YEARS ago, when the British felt that it was difficult for them to rule over a country as diverse as India, they devised a simple method ‘divide and rule’. For the purpose, among many other tools, they used division among castes to weaken the societal resistance to British colonisation. And, they succeeded for a long time. In the process, the British plundered India, which once had contribution of over a quarter to the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). It took more than 75 years for India after winning hard-fought Independence from the British to surpass the economy of the United Kingdom. But, once again, India is facing an impending danger of internal weakening. For, the forces not pleased with India’s rise on the global stage are fuelling, and probably sponsoring, the elements within India to foment trouble by way of reviving the time-irrelevant concept of caste divide. Given the past experience, every Indian must realise that whosoever is reviving the caste divide is power-hungry, or power-deprived, and has ulterior motives regarding the Indian society.

 

Unfortunately, not every Indian is realising it. For, they are blinded by emotional thinking, and are unable to see the rational picture that could lead everyone to a brighter future. The latest cases in point are the State Legislative Assembly elections in Maharashtra and the caste census talks. Maharashtra has always been a progressive State. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj stood as a symbol of socio-cultural unity and assertion of Indian ethos. Many saints and reformers worked very hard to keep the spiritual and socio-cultural fabric of Maharashtra intact even through natural and manmade crises. Many freedom fighters left behind a rich legacy for Maharashtra to be proud of. Unfortunately, over the years, some politicians in Maharashtra carefully nurtured an ecosystem of hate. In the past some years, this ecosystem of hate has only degenerated into anti-development lobby. They have started targeting politicians from the rival party only on the basis of caste. Their motormouths have adopted techniques to provide fodder to their social media foot-soldiers to resort to guttersnipe language.

 

In the process, they have been trying to create an atmosphere of distrust among castes, disrupt social harmony, and weaken diversity which forms the bedrock of social unity. This is overly visible during the ongoing Assembly election campaign in Maharashtra, As far as caste census is concerned, those championing the cause lack clarity on the objectives of the same. Hence, certain political leaders keep making statements in favour of caste census, with addition that the results would be used to provide share of welfare measures and Government budget to communities in proportion to their population numbers. This regressive step is being touted by some political elements as progressive one.

 

One wonders if they do not realise that this will create another form of majoritarianism, which they are so opposed to. For, if one community has more numbers, it will get more funds. Then, minority communities’ welfare will go for a toss for sure. Do they want it? While making statements favouring caste census, these leaders do not offer clarifications in this regard. While doing so, they forget that their logic would severely compromise the space available for those putting in hard work and performing better than others to rise through the competition, irrespective of the community they belong to. If that happens, instead of getting powered by brilliant brains and hard working individuals, divisive agendas will prove to be millstones around the neck of the country’s progress. In that situation, it will be easier for the external forces to fuel anarchy in India, and this will lead to another round of subjugation, albeit indirectly. This is not fear mongering, but alerting the society about perils of the ugly game of political widening of caste divisions. The countrymen living in those possibly bleak times, may become frustrated. For, they will not be able to get opportunities abroad on the basis of caste numbers in India. Outside the country, only their merit, their performance, their competitive ability will count. Outside, they are known only as Indians. But, by blind-following the caste narrative peddled by a few with political intentions, the citizens will have lost their competitive equipment. The aspiring youngsters certainly do not want that to happen, as they have moved far ahead of the restrictive petty caste narratives.

 

Associating the dividing line of ‘caste’ with the unifying process of Parliamentary democracy tantamounts to subverting the spirit of unity and fraternity enshrined in the Constitution of India. Politicians have been using ‘caste’ as a tool to extract emotional ransom from gullible voters. Sadly, a segment of voters has been blindly falling prey to this divisive emotional tactic of certain parties. In the process, they are forgetting that caste as political identity does not solve the common problems ailing everyone. Hence, voting on caste lines is not going to serve any other purpose than political objectives of power-deprived elements. So, do not ‘caste’ your vote. Rather, exercise your franchise in elections. That will be a fitting tribute to the titans who devoted their lives to preserve the Indian society’s characteristic feature of unity in diversity. There is liberation in celebrating the identity of being a proud Indian with a firm belief in unity, diversity, democracy, the spirit of Constitution of India, and being a part of growth story of India.