{"id":8995,"date":"2020-07-15T16:41:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T11:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=8995"},"modified":"2020-07-15T16:42:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T11:12:37","slug":"covid-19-dalit-movement-social-empowerment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/covid-19-dalit-movement-social-empowerment\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 & Dalit movement:\u00a0Social empowerment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Relevance: Mains: G.S paper I: Society and social issues: Social Empowerment & Sociology:\u00a0(v) Social Movements in Modern India:\u00a0Backward classes & Dalit movement.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"DALIT<\/p>\n

Context:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 The pandemic is forcing us to understand the changing nature of society. In north India, specifically, it has also reshaped the discourse on marginalisation.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dalit issues are part of this discourse but are submerged in the broader discussions on economic vulnerabilities highlighted by COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u2022 This pandemic has brought about two important shifts in the political discourse on the marginalised.<\/p>\n

\u2022 As the lockdown caused untold suffering to poor, migrant labourers, it brought them from the margins to the centre of deliberations.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Second, discussions on the space for the marginalised in the public health system and their safety are in focus.<\/p>\n

\u2022 However, the concerns of Dalits remain hidden under the broader categories of poor, vulnerable, marginal, etc.<\/p>\n

\"Human<\/p>\n

Changing vocabulary:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 In contemporary debates, there is a reappearance of class-based vocabulary.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Caste-based issues have either become invisible or are only visible as part of the wider discourse.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Leaders such as Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad have not been able to engage effectively with these new shifts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 They have not been able to carve out a location in these new debates for their own politics.<\/p>\n

\u2022 They have to reorient their exclusively caste-based language and reshape their political discourse to be in tune with the times.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There are a large number of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes among the migrant labourers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 But Dalit leaders in north India have not been able to represent their concerns.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It is possible that these shifts in political debates may continue in the post-pandemic phase at least for a few years as vulnerabilities of the marginalised will increase.<\/p>\n

Key challenges:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 The Dalit movement in north India is habituated in using caste-based binaries in its mobilisational language but has failed to respond to the changing political diction.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In fact, leaders have not changed their political diction for 30 years, since the time of the Kanshi Ram-led Bahujan movement.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The movement is facing a crisis of agendas and social programmes.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The constant repetition of unfulfilled claims and commitments and slogans and promises create disillusionment among a section of their support base.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Another issue is that the Dalit movement in north India is grappling with a leadership crisis.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In States such as U.P., Bihar, Punjab and Rajasthan, Dalit assertions are mostly centred around the electoral politics of Dalit-Bahujan political groups and parties.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Even alternative social movements led by Jignesh Mevani and Mr. Azad seem to be caught in the logic of electoral politics.<\/p>\n

Leadership crisis:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 During the Bahujan movement in the 1990s, the idea was that the movement and the party could facilitate each other.<\/p>\n

\u2022 But the BSP, which emerged from the Bahujan social movement, developed gradually as a party structured like a pyramid.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Under Ms. Mayawati, it has stopped its reciprocal relationship with the Dalit movement.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the BSP, the emergence of political leaders of various Dalit-Bahujan castes at different levels became frozen.<\/p>\n

\u2022 This caused erosion in the broader social base and ultimately weakened the Dalit movement.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Dalit movement is constantly facing new challenges but its leaders are not able to change their strategies and grammar of politics to respond to them.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Under the influences of the Ambedkarite ideology and the Dalit-Bahujan movements, an assertive and politically aware Dalit consciousness was being formed among a section of Dalit groups.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In the meantime, interventions by Hindutva leaders among Dalits mobilised a section of the most marginalised Dalits under the Hindutva flag.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Now the pandemic has posed a new challenge for the Dalit movement.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"DALIT<\/p>\n

\u2022 Caste-based identities formed the ideological resource base, but now concerns have gone beyond caste and religion, thus posing a different challenge.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The challenge may be temporary but it may lead to a paradigm shift for Dalit politics.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Dalit movement has to evolve new social strategies for its expansion in order to keep up with the changing times.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more such notes, Articles, News & Views Join our Telegram Channel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/t.me\/triumphias<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Click the link below to see the details about the UPSC \u2013Civils courses offered by Triumph IAS.<\/strong><\/span> https:\/\/triumphias.com\/pages-all-courses.php<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Relevance: Mains: G.S paper I: Society and social issues: Social Empowerment & Sociology:\u00a0(v) Social Movements in Modern India:\u00a0Backward classes &<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,114,116],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-8995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-ii","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8995"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8998,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8995\/revisions\/8998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}