THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 14 July 2020 Yet another challenge to the Dalit movement(The Hindu)



Yet another challenge to the Dalit movement(The Hindu)


Mains Paper 1:Society 
Prelims level: Dalit movement
Mains level: Social empowerment

Context: 

  • The pandemic is forcing us to understand the changing nature of society. In north India, specifically, it has also reshaped the discourse on marginalisation.
  • Dalit issues are part of this discoursebut are submerged in the broader discussions on economic vulnerabilities highlighted by COVID-19.
  • This pandemic has brought about two important shifts in the political discourse on the marginalised. 
  • As the lockdown caused untold suffering to poor, migrant labourers, it brought them from the margins to the centre of deliberations. 
  • Second, discussions on the space for the marginalised in the public health system and their safety are in focus. 
  • However, the concerns of Dalits remain hidden under the broader categories of poor, vulnerable, marginal, etc.

Changing vocabulary:

  • In contemporary debates, there is a reappearance of class-based vocabulary. 
  • Caste-based issues have either become invisible or are only visible as part of the wider discourse.
  • Leaders such as Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad have not been able to engage effectively with these new shifts. 
  • They have not been able to carve outa location in these new debates for their own politics. 
  • They have to reorient their exclusively caste-based language and reshape their political discourse to be in tune with the times. 
  • There are a large number of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes among the migrant labourers. 
  • But Dalit leaders in north India have not been able to represent their concerns.
  • It is possible that these shifts in political debates may continue in the post-pandemic phase at least for a few years as vulnerabilitiesof the marginalised will increase.

Key challenges:

  • The Dalit movement in north India is habituated in using caste-based binaries in its mobilisational language but has failed to respond to the changing political diction. 
  • In fact, leaders have not changed their political diction for 30 years, since the time of the Kanshi Ram-led Bahujan movement. 
  • The movement is facing a crisis of agendas and social programmes. 
  • The constant repetition of unfulfilled claims and commitments and slogans and promises create disillusionmentamong a section of their support base.
  • Another issue is that the Dalit movement in north India is grappling with a leadership crisis. 
  • In States such as U.P., Bihar, Punjab and Rajasthan, Dalit assertions are mostly centred around the electoral politics of Dalit-Bahujan political groups and parties. 
  • Even alternative social movements led by Jignesh Mevani and Mr. Azad seem to be caught in the logic of electoral politics.

Leadership crisis:

  • During the Bahujan movement in the 1990s, the idea was that the movement and the party could facilitate each other. 
  • But the BSP, which emerged from the Bahujan social movement, developed gradually as a party structured like a pyramid. 
  • Under Ms. Mayawati, it has stopped its reciprocalrelationship with the Dalit movement. 
  • In the BSP, the emergence of political leaders of various Dalit-Bahujan castes at different levels became frozen.
  • This caused erosion in the broader social base and ultimately weakened the Dalit movement. 
  • The Dalit movement is constantly facing new challenges but its leaders are not able to change their strategies and grammar of politics to respond to them.
  • Under the influences of the Ambedkarite ideology and the Dalit-Bahujan movements, an assertive and politically aware Dalit consciousness was being formed among a section of Dalit groups. 
  • In the meantime, interventions by Hindutva leaders among Dalits mobilised a section of the most marginalised Dalits under the Hindutva flag. 
  • Now the pandemic has posed a new challenge for the Dalit movement. 

Conclusion:

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the draft scheme for cashless treatment of motor accident victims, consider the following statements:

1. It has been envisaged in the scheme to provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in the country. 
2. The scheme also includes creation of a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund. 
3. NHAI has been entrusted to implement the scheme.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 3 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) None

Answer: B

Mains Questions:

Q.1) Highlights the contribution of Ambedkar in awakening Dalit consciousness.