6 min readOct 5, 2022 10:17 PM IST
First published on: Oct 5, 2022 at 05:41 PM IST
It is fashionable to suggest that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the post-2014 period has emerged as an all-inclusive party with growing support from Dalit-Bahujan groups. It is also noted that the BJP has influenced sections among Dalits by executing smart socio-cultural strategies and by honouring Babasaheb Ambedkar as a nationalist icon. Although the rhetoric about the emergence of “subaltern Hindutva” is impressive, the recent rise in the number of cases of caste atrocities and the increase in state action against Dalit socio-political activists, show that the Hindutva regime lacks political accountability towards Dalit social and political concerns. It disregards the legacies of Dalit movements, which confronted the domination of social elites and discriminatory religious ideas. Instead, even flimsy criticism of Hindutva’s cultural values today has to face stiff institutional action or public punishment. The recent dismissal of Mithilesh Gautam, a Dalit faculty member at Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidhyapith, Varanasi, for his social media post about Navratri celebrations, only shows how the BJP regime has become increasingly intolerant of Dalit ideological challenges.
The post-Ambedkar Dalit movements have hailed the egalitarian teachings of the Buddha, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Chokha Mela, etc., and reinvented the rich heritage of non-Brahmanical traditions. The heroic struggles of Jyotiba Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar against Brahminical hegemony further inspired the Dalit-Bahujan political class to counter the right-wing socio-political agenda. They represented a transformative ideological spectrum that has consistently criticised the ruling socio-political elites for keeping the Dalit-Bahujan masses poor, alienating them from power and treating them with indignity in social relationships. Although these movements have failed to arrest the Hindutva juggernaut and eventually become a marginalised political force, their ideological challenges to the establishment are still alive. Some sections among the Dalits may have moved into the right-wing camp but there remains a strong presence of assertive Dalits, possessed of powerful socio-political consciousness, and ready to challenge the conventional social authorities fearlessly.
For traditional Hindutva proponents, the Dalit-Bahujan ideological school is a bête-noir that must be clamped down on with coercive and violent means. This independent Dalit presence has been treated as an ideological challenge to the Hindutva camp and therefore disciplinary state action is prescribed to curb it. Now, Dalit protests against social injustices, their ideological thoughts and even criticism of the current dispensation are condemned as anti-Hindu, criminal or even anti-national. The continued imprisonment of Anand Teltumbde, a Dalit scholar and social activist, testifies to the state’s opposition to radical Dalit activism. Recently, the police booked a Dalit faculty member of the University of Lucknow for hurting religious sentiments after he offered a critical view on the Gyanvapi mosque issue. Similarly, Professor Ratan Lal of Delhi University’s Hindu College was arrested for a satirical social media post referring to claims of a shivling being found at the Gyanvapi mosque.
The right-wing is non-democratic and insensitive when it has to deal with Dalit socio-political claims. It hardly offers a roadmap to ensure substantive Dalit participation in state institutions or execution of policies that examine and resolve the perpetual problem of caste atrocities. Instead, it often defends the perpetrators of caste violence and legitimises the use of coercive state action against Dalit protests. The state’s abnormal reaction to Dalit tragedies is further visible in the Rohith Vemula case, the Una flogging case, the Bhima-Koregaon protest movement and during the Hathras rape-murder case. Further, the recent imprisonment of legislator Jignesh Mevani on flimsy grounds only shows that the BJP regime has developed a vengeful psyche against the Dalit issues and activists.
The idea of subaltern Hindutva is an impressive political campaign that has helped the BJP to shape its image as a party of all Hindus. On the ground, however, the Dalit minority perpetually faces Brahminical wrath, state inaction and social prejudice. The right-wing has no means to deal with Dalit questions of social injustices, caste atrocities or to substantively ensure the execution of social justice policies. Instead, it exploits their emotive cultural values to consolidate its own conservative social base.
The right-wing says that any sensitive response to Dalit questions will only alienate its traditional support of non-Dalit communities and create more social anxieties. The idea of an inclusive social order that facilitates Dalits as empowered and equal beings disturbs the traditional social ideology and hampers the interests of conservative social elites and dominant castes. In order to retain the support base amongst non-Dalit Hindus, Hindutva proponents overtly demean Dalit voices as irreligious, belittle its ideological assertion as contempt for Hindu civilisation and do not hesitate to brand it as anti-national in spirit. The expectation that a Hindutva regime will build a sensitive deliberation for Dalit inclusion, organise campaigns for social reform or propose policies to resolve their socio-economic problems is therefore a grand mirage.
The way that Muslim issues help Hindutva forces to form communal unity, the social “othering” of Dalits helps the right wing to consolidate dominant caste unity. The othering of Dalits through sporadic cases of caste atrocities and social humiliation retains the distance between Dalits and other Hindus in subtle ways. The right-wing hardly offers any social or political programmes to challenge this. Instead, by making sympathetic gestures towards the perpetrators of caste atrocities, Hindutva organisations perpetuate the belief that they serve the interests of the social elites. The state’s actions against Dalit activists, scholars and leaders, therefore, consolidate the idea that it still abides with the conservative brand of Hindutva and that the campaign for “subaltern Hindutva” was merely a political strategy.
The writer is assistant professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU
The idea of subaltern Hindutva is an impressive political campaign that has helped the BJP to shape its image as a party of all Hindus. (File) 
Share
