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Political Notes |
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Dalit conversions
In a stinging rebuke to the Sangh Parivar as well as those in the government who have called for a “debate” on whether conversions should be allowed, nearly 50,000 Dalits converged on New Delhi’s Ambedkar Bhavan, within a hundred metres from the RSS office recently and underwent conversion to Buddhism. The ritual was deliberately made to resemble the oaths BR Ambedkar had administered in Nagpur on 14 October, 1956, when half a million Dalits converted to Buddhism, in a signal that the issues of caste oppression that Ambedkar had broached were still alive.
According to classical Hindu definitions Dalits are anarya, hence not quite belonging to the Hindu fold. Although Dalits have been technically emancipated by India’s constitution, taboos about untouchability, segregation, and the reservation of ritually degrading tasks for Dalits remain acute more than half a century after independence. Dalits make up the vast majority of landless and bonded labourers. The country still has one million scavengers, technically not permitted by the law. The literacy rate among Dalits is 37 per cent; they are routinely excluded from alternative, high-value employment.
In caste wars in Bihar and UP, police and administration openly side with upper castes and partake of atrocities on lower castes. The VHP and RSS are not far removed from the Taliban philosophy who have arrested aid workers on grounds of attempting to spread Christianity. But in addition to the liberal principle of upholding freedom of religion, in the case of the Dalits there is the even more urgent issue of their oppression, which cannot make them want to be classified as Dalits.
In that context Dalits embracing Buddhism is another instance of the “million mutinies” VS Naipaul wrote about. It may even be a mutiny against the dominant strategy of caste emancipation which Indian politics holds out - create a tiny privileged class hailing from suppressed castes, through reservations and the presence of lower caste politicians. Significantly, Mayawati has not taken kindly to the conversions calling them an RSS conspiracy.
The RSS has called them a Christian conspiracy, although that doesn’t explain why Dalits choose Buddhism. The significant thing about the conversions may be that they escape easy labelling; they exploit a contradiction within Hindutva ideology, according to which it is more acceptable to belong to religions which arose in India, rather than non-Indic religions such as Islam or Christianity. If Buddhists belong to the larger Hindu fold, then in terms of the worldview of the sangh parivar the Dalits haven’t really converted. In any case, the conversion is a symbolic gesture which conveys that many kinds of social protest against the Dalit condition are possible.
Punjab : PM’s newest headache
It’s not only Uttar Pradesh that’s on Vajpayee’s mind these days. The upcoming Assembly polls in Punjab are worrying him as much. With the Congress on a comeback trail in this Akali-ruled state, the PM is trying his best to rescue his NDA ally. Part of his time in Amritsar during the BJP’s National Executive Meet was spent delving in Akali politics. He had an unpublicised meeting with Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal’s main rival, G S Tohra, and a separate closed door one with Badal himself. The message to both was - patch up or be damned.
In fact, Vajpayee has been advising Badal not to push his son, Sukhbir, so much. He’s the chief reason for Tohra’s rebellion, the PM is believed to have told Badal. He had said the same thing after Sukhbir won a bypoll and the demands started for his induction into the Union Council of Ministers. Badal heeded Vajpayee then. Now with political doom staring him in the face, will he extend an olive branch to Tohra, is the question political observers are asking.
The Akali politics have played havoc with governance in Punjab. The religious wing has always been trying to assert itself over the political wing. It is the Badal-Tohra mudslinging that spelled the doom of the Akali Dal in the last Lok Sabha elections when it was routed by the Congress. Now again with the polls a few months away, the rift among the Akali leaders threatening to give an advantage to the Congress. And the BJP, which has just been witness to the stunning defeat of its southern ally, the DMK in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, does not want to see another ally, the Akali Dal in the NDA, to meet the same fate. Coupled with the possible defeat in the UP polls, a defeat in Punjab would be another blow to the BJP.
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