Fascism survives by exploiting the casteist, racial and religious contradictions in society.
In India, Hinduism is a collection of numerous unrelated castes. Upper-caste Hindus rely on anti-Muslim riots to unify this grouping of castes into a religion.
Dalits turn against this upper-caste Hindutva position through knowledge and education. Hence, keeping dalits illiterate and ignorant is necessary for the survival of fascism. The biggest challenge faced by dalits in India is that this policy is being implemented with the help of government.
There are political reasons too behind the death of Rohith in Hyderabad.
Ambedkar Students Union, the organisation which included him, is a grouping that marshals dalits, backward castes and religious minorities against upper-caste dominance.
It was the dalit-backward-minority alliance that checked protests against Mandal Commission report in 1992.
Though this slogan was weak for some time, the students’ movement in Hyderabad brought it to the fore again. It is in this situation that oppression of dalit students with the help of government is taking place.
It should be seen as oppression of this new politics by Hindu fascism.
Because of that, not only dalits but backward and minority communities and other progressive forces must come forward for the survival of democracy in India.
The RSS was established in 1925 by institutionalising protection of temples through Brahmin traditions and opposition to Muslims. Today, there exists Ambedkar’s ideology, which is against it. Dalit community favours not only this ideological sphere but also Buddhism. This new awareness being formed all over India is a threat to Hinduism.
Hence oppressing outspoken dalits who imbibe this new awareness and politicise it has become a policy of the government. The reason for Rohith’s “murder” is nothing else.
But fascism cannot attain the victory it got in Italy or Germany because the multitudes of dalits and backward people here have a knowledge system, one that is based on Ambedkarism.
Brahmin supremacy too survives on a knowledge system. The dalit-backward knowledge system is one that can stand against it, and it has the capacity to survive.
Though Shambuka was killed, Ekalavya survived. No one should forget that. The power of democracy will give strength to that survival.
(The writer is the state president of Kerala Dalit Mahasabha and a dalit thinker)
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