Author – Balaka Chattaraj

Abstract-

The issue of caste within Marxist ideology in the context of India and West Bengal, in particular, has been a matter of discussion that suggests the theoretical gap in handling caste reality. In particular, West Bengal is one of the most prominent states in the Republic of India where the left and Marxist ideology got initiated in India. Marxist ideology has a great influence on the culture of the state and it even dominated the mindset of the people till today. The almost 3-decades communist party has governed the state. In spite of this strong presence of Marxist ideology in the state, discrimination based on caste still prevails is reported and can be still observed.  

Introduction –

West Bengal is one of the most prominent states in the Republic of India. The state is known for its distinct and rich culture. Also, the state is known for its different political standpoint. West Bengal holds a very special place in the pages of history book for its radical stand for social justice till from the time of the British regime. Many movements to draw liberty, equality and fraternity in the state have been initiated and successful like abolition of sati, abolition of child marriage, widow-remarriage, Naxalite movement, Maoist movement, land reform movement, Panchayati raj system etc. (Das,2015). Marxism and communism have greater influence over the culture and social system of the state. More than 3 decades left front political party governed the state and had the ideological influence over the education, health and other policies. But in spite of the presence of strong influence of Marxism, the discriminations based on caste still present vibrantly and the ignorance of the communist leaders and intelligentsia about caste have made the situation worst.   

Empirical evidence of presence of caste practice in the various arena in West Bengal 

Politics-

Historically West Bengal was affected by the zamindari system, which further leads to peasant oppression. Many movements happened to draw justice to the peasant community. One such prominent movement was the Naxalite movement. In 1967 at Naxalbari village in West Bengal, under the leadership of Charu Majumdar, the movement started. The movement was initiated to fight for the greater rights of the peasants and to provide a voice to the voiceless. West Bengal was the epi-centre of the movement but then slowly and steadily the movement got spread in other less developed states like Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh etc. The movement followed the ideology of far-left and it led the foundation stone for the communist party in West Bengal. The leaders of the movement claimed to fight for the social causes like proper land distribution, the abolition of landlord, protecting the tribal people from getting alienated from their own land due to industrialization etc. (Ali&Lal,2015). Congress party was there in power and the then chief minister mobilized the state force to counter Naxalite movement. Many people from Santhal tribal group and Dalit group were associated with the movement. Many college students too got inspired from the movement and joined it. So, the then chief minister Siddhartha Sankar Roy’s harsh policy to counter the movement took many lives of Santhal, Dalits and students which became one of the most horrifying incidents in the history of the State.

After the movement, common public too were pissed with elite congress government and they were influenced by the idea of Marxism and by the Chinese leadership ideology of Mao Zedong. So, in 1977 State election Left Front government got elected by people with massive number of votes. Then after that for long seven consecutive years, the left front got elected.  Five consecutive years Joyti Basu became chief minister and 2 regimes were under Buddha Dev Bhattacharya. CPIM was the dominant force of the left front alliance government. 7 consecutive years of left front party in West Bengal made the state first place in the whole world to be governed by Left front party through election. Due to the long-time span of left government Marxism had/have a huge influence over the culture and other social policies of the state.

But despite of all the movement to draw greater liberty, equality, fraternity and social justice in state caste discrimination still prevails which the Marxist intellectuals deny recognizing. The Marxist intellectuals set their cornerstone in the state by proclaiming to fight against prevailing feudalism in the state but in the original scenario in West Bengal feudalism was not class leaning feudalism but caste leading feudalism. It was Brahmin feudalism. The peasants who were landless and were subject to the oppression caused by zamindari system were belonged from Dalit community. Moreover, they were forced to work in somebody else’s land and were not allowed to own land because they belong from Shudra community. The practice justified the presence of the principles of Manu smriti which argued that people from Dalit community can not hold land than the peasant oppression in Europe. So, the peasant’s oppression in India is very different from the situation in Europe. In India the base of the exploitation was not economy but it was caste. Economic exploitation happened to the Dalit community because of their caste. Caste was the cause of the exploitation and economic oppression was the consequence of it. But still, the communist leaders and intelligentsia ignore caste to ever refer as the main medium to create oppression.      

