DALITS AND HINDU COMMUNALISM
 Submission by Nalini Pandit

The Dalits or the scheduled castes are not a homogenous community. They are divided by Caste, Class and Politics. There are three main castes amongst the Dalits in Maharashtra - Mahars, Chambhars and Matangas (The Mahar, in the middle ages was a government servant and an agricultural laborer, and as he had no occupation of his own, in later years, he became a soldier and a wage worker). Dr Ambedkar mainly mobilized the Mahars. A large number has migrated to the towns, has been converted to Buddhism, and is the main stay of the Dalit movement today.

Dr. Ambedkar's desire was to establish a broad based social democratic party as an alternative to the Congress. However, after his death, his party split into many different groups, (In the 1970's an attempt was made to establish a more radical party named Dalit Panther. That party also split in the eighties). Today the most important political groups among the Dalits in Bombay are R.P.I. (Prakash Ambedkar), R.P.I. (Athavale and Smyak Kranti Andolan Dhale)

Of these different groups the Athavale group has cooperated with the Congress (I) in the assembly and corporation elections and Mr Ramdas Athavale is now a Minister in the Maharashtra cabinet. The Shiv Sena has grown with the tacit support of the Congress (and some industrialists who used it to break the leftist trade unions). It took a prominent part in the Bhiwandi riots of 1970 and the Bhiwandi - Bombay carnage of 1984. However the government did not take any action against it. This has encouraged certain sections of the Congress workers to work in collaboration with the Sena and the Athavale group workers go with them. There is evidence to prove that in Dharavi the R.P.I. - Congress corporator M Y Shiude led mobs in Chamda Bazar in the December riots. Another Congress corporator S Polin Mary led a mob of Tamil Christian Dalits in the attack on Muslims (There are conflicting reports about another R.P.I. - Congress corporator in Tulsiwadi some saying that she sympathized with the Muslims and helped admitting those injured in police firing to the Nair Hospital while others say that she led an attacking mob of Hindus and was killed in police firing. A Janata Dal woman activist who is herself a Dalit reported that) in Golibar Colony in Santacruz where these was violent attack on Muslims the Shiva Sena Shakha Pramukh was a Buddhist named Pagare, the A.C.P. Zende was a Buddhist, the D.C.P. Kalpatri was a Buddhist and the guardian minister who did not intervene at any stage was also a Buddhist, Ramdas Athavale.

Who participated in the riots?

The caste hierarchy is reflected in the structure of employment every region. The higher level executive and technicians generally belong to the higher castes. The skilled and unskilled industrial workers come mostly from the Maratha peasants and the other backward castes and the Dalits work in small scale and unorganized industries as casual or part-time worker without security of employment and other benefits. With stagnation of employment in the organized industry in the eighties urban youths whose father has secured jobs find themselves without any opportunity of employment. The new migrants from the villages live in congested slums without any primary sanitary facilities. This lumpenisation with the insecurity and frustration which it creates drives them to murder, arson, rape and other crimes which can be justified in the name of Hindu nationalism in a particular situation.

Inspite of this it is observed that where the Buddhists lived with other backward castes in a mixed locality and the Shiv Sena was politically dominant, they participated in the riots out of fear deliberately created through rumors about Muslim attack or through coercion. In areas where they lived as consolidated groups and the other Buddhist parties had an influence, they remained aloof and gave protection to Muslim families living amidst them.

In some areas the Muslims particularly from the north failed to distinguish the Buddhists from the Hindus and in their rage over the demolition of the Babri mosque attacked the nearby Buddhist settlement and the Viharas. They were paid back in the same coin in the January riots.

The spread of Hindutva Ideology.

The constitution has granted a reservation of seats for the Dalits and many educated Dalits are now employed in the bureaucracy and the public sector units. They live together with their upper caste colleagues in quarters provided by these units. These middle class Dalits have a desire to get assimilated with the upper caste middle class who, at least in Maharashtra is extremely communal minded. Naturally the Dalits imitate them in their thinking and behavior.

The Dalits and the non-Dalits working in industrial units are members of the same trade unions whose leadership comes essentially from the Brahmin or Maratha castes. There is a tendency in recent years to have a joint celebration of Shiv Jayanti and Ambedkar Jayanti as both fall in April. This leads to a dilution of the message of Ambedkar. The new generation of Dalits have very little knowledge of Ambedkar's thoughts and activities.

