- The Path to Dalit Liberation goes through Workers’ Revolution and not through Shallow Politics of Identity
The Parliament witnessed a storm on past May 11. All of a sudden, the whole of bourgeois Parliament was seen to be in unison! One failed to comprehend as to what demonic force all these criminals, profiteers and corrupt people were all at once up against! This furor, however, was not caused by the fact that everyday thousands of children of labouring poor in this country die of hunger and malnutrition; nor was this outcry caused due to the fact that more than 95 percent of the total dalit population of our country, even after around three decades of reservation, is compelled to toil hard on farms or in industrial units for twelve-fourteen hours a day and face humiliation and disgrace at the hands of upper caste on a daily basis; neither was this upheaval caused because of the fact that the fifty crore strong agricultural and industrial proletariat (whose sizeable section comprises of dalits and backward castes) are deprived of even the basic necessities of life! No! This storm was not caused on any of these issues! What caused this explosion was a cartoon published in the political science textbook meant for class 12th students in which the slow pace of making of constitution was satirized. This cartoon depicted Ambedkar sitting on the constitution shaped like a snail, and behind him is standing Jawahar Lal Nehru with a whip in his hand! This textbook was in syllabus right since 2006 and was passed by a government appointed committee in the first term of the present government. The said textbook did not evoke even a single question in last 5 years. However, in 2012, Mayawati questioned this cartoon in the Parliament and iterated that it insults Ambedkar. In no time, all electoral and non-electoral jugglers claiming to represent the interests of the dalits jumped on the bandwagon. Ramdas Athawale (who, at present, is sitting in the lap of both Shiv Sena and BJP in Maharashtra!), Thor Tirumavalavan (leader of Dalit Panthers in Tamil Nadu, who keeps himself busy in hobnobbing with either this or that electoral party in keeping with the electoral gains involved), and even Ram Vilas Paswan, all joined in the chorus of creating uproar on this cartoon. The government, at once, assumed a defensive stance and promised to take some prompt action on this entire issue. Suddenly, all parliamentarians were one on this and within next three days, a resolution was passed to withdraw this textbook and take prompt action against the people who prepared it or else remove them from office. Later on, a committee was also constituted to assess all textbooks. On July 3, this committee put forth its recommendations that all such cartoons which make comment on politicians and parties of the country be withdrawn from all textbooks as India is a country with diversity and any such cartoon can “hurt the sentiments” of either one or the other community!
All political parties registered their protests in one voice on the controversy over Ambedkar’s cartoon and stated it to be an insult to dalit identity. Ambedkar cannot be criticized. As soon as someone draws attention towards the limitations and contradictions of the political project proposed by Ambedkar from revolutionary perspective, not only the dalit intellectuals and organizations but those “revolutionary” communists, who harbour the dream of winning over the dalit populace through appeasement and ideological surrender, too, in no time pounce upon him/her and in a jiffy, brand him/her anti-dalit, casteist, etc! The electoral clowns sitting the Parliament have precisely behaved like this though the cartoon in which Ambedkar was commented upon was in no way any revolutionary, anti-system or radical cartoon. However, this was the golden opportunity when everyone entered into the race of projecting itself to be the greeted well-wisher of the dalits. Anyhow, Mayawati as well as BSP were confronted with a crisis following the debacle in Uttar Pradesh elections. In order to gain ascendance in the general elections to be held in 2014, Mayawati seems ready to do anything. In view of the state in which BSP presently is, the logic of ‘drowning man catches at a straw’, too, seems to be working.
The Ambedkar cartoon controversy has given an issue to Mayawati as well as to other dalit identity-based organizations facing the crisis of existence. An entire critique of Ambedkar’s politics and ideology can be put forth from the perspective of working class which demands a separate and detailed discussion and space. However, this can be certainly said that his constitutionalism, radical reformism, bourgeois humanist reformism notwithstanding, Ambedkar was not an advocate of building new icons. Ambedkar was not a revolutionary statesman and philosopher either. His objective was to gain better and better rights for dalits through constitutional means and methods within the bourgeois system itself. Ambedkar had undoubtedly remarked that as long as socially as well economically, dalits do not get democratic rights and are treated as equals, political democracy would not hold any significance meaning for them. However, this, too, is true that Ambedkar did not have any project for the social and economic emancipation of dalits. But all these limitations notwithstanding, Ambedkar had this much element of American bourgeois liberalism within him that at least theoretically he did not consider any individual, organization or ideology so ‘sacrosanct’ that it is beyond criticism. However, today precisely this is being done to Ambedkar–Ambedkar and anything associated with him has been made as much sacred and sacrosanct as religious symbols are for Hindutva-vadis. And if someone raises question on it or criticizes it, he/she is targeted in the same manner as fascist Hindutvavadis target their enemies. This was clearly demonstrated by the members of the Republican Panthers when following the cartoon row, they attacked Suhas Palshikar, one of the intellectuals and educationists responsible for preparing this textbook. Clearly, an Ambedkarite undemocratic fundamentalism has been born in response to the Hindutvavadi fascist fundamentalism. No prudent political being would choose one kind of authoritarianism and reaction in response to another kind of authoritarianism and reaction. This is akin to rendering wisdom speechless, however, this cannot cause thoughts to die. Certainly, the viewpoint of the working class cannot be that of idolizing Ambedkar, or for that matter, any individual or organization, nor can it be that of practicing any kind of idolatry; on the contrary, it vehemently opposes any such measure.
