An Untouchable's Life in Politics
In Pursuit of Ambedkar
A rare dalit memoir centred around Ambedkar
By BHAGWAN DAS
Published : January 2010
(Book Excerpt)
Introduction: In Pursuit of Bhagwan Das
S OMETIME IN THE MID-1990'S, I picked up a volume of Ambedkar's speeches from a pavement bookshop in Hyderabad. It was compiled and edited by Bhagwan Das and published by Bheem Patrika, Jalandhar. That was the first time I encountered the work of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. From then on, I wondered about Bhagwan Das and Bheem Patrika.
After a major struggle, in 1999, I managed to order all the available volumes of Ambedkar's writings as published by the Maharashtra state government's education department in the Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches series from Blumoon Books, a dalit bookstore in New Delhi. For good measure, Blumoon added a few selections of essays by Bhagwan Das to make up for the missing government volumes.
After Navayana was founded in 2003, I dug up a little more about Bhagwan Das and his work, and spoke to him on the phone. But it was only after I moved to New Delhi in 2007 that I met him for the first time. He was 80. Through the interactions that followed with him, I realised that well before the Maharashtra government began, in 1979, to publish Ambedkar's writings and speeches, Das had edited, compiled and produced a four-volume Thus Spoke Ambedkar series between 1963 and 1980. It was perhaps the first, professional effort to publish Ambedkar's writings in one place. Crucially, I found out that Das had had direct access to Ambedkar.
Having first met him in Shimla in 1943 at the age of sixteen as a member of the Scheduled Castes Federation, Das worked as a research assistant with Ambedkar in 1955-56 at the latter's residence at Alipur Road, Delhi. Yet the editorial committee that the Maharashtra government put together to oversee its Ambedkar volumes excluded Das and Lahori Ram Balley of Bheem Patrika-men who pioneered the publication of Ambedkar's writings and speeches. As Das, with typical understatement, recalls in his memoir, "Fifteen years after Babasaheb's death, the Maharashtra government decided to edit and publish his writings and speeches and formed a committee for the same under the chairmanship of Vasant Moon. Membership to the committee was limited to Maharashtra's politicians and intellectuals."
An unassuming, self-effacing man, Das does not make much of his association with Ambedkar. Yet, we see that he takes pride in recounting occasional disagreements with the stalwart. Das recalls both in his memoir and in the film that now accompanies this book, that his formal education amounted to nothing more than matriculation when he worked for Ambedkar, who had a clutch of degrees and two doctorates from Columbia University. (It was only in the mid-1970s that Das acquired degrees in Political Science and Law.) Yet, what draws Ambedkar to Das is his command over the English language, and his hunger for books and research.
I met Das several times in 2007 and 2008 with the intention of reissuing a value-added, annotated edition of the four volumes of Thus Spoke Ambedkar (the first of which is being published at the same time as this memoir). He was, however, in no position to write fresh introductions to the volumes. His memory was failing him, and he could recall only about seven or eight defining moments in his life. At the behest of a friend, I decided it was as important to bring out Bhagwan Das' story as it was to reissue his wide-ranging selection of Ambedkar's speeches. On reading his slim memoir, Baba ke Charanon Mein, published in Hindi in 2004, I decided to shoot a series of piece-to-camera interviews-merely as an exercise in keeping a record. Das, however, had just recovered from a serious illness and was suffering bouts of dementia. Yet, for me, it was important that his story-whatever he remembered of it-be rendered to the larger public. A mere reading of his memoir would not suffice; people would have to see and hear Bhagwan Das speak his impeccable English in his clipped accent. They had to fall in love with him and be charmed by him like I was, like the friends I took to meet him were. Hence the DVD that accompanies this book.
As we shot the interviews, Das expressed his desire to travel to Shimla, Nagpur and Ambedkar's Alipur Road residence where he had worked. Though we could not travel to Nagpur, our effort soon grew into a modest documentary feature on Das and his dedicated pursuit of Ambedkar's ideals. Navayana hardly had the funds for such a venture. Given Das' precarious health and fading memory, I could not risk writing a proposal and waiting for funding, but friends pitched in with contributions. After seeing the footage, amateur though it was, the editor of the film, Shikha Sen, refused to charge us. She too was charmed by the man, though piqued by the fact that he would sometimes forget the name of his wife (Rama Devi) or the year of their marriage (1957). But despite his failing memory, he would be alert to the details of his various interactions with Ambedkar. Clearly, here was a man to whom nothing mattered more than his association with Ambedkar. All said, we pieced together a viewable, hour-long film. The biggest compliment we received was that Das liked it.
In post-Independence India, we have hardly any record of the several men and women who played key roles in dalit movements across the country, especially those who donned the roles of the intellectuals and chroniclers of the movement. For instance, Bheem Patrika, the monthly journal founded by LR Balley, celebrated fifty years of existence in 2008. Balley has produced scores of books on the dalit movement and Ambedkar. People like Das and Balley rarely find mention in post-Independence histories of India. They are neither fêted nor remembered. To see Das recount the story of his English, and how he gently underscores the fact that in 1943 when he met Ambedkar in Shimla they spoke to each other in English, reveals to us the unwavering faith many in the dalit movement had in the power of modern education, and especially in the English language. Ambedkar's slogan 'educate, agitate, organise' had clearly inspired Bhagwan Das and many like him.
As a Buddhist, Das was one of the founding members of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, first held in Kyoto in 1969. They subsequently met every four years in various parts of the world.
In August 1983, supported by a coalition of dalit organisations, Bhagwan Das gave a testimony on untouchability before the United Nations Subcommission on Human Rights in Geneva, much against the wishes of the official Indian delegation to the conference. He played a pivotal role in the 1998 International Dalit Convention held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a precursor to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa.
Despite his many achievements, Bhagwan Das has led a lonely life. His lament is that few in the dalit movement have shown interest in the kind of work he has done. Given that the resource pool of educated dalits with an aptitude for research is rather meagre, especially of dalits who have a felicity with the English language, the chronicling of dalit history has seriously suffered. As someone born in a sweeper community, an 'untouchable among untouchables,' as Das says, he is not very popular among sections of the valmiki community that have been Hinduised under the influence of Gandhi, the Arya Samaj and other Hindu organisations. Das has consistently argued that the notion of 'valmiki' is a fiction (as you shall see in the book and in the film). He musters evidence to convincingly argue that the so-called valmikis were 'lalbegis'.
Bhagwan Das' flat in Munirka, Delhi, has been a mandatory stopover for almost every social historian and anthropologist who has ever worked on the dalit/anticaste movement, from Eleanor Zelliot, Mark Juergensmeyer, Owen Lynch, Marc Gallanter, RK Kshirsagar and Sukhadeo Thorat down to younger scholars like Vijay Prashad, Nicolas Jaoul and Maren Bellwinke-Schempp. He has been a storehouse of insight and information, generous with his time and knowledge for anybody willing to stop by and ask.
Navayana is proud to present the results of its pursuit of Bhagwan Das.
Excerpt: In Pursuit of Ambedkar
I WAS BORN INTO AN UNTOUCHABLE FAMILY in Jutogh Cantonment, in Shimla, the modern-day capital of the state of Himachal Pradesh, on 23 April 1927. My father, whom we called Abba, belonged to a well-off family-my grandfather was a contractor
who supplied cooks, cleaners, waiters, etc to the British Army. His work enabled him to own property in Jutogh, in Dera Bassi (near Ambala) and in Lucknow. Though I never saw him, I heard much about him. His name was Tota and he had four sons: the eldest was Dafi, followed by Shankar, then my Abba and Taaru.
My father's name was Ramditta/ Ramdutta-in government records, we find both names in English, Urdu and Hindi. Of the four brothers, my father and Shankar had Hinduised names, and both showed an inclination for Hindu ways, probably as a result of the religion's increasing influence at the time. Untouchables were otherwise usually required to have names that disclosed their 'low' caste and untouchable status. Our neighbours, for instance, had names like Meeria, Fakiria, Rachna, Jagga, Sadhu, Tilaku, Gainda-names that reflected the ethos of the period. Hindus then were less scared of their enemies than of the touch or even the shadow of an untouchable, which, they believed, would make them 'impure'. Therefore, everything from names to clothing was dictated by caste Hindus to make it easy to recognise untouchables and set them apart.
Though my grandfather tried to give all his sons an education, only Shankar and my father showed an aptitude for studies. The family lived in the cantonment in Lucknow, but there was tremendous discrimination against untouchables in Uttar Pradesh, then known as United Provinces. The only way to get by was to learn a few English phrases. Since my eldest uncle lived with an English family, he spoke the language well, but was the only one in the family who could. My father tried learning English and Urdu from books but had a better grasp of Urdu.
After my grandfather's death, my eldest uncle, Dafi, inherited his post; the other brothers sought jobs elsewhere. My father came to Jutogh. He married into a mazhabi Sikh farming family from a village near Dera Bassi. A few years later, however, his wife died. My uncle Dafi then got Abba married to a girl called Khairatan from a poor, semi-Muslim family of Lucknow. My father brought her to Jutogh after their marriage, and they never went back to Lucknow again.
In Jutogh, we lived in government accommodation in the Post Office compound. The campus held a big house for the postmaster and the postmen's quarters; there was also a mess for white soldiers underneath the Post Office, a Royal Indian Army Service Corps store to supply the soldiers' food, a wood depot, a bakery and a Military Engineering Service office for repairing government buildings. The children of the officers and employees of these offices were our friends and schoolmates.
My father was far ahead of his time in having taken out a life insurance policy, which he bought from a Canadian company. He was not only a hard-working man but had none of the bad habits,like gambling or drinking, common among men of his community. He was very fond of music-we had three gramophones and a radio at home. My mother, on the other hand, was brought up in difficult conditions. She had lost her parents in childhood and had worked as a farmer. She adjusted to her new circumstances at my father's house but never changed two things-her name and her religious refusal to eat pork (not that there was any pressure on her to do so). She cooked very well and kept our home in a state of high cleanliness. I had several differences with her but, for the sake of household peace, tolerated many things I never liked. For instance, she followed Hinduism rigidly and was keen on celebrating its festivals, but I maintained my distance from such customs from a very early age. My Early Years
W HEN MY FATHER ENROLLED my elder sister, Hukmi, and I in school, the headmaster did not want to take me in as I was not yet five years old. Since my father used to teach me Urdu, Mathematics, Hindi, etc at home, he asked the
headmaster to give me a test. I was asked to read and count, and I did well enough for him to agree to admit me. In the admission form, there was a column for one's caste. A Muslim teacher who held a low opinion of untouchables wrote khakroob1 in my form. He never touched me and always talked to me in an insulting manner. When my father complained to the headmaster (a very kind and sincere Hindu teacher), he shifted me from Hindi to Urdu classes. And that is how I learnt Urdu.
This was in 1931, and I was only four. At school, all children, Hindu and Muslim, used to play together; even the postmaster's children were our friends. No one practised untouchability as such, but we had to take the teacher's permission to drink water. He would send a caste Hindu or Muslim boy along with us, saying, "Go, get them some water to drink." There were separate utensils for Hindus and Muslims, but we could never drink directly from either. Instead, we would hold out our cupped hands into which water would be poured from a height.
It was clear to us that even if our names were like those of the Hindus, we were neither Hindu nor Muslim.
We were untouchables. In Class VII, I stood second and was chosen for admission to the Sanatan Dharm School; the topper was taken by DAV [the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School]2. The school had a special period for religious training from which two Muslims, one Christian and I were exempted. Even if interested, untouchable students were not allowed to attend this class as the teacher practised untouchability.
