The Mayavati Phenomenon

The Mayavati Phenomenon

M C Raj 24 June 2007

There is a need to deeply appreciate the victory that Mayavati has achieved now and the earlier victories that both Kanshiram and Mayavati achieved many times. This is the fourth time that a Dalit woman has become chief minister of the most populated state in India. This is no mean achievement. It is for this reason that 03 June has been declared as the Festival of Dalit Women in the Amebdkar Yuga. There is an understandable and legitimate euphoria about this victory. After Kanshiram mingled with nature to become invisible to the physical eyes Mayavati alone had to lead the BSP towards a strategy and its subsequent victory in the UP elections. She reminds one of the other great stateswoman India has produced, namely, Indira Gandhi. The greatness of this victory will also naturally demand a serious interrogation of the strategies and methods that were applied in order to draw many lessons for the future for the evolution of a liberation strategy for an oppressed community. Many genuine attempts are being made to develop a tunnel vision on behalf of the Dalit people and the Indian intelligentsia is at pains to fabricate the many elements that will constitute this tunnel vision. Many groups of people have begun to see a light at the end of the tunnel. However, from the other end of the tunnel there are the dominant caste forces that simultaneously see a ray of light at the beginning of the tunnel. The beginning and the end of the tunnel seem to be suddenly reducing the gap as they are able to see each other in wry smile about the victory that both have achieved. In this wry smile is a tacit recognition that if Dalits can muster their wits they can win and if the Brahmin can ride piggyback on Dalits they too can win. This is a lesson both sides offer to the ‘broken’ psyche of the Dalits whose leadership often takes refuge under their victimhood to shun responsible action towards the liberation of its people. At the end of the tunnel also stands the Brahmin whose dilapidated citadel stared at him in an uncompromising gesture of millennium humiliation. Now the victory of BSP seems to have resurrected the Brahmin. He seems to have found a log to latch on to so as not to be washed away by the unprecedented deluge of the rise of anti-Brahmin Shudra in the country in contemporary politics. The Brahmin knew that Dalits could only wish him away and never wash him out. Now he knows that Dalits can virtually rescue him from the limbo. The UP victory has resurrected his hope that the retaliation of the victim psyche can best be used to his advantage. The Dalit wants to ‘teach’ him a lesson. The Dalit wants to return to him all that he has received for more than three millennia. He wants to be the godfather (in the present case, godmother) of the Brahmin only to defeat him. Lessons that were learned from bitter history of the past engineered and executed by the Brahmin caste! They are the masters in this communicative incompetence. Can Mayavati sustain the temporary rewards of such communicative incompetence for long? Can Mayavati or the Dalit leadership defeat the Brahmin in his master game?

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There are reasons to doubt the sustainability of this strategy.

Reason 1 All those who are in the serious business of carving out a niche for the Dalit community in Indian politics need to realize that the victory of BSP in UP in the recently concluded elections can hardly be described as a Dalit victory. The end users of this victory are not directly Dalits but whoever can lay a hand on this victory. It can at best be described as an electoral victory engineered and executed by the political acumen of a party started and headed by two Dalit stalwarts. Such a victory has been achieved within the gamut of the present political system in India. It can mean that there is either an implicit faith in the present political system, especially the electoral system of India or an inability to go beyond or worse even to be content with the little benefits that can accrue for some by tacitly subscribing to the present system. This can be problematic in the evolution of a Dalit political praxis in India.

Reason 2 The category of Bahujan is a political category which is far removed from the natural identity politics of the Dalit community. Being a political category it may reap a harvest either in bounded time or in bounded geography. Dalit is a historical category which can be used in political strategy. Bahujan is a political category that can easily defy the logic of history and culture. Though it is created by the Dalit Kanshiram it is not a Dalit category. That the Brahmin category is adduced to this historical and cultural category for the sake of sheer political victory casts a spell of gloom for the long term political empowerment of the category of Dalit.