Savarkar and Ambedkar

The B.J.P. is making an all out attempt to recruit Dalits by claiming that the teachings of Savarkar and Ambedkar are similar, that both were anti-Muslim and were interested in the reform of Hindu society. Savarkar admired science as a source of power and attacked superstitious like the ban on beef eating. He also advocated the abolition of untouchability and integration of Dalits with caste Hindus for the formation of a united and strong Hindu nation. However he never stood on the natural rights of human beings, nor did he fight at any time against social oppression. Ambedkar, on the other hand, throughout his life stood for the values of liberty, equality, fraternity and democracy and organized the untouchables to fight for their social and economic rights.

It cannot be denied that there was an anti-Muslim trend in Ambedkar. In this book thoughts on Pakistan he argued that the Muslims are a separate nation and therefore the demand for Pakistan should be granted. But he criticized Hinduism with the same Zeal and at the end of his life abandoned that religion to embrace Buddhism. However in his book on Pakistan he also declared that "If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country. He asserted that the economic, political and social needs of the lower orders of the Hindu society are the same as those of the Muslims and they would be far more ready to make a common cause with the Muslims for achieving common ends than they would with the high caste Hindus who have denied and deprived them of ordinary human rights for centuries. However this side of Ambedkar is hidden to show that he was anti-Muslim.

This propaganda has effect on certain Dalit intellectuals e.g. the editor of a leading Dalit magazine Asmita Darsha Shri. Gangadhar Pantawane has joined hands with Hindutva forces. A few Dalit writers such as Keshav Meshram also participated in Hedgewar centenary celebrations.

The Chambhars and the Matangas

Though Ambedkar championed the cause of the untouchables he made no special effort to mobilize the Chambhars or the Matangas for his movement. As a result when reserved seats were granted to the S.Cs in the legislative assemblies; the Congress started patronizing the Chambhars. Most of the Congress candidates in his period including Shri Narayan Kajrolker who defeated Dr Ambedkar for the reserved seat in the Central Bombay double-member constituency in 1952 belonged to this community. However after the death of Ambedkar some sections from R.P.I. joined hands with the Congress and as they were more organized and more vocal, the Congress patronized them. There is no recognized leader of the Chambhar community today in Maharashtra. The rise in the price of raw leather and competition from plastic footwear has rendered them workless. The frustration with the Congress has made them responsive to the propoganda of the B.J.P. and many have actively participated in the riots. The smallest and the most marginalised caste among the Dalits is the Matanga. Shivsena has made a deliberate attempt to mobilize them. A Hindu Dalit Conference was held at Shivaji Park two years back with the active participation of Mr. Gopale, a Matanga leader. It seemed to be well attended. The Matangas feel that though the reservations were decided on the numerical strength of all S.C.s, the Buddhists alone have benefitted from them. For this reason they keep themselves away from Buddhist political parties.

Effect of Hindutva on Caste Struggle.

In the nineteenth century the Brahmins were the first to turn to modern education and to enter government jobs and different professions. The Kulkarni or the village accountant used his position to become the moneylender and grabbed the land of the peasant when under British law, the land become a commodity which could be sold or mortgaged. The non-Brahmin movement arose against this background. Though Brahmin middle class supported the national movement they were revivalist than liberals and opposed social reforms. So under the leadership of Gandhi, when the non�Brahmins entered the Congress, the Brahmins went over to Hindu Maha Sabha and the R.S.S. Till today, the Maharashtrian Brahmin has remained the main support base of these organizations and the cultural life of Maharashtra is dominated by these forces. The bourgeosie in Maharashtra comes from the Parsi, Gujrati and Marwari communities. The Brahmins who have come up as junior partners or executive directors. The Brahmin landlords who had migrated to the towns lost their land through tenancy reform. The creamy layer from this caste is no more interested in government jobs. They desire to get professional qualifications and migrate to foreign countries. Numerically they are an insignificant minority and the B.J.P. is now recruiting people from other backward castes to get electoral support. So though there is a resentment against the Brahmin for their competition in clerical jobs and independent professions as also for their arrogance and air of superiority, it does not lead to a caste struggle.

After independence when adult franchise was introduced and particularly after the formation of the separate State of Maharashtra in 1960, the Marathas who were the largest community came to power and with State support established cooperative sugar factories. The reins of power are now in the hands of the sugar barons. The Maratha leadership has followed a policy of coopting emerging leaders from other communities in its patronage structure. They have already offered some reservation to other backward castes. For this reason there was very little open opposition to Mandal in the State and the B.J.P. which opposed Mandal in the north gave a support to it in Maharashta.