A crucial role in my education was played by the European families living in our neighbourhood. In the cantonment areas, people belonging to the scavenging communities were employed for jobs like babysitting, cooking, etc. Two things provided for the betterment of such communities in these localities: reduced caste exploitation and contact with new ideas. For instance, the Andrews from England - Alexander and Edith Andrews - were like a second family to me, and it was from them that I learnt English, among other things. I used to read the Bible in the nearby church and would also listen to the BBC radio service. This helped me acquire an anglicised accent early in my life.
After completing my matriculation in 1942, I opened a night school for unlettered adults in Shimla. Whatever I earned giving tuition, I would hand over to my father.
During this time, a teacher named Shri Pamiram, from a bhangi (now also called balmiki) caste, was appointed headmaster of the Jutogh Primary School. He used to make it a point to meet educated, low-caste people, few as they were and most of them very young. When he got to know that my father was working as a jamadar [sweeper] in the cantonment and the Station Staff Office and had a few sweepers working under him, he came to meet him. He was surprised as well as glad to find that my father was an educated, propertied man. When he found out that I had not been able to study after Class x since there was no college in Shimla, and that I was running a night school, he advised me to apply to the District Officer for appointment as a teacher in his school. I got the job at a monthly pay of Rs 20, but after a few months, I was asked to leave and undertake formal teacher's training. An experienced teacher was appointed in my place. Exposure to Dalit Activists
S HRI PAMIRAM INTRODUCED ME to Teluram Baidwan3 who was one of Shimla's most highly regarded politicians. Baidwan used to work as a cleaner and caretaker at a beauty parlour run by an Englishwoman. He used to spend most of
his time reading and working for untouchables' rights and justice. Many people from castes such as koli and chamar used to come to him with their problems to seek his guidance. However, the members of the Congress party and other Hindu groups used to call him 'Bad Man' instead of Baidwan.
After attending typing classes in Shimla, I would spend an hour or two with Baidwan, helping him write letters. The rest of the time I would spend reading in the public library. My father was also fond of writing and reading, particularly books relating to ayurved and medicine. Copies of the Urdu monthly magazines Mastana Jogi and Hamdard-e- Sehat could be found at our home. We also used to borrow from our friends various newspapers and magazines such as the Madina newspaper published from Bijnaur, Pratap, Milap and Zamindar. I used to enjoy reading political articles in the weekly newspaper Riyasat, edited by Sardar Diwan Sindh Maftoon.
These newspapers used to publish a lot of things about Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Abul Kalam Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose and Mohammed Ali Jinnah but hardly a thing about minority and untouchable communities. We knew these leaders belonged to the upper castes, but, being an untouchable, I used to wonder, 'Who is our leader?' I asked Abba this, and he replied, "Ummeedkar, the one who brings hope," which is how Abba saw Babasaheb Ambedkar.
As far as I remember, Kranti from Lahore was the only Urdu magazine that used to report on Babasaheb's speeches and publish them in Urdu translation. Kranti's editor, Sant Ram, was a progressive thinker and writer. Born into a backward caste family, his knowledge of the Hindu religion and casteism was pragmatic and deep. Kranti was run by progressive Hindu members of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, founded in Lahore by the Arya Samajists. It was the only organisation at that time that worked against caste discrimination. In 1943, I also wrote an article in Kranti, "Acchut aur Azaadi" (Untouchability and Freedom). The article attracted a lot of attention, and through it I developed a friendship with Sant Ram.
Sant Ram was also the president of the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, established in 1924 in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province. Lahore was then a great centre of political, religious and literary activity and was home to a great many papers and magazines. Most colleges in North India were situated there, and Central ministries worked from Lahore in winter.
In 1936, the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal organised a major conference in the city and invited Dr Ambedkar to give the presidential address. He was, however, asked to send a copy of his speech beforehand. In it, Babasaheb said it would be his last speech as a Hindu. It was evident that he had decided to leave Hinduism.
Being Arya Samajists, all the members and organisers of the Jat- Pat Todak Mandal were against the conversion of untouchables. Babasaheb was asked to delete parts of his speech as a few Hindu leaders were afraid of his views. He, however, refused to change his speech and declined the Mandal's invitation. Sant Ram later got the speech published separately. In English, it is titled "Annihilation of Caste" and in Hindi "Jaatibhed ka Vichchhed". The speech was translated and published in several languages.
The Jat-Pat Todak Mandal did not, ultimately, have much impact. After Partition, Hindus on the Pakistan side of the border either were killed or they migrated to India. Some adopted Islam to save their lives and property and chose to remain in Pakistan. In India, a few of the earlier activists tried to re-establish the Mandal but they could not achieve much success.
Sant Ram went back to his village, Puranibasi, now in the Indian part of Punjab, but he travelled frequently to Chandigarh and Delhi. He also wrote a few books. Babasaheb deeply valued his dedication to the anticaste struggle and his impeccable character. He used to send copies of his new books to Sant Ram and would look forward to his comments.
Another person working for dalits in Shimla was Laxman Singh Salhotra. He was a Punjabi-speaking matriculate who worked in the Shimla Municipality Committee as a head clerk. He had good relations with Congress and Arya Samaj leaders. One of his friends was a head clerk in the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), and through him I got an appointment as a cpwd accounts clerk. I started working under Shri Rangaswami Lingaasan, who was the assistant engineer in the newly opened sanitary division. Rangaswami Lingaasan had worked during the First World War as a sanitary or executive engineer in Rangoon at the time of the Japanese attack. He belonged to an untouchable caste from South India. Basically Tamil-speaking, he had an excellent command of English, perhaps a reason why I was sent to work under him. It was said that he was related to the famous dalit leader from Madras Presidency, Rao Bahadur M.C. Rajah4, and probably also knew Rao Bahadur N. Shivaraj5, another prominent dalit leader from Madras.
Thursday 27 October 2011
Bhagwan Das: A True Inheritor Of Ambedkar’s Mission
Bhagwan Das: A True Inheritor Of Ambedkar’s Mission
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
23 November, 2010
Countercurrents.org
The passing away of veteran Ambedkarite Bhagwan Das is closure of a great chapter in the contemporary Dalit movement. A close associate of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Bhagwan Das in every sense of life lived a life of true follower of Baba Saheb. I had opportunities to meet on several occasions and would vouch that I remained highly impressed and in awe with his simplicity and the library of knowledge that he had on Ambedkar’s work and writing. He was not a rebel rouser but proved through his meticulous writings that he was much more concerned and his views were immensely important to the growth of Ambedkarite movement. Those narratives and documented work on the life and mission of Ambedkar are inalienable part of the Dalit movement.
It was a great opportunity for me to have heard his counseling on various occasions. For me, just an association with Dr Ambedkar made him a legend in my eyes. But that was not enough; his association with people’s movement particularly with those who believed in Ambedkarite perspective gave him credibility. He has tremendous knowledge about different caste and their issues. I can say that after Dr Ambedkar, he was the most read person in the community who spoke on the contemporary issues with great passion and with a command and conviction of ideas. Though, he was the most respected Ambedkarite of his time, one does not know why the politicians claiming Ambedkar’s legacy kept away from him. It is ironical that the tallest ambedkarite became victim of his caste identity. Though, he was most concerned about the schedule castes yet he often spoke about the marginalization of ‘Bhangis’. Yet, just usage of the term Bhangi made him unpopular among many of his own folks who started using Balmiki which according to Bhagwan Dasji was a term cleverly used to Hinduise the community. His book ‘ Main Bhangi Hoon’, became popular among people yet the community leaders never ever thought of involving him in their issues. I had put this question to him many times as why there is a perception that Balmikis did not join hand with Baba Saheb Ambedkar. But, Bhagwan Das ji was very clear about this and said that the myth that the Balmikis not being part of Ambedkarite movement was absolutely an attempt to divide Ambedkar’s struggle. . He referred to Baba Saheb and his support to the cause of scavengers in Punjab. According to him, it was the Bhangis who invited Baba Saheb to Punjab. But because of politicization of castes, many among his caste felt otherwise. Similarly, the other communities who felt that he was not from them alienated him. It was most tragic thing that I felt and that Bhagwan Dasji knew but Ambedkarism and Buddhism were his two commitments and he never dithered from that.
The 1990s were turbulent years in contemporary Indian political history. The forces of Hindutva were gaining ground with growing assertion of Dalits and backward communities. The Mandal commission report and its aftermath show how the Indian middle classes and caste Hindus did every dirty trick to thwart the implementation of the report. It also showed how the struggle for implementation of Mandal Commission Report was more carried forward by the Dalits and not by the so-called other backward communities for whom the entire exercise was meant. They bore the brunt of the contempt and violence of these reactionary forces. It was also a period of ascendancy of the Bahujan Samaj Party and its politics. They were becoming a force to reckon with yet Bhagwan Das and many other veteran Ambedkarites kept away from it. One does not know whether they kept away from it or were unwanted in the BSP kind of politics. He always focused to develop an enlightened Dalit community which can respond to the upper caste lies and manipulations through knowledge and arguments. He would go to different parts of the country particularly in organizations like Samta Sainik Dal to strengthen the movement.
It was tragic that the person who was an embodiment of a true Ambedkarite did not get the respect that he deserved. It is an undeniable fact that Bhagwan Das was perhaps the tallest Ambedkarite in the post Ambedkar era. The amount of work that he contributed to explore Ambedkar and his writings is unparallel. He was a living encyclopedia of Ambedkarite perspective on various contemporary issues. I can say without any doubt in my mind that whenever I had any doubt about anything about Baba Saheb’s writing and work, I would first speak to him and try to find the factual position. He had numerous anecdotes about Baba Saheb Ambedkar and how he got influenced with his life and action. Each time, I visited him; I would just listen to his arguments and narratives. With his personal warmth, each narrative was important and that is why I felt that I should record his views and one day I went with my camera to record his views on contemporary issues. It was a seer pleasure to listen his enlightened views.
It was always a sense of deep enlightenment to have met Bhagwan Dasji. A man who saw and worked with Ambedkar was so simple in his personal life. I was fortunate enough to have met him so many times and in our small association he too developed respect of the work that I was doing and hence was always available for the seminars and conferences that we organized on contemporary issues related to Dalits and marginalized. In those days, I was regular in these meetings and listening to him always gave a great pleasure. Anyone, who heard him for one or two hours, could never say that his grasp over the subject was not increased. His understanding of Indian caste system was tremendous. A widely traveled person, Bhagwan Dasji would inform you about the caste and sub caste issues with impeccable knowledge on the issue. That also showed that he was not just a book worm but a widely accessible person to people who understood their feelings and issues.
There was no difference in his personal life and beliefs. I knew many veteran Ambedkarites for whom Ambedkarism was just a political thought but Bhagwan Dasji proved through his life and mission how one can live a life of true Ambedkarite. It is difficult to see that kind of warmth that he possessed when we become machines without emotions and solidarity. As a young activist, I learnt from him so many things that it is difficult to narrate but every time when I would visit him, the first thing he would ask me to relax or take a cup of tea of coffee prepared by him. He would bring himself the tea and ask me to first have it and then discuss any other thing. He would inquire how am coming from a far away place to meet him and he always encouraged my deep sense of commitment to Ambedkarite thought.
Bhagwan Das was the first person who brought the issue untouchables ( I am using his term only as he refused to use the word Dalit) or Scheduled Castes at the international forums, at the United Nations and at various international human rights forums. Today, the Dalit issues have got international recognition and many may claim to have done it but the ground work for it was done by Bhagwan Das when there were not many civil society organizations working for human rights of the Dalits.
It is equally important to know that these Dalit rights organizations never felt to honor him or take his guidance on the issues of the Dalits in contemporary India. Of course, last year a Hindi literary journal devoted to Ambedkarite philosophy carried a special issue on him. It is tragic that a man of his stature remained a person non grata in his own community because he embraced Buddhism and was a true Ambedkarite. He was concerned about the manual scavenging practices in our society and was worried about their conditions and isolation with in the Dalit movement yet he never really supported the sub-caste identities. For him, being Ambedkarite was the most important part of a person life and that is where I felt that he was far above than many of his contemporaries. I understood the politics going in the name of Dalit Bahujan and had his own reservation about them. There were very few like him who could speak of conviction despite the emotional feelings of many. His commitment was to Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s thought and he traveled to nook and corner of the country to spread the message of Dr Ambedkar in true sense.
