Tarushi Aswani 
Ahmedabad: “We want a Hindu Rashtra. Only the BJP, RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh], VHP [Vishwa Hindu Parishad] and Bajrang Dal can ensure a casteless India,” said Jayesh Rathod, a Dalit from Ahmedabad’s Behrampura, who works as a laundryman for a living.
Two of Rathod’s daughters are part of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – a right-wing student organisation affiliated with the RSS. “Since they were young, I have been teaching them to become soldiers for the cause of the Hindu Rashtra,” he explained.
A sizeable number of Dalits are joining radical Hindutva outfits such as the VHP and Bajrang Dal, which have advocated for the caste system. The fact that these groups in the past attacked several Dalits in the name of cow slaughter is not discouraging them from joining forces with the Hindutva outfits.
According to Kalpesh Gohil, a Dalit, who joined the VHP in 2014, India is now “unofficially” a Hindu Rashtra. “It’s been nine years since I joined and I see that we are living in a Hindu Rashtra. All high posts are occupied by Hindus – though unofficially. But, we are a Hindu Rashtra.”
Akash Kailash Pol (29) is an active worker of the Bajrang Dal. He has been working towards urging Hindu youth from Ahmedabad’s Gomtipur to join training camps of Hindutva outfits.
“People from other religions have fixed days to congregate – like Fridays and Sundays. But our youth is not serious about Hinduism. See Ram Mandir stands as a reality, but it is built on the sacrifice of young Hindu men who waged a war for Hindutva. But today’s youth will not stand a chance if they do not join us [Bajrang Dal],” said Pol.
Nilesh Solanki, who is a proactive member of the VHP from Gomtipur, shared with The Wire his reason to join the organisation. “You see, living in Gomtipur is like living on the India-Pakistan border, there is a large presence of Muslim population here. We must fight for our faith whenever the need arises. We should always be greater in number than Muslims.”
Attacks on Dalits continue unabated
According to the 2001 Census, the population of the Scheduled Castes in Gujarat stood at 35.93 lakhs, which constituted 7.09% of the total population of the state of 5.07 crore.
The Dalit community in Gujarat continues to face ostracisation. There have been several instances of violence against Dalits, including public flogging, murder, harassment, rape, among others. The situation of Dalits has only become worse since 2010, according to the data from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Cell. The National Crimes Bureau’s 2020 report put the number of crimes against Dalits in Gujarat at 1,313.
Attacks against Dalits continue unabated in the state. As recently as February 11, a Dalit student in Rajkot alleged that his classmates physically assaulted him due to his identity. In another incident from Anand district in the state, a wedding procession of a Dalit groom was forcibly stopped by ‘upper’ caste members on February 23. The accused were said to have hurled casteist slurs and threatened the members of the Valmiki community, which is categorised as Dalits, for taking out the procession. Police booked three people in connection with the incident.
Also read: Watch: ‘BJP-RSS Has Indirectly Conveyed That Anything Can Be Done to Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims’
These attacks by Hindutva outfits on Dalits have not deterred a considerable number of Dalits who are taking membership in radical Hindutva outfits.
Speaking of the caste-based violence in the state, Saharash Rathod, a Dalit and a member of Bajrang Dal, told The Wire that RSS, VHP, and the Bajrang Dal are trying their best to prevent such violence.
File photo of Bajrang Dal activists. Photo: PTI
While acknowledging violence and discrimination against Dalits, Rathod said such a situation can be tackled only by joining forces with Hindutva outfits. He said it is the only way to bring down discrimination against Dalits. “We [Dalits] joining the [Bajrang] Dal strengthens Hindus in comparison to Muslims.”
When asked about why he chose to remain with the VHP for years despite rising atrocities against Dalits, Kapesh Gohil said, “Savarnas who commit these crimes must be educated about living in harmony with us. To create a peaceful environment for Dalits to live in, Dalits have to break into the system and interact with Savarnas, that is why many of us join VHP, RSS, and [Bajrang] Dal.”
Of trials and trauma
In 1981 and 1985, Gujarat saw a wave of anti-reservation protests waged by members of the ‘upper’ castes. The protests soon turned into riots, killing a dozen people. This inter-caste intimidation and violence in Gujarat coincided with the establishment of the VHP and then later the Bajrang Dal in the state. These RSS outfits were established with the specific goal of drawing ‘lower’ castes to Hindutva organisations.
In July 2016, another major incident of violence took place against Dalits, which caught national attention. In Una, four Dalit men were brutally beaten with steel pipes and rods, stripped, tied to an SUV, and paraded in the main market near the local police station by members of a local cow vigilante group in Mota Samadhiyala, a village near Una town in Saurashtra region. The four were accused of cow slaughter.
‘Dalits are being misused’
Advocate Subodh Kumud of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch laments that despite discrimination and violence at the hands of Hindutva organisations, some Dalits choose to join ranks with them. According to him, such Dalits are unaware of Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s work, making them become like their ‘upper’ caste oppressors. They, he said, are being “misused” against religious minorities, especially Muslims, by right-wing communal forces.
“Dalits who are joining these extremist forces are made to believe that they have been accepted in the so-called mainstream of the caste structure, but when these extremists are asked about their stand on Dalit issues, they choose to remain silent and start giving the false hope of ‘Samrasta’ (harmony). Due to their financial and cultural background, Dalits who are unaware of Ambedkar’s caste struggle easily fall into their trap,” he explained.
In March 2019, Gujarat’s minister of social justice and empowerment, Ishwar Parmar, told the state assembly that the crimes against Dalits in the state had risen by 32% between 2013 and 2018. In 2018, 49 cases of atrocity were registered in the Ahmedabad district, 23 in the Banaskantha district, 34 cases in Junagadh, and 24 in the Surendranagar district.
While the above data only sheds light on a few visible and measurable instances of oppression against Dalits, what remains invisible is the discrimination and the practice of untouchability, says Martin Macwan, founder of Navsarjan Trust.
Macwan’s organisation works to raise awareness among the marginalised and oppressed communities while encouraging them to fight for their rights. Macwan, based on his organisation’s data and fieldwork, suggests that BJP’s rule in the state has resulted in the increasing number of Dalits embracing Hindutva. This, he said, can be attributed to the failure of the state in securing a space in society for Dalits, amidst tall claims of the community’s development.
Historian Prabodan Pol has a different take on why Dalits are joining Hindutva outfits. According to him, the reason lies in the caste system itself. In the last 20 years, in the aftermath of Godhra violence, he says, discussions about Hindutva politics have maintained that Dalits have been complicit in the violence. “It might be true to an extent, but it is important to understand how the caste system works. Someone at the bottom of this system needs certification from someone at the top of the hierarchy,” he explains.
Pol also looks at riots in this context as a space for Dalits to assert their existence. Nonetheless, he says, politically conscious Dalits are wary of right-wing politics. However, he adds, it is only those Dalits who have not been given space in political circles to assert their identity that “fall prey” to the Hindutva groups. For Pol, Gujarat has always been a conservative state, more so since the anti-reservation riots of the 1980s. Lack of awareness and political mobilisation by non-Hindutva political groups are enabling them to be swayed by Hindutva outfits, he adds.
“Gujarat has never been able to foreground a very vocal Dalit politics. It has confined Dalit politics, ideas and identity to only intellectual circles,” he laments.