Tragically, minorities of our country are witnessing denial of equality before law and equal opportunities in public life. This is being trumpeted before the majority community for the purpose of winning elections by polarizing the electorate. Use of polarising narratives by BJP leaders including the Prime Minister in the recently held election in UP and the brazen manner in which UP Chief Minister appealed to majority sentiment by using disparaging narratives against minority communities are crystal clear testimonies to what Dr Ambedkar prophetically wrote.

The alarming scenario we are seeing in BJP-ruled states was apprehended by Ambedkar with respect to the condition of minorities in independent India. The manner in which girls in educational institutions in some parts of Karnataka were denied their fundamental right to access education just because they put on Hijab painfully brought out the discrimination heaped on them on the grounds of their faith. Now Muslim traders are banned from participating in fairs organized in Karnataka on the occasion of Hindu religious festivals clearly testify to their economic boycott solely on the basis of their faith. This is against the fundamental right of every citizen to pursue trade and commerce. Modi regime and other BJP-ruled states are trampling on the fundamental rights of citizens just because they profess some other religion, which is different from the religion of the majority community and not in conformity with Hindutva project of Hindu-Rashtra.

This is nothing but majoritarianism in full display mocking the provisions made in the Constitution of India guaranteeing the fundamental rights to all citizens regardless of faiths. This politics flowing from obsessive concerns of the ruling party with Hindutva and making it the central plank of its public policies has reduced politics, in the words of Ambedkar, to “theology in action.” Development in India now are not politics in its usual sense but as an integral aspect of an exclusionary theology that has nothing to do with constitution and constitutional morality. When Modi assumed office of the Prime Minister and took oath on the same Constitution, he proudly proclaimed that his regime would be rooted in “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance.” Government and governance are now pushed to the margins by polarised narratives and divisive politics with a view to reap electoral dividends.

This toxic majoritarianism being practiced in new India conjured up by the RSS is a by-product of V.D. Savarkar’s philosophy and vision of Hindus and Muslims having unbridgeable differences. Savarkar sowed the seeds of division by furthering the notion that those born in India only would consider it as their father land and those whose places of pilgrimage are outside India could not consider it as their holy land. In doing so he was effectively excluding Muslims and other minorities, whose places of pilgrimage remained outside India, from the scope of equal citizenship. Ambedkar wrote that V.D. Savarkar visualized a constitution in which the “Hindu nation will be enabled to occupy a predominant position that is due to it and the Muslim nation made to live in the position of subordinate co-operation with the Hindu nation.” Ambedkar then warned that “Mr. Savarkar in advocating his scheme is really creating a most dangerous situation for the safety and security of India”. Similarly, the head-priest of the RSS, M.S. Golwalkar advocated second-class citizenship for Muslims. Unfortunately, the Modi regime and BJP ruled states are now implementing this vision of Hindus and Muslims constituting watertight sections.

This separation between the majority and minority is enabling the Hindutva vanguard to deny minorities the right to equality before law and dignity. The way Muslims and other minorities are being treated with contempt by Modi regime and degraded to a status far below that of citizens enshrined in the Constitution clearly prove the point that rabid communalism is getting precedence over the vision of the freedom fighters and the Constitution of India. Thus, as Ambedkar foretold, we are now face-to-face to the most dangerous situation for the safety and security of India.

Economic boycott of Muslims on any considerable scale was never witnessed in the history of the country. Such perverse steps are being encouraged by BJP leaders and taken forward. Such policies combined with the manufactured narratives like love Jihad are dividing India on communal basis and creating conditions conducive to animosity and hate. It is tragic and unfortunate that neither the Prime Minister nor any other top leader of the Union government uttered a single word condemning the open calls by so called holy men for genocide of Muslims, instead BJP came to their protection.

Never ever in its history, India witnessed elected leaders responsible for the functioning of the state apparatus indulging in activities that are causing a wide gulf among people based on faith. Under the tutelage of the Manuvadi RSS, attacks and discrimination with Dalits, tribals and women are taking place and the perpetrators are going scot-free. An RSS pracharak sitting on the PM’s chair has emboldened such elements. This has to be fought tooth and nail and that too based on ideology celebrating pluralism and constitutional values.

We need to consider the following passage authored by Dr Ambedkar. He wrote “if we want to build up unity, it is not by devising a day, however sacred that day may be, when both Hindus and Mahomedans will come to the same polling booth. If we want really to devise some means to build up unity, what we should do is to break up the social barrier. I say that in this matter the lead has to be taken up by the Hindu community, because they are a very exclusive community. If other communities live a separate life, it is because the Hindu community regards certain interests as its own interests and the fault is entirely due to the Hindu community.”

In this light, everyone who prefers democracy over communal majoritarianism, equality over exclusion, our Constitution over theology must come together to establish a lasting progressive unity to effectively neutralised the agenda of RSS-BJP. We need a movement in the pattern of freedom movement to forge the unity of our people to defend the idea of India enshrined in the Constitution. In our independence struggle, political liberation went simultaneously with social reform. We fondly remember the herculean work done by reformers like Ram Mohun Roy, Ishwarchand Vidyasagar, Jyotiba Phule, Mahatma Ayyankalli, Sree Narayana Guru and EVR Periyar for bringing reforms in the society. This time too, political unity among democratic people should go hand-in-hand with liberating the society from the homogeneity of the RSS. Hinduism as a religion was a diverse and diffused set of practices with great regional variations and the absence of a centralised institution.

Hindus themselves should remove RSS from their self-appointed role as the sole custodian of all Hindus, East-West and North-South. Other organised religions should also make space for reforms and make their practices democratic. Mass education on these pertinent issues, and spirit of agitation against the darkness of majoritarianism and a robust democratic unity can achieve these objectives. In this fight, Dr. Ambedkar’s slogan of “Educate, Agitate and Organise” should become our path for political and social liberation. (IPA Service)