The Power to ‘Break’: Biopower, ‘Manufactured demographic crisis’, and defining new categories of identity in India

This article analyses the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) engagement with Pasmanda Muslims as a biopolitical strategy to fracture Muslim unity. While caste-based demands among Muslims predate BJP rule, the party’s instrumentalisation of Pasmanda identity marks a critical shift. Through legislation like the Waqf Amendment Act and rhetoric of ‘social justice’, the BJP adapts the caste categories of Muslim identity to replace substantive equity (e.g. Scheduled Castes reservations) with symbolic concessions. This article argues these measures render Pasmanda identity politically inert, absorbing dissent while preserving caste hierarchies. The BJP’s ‘manufactured demographic crisis’ exemplifies its ‘power to break’ – redirecting systemic demands into state-controlled niches. By co-opting Pasmanda grievances, the party fragments Muslim solidarity, advancing Hindutva’s vision. Unlike Congress-era neglect, the BJP weaponises identity politics to expand state control over Muslim socio-political life. This article reveals how BJP governance sustains exclusion, relegating Pasmanda Muslims to bare life – recognized discursively but excluded politically. Ultimately, this strategy defers justice, entrenching a democratic order where identity recognition masks regulatory control, eroding Muslim political agency.