The moment Ambedkar cartoon controversy was hogging the limelight in media and all the jugglers indulging in identity-based dalit politics were raising much hue and cry about it, at that very instance, a bench of Patna High Court acquitted all accused in the Bathani Tola Massacre. It must be well-remembered that the illegal armed militia of upper castes, Ranvir Sena, brutally murdered 21 innocent dalits in this gruesome massacre. The High Court acquitted all the 23 persons who carries out these killings. The court dismissed the evidence of all the eye-witnesses on the ground that they could not present at the crime scene because had they been present, they too would have been killed! The Patna High Court released all these murderers on this ridiculous ground. However, acquittal of the murderers of poor dalit workers did not evoke any reaction from any dalit leader, party or organization. The Nitish Kumar government performed its customary ritual by going on the record saying it will challenge this verdict in the Supreme Court. The leaders of a few parties got rid of their liability by expressing their “disappointment” in faint voices. However, in the main, there was complete silence on this verdict in the bourgeois political circles. The reason was obvious–no party was willing to lose its vote bank among the upper and forward castes in Bihar. According to the electoral mathematics, it was better to either keep mum on this judgement or else expend a few ceremonial statements in faint voices. And precisely this is what happened. Moreover, various parliamentary and non-parliamentary Ambedkarite organizations claiming to be the champions of dalits, even ritualistically, did not perform anything properly; expecting any sharp condemnation, campaign, protest, demonstration or movement from them on this issue is still a far cry. The same happens with all other anti-dalit crime and violence. Take for instance, Karamchedu case of Andhra Pradesh, or for that matter, Khairlanji or Laxmanpur Bathe Massacre. In each instance, either no justice was done or if done, was half-baked. However, all these issues are not as much significant for the organizations (parliamentary and non-parliamentary) practicing Ambedkarite politics and politics of dalit identity. But each one of them was hell-bent upon leaving the other behind in raising uproar on a cartoon of Ambedkar. A similar kind of pandemonium was on display as had been recently created by different religious fundamentalists on the cartoons involving Mohammad and Christ as well as Ramanujan’s essay on various versions of ‘Ramayana’. Or something similar to the mayhem caused by Sikh religious fundamentalist on a scene in a film where is Sikh hero is making love to the heroine with his turban on. In such scenario, one fails to differentiate between fanatic, fundamentalist dalit Ambedkarite organizations and religious fascist fundamentalist organizations.
What conclusions can be drawn from this entire situation? The first conclusion is that the various dalit as well as Ambedkarite organizations practicing the politics of identity have neither time nor any intention to struggle on the real issues affecting dalits. All of their time, attention and energy is consumed by the issues pertaining to Ambedkar’s statues, pictures, cartoons, etc and whatever of it remains is expended on creating hue and cry for the small morsel thrown in the name of reservation. Whereas the experience of the past three decades of reservation has demonstrated that dalits cannot get anything significant out of it. Had the demand for reservation been a intermediate democratic demand which could have assisted in advancing the revolutionary project or else had the character of this demand been of any partial reform, it could still have been supported. However, if after all these years, only 3 to 4 percent of the entire dalit population has been able to secure employment, then it is worth pondering that as to how long reservation must be kept in force so that all dalits can have access life and livelihood? Secondly, the fruits of reservation are only reaped by this uppermost 3-4 percent of the dalit populace. The offspring of those who have already secured jobs under reservation are the ones who benefit the most from it and the ones who make lot of hullabaloo about it. The poor and the lower middle class population among the dalits do not get anything out of reservation. Certainly, similar arguments can be presented against those who oppose reservation from upper-caste prejudice and in its guise extend the argument of merit. However, both kinds of argument prove only one point–that reservation is a non-issue which the ruling class has deliberately made an issue. And to a great extent, it has succeeded in its design because not only those organizations which practice the politics of dalit identity are consumed by this issue, but most of the revolutionary Left organizations too, owing to the temptation of drawing dalit populace towards them through appeasement, fall prey to the polarization which takes place on this non-issue. All in all, one can say that the whole of the energy and time of myriad organizations practicing the politics of dalit identity is swallowed up in worshipping, guarding and conserving the symbols of Ambedkar as well as clamouring for a non-issue such as reservation.
