In an emerging and new situation, the political mobilisation of Dalits and the marginalised in Uttar Pradesh is now becoming complex. It is no longer simple and unidirectional as it was in the decades of the 1990s.
During my visits to various Dalit bastis (hamlets) in and around Allahabad, Banaras/Varanasi and a few other district towns nearby, I met several people who are Scheduled Castes (SCs) and who used to, for years, cast their votes in favour of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). They were staunch BSP supporters, and without doubt, its vote bank. But things have changed after the advent of the Seva project of the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS). They have begun to admire the RSS, with some of them even beginning to send their children to the Saraswati Shishu Mandir, the Vidya Bharati-run chain of schools in India.
The section that is being influenced by the Hindutva mission — which is reaching to them either through the politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Seva Karya (the social service project of the Sangh) — is growing by the day in Uttar Pradesh. The slums and bastis inhabited by the migrant poor, mainlyDalits, are evolving into a centre of activities of Sangh-inspired organisations who are working for their education, health and microfinance. Various governmental schemes of the BJP government, at the Centre and in the State of Uttar Pradesh, are impacting the BSP’s vote base and finding resonance among the marginalised communities of the State. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (affordable housing), the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (LPG connections to women of Below Poverty Line families) and various cash transfer schemes are rapidly changing the politico-socio landscape of the Dalits and marginalised communities. The strategies of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, to focus developmental initiatives on the most marginalised communities such as the Mushahars and Bantangiyas are evolving new constituencies for the BJP among Dalits and the marginalised.
Real empowerment
The marginalised need empowerment in a real sense beyond ideologies and political positioning. They are ready to receive their share in developmental opportunities be it in the form of support from the right, left or centre. Those who have to ‘dig a well every day to drink water ( roj kuwan khodana, roj pani pina )’ are more aware now, which the middle class with facilities and access to the power of social media may not be able to comprehend. One should not perceive the Dalits and the marginalised as a vote bank for a certain kind of politics. The shift in their voting patterns in the last few years shows that considering them as a homogeneous vote bank of a particular political party may be a myth. They are open to any political party which may offer them an appropriate package which enables them to partake in the country’s developmental projects and representation in democracy.
In the decades preceding the 1990s, the dreams that the national freedom movement evoked more or less worked as a binding thread by keeping them mobilised towards the Congress despite being let down at times in terms of meeting their aspirations.
Gradually, things began to change and became visible in States such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar; the Kanshi Ram initiated Bahujan movement which later emerged as the BSP in the northern part of India especially in Uttar Pradesh was an example of this. It is true that in the beginning of the 1990s, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement attracted a section of marginalised communities towards Hindutva mobilisation.
Centres of mobilisation
The RSS’s work among these communities, in the form of seva karya (opening schools, hospitals, highlighting sanitation and cleanliness and other support services), and their cultural project to provide cultural and religious dignity, offered the Hindutva stream as another alternative for Dalits and subalterns in a State such as Uttar Pradesh. So, the Bahujan and Hindutva are the two centres of mobilisation that have emerged in the socio-cultural and political arena of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh. Both are reshaping Dalit aspirations in their own way. The Bahujan positioning, which was earlier a socio-political project, has now been reduced to political campaigns that try and create aspirations among the marginalised for their share in power. In contrast,Hindutva mobilisation is trying to provide them socio-cultural religious dignity in various ways and also working to ensure their share in power by providing them space in the politics of the BJP. There are also a few other political options in the form of Samajwadi politics (in U.P.) which also offer them space in the democratic politics of the State.
Other factors
Another side of this growing heterogeneity in terms of their political mobilisation is the result of constant changes that are taking place in the making of the community. The impact of the liberal economy, the rise of the Dalit middle class, and exposure to the mainstream and alternative media have encouraged aspiration among the marginalised and subalterns and working as a motivational force to search for ways to ensure their development and empowerment.
Dalit mobilisation in Uttar Pradesh is undergoing a big churn. One can easily see how multiplicity is emerging in their political choices. This is the result of various changes taking place in the social-political and developmental mobility of the community and the constantly changing nature of politics in Uttar Pradesh in recent times.
Badri Narayan is Professor and Director at the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. He is the author of the recently published book,Republic of Hindutva