Reason 3 This political category has been toyed with at the whims and fancies of only those who ‘matter’ in the institution called the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that evolved this category. As soon as one of the evolutionary of this category disappears the character of the definition of the political category of Bahujan seems to be going through a metamorphosis. Politics is a game of the possible. Whose possibility is defined in this metamorphosis will be a question to dabble with for all intellectuals and practitioners of politics in this country. Kancha Ilaiah tried to carve out a niche for himself within this evolving political category by proposing a Dalit-Bahujan category. But Kanshiram threw out such an effort in the first stroke. With this victory in UP can one say that another political category of Brahmin-Bahujan is evolving?

Reason 4 However much may be the euphoria that has been created through this victory of our sister Mayavati in UP, history of Dalits seems to stare at her with a certain amount of apprehension. The suspicion that history of the Dalit people throws up is to what extent can the Dalit trust the ‘Shudra’ or ‘backward caste’ category in political alliances. The Shudra category has always proved that given a chance it would back the higher echelons of the caste society to its psychological, economic and political advantage rather than identify itself with its blood-related category of the Dalit. Nay, the Shudra has made the best use of the

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Dalit springboard under his feet to propel himself into the orbit of Indian politics leaving the springboard to languish in the ghetto. It is because of sheer grit and determination that the likes of Kanshiram and Mayavati have been spotted in such hostile orbit. Trust may be a bad word in contemporary politics in India. However, if there has to be a marriage of convenience there needs to be another partner. The Shudra is reluctant and the Brahmin is more than willing. In marriages without trust divorce may be only a question of time.

Reason 5 The political category of Bahujan had its original ingredient. One such ingredient was the Muslim in India. Even M K Gandhi was horribly frightened of a possible amalgamation of these two categories in Indian politics. Even in sheer number game in politics the amalgamation of these two categories is significant. The earlier path to the present victory of BSP is heavily sprinkled with the consequences of this alliance between the Dalit and Muslim. There seems to be gaping holes and wide cracks in this path. Will BSP be able to return safe or will it fall into one of the holes, does it dream of eternally remaining in the seat of power in UP or will it be propelled into a different orbit or will it disappear from where it has reached now without knowing its way back to the people? Politics makes strange bedfellows. But will it make the Muslim and the Hindu bedfellows? One may need to stretch one’s imagination beyond the realm of possibilities. Gandhi and Kanshiram seem to have read history correctly. Gandhi was frightened of the prospect of a Dalit-Muslim alliance when Ambedkar demanded Separate electorate. He executed a vertical division of both by acceding to demand of Jinnah for Pakistan and by going on a fast unto death against the demand of Ambedkar for separate electorate within the Indian nation-state. Kanshiram evolved the Bahujan category precisely because he saw Muslims as natural allies of Dalits along with some backward caste groups. The post Kanshiram BSP seems to be dancing on a heap of hay after setting it on fire at the bottom.

Reason 6 When Ambedkar suggested that nationalism be based on a feeling of brotherhood (we shall add also sisterhood) he voiced a very significant value foundation in politics. By then many countries had moved to representative democracy. Guided by the counter values of individualism and liberalism, politically translated as citizenship and freedom, which were derived from enlightenment of the West, political discourse and praxis in many countries of the West had shifted to sheer number. Having been educated in the West Ambedkar could perhaps see this value erosion in politics. However, in India the contradictions of caste were glaring even to the naïve and to the simple. Nationalism based on a caste organization of society would spell a doom for the already marginalized people of India. Ambedkar also proposed that any number game in a representative democracy be played with a fair bit of mix of democratic value which, for him, is the feeling of brotherhood/sisterhood. In a beautiful combination of political values and pragmatic realism he proposed that Dalits be given separate electorate on par with the Muslims and Christians. Ambedkar played a number game in politics so that the Dalit community might have its political right of representation without having to be at the mercy of the whims and fancies of any political party in governance.

