Without the Mandal struggle, the RSS-BJP, known as the
Brahmin-Bania network, would not have chosen her as the presidential candidate.
The Congress and the Left, frozen in Brahmanism as they are, have given the
RSS-BJP a historical advantage, writes Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
BY KANCHA ILAIAH SHEPHERD
Droupadi Murmu, a Santali Tribal woman leader, getting elected
as the 15th President of India is a milestone in the history of post-Mandal
struggle, particularly for Adivasi emancipation from classical oppression. The
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will gain enormous mileage with her as president.
Without the Mandal struggle, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP,
known as the Brahmin-Bania network, would not have chosen her as the
presidential candidate. The Congress and the Left, frozen in Brahmanism as they
are, have given the RSS-BJP a historical advantage.
By nominating a rich Kayastha leader from Bihar, from where the
first president Rajendra Prasad (also a Kayastha) served two terms as the first
president of independent India, the opposition parties led by the Congress
committed a serious blunder. It appears that the Congress has not yet
understood the changing political environment. Ever since prime-minister-to-be
Narendra Modi declared that he was an Other Backward Class (OBC), caste
calculations in India changed. And once he became prime minister, a Dalit, Ram
Nath Kovind, was made president and a Shudra (Kamma), Venkaiah Naidu, was made
vice-president. During the entire Congress-led United Progressive Alliance
rule, the top ruling clique was mainly drawn from the Dwija castes (Brahmin,
Bania, Kayashta, Khatri and Kshatriya) and also from Muslim feudal elite. Even
the Pasmanda Muslims did not get any prominent role. Among Muslims, the BJP is
luring Shias and Pasmandas. While the Left, by not studying the Indian caste
system and adopting a suitable method of organizing, is disappearing from the
national political scene, the Congress is getting more and more weakened.
Quite unexpectedly the RSS-BJP seems to have done a thorough
study of the caste system and the Congress still seems to play the same old
game. In addition, the Congress and all regional parties are under attack as
dynasty parties.
Culturally, the RSS-BJP announcing as their presidential
candidate a Tribal woman, with a normally unacceptable name Droupadi, which no
Dwija or Shudra/OBC family was willing to give to their girl child in the known
modern history, will send a strong reform signal. Draupadi Pandava was treated
as an abnormal, rather immoral, woman with five husbands and given her
assertive autonomous role, unlike Sita in Ramayana or other women in
Mahabharata. She was not considered to be an acceptable Hindu Nari.
Her life and role represented a matrilineal social condition which still has
some social base among the Indian tribes. It appears that this Santhal woman
was named Droupadi in defiance of the fact that independent women like the
Draupadi of Mahabharata are not acceptable.
In keeping with her name, Droupadi Murmu rose with confidence
and chose a political career. Now she will proudly be the first Adivasi, that
too a woman, president. Having opposed the RSS-BJP’s ideology and politics all
my life, I can say that this is the most progressive reformative step they have
taken. The Congress left many such reform measures that have serious
socio-political implications to the RSS-BJP, a right-wing network that has been
even more staunchly against reform all these years. Now, they are putting down
roots with such steps.
Having come to power with an anti-Muslim agenda, the RSS-BJP
forces need to take some Shudra/OBC/Dalit castes and Adivasis with them to win
elections and they are seriously repositioning themselves in the sociopolitical
realm. This does not mean that they are opposed to the brahmanical spiritual
system, which built the fourfold varna order.
From Draupadi of Mahabharata to Droupadi Murmu of 2022 the
Hindutva forces have traversed the unusual terrain of cultural gimmick and
change. The Hindu Dharma, to which the RSS-BJP claim ownership, treated tribals
as Vanvasis (forest dwellers) without even allowing them to have the vision of
a self-respecting citizen. They were deeply suspected to be the ultimate
Christian force. But they are more than seven percent of the vote base, so they
need to be engaged with some share in power. Draupadi Murmu as president thus
plays a long-term beneficial role.
Those who condescendingly viewed the mythological Draupadi will
now have to respect Droupadi Murmu as the first citizen of the nation and
commander of our armed forces. No other woman with that name in the annals of
India has been known for her role in public life. We have many Sitas, many
Savitris and so on but not many Draupadis.
Finishing touches being given to painting of President-elect
Droupadi Murmu
Nowhere in RSS literature has Draupadi Pandava been shown as an
adorable heroine. Only recently Shantishree Dhulipudi Pandit, the
vice-chancellor of Jawaharalal Nehru University, projected Draupadi Pandava and
Sita as first feminists. However, I do not think any woman intellectual
associated with the RSS-BJP, leave alone their men, agrees with that view. When
she described Pandava Draupadi as an autonomous, powerful woman – who opposed
her chief husband Dharma Raja (Yudhisthira) staking her in Judam –
and Sita as a first single mother, she went into a new propositional narrative.
This kind of narrative was not proposed by feminist scholars either. The
character of Draupadi in Mahabharat was that of a powerful independent woman
who did not accept the patriarchal authority of her five husbands in particular
and men in general. As patriarchy held sway in the post-epic times, Indian men
promoted only those women whose life showed total obedience to men conditioned
by Manu’s code. In this patriarchal cultural heritage the name Draupadi
disappeared from our lives. Droupadi Murmu has brought it back, giving us a
feeling of cultural regeneration.
Shantishree’s narrative gains respectability with Draupadi Murmu
becoming the president of India. I am sure Draupadi Murmu will outshine
Pratibha Patil, the first woman president, a Maratha who did not leave behind
any significant imprint of hers in Rastrapathi Bhavan and on the nation’s
psyche. She did not do anything memorable for the women’s cause. K.R. Narayanan
and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, for example, left their indelible imprint in the
Rashtrapati Bhavan and in the national discourse on certain issues like caste,
youth education and so on. Pratibha Patil could have done so, at least around
women’s issues, if only she chose to play the role of the first woman
president.
Draupadi Murmu’s presence in the Rastrapathi Bhavan itself will
be a morale booster to Adivasi communities of India. The RSS-BJP will try to
use that as political capital and win elections in parliament as well as in the
states with large Adivasi populations. But that itself will not leave a
memorable history for her as a woman president. She has to show transformative
vision and ideas based on her long journey from a tribal village in Odisha to
the Rastrapathi Bhavan. Apart from the tribals, the women of India expect from
Draupadi Murmu some initiatives that will have a positive impact in their
lives.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd कांचा इलैया शेपर्ड
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political
theorist, author and activist. He has been a professor of Political Science at
Osmania University, Hyderabad and director of the Centre for the Study of
Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at Maulana Azad National Urdu University,
Hyderabad. He is the author of ‘Why I Am Not a Hindu’, ‘Buffalo Nationalism’
and ‘Post-Hindu India’
Source:
https://www.forwardpress.in/2022/07/from-draupadi-pandava-to-droupadi-murmu/
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
