Ram Puniyani
Caste is a phenomenon deeply
entrenched in Indian society and the struggle against it began in the late 19th century.
Despite the social movements, initiated around the ideas of Phule, Ambedkar,
Periyar and many such legendary figures, it continues to pervade in the Indian
society like a malignant cancer, refusing to die easily. There are two set of
streams which are addressing the caste, though from opposing angels. One is
through the social movements and struggles which revolve around the concept of
social justice, which was also an integral part of India ’s freedom struggle and has
been enshrined in Indian Constitution as a major goal of Indian society and
state. The other stream which addressed caste was to retain it in a newer form,
in a more subtle form. According to this stream caste, Varna is what has given Hindu society its
stability over centuries. The later ideology keeping in tune with times has
modified its language and the term ‘social harmony’, has been coined as a new
and attractive label to maintain graded hierarchy in Hindu society. The latter
efforts began with the streams which were opposing Indian nationalism; the
one’s which espoused the cause of Hindu nationalism.
From this stream of Hindu
Nationalism emerged Hindu Mahasbah in 1915 and later RSS in 1925. These streams
aimed to work towards the goal of Hindu Nation. RSS to achieve its goal floated
an organization called Samajik Samrasta Manch. Recently Narendra Modi,
currently projecting himself as the one devoted to the issue of development,
has come out with a book on Samajik Samrasta. In this book he poses himself to
be working for the cause of dalits and says, “The shilanyas – on November 9,
1989 – for a grand Ram temple was performed not by some religious head or mahant,
but by a Dalit from Bihar . It was not just for
the cause of laying the foundation for the Ram temple, but social harmony
itself. It was a signal for cultural revolution,”
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| Narendra Modi |
Many a dalit scholars had pointed
that Babri demolition was planned on 6th December as it happens to be the death
anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar. They opined that the politics for Hindu
nationalism, wants to co-opt and subjugate dalits at the same time, so such a
planning. The concept of Samajik Samrasta stands for a harmony between the castes,
and not for its abolition. Ambedkar was for annihilation of caste, the Samrasta
program, while sounding for harmony is a subtle program to bring about Hindu
unity, retaining its inner caste-varna differences, and to launch its onslaught
against the minorities, Muslims and Christians, as a ‘unified’ Hindu community.
It was in the direction of caste
annihilation that Ambedkar initiated his agitation of Chavdar Mandir, where he
agitated for access to public drinking water for the dalits. It was for this
goal that he also asked for the right to temple entry through Kalaram Mandir
agitation. Parallel to this when he realized the obstacles to his path that he
burnt Mnusmirti and declared that since this holy book has provisions of
slavery of dalits and women, and he stands to oppose this. Same Ambedkar as the
chief architect of Indian Constitution went on to ensure incorporation of
provisions for the dalits and abolition of caste. At social level the movements
for land rights, the movement for economic justice was also core to Ambekar’s
thought and he went to form Independent Labor Party, to look after their
economic rights. Here the caste-class dynamics got proper synthetic expression
as Ambedkar was clear that caste is a division of labourers.
The RSS politics on the other
hand, stood totally opposed to the struggle for rights, for the issues of
dalits and workers and so brought up identity issues, Cow protection, Ram Temple
The most ghastly part of the
process has been the Gujarat violence, where a
section of dalits and adivasis was cleverly manipulated to attack the Muslim
minority. To think that by giving the privilege of ‘Shilanyas’ to a dalit, the
caste problems will be solved is an illusion. Rather it is precisely a move
contrary to their interests. Dalit-Adivasi issues are related to hunger,
survival, education and employment. All this requires a powerful affirmative
action from the state and a mass movement of these sections to ensure that
state does it. The delusions of Samrasta are a mechanism to bypass the core
issues of these deprived sections of society, a way to further the agenda of
status quo at social and economic level. Dalit Adivasi struggles for land,
dignity and rights has to associate it with other deprived sections, whatever
be their religion, to achieve their goals. To get trapped in one or other
identity is a regressive thing being engineered by the likes of Modi to
perpetuate the graded inequality of the society and is supplementary to the
anti-minority agenda on which the likes of Modi thrive.
The difference between the
Ambedkar approach to dalit issues and the one of RSS-Modi are polar opposites.
Ambedkar called for annihilation of caste, RSS-Modi talk of caste harmony.
Ambedkar went on to burn Hindu holy book: Manu Smriti and became the architect
of Indian Constitution. RSS ideologue K.Sudarshan in year 2000 said that Indian
constitution is based on western values, meaning the values of Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity are western, so it should be replaced by the one based
on Hindu holy book. Modi’s attempt is to further what Sudarshan said,
reflecting their agenda at social level.
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