BJP & Dalits: Why Are Bengal’s Matuas Disenchanted With The RSS?

Recently, a long-awaited reshuffle in the Bengal BJP took place and no Matua leader got an organisational post.

By SAYANTAN GHOSH

For the past one month, several vernacular and Bengal- based newspapers have been reporting on the growing discontent within the Matuas against the BJP. Recently, the Union Minister of State, Shantanu Thakur, who is also the head of Matua Mahasangh, left several WhatsApp groups of the party. Later, he held a meeting with other Matua MLAs and demanded better representation within the party. However, this growing discontent is much more than just another case of infighting within the Bengal BJP.

Matuas are considered untouchables in the caste system of Bengal. They belong to the Namashudra caste, who came to Bengal from Bangladesh after the partition. For social development under Harichand Thakur and his son Guruchand Thakur during 1827-1937, the Matua religious sect developed mostly in the eastern parts of Bengal.

Recently, a long-awaited reshuffle in the Bengal BJP took place, and significantly, no Matua leader of the BJP got an organisational post. Most importantly, the post of SC Morcha chief was also given to a non-Matua leader, even as Matuas have been one of the most significant vote banks of the BJP.

The seeds of this conflict are within the Hindutva push of the RSS and their views on the caste system. At the end of the day, when it comes to new outreach plans of the RSS towards Dalits, as shown by author and historian Badri Narayan in his book Republic of Hindutva, the Sangh Parivar stays casteist. The RSS believes in the caste system so that Brahmins and upper castes lead the game, while Dalits follow.

The Matua community has been supporting the BJP from the time of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. They have also been the biggest supporter of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The community is dominant in the districts of Nadia and North 24 Parganas, which are bordering areas of Bangladesh.

In these two districts, the Trinamool won just five seats, whereas the BJP won 13 in the last Assembly election.

The involvement of the BJP and the RSS with Matuas was mostly on two fronts. One is political, where the BJP promised – if they won – the implementation of the CAA in their first Cabinet meeting, and secondly, the social outreach programmes of the RSS. In the Assembly election, the BJP lost miserably, and after that, despite several requests from Shantanu Thakur, neither the state nor the central leadership clarified the timeline of the implementation of the CAA. This has irked Matuas.

Meanwhile, there was growing discontent within the RSS over the way the BJP fought the state election by bringing Trinamool leaders into the party fold. This situation has caused a disconnect among Matua leaders as RSS shakhas used to work as a bridge between the community and the leadership. And lastly, the state leadership has completely sidelined the Matuas, which means that they are not in any decisionmaking position.

(The author is an independent journalist based in Kolkata and former policy research fellow at Delhi Assembly Research Center.)