On the occasion of Sant Ravidas Jayanti in February this year, the Madhya Pradesh government, led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, announced the construction of a Rs 100-crore temple dedicated to the revered 15th-century poet and philosopher in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. Guru Ravidas was born in Varanasi into a family of leatherworkers from the Chamar caste. He was a well-known saint of the North Indian Bhakti movement, envisioning an egalitarian society called Begumpura, free from discrimination and exploitation.
Sant Ravidas is regarded as a prominent symbol of the anti-caste movement and Dalit cultural identity and assertion. The BJP has bolstered its political standing in the first and second Modi governments by erecting numerous museums and statues honouring different Dalit-Bahujans icons, including Dr BR Ambedkar.
The BJP has allocated 12 acres of government land for the construction of the Sant Ravidas temple, which will also include a meditation centre, a museum, and a library. Similar to its campaign to build the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the BJP is promoting the Ravidas temple through a Samrasta Yatra. The 18-day ‘social harmony tour’ began on 25 July and ended on 12 August in Sagar, where Ravidas temple is planned. The yatra commenced in five different districts of Madhya Pradesh: Neemuch, Dhar, Sheopur, Balaghat, and Singrauli, covering all the districts in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the foundation stone-laying ceremony on 12 August.
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Political significance of Ravidas temple
The construction of the Sant Ravidas temple by the BJP holds deep implications for Dalit identity politics within Madhya Pradesh’s electoral politics. This temple carries great importance for the Dalit community, as Ravidas is the biggest anti-caste icon. The BJP, known for its religious politics, sees Ravidas as an ideal figure to court Dalit votes. Ravidas’ followers have been demanding the recognition of the Ravidassia religion in his honour. The BJP aims to assimilate the Dalit community by incorporating Sant Ravidas into its subaltern Hindutva agenda. Historically viewed as an upper caste, urban, and elite party, the BJP seeks to reshape its image by creating public spheres dedicated to Dalit icons and positioning itself as a party for all castes and classes, with a particular focus on Dalits.
Political parties in Madhya Pradesh have intensified their campaigns as the state approaches its next assembly election scheduled for the end of this year. Both the BJP and the Congress are vying for the support of Dalit voters, who constitute 16 percent of the state’s population, with the Chamar caste accounting for 10 percent of these voters. Dalits have the potential to significantly influence the election outcome. The Dalit community, especially after the Kanshi Ram movement, has become politically aware and holds sway in determining election results. The ongoing political manoeuvring is all about securing the votes of the Ravidassia (Chamar-Jatav) community, traditionally supporters of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Madhya Pradesh. In such a situation, the BJP has introduced a new socio-cultural and political strategy by promising to build the Sant Ravidas temple.
The BJP’s Samrasta Yatra covered 187 Dalit-dominated assembly constituencies, aiming to create cultural capital and heritage for the community. Madhya Pradesh has 230 assembly seats, with 35 reserved for Scheduled Castes. In the 2008 assembly election, the BJP won 143 seats with a 37.64 percent vote share, while the Congress secured 71 seats with a 32.39 percent vote share, and the BSP won 7 seats with a 9 percent vote share. In 2013, the BJP increased its tally to 165 seats with a 44.88 vote share, the Congress won 58 seats with an increased vote share of 36.38 percent, and the BSP secured 4 seats with a reduced vote share of 6.29 percent. In this election, the BJP won 28 out of the 35 SC-reserved seats, while the Congress won 4 and the BSP 2. In the 2018 election, both the BJP and Congress had nearly identical vote shares of 41.02 percent (109 seats) and 40.89 percent (114 seats), respectively. The BSP secured 2 seats with a 5.01 percent vote share. Among the 35 SC-reserved seats, the BJP won 18 and the Congress won 17 – an addition of 13 seats from the previous election. which helped the party form the government after 15 years.
BJP understands the electoral game
These 35 seats hold significant importance in terms of government formation. The proposed temple construction in Sagar falls within the Bundelkhand region, where the majority of the population is Dalit. The BJP is employing “social engineering” to consolidate Dalit votes by promoting its own brand of ‘inclusive’ politics. During the temple’s foundation stone-laying ceremony on 12 August, PM Modi used the couplets of Guru Ravidas in his speech to convey the idea that his party was following the path shown by the saint. He also highlighted the BJP government’s schemes, such as providing housing and free food grains to the poor. However, Modi sought to polarise the crowd and inject the BJP’s brand of Hindutva politics into the election campaign by using a couplet with reference to ‘slavery’.
