From last more than a decade social space and the major newspaper space is
full of the news to build the Temple for Lord Ram. The 'Noble People', the
saffron robed saints, their associates, the 'Hindu Nationalists' of RSS
and their followers have been wielding Trishuls and lathis to wipe away
the 'symbol of shame'. They assert that as per their 'faith' their Lord
was born was born exactly at the spot where 'symbol of shame' was
situated. Thanks to their hard work, at least one symbol of shame, Babri
masjid has been done away with! For the Hindu Rashtra this is THE core
issue. It is not a coincidence that at the same time the problems of the
'tribe of Shambuk' the Dalits, have been shunted to the margins of social
psyche and the media. It is in this backdrop that the Bhopal Declarations
of Dalit Rights (Jan 12-13, 2002) went unnoticed. The Honorable President
of India, K.R.Narayanan in his republic day speech tried to bring it to
our attention but again in vain. Dr. Narayanan in his anguish said, "The
discrimination being suffered by women, the scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes is a crying denial of the democracy that is enshrined in our
Constitution. Recently a conference was held in Bhopal of Dalit and tribal
intellectuals and activists. They issued a Declaration called the Bhopal
Declaration charting out a new course for Dalits and the tribal people for
the 21st century."
What is this Declaration, which the President thought worth mentioning in
his Republic day address? While the popular opinion is being doctored by
those in power and those who control the media, for war against the
neighbor, against terrorism etc. what business President has got to talk
about the plight of Dalits, women and other weaker sections of society?
Today Dalits occupy lowest rung of the ladder in social development,
access to facilities like water, education, health care and jobs. They do
share their plight with the 'dreaded' minority, the Muslims. One can very
well ask that when so many provisions, 'reservations' etc. have been made
for them, so why this complaint? Is there not a quota for them in jobs, in
admissions in professional colleges etc.? Is it not that to pamper these
our 'meritorious' children are suffering? So why this advocacy by the
President to improve their lot, why this Bhopal Charter, which calls for
restoring their land to them with compensation, giving them living
agricultural wages, right and opportunity to use the common social
property, gender parity in wages, quota in the capital share, access to
compulsory quality education and reservation in private sector. It calls
for democratization of capital, proper application of Prevention of
Atrocities act amongst others. Were the earlier provisions not enough? And
if the country is to bother about all this for this 'pampered' lot who
will take care of the temple of Lord Ram for which even our 'worthy sons
of the soil', settled in Dollarland are sending money as a gesture of
their 'patriotism' for this Rashtra of theirs'?
In a way the Bhopal declaration and the Ram Janmbhumi campaign are two
contrasting poles of our society. With the freedom and bringing in of
democratic constitution the politics in the name of religion was quiescent
for some time. It is not that the seeds of this politics were not laid.
Ram was already given the place of 'Symbol of Nationalism' as the glorious
monarch of this land. But the followers of this Hindu rashtra politics
were on the margins. First three decades of the republic saw a painfully
slow but sure journey towards the social transformation, towards Liberty
Equality and Fraternity. Even during this period the reservations, which
were meant for the downtrodden, were sabotaged by the entrenched upper
caste/class hegemony. Some benefits did accrue to the Dalit sections. The
rise of these sections, though small, threatened the status quo to which
this society had been used to for centuries and the counter-reaction to
this minimal gain began with the rise of VHP and other children of RSS,
who by word of mouth spread the poison against Dalits, their being
non-meritorious, their being the son-in-laws of the Govt. etc. This poison
seeped in to the elite sections of society and it burst out first in the
anti-Reservation riots in Gujarat in 1981. The think tank of the Hindutva
politics soon realized that it may be better to co-opt the elite sections
of Dalits in its own gambit and instead target an 'enemy', who is outside
the Hindu fold, the Muslim (Christians were to be the next) and keep the
social attention sidetracked to the issues which have no real relevance to
society. The idea as one can see in the hindsight was to intimidate the
society through communal violence. And in the terrifying atmosphere
created through the anti-Muslim violence the social transformation and
quest for human rights as such can be undermined in the name of
'patriotism.' And that is how, Lord Ram and the Sants came to the rescue
of Hindutva politics. And through the emotive (religious sounding)
appeals, Rath Yatras, etc. the elite upper caste/class sections were
brought together into the political fold, which supported the demolition
and in a way indirectly promoted the communalization of society. And thus
the Ram politics, which was on margins, came to the center stage and
problems of tribe of Shambuk were pushed to the margins. With this every
affirmative action came to be being looked as pampering or appeasement
while shedding the crocodile tears for the plight of 'our Vanvasi
brethren, or our 'poor Hindu' brothers.
The 'brilliance' of this statrategy has paid heavy dividends to the social
elite. It is not only at electoral level. At social level while the guns
are targeted against the' internal threats to Hindu Nation' (Muslims,
Christians and Communists a la M.S.Golwalkar, the ideologue-in-chief of
RSS) the real intent of the exercise is to ensure the preservation of
status quo or better still push it backwards in the space of time and
reverse whatever little could be achieved by these children of the lesser
Gods. It is in this direction that the attacks on Christian missionaries
have been engineered. These attacks achieve two simple purposes. On one
hand the literacy and health facilities being offered by the missionaries
need to be stopped, as nothing can be worse than an educated Adivasi,
aware of his rights etc. So instead fill the 'vacuum' by Ekal schools, a
Hindutva training center where all 'glorious' aspects of Hindu Rashtra are
dished out to make the compliant followers. Where there is no need for the
modern education, as it is a symbol of mental slavery to the West. In
cities the regular outbursts of communal violence and communal hatred
manufactured by different 'innovative' mechanisms will ensure the halting
of any semblance of progress, which threatens the social equilibrium.
So we have two alternative paths lying in front of us. Indian
Constitution, Secularism, democracy, affirmative action, and struggle for
social transformation, and in this direction the declarations like Bhopal,
on one hand. On the other is the currently assertive politics of Hindu
Rashtra, scrapping the 'Western-values based constitution' and return to
Hindu Holy scriptures, politics of Ram Janm bhumi, then Krishna JanmBhumi
thentill all the vestiges of 'foreign rule' are wiped out and 'self
respect' is infused courtesy the Sants, Mahants and Khaki Knickerwallahs
i.e. all those who had nothing to do with our freedom struggle and process
of formation of India in to a Nation. According to this path Hindu society
has already achieved the 'best' set of social and universal values,
meaning thereby that pre-independence status quo has to be restored and
the deviant path adopted by Nehru (Modernization) and Ambedkar's
constitution has to be buried for good. So today like no time before in
the past the choice in front of us is starkly clear, towards Ram temple
and all that or Bhopal declaration and improvement in the lot of oppressed
and exploited sections of society. Can we dare the dangling Trishuls on
our heads and give a thought to the plight of oppressed and exploited, to
Bhopal Declaration?
