Hariram A
India has seen the worst kind of subjugation of its own people in the name of caste since ages, the oppressors have been successful in their task of keeping the Bahujan Samaj (OBCs, SC, STs and RMs) under their control as they are very much committed to their cause of oppression and subjugation of Bahujan Samaj. Though their philosophy and ideology is negative, they could succeed only because of their positive leadership. Leadership is not about an individual or position it’s more about the leadership of the whole community who believes in its philosophy and ideology and who stand for it like a wall without any hesitation.
The ‘manuvadi’ philosophy could be injected into the minds and blood of people through their ‘Hindutva’ agenda successfully because every individual who believed in their agenda played an effective role, no individual is responsible for the success of their ideology and agenda, it was the collective effort of their breed, every manuvadi understood their purpose and glued on to their respective roles as a politician, intellectual, student, employee, writer, capitalist etc., and involved in the process of realising their agenda, hence, they are successful in their endeavour. They were able to market and sell even a negative ideology which propagates hatred, discrimination, communalism, casteism, gender bias, fanaticism and violence, their antecedents also prove their anti-national attitude but still they could succeed in fooling the people of this country with their fake nationalism by using all the available resources at their disposal.
The recent events like dalit student’s suspension and Rohith Vemula’s suicide in the UoH in Hyderabad, and the JNU’s anti-national episode in Delhi are the best examples of the manuvadis’ plan and action, we could see how every wing of brahminical forces have swung into action to establish their agenda, it may be a student wing like ABVP, cultural wing RSS, religious wing Hindu Mahasabha, VHP, Bajarang Dal etc., even the advocates were able to become so aggressive in the court premises without any fear and hesitation. They were just busy in executing the pre-planned programme, by doing so they wanted to create the fear in the minds of Bahujans and on other hand they wanted to unite their forces, we could also see the patronage of their political masters through their political party BJP. They always have the political patronage to propagate and execute their ideology, in the past it was Congress and now it is BJP.
Babasaheb Ambedkar had said long back that “what makes one dominant over the other is power, that being so, power is needed to destroy the power”. The manuvadis’ are successful in being in power though they are minority, in a democracy it is the majority who should rule, but, here in India it is the minority manuvadis who rule because, they have many social, religious and cultural organisations, but, they have only one political organisation that is BJP, they propagate their ideology and organise the people through their different organisations but ultimately they support BJP during the elections. Their ‘jandas’ are different but their ‘agenda’ is one.
But, the question is: why the bahujan samaj could not succeed in their endeavour of establishing their ideology? Though, we have a positive ideology and philosophy which has also been acknowledged by the manuvadis too. Ambedkarism is a positive and a humanist ideology which believes in equality, social justice, economic emancipation, peaceful co-existence and constitutional democracy but still we could not market it and convince the stakeholders as the ideology is positive but the leadership is negative, again we have to remember that leadership does not mean an individual leadership it is the leadership of the whole community who believe in that ideology. What is the oppressed educated class, students, intellectuals, writers and others are doing? Have they understood the importance and the purpose of Ambedkarism? Are they performing their roles effectively? The answer is definitely negative, that is a big NO! We have thousands of organisations but unlike the manuvadis we have different ideologies, though we claim to be following an Ambedkarite ideology, but, we are not, because we are functioning separately as an organisation and politically also we separately support the different manuvadi political parties during the elections with a personal agenda. Ours is not a social problem it is purely a political problem, which we have failed to understand. The fact is that, no movement can succeed without the political patronage.
No ideology or philosophy can succeed until it is propagated, practiced and aggressively injected into the minds and blood of every person concerned with the cause. Our ideology is very positive and powerful but, still it is not able to reach its logical end as the leadership is negative, in other words we have failed in performing our duty. Battles can be won only when every soldier plays his role strategically. The Ambedkarite movement has created an intellectual class amongst the bahujan samaj and also the young generation are very active in the movement, hence it is the right time for us to have a powerful political organisation to protect the interest of the community without it which is impossible to safeguard the interest of the community and which has been proved practically by Manyavar Dada Saheb Kanshiram in Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India. He along with Behenji Mayawati was able to prove that the political power can bring the long lasting changes socially, economically and culturally, they were able to bring land reforms and distribute the land to the landless bahujan samaj, they also created the moral fear among the oppressors, and the huge employment opportunities were created in government sector and implemented 30% of reservation in employment in private sector with 10% for SC/ST, 10% for OBCs and RMs and 10% for upper caste poor. The atrocities on bahujan samaj also drastically came down, hence, Babasaheb was right and proved that “Power is needed to destroy the Power”. But, what are we thinking and waiting for? We cannot always keep on experimenting with new methods and failing, so it’s better to follow the successful method which has been already experimented
It is the time for every bahujan, the oppressed to play their role strategically, take up the leadership, and take Ambedkarism to its logical end, let Ambedkarism live long but not the struggle, let it reach its logical end as early as possible, and that responsibility of carrying the movement lies with every one of us. Leadership is not a position, it is an action, so, let us stop blaming others and let us act, let us stay glued to our roles and let us stand like a wall and make a positive ideology a successful ideology too. If negative ideology can succeed with the positive leadership, then definitely the positive ideology will also win with the positive leadership. So, can we be a positive leader? Let us not get fooled by different ideologies and isms. Neither the ‘Right’ nor ‘Left” can liberate us, it is only “Ambedkarism” which can liberate us. So let us proudly say that we are Ambedkarites and we shall realise the dream of our messiah Babasaheb Ambedkar by following the path of Dadasaheb Kanshiram and Behen Mayawatiji. Truth always triumphs. Jai Bheem… Jai Bharath.
~~~
Hariram A is an Assistant Professor and the Coordinator of BVS
