India became a nation under the British regime after 400 years of Mughal rule. Despite many changes during this long period, one unchanging phenomenon was caste discrimination.

Before British rule, a stream of Sufi saints had rejected the Brahmanism and injustice to Dalits (untouchables), but their main focus was on encouraging self-awareness and trust in a seemingly egalitarian religion with a non-discriminating, omnipresent and omnipotent god.

Real changes came in the 19th century, when the leaders of deprived castes espoused both revolt against the ideas of high-caste Hindus led by the Brahmins and belief in the modernity which had led to democratisation in Europe and the United States.

Democracy is essentially a practice of alliance building. Jyoti Ba Phule forged a grand alliance of farmers and marginalised and deprived communities. He considered that India was being led by minority high-caste Hindus. Dr Ambedkar, who was educated in the United States, the UK and Germany, was more concerned about the constitutional provisions for Dalits. Institutions should be strong enough to protect the constitutional provisions made for the most marginalised communities. The community that he was leading was thoroughly disempowered. They couldn’t understand what their rights were because they had been brainwashed to accept ideologies that kept them in enslavement and poverty. They accepted the theory of karma, that misfortunes were due to bad behaviour in a previous existence, and believed that all they could do was to hold to their duties. In Ambedkar’s opinion, the greatest damage to Dalits was caused by theory of karma.

Ambedkar thought that the Dalit minority needed constitutional protection from the tyranny of the majority. In the 1930s, he fought for them to have a separate electoral identity and the British made what was known at the time as a communal award.

After India’s independence, Ambedkar led the drafting of the Indian Constitution. Dalits were reserved 17.5 per cent of seats in Parliament and state assemblies. However, when he stood in an election in Mumbai, Ambedkar was defeated by a coalition of high-caste Hindus.

In subsequent years, many Dalit leaders were elected and even achieved high office, but this did little to improve the overall condition of the Dalits as a whole.

In 1956 Ambedkar questioned whether India was a genuine democracy, beset as it was by innumerable caste divisions. He pointed out that

“An Indian cannot eat or marry with an Indian simply because he or she does not belong to his or her caste. An Indian simply can not touch an Indian because he or she does not belong to his or her caste.” He described the caste system as “an ascending scale of hatred and descending scale of contempt” where castes were jealous of one another. The Congress party chose candidates carefully on the basis of their caste, and voters supported candidates from their own caste.
Ambedkar formed the Indian Labour Party. He formed the Depressed Classes League and he formed the Republican Party of India, all in an attempt to fight discrimination. To eradicate the caste identity of different Dalit communities or Scheduled Castes, as they are called constitutionally, Ambedkar redefined Buddhism in a radical Humanist way and termed it Navayana. But Ambedkar’s quest for a progressive Dalit identity beyond caste has not been properly followed up by those who claim his legacy.

For the parties claiming his legacy he was “their” leader only. For the Hindu upper-caste parties, he became a “Dalit leader”, therefore relegating him to significance only in urban slums and the Dalitwadas of the villages. The irony was that a modern man like Ambedkar, whose democratic spirit could have been the meeting ground for the forces of change, became a victim of caste identities in India.

The first-past-the-post electoral system, which Ambedkar himself actually felt inadequate to protect the interest of the Dalits, is fast turning into a game of identities. The more numbers a group has, the bigger its share in the power structure. Nowhere is there any insurance for minorities.

The reservation of seats has fragmented Dalit politics further. Dalits do not constitute a single caste. More and more Dalit leaders focus on their primary caste identities to gain power. Political power is in the hands of those who are fundamentally anti-democratic. The token presence of Dalits in power is used to tell the world that Dalits as a whole have been empowered in India, but it is time to look into the ugly realities of the process.

We can see the process of political changes in the two most populous states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They were the first where the national parties were thoroughly marginalised while a large number of Dalit-OBC (the Other Backward Communities) leaders dominated the political process since 1990. This broader unity of Dalit- OBC could have changed the entire polity in India, but individual leaders and their egos became bigger than their political parties.

In addition, there was a tendency to categorise any non-Dalit-OBC politician as “Brahmanical”. Nevertheless, Dali-OBC political leaders were happy to cooperate with the right-wing Hindu Nationalist party, the BJP. Power was maintained by abusing high-caste Hindus during the day and dining and plotting with them at night.

Anti-Brahmanism and anti-ritualism is a quintessential theme for Dalit-OBC leaders, but instead of applying this to high-caste Hindus only, they apply it within the Dalit community as well and manage to marginalise members of minority Dalit and backward castes.

In Bihar a backward-caste leader made an alliance with Muslims that ruled the state for nearly 20 years but without any developmental work. Eventually, disillusioned Dalits withdrew support and the Government fell. Similarly, in Uttar Pradesh the Chief Minister, Mayawati, combined her caste strength (Chamar) with the Brahmins, much to resentment of the other Dalit communities. There again the Government forgot the basic Dalit agenda of measures like land reform, education and health care or any new scheme for the poor. The result was that the Chamars themselves became disillusioned with the Government, feeling that they were just fodder to give the Brahmins power.

The assertion of rights and the democratisation of India will continue. Marginalised communities will not be satisfied by token representation in the political process and will reject those who seek power for their own ends. Caste identity is not enough; people want development; they want their voices to be heard. India has a good Constitution, but it is not fully implemented. The rich legacy of Ambedkar Phule and Periyar, each of them possessed of high integrity and deeply committed to the cause of oppressed communities, must be carried forward by the current leadership. The Dalit movement cannot be a movement of caste identities but should provide an alternative political theory in India. Dalit-OBC politics cannot be exclusive in nature, but more broad, open-minded and inclusive, and should promote a culture of freedom and Humanism.

Fortunately, the recent election sent a stern message to the political parties that they cannot take people for granted in the name of identity. What are needed are good education and economic conditions and a social change towards equality. Unfortunately, those who harp on caste have no idea of how to annihilate it. Caste must not be exploited for the glorification of a few individuals and their megalomaniac visions. The issue of caste and Dalits needs to be addressed in a similar way to the Civil Rights movement in the United States. It must be about much more than a few seats in Parliament and the empowerment of elite leaders in the name of communities. It must be a broad movement for human rights and human dignity and against the religious rituals and holy texts that have subjugated and enslaved millions for centuries.

Caste-based identities must not be allowed to threaten basic Dalit unity. Humanists have that capacity to lead such a movement towards a modern, democratic state as envisaged by Dr Ambedkar.

Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a Humanist who works with the Social Development Foundation, Delhi. His writings can be accessed at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com