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Ahmedabad-based trade unionist Mukul Sinha has been in
the forefront of the struggle against fascism in
Gujarat. Here he talks to Yoginder Sikand about his
work.
Q: What has been the role of the trade union movement
in combating fascism in Gujarat?
A: I must admit that the trade union movement in
Gujarat has been unable to combat Hindutva fascism.
Even the state units of the CPI and CPI (M), that have
a small presence in Gujarat, remained largely silent
when Muslims were being massacred here in 2002. This
is because the trade union movement has not addressed
issues such as caste, ethnicity and religion, being
focussed simply on economic issues. Also, trade unions
have largely cultivated simply a trade unionist
mentality. Also, they have not given enough leadership
roles to marginalised communities such as Dalits,
Muslims and Tribals.
For our part, our Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions,
which is not affiliated to any political party, and
our associated civil rights organisation, Jan
Sangharsh Manch, have been involved in various popular
struggles in Gujarat, including the struggle against
Hindutva fascism. Our union workers were active in
resisting Hindutva lumpens during the genocide at some
places and are also resisting the moves of the
government to demolish slums, which are predominantly
inhabited by Dalits and Muslims. We are now trying to
build a political platform through the New Socialist
Movement, that was inaugurated soon after the
anti-Muslim genocide in Gujarat in 2002. It isnt
simply the BJP that we are opposed to. Rather, we see
hardly any difference between the BJP, the Congress
and the Samajwadi party and even the CPI and CPI (M),
who have given up on peoples struggles. We are also
opposed to the extreme Left groups who claim that
there is simply no scope for mass political activity.
Q: The 2002 genocide witnessed attacks by Dalits,
instigated by Hindutva groups, directed against
Muslims. How do you see the issue of Dalit-Muslim
relations in Gujarat today?
A: I believe that at this juncture the need for
Dalit-Muslim unity to jointly struggle for their
rights is really the need of the hour. In recent years
in Gujarat, some Dalits have abandoned the Congress
for the BJP. This is because all these years the
Congress sought to garner Dalit votes without giving
them any credible positions, and so several Dalit
leaders shifted to the BJP, which offered them various
posts, as president or this or that local Hindutva
organisation. This gave these Dalit leaders a sense of
empowerment and importance, false although it may have
been. And that is how the BJP was able to win some
support among Dalits. It isnt simply, as some people
claim, that Dalits got attracted to the BJP because of
religious reasons. The main attraction was the offer
of leadership positions in the host of small outfits
that the Hindutva-walas have spawned.
To add to this is the fact that Dalits and Muslims
live together in slums in urban areas, so even a small
skirmish can always end up in a giant conflagration
with the active instigation of Hindutva groups. Yet
another factor is the role of certain NGOs that claim
to be working among Dalits but which have totally
depoliticised the Dalit youth associated with them.
Talking about NGOs, I must remark that very few of
them are working for minority rights and for promoting
dialogue and better relations between the Dalits,
Muslims and other marginalised communities in Gujarat.
Several of them, as well as groups such as the
Jamaat-i Islami, stiffly opposed my proposal that
cases lodged during the 2002 violence that involved
Dalits and Muslims and related to relatively small
issues such as stone-throwing, as opposed to major
cases such as murder, be dropped in order to promote
reconciliation between the two communities. They even
accused me of working for Modi!
That some NGOs, which are not really rooted in the
lives of working-class people, opposed that demand was
hardly surprising. Equally revealing was the
opposition of the Jamaat-i Islami, which was never
happy with our work among Muslim workers, since they
are vociferously anti-communist and pro-capitalist, as
is clearly evident in their literature. They were also
stiffly opposed to our working among Muslim women,
hundreds of who come for our meetings and rallies. To
some Jamaat-i Islami leaders we were Hindus, and,
by definition, therefore, our intentions were seen as
suspect. They even probably thought that we were
misguiding their women by encouraging them to come
out on the streets in protest demonstrations. So, they
went around telling people that we were Hindu
agents. They even told this to the family members of
Muslim POTA detainees whose cases we had taken up, but
it boomeranged on them as I dont think many people
bought that lie. Islamic fundamentalist groups like
the Jamaat-i Islami are simply not interested in
Dalit-Muslim dialogue or in any sort of progressive
agenda. In contrast, although the Jamiat ul-Ulama-i
Hind is a pro-Congress outfit, it is more rooted in
ordinary peoples lives and, therefore, potentially
more amenable to more progressive politics. This is
why the Jamiat ul-Ulama has a working relation with
us, and we, and other groups, have together held
several rallies in the last two years against POTA and
the illegal detention of a number of Gujarati Muslim
youth under this draconian law.
