Is Rahul Gandhi’s social justice card the key to trumping Hindutva’s corrosive appeal?

At the end of July, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s query in Parliament about the caste status of the bureaucrats who had drafted the 2024-’25 Budget raised many eyebrows.

Gandhi seemed to be suggesting that the Budget could not be expected to reflect the aspirations of the backward castes if none of the people framing the document was drawn from those sections of society.

As was to be expected, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party attacked Gandhi’s statement. It said that Gandhi’s attitude would widen caste chasms rather than obliterating them.

Nonetheless, on September 2, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – the BJP’s parent organisation – announced that it supports demands for a caste census that would allow India to get a sense of how many of its citizens actually belong to marginal castes. Unless this data is available, India will not be able to tailor social programmes to benefit those at the bottom of the ladder.

These two developments may offer a historic opportunity for the supporters of social justice. A blunt deployment of caste could be an effective weapon against the brand of communal politics being espoused by Narendra Modi’s BJP.

The ideological juggernaut of the Hindutva eco-system, presided over by Modi, has used his carefully cultivated personality cult to dish out a grand alluring vision of a glorious Bharat where Hindus will reign supreme.

Sold with technocratic finesse, the BJP has wrapped into its embrace a critical mass of Hindus sufficient to wrest the reins of power while keeping them in a tight grip.

Ever since the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was formed in 1925, the Hindutva eco-system had been trying hard to create a Hindu monolith out of a society that has, by its very inherent character, been diverse.

Unlike other religions, Hinduism does not have a centralised command structure. Through the ages, it has survived several external politico-military onslaughts to retain its basic character.

This despite the religion’s vulnerability to conversions due to the vast majority of its adherents being forced by the upper castes to live on the margins.

One of the main reasons for the survival of Hinduism – a fact acknowledged by all, including Hindutva protagonists – is its inherent adaptability and its historical lack of hostility towards other religions. Hinduism had no problem being receptive to outsiders even as rulers.

Ironically, this is now being seen by Hindutva protagonists as the religion’s weakness.

What they cannot explain, though, is how this seemingly weak Hinduism survived with its fundamentals unaffected and the numerical dominance of Hindus largely remaining intact.

Clearly, the Hindutva eco-system, blinded by hatred for non-Hindus, has been peddling a view of Hinduism that is monochromatic – and at complete variance with its fundamental practices and ethos.

This hatred was originally harboured by the priestly class among Hindus. Through an assiduous, century-long campaign that pushed a bigoted view of Hinduism, they have now managed to convert a critical mass of Hindus.

This mass, however, is still in minority among Hindus – about 37% of those who voted in 2019, going by the maximum vote share the BJP has garnered in an election.

But hatred for minorities was not the only driver for the Hindutva movement. Consolidating the fold was another.

Hindutva leaders have also been concerned about the fractious nature of deeply unequal, caste-ridden Hindu society. When KB Hedgewar established the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh a century ago, the struggles inspired by Jyotirao Phule and BR Ambedkar had already started galvanising members of the lower castes.

This was seen by the upper castes as a warning of future turmoil within Hindu society and a possible rebellion against the priestly class.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, being a supporter of the Brahminical order, was aware of this challenge. The Hindutva project developed a mechanism to help it deal with this threat: it portrayed Muslims and Christians as enemies, attempting to divert the attention of those struggling against caste oppression to unite against these targets.

Due to the reformist efforts of those in the Gandhi-Nehru orbit during the freedom movement, these efforts failed to sway Hindus for several decades. Hindus, by and large, remained secular and followed the religion’s syncretic traditions.

But the situation began to change in the 1980s when BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani began his corrosive rath yatra to press for a Ram temple on the site of the Babri Masid in Ayodhya.

But even as the BJP attracted more votes from the lower castes, there were several high-profile cases of atrocities against Dalits, such as the public flogging of Dalits in Gujarat’s Una in 2016 and the rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras in 2020.

Another indication of the BJP’s attitude towards lower castes is the fact that the Hindutva party’s own allies have alleged that the Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh has been recruiting open category candidates for government jobs reserved for backward and scheduled castes.

Hindutva organisations have also infiltrated bureaucracy and administration at all levels. Their covert operation was given official sanction in July when the Centre withdrew the ban on government employees being members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

It is not surprising that many of the bureaucrats favoured by the Modi regime are sympathetic to the Hindutva project, either willingly or for personal gain.

That is why there is fundamentally nothing wrong with Rahu Gandhi raising the caste question about bureaucrats.

The very idea of Hindutva is antithetical to the principles espoused by the Constitution. As a consequence, the ideology must not just be fought but also defeated.

Although 63% of the electorate voted against the BJP in the recent elections, they are divided between several Opposition parties. To defeat Hindutva, it is also necessary to wean away those who have hitched their wagon to the BJP.

To do so, sections of society being misled into believing that their real problem is with the minorities must realise that it is caste bondage that is the problem. They must understand that those on the upper end of the caste ladder want them to keep caste oppression and violence on the backburner while making them the foot soldiers of Hindutva’s battle against minorities.

To drive home the point, this must be stated upfront – even in a manner that seems to lack intellectual sophistication as Rahul Gandhi did.

Gandhi’s social justice plank could usher in a new social order where politics will no longer be controlled by a small group of Brahminical elites. Referring to the caste of bureaucrats serving those elites is not such an outrageous act when seen in the context of this civilisational emergency in the Hindu society.

Vivek Deshpande, formerly with The Indian Express, is now a freelance journalist based at Nagpur. He can be reached at vivekd64@gmail.com