Brolu Narayan Swamy of the Syndicate Bank SC/ST Assn., Hyderabad, has asked us a question on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Kanshi Ram’s speech in Bangalore on July 6, 2003:
“If Brahmins, who comprise 3% of the population, can rule the country for 55 years, why not 85% of the Dalits, Backward Castes and Minorities?” (Deccan Herald, July 7, 2003).
His question is:
You have been repeating these population statistics in DV very often but why you and Kanshi Ram are not saying how to convert this big majority into BSP voters?
This is a good question.
Today’s NDA Govt. in Delhi is not an exclusive Brahmin rule. It is a coalition of many Backward Caste parties. Even the earlier Congress Govts. ruled India mainly with the support of Dalits and Muslims. The Brahmana Jati Party (BJP) is deeply worried that it is not able to capture power on its own and impose its Hindurashtra nazi rule over us.
100 years of solid work: But it must be admitted that the Brahmins have come to rule at least through a coalition after over 100 years of thorough-going socio-cultural counter- revolution. Today’s Vaidik Vajpayee rule in Delhi is the result of such hard, sincere, dedicated work by hundreds and thousands of vaidiks for the past over 100 years.
The Hindu nazi party of RSS itself was founded in 1925 but the Brahminical ideology was constructed as early as 1870. The Arya Samaj was founded in 1875.
Wonderful spade work was done silently but with stunning success specially after India got “independence” in 1947. The vaidik sincerity and dedication are as clear as daylight. We may not like the Brahminical forces, but we can’t deny the fact of their tremendous work to establish the “Brahmin Raj” in India.
Traitors among us: But after the death of the Father of India, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, what happened? Our elite “educated” Dalit brothers who took advantage of the fruits of Babasaheb’s mission and Dalit leaders elected from reserved seats turned traitors to the community. There may be some exceptions, but exceptions always prove the rule.
The Bahujans may be 85%. This is right: Dalits 20%, Tribals 10%, Backward Castes 35% plus Muslims 15%, Christians and Sikhs 5% – total 85%. We the indigenous people of India are a very big majority as against 15% of the alien micro- minority Aryan rulers. Kanshi Ram is right. But the cream of this 85% has been corrupted and co-opted by the Brahminical ruling class. We have to admit this. Dalit movement itself is nearly dead all over India. Nobody talks of the Budhist mass conversion drive.
It is because of this the 85% Bahujan Samaj, of which the Dalits are the natural leaders, could not capture political power. This is the simple answer. Kanshi Ram also knows it.
When the Brahminical Social Order (BSO) itself is deeply worried that it is not able to capture power on its own, how can the deprived Bahujan Samaj take over Delhi without any sacrifice and suffering? How can we expect a harvest without implementing Babasaheb’s Three Commandments — Educate, Agitate, Organise?
Monopoly media: Every society has its cream. The thinking section in any society is always small. Even among Brahmins, all are not thinking people. Such thinking people must be honest and dedicated and must be ready to suffer and sacrifice. Have the Dalits produced such a thinking cream?
The BSO is today ruling because it controls our brains through its monopoly media. This Brahminical media may be stupid and outright rubbish. Yet it is doing the job of controlling our brains. You control the brain; you control everything else.
Have we been able to produce at least one successful medium? Even the well-off sections within the Bahujan Samaj like the Muslims, Christians or Sikhs have no media of their own. Except the Dalit Voice, which itself is struggling to survive, Dalits have not one single all-India English periodical — not to speak of dailies. We went round the country several times pointing out this serious weakness, but none took any interest in our proposal. Such is the depth of intellectual poverty in the Bahujan Samaj. Except the Brahmins, no one else in India understands the importance of media.
Four RPI parties: All the English dailies, periodicals, electronic media are controlled by the BSO. They may be producing rubbish. Stinking garbage. But we don’t produce even this garbage. We are busy criticising each other. Dalits in many parts of the country are fighting between themselves.
Kanshi Ram, India’s only Dalit political leader who has proved his ability and strength, should have become by this one of the country’s top political leaders. But barring UP, where also his BSP is running a coalition govt. with the BJP, he ¥ is not able to capture even the Hindi belt.
Why our Dalit brothers, who today are so crazy about “capturing political power”, have failed to join BSP wholesale? No Dalit political leader has reached such heights like Kanshi Ram. His sincerity, love for his people, political shrewdness, tireless work for the past 30 years is now part of history. Dalits of the entire country should have joined BSP wholesale. Why are a good chunk of Dalits going with the Congress, BJP and other parties? We have four Republican Parties (RPI), umpteen Samata Sainik Dals. One Dalit leader hates another Dalit leader. If there are three Dalits, they will have four parties.