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BSP has played a different number game and has won the elections several times. However, the question remains as to what and whose representation in politics have been gained by this number game which seems to be bereft of the values that Ambedkar gave voice to. It must be noted that the value of brotherhood/sisterhood enshrined in the demand of Ambedkar are close to the culture and history of the Dalit people and not evolved for political convenience of gaining raw power. The number game of BSP does not seem to have anything to do with the fulfillment of the political aspirations of the Dalit and other marginalized groups of people in India.

Reason 7 This number game of BSP needs to be placed against the background of recent political compulsions derived from just one state, which is Uttar Pradesh. Under the Bahujan regime BSP joined hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1993 in buoyant bhai-bhai camaraderie. The Bahujan equation of BSP began to change when Mulayam the Shudra ditched BSP in an unfair game of politics. Instead of learning a longterm political lesson from this experience BSP seems to have developed knee-jerk reaction to its Bahujan equation and has gone overboard to please the Brahmin. The strategy to please the Brahmin is simultaneously a strategy to please oneself in the displeasure of the ‘traitor’ Shudra. Gaining political power to govern is a significant achievement. Mayavati deserves unlimited appreciation for this. However, is capturing political power by any means the way to the future political empowerment of the Dalit people?

Reason 8 There is a much deep rooted malady both with the approach of BSP and Dalit political leadership in general in this country. Who is the owner of the power that BSP has gained in UP? The self evident reply to this question is that it is the BSP. If so, what relevance it has to all the Dalit communities in India will be the next question. Can this victory of BSP be equated with a Dalit victory? It seems to be a highly improbable proposition. If so, who will sustain the political power that a Dalit party gains? Before an answer is imagined another reality crops up. BSP is not a Dalit party in the first place. It is a Bahujan party started and now headed by a Dalit. There are many Dalit leaders in India who have made a Congress victory possible by bulk sale of Dalit votes to Congress. There are many Dalit leaders in India who do the same to the BJP and to other parties in India. Many Dalit intellectuals and practitioners of politics seem to take it for granted that BSP is a Dalit party. We are not sure if the leadership of BSP would agree with such assumption.

Reason 9 The resurrected Brahmin caste is happy that it has been able to come back riding piggyback on BSP. The resurrected BSP is happy that it has bounced back to power riding piggyback on the Brahmin power. However, there is something that is unchangeable about the color of the Brahmin caste. When there is the compulsion of an ultimate choice the Brahmin would obviously opt for his caste. Other things matter very little to him. Therefore, it does not take much pain and time for the Brahmin who shifted from BJP to BSP to revert back. It just needs the stroke of a button. Perhaps BSP is also ready for reverting back when it suits. But then the million dollar question is what difference does it make to the Dalits and other marginalized sections of India’s vast population?

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Lessons for Future

Therefore, Dalit politics at the national level is in dire need of taking a Dalit trajectory in the long term political interest of the Dalit people. The Bahujan category cannot be equated with the Dalit category by any stretch of imagination. At best there can be only an alliance between these two different categories. In order to enter into political alliance not only with the Bahujan category but also with Muslims, Adivasis and other minorities the different dimensions of a possible Dalit category need to be laid bare. The Dalit trajectory of politics has many subways.

Subway 1 One of the worst ever denial of political right in human history has been slavery. A sophisticated and subtle form of slavery vis-à-vis the Dalit people is the wholesome denial of their right to live as a community of people with their own normative standards and normative order. All communities all over the world have this right including the Adivasis and other indigenous people of the world. The Dalit people have been forced to live according to the enslaving norms of the dominant caste order. One of the reasons why Gandhi conceded to the demand of Jinnah for a separate nation of Pakistan and refused to budge in to the demand of Ambedkar for separate electorate within the same nation is because he knew well that the people of Jinnah had their internal normative order. It would be nil impossible for Gandhi to face the consequences of a denial of the demand of a people who were their own masters. Gandhi also knew well that the people of Ambedkar did not have such a normative and were scattered all over following the norms of others faithfully. It was easy for him to take the demand of Ambedkar for granted. Later Ambedkar also missed the boat when he converted himself to Buddhism which is only either a glorious or a rebellious extension of Hinduism. The Dalit community is in dire need of giving formal shape to its internal normative that has guided them through three millennia of unmitigated violence and oppression. A political instrument of this internal governance of the community is called Dalit Panchayat. It is high time that the Dalit Panchayat becomes a national instrument in the hands of the Dalit people all over the country. All the finer details of Dalit Panchayats are explicated in Dalitology.

