What Ails Dalit Movement: Lessons Learnt from Farmer Movement

Abstract

The demand for equality and a ‘better’ share is always there for any ‘authoritative allocation of values’ and India is no exception. Farmers and Dalit movements present such demands with an aim to seek transformation in the existing power structure for better in political, social and economic spaces. However, one seems to be more organized and successful despite the existence of a multi-layered class structure, while the other remained fragmented and sporadic. It is, therefore, very pertinent to analyse why a considerable chunk of the citizenry is not able to get their due share and what ails their collective bargaining capacity. The present article is an attempt to draw certain commonalities between the ‘Farmer’ and ‘Dalit’ movements in India and identify the gaps—that the Dalit movement can fill by taking a cue from the farmer movement. Also, it attempts to analyse how with time all the farmers’ organizations collectively mobilized together on the pan-India level on a single platform to bargain for their common interest but why such consciousness is not being developed among Dalits even after 75 years of independence.