Rethinking the politics of social justice in Uttar Pradesh

The surprising rise of Hindutva politics, especially in the Hindi heartland, has almost put the politics of social justice on the backburner. Until recently, it was the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) who vigorously raised the agenda of social justice and mobilized the lower castes as influential participants in the electoral democracy of Uttar Pradesh. However, in the last assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, it should be noted that the BSP has seen a significant drop in its vote percentage (30.43% in 2007 to 22.24% in 2017). And instead, it has been the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has emerged as a new ‘inclusive’ party with 39% vote share. In the current era of politics and elections, the BSP itself seems inactive and irrelevant.

main strategy

The right-wing party has been quite successful in engaging and bringing in socially marginalized sections by implementing creative cultural strategies. However, the Yogi Adityanath government has not provided genuine welfare policies to fulfill the quest for social justice or enable rapid economic growth as far as backward communities are concerned. Recent examples of leaders of Other Backward Castes (OBC) moving away from the BJP are an indication that socially disadvantaged communities may be disillusioned with the BJP and may extend their support to the Samajwadi Party (SP), which is politically challenged. Looks promising. , Such a change can restart the politics of social justice in the state.

Politics of Social Justice, Limitations

BR Ambedkar was of the view that social justice is not merely a welfare policy framework. Rather, it is a dynamic tool to generate revolutionary political consciousness among socially marginalized groups. In the post-Ambedkar period, BSP founder Kanshi Ram reinvented the agenda of social justice as a transformative political ideology.

Kanshi Ram used the ideas of social justice to expose the oppressive caste hierarchy and inspired marginalized groups to form a strong political protest. He argued that national political parties maintained their supremacy over legislative bodies by removing lower caste groups as passive vote banks. He envisioned that socially marginalized communities could be united under a Dalit leadership (in the form of Bahujans) and defeat the traditional ruling castes (often represented as Manuvadis). He proposed that the replacement of the traditional ruling elite by a Dalit-Bahujan collective would revolutionize governance and policy matters.

It was a revolutionary vision to envision the Dalit-Bahujan mass of people as the ruling class. And building social and political alliances are the basic requirements for achieving such goals. However, the rigid social and cultural divide between the Dalits and the Other Backward Classes negated the possibility of organizing a unified political front. The current frontiers of the politics of social justice have been criticized for their deep attachment to specific communitarian identities (such as the BSP and SP being undermined as parties of the Jatavs and Yadavs, respectively) and alleged that the worst social groups ( e.g. Maha-Dalits and most backward castes) are not being given their legitimate place in electoral politics. Ironically, when it comes to advancing the agenda of social justice (there is a famous rivalry between the BSP and the SP), lower caste parties are often hesitant to join hands, but fight independently or form alliances with parties. I get rest. Led by the social elite. The right wing takes advantage of the trust deficit among Dalit-Bahujan groups and mobilizes them on different cultural fronts.

right wing cultural politics

Since 2014, the BJP has launched a powerful rhetoric of development, anti-corruption politics and harnessed the fervor of nationalism that often captivates aspirational groups and prompts them to support right-wing politics. Most importantly, the capricious top leadership in the BJP effectively controls the ship of propaganda and makes this party a dynamic force among vulnerable social groups.

The Right’s understanding of social justice is modeled on a neo-liberal ideological prescription. It sees popular institutional practices to ensure social justice (mainly reservation policy) as the benevolent delivery mechanism of the state to give some material donations to the underprivileged classes. Instead, the right-wing undermines lower caste identities as socially disadvantaged classes and rebukes their claim for social justice as a disruptive force against Hinduism. The BJP devises constructive cultural strategies that perpetuate the elite domination of caste and class and inspire the Dalit-Bahujan classes to find solace in the assertive communal Hindu identity. Thus the domination of the social elite over political and public institutions has been legitimized on the basis of Hindu social harmony.

Importantly, the right wing engages with lower caste groups as a cultural and religious subject and exploits their association with Hindu customs and traditions. Divisive caste segments are celebrated as the ruminants of Hindu civilization; A new iconography and social history have been invented for each section (such as the legend of the ‘Pasi’ caste as Suheldev’s annals). Such inventions are not only used to institutionalize social rifts between lower caste groups, but also become a powerful tool for spreading communal hatred against Muslims.

Parties like the BSP and the SP aspired to uplift the Dalit-Bahujan masses as the new political elite. Instead, the BJP’s Machiavellian cultural politics in Uttar Pradesh is taking advantage of the caste divide and accusing lower caste groups as extremist participants in a Hindu ‘renaissance’ under the auspices of the social elite. The Yogi Adityanath regime has no road map to empower the vast majority of poor communities from poverty, social discrimination and political powerlessness. In the past, the rhetoric of inclusive growth or Hindu unity may have affected socially marginalized groups, but such ideas have no power to free the poor and weaker sections from their precarious social and class conditions.

a dignified presence

The hegemonic cultural politics of Hindutva can be defeated by re-establishing the ideology of social justice. Supporters of social justice must demonstrate genuine accountability to the most vulnerable groups; And they also have to ensure their dignified presence in the mainstream political process. It is imperative that Dalit-Bahujan politics devise a constructive strategy to motivate the most vulnerable sections by making a judicious association with cultural diversity and social identity. The dynamic interaction of social justice and socialism will be a deadly ideological weapon to defeat the communal politics of Uttar Pradesh.

Harish S Wankhede, Assistant Professor, Center for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. views expressed are personal