However, today the character of this entire hollow-symbolist politics should be unmistakably clear to the dalit working class because the killings, oppression, concrete basic questions related to the livelihood of dalit workers are either no issues for it, or else, issues of mere ritualistic and ceremonial significance. As a matter of fact, its reason is inherent in the class character of the Ambedkarite organizations engaged in the politics of dalit identity. These organizations are, by and large, organizations of urban middle class dalits. These represent only them. A section of urban lower middle class and poor dalits, in a false hope of securing employment and education through reservation, too, trails behind them. However, in reality, these organizations do not represent their interests. They fight on various symbolic questions and the issue of reservation. The benefit of both of these falls into the lot of the top 4-5 percent urban well-off dalits whose class interests today are not only completely divorced from the majority of dalit toiling masses but rather stand in opposition to them. These do speak in the name of the interests of all dalits, however, their objective is to serve their own class. Therefore, the dalit working class people must realize the reality behind the politics of organizations practicing the politics of dalit identity, be it then electoral parties such as BSP, Lok Janashakti Party or for that matter non-parliamentary organizations like the Republican Panthers. At this point, it is utterly useless to talk about things like honesty and dishonesty. The real as well as the essential factor is class character and all organizations engaged in the politics of dalit identity must be measured against this yardstick. The moment we undertake the class analysis of the cadre policies and leadership of these organizations, their reality becomes as clear as crystal.
At present, almost 40 percent of the working population of our country comprises of dalit and castes. This section is the poorest, most oppressed and repressed section of the working class too. Precisely because of this reason it has tremendous anger and resentment against the present power system. The revolutionary communist movement today needs to organize this population, however, not on the catch-phrase of caste, but rather on the question of class. These are the people who face the most naked, repulsive and despicable forms of dalit oppression. In the massacres and carnages, it is not the urban dalit upper middle class that lose their lives but poor labouring dalits who die. This dalit oppression too has a class character. Without this understanding, no effective resistance can be mounted against this dalit oppression. The poor dalit population is the victim of both kinds of exploitation and oppression of the bourgeois state power–economic as well as caste-based. This is a section, which having got organized, can, in a radical manner fight for dalit liberation. This is a section which needs to be united as well as mobilized and organized on the project of the proletarian revolution. This is the section which understands the reality of class through its life experiences and knows that there is world of difference between its pain and that of urban upper middle class dalits and that in fact, this class, which is comfortably placed in the social hierarchy has nothing in common with it, except for shallow catch-words and symbolisms. And a perpetual, intensive and extensive propaganda campaign must be waged against these hollow catchwords and symbolisms, against identity politics among the dalit workers. The resolution of the dalit question is possible only from class perspective. Looking at the dalit question from a viewpoint blind to class realities, ultimately leads to symbolism and in fact deprives the dalits of the instrument as well as agency of their emancipation. Even if one speaks of a solution to dalit question, while taking into consideration its autonomous character, he/she too eventually will have to look at this entire question from class point of view. The entire historical project of dalit liberation can, as a matter of fact, reach fruition only with the liberation of the working class and then the communist project of the liberation of the entire humanity. A society in which there is no economic equality, all talk about social and political equality, in the end, prove meaningless. Only an economically and politically just society can resolve the question of social justice. We need not talk about the equality or equal opportunity between forwards and backwards, dalits and upper castes, and high and low; we must work towards the objective of eliminating these divisions forever. This objective can only be attained through one path–the path of establishing socialist system and workers’ state through workers’ revolution. Ninety-seven percent of the dalit population which still works as agricultural, urban industrial labour can only be liberated through the workers’ revolution. It can easily be understood by simple and straight-forward logic, no abstruse, intricate philosophical or political jugglery of phrases is needed. Today the entire dalit identity politics serves the capitalist system itself. The Ambedkarite politics centred on non-issues, symbolism and ritualism, can, in no way, deliver and genuine rights since it fails to raise the real concrete issues. On the contrary, it enfeebles the process of establishing the unity of working population and thus weakens the strength of labour and strengthens the force of capital. This politics needs to be exposed at every step and a concrete, real and scientific project of dalit liberation needs to be put forth.
-Abhinav Sinha
(July, 2012)
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