Practice, Daily lived and workplace-

Discrimination based on caste is the most prevailing discrimination in the state and people under the umbrella of Marxism forget to recognize it. Even during colonial government when swadeshi movement found its relevant place which claimed to fight for nationalism and identity the atrocities based on caste got overlooked like in Naxalite movement for fight against class overlooked atrocities based on caste. During that period of time swadeshi movement was Bhadrolok sponsored renaissance like in Naxalite movement the upper caste enjoyed the top leadership post where else the Santhal and Dalit with axe in their hand sacrificed their life under gun shot. The impression of false claim that caste and caste consciousness do not exist in West Bengal have ruined the historiography of the state bad to the worst (S. Bandopadhyay,1990: 2). Rather the fact that is true is the upper caste consciousness is so strong and prevalent in West Bengal the little bit of research has been conducted on caste atrocities in state. In early days, in 1872 Chandals former untouchables and largest in number in Hindu religion were forced to initiate united protest against the upper caste people who dominated the majority of land in Fridpur and Bakarganj district now Bangladesh. They were cornered due to the practice of social ostracism practiced by the upper caste people. They were tortured so much that they stopped performing their traditional role like performing dwijas and demanded for greater equality in jail. But the group was so economically downtrodden that after few days of boycott they again have to return to their old land owner and perform the old duties. (Aloysius, 1997 ).

In 1800 the Chandals were the most depressed community among the Bengali Hindu group. Their depressed reality forced them to get united and helped to develop de-Brahminized form of Vaish-navism which is known as Matua cult. They termed themselves to be Namashuras and started asking for greater civil rights like right to enter Hari temple. The chief of the cult Guru Chand also raise the slogan like “educate yourself, earn money, and be respectable”. The matua cult to develop the Dalit community also took the responsibility to build pathshala with the help of missionaries to educate the Dalit children. 

During Nationalist movement the Namashudras did not participated in it. Rather they made alliance with Muslim community to boycott the swadeshi movement as they always feared that the swadeshi government will be the government of age-old Brahmin who would practice caste slavery. In recent time too caste system is practiced in Bengal. Still in the household of the rich Brahmin people Dalit women work as maid where they end up by the victim of sexual, physical, mental harassment and the horrific stories do not even come to the news. West Bengal is very popular for coal mines. Coal mines were first started in small town of the state name Raniganj. Coal mines were first started by the Britishers. During that time upper caste people were given the post of supervision or in officer rank whereas the people from Santhal community and Bouri (local Dalit) community were forced to work in the dark coal mines without proper light and air. They were made work from sun rise to sun set and were only paid 3 annas. They were made to live in ghettos without any facilities. Britishers made them addicted to alcohol so that they never can get united and protest against the toxic work culture. Even after independence during 1971 after nationalization of the coal mines the plight of the Dalit workers are same. In coal mines region particularly CPIM party is very influential but the party too have seen the Dalit worker’s plight from the lens of labour oppression not as caste oppression and this false assumption have pushed the Dalit workers more into the darkness of the dark coal mines. (Sanahati, 2017 ). 

