 "Patna: Bhim Army Sena members stop a train during the bandh call given by Dalit organisations")
Dalits need their own independent politics to fight against inequality and oppression. This thought has run strong in Indian politics — from B R Ambedkar to Kanshi Ram. It was this desire of having independent Dalit politics that led Ambedkar to start the Republican Party of India (RPI), and later led Kanshi Ram to set up the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in North India. The stream of Ambedkar's RPI got divided in the years that followed, with some getting merged or linked with the Congress politics.
When Kanshi Ram started working on a political mobilisation of Dalits, he recognised that a large section of the existing Dalit leadership had been appropriated by mainstream political parties like the Congress, while the Dalit society was also fragmented and divided among centrist, leftist and socialist political formations. That led him to write his treatise on Dalit-Bahujan politics, The Chamcha Age. In this book, Kanshi Ram wrote that Dalit leaders working in these parties were basically stooges of casteist ‘Manuvadi’ forces and argued for the need to have an independent Dalit-Bahujan politics in India. It was this critique of mainstream political parties that led him to establish the BSP, which emerged as the party of Dalits and Bahujans in India. It acquired impressive electoral success and changed political dynamics, especially in North India.
This rupture of Dalit constituency from the Congress party caused a major loss to the grand old party, one from which it hasn't fully recovered yet. It also reduced the Dalit base of left and socialist political groups in India.
Kanshi Ram’s vision of establishing an independent Dalit-Bahujan politics is facing a crisis these days. Analysts find disintegration and lack of direction in the Dalit vote that the BSP mobilized in North India, especially in the party’s base of Uttar Pradesh. The BSP is suffering a crisis of leadership, programmes, strategy and language. As a party, it faces a fragmenting base and cadre.
Why did Dalit-led parties like the BSP and RPI fail to maintain their hold on the Dalit constituency? Why is it becoming more and more difficult to evolve and sustain independent Dalit political parties?
The first and foremost reason is the failure of Dalit leaders like Mayawati, Prakash Ambedkar and Ramdas Athawale to respond to the hopes and desires of their Dalit vote base. This failure has created a crisis of trust between the community and its leaders. The community seems to hold the view that the leaders are similar to other mainstream leaders they spoke out against. That is the sentiment of people in, say, Dallipur, a Musahar hamlet near Varanasi. “Jis se hamara bhala hoga, usi ke saath hum rahenge (we will support those who benefit us)”. A section of the community feels there is not much to differentiate leaders of Dalit political parties from those of others. Local cadres of the various Dalit castes working in Dalit parties also seek a share of power that might take them to other political parties assuring them of appropriate representation in the power structure. The failure to accommodate them in power structures when in government is also one of the reasons why these cadres are disenchanted with leaders like Mayawati. Many other non-Jatav, non-Mahar and non-Mala Dalit castes also aspire for a share of power, which Dalit parties are not able to provide. This leads to fragmentation of the Dalit vote base.
The second reason for this change lies in the changing form of political economy of Dalit communities that took shape after liberalisation of the economy in 1991. With a rise in consumerism after liberalisation, there emerged a major section of the Dalit middle class with evolved dreams and aspirations — quite like consumers of any other caste or community in India. They tend to lack the Dalit consciousness that Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram tried to evoke among them, and that creates a fertile ground for other political parties. This section of Dalits is willing to support any party that promises immediate gains. The patience for acquiring long-term gains, as inculcated by Kanshi Ram, has weakened among a section of the local BSP cadre.
The third reason for the weakening of Dalit politics has been the failure of the Dalit leadership to evolve a new political language. They have failed to articulate the changing desires, mindset and aspirations of their Dalit constituency. They have failed to understand the emergence of this new Dalit middle class that does not identify with their zeal, and lacks the Dalit consciousness, but has other desires.
The rise of Hindutva politics and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP's) continued success have also attracted a section of Dalit leaders, community elders and politically conscious Dalits. The BJP's aggressive campaign to associate with various Dalit castes and communities that did not find a space in the Maywati-led Bahujan politics has led to a new mobilisation of Dalit votes in the BJP's favour. The BJP also tried to nurture a section of aspirant social groups among Dalits during its first tenure at the Centre.
The making of aspirational communities among Dalits has also been enabled by a neo-liberal economy, the changing nature of the market, an explosion of new communication technologies and their spread in rural areas. Smartphones, TV and such media also created an aspiration among Dalits to emulate other rich, powerful and affluent communities. Rising aspirations have led to a dilution in the sense of caste identity among this section and led to a weakening of the independent Dalit politics. A section of them is ready to join any political group that might provide them space.
The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and its allied organisations have tried to harness various marginal Dalit communities by inculcating a Hindutva identity among them, too. An aspiration for development, coupled with a Hindutva identity, has emerged as a driver for this section of Dalit and subaltern social groups. This can be observed in the trend in a section of Dalit youths of saluting Jai Bhim and admiring Savarkar simultaneously.
In these evolving socio-economic-political conditions, it has become difficult to mobilise Dalits as a unitary force for independent Dalit politics under the banner of parties like the BSP or factions of RPI.
The writer is professor, Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad
