INDIAN STATE, SOCIAL CLASSES AND SECULARISM 63 The contradictory trends of Indian peasantry have been always observed in their politics and movements. Further, the uneven level of economic development of India has also facilitated the fragmentation of the peasantry. If on the one hand, the struggle in Bihar is for the payment of 'minimum wages and the implementation of Land Reforms and Ceiling Act', on the other, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh in Gujarat has launched a violent struggle against the high power tariffs levied by the Gujarat Electricity Board. If the Maoist and the People War Group administer 'justice' to the class enemy, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh launches 'village bandh* and uses force and violence against the state functionaries for protecting its interests.19 The contradictory approaches of the peasantry have been observed on every crucial national issue. M.D. Nanjundaswamy of the Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangh is involved in a struggle to 'drive out' the multinationals like Cargill Seeds Limited in Bellary and W.R. Grace Company at Tumkur in Karnataka, Sharad Joshi of the Setkari Sangathan of Maharashtra is involved in an active struggle for the defence of the GATT proposals of Arthur Dunkel.20 The Bharatiya Kisan Union and the peasant leaders like Charan Singh, Mahendra Singh Tikait, Sharad Joshi etc. have successfully used their mobilising power to achieve higher prices for agricultural produce, subsidised supply of fertilisers, power and irrigation facilities and rich peasants have mobilised electoral and political support for all-India and regional parties which would primarily protect the interests of the rich peasants. The Peasant Movements in India have proved that the peasantry wants all the advantages of the capitalist market, but it has no perspective of either national problems or contradictions between India and global capitalism. Since the peasantry in India is parochialised and fragmented, it cannot be the vanguard of secularisation and democratisation of the Indian society. Peasant consciousness is determined by the caste system of the 'twice born' and the 'Sudra\ In spite of the upward mobility of the intermediate castes who are the beneficiaries of land reforms and the modernisation of agriculture, caste remains a major reference point of the Indian rural society. Can caste struggles be converted into struggles for the democratisation of the Indian society? The popular democratic base of Indian state will be broadened and strengthened if caste consciousness can become a force for the liberation of the oppressed castes. The policy of reservations in public services announced by V.P. Singh on August 9,1990, does not give much hope for the development of secular potential of caste system. Caste versus caste has encouraged casteism and the casteisation of society has emerged as a powerful reality of India.21 If peasantry has limited potential of becoming an a/gent of modernisation, secularisation and transformation of Indian society, the other leading capitalist class also requires a close scrutiny. The