How The Ruling Class Divides The Poor : Dalits, Minorities, OBCs

Marxism aims at removing inequalities. And when it comes to India in- equality means our hierarchically graded caste system. But our communists (CPI & CPM) have chosen to ignore this stark reality & sought to organise the “poor” against the “propertied class”. To them trade unionism is a step towards “class struggle”. There can’t be a greater perversion of Marxism than this. And the proof of it is India is nowhere near a “class struggle”. While India is a country of the poor with wealth accumulated in the hands of less than 10% of the population, if our CPM, CPI interpretation of Marxism had been right by this time the country should have exploded in a bloody “class struggle”. But what we are witnessing, in fact, is not a class struggle but a struggle between the poor classes. Press reports speak about Untouchables, tribals, Muslims, Christians who constitute the poorest of India’s poor-being kicked, killed, raped, burnt and their little property destroyed by the equally poor low caste Hindus, mostly the OBCs. The Ruling Class, which owns the wealth, enjoys caste status and also runs the affairs of the country, engineers this clash bet- ween the poor caste” and “classes” be- cause that is the basic principle of divide and rule. When the poor get busy cutting each others throat, the game of exploitation becomes all the more easy. How the Ruling Class divides the poor-dalits, tribals. Muslims. Christians and OBCs ? We are chiefly concerned with three most important things: (1) caste system. (2) language and (3) political parties. (1) We need not deal much about the havoc played by the caste in dividing not only the Hindus but other religionists who as converts from Hinduism carried the stink of caste with them. As caste is sanctioned by the Hindu religion and blessed by the gods, and it is hierarchically arranged in ascending order of reverence and descending degree of contempt, & each caste and sub-caste is superior or inferior to the other, with the Brahmin standing at the apex of this caste pyramid, this ingeniously arranged system has led to a perpetual warfare between them. Each caste has become an armed camp. Therefore, as long as caste is there, India will remain an embattled land. As Hinduism is the other name for caste, there is little chance of destroying caste. While we have to do everything to destroy caste (read How to Destroy Caste System-Strategy for Revolution, Dalit Sahitya Akademy publication No. 2. 1982, price Rs. 3), conscious dalits and minorities will have to educate their comrades on the havoc of caste, see that they reduce caste feuds between them and unite them against the exploiting higher castes (2) Languge as a divisive force is becoming more dangerous than caste because passions can be easily ro used on an emotional issue like the language. Shiv Sena of Bombay is one such face of fascism. SS followers are mainly the Marathi lumpen proletariat, the unemployed low caste youth who are told by the high caste SS leadership that its enemies are not the Marwari & Gujarati capitalists but the poor, low caste Kannadigas. Tamilians and Keralites. Did SS attack any rich non-Marathi capitalists? The Karnataka govt. recently had to bow to a Kannada language fascist phantom that showed its ugly face following the Gokak Committee recommending sole first language status for Kannada in schools. The brain behind the Kannada language agitation is the high caste writers. And RSS has been quite active, Dalits. Muslims. Christians and other low castes, who constitute the majority, are not interested in this agitation but high caste journalists manufactured public opinion and forced the Govt to surrender. Since language could quickly rouse passions, the Ruling Class was able to let loose the low caste mobs against Muslims & Tamil dalits. In many parts of Karnataka, the pro-Kannada agitation turned into bloody communal clashes & poor Muslims suffered. In Kolar Gold Fields. the Hindu police attacked Tamil dalits and over 20 were killed. This is how the poor are made to get divided on a non-issue. The cancer of language has entered the Church as well and the Archibishop of Bangalore was attacked just because he happened to be a Tamilian. The pity is that 75% of the Tamil-speaking Catholics in Bangalore happen to be Untouchable converts. But Kannada Catholics want Kannada to be made the language of worship in churches. High caste Hindu writers & the Press are fanning this fame. This linguistic chauvenism will spread like a virus with each linguistically divided State becoming an island by itself. Left parties should have protected the poor dalits and minorities and fought this language fascism. But they too have be come helpless. We have. on the other hand, reports of Left party-controlled workers themselves getting divided on language basis with Kannada dalit workers being made to attack Tamil dalits, both working in same factories. Adding fuel to fire, Karnataka’s most popular film actor. Rajkumar, who actually belongs to a very backward toddy-tapper caste of Idigas. has joined this Kannada agitation while, his children are reported to be going to English schools (Times of India, July 5). The bigger and the more dangerous Hindi imperialism is growing actively promoted by the RSS. The Ruling Class has dis- covered that language is the best way to divide the poor. That is why Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy, scenting this danger, had asked the people to dump all the Indian languages to the Arabian Sea and take to English. Ambedkar was also in favour of English Even in China, they are making a serious effort to study English. The Ruling Class, which is engineering this battle of the languages in this Tower of Babel that Is India. is careful enough to send its children only to English convents because it knows the usefulness of English. Indian languages for the poor and English reserved for the rulers. What a beautiful game! RSS leaders preach Hindi but send their children to English schools. How do you like this? We have to see through this game of the Ruling Class and educate our comrades not to fight on a non-issue like language. Dalits and minorities whatever language they speak, belong to one fraternity, their interests are common, their enemy is common &, therefore, they must stand & fight together. (3) Political parties are fast becoming tools of the Ruling Class to divide only the poor: dallts and minorities. We can understand if these parties are formed on ideological principles. Rightist parties like Indira Gandhi’s ruling Cong 1. Janata, Lok Dal, Cong S etc. have hardly any differences on fundamental issues Like keeping the Untouchables and tribals as they are. It is a personality quarrel that gave birth to different parties. The Fascist par JP, the political arm of RSS, is the only party in India having a clearcut ideo- logy to establish a class-caste dictatorship by subduing Untouchables and tribals. fooling OBCs, killing Muslims. Christians, Sikhs & Marxists. Less said the bettor about our Left parties. Not only between them there is no ideological difference, but it is in full agreement with bourgeois parties on caste, language, persecution of Muslims. Christians, Sikhs etc. Dalits are forming their own trade unions because Left parties did not bother about them. Barring Jagjivan Ram’s, every party is led by high caste Hindus and it is but natural that on social issues they all think alike. They have learnt nothing forgotten nothing. As political parties are essential part of a democracy and parties are formed to contest elections and capture power, naturally they will have to give lot of false promises to the poor and make compromises on principle, But the poor, illiterate masses believe these promises and get divided into different parties & fight only between themselves. They have to be told that in India political changes will not lead to social change. And what they need is not political change, not ever economic change but social change. Even after several elections and different parties coming to power at the Centre & States. the poor continue to be poor but the rich are getting richer. High caste grip is tightened. What is the use of our taking interest in these political parties? What hope can we have in elections? What we want is social change. And when it does not come through political parties and elections, better not take interest in them. Yes, We know we are not in a position to abolish these parties. They will only wither away if we keep out. It is a waste of time, energy & money to take interest in these things Political parties will, therefore. become increasingly irrelevant when the dalits & minorities start opening their eyes. The day is not too far. What we need is a party of the poor dalits and persecuted minorities not to contest elections and indulge in wasteful parliamentary politics but to bring about REVOLUTION that will result in sweeping social change. TRADE UNIONS tails of every political party-are also playing this game of divide and rule. Dalits are used by these union leaders to carry flags, shout slogans. paste wall posters, distribute pamphlets, and receive.