Bharat Jodo Yatra: Human Rights Activists weigh in
Some see it as a quest to reclaim India’s secular democracy, not as just a political act by the Congress party. Others disagree.
India’s Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi has launched a nation-length walking pilgrimage labeled Bharat Jodo Yatra, translating to “Uniting India Rally,” to raise awareness of the urgent need for an alternative to the current Hindutva regime in India.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra, which encompasses a padayatra (on foot) of 3750 km, is the longest rally that India has seen over the past century. Recently, Hindus for Human Rights reached out to frontline activists in India to ask what they thought of the yatra. We have compiled the responses we received, which reflect a variety of views.
As the six-month long yatra proceeds, HfHR will bring more perspectives from the ground.
As a nonprofit organization in the United States, we do not support any particular political party. Our intention is to bring to our followers the breadth of perspectives from Indian human rights activists, all of whom are deeply concerned about restoring India’s secular democracy.
Yogendra Yadav - Indian activist and politician; founding member of Swaraj India and Jai Kisan Andolan:
A Dravidian moment for India
Despite South India’s governance success, this was not on the top of my mind on the day Bharat Jodo Yatra began in Kanyakumari. My Dakshinayan was about ideological movement. Standing in Tamil Nadu, the Dravidian movement and its ideological legacy were on my mind. In the 20th century, the movement was viewed as a problem or a challenge to the dominant Indian nationalism. Today, this peripheral political stream has the potential of redefining Indian nationalism and rescuing the Republic. If the current onslaught of majoritarian nationalism has to be resisted, we must turn to the three ideological pillars of Dravidian politics: regionalism, rationalism, and social justice.
The quest for social justice has to be taken beyond simple-minded anti-Brahmin politics. A demand for an end to inequalities based on accident of birth cannot end up creating its mirror image. This has to be a demand for the annihilation of the caste system and other social inequalities including gender. Finally, its rationalism need not be understood as anti-religious doctrine but a principled opposition to all forms of dogma, oppression, and violence sanctioned in the name of religion. This provides the foundations of a new secularism that we so desperately need.
Incidentally, the closest that I could find to the map of India that I was looking for was a South Asian map published by Himal South Asia — the first South Asian magazine — that has now ceased to circulate in the wider domain. Placing Sri Lanka at the top of South Asia, this map was called the ‘right-side-up map’ of South Asia. That is what we need to do to our vision of India: Turn it right-side-up. The beginning of Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kanyakumari offers this possibility.
Vipul Mudgal - Indian senior journalist
Bharat Jodo Yatra is a sincere attempt to revive India's sinking GOP. It is also an important struggle for Rahul Gandhi to stay relevant. As of now, no non-BJP Chief Minister has asked the young Gandhi to lead the Opposition's battle against Narendra Modi. So, the best thing about the yatra so far is that it has made the ruling party uncomfortable.
The yatra has definitely galvanized the Congress cadres even though it has fallen short of heralding an ideological battle against Hindutva or majoritarianism. In between photo ops, nice things have been said about the need for inclusion and pluralism but the leadership is yet to boldly assert secularism and welfarism as the core of its social democratic ideology. It seems the party does not want to be portrayed as anti-Hindu or anti-business. So, in the end, the GOP is saddled with soft-Hindutva and a mellowed-down version of neoliberalism. But, in all fairness, the yatra has just begun, and the leadership can still think on its feet to defend its own ideology.
Anonymous Indian Interfaith Activist, India (woman, Hindu)
I am not placing too much hope in Bharat Jodo Yatra. The one good thing is that Congress’s seats in the South won’t go to the BJP. But the fundamental issues of polarization is in the North, the Bharat Jodo Yatra isn’t even being discussed in the North. Also, when there is a national yatra like this, the entire country is generally given a rally cry, a call to action. For instance, when Gandhi organized the Dandi March, every Indian was asked to make salt, and people made salt all over India. The Congress hasn’t mobilized Indians behind any action. Actually, civil society is jumping on a bandwagon that has nothing to do with us. All the Congress wants is to save their seats. I am not a political commentator, but I don’t see this yatra resulting in any big change in our country.
The Congress needs to go to where they are not welcome, where the problems are dire, where youth do not appreciate them. That’s where the work is. The country is calling for a Gandhi. We have no one who can unite the country like Gandhi could. These are mechanical efforts. But you can’t follow Gandhi mechanically. We have to follow him with our soul. This is a big thing – following our principles from the soul, putting our everything on the line. I don’t feel anyone in the country is ready for this task.
