The politicization of the peasantry in a North Indian state

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Bibliographic Data

ID2158603
AuthorsPaul R Bra, Paul R Brass (University of Washington, corresponding author)
Year1980
Volume8
Issue1
Pages3-36
Publication date1980-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Peasant Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0306-6150 • E-ISSN: 1743-9361
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03066158008438124
OpenAlexW2060445991
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited6

During the past three decades, the dominant party in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the Indian National Congress, has undergone a secular decline in its support in state legislative assembly elections. The principal factor in its decline has been its inability to establish a stable basis of support among the middle peasantry, particularly among the so-called 'backward castes', with landholdings ranging from 2.5 to 30 acres. Disaffected from the Congress since the 1950s, these middle proprietary castes, who together form the leading social force in the state, turned in large numbers to the BKD, the agrarian party of Chaudhuri Charan Singh, in its first appearance in UP elections in 1969. They also provided the central core of support for the Janata party in its landslide victory in the 1977 state assembly elections. The politicization of the middle peasantry in this vast north Indian province is no transient phenomenon, but rather constitutes a persistent factor with which all political parties and all governments in UP must contend

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Development economics · Economics · Elite · Geography · Legislature · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socioeconomics · Sociology · State (computer science · Uttar pradesh · Victory · Agricultural Economics and Practices · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · South Asian Studies and Conflicts