IS MR.LALU REALLY DOING CASTEISM?

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav  during IBN Dialogue Bihar 2.0 organised by Network18 Group on 11^th  September,  asked his audience, mostly youth, in his usual rhetorical way, “Do you believe in casteism?"  and   the  reply came : "No". Lalu paraphrased his question: "Is caste relevant or not?" and reply came "No, caste is irrelevant."  Also one girl remarked, "You are doing casteism."  He took recourse to the late socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia and said “No, I am not doing casteism, rather I am taking up the cause of socially and economically marginalised sections of society."

Marcus aurelius, a roman emperor has  truly said that “everything  we hear is an opinion, not the fact and everything we see is perspective, not the truth”. So my dear youths of India the ground reality is that the discrimination based on caste still deeply rooted in our society.  The wordy opposition to caste in respect of some generalized condemnation of caste surely leaves the existing structure almost intact. Why not our society is allowing inter-caste marriages? Why our society is still enquiring the caste before renting a room to a needy one?  Why our society has different living areas for different castes?  Why Muslim area, Dalit area, Brahmin area?

Talking about Ram Manohar Lohia who argues that there are three kinds of opposition to caste order. First, there are ones who believe in the wordy opposition to caste like Nehruvian liberals, the communists and the Praja Socialist Party. Second, there are those who believe in partial opposition to caste by the Sudras like the DK politics in South during his time or Yadava politics of the North during our time. Third, there are those who believe in a wholesale opposition to caste order. Lohia prefers the third alternative as the first two groups are basically hypocrites. Any other social and political attempt to do away the caste inequalities is condemned as “casteist”. He prefers a broad‐based opposition to caste involving Dalits, Sudras, Muslims and women who are all victims of caste‐based hypocritical politics.

  

Followers of Lohia who surrendered his manifold criticism of caste into the sectional politics of Sudras in North India through the Samajwadi Party of Mulyam Singh Yadav and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav. Lohia’s attempts in characterising such partial elevation of Sudras in South India should not be forgotten. He criticizes the Sudra politics in South for being concerned with “partial elevation” of Sudras, for alienating itself from Dalits, women, backward Muslims and Adivasis and for not showing interest in carrying out the agenda of destruction of caste system. So sectional elevation brings about some changes within the caste system, but leaves the basis of castes unaltered.  Finally, a true struggle against caste is concerned with elevation of all rather than one or the other section of lower castes. This struggle aims to pitchfork the five downgraded groups such as women, Sudras, Dalits, backward caste Muslims and Adivasis, into positions of leadership, irrespective of their merit as it stands today.

To end caste, social measures like mixed dinners, and inter‐caste marriages and economic measures like “land to the tiller” from among the lower castes must be encouraged. Women’s issues like fetching drinking water from distant areas or building of lavatories for women in rural areas must be resolved, apart from the distribution of property to press for women’s rights. Discussions, plays, and fairs should be organized. Even, in government jobs there should be reservation for those who marry outside their caste. This is a sure way of breaking caste barriers. The socialists must make all efforts towards the destruction of caste order among Hindus and non‐Hindus. While Lohia’s critique of caste must be distinguished from his followers in electoral field today, his alternative model merely relies on state action for equality and justice.