Martin Macwan - Dalit rights leader, India
https://www.counterview.net/2022/09/why-i-refused-to-be-part-of-rahul.html
The Bhim Rudan yatra was successful thanks to the support of the most common people, and from people with whom I had little interaction over the past few years, those who, in any case, never steal the limelight.
Dr BR Ambedkar, Gandhiji and the pre-Independence generation leaders focused on untouchability removal along with the issue of national Independence. How and why would common persons join the struggle for Independence, if it did not offer even the slightest hope to protect their interests?
Applying the same logic to the Bharat Jodo Yatra, in spite of the fact that it is a noble objective, why would Dalits be attracted to it when the people associated with such yatras keep mum to the struggles the Dalits or the Adivasis face in their daily lives.
The Congress was instrumental in bringing about the most revolutionary land reform legislation in independent India in the form of the Land Ceiling Act, and the Tenancy Act. However, in Gujarat the community which benefited the most from such land reforms was Patidar. A transfer of 3.75 million acres of land in Patidar favor, thanks to the courageous first Congress and Gandhian Chief Minister, Uchchhrangrai Dhebar, ensured Patidar dominance in the economic and political spectrum of Gujarat.
Kalaimagal Arumugam - Dalit Solidarity Forum, India
India is supposed to be a democratic country, at least according to the constitution, but the RSS has been the ruling force for the past ten years and they preach the Manudharma, which is everyone should stay in their occupation, a prostitute remaining a prostitute, a Dalit who is supposed to dig graves should continue to do that, the one who should graze the pig should do that. That has been their philosophy, to keep people down under, in their economic and caste based control. Especially in the little villages, the RSS is setting up more camps and recruiting more people exploiting the fact that by nature, Indians are very spiritual and they tend to pay more attention to religion. So, the RSS is actually exploiting that aspect and changing the nature of what true Hinduism is.
They are creating a new constitution based on the Manu and they are very vehement about the fact that this is what Hinduism is. The purpose is to reinstate and make sure that the Manu principles are being followed.
There is no law and order any more. We can’t even talk about that, period. Because if you do talk about it you are going to be jailed. Look at what has happened to those who are speaking out about Gujarat in 2002. The Congress Party under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi and then Sonia Gandhi really tried to establish themselves but it looks like now they have lost ground and they don’t have the strength, power or leadership required to stand against this kind of power.
Of course, we see there is family lineage politics as well, so it is hard to figure out are we truly a democracy because isn’t there anybody else who can take leadership other than the descendants of Indira Gandhi? However, this particular yatra is definitely creating an awareness among the public to emphasize the need to let people know that the BJP and RSS are working very hard to maintain the divide and rule strategy.
Divide based on religion and caste and this is what they are depending on in order to ensure their autocracy. So, this yatra even though it may be a way for Rahul Gandhi making a presence, but we cannot deny the fact that it definitely is stimulating the people of India to think deeper and to be aware that all these things are happening around us - all the atrocities - have definitely been on the increase since BJP has taken over.
The public is reminded that we have a voice. We have the right to speak. And we have the right to our own beliefs and opinions. So, this yatra is providing an opportunity for that and for that I think we should honor and respect what is being done. Rahul Gandhi is reminding the people that we are citizens of this country and as citizens, we have the right to establish and to make known and to come together based on what we believe to be justice and the right thing to do.
So, I really appreciate this particular yatra and this movement that Rahul Gandhi is heading and I think this is very important to recognize and appreciate. We need something like this to actually question as a nation to come together and question the way that BJP and RSS are operating today. So, they are coming together. They have several committees in order to establish and claim India as a Hindu nation and the language of Hindu to be the official language of the nation. They have a huge agenda that they are very systematically strategizing to make sure that it is unleashed in the country
So, Rahul Gandhi is making an open statement in terms of fighting against the BJP but however does he have enough people power to back him up? It still remains a question mark. He is also following the path of what Ambedkar said in terms of Educate, Agitate, Organize.
We can look at this yatra as following that instruction on Ambedkar as well.
Rahul Gandhi is trying to put a full stop to this. As the great poet Bharatiyar reminded us, we can accomplish things if we think together. If we come together as a thinking community. Even though we speak different languages and worship different gods who belong to different religions, we are all Indians and that is the foundation under which we all gather.