Today, when the media has been highlighting the ‘Dalit issues’ and some of them have given some ‘space’ to new ‘Dalit’ ‘movement’, yet the harsh reality is that none ever thought to approach him to speak on the contemporary issues. Was it because he did not have JNU tag which our media wants? Was it because he equally condemned the globalization and knew the international instruments of human rights much better and hence would not speak the language of the corporate media for the sake of appearing in their programme? It is shocking that none in the mainstream media thought of writing about the man who was undoubtedly the tallest Ambedkarite amongst us. Like Baba Saheb he reminded us the power of knowledge and self change. That cultural change in self made Bhagwan Das is much bigger than others but alas our political class, self proclaimed messiahs and so-called international activists would have taken a few things from him for the benefit of masses. He never resorted to rhetoric which are the hall mark of today’s literature and politics. He shined through his knowledge, his humility and his convictions. Whether corporatised brahmanical media remember him or not, Bhagwan Das remain am icon for all those who have not compromised on their basic principals and adhered to original philosophy of Baba Saheb Ambedkar of enlightenment through passion and participation. Like Baba Saheb Ambedkar, he left with a rich legacy of enormous material on Ambedkarism, Caste particularly related to Scheduled castes and on Buddhism. Generations will benefit from his work on caste and religion in India particularly those who are the most marginalized and how Dr Ambedkar fought his battle against the status quoits forces. As we grow and face so many challenges of caste, class, imperialism and communalism, Bhagwan Dasji’s writings will be the guide for us to understand Baba Saheb Ambedkar and how Ambedkar could have responded to current crisis. We remain indebted to him for his path breaking work on Baba Saheb Ambedkar and his unquestionable integrity to strengthen an Ambedkarite India where each one of us can live with equality, dignity and self esteem.
www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
23 November, 2010
Countercurrents.org
The passing away of veteran Ambedkarite Bhagwan Das is closure of a great chapter in the contemporary Dalit movement. A close associate of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Bhagwan Das in every sense of life lived a life of true follower of Baba Saheb. I had opportunities to meet on several occasions and would vouch that I remained highly impressed and in awe with his simplicity and the library of knowledge that he had on Ambedkar’s work and writing. He was not a rebel rouser but proved through his meticulous writings that he was much more concerned and his views were immensely important to the growth of Ambedkarite movement. Those narratives and documented work on the life and mission of Ambedkar are inalienable part of the Dalit movement.
It was a great opportunity for me to have heard his counseling on various occasions. For me, just an association with Dr Ambedkar made him a legend in my eyes. But that was not enough; his association with people’s movement particularly with those who believed in Ambedkarite perspective gave him credibility. He has tremendous knowledge about different caste and their issues. I can say that after Dr Ambedkar, he was the most read person in the community who spoke on the contemporary issues with great passion and with a command and conviction of ideas. Though, he was the most respected Ambedkarite of his time, one does not know why the politicians claiming Ambedkar’s legacy kept away from him. It is ironical that the tallest ambedkarite became victim of his caste identity. Though, he was most concerned about the schedule castes yet he often spoke about the marginalization of ‘Bhangis’. Yet, just usage of the term Bhangi made him unpopular among many of his own folks who started using Balmiki which according to Bhagwan Dasji was a term cleverly used to Hinduise the community. His book ‘ Main Bhangi Hoon’, became popular among people yet the community leaders never ever thought of involving him in their issues. I had put this question to him many times as why there is a perception that Balmikis did not join hand with Baba Saheb Ambedkar. But, Bhagwan Das ji was very clear about this and said that the myth that the Balmikis not being part of Ambedkarite movement was absolutely an attempt to divide Ambedkar’s struggle. . He referred to Baba Saheb and his support to the cause of scavengers in Punjab. According to him, it was the Bhangis who invited Baba Saheb to Punjab. But because of politicization of castes, many among his caste felt otherwise. Similarly, the other communities who felt that he was not from them alienated him. It was most tragic thing that I felt and that Bhagwan Dasji knew but Ambedkarism and Buddhism were his two commitments and he never dithered from that.
The 1990s were turbulent years in contemporary Indian political history. The forces of Hindutva were gaining ground with growing assertion of Dalits and backward communities. The Mandal commission report and its aftermath show how the Indian middle classes and caste Hindus did every dirty trick to thwart the implementation of the report. It also showed how the struggle for implementation of Mandal Commission Report was more carried forward by the Dalits and not by the so-called other backward communities for whom the entire exercise was meant. They bore the brunt of the contempt and violence of these reactionary forces. It was also a period of ascendancy of the Bahujan Samaj Party and its politics. They were becoming a force to reckon with yet Bhagwan Das and many other veteran Ambedkarites kept away from it. One does not know whether they kept away from it or were unwanted in the BSP kind of politics. He always focused to develop an enlightened Dalit community which can respond to the upper caste lies and manipulations through knowledge and arguments. He would go to different parts of the country particularly in organizations like Samta Sainik Dal to strengthen the movement.
It was tragic that the person who was an embodiment of a true Ambedkarite did not get the respect that he deserved. It is an undeniable fact that Bhagwan Das was perhaps the tallest Ambedkarite in the post Ambedkar era. The amount of work that he contributed to explore Ambedkar and his writings is unparallel. He was a living encyclopedia of Ambedkarite perspective on various contemporary issues. I can say without any doubt in my mind that whenever I had any doubt about anything about Baba Saheb’s writing and work, I would first speak to him and try to find the factual position. He had numerous anecdotes about Baba Saheb Ambedkar and how he got influenced with his life and action. Each time, I visited him; I would just listen to his arguments and narratives. With his personal warmth, each narrative was important and that is why I felt that I should record his views and one day I went with my camera to record his views on contemporary issues. It was a seer pleasure to listen his enlightened views.
It was always a sense of deep enlightenment to have met Bhagwan Dasji. A man who saw and worked with Ambedkar was so simple in his personal life. I was fortunate enough to have met him so many times and in our small association he too developed respect of the work that I was doing and hence was always available for the seminars and conferences that we organized on contemporary issues related to Dalits and marginalized. In those days, I was regular in these meetings and listening to him always gave a great pleasure. Anyone, who heard him for one or two hours, could never say that his grasp over the subject was not increased. His understanding of Indian caste system was tremendous. A widely traveled person, Bhagwan Dasji would inform you about the caste and sub caste issues with impeccable knowledge on the issue. That also showed that he was not just a book worm but a widely accessible person to people who understood their feelings and issues.
There was no difference in his personal life and beliefs. I knew many veteran Ambedkarites for whom Ambedkarism was just a political thought but Bhagwan Dasji proved through his life and mission how one can live a life of true Ambedkarite. It is difficult to see that kind of warmth that he possessed when we become machines without emotions and solidarity. As a young activist, I learnt from him so many things that it is difficult to narrate but every time when I would visit him, the first thing he would ask me to relax or take a cup of tea of coffee prepared by him. He would bring himself the tea and ask me to first have it and then discuss any other thing. He would inquire how am coming from a far away place to meet him and he always encouraged my deep sense of commitment to Ambedkarite thought.
Bhagwan Das was the first person who brought the issue untouchables ( I am using his term only as he refused to use the word Dalit) or Scheduled Castes at the international forums, at the United Nations and at various international human rights forums. Today, the Dalit issues have got international recognition and many may claim to have done it but the ground work for it was done by Bhagwan Das when there were not many civil society organizations working for human rights of the Dalits.
It is equally important to know that these Dalit rights organizations never felt to honor him or take his guidance on the issues of the Dalits in contemporary India. Of course, last year a Hindi literary journal devoted to Ambedkarite philosophy carried a special issue on him. It is tragic that a man of his stature remained a person non grata in his own community because he embraced Buddhism and was a true Ambedkarite. He was concerned about the manual scavenging practices in our society and was worried about their conditions and isolation with in the Dalit movement yet he never really supported the sub-caste identities. For him, being Ambedkarite was the most important part of a person life and that is where I felt that he was far above than many of his contemporaries. I understood the politics going in the name of Dalit Bahujan and had his own reservation about them. There were very few like him who could speak of conviction despite the emotional feelings of many. His commitment was to Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s thought and he traveled to nook and corner of the country to spread the message of Dr Ambedkar in true sense.
Today, when the media has been highlighting the ‘Dalit issues’ and some of them have given some ‘space’ to new ‘Dalit’ ‘movement’, yet the harsh reality is that none ever thought to approach him to speak on the contemporary issues. Was it because he did not have JNU tag which our media wants? Was it because he equally condemned the globalization and knew the international instruments of human rights much better and hence would not speak the language of the corporate media for the sake of appearing in their programme? It is shocking that none in the mainstream media thought of writing about the man who was undoubtedly the tallest Ambedkarite amongst us. Like Baba Saheb he reminded us the power of knowledge and self change. That cultural change in self made Bhagwan Das is much bigger than others but alas our political class, self proclaimed messiahs and so-called international activists would have taken a few things from him for the benefit of masses. He never resorted to rhetoric which are the hall mark of today’s literature and politics. He shined through his knowledge, his humility and his convictions. Whether corporatised brahmanical media remember him or not, Bhagwan Das remain am icon for all those who have not compromised on their basic principals and adhered to original philosophy of Baba Saheb Ambedkar of enlightenment through passion and participation. Like Baba Saheb Ambedkar, he left with a rich legacy of enormous material on Ambedkarism, Caste particularly related to Scheduled castes and on Buddhism. Generations will benefit from his work on caste and religion in India particularly those who are the most marginalized and how Dr Ambedkar fought his battle against the status quoits forces. As we grow and face so many challenges of caste, class, imperialism and communalism, Bhagwan Dasji’s writings will be the guide for us to understand Baba Saheb Ambedkar and how Ambedkar could have responded to current crisis. We remain indebted to him for his path breaking work on Baba Saheb Ambedkar and his unquestionable integrity to strengthen an Ambedkarite India where each one of us can live with equality, dignity and self esteem.
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Bhagwan Das:The historian of ‘his people’ OBITUARY
Bhagwan Das:The historian of ‘his people’
OBITUARY
The historian of ‘his people’
VIJAY PRASHAD
Bhagwan Das (1927-2010). His life was given over to the fight against caste and untouchability, and towards the promotion of Buddhism.
During the monsoon season of 1991, I began my dissertation research in Delhi. I always knew that the project was going to be hard: to write the history of the Balmiki community of North India. In graduate school at the University of Chicago I studied with Barney Cohn, who guided me deftly into the study of a “people without history”. Nothing about the Balmiki community was without history, but its absence in the archives made writing the history difficult. Unlike commercial communities whose archives resided in their transaction documents and unlike royal families whose archives slumbered in palaces and in war notes, the “untouchables” of India did not seem to have their own archives, and only rarely made an appearance in history books.
My work began in the National Archives of India, where my friend Prabhu Mohapatra led me into the Revenue papers. Here, in the margins, I found a lot of information on the Chuhra community of Punjab – the people whose hard labour made Punjab’s fields flower. I also went out to the various colonies where the Balmiki community lived: in the Bhangi colony on Mandir Marg and in the Old City, along its walls. One evening, near Kalan Masjid, a community elder handed me a slip of paper that had a name and a number written on it. He told me to call the number and go and see the man.
A few days later, I called the number and asked to speak to Bhagwan Das. In less than a minute a man came on the line. He spoke with what sounded vaguely like an American accent. Very courteously he asked me to see him a few days later. Bhagwan Das lived in a modest housing complex in Munirka. His unpretentious apartment was filled with books and magazines, all well read.
