Begumpura: Saint Raidas' Concept of a Welfare State

 

Begumpura: Saint Raidas' Concept of a Welfare State

-         Kanwal Bharti

(English translation from original Hindi: SR Darapuri, National President, All India Peoples Front)

 

ऐसा चाहूँ राज मैं जहाँ मिलै सबन को अन्न।

छोट बड़ो सभ सम बसै रैदास रहे प्रसन्न।। --संत रैदास

(I want such a rule where everyone gets food.

High and low live together and Raidas remains happy.)

--Saint Raidas

Dr. Ambedkar's warning on the establishment of Hindu Rashtra-

If Hindu rule is really established, then undoubtedly it will be the biggest misfortune of this country. No matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a threat to freedom, equality and fraternity. It is inconsistent with democracy. Hindu rule should be prevented from being established at any cost.

--Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

The above Sakhi of Raidas Sahib contains the concept of such a welfare state, which is relevant even after six hundred years. This concept was made in the era when there was monarchy in India. Inequality and richness-poverty were at their peak in the society. In the words of Kabir, some people used to sleep on beds in palaces, while a large population was not even fortunate enough to have a thatched roof or a bed of straw. Elephants were tied at someone's door, and many poor people sold their children to survive.

It was still four centuries before freedom and equality came to India legally. But the ideology in favour of freedom and equality has existed in India since the Vedic period. Kabir and Raidas Saheb were followers of the same tradition, who fearlessly and courageously raised their voice against all kinds of inequality and injustice, and made the public aware for change.

It was the human consciousness of Raidas Saheb that he had imagined a welfare state in the fifteenth century itself. Such an imagination can be made only by a person who is both the observer and the sufferer of the community suffering from the state system of his time, or belongs to the class which is deprived of the facilities of the state. Tulsidas could not even imagine such a welfare state in the sixteenth century, even though he himself used to call himself a beggar. Even in Tulsidas' time, people did not get enough food to eat despite working hard day and night. But Tulsidas considered the Varna system to be the ideal system and said that happiness and sorrow, richness and poverty and high and low are the results of the deeds of the previous birth. If one-third of the population was not getting enough food, then in the eyes of people like Tulsidas, it was not the fault of the state system, but the fault of the deeds of the people in their previous births. Therefore, it was impossible for him to imagine an inclusive welfare state. He even considered the education and rebellion of the Shudras against the Varna system to be the ill-effects of Kali Yuga.

But Raidas Saheb, who refuted the Varna system, had told a hundred years before Tulsidas that richness and poverty and happiness and sorrow are not the results of the deeds of the previous births, but the bad governance of the state is responsible for it. If people are not getting enough food, it is because the system of the state is not welfare oriented. The grace of the state is not on the downtrodden and the poor.

That is why Raidas Saheb has asked a well thought out question that how should a state be? He said that the state should be such that no one in the state dies of hunger. This will happen only when the state arranges food for all its subjects. If food is not available to all the people of the state, then it cannot be a welfare state, rather it will be a state that oppresses the subjects. Access to food does not mean that the state should distribute free food to the people, rather it means that the income of the people of the state should be such that every person can easily buy food. If the ability to get food is limited only to the rich people, then the rest of the subjects will remain deprived and will not be able to fill their stomachs.

Raidas ji's concept of state is not only that food grains should be available to everyone, but also that there should be no discrimination of any kind between the big and the small in the state - neither social nor economic. They should live equally, that is, with complete equality. There should not be discrimination that the big people get special privileges, and the low people are suppressed and do not get respect.

This concept of state of Raidas Saheb is so revolutionary that it advocates those fundamental rights of freedom and equality, which we find explained in the democratic system of the West. Although it was the period of political subjugation, but even in the period of subjugation, the people of the upper classes were independent and self-reliant, whereas the productive people like farmers, cobbler, potter, oilman, blacksmith etc. who earned their living by hard work were neither independent nor self-reliant. They were so dependent and enslaved that they could not even complain against their miserable condition, because it was considered rebellion. They got neither respect nor love. Such people were considered lowly by all. Raidas Saheb had deep sympathy for these exploited people. He said-

पराधीन का दीन क्या, पराधीन बेदीन।

रैदास पराधीन को, सभ ही समझें हीन।

(What is the religion of a subjugated person? A subjugated person is considered lowly.

Raidas, everyone considers a subjugated person to be lowly.)

Raidas ji has said a very touching thing in this Sakhi. He not only says that a subjugated person has no religion because religion is of the independent ones only, but he also says that people consider those who are subjugated to be lowly. This thought of Raidas Sahib is not about political subjugation, but about social and economic subjugation. The entire country was subjugated politically. But socially and especially economically, the hardworking people of the lower classes were subjugated. In fact, Raidas Sahib has attacked the Varna system in this Sakhi, which had kept the Shudra class subservient to the Dwij. These subjugated people have been called 'Bedeen' by Raidas Sahib, that is, those who are religionless or Dharmaless. Since they were Bedeen, that is why they were deprived of the rights of freedom and equality.

Raidas Saheb's concept of the state is relevant today because today the RSS and BJP are building a Hindu state which has a hidden agenda of implementing the caste system. The anti-people policies and disinvestment plans of this government have destroyed the employment of crores of people and left them helpless to die of hunger. Under this government, not only education, medicines and justice have become out of the reach of the people, but even dal-roti (food and drink) has become out of reach. Hindu state is not only dangerous for the democracy of India, the principles of freedom, equality and fraternity, but it is also fatal for the unity of the country. Dr. Ambedkar had realized this danger in 1940 itself, hence he warned the countrymen that in the interest of a welfare state, the establishment of a Hindu state must be prevented.