Has
Modi Changed Caste Politics Or Can Caste Pyramid Return?
Saeed Naqvi
Eminent TV anchor, Rajdeep Sardesai, has
in a recent article drawn attention to the fact that Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has restored balance to his cabinet by inducting Manohar Parrikar and
Suresh Prabhu, two Gaud Saraswat Brahmins, as full fledged ministers. Some
writers took him to task for his Brahminical digression, strange in a country
where caste drives so much of public life.
The electoral typhoon that brought Modi
to power in May was in total defiance of conventional caste calculations. Do
the new inductions spell a reversal to, well, old trends? Does Modi aim to
pursue RSS’s vision of Hindu Rashtra in which the old caste pyramid will be
reinstated? Or, am I jumping the gun?
I was tempted to say a thing or two but
I hesitate because I have memories of an earlier mishap. My collection of
essays published in 1996, when P.V. Narasimha Rao’s term came to an ignominious
end, was titled “The Last Brahmin Prime Minister?” My friends were infuriated.
How dare I make such a casteist prediction?
I had done nothing of the sort. The big
fact question mark at the end of the title was inserted at the instance of a quintessential
Brahmin, my late guru and friend, Rishi Kumar Mishra. It was a statement in
itself. It was specifically designed to anticipate Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Yes, trends then did suggest an end, or atleast
a temporary suspension, of the traditional premium on Brahmins as Prime
Ministers.
Eversince Mahatma Gandhi tipped the
scales in favour of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as Independent India’s first Prime
Minister, that has become something of a norm: a Brahmin Prime Minister has
been the most durable. In this framework, Rajiv Gandhi would be counted a
Brahmin, and not a Parsi which is what he technically was.
Every non Brahmin Prime Minister lasted
a year or less – Charan Singh, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, H.D. Dewe Gowda,
I.K. Gujral. Yes, Manmohan Singh’s is an exceptional case. He was a CEO
nominated by Sonia Gandhi at a miraculous moment of power she created for
herself by an act of renunciation.
By the time P.V. Narasimha Rao ascended
the gaddi, it was more or less clear that the Brahmin line was coming to an
end.
The continuous sniping between P.V.
Narasimha Rao and Arjun Singh was most debilitating for the Congress. Since
Arjun Singh also happened to be a Thakur, the rivalry acquired a pronounced, Thakur-Brahmin
edge. The Brahmin won but only after coordinating politics with the BJP.
After the Babari Masjid debacle, PV took
courage in his hands and, at the Tirupati session of the AICC in 1993, ordered
elections to the Congress Working Committee. To PV’s chagrin, Arjun Singh won by
the largest margin, demonstrating his control on the party machine. Next in
popularity were Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot. An unnerved PV annulled the
results.
Thereafter, the decline of the Brahmin
in public life became PV’s principal concern. When Rajiv Gandhi came to power
in 1984 on the sympathy wave for Indira Gandhi’s murder, with a two thirds
majority in a House of 544, of the 198 upper castes in the House, there were 79
Brahmins. But in 1991, the number dropped drastically. UP alone had returned 22
Brahmins in 1984. After 1991, the number of Brahmins on the Congress ticket was
down to two.
The trend was reflected in the manner in
which Brahmins of all hues were rejected in the 1991 elections. If V.N. Gadgil
and Vasant Sathe lost in Maharashtra on the Congress ticket, so did Madhu
Dandwate on the Janata Dal ticket. As did Ramakrishna Hegde in Karnataka.
There I go opening my mouth again in a
sensitive caste debate. But let me say my two penny bit. Having grown up among
Brahmins (and others) in the region of UP, I am inclined to the view that
Brahmins reared in the area of Triveni, Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura, Haridwar are
much more relaxed about their Brahminism than the self conscious “twice-borns”
from the regions.
In which case how does one explain the
inelegant communalism of Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Sadhvi Rithambara, Giriraj
Singh and the unforgettable Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti whose “Haramzada” is
reverberating in the Rajya Sabha? “None of these are Brahmins”, interjects BJP
functionary, clearly wearing his caste on his sleeve.
A masterly sociological study by Robert
Frykenberg, establishes a model which is as valid today as it was in the 18th
century.
During Maratha expansion, Guntur came
under the rule of the Marathas who brought with them their own administrators. The
British had set up their headquarters at Fort St. George.
A
British ICS officer posted to Guntur as collector noticed inordinate delays and
obstructions in implementation.
Inquiries
reached a dead end because files, which would explain the delays, could not be traced.
It was all so cleverly orchestrated that it was impossible to identify the
culprit.
The
exasperated officer approached Fort St. George for intervention. Here too, there
was no headway. In fact it was even more tardy.
Matters reached the Privy Council in London. Only then was the Gordian knot unloosed.
The Privy Council found that most of the administrators the Marathas brought with them were Desastha Brahmins. When the Marathas made way for the British, who retained the middle and lower administrators, because of their outstanding abilities. The British were obviously innocent of their genius for clan networking. This network had spread from Guntur to Fort St. George.
Now, let me tell you a different story
from among the Brahmins I have grown up with.
After the fall of the Babari Masjid, riots
spread in Kanpur. My energetic cameraman, Kabir Khan (now a renowned film
maker) accumulated interviews from four locations where Mobs tried to attack
Muslims but were repulsed by those Hindus, who we unfortunately tend not to
take note of.
A lone woman hid Rukhsana Bi in a trunk.
The rioters asked her to swear on “Lord Rama” that she was not sheltering a
Muslim. She did. She is known in the neighbourhood as “Panditaen”, which mean
“wife of a Pandit”.
Tripathiji protected more than a hundred
women and children sheltered in a private garden. He sent the mob away.
An elderly lady wearing a white sari
climbed onto the roof of her house. She threatened to rain bricks on the mob if
they move towards the Muslim basti. The Muslims address her as Mishraen Amma.
Pandeji stands in a narrow alley and
with his bare hands pushes back a mob carrying torches.
Can only a Brahmin push back a rioting
mob without any risk to his life? Is this deference to “Panditji” a thing of
the past? It isn’t in UP, whatever the Brahmin’s political condition.
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