, unlike Meenas, have a large presence in Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, even Gujarat and parts of western Uttar Pradesh. In Jammu and Kashmir, where almost their entire population is Muslim, and in Himachal Pradesh they have been declared a Schedule Tribe while in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradessh they are in the Other Backward Classes list.
If Gujjars are forced to the wall in Rajasthan there is likelihood of their community-members going on the warpath in other states. Their ire will be against the different governments. Meenas do not have this advantage. The BJP, the party which vows to unite the Hindus, ended up dividing them in the worst possible way. BJP finds itself at its wit’s end as it is not able to douse the fire which has engulfed large areas of Rajasthan and is fast spreading to neighbouring States. If the conflict continues and gulf widens, the BJP may lose its power in Rajasthan and influence in other neighbouring States where Gujjars have considerable population. This is another bolt from the blue which may undermine the already waning influence of the Saffron party.