The Mandal Wave: Reservations That Changed Bihar And India Forever

Six weeks after former Prime Minister VP Singh announced in his 1990 Independence Day speech the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations, Delhi's streets were filled with student-led demonstrations.

While many recall Delhi University's North Campus being the epicentre of the anti-Mandal protests, its most powerful moment came from the other side, the South Campus. On September 19, 1990, Rajiv Goswami, a commerce student of Deshbandhu College, set himself on fire. The next day, the image of Goswami, a thin man in a white T-shirt with black armbands and headbands, engulfed in flames, screamed through newspapers.  

The incident set in motion similar incidents across the country.

VP Singh's First Announcement

On August 7, 1990, Prime Minister VP Singh announced that the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) would receive 27 per cent reservation in central government services and public sector units. He made it official a week later, on August 15.

The decision, based on the Bhupendra Narayan Mandal-headed Mandal Commission's recommendations, pushed the total quota for OBCs, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes to 49 per cent.

The Union Cabinet approved the proposal, but the streets erupted.

How It Changed Indian Politics

Regional parties, with core bases in backward caste groups, gained prominence, and leaders such as Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, followers of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, rose to power. Mayawati emerged as a key Dalit leader.

Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav, and Nitish Kumar also came into the spotlight around the same time. Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and women formed social alliances.

The move provoked backlash from upper castes. LK Advani's Ram Janmabhoomi campaign coincided with it.

The Life Of BP Mandal

BP Mandal was born on August 25, 1918, in Varanasi, into a Yadav landlord family in Bihar. He protested caste discrimination at his Darbhanga school and later entered politics, serving in the Bihar legislature and Lok Sabha with the Congress, Samyukta Socialist Party, and Shoshit Dal.

In 1954, Mandal opposed police atrocities against backward caste villagers and later led the Samyukta Socialist Party's Bihar unit.

He formed Shoshit Dal in 1967 and became Bihar Chief Minister in 1968, heading the first OBC-dominated ministry. His government lasted 47 days, and he resigned over the removal of the Aiyar Commission, which investigated corruption.

The Mandal Commission

In December 1978, Prime Minister Morarji Desai appointed Mandal as chairman of the Backward Classes Commission. The report, submitted on December 31, 1980, recommended reservations for OBCs in government jobs and education, highlighting gaps in social, educational, and economic systems.

BP Mandal died on April 13, 1982, before seeing the report implemented.

Implementation And Legal Challenge

After VP Singh implemented the report in 1990, upper-caste students protested, while OBC students held rallies in support. The Supreme Court case, Indra Sawhney & Others v. Union of India, upheld the 27 per cent OBC reservation, set a 50 per cent ceiling on total quotas, and introduced the "creamy layer" rule.

VP Singh, who was leading a minority government with outside support from the BJP and Left Front, resigned in November 1990. His 10-month tenure remains a storied one for how he trumped Rajiv Gandhi's Congress to form the government in the wake of the Bofors Scandal but crumbled under pressure from the anti-Mandal protests.