This is a good effort definitely, However there is no people power and this is not enough to oppose the BJP.
The reservations that the Brahmin community are speaking against demanding a place for themselves in the reservation quota is something to be noted right now.
We can say that someone who is hungry I am not going to desire biryani but I can settle for anything that is going to satisfy my hunger. This is the way this yatra is operating right now.” Let’s do what we can” mindset.
This yatra will definitely create a stir among the nation. Important to note. Paying attention to political prisoners for so many years without any bail - we need to bring that to light and this is an opportunity to do that. We do not know what our new president will do for minority groups in India. It seems to be about power because most of the ruling power are all from higher caste or from Brahmin community? What change can we expect when legal systems are being controlled by the government?
The other one critique I have – Rahul Gandhi should have involved a lot of grassroots leaders to mobilize grassroots communities to be a part of this huge national movement. That is the only criticism that I provide. Jai Bhim.
Anonymous Student Activist, India (woman, Hindu)
Many say that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a political gimmick by the Congress Party to amp its electoral comeback. So What if it is?
India’s ruling party has hurt India on communal lines and only a communal healing can soothe those wounds. Perhaps for many, Rahul Gandhi may be a leader unfit for running the country, but at least he’s had the gumption to ‘attempt’ to unify thousands of Indians for his walkathon— filling all of us Indians with a whiff of nostalgia from our childhoods—when we were taught to take pride in the ‘Unity in Diversity’ that once blossomed in our country.
Shabnam Hashmi - Indian human rights activist
Bharat Jodo yatra is a good initiative. It would help revive the Congress. The Yatra should have spent more time in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh instead of spending so much time in Kerala.
Inamul Bhai - Peace and interfaith activist with Khudai Kidmathgar, India
Bharat Jodo Yatra is a new hope in India. I joined the yatra on 7th September. I was also in the team of Civil Society Representatives who participated in the peace prayer at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial in Kanyakumari. A new energy began from the South-most edge of this nation with the hope of new India, which is filled with love, expectations, hope, confidence among the people. I was able to see the happiness among the people, beyond various boundaries people are coming out from the houses cheering up on Rahul Ji, hugging him, blessing him with the flowers, children are raising slogans Bharat Jodo with smiles. At various spots people are waiting for 2 to 3 hours on the road sides eagerly to see Rahul Ji. Since I was in the Yatra for 5 days till the yatra reached Trivandrum, I saw all the Pro and Anti Congress News Papers published and highlighted the news of the yatra. It seems the nation needs change and expects love and happiness among the people.
Devanuru Mahadeva - Renowned Dalit writer, India
The spirit of opposing Congress during the emergency was the sentiment of "anti-establishment." Today we are facing ten times more atrocities. So, everyone needs to come together with the sentiment of anti-establishment. Even if we have a Congress govt tomorrow, the community's attitude should still be to question the establishment. In that light, anyone who comes together with a concept like Bharat Jodo Yatra today needs to be backed. If Congress is taking this mission through the yatra to unify everyone in this country, we should absolutely back them. I am supportive of Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Sandeep Pandey and Harshavardhan Purandare- Peace activists, India
Divided We Fall, Bharat Jodo!
The Congress party declared Bharat Chhodo (Quit India) movement against the British regime in 1942. The Congress party is now launching a movement Bharat Jodo (Connecting and Uniting India) against the Modi regime in 2022.
Indian people have had a journey of 80 years since Mahatma Gandhi gave that Quit India call to the British and we have to agree that we stand most divided in our modern history when Rahul Gandhi is giving this Bharat Jodo call to the nation. And back then, Congress was a thriving idealistic political movement against the British rulers and now it is an ever weakening political organization electorally defeated several times. However, it is India at stake, not just the Congress party. That is why so many regional political parties, civil society organizations, traditional anti-Congress progressive forces like socialists and communists, intellectuals and civil servants have declared their support and are proactively participating in this Bharat Jodo Padyatra.
The basic message of Congress’s Bharat Jodo Padyatra can be interpreted as Nafrat Chhodo (Quit Hatred), given the ongoing strategic assault on communal harmony in Indian society and cunning use of hatred as a political tool by the party in power. India is essentially the ‘salad bowl’ rather than a ‘potpourri’ of diverse communities, we learn to co-exist naturally as we grow. But Hindutva supremacists in power have not only undermined the constitutional and democratically moral principle of equality with respect to a large population of minorities, but they have also brought in regressive culture and reactionary philosophy among Hindus that shatters our fabric of coexistence. The basic insecurity which competitive economic growth creates among the individuals as a flip side of positive economic aspirations, makes it easy for reactionary forces to grab the centre stage in disguise of development. That is what has happened to India. So ‘Connecting and Uniting India’ is a desired political programme in the chaotic and complex politics of our times.
