Title: Dalit assertion and the unfinished democratic revolution : the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh /
Authors: Pai, Sudha, 1950-
Publisher: Sage Publications,
Year: 2002
Subjects: Bahujan Samaj.; Dalits India Uttar Pradesh Political activity.; Uttar Pradesh (India) Politics and government.
Abstract: "This book examines the emergence, ideology and programmes, mobilisational strategies, electoral progress and political significance of the BSP against the backdrop of a strong wave of Dalit assertion in UP. Based upon extensive fieldwork in western UP, government reports and interviews with Dalit leaders, this study, while highlighting the BSP's considerable achievements, explores the reasons for the party's failure to harness the forces of Dalit assertion in UP." "Sudha Pai examines what the emergence of the BSP has meant for the vast majority of subaltern Dalits, and whether it has contributed to the social deepening of Indian democracy, or merely helped in the upward mobility of the elite sections of the Dalits." "The author provides a sympathetic yet critical look at a party once eulogised as a social movement that would bring about social transformation, but which later turned into an opportunistic political party interested only in capturing power.^