Parties that want to enjoy a slice of electoral luck, have developed a one-point agenda — to consolidate the votebank. So, a political churning is on the cards, though state polls are two years away. As dalits use the politics of conversion to become a powerful force, Shubhangi Khapre analyses the significance of the act and what it could lead to
Elections in Maharashtra are a long way off — in 2009, but think tanks across the spectrum of political parties are already exercising their brains. If their animated discussions are any indication, a clear realignment of political forces is very much on the horizon. And there are surprises in store.
Major players like the Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and BJP have adopted an open policy for new permutations and combinations to consolidate their votebank and identity. For, the commercial and political stakes are far too high in this commercial capital of the country. The dalits/tribals (22.5 per cent) and Other Backward Castes (27 per cent) which together form 50 per cent of the state population, are banking on their political prowess to strike a hard bargain individually and collectively. That explains the rationale behind a divided Republican Party of India (RPI) renewing its pledge to unite after the Uttar Pradesh polls. The Congress, BJP, Sena, NCP are making concerted attempts to woo them.
The political tumult can be witnessed both overtly and covertly. The first major indication comes in the form of the politics of conversion. Tribal leader Laxman Mane has decided to go Dr Ambedkar’s way to empower the tribals by helping them embrace Buddhism. Mane laments that “For the last 60 years, we have lived a life worse than that of beggars. Nomadic tribals don’t even have the right to exercise their franchise. They have no homes and hence find no mention in voter lists. I am striving to bring them in the mainstream.”
On October 14, 1956, the architect of the Indian Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar embraced Buddhism along with thousands of followers, to liberate the dalits from the grip of casteism. Fifty years later, on May 27, Mumbai is set to witness similar event that will provide a religious tag to almost 42 tribal ‘outcast’ communities. Under the banner of Dhamma Diksha Swarna Mahotsav, Mane has mobilised hundreds of nomadic tribals into embracing Buddhism. The Dalai Lama will attend the ceremony slated to be held at Mahalaxmi Race Course.
So far so good. But the badly fragmented Republican Party of India with its nine splinters have failed to see the big umbrella above their heads. While on the one hand, RPI-A president Ramdas Athavale, State Housing Minister Pritamkumar Shegaonkar, Bharatiya Republican Party (BRP) along with dalit IAS officers, writers and litterateurs will be present, Ambedkar’s grandson and Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) leader Prakash Ambedkar has chosen to skip the event.
The mass conversion is Mane’s brainchild. His close aide says, “Mane himself is a tribal and has been ceaselessly working for the uplift of the tribes cut off from society’s mainstream.” Statistics available from government sources show the total population of scheduled tribes and other nomadic tribes is almost one crore.
The significance of tribal mass conversion has to be understood in the same vein as the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar’s call to dalits to embrace Buddhism in 1956 to protest against the ill-treatment meted out.
Ambedkar says, “The conversion is a welcome step as it will give them dignity in society. After the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the Britishers had termed them “criminals”. They continued to live as outcast. Even after 60 years of Independence, the Hindus refused to accord religious rights to nomadic tribes.”
Meanwhile Athavale equates the tribals converting to Buddhism to following the footsteps of Ambedkar the most revered dalit leader. To him, such events provide an effective platform of consolidating dalit/tribal unity and make it a force while striking a hard political bargain.
Dalit leaders say, “Mane is also striving to reaffirm his political identity in the mainstream by empowering neglected sections of the society.”
Tribals apart, there is a deep divide between dalit Buddhists and dalit Hindus. A senior dalit leader said, “The ‘mahar’ community which heeded Ambedkar’s call to embrace Buddhism in 1956, has held the political reins for the past five decades. It has benefited the most from reservations in education and government jobs. Non-Buddhist dalits have been ignored. As a result, there is a growing demand among dalits Hindus that they be given separate reservation quota and clubbed with dalit Buddhists.”
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