Monday, August 29, 2016

‘गाय की दुम तुम रखो, हमें हमारी जमीन दो’

सुभाष गताड़े

फैलता दलित विद्रोह और बदहवास हिन्दुत्व ..

 Radhika Vemula addresses Dalit Mahasammelan in Una, Photo Courtesy: indianculturalforum.in

जब मैं पैदा हुआ तब मैं बच्चा नहीं था
मैं एक स्वप्न था, एक विद्रोह का स्वप्न
जिसे मेरी मां, जो हजारों सालों से उत्पीड़ित थी
उसने संजोया था
अब अभी भी मेरी आंखों में अछूता पड़ा है
हजारों सालों की झुर्रियों से ढंका उसका चेहरा
उसकी आंखें, आंसूओं से भरे दो तालाबों ने
मेरे शरीर को नहलाया है ….
– साहिल परमार

1
गाय से प्रेम, मनुष्य से नफरत ?

हर अधिनायकवादी परियोजना की विकासयात्रा में ऐसे मुक़ाम अचानक आ जाते हैं कि उसके द्वारा छिपायी गयी तमाम गोपनीय बातें अचानक जनता के सामने बेपर्द हो जाती हैं और बिगड़ते हालात को संभालना उसके लिए मुश्किल हो जाता है। हिन्दुत्व की ताकतें फिलवक्त़ अपने आप को इसी स्थिति में पा रही हैं। गुजरात में उदघाटित होते दलित विद्रोह ने उसके लिए बेहद असहज स्थिति पैदा कर दी है, जो आज भी विकसित होता दिख रहा है।

सौराष्ट्र के उना में 15 अगस्त को ‘उना अत्याचार लडत समिति; की अगुआई में पहुंची दलित अस्मिता यात्रा अब समाप्त हो गयी हो; उसमें शामिल हजारों दलित, जो राज्य के अलग अलग हिस्सों से वहां पहुंचे थे, अब भले घरों की लौट गए हों, मगर उनका यह संकल्प कि हाथ से मल उठाने, सीवर में उतर कर उसकी सफाई करने या मरे हुए पशुओं की खाल उतारने के काम को अब नहीं करेंगे, आज भी हवा में गूंज रहा है और राज्य सरकार से उनकी यह मांग, कि वह पुनर्वास के लिए प्रति परिवार 5 एकड़ जमीन वितरण का काम शुरू करे वरना 15 सितम्बर से वह रेल रोको आन्दोलन का आगाज़ करेंगे, के समर्थन में नयी नयी आवाज़ें जुड़ रही हैं।

निश्चित ही हिन्दुत्व बिरादरी के किसी भी कारिन्दे ने या उसके अलमबरदारों ने इस बात की कल्पना तक नहीं की होगी कि उनके ‘मॉडल राज्य’ /जहां ‘आप हिन्दु राष्ट में प्रवेश कर रहे हैं, ऐसे बोर्ड गांवों-कस्बों में लगने का सिलसिला 90 के दशक के अन्त में ही उरूज पर पहुंचा था/ में ही उन्हें ऐसी चुनौती का सामना करना पड़ेगा और जिससे उन्होंने बहुत मेहनत से बनाए सकल हिन्दू गठजोड़ की चूलें हिलने लगेंगी। यह उनके आकलन से परे था कि दलित – जो वर्णव्यवस्था में सबसे नीचली कतारों में शुमार किए जाते हैं – जिन्हें हिन्दुत्व की परियोजना में धीरे धीरे जोड़ा गया था, यहां तक कि उनका एक तबका 2002 के गुजरात दंगों की अल्पसंख्यक विरोधी हिंसा में भी शामिल था, वह अलसुबह बग़ावत में उठ खड़े होंगे और गरिमामय जीवन की मांग करते हुए उन्हें चैलेंज देंगे। इतनाही नहीं वह अल्पसंख्यकों को भी अपने साथ जोड़ेंगे और इस तरह हिन्दुत्व की परियोजना की जड़ पर ही चोट पहुंचाएंगे।

