On the intellectual bankruptcy of subaltern politics of Feminism and Reactionary Ambedkarism

There has been a flurry of activity in the feminist camps as well as much churn over sexual harassment lists. The churn of course has caused a generational chasm between the young and old guard of feminists as well as calling out Savarna vs Dalit feminism. This in the end is a good churn as well. The fact of it all being that the victims of sexual harassment at the hands of male oppressors have done what they should have done – called out the Rapist and the young feminists have promoted and given voice to it. Of course, everything has a legal framework so if there is an end to the story it must end up as a legal one. But what is noteworthy is the allegation by the younger generation that the inertia of the older generation in showing concrete action is what has made the young guns take matters into their own hands. Why is this so and why as a corollary is the allegation of Dalit vs Savarna creeping in over here? This problem goes into the very root of two streams of subaltern politics – Feminism and Ambedkarism. 

Feminism and Ambedkarism seek a common objective for the people it represents – absolute and unequivocal equality. You can define the two streams in any which way you like but the objective is plain and simple at the highest level. If the end objective of these two streams of subaltern politics sounds a lot like Communism then you would not be completely inaccurate because these two streams of the subaltern realm stemmed from Communism and Fabian Socialism. So then, the obvious question that does arise is why did they all become separate or why they are not a combined force? Some historical context is required here on both the streams.

Feminism as movement has seen many names be it Women’s Liberation or the Suffrages Movement, etc. At the highest point of the movement for equality of women came the Soviet Revolution of 1917 that accorded absolute equality to women on par with men. This was followed by women getting the vote elsewhere and World War 2 completely changing the paradigm in the Western Liberal world. Fast forward to the fall of the USSR where the Soviet Revolutionary Worker’s state collapses but Women’s rights cannot be wished away any more anywhere in the world. Thus, Feminism is born out of the Reforming of the Radical line of Women’s Liberation – the Reform being that Women’s Rights and Capitalism are compatible.

Ambedkarism on the other hand can be seen in two prisms – as an attack on Religious Hegemony of the Hindu Orthodoxy and as a Civil Rights movement. As a challenge to religious orthodoxy, there has been no weapon as potent or as destructive as Ambedkarism to Hinduism – understandable because no genius like Ambedkar was able to articulate the need to end Hinduism to the masses. As a Civil Rights movement, politics in the Indian subcontinent as the petty minded nature of Hindus prevented the Dalits rights movement aligning completely with the Communist movement, as was the case in Apartheid South Africa. After the death of Ambedkar however, the dialectic of the movement came to an end – not politically but ideologically. Leaders like Kanshi Ram took the caste discourse forward albeit with a fragile and deft use of reactionary rhetoric to ensure mass uptake. At the current time, Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram are both long gone and there are new ideologues trying to frame Ambedkarism in the current Political Economy. However, as with feminism, the Revolutionary path has been abandoned to talk of Capitalism and Ambedkarism being friends.

 

If we are to look at things dispassionately. The subaltern movements have survived the so-called “death of Communism” that Liberal Imperialism so gleefully propagandises. So, the subaltern movements to stay alive had to talk to power to progress, for if the Left is dead, the subaltern becomes the mainstream left.  Therefore, if we calculate that the much-vaunted death of the Left happened in the 1990s, it would have been 30 years… in these 30 years, which of these subaltern movements have managed to capture power at the level where they could have changed Law, Constitution and Political Economy itself? None. Feminism has capitulated, and Dalit Capitalism is the new paradigm – despite the fact that women are no more equal and Dalits are not richer and Capitalism itself is on its last legs. 

So, what is to be done? 

The first step is that the subaltern movements have to recognise and accept its mistakes, which are as follows.