Household and coal mines are the prominent work places in West Bengal which have provided the red flag indication about the presence of caste in the state. But still Communist and the Marxist intellectuals denied to recognize caste discrimination. Even when Yechury was asked about caste he replied “……the point was these things were never part of our consciousness.” In communist party itself not a single Dalit were nominated as politburo. The communist intellectual actually have to understand that they do want to fight against fascism in order to draw social justice and equality but fascism was never responsible to create oppression and depress larger section of people at least in India. The system that have divided the people of India between haves and haves not, created oppression against the larger section of the people in the society, kept major section of people as slave, never allowed children from certain section to get education, never allowed them to enter temple and kept the women of certain community as sex salve of the upper caste men is caste system. Caste system in Hindu religion have created spiritual fascism and the spiritual fascism need to be challenged to draw liberty and equality. Caste system in India is responsible for growing capitalism and only the upper caste people in India dominate more than 90% of the capital of the country. So, at least in India to bring socialism and social justice before crushing capitalism one has to smash Brahminism. In West Bengal mostly the upper caste people claim themselves to be Marxist and they hold the important position in the group of left intellectuals may be because they got the opportunities to educate themselves and learn about Marx and Lenin. So, the shift in the power of political party from congress to communist party was mere shift of party but the power remains with the Upper caste Brahmins only. Rather during communist regime in West Bengal during the Singur controversy one minor tribal girl name Tapsi Mallick was raped due to the ego of caste conflict but the issue did not rage single communist leader and justice still not have been given. The party politburo always has been dominated by the Upper caste people. The party failed to have even one Dalit person in politburo. The empirical data clears the attitude that the party hold about the community i.e. it is that community which need to be ruled and served. Hence forth they will never get the position in politburo where they can get the opportunity to govern. Even West Bengal is among the few states in India where despite of having strong student politics it failed to have student organization based on Ambedkarite ideology unlike other universities such as HCU, JNU etc. So, Christopher Jefferlot argues that communists are the biggest Brahmins in India than any other because problem only can be solved when the problem will be addressed as problem. Like that equality in India can only be drawn if the cause of inequality can be annihilated. The cause of inequality in India is caste which need to be annihilated but unfortunately never addressed by the leaders who claim to fight for equality. So Kancha Ilaiah, argues that the leaders of far right Hindutava party like BJP is black snake in green grass and communist leaders are green snake in green grass. (Iliah,2007) So, in order to draw equality, the communist leaders not only need to chant slogans against class division but also need to challenge the whole purusha-sutta theory and the Hindu literature that claim that God created human being unequal and propagated as divinity and remained socially unchangeable for centuries. Marxism as theory was first evolved in Europe. It was successful to bring proletariat revolution in many parts of Europe specially in the areas like Easter Europe, USSR, Cuba etc. because there the exploitation was only based on economy and division of society was based on class. In India Marxism cannot be successful because here the proletariat section itself is divided in the name of caste. In India the reality is that even occupation is based on caste. So, manual scavengers belong from Dalit section (anti-shurda) and corporate owners are from Vaishya caste. In Manu smriti actually it has argued that people from anti-shurda community are born to serve the upper caste men whereas the above three caste are mean to rule, under which Brahmins are meant to deal with knowledge and Vaishyas are mean to deal with business. According to latest survey by government of India in the urban areas of West Bengal there are total 104 manual scavengers and all of them belong from Dalit category and they practice manual scavenging from generation. National Scheduled Caste Finance and development corporation in the year 2011, stated that Manual scavenging is very much reality in West Bengal. Also, the protest undertaken by Safai Karmachari Andolan do confirm the existence of manual scavenging in West Bengal. (Dalit camera,2016). Their hope for life has also got scatter under the deep dark man hole which was never questioned by Marxist leaders. In west Bengal Marxist leaders vehemently fought against class and gender discrimination without recognizing the fact that in India caste and gender discrimination is only the consequences of caste system. Caste system is the root cause of class and gender discrimination. Here women are suppressed their bodies and sexuality are controlled in order to maintain the purity of caste system. Various forms of oppressions been practiced like sati, child marriage or widow oppression was just there to maintain the Chasity of upper caste family. Child marriage was practiced to control the sexuality of the woman and to ensure endogamy at early age and sati was practiced because widow women were considered as surplus woman (Ambedkar,1936). Regarding class discrimination, it is also a mere consequence of caste system. According to the scriptures like Manu smriti Dalits were never allowed to own land and that practice have been followed for centuries. So, even if we look at the adjective of class discrimination in India like poverty, illiteracy, homelessness then we can find out that Dalits are the one who suffer from poverty, illiteracy, homelessness. So, class division and gender discrimination are the mere consequences of caste system. Communist/Marxist leaders who claim to fight against gender discrimination and class division they have to understand that they cannot fight against the consequences if they don’t fight against the cause. If the root cause gets uprooted then only the consequences will get uprooted. Liberation of Woman and the chains of capitalism can only be broken if the shackles of caste be challenged. 

