India witnessed nationwide agitations against the Supreme Court practically gutting the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. And Hindu upper caste men became active on social media.
Usually, this social class limits itself to posting jokes about their wives, messages about taking care of aged parents, and cricket related trivia which they believe has been discovered by their own majestic selves. Most of the other times, like when the LGBT parades take place, mobs lynch suspected beef-eaters and women journalists are shot dead, the upper caste Hindu male keeps his thoughts to himself.
While we rejoice in being regaled by their precious opinions on any and every matter, last week's SC/ST-led agitation brought out some very disturbing trends from amongst this august group of opinionated individuals.
The "directions" given by the honourable Supreme Court's judgment in Subhash Kashinath Mahajan versus State of Maharashtra did away with an important provision for safeguarding the interests of the SC/STs. The court was to decide whether the appellant deserved anticipatory bail but the court has, in a somewhat overreaching manner, reasoned against the law. The SC's directions, for an extra-judicial trial before the actual trial, seem to be tilting in favour of the advantaged classes of the society. My thoughts on the matter are clear... the crystal kind! The upper caste Hindu male is objectified and exploited by political forces, especially the fanatic, aggressive ones. Thus, this is my attempt to simplify matters for the otherwise "naïve" upper caste Hindu males, so that they understand when their fragile mannish identity is rubbed to the advantage of the political classes.
It's obvious that the nationwide protests should not have resulted in violence, for violence of any kind (including the verbal kind practised often by the Pradhan Sewak himself against the Opposition), must always be condemned. Abundant fake news floated after the bandh, creating another layer of spurious information on the already accumulated silt which covers most of the country's journalistic media. One photograph which did the rounds on Facebook and WhatsApp was quite disturbing because it showed a young man brandishing a pistol towards an out-of-frame target. It was being circulated that this was one of the protesting Dalits. It was later discovered that the photograph was that of an upper caste Hindu male who is also a BJP worker.
Eyewitnesses have claimed that this man, Raja Chouhan, had shot multiple rounds to kill the protesting Dalits. The truth of these accusations remains to be tested, but one question which arises is why, in the video as well as the still photograph, the target of the gunshots has not been recorded. This brings me back to the delusional world of misplaced masculinity into which the upper caste Hindu male is often pushed.
The one who fired the gun is an example of gross misconduct. The one who fired with the camera is an example of selective representation. The ones who created the false WhatsApp message is an example of how to manipulate content to misrepresent facts. And the one who read the WhatsApp message on his smartphone and became enraged at the protesting Dalits is an example of a blindfolded circus clown who believes that the stuntman's knife would never hit him.
The blindfolded clown thinks that he knows everything and that the stuntman shooting knives at him is, in fact, on his own side. There can be no greater folly for the blindfolded clown, like the men in question, than to forget that knives are nobody's friends and are capable of turning with the sway of the wind.
Those rejoicing in the gutting of the SC/ST Act must not forget that tyranny spares no one. The same men (upper caste and not) have borne the brunt of demonetisation, shoddy GST implementation, joblessness and inflation, among other things, over the last four years. They have cursed the government's regressive policies and shown helpless faces. But now, for some strange reason, the upper caste Hindu male thinks that even though the government is suppressing Dalits, it is definitely in their favour. The "us versus them" theory that the government tries to shove down our throats is easily gulped by the forgetful, blindfolded, WhatsApp-lapping men. It is never us versus them. There is no 'them''. Tyrannical power intends to bring everyone to their knees. The stuntman's knives will never ask your last name before hitting between the eyes.
Angry Hanuman
In unrelated news, non-Dalit men these days are putting a sticker on car windscreens. It is the saffron-coloured stickers of a cruel-looking Hanuman, the Monkey God who was thus far loved for being a devoted and humble servant. Even Gods, it seems, need to establish their virile masculinity in post-2014 India.
The writer is lecturer, Delhi University, and author of Voter Mata Ki Jai