Q: How do you explain the rise to power of the BJP in
Gujarat?
A: There are several reasons for this. One factor is
the weakness of the Dalit and Tribal movements,
although Dalits and Tribals constitute the single
largest chunk of voters in the state. The Dalit
movement has been historically weak in Gujarat because
of the Gandhian presence. Then, land reforms in the
1950s led to major changes in caste relations, leading
to the rise to power of the Patels, who were
traditionally treated as a low Shudra caste who
worked as sharecroppers in the fields of the upper
castes. Seeking to use their new-found economic clout
to rise up in the caste hierarchy, the Patels began
sponsoring a number of Hindu religious outfits and
backing Hindutva organisations in the state, thus
presenting themselves as ardent Hindus, and,
therefore, as high castes. One aspect of that newly
constructed identity as super-Hindus was a deep
hostility towards Muslims. In fact, the Patels, who
comprise more than 30% of the Gujarati population,
played a major role in the 2002 anti-Muslim genocide.
Till the 1980s, the newly upwardly mobile Patels were
not politically powerful. Gujarat was ruled by the
Congress Party, which based its electoral calculations
on the vote-banks of the Kshatriyas, Dalits, Tribals
and Muslimsthe so-called KHAM theory. So, the Patels
felt that their political fortunes lay with a
non-Congress party. The average upper caste Gujarati
Bania or Patel would not dream of giving his or her
daughter to a Patel in marriage, because, despite
their recent economic progress, the Patels were still
seen as socially inferior. And so, in order to capture
political power and also to assert the claim to a
higher status in the caste hierarchy, from the 1980s
onwards the Patels took to Hindutva in a big way. Many
leaders of Hindutva outfits in Gujarat are Patels and
they are among their major sources of finance. To add
to this is the Patel diaspora, in England and America,
that sends enormous amounts of money to fund Hindutva
and Hindu religious groups in Gujarat and other parts
of India.
Q: What future do you see for progressive forces in
Gujarat?
A: The situation is very grim. India is going through
severe political and social crises. The country is
being sold to Western imperialist powers under the
garb of globalisation, leading to immense
pauperisation, which is hitting marginalised
communities, such as Dalits, Muslims, OBCs and
Muslims, the most. It is bound to lead to escalation
of caste and communal conflicts as the ruling classes
seek to deflect peoples attention from their economic
and political concerns. Hindutva forces, agents of
imperialism, are bound to become more assertive and
aggressive. They are working in tandem with
imperialist forces, including the USA, whose
perceptions about Muslims they share and whose
economic agenda of so-called liberalisation, a
euphemism for market fundamentalism, too, they
support, while at the same time paying lip-sympathy to
swadeshi. Gujarat today, as well as the rest of India,
is being plundered by foreign, mainly American,
multinational corporations, leading to the closure of
thousands of factories and leading to millions of
workers being thrown out on the streets. This is the
Hindu Rashtra that they want to establish. But, let me
stress, the Congress and other such parties are
equally guilty. They share, broadly, the same economic
agenda and vision, and have roughly the same position
vis-à-vis American imperialism.
This suggests the urgent need for mass struggles
against American imperialism, against the politics of
parties such as the BJP and the Congress, and against
religious fundamentalism, Hindu, Muslim or whatever. I
am firmly convinced that the socialist movement has an
important role to play in this struggle.
_________________________________
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