#dnaEdit: Constant turmoil

The massive march taken out by Dalits in Ahmedabad on Sunday to protest cow vigilantism and caste atrocities reveals a rising tide of Dalit anger that threatens to undermine the BJP’s outreach to the community. The Dalits at the protest exhorted the community to give up their traditional occupations like manual scavenging and lifting cattle carcasses, skinning and cremating them. Many speakers at the protest pointed out that various forms of untouchability continued to be prevalent in Gujarat villages and that Dalits who protested these actions were socially boycotted, harassed and threatened with violence. The failure of the police to come to the aid of the Dalits and the apathy of the political leadership, both ruling and opposition, also came in for criticism. The Una incident where four Dalit men were publicly flogged by gau raksha volunteers may have been the immediate provocation for the protest. But it is clear that the issues which are agitating the Dalits are of much older vintage.

So far, the Sangh Parivar’s gau raksha campaign had led to sporadic attacks against groups such as cattle transporters, alleged cattle smugglers and Muslims, and particularly heinous incidents have been reported from Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Gurgaon, Dadri and Latehar in Jharkhand. Despite condemnation, there was no let up in the campaign and this has come back to hurt the BJP’s political interests. The Anandiben Patel government, facing the ire of the Patidar community over reservations, failed yet again to gauge the implications of the Una incident. By the time the government arrested the vigilantes and suspended police officers, perceptions had hardened among the Dalits that the government was going soft on the attackers. Unlike other communities in the state, the Dalits have not explicitly figured in the political calculations of parties.

One reason could be that unlike other states in the cow-belt, Adivasis outnumber Dalits in Gujarat. Adivasis are over 14 per cent of the population, unlike the Dalits who constitute seven per cent. The KHAM factor that was once the mainstay of the Congress party in Gujarat had made space for Dalits in a social alliance also comprising Kshatriyas, Adivasis and Muslims. But the onset of the Hindutva wave and Narendra Modi’s strong grip over Gujarat in the years he held fort ensured that Dalits rarely got an opportunity to raise the issues of caste and social exclusion. The BJP is now in the trap which the Congress has also found itself in. Despite committing to end untouchability and caste discrimination, these progressive ideals rarely filter down to the grassroots, especially in rural areas, where parties like the Congress and the BJP, are usually dominated by the upper and
intermediate castes.

Without access to development or justice, it is hardly surprising that political alternatives like the BSP and the AAP have gained traction among the Dalits. With the Uttar Pradesh elections a few months away, the BJP cannot afford to alienate the Dalits. An attempt to reach out to UP Dalits through the spiritual route by conducting a Dhamma Chetna Yatra turned out to be a damp squib. Earlier, the Rohith Vemula suicide at the University of Hyderabad had pushed the BJP on to the back foot. The Dalits who assembled at Ahmedabad are planning a march to Una which will culminate on Independence Day. It is unlikely that the government will meet their demands for agricultural land, government jobs, and strict filing and prosecution of cases under the SC/ST Act. The Sangh Parivar’s attempts to foist a Hindu identity over caste consciousness has repeatedly run aground because of contradictions inherent in the approach towards reservations, caste discrimination, vegetarianism and a caste-free society. It is no surprise that the Hindutva project and Dalit traditions have come to a
head in Gujarat.