Communist leaders in West Bengal have continued harming the interest of the state as well as their own political base but not recognizing caste-based discrimination. Veteran communist leader Manik Sarkar in his conversation with Kancha Illiah regarding the issue of having no Dalit or Adivasi leader in their politburo he mentioned “we do not believe in picking up leaders,” he further mentioned that “they should emerge with a merit of their own. We do not believe in caste-based identity leadership.” The communist leaders in West Bengal claim themselves to be the messiah and flag bearer of poor. They claim themselves to be pro-poor and intellectually they are inspired from the de-classification theory of Marx and Engel but they never tried to de-caste themselves and they carry their caste tag name very proudly with them. For e.g. Bhattacharya (Buddhadev), Sarkar (Manik), Basu (Joyti), Mishra (Ashoka) etc. are among the few famous leaders of communist party of India. Their caste tag name proves their social hierarchy over the other. The question that arises is why so far in communist politburo there is no leader with the tag name from namashudra community or Adivasi community. Even during early 90s when the flag bearers of renaissance in Bengal were English educated upper caste people like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Bidyasagar etc. (Illiah,2018)

In communist party, politburo is not only dominated by the upper caste- English speaking men but also their so-called pro-poor policies have been forced into the lower caste poor people which only have pushed the Dalit, Adivasis more behind. One such policy was to educate government school students only through regional language. But their own children go to private English schools. During the tenure of Joyti Basu as chief minister in West Bengal communist party banned English from government school because leaders wanted their youth to get educated in the regional language which made them no difference from the leaders of Rashtriya Swam Sevak Sangh who all promote language nationalism. Also promoting education through Bengali language, itself was an arbitrary and exclusionary policy as many adivasis residing in Bengal like Santhal, Munda, Oraon do not speak in Bengali, neither their mother tongue is Bengali. Even people from Darjeeling too don’t speak in Bengali neither it is their language. So, promoting education through Bengali language was enforcing, exclusionary and it was hegemonize concept just like right wing political party enforce Hindi over non-Hindi speaking population to create hegemony of dominant Hindi culture.   Education through regional language only have pushed the marginalized students more behind. The leaders of communist party only have used the marginalized students to promote language nationalism and their own agendas. 

The casual attitude of the communist leaders towards caste discrimination is worrisome and their incapability to develop single leader from namashudra community or Adivasi community have proven the presence of caste discrimination in West Bengal. The caste-based violence in West Bengal may be comparatively less than other state but discrimination based on caste is still there in the state and it is very well nurtured by the communist leaders by ignoring caste completely. 