1. Equality is not an appeal to the conscience but rather a collective socio-economic edifice.
2. Abandon First-worldism, Bourgeois intellectualism, and armchair Progressive Liberalism.
3. Abandon compartmentalisation and name calling. It is infantile, reactionary, and a strawman argumentation
4. Feminism and Ambedkarism do not challenge authority – they work alongside it. Women’s Liberation and a Dalit Revolution destroy the Hegemon. 
5. Capitalism is fundamentally based on and promotes inequality. Capitalism is not just an economic method, it is method of organising production, society and class based on wealth and capital. This is an anachronism and a contradiction to the end objective to any subaltern politics.
6. Particularly to the Feminist movement. There cannot be something called Savarna Feminism and Dalit Feminism; there are no separate objectives for the Savarna or the Dalit woman. The end goal is one and the same – or at least it should be. So that means any attempt at factionalising the movement is pandering to reactionary name calling without an ideological basis. 
7. To the Ambedkarite movement. Brahminism and Hinduism is not a primary contradiction. If Brahmins and Hindus didn’t exist tomorrow, Caste would not exist but then Class would be the new Caste. For example, a Dalit in the US is still a subaltern class due to ethnicity and access to the means of production. 
8. The objective is not to formulate an ideological discourse for the sake of an ideology. Rather, the material conditions of the oppressed should formulate the ideology itself. Thus, there must be a Combat Liberalism and purging of top-down, trickle down ideology. 
9. Recognise that the most oppressed group in the world is the working class. Every subaltern movement must eventually accept that it is part of the working-class movement and thus address the question of Communism.
10. Combat Factionalism. Learn from history. The working class movement was divided by Capitalism by creating a class called the Middle Class as a false consciousness. 

 

The next point to be addressed is what is the solution and can a coming together of all subaltern classes to form a Working Class hegemony solve very specific problems. To be specific, do the issues of Women and Dalits get subsumed under the shadow of the Class struggle? The answer is a categorical, No. Feminism and Ambedkarism is not looking at Women’s supremacy or Dalit supremacy, it is aimed at equality of gender and the Annihilation of Caste. Therefore, what is that construct under which 99% of humanity can aggregate under? Class. 

However, that Class does have an identity that is a historical handed down reality. Being an advocate of Internationalist Class struggle does not negate ethnicity for example – that is impossible on any count. In the same vein, there will always Class and Identity but that identity cannot be one that becomes a contradiction to Class. Let us look at Identity from a different context – Nationhood – no matter how small or large the National group. You can be an Indian, Chinese or Russian Communist but neither nationality conflicts with being a Communist. Similarly, one can be a Dalit and a Communist – and in this case, the Dalit question is not antagonistic to Communism or vice versa. Here, in fact the true reactionary nature of the Present day Ambedkarite discourse is revealed in the fact that Ambedkarites, uncomfortably shun the alignment of Dalits with the Communists in Kerala, with the Communists who together attacked Landlords, who joined the People’s War, etc. A common refrain of Ambedkarites has been that “Where are Dalits in the Politbureau?” It is a very good question and a valid one that the existent Communist Parties must address but on the flipside the equally troubling question for Ambedkarites is “Where is the Dalit Communist party?” Note that Ambedkar was not against Communism but the Indian Communist Party, he was against violent Revolution but not against a Democratic Communism. This is something the Reactionary factions of Ambedkarites cannot wish away.

A note here might be in order to chart a course for the Annihilation of Caste under a Communist banner. The two edifices that Caste discrimination sits on is Brahmin hegemony and Economics. Smashing Brahmin Hegemony is a lengthy affair of re-education of society to ensure that the Brahminical narratives are removed from curriculums and media. Additionally, the mixing and mingling of the population is another step to prevent ghettoization of communities – to this end the abolishing of private property while at the same time making Housing a Fundamental Right will ensure no discrimination in housing. A push to secularism in the European sense would also be required to purge religious consciousness to the fringes of private life. It cannot be stressed enough here that the Ambedkarite strain that does not push for a complete exit of Dalits from Hinduism is a failed narrative.

In summation, the Feminist and Ambedkarite movements in their current form are a reactionary form of identity politics. It is also beholden to promoting Capitalism and thus holds its foundations in conservatism and inequality - talking about equality within an unequal construct. The solution is a return to Dalit Revolution and Women’s Liberation.