To put the matter baldly: It is not the politics of class that gives the right-wing bad dreams. The politics of caste does. https://thewire.in/politics/caste-is-the-achilles-heel-of-hindutva-politics
Those that owe allegiance to the politics of “social justice”, unlike leftists, do not characterise religion as merely a “superstructural” construction that will inevitably disappear as class inequality ends. They remain ensconced within the majority community as devout Hindus themselves.
Their agenda is one that seeks an end to discrimination at the hands of those who proclaim themselves custodians of Hinduism.
It is often a defensive Brahminical claim that the Varna Vyavestha, or caste system, accords caste status not according to birth but attainments. Thus, if a Shudra acquires learning of a high standard, he becomes a Brahmin, and so on.
Alas, however, this sleight-of-hand is never in evidence as a discernible reality on the ground in Hindu society.
And, proponents of class analysis are right when they point out that this social-religious hegemony is kept in place largely through class domination; this is the reason why the bulk of all positions of authority – be it in the bureaucracy, in higher and high-skilled education, in controlling religious pulpits and practices – remain preponderantly with the ‘upper’ caste Hindu, and why Hindutva feels so threatened when Hindus designated ‘socially unequal’ seek parity in accordance with their ratio in Hindu population.
Caste Census
No wonder then that the RSS-BJP opposes tooth and nail the idea of a census that might tell the country how Hindu society is actually divided.
by Badri Raina
10/02/2023
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