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VOL. 7, ISSUE 2 (2025)
From political assertion to state authority: Kanshi Ram, Mayawati and the gendered trajectory of Bahujan Power
Authors
Dr. Dheeraj Pratap Mitra
Abstract
This paper examines the
transition of Bahujan politics from organized political assertion to the actual
exercise of state authority focusing on the strategic continuum between Kanshi
Ram and Mayawati. Existing scholarship has largely treated Bahujan politics
through the lenses of representation, symbolism or electoral volatility often
stopping short of analysing what happens when marginalized politics governs
rather than merely contests power. The central argument advanced here is that
Kanshi Ram’s most consequential intervention lay in constructing a durable
theory of power rooted in numbers, discipline and institutional capture which
Mayawati later operationalized through the machinery of the state. This shift
marked a decisive movement from moral critique to rule, from visibility to
authority. The paper reads Kanshi Ram as the architect of assertion and
Mayawati as its executor whose tenure as chief minister represented one of the
rare moments in postcolonial India when Bahujan politics exercised sovereign
power rather than negotiated inclusion. Particular attention is given to the
gendered nature of this transition. Mayawati’s authority was repeatedly framed
as excessive, authoritarian or symbolic in public discourse revealing how caste
and gender combine to produce heightened suspicion when marginalized women
govern. Methodologically, this paper draws on political sociology and
historical analysis combining close reading of speeches, organizational
strategies and state practices with high-impact scholarship on power, representation,
democracy. By foregrounding governance rather than identity, this paper
reframes Bahujan politics as a serious experiment in rule exposing both its
achievements and its fragility. In doing so, it contributes to broader debates
on democracy, gendered authority and the limits of inclusion in deeply unequal
societies arguing that dignity acquires its sharpest political meaning not at
the moment of representation but at the point where power is exercised and
defended.
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Pages:49-57
How to cite this article:
Dr. Dheeraj Pratap Mitra "From political assertion to state authority: Kanshi Ram, Mayawati and the gendered trajectory of Bahujan Power". International Journal of Educational Research and Studies, Vol 7, Issue 2, 2025, Pages 49-57
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