BENEATH HARDIK THERE IS ANOTHER FERMENT
Hardik Patel, a youth in his twenties, in the forefront of the Patidar agitation, suddenly almost from nowhere seems to have stirred up the hornet's nest. What the government of Gujarat presumed to be an innocuous routine assembly like many other listless, dull protests, and that even of a section known as consistent supporters of their politics for long, suddenly turned into a cause for uneasiness. It suddenly poured out in the form of a violent reaction. With the police firing on the violently agitated crowd leading to death of ten persons, riots and rampage on the streets, attacks even on BJP offices, many in the establishment and the established politics were left startled.
It suddenly shook up a number of stories that up till now have been cooked up gradually over the recent years and lent credibility by the who's-who of this country----the big barons of Indian capitalism, their servile media and the Modi-BJP-Sangh Parivar bandwagon.
One among this has been the story that Gujarat's development is the model of development, the model for industrialization that according to them the country should emulate. The Patel or Patidar's recent revolt led by Hardik Patel and his Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) in Gujarat demanding OBC reservation status for them badly punctured this balloon. That the story of Gujarat being the development model was a hoax, that the workers and other toilers in and around the industrial belts of that state and those from outside who are conversant with their realities behind the much publicized hype, knew about much earlier. Although the world at large was made to believe otherwise. For instance the workers toiling it out inhumanly among poisonous substances in Asia's biggest ship-breaking yard in the Gujarat's sea-side at Alang or the workers working in the chemical hub of alarmingly polluted Vapi, the workers who once swarmed the textile mills a large mass of them out of jobs, the few remaining in uncertain, oppressive conditions or the diamond polishers of Surat know bitterly what kind of development they are living through by their very exploited, oppressed existence day-in-day-out. They know that the enormous amassing of wealth of the Ambanis, the Adanis, Mahendras or Tatas is not development for the masses of their class or creed who make up the large majority.
Now after this sudden bolt from the blue, delivered by the Patidar movement, the capitalist media sits down to admit this reality of Gujarat through their writings and 'researches'. They are now talking about the crisis in agriculture that is driving these primarily agricultural landed castes, the Patidars in Gujarat to search for new opportunities for earning where also the scene is bleak. News of Patidars, significantly present in diamond cutting and polishing industry for a long time, are facing the decline in demand within and outside the country because of recession; the medium, micro and small industries where they in large numbers are owners, is also in doldrums are now filtering out. "Today, according to data compiled by the RBI from scheduled (private and nationalized) commercialized banks, of the 2.61 lakh MSMEs registered with the Gujarat government, over 48,000 are sick, second only to Uttar Pradesh. The MSMEs employ more than 21 lakh people and..... have a large population of Patels, many of whom are now out of work.... the diamond industry of Surat, controlled by the Patels of Saurashtra, is facing a sharp slump. In the past six months, more than 10,000 workers have been laid off while nearly 150 units have shut down." [The Real Story of What Hardik Patel, 21, Wants - And Why All India | Written by Shikha Trivedy | Updated: August 24, 2015 16:54 IST].The media, which once drew pictures of a "vibrant Gujarat" with much fanfare along with Modis are now talking of its stagnating, slumping economy. It matches with what Hardik Patel himself says ---"Patels know they have run out of options. Agriculture can't sustain them. Education under Gujarat's self-finance system is expensive, admissions cost money and many Patels are forced to sell their land for it. But, in the end, spending a fortune on education doesn't help either. Admissions to good, job-oriented courses is tough." [Kitne haath tode maine, maloom?' Meet Hardik Patel, Patidar poster boy and man without a plan,by Sandipan Sharma Aug 31, 2015 10:30 IST]
This is the reality of the most dominant and prosperous section of Gujarat---the Patels or Patidars, who (although 15% of state's population) holds quite a sway over Gujarat's social and political sphere. In 1985 they violently reacted against the Congress government of Madhavsinh Solanki demanding scrapping of reservation when the Congress party was building up a new alignment of different castes---KHAM (Khatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim), for electoral gains. Today the Patidar youth have reversed and become vocal about demanding OBC status and reservations for themselves. Some say it is a conspiracy to scrap reservations altogether, some say the RSS, proponents of such thinking, is secretly the promoters of this agitation. But the turn-out of 4 lakhs or some even say 10 lakhs in the 25th August rally in Ahmedabad starting from a campaign that gathered steam only a couple of months back-----doesn't it say that there is much more disgruntlement down among the common masses that has played the role and this cannot simply be explained by just some conspiracy.
