Natural Order and Wise Synthesis: Sovereignty-Violence-Varṇain the Arthaśāstraand Aurobindo

In its powerful diagnosis of Dalit disempowerment, the ‘Dalit Panthers Manifesto’ emphasises the continuity of Dalits’ exploitation and domination by the hierarchical “varna system [and] caste system” from premodernity to the time of its drafting in 1973. According to it, “Untouchability is the most violent form of exploitation on the surface of the earth, which survives the ever-changing forms of the power structure” (Dalit Panthers 142). The violence of Dalit oppression has endured political changes from the feudal period through the Moghul and British empires to the anticolonial struggle and the period of India’s independence as a sovereign state: “The present Congress rule is essentially a continuation of the old Hindu feudalism which kept the Dalits deprived of power, wealth and status for thousands of years” (141). The Manifesto is evidence that at least some Dalits understood that the violence they faced—varṇa—was the product of a durable political system, one ancient yet still present; that, because it was not an accident of one or another period of rule or a contingent feature of one or another type of regime, this system demanded a revolutionary response, for only a revolutionary transformation of Indian society could change this violence essential to its politics.