Opinion: Why India Under PM Modi Averted A Major Caste Showdown Despite Opponents' Attempts

Got Question about the News? There have been many scuffles at Jantar Mantar during the June Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protests. Nearly 70 days later, one of them is ageing interestingly. CJP leader Saurav Das has now alleged that influencer Swatantra Bhardwaj attacked Sanjay Kumar, father of CJP protester Nishu Azad, and called Sanjay a Dalit. Das demanded attempt-to-murder and grievous-hurt sections, as well as the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, slapped against Bhardwaj. It is probably bad homework that Das did not bring up the caste angle earlier. To overcompensate for it, Das posted a fake, AI-generated image on X and tried to put 'casteism poison" in BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia's mouth. When threatened with a lawsuit, he hurriedly deleted it. But since British rule, caste has been cynically exploited as a fault line to divide the Hindu majority of Bharat and push one's agenda. CJP, who many allege is backed and bankrolled by shadowy powers from abroad, is the latest to hop on to that bandwagon. Just in the last 12 years, divisive forces tried every sinister trick in the book to set the nation on fire over caste. From the 2016 Rohith Vemula suicide to the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots, from 2016 Una flogging to 2020 Hathras rape and murder, and from 2018 Bharat Bandh over the judiciary trying to fix misuse of SC/ST Act to Rahul Gandhi's caste census campaign, every attempt has been made to overplay caste and blow it up into conflict. But in spite of these relentless attempts and much funding going into them, small caste fires could never become conflagrations. The new caste politics threw up characters like Hardik Patel, Jarange Patil, Lokendra Singh Kalvi, and Chandrashekhar Azad 'Ravan', but they remained dwarfed like bonsai in their little, glass boxes. They could not get even half the stature of a Mayawati or a Lalu Prasad Yadav, for instance. Even Maya and Lalu have been cut to size since 2014. Why has this happened? Why hasn't manufactured caste fury not been able to consume India's polity lately? Why have attempts at creating a Mandal 2.0 failed so far? There are several reasons, but the biggest is the advent of subaltern Hindutva. Since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (BJP-RSS) has been immensely successful in framing Hindutva as an overarching tent for all castes and sub-castes. Organising caste melas for small jatis, fielding non-Yadav OBC faces, using EBC quotas as a wedge against the Yadav capture of 'social justice", or having Yogi Adityanath as a Hindutva CM rather than a Thakur-only CM have all been meticulously executed. Conflict has been nationally framed as Hindus versus Islamists and nation versus foreign 'toolkits". So, many OBC-Dalit voters stay inside the larger tent. The BJP's tod-jod (split big blocs, join the smaller ones in states like Bihar, Maharashtra, and Haryana) has prevented a single Bahujan front. Besides, Dalits and OBCs are not one vote. Non-Jatav Dalits don't usually vote for the BSP, non-Yadav OBCs (Kurmi, Koeri, Lodh, Nishad, and most EBCs) shun the RJD and the SP. Welfare schemes have silently worked their magic too. Houses, toilets, gas, transfers, and public honour for Ravidas, Valmiki, or Birsa Munda have sent the message of inclusion and integration loud and clear. Tough UAPA charges and action in cases like Bhima-Koregaon or Delhi riots have discouraged troublemakers from crossing thick red lines. Mobilisers burn out. Crippling bandhs hurt the poor first and the most, many of whom are Dalits and tribals. And finally, sporadic upper-class outrage and protests against UGC rules or reservations assure backward castes that under the BJP, they are not alone in their victimhood; even its traditional votebank — Brahmins, Baniyas, and Rajputs — is also angry. If there is equality of justice in welfare, there is also some equity in injustice. Another person's suffering can be a strange pacifier. But despite all that, caste is going to be the main faultline of attack against the BJP in particular and Hindu society in general. PM Narendra Modi and his India cannot let their guard down. Abhijit Majumder is the author of the book 'India's New Right'. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. India has largely averted a major caste showdown due to the advent of subaltern Hindutva, which the BJP-RSS has successfully framed as an overarching tent for all castes since 2014. Additionally, welfare schemes, strategic political alliances, and firm action against troublemakers have contributed to this outcome. Since 2014, the BJP-RSS has integrated various castes by organizing caste melas for small jatis, fielding non-Yadav OBC faces, using EBC quotas, and presenting leaders like Yogi Adityanath as Hindutva CMs rather than solely Thakur-only CMs. Welfare schemes providing houses, toilets, gas, and financial transfers, along with public honor for figures like Ravidas, Valmiki, and Birsa Munda, have silently worked to send a message of inclusion and integration, thereby helping to prevent caste-based conflicts.