The Sangh Parivar is trying to incorporate the Dalit identity in Hindutva ideology. The “Hindukaran’ of Dalits is proceeding at a rapid pace in rural areas. In the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 Dalits participated in the attacks on Muslims.

Dalits are thus torn between the desire to declare their unique identity or to be accepted into the temples of Hinduism from where they were barred for centuries.

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Rural Dalits are lured by offers of sanskritisation or caste Hindu status that the Sangh Parivar offers them because opportunities are horribly lacking.

In recent decades, the BJP and RSS have been initiating intensive nationwide programmes and campaign activities such as arranging community meals (Samrasta Bhog), opening schools in Dalit settlements etc. The primary objective of the Samajik Samrasta campaign launched in Maharashtra in 1983 was to eradicate internal conflicts in society while its second aim was to assimilate Dalits into the mainstream by providing them with health, educational and entrepreneurial assistance. A crucial move was to invite Dalits to eat khichri with the upper castes.

The Sangh Parivar also propagated the concept of Ramrajya in which the upper and lower castes come together in social life as well as in democratic politics. For instance, the Ramayana and Lord Rama have been projected as symbols of unity by contending to Dalits that Rama was always linked to the deprived masses and that the epic centred around the Dalits. According to this viewpoint, the Dalits played a significant role in Rama’s life history – in the quest to find Sita in Lanka, for example, the role of Sugriva, Angada, Jambavan, Hanuman and the monkey brigade, all symbolising the underprivileged, was crucial, according to Sangh and BJP ideologues. This showed the Sangh’s attempt to absorb growing Dalit dissent against Brahminism and their struggle for self-respect and equality, and transforming their newly emerging Dalit identity into a Hindutva one.

Communalism of public spaces is a new strategy adopted by the BJP to mobilise each Dalit caste individually by evoking its unique caste identity. The party reinterpreted and recreated the cultural resources of Dalits at the local level, including their caste histories and heroes, with the aim of saffronising the Dalit psyche and memory, ultimately transforming them into sites for political control. The local heroes of various castes, particularly Dalits, have been selected by the party in different regions for incorporation into one unified Hindutva metanarrative.

Acknowledging the political and electoral importance of the Pasi, an important Dalit community in North India, the RSS launched a campaign in search of the community’s heroes. Following this, Suhaldev, an icon of the Pasi community, was projected as a Rashtra Rakshak Shiromani for defending Hindu culture and the country from Muslim intruders by forming a confederation of local kings.

Of late, the BJP has endeavoured to appropriate BR Ambedkar, as is evident from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inauguration of the world-class memorial in the Indu Mills Compound in Mumbai, and of Ambedkar’s memorial at his partially restored London House. Also, prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, BJP President Amit Shah took part in caste rallies and meetings of various Dalit communities.

The BJP’s relations with the Dalits are tense and complex. The BJP is showing an interest in accommodating Dalit groups, but it knows that this embrace is not palatable for its core supporters.

The BJP in its strongholds in northern and western India has been seen as a party of the urban middle class, the Banias, and a section of Brahmins. Over time, the party also brought the Other Backward Classes and the Most Backward Classes within its fold. The rural neo-rich from the backward castes began feeling marginalized in national politics and moved towards Hindutva politics. From the 1970s to 1990s, this community purchased rural land at a much faster rate and emerged as a landed community. On the one hand, this affluent group appears to be part of the new political leadership for Hindutva politics; on the other, being the landed community, it is also perceived to be the oppressor of Dalits in everyday rural life.

Along this 1970s-onwards timeline, another change slowly took place. Dalits too became more assertive in electoral politics, mainly due to a growing democratic consciousness and a deeper quest for identity. The BJP was thus politically compelled to appeal for Dalit votes, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) subsequently took charge of providing a Dalit base to the BJP.

But till now, Dalits have not been given many crucial roles under the BJP and RSS leadership.

A critical Dalit leadership has emerged. These leaders are inspired by the writings of Ramaswami, Phule and Ambedkar, and their consciousness is informed by criticism of Hindu religion and Hindutva ideology. Though a small part of this group is under the BJP’s influence, it is also influenced by Ambedkarite thought.

It is this situation that could lead to clashes in educational institutions between students charged with Ambedkarite consciousness and those belonging to Sangh-affiliated organisations. Clashes could also occur as it may not be easy for the belligerent middle castes, who have become influential in recent decades under the BJP leadership, to accept the Dalit groups’ assertion. All this could also cause tension within Sangh organisations.

The biggest challenge before the Sangh Parivar in the politics of Dalit appropriation is the clash of ideas. In the process of the RSS and the BJP trying to subsume Dalit ideas under bigger narratives of development and nationalism, it is not only the young Ambedkarites who are being attacked; the Sangh organisations are also hurting themselves.

It has always been the Ambedkarite tradition to challenge Hindutva ideologically. In fact it is only the Phule-Ambedkarite tradition that can actually challenge Hindutva because it is a tradition based on reason and rationality. The Brahmanic (Hindutva) tradition is a Vedic one that accepts a body of myths as reality.

The Modi government has sought to take over a number of modern political icons who do not have any historical connection with the BJP or with Hindu right-wing ideology. This includes Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Ambedkar. Rather than keep a distance from such figures who stood for ideas and values not just different from but also for the most part opposed to Hindutva, the Prime Minister and his party have adopted a strategy of claiming Ambedkar as a hero for Hindus. The BJP has an eye on Dalit votes.

Thus we have seen frequent sentimental references to Ambedkar in the PM’s speeches, experienced new museums being constructed in houses where Ambedkar lived in Delhi and London and an eruption of signage, statuary and memorabilia in public spaces all across the country. This government has moved Ambedkar into the centre stage of national conversation.

The Left, too, is not far behind. Communist leaders like Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat, D Raja and others have all recently spoken and written about Ambedkar’s commitment to equality, to the rights of Dalits and to social justice, about his role in the making of India’s constitution, with approval and newfound admiration. They have also criticized the BJP’s sudden love for Ambedkar, calling it politically expedient and motivated by a desire to tap into the Dalit vote. Yet one wonders why the Left parties have allowed decades to pass before recognising their own natural affinities with Ambedkar, especially on questions of inequality, caste and class, reservations, labour, and Ambedkar’s scholarly interest in Karl Marx.

On one side were Marxists brought up to believe that caste would wither away once the economic base became socialist. On the other were Ambedkarites who understandably did not trust upper caste-led formations.

The fact that Western postmodern academia encourages identity politics in preference to class analysis has given separatist politics international acceptance.

All his life, Ambedkar fought for reason and justice without resorting to violence. Today, his followers are leading the resistance against religious and caste hatred.

Political analysts of different shades remark that as the spectre of intolerance and authoritarianism rises it is time for all humanists, rationalists and fighters for social and economic justice to unite against the usurpers of our democracy and our history.

The writer is a retired Head of the Department, Political Science, Asutosh College, Kolkata.