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Capitalism and Hindu caste system..... by Saima Alvi 05 June 2002 18:34 UTC |
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Capitalism and Hindu caste system ---------------------------------- By M. Abul Fazl THE RSS's "fear" of the Muslims, invoked in all its rallies, cannot refer to the Muslims of present day India. It is a sort of undefined, ever-present menace weighing upon the Hindu homeland, like the idea of the Jew for the Nazis. The influence of the Hindu communal ideology is not confined to the organizations like the RSS, which own it explicitly. It has adherents in the secular Congress and the socialist parties too. Even some of the self-avowed Marxists, like Sankritayan, were not free from its influence. Bimal Prasad says that Golwalkar's book on Hindu racism carried a preface by M.S. Aney, who was, at the time, a member of the Congress Working Committee and had been its president. Even after he had left the Congress, he was invited as a special guest to the AICC meeting in 1939, which was to decide upon the Congress' policy towards war. Prasad adds, "...this was by no means a solitary example of persons with marked Hindu nationalist bearings walking into and out of Congress leadership according to their convenience. Lajpat Rai and Madan Mohan Malaviya were other illustrious examples." (Ibid p233). The RSS has created a number of front organizations, like Bajrang Dal, the street fighters and its female version, the Durga Vahini, and the Vishva Hindu Parishad, which is the alliance of the Brahmin and the petite bourgeoisie (bania) etc. Actually, it is the petite bourgeoisie, which has given the VHP a mass character, as it did to the Nazis. The political wing of the RSS was Jan Sangh, which evolved into the Bharatya Janata Party. It presented a moderate political programme in order to attract broader electoral support but succeeded electorally only by appealing to the most primitive sentiments of the Hindus over the Babri Masjid issue. The contradiction that was mentioned above i.e. that between capitalism and caste system, arises from the peculiar development of the Indian society under British colonialism. The British super-imposed capitalism upon the traditional society in India. They did not transform the Indian society integrally. As a result, the share of the labour power in the traditional sector is determined by non-economic instance. This peculiarity is possible because of the existence of the caste system wherein the three upper castes combine against the Shudras. But this non-economic origin of distribution, in turn, preserves the castes. Part of the extra surplus thus squeezed from the Shudras is passed by the traditional sector to the modern one. Moreover, traditional sector maintains the labour power both before its employment by the modern sector and after its redundancy. The modern sector thus has a stake in the continuation of the status quo in the traditional sector. Caste is not a class, as one cannot leave or join it. But it does act as a determinant in the distribution of income, at least outside the modern sector. A Shudra would be paid less than a member of an upper caste for similar work. The work of public hygiene is assigned exclusively to the Shudras. Being unpleasant, the remuneration in it should be relatively high. But it is kept very low by purely non-economic means. On the other hand, the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie wants a modern labour market with full labour mobility. That threatens to weaken the caste system. This is resented by the "educated" middle class as it would also alter the present system of redistribution. The middle class maintains the status quo by persuading the Shudras that their woes are due to the competition from the Muslim workers in the labour market and the Muslims in general, who are enemies of all Hindus. The Hindu commercial petite bourgeoisie also competes with its Muslim counterpart in exploiting the independent Muslim artisan, who working under the putting out system, suffers from a high rate of exploitation. Lastly, the manpower expelled from agriculture by the spread of capitalist farming and finding itself unemployed or under-employed in the towns falls easy prey to the RSS propaganda and is recruited in the street fighting Bajrang Dal. The on-going pogrom in Gujrat - and pogrom it is, being state organized, was to be expected. The Gujrat Muslim traders had historically been ahead and wealthier than the Hindu bourgeoisie. They had been pushed back after independence but were again becoming prosperous. Whenever the Muslims reach a certain level of prosperity anywhere in India, the RSS organizes an assault upon them, in which there is more emphasis on destroying them economically than physically. Of course, when the lower castes, joining the melee, do some killing, raping and burning, they are not stopped. Better their resentment find vent against the Muslims than against their real oppressors, the Hindu upper castes. And rape has again been used as a political weapon and as a weapon of terror, having been accompanied by special brutality. These pogroms have brought to light all the elements of the RSS organization and all the facets of its ideology. The Hindu shop-keepers led the attacking mobs both in the towns and the villages. The lower caste people were then encouraged to loot the Muslims shops and homes. The material benefit thus accruing to them from the persecution of the Muslims becomes an instrument of their alliance with the upper castes. The grande-bourgeoisie may not want the anarchy to be prolonged but whenever communal tension rises the industrial militancy drops. Of course, the street fighters of the RSS are basically mobsters, good at killing the unarmed and women and children, specially when backed by the police. They cannot stand up to organized state forces if the state chooses to use them. But as long as the state leadership and the lower grade state functionaries are themselves prone to the RSS propaganda, it is hard to see an end to pogroms. Even so, we should not forget that the Muslims are able to survive in India because the overwhelming majority of Indians, ordinary people from all classes, are opposed to this ideology and the conduct of the RSS and other fascistic organizations. The poison being spread by the fascists is combated and resisted by this decent majority. And it is for them to overcome this anti-human element which has arisen in India. Posted from http://www.dawn.com/weekly/encounter/encounter.htm __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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