Resistance to Caste System Offers Hope
By Kavin Paulraj
Opinions Writer

The Western world hears a lot about religious fundamentalism. Guys like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are well known for their loony remarks. Muslim fundamentalism—both real and imagined—is now in fashion in the media, and we hear about Osama bin Ladens from Saudi Arabia to the Philippines. What’s being left out of the equation is that in India, a country whose population exceeds one billion, religious fundamentalism is not only alive and strong, but controls the government as well. The ruling party is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the political wing of fundamentalist Hindu organizations such as VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad), RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and others. Hindu fundamentalism is strongly tied to the ancient caste system, which remains strong in modern India. The rhetoric of these groups includes anti-minority propaganda, especially against Muslims and Christians, who are seen as foreigners (even after a thousand years of Muslim and two thousand years of Christian residence) and who should be kicked out. Their underlying theme in resurrecting a Hindu society, however, is the maintenance of the oppressive caste system. Much of their propaganda is specifically directed toward inculcating hatred against Dalits and Adivasis—the lowest caste group, formerly called untouchables or outcastes.

The ruling BJP decided to appeal to the 800 million Hindus of India and rode their votes to election victory in 1998. Since then, they have fought a border war against Pakistan (1999), tested nuclear weapons (1999), perpetrated corruption and basically failed to improve the lives of India’s women, poor and minorities. It is a relatively new party, founded by the RSS fundamentalists in response to the secular Congress Party, who had maintained the ideology that all religions would be accepted as equal in India. From 1989 to 1990, the only progressive Indian government in recent history, headed by V. P. Singh, proposed a new system of representation in government jobs that would greatly increase the hiring of underrepresented lower caste people. The Hindu right swung into action; in December 1992, under the leadership of the current vice-prime minister L. K. Advani, they marched to Ayodhya and demolished the Babri Masjid, which was the most important and historic mosque in India. Their rhetoric was nonsense. The Hindus claimed they would rebuild the temple to the god Rama, which had supposedly been demolished 500 years earlier by the Muslim conqueror Babur. Rhetoric like this is responsible for radicalizing many Hindus, especially the poor and illiterate, and for creating violence amongst Hindus and Muslims in what had been peaceful areas. Since then, fighting between the two groups has escalated. Earlier this year, the torching of a train compartment led to the massacre of about a thousand Muslims, allowed and effectively sanctioned by the state government, in Gujarat, a western Indian state.

The Hindu right seek to control Indian minds in other ways as well. They recently tried to omit from high school history books the fact that Brahmins (upper caste Hindus) used to eat cow’s meat before they created a vegetarian diet to appear “purer” than lower castes, so as to justify and maintain the oppressive caste system. Regional leaders, in attempts to make alliances with the ruling BJP, are passing deadly legislation aimed at appeasing the Hindu party. For example, the Tamil Nadu state government last month passed an ordinance allowing for the arrest of anyone practicing “forcible religious conversion”—which is a nice way of saying the police can now arrest any Buddhist, Christian or Muslim missionary in lower-caste areas, in order to make sure the lower castes cannot find a way out. They must remain the menial laborers of the upper castes. Meanwhile, these fundamentalists are receiving funds from sympathetic Indians who live in the United States and the United Kingdom, who can send dollars or pounds to complement the rupees that many upper-caste Hindus and businesses within India provide.

Unfortunately, the recent “War on Terrorism” by the trigger-happy U.S. government has only worsened things in the country. The Indian government fell over itself trying to please the U.S., seeking permission to attack Pakistan over its support of certain militant groups (terrorist groups, in twenty-first-century speak) in the disputed Kashmir region. Of course, the U.S. didn’t care and had just made friends with Pakistan. So instead India turned on its own people—the POTA terrorist act passed by the BJP government allows the preemptive arrest of anyone engaged in anti-government activities and has already been used to silence opposition voices in India. In fact, I am confident that neither India nor Pakistan will deploy their nuclear weapons—both countries are smart enough to realize the terrible consequences when rogue states such as the United States go around bombing everyone. Not to underestimate the importance of the Kashmir issue, but the pressing issue remains the socioeconomic struggles within India and Pakistan. Only with change from within will these countries be able to build governments that alleviate poverty and the oppression of women and that eliminate the terrible legacies of things like the caste system.

Is there hope? Of course. Ever since the independence movement, India has been at the forefront of struggles for social justice. Even though the corrupt politicians and greedy business owners of the last 25 years have worsened the living situation of the majority of poor Indians, the people have responded with cynicism, and many now wish for a radical change in the political arena. There is resistance. Newspapers, university professors, women’s and Dalit (untouchable) rights groups, leftist and other parties, and Christian and Muslim community leaders have been speaking out against the slow but steady rise of the Hindu right. The legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and all the other great freedom fighters remain in the blood of Indians. India’s rich tradition in the arts continues with the release of politically conscious films and music from progressive artists. The working classes, both rural and urban, work constantly to make alliances, create local change and plant the seeds of social movements for the next generation.