One of the first questions I asked him was about his accent. He laughed, a bit startled by my abruptness, and told me about his childhood near Shimla, in the Jutogh cantonment. English came to him not from the colonial overlords, but in the 1940s when he encountered U.S. airmen during his service on the Burma front during the Second World War. We chatted about the American troops, and he told me that he had befriended a few African-Americans among them. He was curious about racial discrimination and they were interested in his Dalit community (a U.S. air force report in the 1940s noted, “Native persons here are of a dark race and the Negro fails to respect their rights and privacy”; certainly the airmen that Bhagwan Das met did not respect his privacy, but they did honour his rights). These evenings in Bhagwan Das’ house were my apprenticeship.
Many scholars came through Bhagwan Das’ Munirka flat. He offered us his encyclopaedic knowledge and his kind wisdom. When I heard he had died on November 18, I was reminded of his calm intelligence and his kindness. Born in 1927 in the Jutogh cantonment, Bhagwan Das came of age in the shadow of B.R. Ambedkar, whom he met for the first time in 1943 in Shimla. Ambedkar drew him into the Scheduled Castes Federation and into working for him as a research assistant between 1955 and 1956. Finishing his law degree, Bhagwan Das went to work at the High Court. This was his job. His life was given over to the fight against untouchability and caste, and towards the promotion of Buddhism.
Bhagwan Das helped found the World Conference of Religions for Peace (Kyoto, 1970), along with the remarkable American Gandhian, Homer Jack. In 1983, he spoke before the United Nations on the vice of untouchability. He pointed out that India has an enlightened Constitution, what many in his circle called “Dr. Ambedkar’s Constitution. Nevertheless, Bhagwan Das told the U.N., “Anything which the untouchables consider good for them is vehemently resisted and opposed. Whatever goes to make them weak, dispirited, disunited and dependent is encouraged.” It was a powerful presentation.
Bhagwan Das was also a leading figure in making sure that the Dalit issue was not seen only in its domestic context, but taken in an Asian and global framework. In 1998, he was central to the creation of the International Dalit Convention (Kuala Lumpur) and had a role in the Dalit presence at the World Conference Against Racism (Durban, 2001). I had presented a paper at the U.N. conference on Dalit oppression in the global context, a talk that greatly pleased him (it was later published in a volume in honour of Eleanor Zelliot, titled Claiming Power from Below, by Oxford University Press). At the time of his death, Bhagwan Das was working on a book on untouchability in Asia.
I went to see Bhagwan Das several times during the early 1990s. He had a remarkable memory: one day, in 1993 (as my notes tell me), he fired off a series of names of people I should meet: Kanhayya Lal, Bhagwan Din, Narain Din, Kalyan Chand, Shiv Charan, and so on. Each name came with a story. Bhagwan Das did not have to consult any paper or notes; he had their names and their biographies at his fingertips. It was exhilarating. What kind of idea was this that a “people have no history”!
Bhagwan Das was a living historian and his autobiography, Mein Bhangi Hoon (I am a Bhangi, 1976), provided a window into the life and lineage of one person who fought against the idea that he had no history. A part of his story is available from Navayana as In Pursuit of Ambedkar, 2010. I read his works eagerly. He also taught me how to create my archive. The state might have only put the Chuhra and the Balmiki into marginal notes; but the people were less dismissive of their own histories. In plastic bags, and wrapped in rope, under beds and in steel trunks, he said, there were documents galore; and indeed this was the case. The most precious papers that tell the history of the Balmiki community were not found in the National Archives but in the humble homes from northern Punjab to western Uttar Pradesh.
One day Bhagwan Das said to me, get out of Delhi. Go to Punjab. That is where the trick will be uncovered. He sent me to meet Lahori Ram Balley, the remarkable leader of Buddhist Publishing House at Phagwara Gate in Jalandhar. Lahori Ram told me the story of the Scheduled Caste Federation of Punjab and handed me an invaluable pamphlet by Fazul Hussain ( Achutuddhar aur Hindu asksariyat ke mansube, Lahore, 1930).
Lahori Ram had encouraged Bhagwan Das’ intellectual and political work. Both were followers of Ambedkar. In the 1960s, the two friends would publish a series of books of Ambedkar’s speeches, Thus Spoke Ambedkar (edited with superb introductions by Bhagwan Das; the first in 1964). The second volume opened with a poem by Khalil Gibran, demonstrating the open-mindedness of these men. They were not bilious like those dominant caste intellectuals; nor were they prone to compromise. The first volume was strongly criticised by the press, Bhagwan Das recollected. “We expected it and in fact welcomed the criticism,” he wrote in the second volume, “because we believe nobody kicks a dead dog. All great ideas have to pass through three stages namely ridicule, discussion and finally acceptance.” They were at the first stage. The next was before them.
The generosity of Bhagwan Das and his friends never ceased to astonish me. Lahori Ram and Bhagwan Das also sent me off to meet the leaders of the Balmiki community in Jalandhar and Ludhiana, and later, in Shimla. The trick was here. I had not noticed it. They knew where they were leading me. It was the classic matter of the novice historian being led by the intellectual engagé.
Just outside Jalandhar, in a Balmiki-dominated village, I spent several nights. One went poorly. It was cold, and I was not keen on the bed. I went for a walk just before dawn. In the field I saw a light flickering, and went toward it. There I saw an old man lighting a set of lamps and placing them in a set of pigeon-holes. He was in what might have been a trance. I watched him, and then retreated. The next morning I asked him what he was doing. He told me about Bala Shah Nuri and Lal Beg, the preceptors of the Chuhras, the great faith of his people that had been obliterated in the 1930s. It was in this decade that the Chuhras had been force-marched into Hinduism and encouraged to forget their own religion and customs. This was the trick.
I went back to Delhi. Bhagwan Das knew I had found it out when I walked into his door (it must have been in March 1993). He handed me his book, Valmiki Jayanti aur Bhangi Jati, which laid out part of the story. Later, I found Amichand Pandit’s Valmiki Prakash (1936), which was a catechism for the Chuhras; and I found Youngson’s collection of Lalbeg songs in The Indian Antiquary (1906).
Bhagwan Das appreciated how we had together uncovered a forgotten story: how his community’s deep cultural traditions had been vanquished by the Hindu Mahasabha and conservative sections of the Congress – eager as they were to increase the numbers of “Hindus” against “Muslims”. It was a tragedy for the Chuhras, the Lalbegs, the Bala Shahis: they now became second-class Hindus. It is from this kind of reduction that human dignity shudders. It was also out of this history that Bhagwan Das followed Ambedkar to Buddhism; better a new religion that one loved than an enforced one that treated you as beneath contempt.
The generations before us loved poetry. It is something that we have lost to our own discredit. To make a point, and to do so in an unexpected way, they would often offer up a couplet or a line of poetry. It was very graceful. Bhagwan Das loved poetry. He particularly liked to talk with me about the verse of the Punjabi branch of the Balmiki community. It is from him that I grew to love the writings of Bhagmal ‘Pagal’, whom I would later meet in Jalandhar, and Gurudas ‘Alam’, whose poem from 1947 stays with me.
After one trip to Jalandhar, I brought back Alam’s Jo Mai Mar Gia (1975) for Bhagwan Das. We sat in the main room in his house, me drinking tea, and him reading out the poems. Here is Azaadi,
My friend, have you seen Freedom?
I’ve neither seen her nor eaten her.
I heard from Jaggu:
She has come as far as Ambala,
And there was a large crowd around her.
She was facing Birla with her back towards the common people.
In Jalandhar, I also met R.C. Sangal, the editor of Jago, Jagte Raho, from whom I got a stack of the papers. Bhagwan Das enjoyed the fact that the paper carried the verse of Baudh Sharan Hans and Alam (I also found Bodhdharam Patrika, another Ambedkarite newspaper that regularly carried poetry, including, from 1978, Alam’s great Chunav). The last time I met Bhagwan Das, we talked about poetry. I had thought to bring together some of these poets into a small volume. I was such a poor translator that I doubted my abilities. He was as encouraging as ever.
He called Ambedkar “an iconoclast and a revolutionary”. These words apply to Bhagwan Das himself, whose flat in Munirka was a stone’s throw from Jawaharlal Nehru University, but for me it was an intellectual haven like no other.
OBITUARY
The historian of ‘his people’
VIJAY PRASHAD
Bhagwan Das (1927-2010). His life was given over to the fight against caste and untouchability, and towards the promotion of Buddhism.
During the monsoon season of 1991, I began my dissertation research in Delhi. I always knew that the project was going to be hard: to write the history of the Balmiki community of North India. In graduate school at the University of Chicago I studied with Barney Cohn, who guided me deftly into the study of a “people without history”. Nothing about the Balmiki community was without history, but its absence in the archives made writing the history difficult. Unlike commercial communities whose archives resided in their transaction documents and unlike royal families whose archives slumbered in palaces and in war notes, the “untouchables” of India did not seem to have their own archives, and only rarely made an appearance in history books.
My work began in the National Archives of India, where my friend Prabhu Mohapatra led me into the Revenue papers. Here, in the margins, I found a lot of information on the Chuhra community of Punjab – the people whose hard labour made Punjab’s fields flower. I also went out to the various colonies where the Balmiki community lived: in the Bhangi colony on Mandir Marg and in the Old City, along its walls. One evening, near Kalan Masjid, a community elder handed me a slip of paper that had a name and a number written on it. He told me to call the number and go and see the man.
A few days later, I called the number and asked to speak to Bhagwan Das. In less than a minute a man came on the line. He spoke with what sounded vaguely like an American accent. Very courteously he asked me to see him a few days later. Bhagwan Das lived in a modest housing complex in Munirka. His unpretentious apartment was filled with books and magazines, all well read.
One of the first questions I asked him was about his accent. He laughed, a bit startled by my abruptness, and told me about his childhood near Shimla, in the Jutogh cantonment. English came to him not from the colonial overlords, but in the 1940s when he encountered U.S. airmen during his service on the Burma front during the Second World War. We chatted about the American troops, and he told me that he had befriended a few African-Americans among them. He was curious about racial discrimination and they were interested in his Dalit community (a U.S. air force report in the 1940s noted, “Native persons here are of a dark race and the Negro fails to respect their rights and privacy”; certainly the airmen that Bhagwan Das met did not respect his privacy, but they did honour his rights). These evenings in Bhagwan Das’ house were my apprenticeship.
Many scholars came through Bhagwan Das’ Munirka flat. He offered us his encyclopaedic knowledge and his kind wisdom. When I heard he had died on November 18, I was reminded of his calm intelligence and his kindness. Born in 1927 in the Jutogh cantonment, Bhagwan Das came of age in the shadow of B.R. Ambedkar, whom he met for the first time in 1943 in Shimla. Ambedkar drew him into the Scheduled Castes Federation and into working for him as a research assistant between 1955 and 1956. Finishing his law degree, Bhagwan Das went to work at the High Court. This was his job. His life was given over to the fight against untouchability and caste, and towards the promotion of Buddhism.
Bhagwan Das helped found the World Conference of Religions for Peace (Kyoto, 1970), along with the remarkable American Gandhian, Homer Jack. In 1983, he spoke before the United Nations on the vice of untouchability. He pointed out that India has an enlightened Constitution, what many in his circle called “Dr. Ambedkar’s Constitution. Nevertheless, Bhagwan Das told the U.N., “Anything which the untouchables consider good for them is vehemently resisted and opposed. Whatever goes to make them weak, dispirited, disunited and dependent is encouraged.” It was a powerful presentation.
