PM’s ‘Market’ To Trump Rahul’s ‘Caste’
B.R. Ambedkar believed that to annihilate caste, inter-caste marriages were imperative. Many Dalit revolutionaries have married outside the caste. Baba Saheb himself married a Brahmin. Many present-day Dalit leaders have carried forward the legacy. Take, for instance, the maverick Ramdas Athavale, the leader of the Republican Party of India. He advises others how he worked for the cause by marrying a Brahmin. True, if caste has to meet its nemesis, it’s only through inter-caste marriages.
This, however, is only half the story.
In the last two decades or so, has arrived the notion of Dalit capitalism that has the potential to emancipate the Dalits. Beginning with the Bhopal Declaration of late 1990s (when Digvijay Singh was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh), the Dalits were encouraged to take to founding enterprises and supplying the state with manufactured goods.
Today, Dalit capitalism is an idea that is thriving. Various central governments, including the Narendra Modi government, have encouraged the idea. The Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DICCI) is a robust body, representing Dalit entrepreneurs. The media is often awash with stories of successful Dalit entrepreneurs who have made it big, and who also employ upper castes, among others. DICCI founder Milind Kamble enjoys an iconic status. Trailblazers such as Kalpana Saroj are feted not just in the community but also outside for the enterprises they have built, the employment opportunities they have created, and the wealth they have generated.
Do Dalit capitalists need state support? They need support of the state as an enabler. For instance, if they find it easier to found a business, it brings greater good to the community.
The latest news of India jumping 30 places in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index is the kind of incentive they look for.
While the Congress may call it an exercise in optics, and critics may carp about how it reflects realities only about Mumbai and Delhi, it’s a milestone for all proponents of free market. Indeed, one need not be a Modi government functionary to predict that next year, India may well break into the Top 50 league.
The political message of the ease of doing business index is not lost on anyone. The Modi government was the first to realise it. So, instead of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) secretary or the Union commerce minister, the Union finance minister himself held a press conference on the issue. Within minutes, PM Modi had tweeted about the milestone.
In this election season, it’s doubly useful for the ruling BJP. While the BJP faces the might of a social coalition stitched together by the Congress in Gujarat, now expect the ruling party to go to town with the ease of doing business milestone. As said earlier, the antidote of caste is free market. While Rahul Gandhi may range the discontent of Patidars, OBCs and Dalits against the Modi-Shah combine, expect Modi to appeal to the entrepreneurial state on the ease with which they can create new businesses. The famed Gujarati enterprise will surely welcome the latest rankings, and India’s place therein.
For sociologist Max Weber, capitalism had a Protestant ethic. For long, we in India, have identified capitalism with a Gujarati ethic. While capitalism can trump caste, we will soon get to see how it can be an election winner as well.
