Maya Modi Azad

The Dalit political landscape in India offers a difficult analytical puzzle. The last decade has witnessed the decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party and identity politics along with the shift of a section of Dalits towards the Bharatiya Janata Party and its redefined disadvantaged Hindutva as well as protests by new Dalit organizations against atrocities and right-wing hegemony. Dalit politics today is thus marked by two contrasting trends: of political protest against but also electoral preference for the right wing. The story of how the Dalit discourse has responded to the changing socio-political context unfolds against this backdrop. Maya Modi Azad maps these shifts with a particular focus on Uttar Pradesh.