Rashtrapati Bhavan insult: There are about 120 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members in the Lok Sabha elected from the reserved constituencies. If they all stand unitedly * they can bring down any government in Delhi. But they never unite. Each reserved MP is nose- led by his or her upper caste bosses in the Hindu parties which imprison them. The first time the Dalit MPs united was on a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan to lodge a protest with the then President of India, R. Venkataraman Iyer. The Brahmin President refused to meet the delegation, but the entire block of MPs simply swallowed the insult done to the Dalits of India and walked back without a protest. The delegation had gone to protest on the Hindu conspiracy in the mass murder of Chundur Dalits in Andhra Pradesh.
Muslim ignorance: Despite years of Dalit-#s, Muslim unity work, we have reached nowhere. Muslims are not able to understand who a Hindu is and who is not. Though ‘the entire Bahujan Samaj is not only not Hindu but anti-Hindu, Muslims cannot differentiate between the minority Hindu and the majority non-Hindu.
Vaidiks are brainwashing Dalits saying that Backward Castes are the real enemies of Dalits and not the Brahmins. Quite a lot of corrupt and co-opted Dalits are pleased with this new slogan. How can Bahujan Samaj be formed with such deep internal contradictions when Muslims still consider Dalits and BCs as Hindu and BCs are declared as enemies of Dalits?
The BSO was able to capture Delhi at least through a coalition experiment after it launched a social-cultural counter-revolution movement. But we on our part failed to take advantage of the socio-cultural movement launched by Babasaheb and then by Kanshi Ram through +BAMCEF and DS-4. Our reserved sector govt. employees should have been on the vanguard of such a revolution. But they betrayed Babasaheb.
Brahmins love of jati: Today, we have neither a movement nor a media. We are busy quarreling between ourselves. One Dalit hates the other. Show us one Brahmin publicly criticising another Brahmin.
We have been the bitterest critics of Brahmins like Babasaheb. We have written a book itself. (V.T. Rajshekar: Brahminism, DSA – 2002). But at the same time, we also admire, the great qualities of Brahmins. We have to learn a lot from them.
As Ambedkarites, when we are fighting for Justice and Truth, we should not be accused of speaking out the untruth. The Truth is the Brahmins (along with the Jews) are the one and the only people in India who intensely love their Jati. (DV June 16, 2003, p.5: “Jews prove efficacy of DV’s caste identity thesis”). P.V. Narasimha Rao day and night thinks only of his jati and worries only of his jati. So too Vajpayee. E.M.S. Namboodiripad till the time of his death was president of his jati association. Every Brahmin loves his jati. This is his greatest quality. Every Brahmin heart is in his Brahmana Jati Party. Is this the case with Dalits? If so, why not even 20% of India’s Dalits have not joined the BSP? Why the Malas and Madigas are fighting? Why did the Malas go to court against the AP Govt. decision to categorise the reservations? Why -*flashers made a monopoly of the RPI, Budhist movement and Dr. Ambedkar in Maharashtra? We have answered all these questions in our book, Caste — A Nation Within the Nation (Books for Change, Bangalore, 2002).
Kanshi Ram is getting old. His great work — unmatched in Dalit politics — must be carried on. We have been his supporters from the very beginning. His political mission must continue.
But not all people mobbing him are so much interested in his selfless mission. They flock to him with selfish motives. That is why Kanshi Ram is a sad man today. Because he is facing opposition and criticism from the Dalits only.
In Maharashtra, he was not even allowed to step in being a Chamar. Only recently some wisdom is dawning upon the Mahars and things are improving. In Andhra Pradesh too the situation is the same. In West Bengal, the vast Namasudras are under the threat of Manuwadi Marxists.
Muslim problem: Over and above this the Brahminical toilet papers have dubbed BSP as a Dalit party to see that the BCs and Muslims do not go near it. They have also appointed some agents among Dalits to divide Dalits from BCs. Lot of publicity is given in their toilet papers to these writers to say the enemies of Dalits are not Brahmins but the BCs. The elite Muslims who control Muslim masses are seeking Hindu- Muslim unity. They don’t like Dalit-Muslim unity.
And we have no media of our own to convey the plenty of Truth and Justice with us.
We may be 85% as Kanshi Ram has said in his Bangalore speech. He is right. But how can we convert this 85% of people into our voters?
This is worrying us.