जैसा कि इस स्थिति में उम्मीद की जाती है, जब दलितों का यह अप्रत्याशित उभार सामने आया तो उसकी क्या प्रतिक्रिया दी जाए, इसे लेकर वह बाकायदा बदहवासी तथा दिग्भ्रम का शिकार हुए। संघ परिवार के विभिन्न आनुषंगिक संगठनों या चेहरों से जितनी विभिन्न किस्म की आवाज़ें सुनाई दी, वह इसी का प्रतिबिम्बन था। इसमें कोई दोराय नहीं कि एक साथ कई आवाज़ों में बोलना हिन्दुत्व ब्रिगेड की आम रणनीति का हिस्सा रहा है, मगर इस बार मामला वहीं तक सीमित नहीं था। सबसे बड़ा सवाल उनके सामने यही उपस्थित था कि गाय की रक्षा के नाम पर जो ‘परिवार’ के एजेण्डे को आगे बढ़ा रहे थे, ऐसे हमलावरों की हिफाजत करें, और इस तरह पीड़ितों से अपनी दूरी कबूल करे या दूसरी तरफ पीड़ितों की हिमायत करे, हमलावरों की भर्त्सना करें तथा उन पर सख्त कार्रवाई की मांग करें तथा दलितों को अखिल हिन्दु एकता सूत्र में बनाए रखने की कवायद में जुटे रहें। इस विभ्रम का असर उनके द्वारा जारी वक्तव्यों में भी दिखाई दिया जो इस अवसर पर दिए गए। एक तरफ प्रधानमंत्राी थे जिन्होंने इस घटना के लम्बे समय बाद अपनी चुप्पी तोड़ी और यहां तक कहा कि गोरक्षा के नाम पर अधिकतर असामाजिक तत्व सक्रिय हैं और बताया कि वह गृह मंत्रालय को सूचित करनेवाले हैं कि वह ऐसे तत्वों के बारे में दस्तावेज तैयार करें। प्रधानमंत्राी मोदी के बरअक्स उनके पूर्वसहयोगी विश्व हिन्दू परिषद के लीडर भाई तोगडिया का रूख था, जिन्होंने गोरक्षकों पर लांछन लगाने की निन्दा की और ऐसी कार्रवाई को ‘हिन्दू विरोधी’ कहा। यह दिग्भ्रम समझ में आने लायक था।

दरअसल, ऊना की घटना के बहाने हाल के समयों में यह पहली बार देखने में आ रहा था कि हिन्दुत्व ब्रिगेड अगर अपने एक अहम एजेण्डा – जो गाय के इर्दगिर्द सिमटा है और जिसने उसे राजनीतिक विस्तार में काफी मदद पहुंचायी है – को आगे बढ़ाने की कोशिश करती है तो एक संभावना यह बनती है कि हिन्दु एकता कायम करने के उसके इरादों में दरारें आती हैं। /सुश्री विद्या सुब्रम्हण्यम अपने उत्तर प्रदेश की राजनीति पर केन्द्रित अपने एक आलेख में इस स्थिति को ‘ए रिवर्स राम मंदिर मोमेन्ट’ कहती हैं – देखें: ी http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/its-mayawati-versus-modi-in-up/article9022511.ece? ref=topnavwidget&utm_source=topnavdd&utm_medium=topnavdropdownwidget&utm_campaign=topnavdropdown / उन्मादी ‘गोरक्षकों’ के हमलों का शिकार दलितों के अलावा – जो ‘परिवार’ की राजनीति से ही तौबा कर रहे हैं – किसान आबादी का बड़ा हिस्सा भी गाय के इर्दगिर्द हो रही हिन्दुत्व की राजनीति से परेशान है क्योंकि वह अपने उन पशुओं को बेच पाने में असमर्थ है या उसे उन्हें बहुत कम कीमत पर बेचना पड़ रहा है – जो बूढ़े हो चुके हैं या जिन्होंने दूध देना बन्द कर दिया है। इतनाही नहीं मीट के व्यापार में लगे पंजाब के व्यापारियों ने पिछले दिनों प्रेस कान्फेरेन्स कर इन स्वयंभू गोरक्षकों की हिंसक कार्रवाइयों से अपने व्यवसाय में उन्हें उठाने पड़ रहे नुकसान को रेखांकित करते हुए प्रेस सम्मेलन किया। कहां धार्मिक हिन्दू गाय की पूछ के सहारो वैतरणी पार करने की बात करता है और अब यह आलम था कि हिन्दू धर्म एवं राजनीति के संमिश्रण के सहारे लोकतंत्र में अपनी जड़ ज़माने वाले लोगों के लिए गाय की वही पूछ उनके गले का फंदा बनती दिख रही है। हिन्दुत्व की मौजूदा स्थिति को सन्त तुलसीदास की चौपाई बखूबी बयां करती है ‘भयल गति सांप छछुंदर जैसी ..’

