New complexities in Dalit assertion

A thoughtfully put-together volume illuminates the gamut of current struggles and tensions in Dalit politics, encompassing discrimination, representation, as well as their aspirations and anxieties

Dalits in the New Millennium

Editors: Sudha Pai, D Shyam Babu & Rahul Verma

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Pages: 483

Price: Rs 1,195

This book could not have been timed better, coming in the middle of a controversy created by Udhayanidhi Stalin about Sanatan Dharma, the announcement of a bounty on his head by a Hindu seer for his remarks, and the lack of action by the Indian State. These are all issues that directly or indirectly have a bearing on Dalit politics in India.

What set off the storm? “There are certain things that we have to eradicate and cannot merely oppose,” Udhayanidhi, the grandson of M Karunanidhi and minister in the Tamil Nadu government headed by his father, said at the Sanatana Abolition Conclave, organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association. In this context, he said: “Mosquitoes, dengue, corona [virus] and malaria are things we cannot oppose  — we have to eradicate them. Sanatanam is also like this. Eradication, and not opposing, Sanatanam has to be our first task.”

How should we interpret this? History tells us that in Tamil Nadu Sanatanam equals Brahminism. To that extent, Udayanidhi’s statement is only a reiteration of what B R Ambedkar and Periyar have said. But the context has changed. Organisations such as the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) are challenging the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). In the north, the collapse of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has left a vacuum that smaller outfits such as the Bhim Army of Chandrashekhar Azad are unable to fill adequately. The Vanchit Aghadi is yet another new outfit in Maharashtra. Add to that the rise of new technologies that offer new avenues to Dalits but don’t really efface discrimination, and the challenge of Hindutva…the universe of Dalit assertion and politics has become at once more complex and variegated.

This volume illumines the gamut of current struggles and tensions in Dalit politics: Electoral politics; trends in ideology and identity; discrimination and representation; and aspirations and anxieties especially among younger Dalits and other areas of concern. Every chapter is a self-contained section with its own introduction and conclusion, with the book being organised into several parts. It explores electoral trends and Dalit voting patterns. Authors Rahul Verma and Pranav Gupta tell us, for instance, that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) became the principal beneficiary of Dalit votes in 2014 in Delhi and Punjab while the BSP lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in much of north India. In two-party competition states, the Congress lost Dalit votes to the BJP and regional parties gained these votes from the Congress. The pattern was the same in the 2019 elections. The biggest change, however, was the BJP gaining a vast swathe of Dalit support in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and the northeastern states. This was a trend in both reserved and non-reserved seats.

The rise and subsequent decline of the BSP is a story in itself. Surinder Jodhka’s analysis of Kanshiram’s political evolution and the development of BSP covers new areas. How the BSP lost the plot in north India despite a stint in power in Uttar Pradesh, the compromises it made and how the BJP cashed in on the resentment of the smaller Dalit jatis, plus the new welfarism of the right, by Sudha Pai, also illustrate the limits of organised Dalit power. Despite rising atrocities and the lack of remedial steps by the state — Rohit Vemula’s suicide in 2016, the rise of cow vigilantism in Gujarat, the Saharanpur attacks on Dalits, the Bhima Koregaon incident in Maharashtra, and the delay in the government filing a review petition on the Supreme Court order in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act — the BJP continued to win the votes of Dalits, suggesting uncertainty but also high anxiety among Dalits.

It is the section on exactly this — uncertainty and anxiety — that is addressed with sensitivity and depth. Like capitalism, technology was thought to be a way to bypass caste. But the stories from the diaspora as well as within India tell us that for Dalits, caste walls are too high to negotiate, much less climb over. Representation of Dalits in newsrooms and portrayals of Dalit struggles in films, literature and music cover new ground. For instance, a Dalit YouTube sensation is Ved Prakash who had in September 2022, 1.25 million subscribers. Ved Prakash started out in Hindi journalism but found the newsroom systematically blocking news related to Dalit causes. He quit and used YouTube to monetise a political message. How do other “subaltern” castes deal with the more powerful Dalit castes like the Jatavs? Where does nationalist appeal figure? Though these issues are addressed in the book, the persisting gap in development between the Dalits and the rest of society, says Amit Thorat, makes for a powerful case for restitution and reparation.

If anything, the only gap in this volume is a section on how the state navigates Dalit crises and how the Dalits look at the outreach of the state, beyond the politics of reservations.

It is hard to sum up all the insights in this thoughtfully put-together volume, at once reflective and comprehensive. It is written in a style that is accessible for both the scholar and a layman seeking to understand Dalit realities. Its value lies in its contemporaneity — but it also provides the historical context and delves into gaps in past scholarship. Everyone who wants to understand India must read this book.