Sanatana Dharma was a religion of three castes in ancient and medieval north India—Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Banias—and it has now become a religion of five castes with the inclusion of Kayasthas and Khatris. Sanatana Dharma defined production as pollution and kept the Dwija castes (who wear janeu) outside. Shudras/Dalits and Adivasis were defined as slaves, Mlecchas and Vanavasis. In other words, Sanatana Dharma was/is against production, Shudras and women. Any other definition of Sanatana Dharma is unsustainable.
Sanatana Dharma has been defended by BJP's top ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nirmala Sitharaman, apart from the party president JP Nadda and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Sanatana Dharma was an ancient philosophy of Brahmanism, with its roots in Rigveda. It evolved through other Sanskrit texts. By the time Manu Dharma was composed, the practice and spiritual theories of Brahmin writers got synthesised as “Sanatana Dharma,” which stood against productive labour and productive social mass—Shudras, Chandalas and Vanavasis. Now, the BJP's top ministers and leaders have owned that philosophy as theirs.
Addressing a press conference, BJP’s senior spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad defined Sanatana Dharma as eternal law. According to him, those who oppose it will face consequences. How can all Shudras, Dalits and Adivasis accept this? Finally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “It needs a proper response.”
Now, the cat is out of the bag. The BJP is for Sanatana Dharma, which is nothing but Manu Dharma, which is also nothing but Brahminism of ancient mode. The theory that production is pollution has its roots in Sanatana Dharma itself. Though it looks as if the Union government has declared war against Udhayanidhi Stalin, a young man of 45 years, it is a classical mode of war against all Shudras/Dalits and Adivasis.
This weapon, ‘Sanatana Dharma’ held by the Union government, is to show all Shudras/Dalits/Adivasis their place in the 21st century. In ancient times, it was a spiritual weapon against Shudra agrarian producers. Today, it is against all three categories (Shudra/Dalit/Adivasi) of wealth producers. It is the weapon of Brahmin, Bania, Kayastha and the Khatri and Kshatriya rulers from Delhi against the majority voters of India.
Hinduism is known as a way of life with various spiritual paths. It is also controlled by Brahminism through temple and religious practices. However, the name Hinduism to the religion, like the name India to the country, was also given by colonial rulers. Perhaps, along with India, the BJP wants to discard the name ‘Hinduism’ too. That is good. Both these changes suit their ‘parampara’ theory.
This newly revived ancient Sanatana ideology became BJP’s core while attacking Udhayanidhi Stalin and the INDIA alliance. Udhayanidhi, the grandson of Karunanidhi and son of MK Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, suddenly became an all-India Dravidian ideological hero with a firm stand against Sanatana Dharma.
A temple priest puts a bounty on Udhayanidhi’s head. The BJP is silent about it. Such violent fatwas, known only in the Islamic world, are now extended to Bharat, and the BJP seems to approve of the Sanatana cultural fatwas. Sanatana Dharma forced kings to cut the tongues of Shudras who tried to learn Sanskrit and pour lead into their ears if they heard Sanskrit shlokas.
Udhayanidhi addressed a conference organised in Chennai by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association on ‘Eradication of Sanatana’ on September 2, 2023. He said, “Some things cannot be opposed. They should only be abolished. We can't oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria, or coronavirus. We have to eradicate this. That's how we have to eradicate Sanatana. Rather than opposing Sanatana, it should be eradicated.”
Udhayanidhi defined Sanatana Dharma as an ideology of caste inequality and anti-social justice. The BJP ministers have defined Sanatana Dharma as eternal law. Though it is well-known that Sanatana Dharma describes caste hierarchy – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra – and the Shudras (including Dalits) as slaves in ancient times, the BJP ministers are projecting the historical category Sanatana is for everyone who is not a Muslim or Christian perhaps. Quite strange.
Sanatana Dharma was a combination of Varna Dharma and Varnashrama Dharma, as it was formulated in ancient Sanskrit books. Varna Dharma was meant to give all the authority only to Dwijas – Brahmins, Ksatriyas and Vaishyas – in ancient times. The Dwija category has two more castes Kayasthas and Khatris, added to it. All five castes refuse to do any productive work even now. They forced the Shudras, Chandalas and Vanavasis to work without expecting phala (wage) in ancient days. That was their duty. Now they receive some wages, but the Dwijas have a huge surplus.
According to the Varnashrama Dharma, the Dwijas must learn in school in childhood, run a family life in youth and in old age, involve themselves in penance.
The present Shudras/Dalits/Adivasis are not allowed to study in Sanskrit theological schools and they cannot become priests in Hindu temples. Even now, the situation remains unchanged. Yet, the BJP wants Sanatana Dharma as the eternal law of this karma bhoomi.
The focus of RSS/BJP seems to have shifted from Muslims and Christians to Shudra/Dalit/Adivasis. After Independence, whether during the Congress regime or now during the BJP regime, the idea of Sanatana Dharma was understood as anti-Shudra/Dalit/Adivasis of India. The practice of human untouchability, anti-dignity of labour and women’s inequality have deep roots in Sanatana Dharma. After the Vedic texts, Manu Dharma synthesised the ideology of Sanatana Dharma. Dr Ambedkar and Periyar Ramasamy Naikar deeply analysed the whole process. Hence, Periyar attacked Manu Dharma, and Ambedkar burnt it as it represented Sanatana Dharma.
For a long time, the Congress protected the Sanatana ideology under the garb of secularism. But the RSS-controlled BJP wants to preserve such Sanatana by declaring war on the very idea of abolition of caste, untouchability, and indignity of labour from Delhi. The same BJP wanted to twist the arms of Shudra agrarian farmers through farm laws, but they fought back. Now, they want to attack the Dravidian strong anti-Sanatana Dharma base. That is why a young man’s critique of Sanatana Dharma was twisted as genocidal and blown out of proportion by Dwija forces in Delhi. The whole Union government is geared around this issue.
This is not a war against Muslims or Christians now. It is a war against the rising political and social forces of Shudras/Dalits and Adivasis by modern Brahminism. It is clear that the ruling BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya, deliberately twisted Udhayanidhi’s speech as genocide of 80% of people, as if Shudras/Dalits/Adivasis are part of it. This is a conscious step by a big ruling Hindutva party.
The concept of Dharma has been twisted to mean justice. No, it never was equivalent to justice in the ancient Greek or European sense. Under this, the Shudras had to follow the caste rules framed by Brahmins and remain slaves and agrarian workers in Vedic times. It also meant that the Dwijas would never participate in productive labour as production was seen as pollution.
Leave alone the Shudra/Dalit/Adivasis, women of all castes have no place in Sanatana Dharma, and they suffered barbaric exploitation and superstitions that Sanatana Dharma imposed. The Shudra/OBC/Dalit/Adivasis working in the BJP/RSS have to seriously examine this new development. A few may enjoy powerful positions without any ideological control over the system by accepting Sanatana Dharma, but the majority of productive masses will be pushed back to the dark ages. If they do not resist such open support to Sanatana Dharma by the top ministers, who openly own such ideology and attack critiques of the primitive ideology, then the nation will go into a period of dark history.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist and author. His latest book The Shudras: Vision For a New Path, co-edited with Karthik Raja Kuruppusamy, has put forth a powerful argument that without the cooperation of Shudras with Dalits and Adivasis, caste inequality and oppression cannot be changed. Views expressed here are the author's own.