Myth of land distribution-

In West Bengal Communist party was in power for almost 34 years. In 34 years, the party takes pride in Land distribution system and count it as an achievement. But according to official documents only 33 acres of total land was distributed among the Dalits and tribe. In counter government said that in the state most of the people either quit agriculture and joined service sector or the land was insufficient so they sold the land back to the previous land-owning upper caste people. According to National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) report 2004-05 there were more than 12 lakh families (estimated) in West Bengal who did not had access to adequate food during various months in a year and most of the families were Dalit families. The toiler peasants including the agricultural labors are in deep crisis in the rural part of the state. Out of 1000 families 106 families remain starved or semi-starved in rural Bengal. Most of the families are Dalit, tribal or backward Muslim. According to the National Sample Survey organization 2001, report that 58.3% of agricultural rural families, share cropper only own 6% of total land in the state. In west Bengal there are total 55.4% of families but only 3.9% owns land. In 2002, 39.2% agricultural families had no land. The report of same survey stated that in India there are total 35.1% of land less peasant (source: Ajit Narayan Bose, Paschim Banglar Arthaniti o Rajniti). As per 2011 census report there are 1 crore Dalit household that stays in dilapidated houses and 55% of the families stays in just livable houses. (Dalit camera, 2016). In West Bengal the refugees migrated from East Bengal were the loyal voters for CPI(M) party for 34 years. The party gained the trust of the community from its rehabilitation program for the people of the community. But in 1979, Dalit people staying in Marchjhappi area in Murshidabad were unleashed by the state sponsored violence. People were brutally killed by the security officials of the state government. The incidence of Marchjhappi expose the Brahminical mind set and behavior of the community party that was ruling in the state. The behavior of the party was same as the Hindutva organizations like RSS or VHP which time and again in tragedies or natural calamities have promised to help the upper caste section of Hindu religion who were affected by the cause and left the Dalit and the minority section to die out of the cause. The refugees migrated from East Bengal to West Bengal were the most vulnerable community at that particular time but the biases nature of the government made the Dalits again the vulnerable among the vulnerable. So, the Dalit refugees were massacred and the Bhadralok refugees got settled in many parts of the country, with the passage of time they started doing well socially, economically and their social wellbeing got capitalized by the communist party which earned them votes from the community for long 34 years. Even till now when the top leaders of the communist party Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat etc. are asked about the massacre happened in Marchjhappi they refuse to answer. Most of the time the top leaders and the intellectuals ask them to ask about the progressive nature of the party not about the mishappening which clearly draws an analogy with the BJP leaders in Gujrat to ask them about development in the state not about mob-lynching, riots etc. So, land distribution, agrarian revolution and rehabilitation for the refugees is myth same as development in Gujrat.

Theoretical framework of communist hypocrisy in West Bengal-

‘Indian capitalism has not arisen out of any social need or development; nor out of any struggle for the ownership of the means of production; not out of any historic battle fought on behalf of the new science and technology. Rather the class which was specially privileged by religion to monopolize wealth…. earned profit-using inherited wealth…if proletariat is divided along the lines of caste and religion, it is difficult to launch a class war and establish a classless society. For this reason, capitalism needs a society riven by religion.’

• Baburao Bagul, ‘Dalit literature is but a Human Literature’

Marx’s most important and utopian idea of ‘the theory of alienation’. Marx argued that due to capitalism the labor gets alienated from himself. In capitalist society, capitalists in order to draw from profit make the labors work for long duration of time with low payment due to that reason the labor get alienated from himself. The alienation of self also means that the labor gets alienated from self-realization and self-externalization. Self-realization means the labor as a human being should know who he is and should have the freedom to develop his talent. Self-externalization means the labor should be observable to others. According to Marx in communist society every people will have enough material resources to pursue their own talents. Henceforth people don’t have to do that particular work that they are assigned to do by the capitalist force. So, in communist society there will be no division of labor as such. (Elster.J,1986)