Bhagwan Das was also a leading figure in making sure that the Dalit issue was not seen only in its domestic context, but taken in an Asian and global framework. In 1998, he was central to the creation of the International Dalit Convention (Kuala Lumpur) and had a role in the Dalit presence at the World Conference Against Racism (Durban, 2001). I had presented a paper at the U.N. conference on Dalit oppression in the global context, a talk that greatly pleased him (it was later published in a volume in honour of Eleanor Zelliot, titled Claiming Power from Below, by Oxford University Press). At the time of his death, Bhagwan Das was working on a book on untouchability in Asia.
I went to see Bhagwan Das several times during the early 1990s. He had a remarkable memory: one day, in 1993 (as my notes tell me), he fired off a series of names of people I should meet: Kanhayya Lal, Bhagwan Din, Narain Din, Kalyan Chand, Shiv Charan, and so on. Each name came with a story. Bhagwan Das did not have to consult any paper or notes; he had their names and their biographies at his fingertips. It was exhilarating. What kind of idea was this that a “people have no history”!
Bhagwan Das was a living historian and his autobiography, Mein Bhangi Hoon (I am a Bhangi, 1976), provided a window into the life and lineage of one person who fought against the idea that he had no history. A part of his story is available from Navayana as In Pursuit of Ambedkar, 2010. I read his works eagerly. He also taught me how to create my archive. The state might have only put the Chuhra and the Balmiki into marginal notes; but the people were less dismissive of their own histories. In plastic bags, and wrapped in rope, under beds and in steel trunks, he said, there were documents galore; and indeed this was the case. The most precious papers that tell the history of the Balmiki community were not found in the National Archives but in the humble homes from northern Punjab to western Uttar Pradesh.
One day Bhagwan Das said to me, get out of Delhi. Go to Punjab. That is where the trick will be uncovered. He sent me to meet Lahori Ram Balley, the remarkable leader of Buddhist Publishing House at Phagwara Gate in Jalandhar. Lahori Ram told me the story of the Scheduled Caste Federation of Punjab and handed me an invaluable pamphlet by Fazul Hussain ( Achutuddhar aur Hindu asksariyat ke mansube, Lahore, 1930).
Lahori Ram had encouraged Bhagwan Das’ intellectual and political work. Both were followers of Ambedkar. In the 1960s, the two friends would publish a series of books of Ambedkar’s speeches, Thus Spoke Ambedkar (edited with superb introductions by Bhagwan Das; the first in 1964). The second volume opened with a poem by Khalil Gibran, demonstrating the open-mindedness of these men. They were not bilious like those dominant caste intellectuals; nor were they prone to compromise. The first volume was strongly criticised by the press, Bhagwan Das recollected. “We expected it and in fact welcomed the criticism,” he wrote in the second volume, “because we believe nobody kicks a dead dog. All great ideas have to pass through three stages namely ridicule, discussion and finally acceptance.” They were at the first stage. The next was before them.
The generosity of Bhagwan Das and his friends never ceased to astonish me. Lahori Ram and Bhagwan Das also sent me off to meet the leaders of the Balmiki community in Jalandhar and Ludhiana, and later, in Shimla. The trick was here. I had not noticed it. They knew where they were leading me. It was the classic matter of the novice historian being led by the intellectual engagé.
Just outside Jalandhar, in a Balmiki-dominated village, I spent several nights. One went poorly. It was cold, and I was not keen on the bed. I went for a walk just before dawn. In the field I saw a light flickering, and went toward it. There I saw an old man lighting a set of lamps and placing them in a set of pigeon-holes. He was in what might have been a trance. I watched him, and then retreated. The next morning I asked him what he was doing. He told me about Bala Shah Nuri and Lal Beg, the preceptors of the Chuhras, the great faith of his people that had been obliterated in the 1930s. It was in this decade that the Chuhras had been force-marched into Hinduism and encouraged to forget their own religion and customs. This was the trick.
I went back to Delhi. Bhagwan Das knew I had found it out when I walked into his door (it must have been in March 1993). He handed me his book, Valmiki Jayanti aur Bhangi Jati, which laid out part of the story. Later, I found Amichand Pandit’s Valmiki Prakash (1936), which was a catechism for the Chuhras; and I found Youngson’s collection of Lalbeg songs in The Indian Antiquary (1906).
Bhagwan Das appreciated how we had together uncovered a forgotten story: how his community’s deep cultural traditions had been vanquished by the Hindu Mahasabha and conservative sections of the Congress – eager as they were to increase the numbers of “Hindus” against “Muslims”. It was a tragedy for the Chuhras, the Lalbegs, the Bala Shahis: they now became second-class Hindus. It is from this kind of reduction that human dignity shudders. It was also out of this history that Bhagwan Das followed Ambedkar to Buddhism; better a new religion that one loved than an enforced one that treated you as beneath contempt.
The generations before us loved poetry. It is something that we have lost to our own discredit. To make a point, and to do so in an unexpected way, they would often offer up a couplet or a line of poetry. It was very graceful. Bhagwan Das loved poetry. He particularly liked to talk with me about the verse of the Punjabi branch of the Balmiki community. It is from him that I grew to love the writings of Bhagmal ‘Pagal’, whom I would later meet in Jalandhar, and Gurudas ‘Alam’, whose poem from 1947 stays with me.
After one trip to Jalandhar, I brought back Alam’s Jo Mai Mar Gia (1975) for Bhagwan Das. We sat in the main room in his house, me drinking tea, and him reading out the poems. Here is Azaadi,
My friend, have you seen Freedom?
I’ve neither seen her nor eaten her.
I heard from Jaggu:
She has come as far as Ambala,
And there was a large crowd around her.
She was facing Birla with her back towards the common people.
In Jalandhar, I also met R.C. Sangal, the editor of Jago, Jagte Raho, from whom I got a stack of the papers. Bhagwan Das enjoyed the fact that the paper carried the verse of Baudh Sharan Hans and Alam (I also found Bodhdharam Patrika, another Ambedkarite newspaper that regularly carried poetry, including, from 1978, Alam’s great Chunav). The last time I met Bhagwan Das, we talked about poetry. I had thought to bring together some of these poets into a small volume. I was such a poor translator that I doubted my abilities. He was as encouraging as ever.
He called Ambedkar “an iconoclast and a revolutionary”. These words apply to Bhagwan Das himself, whose flat in Munirka was a stone’s throw from Jawaharlal Nehru University, but for me it was an intellectual haven like no other.
Wednesday 26 October 2011
Mr. Bhagwan Das, our Guide and Mentor
Mr. Bhagwan Das, our Guide and Mentor
By Arun Kumar
Hearing the news of the passing away of Mr. Bhagwan Das Ji, a wave of shock spread through out the Ambedkarite movement in the UK. He had a special relationship with the UK people. I feel privileged to see and meet Mr. Bhagwan Das. I had read most of his books especially his ‘Thus Spoke Ambedkar’ series. I was greatly impressed and influenced by his writings. I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Bhagwan Das in 1983 for the first time when he visited UK on the invitation of Dr. Ambedkar Mission society, Bedford. This Society had a long association with Mr. Das. Some of the NRIs in Bedford set up an organisation called Bheem Association in 1969. Due changing circumstances and to connect with the mainstream Ambedkarite movement, Mr. Bhagwan Das suggested to change the name. Hence Dr. Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford came into existence.
Mr. Bhagwan Das was one of the few Ambedkarite scholars involved in highlighting the plight of Dalits at international level. He was one of the founder members of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP). He attended many sessions of the (WCRP) held in Kenya, Japan, Malaysia, USA and many other countries. Dr. Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford was a part of most of his ventures in one way or the other. He gave testimony in the 36th Session of the United Nations Commission on Prevention of Discrimination of Minorities held at Geneva in August 1983 on behalf of Dr. Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford and many other organisations from India and abroad. Before going to Geneva, he stayed with us about one week. At that time he was staying with late Mr. Chanan Chahal. I used to spend every evening with him.
While preparing his testimony, Mr. Das said that it would be nice if a few copies of his testimony are made for distribution to the delegates. It would leave a long lasting impact. At that time there was no facility of modern computers and photocopying. We bought an old type cyclostyle copier. Mr. Dass typed his speech on stencils and we made copies. We all finished this work about 2 O’clock in the morning. Over hundred copies were made which Mr. Das took with him to Geneva.
After this testimony, the Indian Muslim, Sikh and Hindu delegates turned against him and conspired to omit his name from the next session of WCRP to be held in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Das asked us to write to the Secretary General of WCRP and explained the situation. A letter was written to the Secretary General, Dr. Homer A. Jack and request was made for inclusion of Mr. Das in the delegation list as he was the only voice of the voiceless people in India. Dr. Jack was a genuine person. He thanked the Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford for letting him know the conspiracy and assured us that Mr. Das would attend the conference. Das Sahib was invited as an ‘expert on the Asian Affairs’. All Indian delegates kept a distance from him. Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi invited all Indian delegates for dinner but boycotted Mr. Das. Bhagwan Dass ji told me later on that boycott incident went in his favour as delegates from other countries came to know the
truth and Mr. Das became a regular invitee to the future conferences. Since then we were in regular contact with each other.
In 1988, Federation of Ambedkarite & Buddhist Organisations UK had a preliminary meeting to celebrate Ambedkar Birth Centenary in the UK. Mr. Bhagwan Das was also present in this meeting. The meeting was held under his Chairmanship. On his initiative, an organisation ‘International Ambedkar Institute, UK’ was set up to take Ambedkar thought in the premier institutes in the UK and do some research work. Renowned actor and film maker, late Kenneth Griffiths was elected as a Chairman who later on made a documentary film on Baba Sahib Ambedkar. During this visit, Das Sahib came to Bedford where he was interviewed by the BBC Radio, Bedfordshire and Chiltern Radio. I requested the BBC presenter for a copy of his interview. He was kind enough to send me the original recording of his interview.
During the Ambedkar Birth Centenary years, Mr. Das visited UK several times. Most of the time, he stayed with Mr. M.S. Bahal and Mr. C. Gautam as all Centenary Celebration activities were in and around London area. They took him around. He took part in many conferences and seminars. He addressed the gathering at the inaugural function of Ambedkar Birth Centenary at the commonwealth Hall, the Royal Commonwealth Society on 14th April 1990. Again he gave a talk at the Great Hall of Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn on 21st February 1991. As I was a part of the Centenary Celebration Committee, UK, I often met him in every function. During his visits, he always spared some time for us and came to Bedford.
As a President of Dalit Solidarity Programme (DSP), he was invited to give talk in Edinburgh University in Scotland. He gave a presentation by showing a short film narrating the history and present conditions of Dalits. Because of a long distance from Bedford and the paucity of time, he was unable to come to Bedford. Instead late Mr. Chanan Chahal, Mr. Dhanpat Rattu, Mr. Satpal Paul and I went to see him.
Once discussing about globalisation and privatisation, he clarified that our people are more adversely affected than others. He gave an example that our people were employed as sweepers in the municipalities. With this new mantra of privatisation the sweepers were being made redundant. Before this privatisation, they had permanent employment with all benefits of a government employee such as job security, health benefits, holidays, pensions etc. Their children had a scope for education. But now the contractor is a ‘sharma’, ‘verma’ or ‘gupta’ who employ the same people on daily wages with no security of work, no pension, and no health benefit. In this situation, children help their parents to earn their livelihood and drop out from schools. Similarly the people who were engaged in the leather work had also lost out. All benefits are taken by contractors but the work was still done by scheduled castes and tribes. . As contractors are from
higher castes good jobs go to higher castes and our people end up with old menial jobs.
Last time I saw him about three four years ago at his Munirka residence at Delhi. Dr. Gurcharn Singh from Delhi was with me. We spent about two hours with him. He enquired about all friends and the movement in the UK. He was as enthusiastic as he used to be about 20-30 years ago. But I could see his failing health.
With his demise, we have lost our guide and mentor. I will always treasure his memories in my heart. He will always be missed but never forgotten.
I am attaching his testimony given in the UN in 1983. His views and facts are as relevant today as they were 27 years ago.