This mass outburst has two important aspects much needed to be recognized by the Indian proletariat. Firstly, all the Patidars are not big, thriving rich peasants suddenly failed or are neither small or medium business owners or diamond traders. If the much hyped capitalist -imperialist development model has now been compelled to reveal its flip side, then through the process of differentiation and impoverishment of the masses there has more and more emerged a large multitude of Patidars who are common toilers bearing the brunt of it. Definitely as is always the case, these common masses were the providers of the big numbers in the rally. They are more and more part of the lower classes, a major section from the crisis-ridden agriculture---their traditional occupation or the small owners of micro or small businesses reeling under big capital's juggernaut of liberalization. Many of these masses are retrenched diamond workers or casual workers in small and what this capitalist society terms 'sick' industries struggling for existence. Then there are the lower middle-class small manufacturers and traders who are facing decline. In agriculture one-third are said to be small and marginal peasants and this is the sector in worst condition. What the big capital's development has brought along with investment in capital-intensve industries in Gujarat is "Employment per factory has significantly declined, from 99 workers in 1960-61 to 59.44 in 2005. Moreover, most of the jobs that have been created are in the informal sector, with casual or contractual employment, without any social security. Wages in Gujarat are lower than in several other industrially developed States." [Print edition : October 2, 2015, RESERVATION, Crumbling construct, Interview with the sociologist Ghanshyam Shah on the Patidar agitation,. By AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA frontline].These masses have within a couple of months built up the major force in that 25th August rally. Needless to elaborate, that there must be lakhs of poor, toiling masses from the other more backward communities or castes, like the dalits, adivasis, muslims and OBCs in the state who must be passing through similar or even more harsher conditions .
But the other aspect has played its part to give the reaction this particular shape. The Patidar poor, the workers and other toiling masses have not yet been able to come out of their dominating Patidar identity ----the prominent identity of their caste in Gujarat. By their agitation they have no doubt punctured another story also built up about Gujarat and being tried to be built in the country as a whole. It is that Gujarat is a unified hindutva bastion, a successful laboratory of hindutva that has been communally overbearing on muslims and united in the lines of the hindutva bandwagon. Starting from the attacks on the churches in the tribal areas of Dangs even from earlier these different castes it has been assunmed to have united all, including the dalits against the religious minorities especially the muslims, incessantly spreading the laboratory of hindutva in Gujarat up to the 2002 genocide and further beyond, helping the leaders Modi, Amit Shahs rubbish all accusations and not only achieve repeated victories in the state elections but ultimately emerge as national leaders. But ultimately that myth has also been questioned showing that the socio-economic reality decides the courses of history that cannot be simply tampered and moulded at will from the top. This Patidar agitation has once again reminded that the caste divide and conflict is not yet over in Gujarat represented once more, as many says, by one of the all time biggest caste rallies through this Patidar agitation. Of course this caste outburst is from the wrong side. It is not one of an oppressed caste. Rather it has the silent nod, to some extent, of the other so-called higher castes, as far it reflects the anti-reservation, anti-lower caste position. But by that definitely it will churn up the realities of caste oppressions and discriminations by the upper castes on the dalits, advasis and other oppressed sections on which the lid was somehow put up in the name of hindutva. To this upper-caste reaction on reservation the lower castes will be provoked.
But that is beside the main point. The main point is, although there is the staunch reality of hardships of economic exploitation of the lowermost classes of workers, toilers and the uncertainties of the poor, small property holders who are facing the danger of being driven further down the ladder but caste still plays the role of mobilizing them. This condition of poverty, aggravating economic hardship of the masses is not only of the poor of the particular Patidar community. But still it is not uniting all the poor, exploited masses cutting across different castes and communities. On the contrary this agitation has emerged as a sharp reaction to the impoverishment and decline of the clout/influence of a dominant landed caste which has had significant share of ownership and income from agriculture, small industries and trade in the state. This agitation may have rallied the lakhs of poor masses but it is a reflection of a petty-bourgeois section in leadership who provide the casteist, anti-reservation position representing the Patidar domineering attitude. This leadership wants to bargain its way up attempting to make space for newer opportunities for its upper mobility not for the Patidar poor, toiling masses. Will this middle class sectarian leadership be able to successfully lead this agitation for the advancement of their small section at the top or will the lower classes unite with the other poor sections from different castes, religions, communities to rise in unison against the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist policies and the system? How much Hardik Patels will be successful that cannot be foretold. But obviously in the absence of class struggle they are in the driver's seat now. Especially at this moment, when all kinds of upper-caste, communal, and oppressive, sectarian forces are on the rise. The poor are already pulled into it. It will further get embroiled in a vicious cycle of inter-caste conflict dividing the masses enabling a few Hardiks to become heroes and capitalize on it.
But the real concern from the viewpoint of the masses is, the proletariat must notice the reality of aggravating crisis of this society and the aspirations of the poor, exploited masses bearing the most of it beneath all this that time to time reveals itself by rearing its head through the build up of such turmoils, albeit often in a wrong, harmful way. The proletariat could and they should be able to address it in future in a real way of solution by drawing the poor sections for the real struggle, the class struggle, out of this----the struggle for their emancipation from exploitation and oppression of all kinds caste, communal, nationality...
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