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Dalit Uprising and After- Why Hindutva Would Not Be The Same Again

- Subhash Gatade
When I was born I was not a child
I was a dream, a dream of revolt
that my mother, oppressed for thousands of years,
dreamt.
Still it is untouched in my eyes
Covered with wrinkles of thousand years, her face
her eyes, two lakes overflowing with tears
have watered my body…..
– Sahil Parmar*
 Well known Gujarati poet Sahil Parmar’s poem ‘When I Was Born’ perhaps reverberates these days in Gujarat when we are witnessing a Dalit Upsurge- a first of its kind at least in that regions history. It will be a talk of folklore for times to come how flogging of dalits in a village in Saurashtra by Hindutva fanatics suddenly erupted into a mass movement of dalits which could catch imagination of the people cutting across different sections of society. An attempt is being made here to understand the dynamics of the movement and its likely impact on the future trajectory of Hindutva.
Courtesy: newsclick.in
 I
Love Cows, Hate Human Beings ?
There are moments in the trajectory of any authoritarian/fascist/rightwing project where one of its closely guarded secrets suddenly tumbles out in the open and then it becomes difficult for it to fix it. The Hindutva brigade today finds itself in a similar situation – thanks to the dalit upsurge in Gujarat which is still unfolding before our eyes.
The historic march to Una town of Saurashtra region- under the banner of Una Atyachar Ladat Samiti might be over ; thousands and thousands of dalits who had gathered there from different parts of the state and outside might have returned home but their resolve not to undertake the despicable caste practice of manual scavenging and disposing of cattle carcasses still reverberates all over the state. And their demand before the state government that within next one month – by 15 th of September – it starts distributing five acres of land to each rural dalit family for rehabilitation is reaching far and wide and gathering fresh support.
None from the Hindutva fraternity had ever imagined that in their so called ‘model state’  itself , they would be faced with such a challenge which would put their carefully crafted pan Hindu social coalition to test. It was  beyond their comprehension that dalits – the most downtrodden section in the Varna hierarchy – who had been slowly roped in down the years in the Hindutva politics and a section amongst them had also become a party to the anti-minority violence in 2002, would one fine morning turn their backs on them and would readily join hands with the ‘other’ demanding a life of human dignity and putting in jeopardy the very raison detre of the project.
And as can be expected in such a situation, they literally floundered when they were asked to react to this  uprising.  The multiple voices which emerged from the broader ‘Parivar’ were an indication of their confusion.
No doubt talking in multiple tongues has always been part of their overall strategy but this time it also demonstrated  disorientation in their own ranks.  The moot question became whether to uphold the perpetrators – who were following the script – or support the victims. And thus one found the Prime Minister exposing majority of the cow vigilantes as being anti social elements and asking the home department to prepare a dossier about them and another significant leader of the same ‘family’ denouncing such characterisation as being ‘anti-Hindu’. The confusion was understandable. In fact, it was for the first time in recent times that Hindutva Supremacists are discovering that the more they push one of their key agenda centering around cow politics – which has served them well till date – the more there is possibility that their dream of Hindu Unity would see further fissures.  ( Vidya Subrahmaniam describes it as ‘A reverse Ram Mandir Moment’ in her article on present situation in UP.http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/its-mayawati-versus-modi-in-up/article9022511.ece? ref=topnavwidget&utm_source=topnavdd&utm_medium=topnavdropdownwidget&utm_campaign=topnavdropdown) Apart from Dalits, who have come under increasing attack at the hands of overzealous ‘cow protectors’ and are slowly turning against the ‘Parivar’ itself , large section of peasant population is peeved over the fact that politics around cow has  made their life miserable as they are not able to do away with cattles who have become old or have stopped producing milk. One of the couplets by Saint Tulsidas captures Hindutva’s plight beautifully ‘Bhayal Gati Saap Chachunder Jaisi..‘.
II
Rashtravadi toh hamare saath hain, humein Dalit aur pichchde ko saath lana hai.
Everybody knows that there was nothing ‘unusual’ – as far as depradations unleashed by Hindutva fanatics under the name of cow protection were concerned – about what happened to dalits from Mota Samadhiyala village when they were skinning a dead cow.