By Arun Kumar
Hearing the news of the passing away of Mr. Bhagwan Das Ji, a wave of shock spread through out the Ambedkarite movement in the UK. He had a special relationship with the UK people. I feel privileged to see and meet Mr. Bhagwan Das. I had read most of his books especially his ‘Thus Spoke Ambedkar’ series. I was greatly impressed and influenced by his writings. I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Bhagwan Das in 1983 for the first time when he visited UK on the invitation of Dr. Ambedkar Mission society, Bedford. This Society had a long association with Mr. Das. Some of the NRIs in Bedford set up an organisation called Bheem Association in 1969. Due changing circumstances and to connect with the mainstream Ambedkarite movement, Mr. Bhagwan Das suggested to change the name. Hence Dr. Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford came into existence.
Mr. Bhagwan Das was one of the few Ambedkarite scholars involved in highlighting the plight of Dalits at international level. He was one of the founder members of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP). He attended many sessions of the (WCRP) held in Kenya, Japan, Malaysia, USA and many other countries. Dr. Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford was a part of most of his ventures in one way or the other. He gave testimony in the 36th Session of the United Nations Commission on Prevention of Discrimination of Minorities held at Geneva in August 1983 on behalf of Dr. Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford and many other organisations from India and abroad. Before going to Geneva, he stayed with us about one week. At that time he was staying with late Mr. Chanan Chahal. I used to spend every evening with him.
While preparing his testimony, Mr. Das said that it would be nice if a few copies of his testimony are made for distribution to the delegates. It would leave a long lasting impact. At that time there was no facility of modern computers and photocopying. We bought an old type cyclostyle copier. Mr. Dass typed his speech on stencils and we made copies. We all finished this work about 2 O’clock in the morning. Over hundred copies were made which Mr. Das took with him to Geneva.
After this testimony, the Indian Muslim, Sikh and Hindu delegates turned against him and conspired to omit his name from the next session of WCRP to be held in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Das asked us to write to the Secretary General of WCRP and explained the situation. A letter was written to the Secretary General, Dr. Homer A. Jack and request was made for inclusion of Mr. Das in the delegation list as he was the only voice of the voiceless people in India. Dr. Jack was a genuine person. He thanked the Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford for letting him know the conspiracy and assured us that Mr. Das would attend the conference. Das Sahib was invited as an ‘expert on the Asian Affairs’. All Indian delegates kept a distance from him. Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi invited all Indian delegates for dinner but boycotted Mr. Das. Bhagwan Dass ji told me later on that boycott incident went in his favour as delegates from other countries came to know the
truth and Mr. Das became a regular invitee to the future conferences. Since then we were in regular contact with each other.
In 1988, Federation of Ambedkarite & Buddhist Organisations UK had a preliminary meeting to celebrate Ambedkar Birth Centenary in the UK. Mr. Bhagwan Das was also present in this meeting. The meeting was held under his Chairmanship. On his initiative, an organisation ‘International Ambedkar Institute, UK’ was set up to take Ambedkar thought in the premier institutes in the UK and do some research work. Renowned actor and film maker, late Kenneth Griffiths was elected as a Chairman who later on made a documentary film on Baba Sahib Ambedkar. During this visit, Das Sahib came to Bedford where he was interviewed by the BBC Radio, Bedfordshire and Chiltern Radio. I requested the BBC presenter for a copy of his interview. He was kind enough to send me the original recording of his interview.
During the Ambedkar Birth Centenary years, Mr. Das visited UK several times. Most of the time, he stayed with Mr. M.S. Bahal and Mr. C. Gautam as all Centenary Celebration activities were in and around London area. They took him around. He took part in many conferences and seminars. He addressed the gathering at the inaugural function of Ambedkar Birth Centenary at the commonwealth Hall, the Royal Commonwealth Society on 14th April 1990. Again he gave a talk at the Great Hall of Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn on 21st February 1991. As I was a part of the Centenary Celebration Committee, UK, I often met him in every function. During his visits, he always spared some time for us and came to Bedford.
As a President of Dalit Solidarity Programme (DSP), he was invited to give talk in Edinburgh University in Scotland. He gave a presentation by showing a short film narrating the history and present conditions of Dalits. Because of a long distance from Bedford and the paucity of time, he was unable to come to Bedford. Instead late Mr. Chanan Chahal, Mr. Dhanpat Rattu, Mr. Satpal Paul and I went to see him.
Once discussing about globalisation and privatisation, he clarified that our people are more adversely affected than others. He gave an example that our people were employed as sweepers in the municipalities. With this new mantra of privatisation the sweepers were being made redundant. Before this privatisation, they had permanent employment with all benefits of a government employee such as job security, health benefits, holidays, pensions etc. Their children had a scope for education. But now the contractor is a ‘sharma’, ‘verma’ or ‘gupta’ who employ the same people on daily wages with no security of work, no pension, and no health benefit. In this situation, children help their parents to earn their livelihood and drop out from schools. Similarly the people who were engaged in the leather work had also lost out. All benefits are taken by contractors but the work was still done by scheduled castes and tribes. . As contractors are from
higher castes good jobs go to higher castes and our people end up with old menial jobs.
Last time I saw him about three four years ago at his Munirka residence at Delhi. Dr. Gurcharn Singh from Delhi was with me. We spent about two hours with him. He enquired about all friends and the movement in the UK. He was as enthusiastic as he used to be about 20-30 years ago. But I could see his failing health.
With his demise, we have lost our guide and mentor. I will always treasure his memories in my heart. He will always be missed but never forgotten.
I am attaching his testimony given in the UN in 1983. His views and facts are as relevant today as they were 27 years ago.
Grappling with untouchability
Grappling with untouchability
Paramita Ghosh, Hindustan Times
September 12, 2008
Paramita Ghosh, Hindustan Times
September 12, 2008
Two people do not crowd a small flat. But when there are three? “Dr Ambedkar is god,” says Dr Rahul with a laugh, “So certainly you’ll see him everywhere in this house.” Rahul shares a room with his 81-year-old father, Bhagwan Das.
Ambedkar busts and wall art outnumber images of that other Dalit icon, Buddha, here. This morning, space is tight. Publisher S Anand is also here to film Das, the last surviving research assistant of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, and author of 23 books on the Dalit struggle.
“Are you a PhD?” Ambedkar had asked his then young research assistant one day. Bhagwan, a 28-year-old radio operator who had just quit the Royal Air Force to join him, replied: “Never been to college, Sir. But I read.” The exchange on the subject became a private joke between the two men, recalls Bhagwan, who would buy books from the People’s Education Society set up by Ambedkar. “One day he caught me carrying a book on progressive thinking and Marxism, but I didn’t want to show it to him. He had a weakness for books. And I knew I wouldn’t get it back. Suddenly, he asked me again: ‘Are you a PhD?’”
, Bhagwan Das’s career was not in imitation of his boss, but built through reflection. His views on Gandhi, an ideological counterpoint to Dalit intellectuals, flow from the same source. “If Gandhi was Bapu, the father of a society in which he tried to inject quality while maintaining the Hindu framework, Ambedkar was Baba to his people and the great liberator from that framework,” he quotes from sociologist Gail Omvedt’s book. Das’s own four-volume Thus Spoke Ambedkar (New York’s Museum Library keeps a copy) was the most important reference book for 20 years on Ambedkar after his death in the 50s.
As the camera rolls, the Gandhi connection crops up again. Homer Jack of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Delhi, had introduced Das to the Social Welfare Ministry and recommended that he present a paper at the UN in the 80s.“I was the first Dalit to speak at the UN. It was Dr Ambedkar’s dream... I presented a paper on the plight of untouchables all over the subcontinent. When I came out, they told me that they had thought that Gandhi had abolished untouchability.”
Independence, stresses Das, wasn’t liberation for everybody. “We don’t call it Independence. We call it a transfer of power between upper castes. On August 15, we were afraid. We had no constituti-onal safeguards.”
Das is also no admirer of Mayawati. As a teacher at a Karol Bagh school, she would attend meetings at the Ambedkar Bhawan where Das would lecture. After joining politics she kept away. “The BSP does not want intellectuals. It wants crowds,” Das explains. “Kanshi Ram thought political power was everything.” Political organisations like the Republican Party of India started by Ambedkar were anyway divided. Its leaders lacked unity and stength. Mayawati took advantage of the vacuum. Her party had no agenda of social emancipation. Chamars — her base — put their numbers behind her and voted her into power, Das says.
Untouchability in Asia, Das believes, is his last task. He pores over the census of 1891 as the camera zooms in and talks of how the Lal Begis (untouchables) have, over the years, started calling themselves Balmikis. “When the lower castes started embracing Christianity, the Hindu Mahasabha tried to check their conversion and introduced the myth of Balmiki as the author of the Ramayana to uphold the caste structure.” he says. “The trouble with caste is that if you try to throw it out from the front door, it creeps back again through the window or the back door.”
The ‘set’ is Das’s study. The period is 61 years after Independence. Nothing has changed.