“Paradhinta paap hai, Jaan lehu re meet, Raidas daas paradhin saun, Kaun karaya hai preet.” This can be loosely translated as: ‘Slavery is a sin, my friend, understand this. Ravidas, the servant, is enslaved, who would show affection?’
Modi connected Ravidas to nationalism, portraying him as a patriot who inspired society to fight against oppression and injustice during the Mughal era to preserve our cultural heritage. He emphasised that Ravidas used to say that “slavery is the biggest sin, and no one loves the one who accepts slavery.” Prominent BJP leaders, including Modi, have consistently stated that the BJP’s governance follows the path shown by Sant Ravidas. To spread this message within the Dalit community, the BJP is following in the footsteps of Sant Ravidas, attempting to assimilate him into its Hindutva nationalism discourse by creating a ‘Ravidas versus Mughals’ debate.
Also read: Ravidas was a Dalit guru who ran a business, dressed lavishly and made a queen his disciple
BJP’s strategy and Congress’ response
The BJP has announced the construction of the Sant Ravidas temple as a way to woo Dalit voters, while the Congress has countered the BJP’s temple campaign by appointing Mallikarjun Kharge, a Dalit, as its national president. Kharge hosted a ‘Jan Akrosh rally’ on 22 August in Sagar, ten days after Modi’s visit. Kharge and the Congress aim to counter the Ravidas temple movement by announcing that if the Congress comes to power in Madhya Pradesh, its government will establish a university in Sagar district in honour of Sant Ravidas, where the BJP plans to build the temple.
Kharge also questioned why Modi suddenly remembered Sant Ravidas only before the election. Despite Modi’s government being in power for nine years at the Centre and Shivraj Chouhan’s 18-year rule in Madhya Pradesh, Ravidas’s memory is being invoked now, mainly due to the upcoming election. Kharge also highlighted the BJP’s role in demolishing a Sant Ravidas temple in Delhi in August 2019. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which was under the BJP’s control, had demolished the temple in Tughlaqabad following a Supreme Court order, which ruled that the temple fell within a protected forest land. Lakhs of Dalits from the Ravidassia community came from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh to protest at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on 21 August 2019. Hundreds of people were put in jail. Dalit organisations gave a 10-day ultimatum to the government to rebuild the temple, following which a bill was passed in the Delhi assembly.
Kharge also spoke against the BJP’s supposed intention to ‘change’ the Constitution given to the country by Babasaheb. In an article published in the Mint newspaper on 14 August, Bibek Debroy, the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, argued that it was time for “a new Constitution”.
It’s time to go beyond symbolic gestures
Both BJP and Congress want Dalit votes but won’t go beyond symbolic gestures. In recent years, incidents of crime against Dalits in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been alarming, with both states topping the list for such cases in 2021, according to NCRB data. Despite political promises and the focus on Dalit icons, safety and security for Dalits remain elusive. It is essential to note that while the BJP is promoting the Ravidas temple in Madhya Pradesh, in Haryana, the Manohar Lal Khattar government promised on the occasion of Ravidas Jayanti this February that he will provide reservation in promotion to Dalits, which was implemented on 28 August. In Uttarakhand, reservation in promotion for Dalits was applicable during the Congress government, but was cancelled when the BJP came to power in 2012. Inconsistencies in BJP’s approach to Dalit issues in different states are evident. This shows that the proposed Ravidas temple in Madhya Pradesh is merely an electoral promise for the BJP, which is trying to emotionally fool the Dalit community by using the name of its icon.
The construction of the temple and political posturing around Dalit icons must be matched with concrete actions addressing three main Dalit concerns — security, economic upliftment through job reservation and representation, and respect for their cultural capital. If the BJP genuinely aims to secure Dalit votes for the long term, it must address these issues comprehensively. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP’s primary focus is on the cultural capital aspect; it has completely failed in terms of governance and providing security to Dalits. The NCRB report lists Madhya Pradesh as the state with the highest number of atrocities against Dalit.
Building a temple in Ravidas’ name, while important, is a half-hearted measure because there have been several instances of Ambedkar’s statue being vandalised all over the state. The temple cannot replace the need for holistic development and safeguarding Dalit rights. From the electoral point of view, Dalits won’t stay with the BJP for long merely because of its symbolic gesture of paying respect to Dalit icons and symbols during the election season.
Krishna Mohan Lal is a PhD research scholar at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He tweets @Maitreya_G. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)