Muddy Waters

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the Kumbh Mela as a “grand Mahayajna of Unity” that “has strengthened India’s national consciousness” for thousands of years—a blatantly exclusionary statement, given that the ritual involves only Hindus. Like the deity Krishna revealing the universe in his mouth, he wrote in a 27 February blog post, the Kumbh allowed people to witness “the massive potential of India’s collective strength,” which would have been “a great force” in the aftermath of Independence had it “been correctly recognised and harnessed towards boosting the welfare of all.” Three months earlier, he had called it an occasion where caste differences “dissolve, sectarian conflicts fade, and millions unite with a single purpose and shared belief.”

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party distributed copies of the Constitution to the fifteen thousand sanitation workers at the two-month event, while the Uttar Pradesh government, which spent Rs 7,500 crore on the mela, set up temporary primary schools for their children. A few hours after Modi’s blog post, the chief minister, Adityanath, and members of his cabinet drove home the message by dining with sanitation workers. Several commentators interpreted these activities as the BJP’s attempt to win back the Dalit vote it had lost in the 2024 general election, but this outreach was not new. At the last Ardh-Kumbh in Prayagraj, months before the 2019 election, Modi had washed the feet of five sanitation workers and glorified their menial jobs as the work of tapasvis (ascetics) and karmayogis (providers of selfless service). However, Modi’s efforts at Dalit inclusion have been restricted to the ritual realm.

At the first Round Table Conference, in November 1930, BR Ambedkar put forth eight “terms and conditions” before Dalits would “consent to place themselves under a majority rule in a self-governing India.” These conditions did not include the right to participate in Hindu rituals. Instead, Ambedkar asked for equal citizenship, the free enjoyment of equal rights, protection against discrimination, redress against prejudicial action or neglect of interests, a government department dedicated to dealing with their problems, and adequate representation in legislatures, cabinets and the bureaucracy. For Dalits to be fully part of the national consciousness the Kumbh supposedly strengthens, they must first be full participants in the nation state. However, when it comes to providing representation in government and addressing workplace discrimination, the Modi government has not just failed on every account but viewed Dalit rights with contempt.

In December 2024, the parliamentary standing committee on the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes submitted a report that illustrates this outlook. The report was about the union government’s response to 13 recommendations the committee had made, in July 2023, after finding serious lapses on the part of the department of personnel and training—which Modi heads, with Jitendra Singh as his deputy—in formulating, implementing and monitoring reservations. The DoPT accepted only five recommendations and rejected six others, while not responding to the remaining two.