Political parties have worked to strengthen caste system
'Political parties have worked to strengthen caste system'
Bhagwan Das, a research associate of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, is best known as compiler and editor of the four volumes of Thus Spoke Ambedkar. He spoke to Prasanna Raghav about his meetings with Ambedkar and the trajectory of Dalit politics in India: When did you first meet Ambedkar? My father, who was politically and socially aware through his readings, was a great admirer of Dr Ambedkar, referring to him as Ummeedkar, the one who brings hope. I used to read every newspaper article about Babasaheb with great interest. When i first went to meet him in Simla in 1943 with a request for a job, i had to wait for seven hours. Impressed with me, he promised me a job and i got my appointment letter in 15 days. Mahatma Gandhi was also against discrimination of Dalits. How were the two leaders different? Gandhi was no friend of untouchables. Though Gandhi sensitised the people of India towards the evils of untouchability, it was only due to Gandhi's fast-unto-death that the right of untouchables to choose their own representatives was snatched away from them in elections. He included and excluded us at the same time. What changes have you witnessed in Dalit politics since independence? It has deteriorated. In the pre-independence days, Dalit leaders used to be well educated and informed about issues regarding their community and the society as a whole. The movement was vibrant. Unlike today it wasn't only lip service and vote-bank politics. They encouraged untouchables to take up education. For example, Babasaheb started three colleges across Maharashtra and a school in Mumbai. Ambedkar didn't only talk about fight against exploitation but also against the caste system. But today, everybody uses Babasaheb's name only for political gains. No present-day politician can ever come close to following what the great Dalit leader preached. They don't even know about his teachings and principles. No Dalit leader can ever acquire a pan-Indian identity like Ambedkar. And that's why Dalits continue to wallow in poverty and illiteracy. Do you think that proliferation of Dalit parties and leaders has changed the course of Indian politics? It has certainly, but only for the worse. Instead of abolishing discrimination, Dalit parties have worked to strengthen the caste system, by further driving a wedge between scheduled castes and other groups. Their method of assertion is wrong. Only a few people in the corridors of power have benefited from the ascendancy of some Dalit leaders. For example, a chamar leader will only work for his community since Dalits as a whole are not united. Has reservation in jobs, education and legislature helped to improve the lot of Dalits? Quota has helped but it has not been implemented properly. Prejudice against us is very strong and officers from our community are still humiliated at the workplace.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Interviews/Dalit-parties-have-worked-to-strengthen-caste-system/articleshow/4401339.cms
Bhagwan Das, a research associate of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, is best known as compiler and editor of the four volumes of Thus Spoke Ambedkar. He spoke to Prasanna Raghav about his meetings with Ambedkar and the trajectory of Dalit politics in India: When did you first meet Ambedkar? My father, who was politically and socially aware through his readings, was a great admirer of Dr Ambedkar, referring to him as Ummeedkar, the one who brings hope. I used to read every newspaper article about Babasaheb with great interest. When i first went to meet him in Simla in 1943 with a request for a job, i had to wait for seven hours. Impressed with me, he promised me a job and i got my appointment letter in 15 days. Mahatma Gandhi was also against discrimination of Dalits. How were the two leaders different? Gandhi was no friend of untouchables. Though Gandhi sensitised the people of India towards the evils of untouchability, it was only due to Gandhi's fast-unto-death that the right of untouchables to choose their own representatives was snatched away from them in elections. He included and excluded us at the same time. What changes have you witnessed in Dalit politics since independence? It has deteriorated. In the pre-independence days, Dalit leaders used to be well educated and informed about issues regarding their community and the society as a whole. The movement was vibrant. Unlike today it wasn't only lip service and vote-bank politics. They encouraged untouchables to take up education. For example, Babasaheb started three colleges across Maharashtra and a school in Mumbai. Ambedkar didn't only talk about fight against exploitation but also against the caste system. But today, everybody uses Babasaheb's name only for political gains. No present-day politician can ever come close to following what the great Dalit leader preached. They don't even know about his teachings and principles. No Dalit leader can ever acquire a pan-Indian identity like Ambedkar. And that's why Dalits continue to wallow in poverty and illiteracy. Do you think that proliferation of Dalit parties and leaders has changed the course of Indian politics? It has certainly, but only for the worse. Instead of abolishing discrimination, Dalit parties have worked to strengthen the caste system, by further driving a wedge between scheduled castes and other groups. Their method of assertion is wrong. Only a few people in the corridors of power have benefited from the ascendancy of some Dalit leaders. For example, a chamar leader will only work for his community since Dalits as a whole are not united. Has reservation in jobs, education and legislature helped to improve the lot of Dalits? Quota has helped but it has not been implemented properly. Prejudice against us is very strong and officers from our community are still humiliated at the workplace.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Interviews/Dalit-parties-have-worked-to-strengthen-caste-system/articleshow/4401339.cms
Testimony given by Bhagwan Das before U.N.O. on Untouchability in Asian countries and Japan
Testimony given by Bhagwan Das before U.N.O. on Untouchability in Asian countries and Japan
( Testimony given by Bhagwan Das, Chairman, All India Samata Sainik Dal, and
Ambedkar Mission Society In the 36th Session of Commission on Human rights Sub-Commission on Prevention Of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, held at Geneva in August 1983)
I am grateful to the chairman of the sub-committee for granting me an opportunity to present the case of the Untouchables living in India and the neighbouring countries that came under the influence of Hindu religion and culture. I am giving this testimony on behalf of Secretary General (Dr. Homer A. Jack) World Conference on religion and Peace (WCRP). I also speak on behalf of various Untouchables and Buddhist organisations of India namely All India Samata Sainik Dal (Volunteers for equality) an organisation founded by Dr. Bheem Rao Ambedkar, Indian Buddhist council, Ambedkar Mission Society. Ambedkar Mission Incorporated (Canada) and Dr. Ambedkar Mission Society, Bedford, UK.
I take this opportunity to mention here that WCRP in its first conference held at Kyoto, Japan in 1970 discussed the problem of discrimination including the practice of untouchability. In its third conference held at Princeton (USA) the problem of the Untouchables in India and Burakumin of Japan was discussed and mentioned in the declaration. In the Asian Conference of Religion and Peace (II) held at New Delhi the problem of Untouchability and discrimination against the Buddhist converts was taken up and recommendations made in the declaration issued at the end of conference. Human rights Commission of ACRP decided to set up an office at New Delhi and an office is now functioning at New Delhi with the help of the Japanese Committee of WCRP under the title Asian Centre for Human Rights.
Untouchability is a phenomenon peculiar to Hinduism and it is an integral part of their religion. It took birth in India and it’s from India that this abominable practice spread to other religions and countries. No religion in India is free from this contamination; not even those who loudly preach from house tops the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man.
Hindu society is divided vertically and horizontally on the basis of caste. Christianity and Islam have allowed caste to exist in their society. Lower caste Christians especially in Southern states of India are meted out discriminatory treatment in the matter of burial in the cemeteries, appointment of parishnors, priests etc., and matrimony. Upper caste Christians seldom marry a girl from the lower caste Christians. Islamic society is also modelled on the pattern of Hindu society. It is divide into three or four groups namely ‘Ashraf’ upper caste, Moghuls, Turks Afghans etc., ‘Ajalaf’ converts from upper castes of Hindus and at the lowest rung of ladders sit the lowly ‘Arzal’, butchers, tanners, shoemakers, sweepers scavengers etc.
Sikhs who claim to be more progressive and egalitarian but unfortunately even they have not been able to keep their society free from caste system and untouchability. Even in a country like Britain they rigidly follow caste system and practise untouchability and discrimination against the Untouchables (Ramdaasia and Mazhbis) living in England. A ‘jat’ Sikh shuns the company of the Untouchables and avoids going to the pubs patronised by the Balmikis and Ravidasis-two untouchable castes of Punjab. An upper caste Sikh (Jat, Khatri, Arora,-trading communities of Punjab never misses an opportunity if he can offend an Untouchable by referring to his caste.
Untouchables in various countries
Nepal
Nepal is predominantly Hindu state and 89% people either return their religion as Hinduism or are registered as Hindus in the census. Barely 7% of the Nepalese are Buddhists. Proselytization is prohibited. Hindu society is divided into as many as 59 castes and several artisan and other castes such as Paura (sweepers and scavengers), Damais (smiths), Sarakis (leather workers) goldsmiths in hilly regions are treated as Untouchables. Even though there is free education, very few among those castes can take the benefit owing to the practice of untouchability. In the Nepalese Panjyat (Panchyat) not more than one or two members of this community can get elected owing to the deep rooted prejudices against these people whose only fault is that perform useful duties. Their exact number is not known because unlike India Nepal census reports don not register caste. Owing to the fear of dominating upper castes Hindus, even Buddhists avoid contact with the Untouchables in Nepal. These communities suffer from numerous disabilities arising from untouchability. So far as I have been able to ascertain they have not been able to organise themselves for struggling against discrimination. Those who can in contact with these people were mulcted by the authorities and only paying the fine and performing some ceremonies they could be readmitted in the society.
Pakistan
Pakistan with 97% of its population owning Islam as their religion is divided into numerous castes, tribes etc., Hindus constitute about 2% of the population and are listed as caste Hindus (296,837) and Scheduled Castes (603,369). Scheduled Castes is the statutory title given under the government of India Act 1935 to the Untouchables. Most of them earn their livelihood as sweepers, scavengers, cobblers, weavers, etc.. Muslims also treat them as Untouchables like Hindus throughout the World. Pakistan also has a Christian population numbering about 908,000. Christians are divided into three groups, Europeans and Anglo-Pakistanis, Eurasians like Goanese, converts from upper castes of Hindus and Muslims and people belonging to upper stratum of society. At the bottom sit the most despised sweepers and scavengers who are known as ‘Christian Punjabis Sweepers’ (CPS). They are the descendents of the members of Chuhra community, traditional sweepers, who embraced Christianity to escape the tyranny of Hinduism and the stigma of untouchability but the partitioning of the country compelled them to revert to the traditional occupation of sweeping and scavenging. Although they are economically better than the rural workers so far as the wages are concerned but they are compelled to live in segregated localities and are treated as untouchables. Like their counterparts in India, CPS are the most despised people in Pakistan. They suffer from numerous disabilities arising from untouchability.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist (population 8,537,000, 67.3%) with Hindu constituting the second largest religious group (2,239,000) divided into clean and unclean castes. Among the Sinhalese, Goyigama is the highest caste and those engaged in occupations like butchers, drum-beaters. Toddy tappers, sweeping, etc. are considered ‘hina jati hina sippi’ people. Discrimination in the matter of marriage is practised among the Sinhalese. Siame Nikaya, a Buddhist sect does not admit the members of the lower castes as Bhikkhus but the other two Nikayas admit men belonging to the lower castes if they desire to join the order. But among the Tamilians, caste system is rigidly followed and untouchability practised in the Jaffana area which is predominantly Hindu (Tamalian). Society is divided into two major groups, namely clean castes and unclean castes. Among the unclean castes are included Palla (potter), Seneer (weaver), Parriyar, Kadaiyan (lime burner), Chikkalyan (leather worker and sweeper), Vunnan (washer man) and Thurumba etc. Upper castes (Vellala, Brahmin, Chetty etc.) treat them as Untouchables. Present conflict has temporarily obliterated the differences but after the trouble has subsided caste feelings revive.
Bangla Desh
Bangla Desh is predominantly Muslim (80%) with 4,926,448 (20%0 Hindus divided into two groups namely caste Hindus (Brahmin, Kayasthas, Baidyas etc.) and Namoshudras, Kaibartas, Hadis, Moschis, etc.). Many of the Muslims are converts from among the Untouchables and Buddhists. Yet discriminatory treatment is meted out to the untouchables in Bangla Desh. Our informants have stated that the Hindus of upper castes are treated as equals but the lower castes are discriminated in the matter of housing, employment etc.
All these countries were part of greater India until 1947 and were influenced by Hindu religion in the matter of rituals and customs.
Untouchability in India
Untouchability has not been defined by the sociologist or the legislators. At the time of discussion on ‘Untouchability Offences Act’ in Parliament when a question was raised about definition, the law minister said, ‘There is no need to define untouchability. Everybody knows it’. He was trying to avoid definition but he was telling the truth that everybody knows whom to avoid, whom to persecute. Untouchability is deeply embedded in the minds of Hindus and regulates their behaviour with other people. Stratification of society and restrictions on inter-marriage between different classes or groups are not unknown in other societies or cultures but to use the words of Dr. G.S. Ghurye, a renowned sociologist, “Hindu system is unique only in this that it alone classified some groups as untouchable and unapproachable.” Other religious groups only copied them. Since Hindus treated the scavengers, sweepers, cobblers, basket makers, weavers etc. as untouchables, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs also treated them as lowly, despised, degraded people. Since untouchability had religious sanction behind it, all efforts made by social reformers failed. Hindus avoided the discussion and foreigners did not want to take up the cause of the untouchables for fear of antagonising the Hindus. They were also taken in by the propaganda carried out by the followers of Gandhiji. Dr. Ambedkar had rightly observed, “The old orthodox Hindu doesn’t think that there is anything wrong in the observance of untouchability. To him it is normal, natural thing. As such it neither calls for expiation nor explanation. The new modern Hindu realises the wrong but he is ashamed to discuss it in public for fear of letting the foreigner know that Hindu civilisation can be guilty of such a vicious and infamous system or social code as evidenced by untouchability.”
Mass conversion of Untouchables to Christianity and Islam and growing importance of number in the politics of India coupled with criticism of Hindu society by Western writers, sociologists, travellers etc., led Hindus to introduce certain changes in their social system. While they wanted to remove untouchability, they did not want Hinduism and caste system to suffer in any way because Hinduism is sustained by caste system. If caste system goes, Hinduism cannot survive for long. On the other hand Hindus have developed a vested interest in Untouchability and caste system. More than 75% population of India is illiterate and people sincerely believe that caste is god-made and there is no hope or scope for change. Any laws made by man are interference in the God’s work. Hindu law makers had made elaborate laws and rules to keep Untouchables in degraded condition perpetually. Economic measures were adopted to perpetuate degradation, segregation and poverty. Laws were framed and strictly enforced to keep them divided, dispirited, poor, ignorant, illiterate and physically weak. They were not allowed to acquire wealth; higher interest was charged on loans; good, wholesome, nutritious food proscribed so that they may not grow strong. Right to bear arms was denied so they may never revolt. Low wages and excessive work was prescribed so they may have no leisure. Identity marks and symbols were prescribed so that even by mistake pure Hindus may not eat ot drink with them. This system was rigidly followed by the Hindus for centuries. Even Muslims did not disturb it. British especially after the sepoy mutiny of 1857 for fear of antagonising the Hindus tried to maintain those laws and enforce them through courts of law.
