Does Religion Matter? Communal Violence in IndiaRam Puniyani The carnage or to put it moreprecisely the anti Muslim violence in Delhi (February-March 2020) has shaken usall. Analysts are burning midnight oil yet again to understand the deepercausative factors of the same. One of the neglected aspects of analysis ofcommunal violence has been the one related to prevalent factor of Caste inIndian society. Caste is inherent in the scriptures called as Hindu scriptures;caste has been the rigid frame work of Hindu society, which has also penetratedinto other religious communities in India. The deeper connection between Hindunationalism or Hindutva and caste has been explored somewhat but not too many studieshave taken up the relationship between the communal violence and caste in India.Suraj Yengde (IE, Delhi Pogrom is an attempt to Divert attention from Government’sFailures, March 8, 2020) makes some points on this issue. Yengde points out, “Manyare still downplaying the Delhi riot as an affliction of Hindutva orHindu-Muslim binaries. It is neither. It is not religious but caste tensionsthat encourage such treacherous acts.” He quotes from the Gujarat activist Raju Solanki, “in the 2002Godhra riots there were 2,945 arrests in Ahmadabad. Of these, 1,577 were Hindusand 1,368 Muslims. Among the Hindus arrested, 797 were OBCs, 747 Dalits, 19Patels, two Baniyas, and two Brahmins. The upper castes became MLAs, the restwere jailed. Also, it is not an accident that Dalits constitute nearly 22% ofthe total arrests in India; Adivasis 11%, Muslims 20% and OBCs 31%. More than55% of under trials also come from the same communities (NCRB 2015).” While this data is on the dot it must be stated that while castehas lot of role in the emergence of politics of Hindutva, in the resultantviolence the primary focus has been religion, here caste plays a role which issecondary in some ways. To trace the outline of the Hindu nationalism’s primemover RSS; one can definitely say that its formation and rise is primarily dueto the rising caste consciousness and the beginnings of struggles aimed at injusticesdue to the caste Varna System. While Hindu Mahasabha was already on the sceneas parallel and opposite to the Muslim League, these formations initially hadonly Kings and landlords. Later these formations were joined in by some elite,affluent sections of society. RSS in particular was a response to the ground level changesresulting in coming up of low caste/average people in social and politicalspace. It was the non-cooperation movement led by Gandhi and then the nonBrahman movement in Nagpur-Vidarbha area which disturbed the Brahmanicalsections, supported by landlord-kings, to take up the agenda of Hindu nation.The core articulation of Hindutva politics was to present the glorious ancienttimes, when Manu Smriti’s laws ruled the roost. These were getting a jolt now asthe efforts of Joti Rao Phule and later the campaigns of Ambedkar startedempowering the downtrodden dalits. This was a serious threat to Brahmanicalsystem. While this was the core an external threat was to be created to ‘unify’Hindu society. And here the Muslims, Muslim Kings rule came in as handy. It isthis anti Muslim tirade and actions which was the frontage for Hindutva, whilethe anti dalit-agenda was the real underlying motive. The whole of Shakha (RSSbranches) baudhiks (intellectual sessions) were structured around this. Thepromotion of communal historiography, the hatred for Muslims was the visiblepart of RSS training, while glorification of past is the fulcrum which in a wayis the code language for retaining the hierarchy of caste and also of gender. Practically also if we see the strengthening of Hindutva began onthe issue of a Muslim king destroying the temple of the birth place of LordRam, this campaign got its vitriol after the implementation of Mandal Commissionin 1990. The anti Muslim Hate and promotion of values of caste and genderhierarchy are synthesized by Hindutva politics. That’s as far as the politicalagenda of Hindu nationalism goes. As far as communal violence is concerned, ithas been an anti Muslim work through and through. All the statistics shows thatvictims of communal violence are primarily Muslims, around 80% of victims being Muslims. TheseMuslims do come from all sections of Muslims, more from the poor. The caste comes into operation in the mechanism of riotproduction. Hindutva politics, through its extensive network has been workingrelentlessly among dalits. The recent book by Bhanwar Meghwanshi, “I was a KarSevak”, brilliantly describes the mechanism of co-opting dalits into the agendaof sectarian politics. RSS has floated innumerable organizations, like SamajikSamrasta Manch, which work among dalits to promote Brahmanical values and tointegrate dalits into the scheme of Hindutva politics. They are made to act asfoot soldiers of Hindu nationalist politics.Those who spread hate through indoctrination and propaganda are safe in their cozyhouses or offices while the poor dalits are made to soil their hands with theblood of religious minorities. The face of Gujarat violence, Ashok Mochi, now talks of dalit-Muslim unity. The datacompiled by Raju Solanki and quoted by Yengde is the norm in the cases ofviolence in India. Those who are incited, those who are later charged withviolence are not the ones who give donations to RSS or support its variousactivities. Most of these do come from the sections of indoctrinated youth fromdowntrodden communities. Yengde has done a valuable job in drawing our attention to therole of caste in communal violence; the problem with his thesis is theundermining the role of ‘Hate against religious minorities’, which is the baseon which the violence is orchestrated. The extent and degree of indoctrination donethrough shakhas is very powerful and effective. This can gauzed from the experiencesof the likes of Bhanwar Meghwanshi, who tells us the difficulties he had toface to come to grips of reality of caste while overcoming the RSS propaganda.
