The results of the 13th General Election will administer a shock to the forces of social justice with the emergence of a bipolar polity in which both poles are dominated by the high castes. Such a polity is undoubtedly detrimental to the vital interests of the dispossessed and the disinherited of the Indian society. Already the election campaign has seen less ideological articulation and more personal vituperation. Indeed on all basic political and economic questions, there is a surprising unity of approach between the two formations - the country should have a 'stable government'; the country should spend more on security; the country should remain 'secular'; the country should produce more and export more; the country should welcome foreign capital and technology, the country should move towards free market and join the march of globalisation etc. Apparently, the prevailing inequity and injustice in the Indian society is no one's concern. Mass poverty and illiteracy, rural backwardness, urban decay, social conflicts, religious chauvinism do not matter any more. No one speaks of distributive justice, of social reconciliation, of decentralisation of power, of basic needs of the people.
The question is: whose interests are being ignored or put on the back-burner?
If one tries to delineate the contours of the face of poverty, deprivation and powerlessness, one recognises the Adivasis, the Achhuts, the lower Shudras and the Muslims. The higher Shudras have arrived and stand co-opted in the system by the high castes and are being treated as partners in managing the enterprise called India.
The Deprived constitute nearly 2/3 of the population. They have slept through 50 years of independence. They have received doles but they have not shared power. Their cry for justice and equality has gone unheard. But they are beginning to wake up, assert their identity and demand their share. This is the beginning of social change, of economic redistribution and of political restructuring.
In contemporary India, it is the Deprived which constitute the force for change.
But they have no leadership. Nor has there been any coordination among them. National and regional parties have prospered with their support but offered precious little in terms of participation and empowerment. And, with some exceptions, here and there, they have no nation-wide parties of their own.
Let us first realise that politics is essentially a combination of social segments. The bidders for the support of the deprived segments have so far been the high caste or the higher Shudras. Every national as well as regional party is controlled essentially by, and serves the interests of a master group with the supporting groups serving as satellites. In their ignorance or inexperience or ambition, anyone throw up by the deprived segments becomes an agent of the master group whose job is to act as his party's broker to purchase the loyalty or support of his community or sub-community, caste or sub-caste. Their political development was thus stunted; they became dependants or clients of the master group; they had no organisation worth the name. And they were left alone, except at election time to stew in their own juice, to live like animals in their habitat. National development largely passed them by.
Let us now penetrate social reality a little more in depth. The Constitution and law use terms like SC, ST, OBC, Minorities to describe them. These terms serve to conceal many divisions and much disparity within each group. In each group, there are a few sub-groups or families which have prospered at the expense of the others. For historical or political reasons, the vast majority has been bought and sold behind its back or without its word by the affluent sub-groups. For example, the higher Shudras have shortchanged the lower Shudras who constitute a majority. Today they are beginning to identify themselves as the Most Backward Class (MBC).
The historic battle for social, economic and political justice will be joined between the haves and the have-nots, between the high castes, the high Shudras, and even the affluent section of the SC, ST and minorities, on one hand, and the MBC's, the deprived masses of the SC's, the ST's and the minorities, on the other. But how can a battle be waged without organisation, leadership and coordination among the potential allies?
Theoretically, it is also possible to visualise a United Party of the Deprived but the party must have an inbuilt representation of all identifiable and conscious groups and sub-groups, in due proportion, at every level, in its structure and leadership and stand unequivocally for power-sharing.
Theoretically, it is easy to postulate a United Front of the Deprived but the Front requires that each deprived group or set of groups having some affinities be represented by a political formation - big or small – which commands their loyalty and builds on their available human and material resources.
