Having considered the Hindu nationalist aspect of the Jana Sangh, we must now look at it in quite a different light, as one of a number of non-Congress parties endeavouring to attract various social groups whose material interests were being adversely affected by the policies of Congress governments, both central and state. The Jana Sangh's manifestos reveal that the party had firm views about which sections of society would sympathize with its general approach to questions of social and community relations. At the centre of its focus was a cluster of urban groups, chiefly small industrialists, traders and people on the lower rungs of the professional and administrative hierarchies, but it also saw itself as a party which could represent those sections of the working class employed in small enterprises and in the service industries. Within rural society, besides speaking for small traders, it was prepared to take the side of the peasants against landlords and big farmers.

We have two related tasks in this chapter. One is to describe how the party sought to establish special ties with these groups, and the second is to analyse the framework of ideas which the party used to justify and explain this aspect of its activity.