Unpacking the Dalit angst

Unpacking the Dalit angst

Context

Reverence for Ambedkar requires fighting caste discrimination and safeguarding the Constitution

BJP reveres Ambedkar

Stung by the criticism over his government’s alleged inaction in defending the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, before the Supreme Court, Mr. Modi cited his reverence for Ambedkar as proof of his government’s commitment to the welfare of SCs and STs.

Widespread dissatisfaction

• The controversy over the Atrocities Act forces one to take a position on the special provisions for the protection and welfare of SCs/STs
• Can the interests of these groups be ensured without resorting to special provisions? Second, one must consider the issue within the larger context of the unprecedented attacks on the Constitution mounted by some BJP leaders
• Modi’s position appears ambiguous on special provisions and he is silent on the Constitution.

Caste annihilated?

Where the committee and the court erred is in their failure to revisit why Parliament thought it necessary to make a draconian law that bypasses due process and whether the conditions have changed so much to warrant dilution of the Act

Ignorance doesn’t solve the problem: to ignore the monster is to have killed it

Mr. Modi’s genuine aversion to caste as a divisive force in society has been translated into myriad incongruities

• The government still refuses to release caste data from the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), reducing the SECC to merely the Socio-Economic Census
• Departing from tradition, the President’s annual address to Parliament this year had no references to the government’s commitment to special care that SC/STs and other weaker sections deserve
• Traditionally the annual Economic Survey used to carry trends in social sector spending, especially on SC/STs, minorities, etc. The Budget would follow a similar pattern. In 2015, the government dropped this feature in these important policy documents

The advocates of a caste-blind approach are entitled to hope that it would lead to a casteless society. But it can also throw us into Social Darwinism.

Respecting the Constitution: RSS emergence into the mainstream

• Dalits and other weaker sections revere the Constitution as the ultimate guarantor of their rights in view of the way it recognises them. Most Indians also respect the Constitution for its obvious merits
• Two notable exceptions to this are the far left and the religious right, which is represented by the Rashrtiya Swayamsevak Sangh
• While the former remains in margins, the latter has come to dominate the mainstream.

The RSS had rejected the constitution

• As historian Ramachandra Guha highlighted, the RSS rejected the Constitution as it’s not in tune with theManusmritiwhose laws, the RSS claimed in 1949, “excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity [among Hindus in India].”
• The rub is the “spontaneous obedience and conformity” to the caste system which Ambedkar found so obnoxious that he burnt the book to express his outrage.

BJP members echo RSS idealogy

• The only change in seven decades is that the RSS no longer invokes theManusmriti,and its chief, Mohan Bhagwat, takes a nuanced position by merely saying that the Constitution does not reflect “Bharatiya ethos”
• Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde ended the ambiguity, saying: “We are here to change the Constitution.”
• A BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh went a step ahead and declared that India would be a Hindu Rashtra by 2024
• No senior leader of the government or the party contradicted any of these utterances.

Conclusion

For Mr. Modi, silence doesn’t seem to be an option any longer.