Theoretically, another option is available; separate parties representing various social groups or sub-groups - retain their identity and enter into bilateral or multilateral agreement for political and electoral coordination on terms of equality, with a common agenda, for equitable distribution of seats and of power, when it comes through common endeavour
Whatever the form, there has to be mutual trust and confidence and no attempt - direct or indirect - by any group or entity to lap up more than its proportionate share, in the distribution of power or resources - whether it is seats in the Panchayats and the Legislatures, or places in government jobs or educational institutions or share in fruits of development or welfare benefits or in flow of bank credit. There has also to be a common commitment to give priority in public expenditure, to universalising basic facilities and meeting minimum human needs.
Coming to the Muslim Indians, let us first realise that we are not the only deprived oppressed group in the country. Indeed the prevailing injustice and inequality is not simply religious in origin and that in any case the situation cannot be remedied by the Muslims, acting on their own or waging a struggle as Muslims.
Taking a bird's eye view of Muslim political behaviour since Independence and analysing it in social terms, one concludes that the Muslims first supported the high castes in maintaining their political, economic and social dominance; then in the late 70's and 80's, they wwitched their support to the higher Shudras (Yadavs, Koeris, Kurmis). Of late in UP and Bihar, they have been extending support to a section of the SC's - the Chamars in UP and the Dusadhs in Bihar. The pattern remained unchanged with the emergence of regional parties, e.g. in Tamil Nadu and Andhra: Pradesh. But so far they have failed to evolve a nation-wide strategy and taken no worthwhile initiative or made any serious effort to build bridges with the lower Shudras (the MBCs) or the ST's or even the SC's, as a whole.
One sees an unfortunate but common strand running through the entire period. The Muslim community remained an object, never become a subject of politics; was gradually marginalised; it largely served as a courtier, a showpiece, a glorified drumbeater. Consequently no party, howsoever secular in its profession, ever took its prablem seriously or did anything concrete to ameliorate it economic or social status. Why should any buyer in his sennes pay more than what the seller asks for?
Economically and socially, Muslims may not amount in much but they have perhaps a greater degree of political enneciousness than the other deprived groups who have lieen brain-washed for centuries to accept their situation as their destiny. But the Muslims have to decide first on which alde they stand - of those who have used us or of those who need us and whom we need! The time has come for the Muslim Indians to shed tleur predilection for those in power and take their place on the side of the oppressed and the deprived of the Indian society, the 'Mustazefin' in the Quranic sense, to comfort them, encourage them, support them and even give a lead in forming an Alliance of the Deprived. Their purpose should not be to use the 'Dalit Shakti', using the term Dalit in a broađest possible sense, to feather their own nest or to establish a position of pre-eminence in the political arena but to help these forgotten and exploited children of mother India, stand on their own feet, claim their due rights and together move towards and usher in the regime of social justice, based on due share in the resources goods and services of the country for each social group or even sub-group proportionate to its population. There is no doubt a mutuality of interest for without such mutuality and trust, the endeavour cannot succeed. But there should be no ambition to lord it over them, no display of any sense of superiority and no desire to nibble at or snatch away an iota of their due share.
Then to participate in the common struggle the Muslim community also needs is to have one or more political formations in various parts of the country which can establish reciprocal linkages with the parties which represent the MBC's, the SC's and the ST's. Ideally there should be four national organisations to represent each of the four segments but considering our a.ea and population and considering that we are not beginning with a clean slate, there may be a multiplicity of parties representing different vertical and horizontal sectors of each group. So long as they have a common objective and mutual confidence and trust, the number of parties does not matter. But then it may be necessary to have umbrella organisations to bring together various parties representing different sections of the deprived at every operational level.
All of them have to build up a network of connections and linkages among social and political organisations representing the MBC's, the SC's and the ST's, at the local, regional, state and national levels.
In a nutshell, there can be no political stability without social stability. And there can be no social stability without Social Justice. And there can be no social justice unless the Oppressed and the Deprived break the chains which have turned them into political slaves of others, reject the power brokers and organise themselves, on the basis of unity and trust, to realise the common goal of Dignity, Equality and Justice. The unity of the backward Shudras, Achhuts, Adivasis and Muslims will then become invincible.
New Delhi, 1st October, 1999
