Who was and is Hindu Left
Updated On: 06 May, 2024 06:48 AM IST | Mumbai | Ajaz Ashraf
We speak of the Hindu Right, but not its opposite, which flourishes even though the mainstream discourse dismisses them as casteist or simply ignores them
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Jyotiba Phule, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Ram Manohar Lohia, C N Annadurai, M Karunanidhi, Kanshi Ram, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and M K Stalin
Every other article on politics or religion in India is invariably peppered with the term Hindu Right. By contrast, seldom do we hear of the Hindu Left, as if the opposite of the Hindu Right simply does not exist. The Left and the Right emerged as political categories when the French National Assembly, in 1789, met to define the powers of King Louis XVI. Those who sat to the left of the presiding officer favoured attenuating the king’s power and articulated egalitarian ideas. The King’s supporters occupied seats to the right of the presiding officer and were, in due course, labelled as conservatives.
Since then, the Right and the Left have become markers for ideologically distinguishing positions people take on myriad issues. The apparent absence of the Right-Left binary in the mainstream discourse on political Hinduism inspired academic Ruth Vanita, in 2002, to write, ‘Whatever Happened to the Hindu Left?’ She counted as Hindu Left those organisations which were, in the 19th and 20th centuries, opposed to child marriage and sati, and supported widow marriage and abolition of untouchability.
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