*Reflections on the Dalit Leadership* *By Bhanwar Meghwanshi*
*(Translated by Yoginder Sikand)* Suppressed and subjugated for ages, Dalits are increasingly organizing themselves against the atrocities they continue to be subjected to. A number of movements, at the national as well as international levels, are today active, seeking to secure for Dalits their right to lead a respectable life. Thousands of NGOs, dozens of unions and scores of political parties claim to be working in support of Dalits. Yet, despite all these efforts, there is no sign of a single national-level leader of the stature of Babasaeb Ambedkar emerging, although in terms of opportunities and rights Dalits are in a far better position than in Babasaheb’s times. To understand why this is the case one needs to critically look at the nature of the Dalit leadership today. In terms of the leadership provided by political parties, the less said the better. The leaders thrown up by various Ambedkarite groups have, by and large, proven to be greatly disappointing. The Bahujan Samaj Party is completely under Mayavati’s control. Her style of working is feudal, dictatorial and whimsical. She has gone over to the Manuvadi forces, joining hands with the Brahminical establishment. She leads the life of a veritable Maharani. She has effectively prevented the emergence of any alternate Dalit leadership because she simply cannot tolerate any Dalit leader other than herself within her party. And if at all any person does seek to emerge as an independent leader within the party, that challenge is quickly quelled. Another such Dalit political leader is Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Jan Shakti Party, who also runs an outfit called the Dalit Sena. He, too, is addicted to a life of luxury. ‘I am going to light a lamp in that house which, for centuries, has remained in darkness’, so he regularly chants, but his actions quite belie his pious claims. This gentleman holds court, like a king, in his home on Janpath, New Delhi, where Dalits come and touch his feet. To be sure, he raises slogans in favour of Dalits and sometimes talks about appointing a Muslim as chief minister, but somehow or the other he almost always manages to land a ministerial post for himself. He claims to be the tallest Dalit leader in the country but yet never speaks boldly against atrocities heaped on Dalits. As in Mayavati’s case, under his shade no other Dalit leaders, other than members of his family, have been able to emerge within his party. Udit Raj, President of the Justice Party, too, has not done much for Dalits. It is true that he is something of a thinker and he does organize rallies and demonstrations, but although many government servants belonging to Dalit, Backward Caste, Adivasi and minority communities regard him as their leader, he has not been able to establish a strong base among the Dalit masses. His support base is limited basically to a small group of Buddhist missionaries and government servants. The possibility of an alternate leadership emerging in the movement he leads is, therefore, bleak. Bhai Tej Singh is the founder of the Ambedkar Samaj Party, the Bahujan Swayamsevak Sangh and the Rashtriya Juta Brigade, and he, too, has failed to be accepted by the Dalit masses as their leader. Dalit leaders in other parties, such as the Congress or the BJP, are, by and large, marginal people. In such parties, these leaders are generally sidelined and silenced. The parties co-opt them by giving them some ceremonial posts to keep them happy. They use them only when they need their services to attract Dalit votes. At other times, no one bothers about them. Most ‘mainstream’ parties have special SC/ST cells, and the Dalit leaders in these parties are confined to these cells, having no influence on the general policies of their parties. Their major function, therefore, is of serving as middle-men to secure for their parties the Dalit vote-bank. Naturally, they are opposed to other Dalits emerging within these parties as leaders, fearing that they might challenge their fiefdoms. The NGO-brand leaders are another species. There are thousands of NGOs and CBOs (Community-Based Organisations) that are funded by Indian and foreign sources, which claim to be working for Dalits. For this purpose, they receive fat donations for various Dalit-related projects. They claim that they have been able to promote the emergence of a strong Dalit leadership and to have made a great contribution in empowering Dalits. But, the fact of the matter is that, by and large, these project-based NGOs and CBOs engage, or claim to engage, with Dalit issues simply because their donors provide them with money in the name of Dalits. If one scrutinizes these organizations one will discover that the reality is very different. Most of these organizations that survive on funds taken in the name of Dalits have almost no Dalits at their top-level leadership or even among their staff. In fact, most of them are headed by people drawn from the oppressor classes/castes. In this regard, a Dalit intellectual once quipped, ‘If these folks who take money to work were given projects to work against Dalits, they will willingly do so!’ Till now, of course, this is just hypothetical, but the fact is that one has little to hope for in the NGO-brand Dalit leadership. Dalit political as well as social movements are heavily dependent either on donations given by Dalit government employees or the charity of funding agencies. As a result, the leaders that have emerged, far from being committed and answerable to the people, easily become corrupt, opportunistic and irresponsible, and they do little else other than simply mouthing seemingly pro-Dalit slogans. The dilemma of contemporary Dalit leaders is rooted in the fact that they pay just lip-service to Babasaheb, but do not take inspiration from him. If they can achieve their goals simply by invoking his name, why should they seek to imbibe the qualities of that great man? Dalits (and others) have effectively reduced Babasaheb, who was a great national leader, to simply a ’Dalit leader’. The fact, however, is that Babasaheb was a renowned economist, legal specialist, labour organizer and accomplished scholar of religion, besides being the President of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution. He was also a top-most political and social thinker. In today’s context, it is imperative for Dalit leaders to emulate him in all these regards as well. They have to be committed to the Dalit masses, rather than to promoting themselves and their families. They must work towards eliminating discrimination among different Dalit communities and also promote Dalit women and Dalit youth. In addition, they must also work to provide leadership not just to Dalits alone but to the entire country. =========== ===================================================================================== Bhanwar Megwanshi is a noted social activist from Bhilwara, Rajasthan. He edits the Hindi monthly ‘Diamond India’, a journal that deals with grassroots’ social issues. He is associated with the Rajasthan-based Mazdoor-Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), and can be contacted on [email protected]<http://us.mc655.mail.yahoo.com/mc/[email protected]> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
