Editor's Take: Bihar’s Political and Caste Dynamics: From the Lalu Yadav Era to Nitish Kumar’s Ascent

Bihar's political and social fabric in the post-independence era has been shaped by a tangled history of caste: deeply entrenched, fiercely guarded, and ever-shifting in its alliances. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the period spanning the 1990s, known for the towering rise of Lalu Prasad Yadav and the social revolution he unleashed, followed later by the advent of Nitish Kumar.

The Landscape before Lalu: Congress Domination and the Old Order

In the initial decades after independence, the Indian National Congress was the unchallenged power that ran Bihar's affairs. This period, much like the rest of north India, was marked by the dominance of upper castes: Brahmins, Bhumihars, Rajputs, and Kayasths, both in politics and in the state's administrative machinery. Despite the abolition of zamindari and lofty ideals of social justice, the lived realities of Bahujans and Dalits largely remained unchanged. The emergence of landowning castes as rural elites did not substantially alter the backwardness of education, industry, or health in Bihar. This concentration of power set the stage for a social churning that would eventually give rise to a new political order.

The Mandal Commission and Social Upheaval

The seeds of Bihar's later political realignment were sown with the recommendations of the Mandal Commission in 1979, which advocated broader reservation policies for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) across India. When implemented nationally in 1990, these measures triggered intense protests in many north Indian states but also created political openings for OBC leaders, especially in Bihar. The state's underlying grievance- historic exclusion, landlessness, illiteracy and poor representation- finally found their voice in the era that followed.

Although, Before Mandal era, Bihar had already produced many CMs from Dalit and OBC communities. To name a few: Bhola Paswan Sastri, Karpuri Thakur, Ram Sundar Das, Daroga Prasad Rai. The emergence of Lalu, Nitish and Paswan also happened much earlier than Mandal. Yet Bihar still struggles