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“..emancipation of the mind and soul is a necessary preliminary for the political expansion of the people” – Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

BJP wants from its supporters more than a vote. They want their mind and soul to aim and act to make India great (again? even though their slogan doesn’t say “Make India Great Again”). To many blind followers they are causing a social revolution. But any society built on division and hatred is not a social reform movement, but outright Nazi behavior.

The BJP government is treading a fine line and has been cautious not to mirror itself as analogous to Hitler’s Nazism. In their minds (including Modi, Shah and many) they are doing social reform, which India failed to do in the past. Not sure, little do they know, their social reform is reminiscent of Fascism, Nazism..

The conflict between political reformers and social reformers in Indian history has not been given enough importance in today’s political discourse. Indian society was plagued by the evils of the caste system on top of which, without addressing the social foundation, political reforms were made.

Political reformers that included educated high class Hindus were more inclined toward self-governance, wresting away power from the hands of the British, while turning a blind eye toward their fellow Hindus discriminating against a part of the society labeled as untouchables.

Well, not just the untouchables, women and children of these high class families were facing cruel practices in the form of no widow remarriages, child marriages, and the right to education denied for women. 

Some political reformers, wanted social reforms made to their families only in the form of women empowerment and child rights but not to the larger society where people are not allowed to walk on the same streets, carry a broom tied to their hips so that the land remains unpolluted for the high class brahmins to walk through, Ghee be not served in untouchable families even if they can afford it. 

Those – educated Hindus – who wanted reforms in their families did not want the reforms to happen in the caste-infested societies. Either their souls were impure to see such a change or they lacked the courage to stand up to what is right.

That’s why Ambedkar wrote that social reforms have few supporters, which included Hindus with noble souls, and a lot of critics. 

Ambedkar, Mahadev Govind Ranade, and Raghunath Rao other leaders stood for social reforms ahead of political reforms. They formed the Social Conference Movement within the Indian National Congress and preferred a social change to happen before building a political movement to rule the country. However they lost their steam to the political reformers who emerged victorious and the social reform never happened. 

BJP and Social Reforms? Not in true spirit

Like the educated Hindus who wanted reforms in their families alone, the BJP government wants social reforms among Hindus alone? In this pursuit, they want to abolish the caste lines that have divided and discriminated Hindu population till now? 

Either they conveniently want all sects of Hindus to unite and treat the minorities, especially Muslims as the new untouchables, or under the pretext of their new assumed avatars – social reformers – they are appealing to the outlaws of the Hindu dominion as saints only to keep the old social order intact. 

For those who say Modi is not a Brahmin and he is ruling India, according to the Varnas, a council of Brahmins should be the mentors to Kings and on their advice they would want a Hindu Raj be established. Just like how Ramdas, a Marathi saint, inspired Chatrapathi Shivaji to establish a Hindu Raj.

What you see under the Modi government is not social reforms but only a division or hatred based social regrouping with minorities, especially Muslims as the new scapegoats. For this new trick to work well, they do propaganda in which India as a nation was heaven before Mughals stepped in whereas in reality it’s been a hell for all members of the lower strata of the society especially the untouchables.

BJP’s understanding of social reforms is ill informed and malicious to the society at large. 

For real social reforms to happen, the calling should come from your soul and spirit. For that to happen you need to be a saint, in essence not false prophets. 

Its time, and in fact an opportunity for the Indian National Congress to take social reforms seriously, which they abandoned once.