Politics of the poor: Agricultural labourers and political transformationsin Uttar Pradesh

This contribution addresses the question of how local agrarian labour relat ions and labour struggles, and class- and caste- based emancipatory process es, relate to the wider political development of the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). It argues that in UP rural labourers have experienced a number of important positive changes since Independence, and are increasin gly able to assert what they now perceive to be their rights. Rural labour struggles have intensified and, in spite of counter actions by middle and b ig peasants, the position of labourers has improved. The 1990s have seen an extraordinary development in UP, whereby low caste BSP (Bahujan Samaj Part y) governments have actually been voted in. This has been both a result of a catalyst for some of these developments. Part I of this study examines th e development of rural class relations in UP since Independence, through an analysis of sharecropping and labour relations, local labour struggles and the overall position of rural labourers until the early 1990s. Part II con centrates on the issue of caste- and class-based policies and mobilisation among rural labourers in the 1990s, including a discussion of why the BSP h as been more successful than the communist parties in mobilising rural labo urers.