But how do we fight divisive politics? Is Padyatra a solution? Can the pilgrimage be a political programme in modern times? Gandhiji was seen as a saint by Indian masses almost a century back, the sainthood gave him authority to embark on spiritually motivated padyatras creating ripples among people and move the anti-British politics then. Rahul Gandhi too said that the Bharat Jodo Padayatra is like Adhyatmik (Spiritual) exercise to him. There is an element of his personal struggle in everything that is happening and he may seek spiritual undercurrent to his politics, but there is a need for a political programme to emerge that catches the imagination of young minds. The problem that Rahul Gandhi is tackling is a creation of a certain politics and the antidote too would have to be political in nature. As Jairam Ramesh spelled out - economic disparity, social polarization, and political concentration - are dividing the India of today. There is a need to tell youth that these three feeding into each other will bring in a faster decline of Indian society. By 2047, we face a prospect of undergoing a political process that creates few affluent Indians surrounded by masses with their backs broken forever. We can only fear the disintegration of the country if we don’t strengthen the old and find the new avenues of our unity and connectedness as Indians. Bharat Jodo has to help the average Indian to walk out of the fool's paradise that this regime has created. We need to tell our youth that society is not some corporate firm to have a linear growth, let alone the meteoric rise as a nation. The agriculture community and its agitation against the farm laws that humbled Modi at least once publicly is one example of that negative political dynamic; we don’t want such unrest and political tragedies to unfold in our society.
Can Bharat Jodo Padyatra build itself to meet this humongous task of political turnaround of Indian society? We can’t hope for miracles, but the step is positive and right one. We will have some positive outcomes for sure. The electoral analysts can stay quiet for some time, ‘election only’ democratic debate does harm the democracy at large. India is on a political cliff, where the Idea of India can survive only by evolving to reshape the divided society. India awaits the new era being offered with newer thoughts, beyond healing the wounds of Hindutva hegemony and assault. India’s unity and connectedness are rooted in the basic humanity as our traditions go, but now we live in times where money and technology dominate. Bharat Jodo will have to create the intangible value systems to iron out the hatred from our society and offer a new hope on the economy front that objectively serves the interests of common people.
Divided we will fall, connected we can work together to rebuild, united we can rise. It's time for Bharat Jodo.
Anand Patwardhan - Indian filmmaker and human rights advocate
As India passes through what are perhaps its darkest days in terms of democratic rights, secular values, economic disparity, unemployment - the list is endless - any attempt to reach the public with a vision that does not depend on demonizing and othering, must be welcomed with open arms. It is in this perspective that I entreat fellow citizens to endorse the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Some of us may have fought the Congress Party for decades whenever we perceived it to be straying from the secular and democratic path, but now is the time for all of us to sink our differences and forge an effective working unity with all those who recognize the clear and present danger that the present ruling regime represents. Let us not repeat the mistakes that well-intended people in the Germany of the 1930's made when, in search of the best of all alternatives, they allowed Hitler to become the Fuhrer.
T.M. Krishna - Indian musician and human rights advocate
What India lacks today is a coming together of people who believe in compassion, togetherness, in asking difficult questions of ourselves, about our environment, our policies, our economics, and our political, social and cultural bigotry. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is, I believe, a very important step in bringing together civil society and diverse political parties that believe in the essence of our democracy where justice prevails, where discrimination is challenged, and there’s truly social revival. There is no point in us constantly going back to the past and living in a nostalgic hope of a second coming of that past. What we need is a new present. Only a new present can change our future. Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is spearheaded by the Congress, but is supported by diverse political parties, civil society members and civil society organizations, is an opportunity to literally and metaphorically walk hand in hand with all people, especially those who have been targeted today’s environment for their identity, or their social dress, for their gender, for their sexual choices, for their caste. Jodo – coming together – bringing together, is, I think, a moment for every one of us, to come together. And hope that we can push back the forces of bigotry and parochialism that seem to have poisoned all our minds, all our families, all our friends, and take a new step forward from a new present.