Subway 2 Ambedkar himself changed his political trajectory in the year 1955. On 27 August 1955, under the chairpersonship of Ambedkar the Federation of Scheduled Castes passed a resolution saying that the Dalits do not need separate electorate nor do they need reserved seats as enshrined in the Constitution of India. Instead Ambedkar proposed an electoral system with multi-member constituencies clearly indicating a reformation in the electoral system of the country in favor of the Dalit and other minorities. The present majoritarian electoral system of India is best suited for the dominant caste forces who would like to subsume the Dalits under one camouflaging ‘Indian’ identity, which according to them is equivalent to Hindu identity. Promotion of the discourses of two party systems is cleverly engineered to give a quiet burial to the political aspirations of the Dalit people and other minorities of India. A campaign for electoral reforms in India under Dalit leadership towards a Proportional Electoral System, especially in the model of Mixed Member Proportional System as in vogue in Germany will go a long way in Indian politics to create a specific Dalit space. This will be a number game based on political values of 5

governance. It is a Dalit space in the instruments and mechanisms of national governance that can be sustained by the strength of the Dalit people that will ensure sustainable political power. This subway is bound to get more support from other minorities of India as it will be beneficial to their communities too. Thus the category of Dalit will become an inclusive category while simultaneously retaining its specificity intact.

Subway 3 A proportional representation for Dalits in the instruments and mechanisms of national governance will remain only a pipedream if an appropriate internal instrument is not created to capture, consolidate and expand a Dalit space in national governance. Such an instrument is a Dalit party at the national level yet to be formed by the Dalit communities of India. A national Dalit party will become viable when it naturally evolves from the Dalit people themselves whose aspirations are deeply rooted in their history and culture. If such a party has to emerge from the strength of the Dalit community necessary and strenuous efforts have to be taken to further consolidate the internal strength of the Dalit communities through internal organization. Thus the mega effort towards internal governance of the community of Dalits and the emergence of a Dalit national party must go hand in hand and need not be imagined to be consequent to each other.

Subway 4 The serious business of building up the Dalit people as a strong and vibrant community in order to pave way for the emergence of a national Dalit party will require all the imagination and capacity of Dalit leadership for a period of time. Can we say that for another period of 15 years the entire Dalit leadership in the country converge all its energy and time for building up the community as an organic entity while at the same time working towards the creation of a national Dalit party? Such a genuine effort in the longterm interest of the community may require the withdrawal of Dalit leadership from all its political engagements with other mainstream parties. This withdrawal is only for a short period. But who will be ready even for a short while?

Subway 5 The difficulties are obvious. The present generation of leadership will never come back from its compromised political positions. Therefore, the Dalit community will have to bask in on the commitment of the next generation. This will be problematic as the stage of character formation of the next generation of leadership is practically over. One of the possible alternatives is to establish Dalit Ashram Schools in all the districts of India to recruit educate and build up Dalit children in Dalit culture and also create a lot of social capital through them for the community. Children need to be educated from the age of 6 in such Ashram Schools. They can study in regular schools but grow up in Dalit Ashramic environment. Economically speaking it will not be difficult to manage this. An easy way is that all Dalit officers who have gained job through reservation should be made to pay one day’s salary every month for the management of the schools. Other Dalits in business can chip in their mite. The government can be pressured to also support without strings.

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Conclusion If building up a vibrant future for Dalit children and getting the Dalit community integrated into the instruments and mechanisms of national governance is a serious concern then the present leadership will have to give a quiet burial to all its engagements with mainstream political parties and get engaged in the construction work of the Dalit community and a national Dalit party. Jai Booshakthi!

Jai Bhim!

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