The real sufferer from unemployment is the O.B.C. youth in the age group 17 to 22 who is newly coming to the job market. He is jealous of the S.C. who though coming from similar social background can enter government service through reservation. So an anti-Dalit stance is not far away from the Shivsena ideology. In the early stages of the growth of Shivsena when Thakaray took up the cause of locals against outsiders - mainly south-Indians for recruitment to clerical jobs the O.B.C. youth gathered round him. But the Anti-South Indian position would not help the Sena to spread outside Bombay. So it turned its rage against Muslims. The communal ideology of the B.J.P. is useful to the Brahmins who being numerically weak always fear a challenge to their supremacy. On the other hand successive Congress Chief Ministers of Maharashtra - Vasantrao Naik, Vasant Dada Patil and Sharad Pawar have encouraged the Sena to divert the attention of the oppressed from Maratha monopoly at power. The Senais rather a right wing of the Congress which is used by Maratha leaders against Central leadership or even in their factional fights.

The Shivsena has given an opportunity to backward caste men for the first time to become cooperators, M.L.A.s and even M.P.s. The leftists, on the other hand, failed to open the inner sanctum of leadership to lower caste persons and that is one grouse against them. The Shivsena helps its cadre to get income through it is contact with smugglers, drug peddlers, unauthorized small shops and through extortions. So even after Thakaray expressed his opposition to Mandal, there was no revolt in his party. Only one leader Chagan Bhujbal migrated to Congress.

Shivsena is openly for dictatorship and its ideology and tactics are those of the Fascists. Fascism is an ideology of the ruling classes in the time of stagnation and decline. Its main purpose is to suppress discontent and divert it towards ethnic or cultural minorities. In India where caste and class are closely related and caste is more in the consciousness of the people than class, Fascism can be used as an antidote to caste struggle.

Recently under a new leader Makhram Pawar, a new party named Bahujan Mahasangh has come into existence. Its aim is to bring the O.B.C.s, minorities and Dalits under one banner to fight against Congress and the B.J.P. Shivsena communalists. With the cooperation of the R.P.I. under Prakash Ambedkar, they have captured a few Panchayat Samitis and have also achieved some success in the Zilla Parishad elections in Akola. The attempt is now to repeat the Akola pattern in the districts of Marathwada.

The Mahasangh attacks the concentration of power in the hands of a few high caste Maratha families, each of which dominates the Congress at the district level. They are against the B.J.P.-Shivsena brand of Hindu communalism because they fear that its success would man the reemergence of Chaturvarnya in a new form. They make a demand that at least two out of the four Shankaracharyas should be from the non-brahmin castes and should belong to the Bhati tradition. Mandal is one of their election planks. However, it is too early to say how much support they can garner in the near future.

Fight Against Communalism

In such a complex situation it is very difficult to make concrete proposal to fight communalism. The Brahmins have been openly or tacitly on the side of Hindu communalists. The Maratha leadership, after joining the congress in the nineteen thirties, did not formulate any ideology of its own. They were neither Gandhians nor Socialists. Under the leadership of Narasimha Rao, with a minority government in power, the Congress Party is just paralysed. In the recent riots in Bombay the Chief Minister Sudhakar Rao Naik not only refused to take action against the Shivsena but advised the prominent persons who met him to demand that Thackarey be arrested for his provocative writing to go and persuade him to stop the riots. This complete inaction on the part of the government has demoralized the secular forces.

The Dalits are scattered in different groups which come together only on some symbolic issues such as the renaming of Marathwada University after Dr.Ambedkar or over the Riddles issue. But they have not developed any ideology of their own and have even failed to educate their followers in Ambedkarism.

There are may Brahmin intellectuals amongst the Communists or the former socialists who are now in the Janata Dal. But they never tried to analyze religion or fight against social oppression. Naturally there is a concealed layer of religious and caste tradition in their mental make up. The trade unions under leftist leadership have followed a policy of economism. So though the senior leaders belong to the communist parties the lower level activists are influenced by communalism. The tragedy is that the leftists depending on borrowed ideas of a period when the religious revolution was already over, in Europe have failed to develop the intellectual resources to fight communalism. They have very little knowledge about the Hindu religious reformist tradition. They did not cooperate with Ambedkar because he was pro-British and therefore ignored his criticism of the Hindu religion. They looked upon Gandhi as a spokesman of the capitalist and refused to observe that by reinterpreting Hindusim on new lines he was paving the way for secular democratic state. Unless this heritage is openly accepted, analyzed and assimilated with socialist ideas, the secular forces cannot hope to reach the minds of the people.


The concrete proposals can only be:

1.  The Government should perform its elementary function of preserving law and order and take action against those who participate in the riots or provoke to attack people of other religion;

2.  Government should take steps to prevent the communalization of the police force;

3.  The State should not allow the use of T.V. and A.I.R. for religious propaganda.