Violence of an insecure people

Pilgrimage travel has been the only known form of leisure travel for most ordinary Indians. And kar seva has been known only among Sikhs as the voluntary labour of devotees in repairing and maintaining gurdwaras. But the Hindu kar-sevaks and their travels to and from Ayodhya have taken on a meaning that is anything but spiritual. It has become an exercise in loud militancy on the part of the so-called 8216;kar sevaks8217; and their minders.

Who are these kar sevaks? Are they ordinary Hindu men and women who just want to build a temple to Ram at his birthplace? Why are they willing to engage in violence for the cause of Hinduism? Why are they armed with swords, trishuls and other weapons? Are they 8216;attackers8217; of other communities or 8216;protectors8217; of the Hindu community and the Hindu religion?

An examination of the social background of 8216;kar sevaks8217; reveals that they are generally from among the lower Hindu castes. Historical and ethnographic research on the north Indian cities of Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow and Benaras by an Oxford historian, Nandini Gooptu, shows that many are rural migrants to the cities. Pushed off the land to towns and cities to seek employment, they face competition from entrenched interests. Hostility towards the entrenched Muslim emerges from economic competition combined with the perception of religious differences.

With the Hindus, they face a further challenge of being 8216;lesser Hindus8217;. There is a clear socio-economic divide among these low-caste migrants and the more settled, upper castes Hindus. The Brahmins, the Baniyas and the Kshatriyas are patrons of major religious festivals such as Ram Lila, Dussehra and Holi. Their sponsorship of such festivals strengthens their economic and social standing in civil society.

But who provides the mass following, the numbers that make a public success of these celebratory festivals? These are our present-day 8216;kar sevaks8217;, members of Hanuman Dal and Bajrang Dal and other militant groups sponsored by the VHP, Shiv Sena, RSS and BJP. The military nomenclature of senas and dals is not lost upon the 8216;kar sevak8217; who feels valorised at being entrusted with the responsibility of being a protector of his religion. Sponsored by the high castes or their tilak anointed leaders, the kar sevaks become the instrument to carry out the upper caste agenda of ethnic cleansing and demolition of a syncretic 8216;live and let live8217; culture.

Why do 8216;kar sevaks8217; allow themselves to be co-opted by an upper caste Hindu agenda that may not be their own? Jan Breman, a sociologist who has studied Gujarat, argues that the closure of the textile mills in Ahmedabad has thrust large numbers of textile mill workers into the insecure world of unorganised labour; it has created a large reserve of disaffected semi-unemployed people whose demoralisation makes them susceptible to calls to religion to validate their sense of worth. Other scholars have directly linked the militancy of the lower castes to their need for acceptance within the Great Tradition of Hinduism.

In a society still fractured by the deep divisions of caste, allegiance to a religious identity dependent on fighting the 8216;other8217; or defending itself against the 8216;other8217; is a dangerous glue. The co-opted lower castes need to be rescued from the tyranny of upper-caste Hinduism that is giving them a fragile and false sense of security. Economic security and the recognition of common interests with members of other religions is needed to transcend the separate niches of caste and religion and prevent the poor lower castes from being condemned as lumpen masses responsible for perpetrating heinous acts of violence.

The writer teaches in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi