8 - Rajasthan: Two Phases of Party-Movement Relations

Summary

Hindu nationalists are deeply embedded in Rajasthan's cultural and political life. They have identified with the socially conservative Rajput community as well as with the rural poor, especially tribals. The BJP, one of the two parties in the state, alternates in office with the Congress party. As in many other states, the movement is more militant than the party. However, unlike in UP, the movement has not subsided when the party has achieved office. Nor has the movement become weaker over time. To the contrary, the party was better able to control movement militancy until 1998 than it was thereafter.

The most obvious explanation for the difference between the two phases is the nature of BJP leadership, in particular between Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (1977–80, 1990–2, and 1993–8) during the first, and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje (2003–8, 2013 to the present) during the second. Raje herself believed that the strength of the BJP in Rajasthan, unlike other states, rested on the character of its leaders. Shekhawat earned the title of “the tallest leader” in Rajasthan, a reference to both his height and stature. His governing style is often compared to that of his mentor, Congress Chief Minister Mohan Lal Sukhadia. Both leaders centralized power in the state government and cultivated patronage relations but were considered nonpartisan. Clearly Raje did not command as much respect as her mentor and predecessor, Shekhawat. However, while Shekhawat and Raje had different leadership styles, their ideologies were similar. They both supported Hindu nationalist goals while personally rejecting Hindutva militancy. Nor do their different leadership styles adequately explain their responses to militant activists.

Relations among the party, movement, and state differed during these two phases. In the first, some party members and movement activists engaged in protests defending sati, the immolation of Hindu widows on their husbands' funeral pyres. The BJP as a whole supported the VHP's Ayodhya movement and some of its members participated in anti-minority violence. However, the party controlled the movement.