Prabuddha: Journal of Social Equality (2019) 3: 32-49 Asking Questions of ‘OBC’ as a category Asha Singh and Nidhin Donald Abstract: This paper aims to understand the journey of Other Backward Class (OBC) as a governmental category to underline some of its limitations and possibilities. Such an exercise is in no way exhaustive, building on what has already been achieved, this paper attempts to provide further clarifications on the history of ‘identifying and enlisting’ backward classes, pointing out underlying sociological assumptions and contradictions. The aim would be to flesh out some of the fundamentals which inform the term ‘backward’ and its growth. In the second part of the paper, the first author (Asha Singh) would reflect on how one could begin to understand the relationship between OBC women and the category, drawing insights primarily (but not exclusively) from the Bhojpuri region. Such reflections fully understand that there is no ready-made community called ‘OBC women’; rather we only have women as a part of castes/tribes listed as OBC, often without any real consequence of it in their lives. Asha Singh: communication.asha@gmail.com; Nidhin Donald: shobhana.nidhin@gmail.com Forward Man’s Burden: The making and marking of the ‘backward’ The first half of the 20 th century was a time of great fluctuation in the Indian subcontinent. Mainstream historiography has sanitized this flux by focusing solely on ‘nationalist’ struggles against British Imperialism. A closer reading would expose a much more complicated picture. This period was marked by multiple struggles waged by ‘lower-caste’ groups to enter the emerging public sphere. G. Aloysius observes that such struggles were diverse, fragmented and waged in different places. Nonetheless, he identifies certain common strands in them. One, the struggles recognized the need to break away from the ‘relegated’ status (diverse groups were brought under a monolithic social imagination, where they were clearly assigned Shudra and Ati-Shudra status) imposed upon lower-castes through what he calls, ‘collusive colonialism.’ 1 Two, they also realized 1 G. Aloysius, in his work ‘The Brahminical Inscribed in Body-Politic’ (op.cit.) conceptualizes the first hundred years of British Colonialism as ‘Collusive Colonialism’. The British Colonizer actively collaborated with the socially-dominant groups of the Brahminical Elite in different regions to collect tax, codify land, understand the organization of the society and ensure a steady flow of revenue. As a result of this collaboration, the Brahminical Elite emerged as the ‘new middle class’ populating the ranks of institutional power and education. They developed as an intermediary, a necessary filter through which the colonial state communicated with the large masses. The process of collusive colonialism was two-fold. It ensured not just the economic dispossession of the masses but also ensured 32