Maya's U-turn on Mahatma Gandhi
Vikas Pathak, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, October 02, 2010First Published: 23:08 IST(2/10/2010)
It may be, ironically, Mayawati's tribute to the Mahatma. Known for
its criticism of Mahatma Gandhi in relation to his policies vis-à-vis
Dalits, Mayawati's BSP has suddenly taken a U-turn. Advertisements
placed in newspapers by the Department of U.P. Information and Public
Relations on Gandhi Jayanti say: "Gandhiji's fundamental philosophy is
embodied in 'Sarvajan Hitay and Sarvajan Sukhay', which is the policy
of the Uttar Pradesh government."
Thus, the Uttar Pradesh government has accepted that the BSP's
Sarvajan (conveying that the party represents all, and not just
Dalits) discourse — which brought it to power in the state in 2007 —
is the same as Gandhi's policy of reaching out to all.
The Dalit movement from the days of Ambedkar has, however, maintained
that Gandhi was primarily a "caste Hindu leader" who was just
patronising Dalits through his Harijan — a term meaning children of
God, that Gandhi coined for Dalits — campaigns so as to prevent them
from taking up the Ambedkarite line of an autonomous Dalit movement
against the Brahmanical social system.
Till now, Mayawati had followed this line.
Last year, while attacking Rahul Gandhi over his visits to Dalit
homes, she had extended her criticism to the Mahatma, dubbing him a
"natakbaaz" (one who puts up an act). This had earned her criticism
from the Congress, BJP and the Samajwadi Party in the state.
In 1997, Mayawati had attacked the coinage of the term 'Harijan' by
the Mahatma. "If Dalits are children of God, was he the son of Shaitan
(the devil)?" she had asked.
Her attacks drew from the belief of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar and BSP
mentor Kanshi Ram that the Gandhian approach to Dalits was patronising
and in fact reinforced their social subordination.
Through the 1980s, too, both Mayawati and Kanshi Ram attacked Gandhi.
"Gandhism, Kanshi Ram felt, was the modern version of Brahmanism,"
political scientist Sudha Pai has written in her book Dalit Assertion
and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution.
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