Karpoori Thakur who imprinted indelible mark on Bihar politics

         Belonging to a socially and economically backward family, called ‘hajjam’, also ‘nai’, it was impossible to get higher education in then caste-dominant society, but Karpoori Thakur did and became the chief minister of Bihar. 

Karpoori Thalir. Photo - Narendra Modi Twitter on Jan. 23, 2024.

         He gained fame as ‘jannayak’, people’s leader, and a beacon of social justice after implementing a 26 percent reservation for underprivileged classes in 1978 for the first time in the country, much earlier than the Mandal Commission recommendations were executed in the1990s. 

         On the eve of his 100th birth anniversary and a day after the consecration ceremony of Ayodhya’s Ram Temple, his name was announced for the highest civilian award ‘Bharat Ratna’ on January 23, 2024. 

          Born on January 24, 1924 in Bihar’s Samastipur in ‘hajjam’ family, Karpoori Thakur encountered the harsh truth of feudalism at an early age, when his father with him went to a feudalistic lord for financial help after he passed matriculation in the first class, but the rich man said keeping his feet on the table, “you had passed the matriculation? Massage my feet, in Hindi- ‘Pair Dabao”

        The ‘hajjam’ is a marginalised and disadvantageous caste in Bihar, whose members have been traditionally shaving beard and cutting hair only for a little paddy and wheat in the harvested season. 

        In a bid to spread education among the poor students, Thakur scrapped English as a compulsory subject when he had been the education minister in the state because many children could not pass the matriculation examination. He was a votary of the Hindi language and a protagonist of the underprivileged and marginalised class movement. 

         Due to this, the mark imprinted by him is still visible in the politics of Bihar even 36 years after his death. To woo the voters, political parties have been claiming over his legacy. Conferring him with the ‘Bharat Ratna’ is the latest bid in this row by the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the general election that is likely to be held in April this year. 

         The recently held caste-based survey entailed the real picture of backward classes in Bihar, which lie upon 63 percent. The social engineering deciphered by the JD (U) and the RJD, based on the dominant castes of Yadav, Kurmi, Kushwaha and Muslims makes the way difficult for the BJP when now the old alliance partner JD (U) is not with the party. 

         It is not the first time the BJP has faced this political puzzle. In the 1990s, when the Mandal Commission recommendations were put into effect, it propelled ‘kamandal’ that culminated in the ‘Rath Yatra’ led by Hindutva leader Lal Krishna Advani from Somnath to Ayodhya for the construction of Ram Temple at the place of the Babri Masjid. 

          It was a successful run for the saffron party that resulted in the governments formed in several states and the 1996 13-day government in the centre, which continued to the current central government led by Advani’s charioteer Narendra Modi for two consecutive terms. 

          Now when the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is constructed, in the hope of repeating the 1990s’ success and getting political mileage in Bihar, the BJP-led central government announced to confer Karpoori Thakur with Bharat Ratna, who was synonymous to social justice, after breaking into this caste affiliation of parties following caste survey.