ABSTRACT
The early 1970s have been described as an era of populism in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Indira Gandhi’s success in restoring the Congress party’s sagging electoral fortunes with her brand of populism came to be seen as a threat not only by dominant rural groups but also, paradoxically, by the bearers of central state authority. As Nehru seemed to have realized, extending the Congress’s social bases of support and the corresponding broadening and deepening of democracy in India could constrain the exercise of authority by the centralized state. But this was a price Indira Gandhi had to pay to keep the Congress slotted in power at the centre. It was not long before she had to face the consequences. Her alliances with populist leaders in the states had only delivered the votes. They had not succeeded in vanquishing the old rural power structures dominated by the syndicate bosses with whom she had parted company. Although they lost the elections, the erstwhile Congress bosses could rely on their middle to richer peasant supporters – many of whom were strategically located in the state police and civil services – to foil a centrally orchestrated populist challenge. As the experience of the Congress ministries in Bihar and Gujarat showed, it was easier to trump the dominant castes and classes at the hustings than to implement populist initiatives on behalf of newly empowered subordinate castes and classes. Stiff resistance by the deposed ruling configurations at the state level not only thwarted the Congress’s populist initiatives but also threw up fresh challenges for the party high command from its own rank and file.
