Features & Articles

Democracy of Dabang
Article written by Rahul Ramagundam

In Bihar, dabang is a phenomenon that holds democracy at ransom. Dabang represents someone who captures booths for the political parties. A dabang is centre to the democratic exercise of elections in Bihar but might not be a peculiarly Bihari phenomenon. It is not a newest social phenomenon either. But in a society that is constantly in flux it is certainly a most settled one. Dabangs emergence is an outcome of an atrophied political organization that needs to observe the norms of democratic behaviour but is clearly discomfited by the presence of the process. A dabang therefore is a substitute for a more elaborate democratic process of electioneering. A dabang is also a substitute for apathy in electorates. It is a short shrift to democracy.

Dabang is a Hindi word that connotes one who is domineering and mostly undemocratic. A dabang exists all round the year but he comes on his own, during the popular expression of democracy, the elections. His position has become more entrenched with the gradual demise of the grassroots mobilization and collapse of the formal political organization. In fact he is the newest form of political worker, one who owes no ideological affiliation with the political parties but is recruited by them for his personal capabilities. He is in the scheme of the political parties not because of ideological affinity but because of his ability to appropriate popular will in his action and words. It is assumed that his appropriation of the popular will shall be transferred as an electoral support to the contesting political parties.

A dabang by virtue of being one represents in his personality the unspoken choice of the local population. That population could comprise of the people from a village, tola, or even a mohalla. A dabang carries an informal authority in him, which is informally recognised even by the formal institutions and authorities. He draws his power in community from his shared caste-community background or his capacity to bend formal authority to subserve personal or communal interests. It therefore is a partisan authority in an informal arena. His strength and stature come either from the youthful audacity, family-lineage, financial muscle or linkages in government machinery. He could be a petty player aspiring big time, a block-office broker facilitating for a price disbursal of governmental largesse such as Indira Awas Yojna or a BPL nomination. The age profile of a dabang varies from eighteen to thirty or even thirty-five. A dabang might upgrade to bahubali, the criminal-politician, with a larger field of play.

A dabang is the building block of a political super-structure. He is enlivened by political patronage, but it is also true that the political super-structure, in the absence of institutionalized formations, could not be built without him. Dabangs shifting allegiance could make or break fortunes of political parties. Therefore, political parties invest greater energy and resources in recruiting dabangs to their rank. As dabangs exist only because of crisis in formal institutions, its services are open for everyone to hire. The ruling party with its capacity to dispense direct patronage and protection tends to have an edge in having the largest recruits of dabangs.

As the mobilization in Bihar is more divisive and sectional, the phenomenon of dabang has emerged as a necessity for perpetuation of political dominance and ruling power. A dabang could not only dissuade sections of society from exercising their democratic rights but he could also appropriate democratic rights of the whole society. A dabang does have a degree of popular sanction, however sectional it might be. In its healthiest interpretation, a dabang expresses the popular will in the present democracy. Dabang existed even before, in fifties or later, but it received its popular base after the emergence of Laloo Prasad, who faced the uphill task of establishing a new caste order on the political firmament of Bihar. As of now it has come to establish it self in the consciousness of each and every party.

In a dabang oriented democracy three situations commonly inhere. One where there is dominance of one group and hence of one dabang. Second, where dominance is contested because of the heterogeneity in dabangs. Finally, there are situations where dabangs do not exist. At most polling booths, votes are either shared amicably if balance of power between the contending dabangs supporting different contestants are disputed or cast blatantly in favour of one party where single-party dominance exist. In both instance, the electoral machinery is captured. In areas where dominance is contested, violence sometimes is the only means to resolve the question of electoral supremacy. Violence is also the means to invite re-poll and consequently greater presence of States coercive apparatus whose lethal presence makes polling not peaceful but subdued and therefore benefits none.

In a scenario where dabang is absent, voters apathy is telling. At Mathiyani, a village in Bodhgaya constituency, positioned beside the state highway, only six out of 1020 eligible votes were polled on third February. The village did not vote as none of the sixteen candidates in fray came campaigning. The village has almost all the castes, from Paswan to Yadav and yet there was no division of opinion. Low turn out was less a protest at being taken for granted than an uninterested response. It also lacked a dabang to capture the booth.

Can the phenomenon of dabang threaten the spread of democracy? It possibly can. When dabang organizes votes of local electorates and appropriates in his person the right to poll all votes by himself or with the assistance of his chosen cohorts, gradually apathy to electoral mechanism as means of popular authorization of the government could take place and genuine electorate participation could decline drastically. At a time when Supreme Court is advising to make a provision for registering none, presence of dabang badgers the popular opinion. A dabang engineered polling could be seen as an extension of popular opinion as whole village might nurture similar political viewpoint given the caste-based campaigning. But such a dabang engineered polling is certain to give rise to misgivings about the deepening of democracy and popular base of the government and that might finally have a say on the policy decisions.

A dabang negates plurality and subjectivity of opinion. It is basically a makeover of the feudal social norm into the electoral arena. But it is also an accentuated product of the failure of democracy to deliver constructive leadership. A dabang nurtures a deep-rooted resentment against the exiting debauchery in the present political order. A dabang represents a streak of anti-politics within the arena of electoral politics.



CHARKHA FEATURE

The writer is a Delhi-based independent Activist-Researcher and has done his PhD from Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.