As a resident of Mysore (since renamed Mysuru), the erstwhile kingdom of the Wadiyars, and a student of history, I know what social justice is. Hence I am fully convinced that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi don’t believe in social justice.

It was Dr BR Ambedkar’s dream to empower every single individual in free India and end caste discrimination.

But as I see it, when the white master left, the brown master took over and began controlling the people, majority of whom are backward castes, Dalits and adivasis.

Today, 77 years after winning freedom from the yoke of British imperialism, the majority of Indians are still living under the shadow of caste discrimination since social justice continues to be a mirage.

This is the time to remember and recall the contributions made by Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar (1888-1940), the Maharaja of Mysore from 1902-1940, and Tipu Sultan (1751-1799), who ruled Mysore with nearby Srirangapatna as his capital.

Nalvadi constituted a committee headed by Leslie Creery Millery, a British Indian civil servant, to study and suggest corrective measures to uplift the backward in Mysore in 1919. He overcame strong objections from his court to implement the Miller Committee report that provided reservation in education and jobs for the most backward communities, well before Independence.

What we need today is the vision of Nalvadi to uplift the majority of Indians who continue to be discriminated against in the name of caste.

But I must say that it is our fortune that we have one of the best Constitutions in the world, thanks to the foresight and vision of Babasaheb Ambedkar. If not, we would be far worse off.

But then, it is increasingly evident that the BJP is trying to water it down or even change the Constitution, as Uttara Kannada MP Ananth Kumar Hegde claimed (in March). It’s perhaps that disclosure, which forced Modi to say that no one, not even Babasaheb Ambedkar, can change the Constitution now.

His purported assurance to safeguard the Constitution should be seen more as a sign of helplessness, after Hegde’s disclosure, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, and not his love for the one text that all of us draw our rights from.

The fact remains that Modi has always been for the haves, and not for the have-nots.

Spiritual leader Sai Baba of Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh used to magically fish out gold rings from thin air for the aristocrats, but give “bhoodhi” (holy ash) for the poor.

Similarly, Modi gives diamonds to the wealthy Adanis and Ambanis, and ash for the poor. He is for aristocracy and not for democracy.

Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the newest scion of the erstwhile royal family of Mysore, who is contesting from here on a BJP ticket, is no different.

He represents Modi’s era and not Nalvadi’s era. He is the champion of neo-liberalism, neo-artistocracy and neo-authoritarianism. So, he will be a mute spectator in Parliament, although I am sure he won’t win.

Nalvadi was such a great leader, he didn’t think twice while implementing the vision of Tipu, who had ruled and overlorded the Wadiyars, in building the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam, that too by selling palace jewels.

No one living in Mysore today can forget the contributions of Nalvadi and Tipu before him. Both of them championed social justice.

Tipu could have given the fertile land of Cauvery basin to Muslims, had he been communal as is being alleged by the Sangh parivar. But he allotted much of the land to the Vokkaligas who then flourished as a community.

After Independence, power was handed over to dominant sections of the society who represented the socially, educationally and economically higher strata of society. They never wanted to empower the backward sections.

We need to remember that Ambedkar had already said that in the absence of social and economic democracy, political democracy — which we have attained in 1947 — has no meaning.

What we need today is a Nalvadi and not a Yaduveer who stands for aristocracy and not empowerment of the poor and backward communities.

The writer is a retired academic, author of the biography, Tipu Sultan: Indomitable Nationalist and Martyr, and a noted Dalit activist, who lives under armed police security due to Sangh Parivar threats. Views expressed in this article are personal.