The Indian communists who are influenced by the idea of Karl Marx and want to smash the class divided society in India first have to understand that in India before the class division of society there was caste division of society. The division of caste was first mentioned in Vedas and Vedas religious text book was first written in India during 1000-1500 BCE. In India the division of Labor is not according to the specialization of the working skills of the labor but it is birth based. For e.g. the Hindu scriptures already have assigned particular work to the particular group of people born in particular caste like Brahmins are supposed to teach and preach whereas Shudras and anti-shudras are supposed to do the most polluted work like cleaning. The tradition prescribed in the religious scriptures regarding division of labor is still followed in India accordingly and West Bengal is not an exception. In West Bengal the prominent Dalit groups are Bagdis, Bouris, Rajbanshis, Namashudras, Shuri, Chamar, Dom, Muchi etc. The above mentioned communities still in West Bengal follow their own birth based traditional work like people from Muchi community do the work of cobbler, Bouris do the work of domestic helper and manual labor in coal mines, Bagdis work as agricultural labor in mainly Birhum District, people from Dom community do the work of burning dead bodies. On the other side in every temple from large to small the preaching work is been done by the people from Bramhin community and the main business sector in the state is controlled by the people from Baniya community. The large owners of the business sectors in Kolkata are Goenkas, Todis etc who belong from Baniya section. So, the question arises if the communist brings class struggle in West Bengal will they be able to break the chain of division of labor in society which is designed on the basis of birth? Will it be ever possible that people from the community of Bouri, Bagdi, Dom of any other people from Dalit community will be allowed to priest in temple if they have the talent of it and Brahmins will be allowed to be the cobbler (considering the fact if they have talent of it). In West Bengal so far, the communist party have raised the issues on behalf of the labors like low payment of the labors in industries, factories and specially in coal mines and mistreatment of the labors. Also, the party have played a significant role in land distribution which is also known as operation Barga. Operation Barga was initiated to protect the farmers and the sharecropper to protect them from the eviction of land lord. But what the communist leaders missed to witness is all the people who work in coal mines as manual labor and are the victim of low wage payment, mistreatment almost all belong from Bouri or santhal community. The people who work under landlord’s land and faced eviction constantly mostly were from Bagdi community. So, the violence that happened to the people did not happened because of their economic status but happened/happens because of their social status. Rather in India the economic status of the people is determined by the social status. The communist leaders have to understand that not all the people from Dom community burn the dead body but all the people still do the job of burning dead body belong from Dom community. So, the communists before they have to fight against the economic exploitation, they have to fight against the social hierarchy that is the cause of the economic exploitation. The system of caste is also so complicated that even if the people from Dalit section want to upraise and switch their role they won’t be accepted as they are considered polluted, socially ostracized as per the Hindu religious scriptures. Also the situation in west and India is very different regarding the division of labor there the cobbler may be forced by the factories to make more number of shoes in less duration of work and paid less according to the level of work but in India in shoe factory only Mochi community are employed to make shoe and the work they do is highly socially stigmatized and the people who do it are considered as impure and pollutant. So, in Europe Communism can be successful as they just have to fight against the issue of underpayment but in India, the labors belong from particular community which is socially outraised and also, they are exploited economically. The communist has to understand social exploitation more than economic exploitation. So, Ambedkar mentioned “we should learn to do business. The high caste in the village will not buy milk from us. In fact, they will not buy anything from us. Undeterred, we should practice business in our locality. We should not allow the village to earn at our expense.” Early days communist in India rather than understanding Ambedkar’s philosophy and befriending him they kept on criticizing him and attacked him by labelling him as the opponent of the nationalist movement, stooge of imperialist, the reformist but separatist leader who kept the untouchable masses away from the democratic movement. So, for the emancipation of Dalits Ambedkar chose Buddha over Marx. (Teltumbde,2017)

Conclusion-

Marx’s theory on exploitation has provided a scientific and rigorous statement to the people to Tigger class struggle against the exploiters because it is unethical and immoral that few people in society earn more than other without contributing any single thing in the production process. The theory has motivated the downtrodden people to get united and to do protest, riot, revolt against bourgeoise who are responsible for exploitation. The theory has motivated many great revolutions like October struggle, worker’s revolution in Latin America, the communist revolution in China, anti-apartheid movement to decolonial movement across the world. In 26th December 1925, the idea of communism was introduced in India with the formation of the communist party of India. The party got divided in the year 1952 and the communist party of India (Marxist) came into existence. After independence, the party successfully governed in three states Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. In West Bengal, the party governed for 34 years but in spite of its revolutionary approach to draw equality, discrimination based on caste still do exist in the state (which have been denied by the leaders and intelligentsia) and all other kinds of discriminations like class, gender etc. generate from a caste system that creates a theoretical gap.     

References-

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