One can recollect that such attacks were common even in those days when BJP did not have majority of its own at the centre. A classic example has been killing of five dalits in Dulina (Jhajjar ) – hardly fifty kilometres away from the national capital – who were similarly skinning dead cows, by a cow vigilante mob (2003) before Dulina police station itself with leading officers of the police and administration remaining mute witnesses. A leading Hindutva leader ( dead sometime back) even ‘justified’ the killings by citing reference to ancient Hindu sciptures claiming that in ‘Puranas cows were more valued than human beings’. The killings definitely led to an outrage, there were few symbolic arrests as well but the commotion died down soon and in fact the perpetrators of this massacre were decorated as ‘cow protectors’.
In fact, most such earlier attacks in recent times had been rather more brutal. To name a few, lynching of two young men near Latehar after their brutal torture near Latehar, Jharkhand by cow vigilantes ; killing an adolescent near Udhampur who was sleeping in truck by throwing petrol bomb under the suspicion that the truck was carrying beef ; near riot like situation which emerged in Palwal, Haryana because of cow vigilantes attack on a truck carrying meat or the way two transporters were fed cow dung laced with urine when they were found transporting cattles for sale near Gurgaon. Scan the internet to watch the ‘valour’ of these fanatics and you will find scores of such criminal attacks on innocents. Videos after videos are available which show how these self proclaimed cow protectors brutalised people for carrying cows from one place to other or because of suspicion that they were carrying beef and how their has been no action against them from the law and order people.
But thrashing of Dalits from Mota Samadhiyala village by cow vigilantes, uploading the video of their ‘valour’ on social media has proved to be a turning point.
Anybody can see that the Dalit Uprising which the Una incident has triggered has inadvertently or so unearthed the ‘well guarded secret’ behind this exclucivist project – where it is clear even to a layperson now that for Hindutva, dalits or other marginalised are lesser human beings or the ‘other’, whatever might be its claims about the great samrasta it upholds. There is a growing realisation that the formal posturing of Hindutva politics, where it is presented /understood in the form of religious imaginaries where ‘minorities- may be Muslim or Christian – are portrayed as the ‘other’ is one thing but essentially the whole idea of Hindu Rashtra is an attempt to further legitimise the Brahminical project of hegemonising and homogenising of Indian society where secondary position of Dalits has received religious sanction also. An inkling of how they view Dalits and the backwards – when they are talking among themselves – can be had from the recent comments by PM Modi when he spoke at length at a meeting which was attended by 400 top leaders of the BJP, at the end of the15 day patriotism drive. Newspaper reports tell us that he called on his party to continue playing Nationalism card which is ‘central to the BJP’s ideology.’ Perhaps the most telling comment made by him was the following : “Rashtravadi toh hamare saath hain, humein Dalit aur pichchde ko saath lana hai.” The nationalists are with us, we need to bring Dalits and backward groups.” (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/nationalists-are-with-us-lets-reach-out-to-dalits-backwards-pm-modi-to-party-2993281/)
Was it just slip of tongue or an admission of the truth that for Hindutva  non-backwards, non-dalits i.e. upper castes have sole claim over nation and dalits as well as backwards to be outside its purview who need to be brought closer. (http://scroll.in/article/814769/the-daily-fix-what-did-modi-mean-when-he-said-there-is-a-chasm-between-dalits-and-nationalists)
Perhaps a marker of their continuing indifference or disdain towards the plight of the dalits ( forget those bollywood type dialogues where it was declared that ‘Shoot Me but Do Not Shoot My Dalit Brothers’) could also be gauged from the fact that when the Dalit Upsurge was at its peak in the state, the provocative statement by one of their own MLAs from Telangana who ‘justified’ the beatings and uploaded a video on facebook did not prompt them to take any action. His words were “Jo Dalit gaye ke maas ko le ja raha tha, jo uski pitai hui hai, woh bohut hi achhi hui hai [Those Dalits who were taking the cow, the cow meat, those who were beaten, it was a very good thing to happen],”(http://scroll.in/latest/812903/anyone-who-kills-cows-deserves-to-be-beaten-says-bjp-mla-raja-singh).