Progressive Western educated Hindus however felt uneasy and promised to bring about changes after attaining independence. Accordingly provisions were incorporated in the constitution abolishing untouchability and certain ameliorative provisions such as reservation in legislature, services of Union Government and states, educational institutions etc. Untouchables were subjected to some inhuman laws like forced labour in rural area. A provision to abolish slavery of this kind was made in the constitution but the law was enacted in 1976. Millions of Rupees were provided for the economic upliftment of the Untouchables in the Five Year Plans.
In spite of these laws the Untouchables suffer from numerous disabilities especially in smaller towns and villages of India. Untouchables don not have well in thousands of villages and upper caste people do not allow them to dig wells. Untouchables have to beg for water from a distance lest their shadow should pollute the upper caste Hindus. Sometime the water pipes are laid and stopped a few yards short of the Untouchable locality. The present writer struggled for seven years to get a public hydrant installed in a village of Himachal Pradesh while every Minister or even the Chief Minister announced that water had been provided.
If the Untouchables demand higher wages in villages, the caste Hindus pour filth or kerosene in the wells so as to starve them of water. Untouchability is widely practised. A mild and harmless law which was neither educative nor awarded deterrent punishment was enacted in 1955 under the title ‘Untouchable Offences Act, 1955’. This proved to be ineffective. This law was amended and passed as Protection of Civil Liberties Act 1976 containing a provision of minimum punishment. Owing to illiteracy of Untouchables majority who live in the rural areas, very few cases are reported and a very small number reaches the courts of law. Untouchability in worst form is practised in the Hindi region but the largest number of cases is registered in the state where the Scheduled castes people are awakened and better organised.
Of all the countries where untouchability is practised India has the best of laws and the most generous provisions in her constitution. British had introduced quota system with a view to giving share in administration to all religious groups and other minorities. Untouchables were however denied a share on the plea that there were no educated men available. Through the efforts of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar undisputed leader of the Untouchables ‘reservation in services’ was introduced in respect of the Untouchables also in 1943 during the vicerolty of Lord Linlithgow. Later o provision was made in respect of the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes but reservation in favour of other minorities was abolished. During the early years there was little resistance because very few qualified people were available to fill up the reserved seats. Resistance was offered by non-implementation of government orders, or by declaring that suitable candidate was not available or if available ‘not found suitable’ and also through courts of law by filing writ petition. Since 1974 organise resistance is being offered by the upper caste employees who have enjoying monopoly of all government jobs. Private sector does not employ the Scheduled Caste people, excepting in the lowly, low paid and degrading situations. Table below gives some idea of the success in the part of the opponents of the reservation:
Quota Reserved15%
Reservation given in
Class 1 = 4.95% Class 11 = 8.54%
Class 111=13.44% Class 1V = 19.46%
Discriminatory treatment is being meted out to the Scheduled Caste people in the matter of recognition of their unions on the plea that it is the policy of the government that ‘communal’ organisations of employees will not be recognised. On the other hand organisations of the Hindu employees who are opposed to the reservation have the support and blessing of administration as well as the political parties, especially of those who have their base among the middle classes of Hindus.
Scheduled Castes (statutory title of the Untouchables) is an artificially created minority under the constitution. Names of castes can be deleted or added by the president. Pressure is mounting now through press to delete the names of more awakened and better organised castes. Majority of the Untouchables (about 76%) live in 568,000 villages of India. In some places they are allotted land by the government. Dr. Ambedkar demanded nationalisation of land with collectivisation of allotment on cooperative basis. The government favoured the creation of small holdings and peasant proprietors. Fragmentation of land is non-productive but the untouchable farmers who never owned land because of the laws prohibiting possession of land in some states desire to own land. The landholding dominating upper castes do everything possible in their means to obstruct distribution of land. Even if land is allotted, the upper caste landlords do not allow the Untouchables to take the fruit of their labour. If Untouchables demand higher wages or even the minimum wages prescribed by the Government, the upper caste landlords indulge in murders, torture, arson. Rape etc. to terrorise the poor ignorant untouchables. Thousands of men are employed as bonded labourers and kept away from the cities, police etc. Hundreds of women are forced into superstition by exploiting their ignorance, poverty and superstitious beliefs and sold into the brothels of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi.
Untouchables are becoming increasingly convinced that the Hindus hate them not because they perform unpleasant duties but because their religion teaches them to hate certain castes. Many embraced Christianity and Islam. Dr. Ambedkar who saw no hope of Hinduism reforming itself exhorted his people to renounce Hinduism and embrace Buddhism which he had revived in 1956. Millions of people responded to his call and embraced Buddhism. Government of India immediately issued order that if an Untouchable renounce Hinduism and embrace any religion other than Sikhism he will become disentitled to concessions and grants allowed to the Scheduled Castes. When a few hundred Untouchables in Madras embraced Islam because the Hindus harassed and humiliated them and did not allow them even to wear shoes or loin cloth which went below the knee cap, Hindu militant organisations turned riotous and burnt the huts of Untouchables and molested their women. Even Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi forgetting that she was the head of a secular government showed concern and delivered speeches discouraging the conversion of Untouchables. Some states have enacted laws making conversion difficult. Those renouncing Hinduism have to obtain a certificate from the Magistrate that the person desiring conversion to Islam or Christianity is doing it voluntarily. Police is dominated by the upper landholding castes of Hindus and is generally hostile towards the Untouchables. Indian Penal code contains certain provisions under which police have power to arrest and detain a person if he has no ostentatious means of livelihood. This in a country where majority of the people have no employment, house or shelter of any kind. Police abuses its powers especially against the Untouchables and many people are killed or incapacitated through torture in police custody.
Hinduism have closed the doors of armed forces to the Untouchables for ever. Untouchables were admitted to the armed forces of Islam after embracing Islam which many did. During early decades of their rule, British recruited Untouchables in their armies but after sometime they began to close the doors especially in central India and Bengal under pressure from the high castes of Hindus. They introduced the pernicious theory of ‘martial races and non-martial races’. Later on they disbanded the Untouchable armies and raise class regiments recruiting men belonging to upper castes. Indian government has not completely abolished the class regiments and has officially removed the ban on recruitment. But Government have not taken any measure to change the mode of recruitment. Recruiting officers, mostly belonging to peasant castes owing to to deep rooted prejudices based on caste and their medical; officers invariably ask a man’s caste and reject him on medical grounds. Untouchables have little share in army (0.44% in officers cadre and 10.62% in other ranks), 7.63% in other ranks of navy and 0.156% in officers cadre and 2.568% in other ranks.
Untouchables have the equal right to vote and contest elections. 79 seats are reserved in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) out of the total number of 542. Out of a total strength of 3997 members in the state legislatures and Union Territories 540 belong to the Scheduled Castes. On paper the number appears to be very impressive but owing to the election system of the country it is the majority community which elects the representatives of the candidates. In the rural areas the Untouchables can not exercise their right to vote freely and independently. Very often police protection has to be provided. After the election heavy price has to be paid tb the Untouchables if the members of higher castes owning land feel that they did not get the support of the support of the Untouchables.
Violation in Villages
Scheduled castes in the rural areas demand land, better wages, right to wear dress according to their liking, assert the rights granted under the constitution. Hindus on the hand want to maintain status quo in all fields. Tensions arise and often result in confrontation. Landlords have raised armies of trained men released from army and police to terrorise the Untouchables landless labourers. Police protects the strong against the poor. Government through its machinery and religious policies strengthens casteism and superstition because it helps the ruling classes. Leaders of struggle are picked up and either involved in false criminal cases or murdered by the police in encounters. Men, women and children have been massacred and burnt alive whenever they put up resistance against oppression. Men have been killed for offering Ganges water in a shrine. A man was killed in Aligarh (UP) for affixing the word Chauhan to his name. Women’s toes were crushed for wearing rings. Man was killed for twirling moustaches. In Meenakshipuram where mass conversion to Islam took place, men were not allowed to sit beside the upper caste men in the state buses, nor allowed to walk through the streets; women were punished for wearing sandals. In Kafalta 11 persons were done to death for crime of riding a horse in marriage procession and for using palanquin. The incidents of violence in the villages have been showing an upward trend for the last five years:
Year No. of incidents of atrocities
1976 6197
1977 10,879
1978 15,055
1979 15,070
1980 13,341
Recent figures are not available but the Home Minister Mr. N.R. Laskar during the last session stated that the number was showing an increase but during the Monsoon session of last week, he said that number of incidents has fallen considerably. Figures furnished by the Government do not represent the fact. These represent only a tip of the iceberg because many of the cases remain unreported. Untouchables feel very insecure owing to the growing resentment against the declared policies and programmes of the government which are very rarely accompanied by implementation. Bureaucracy is being blamed for non-implementation but is the government which lacks the political will to take action against those who flout the government authority.
This weakness is evident from the fact that even a simple and harmless demand by the Scheduled caste legislators in the Parliament to have a portrait installed in the Central Hall of Parliament where Dr. Ambedkar played a very important and historical role both as a member of the Executive Councillor in the Viceroys Executive Council (1942-46) and as first Law Minister and Chairman of the Constitution Drafting committee (1947-51). Government have been resisting this demand on some pretext or the other. Similarly in recognition of the great services rendered by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the field of education a unanimous decision was taken in the Maharashtra Assembly to change the name of Marathawada University to Ambedkar University. This university came into existence chiefly owing to the establishment of three colleges by Dr. Ambedkar in the most backward region of Marathawada of Maharashtra. Orthodox Hindus in the region felt offended and instigated the illiterate and ignorant villagers that now ‘Ambedkar’ an Untouchable will enter your houses in the form of degrees and diploma certificates and you will have to repeat his name. As a result many houses of Buddhist converts were looted. Women molested, old men insulted, buildings demolished or set on fire and some people killed. Hundreds of men were forced to leave their villages and seek shelter in the towns, railway platforms, footpaths etc. Government could not implement its decision and the oppressor won the field. Untouchables and Buddhists continue the agitation with unshaken determination.
In spite of the fact Indian Constitution has the most liberal provision, Government have failed to implement its own declared programmes and policies for the removal of untouchability and upliftment of the deprived and disadvantaged section of society. Prejudices can not be removed merely through legislation. Religious policy of the government is discriminatory and is based in favour of Hinduism and Sikhism and prejudicial to the religions like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Government in accord with the wishes of the orthodox Hindus has used coercive measures to check the conversion of Untouchables to Buddhism lest they should unite and organise themselves for struggle. Present policy of the government appears to be based on the tenets of Hinduism. Methods may have changed but the aim of the Hindu law makers and religious leaders have not changed. Anything which the untouchables consider good for then is vehemently resisted and opposed. Whatever goes to make them week, dispirited, disunited and dependent is encouraged.
Proposals
1. A commission should be set up to investigate and submit a report on the practice of Untouchability in the countries wherever it is practised.
2. Action should be taken against countries and institutions who encourage this practice an the name of religion and custom.
3. Government should be asked to eliminate discrimination against the despised and segregated groups in the matter of freedom of religion.
4. To set up a commission to monitor the activities of government and religious groups in the countries where untouchability is practiced.
5. Governments of the countries where the Hindus and Sikhs have migrated and practice untouchability and discrimination against the Untouchables should be approached to enact laws to discourage this practice.
6. A separate office should be set up to receive cases of untouchability and disability and the states concerned should be asked to report what measures they have taken to eliminate discrimination in their respective countries.
In Conversation With Mr Bhagwan Das
In Conversation With Mr Bhagwan Das
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
02 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Mr Bhagwan Das is one of the most reputed scholar on Ambedkarism and the issue of Human Rights of Scheduled Castes. Widely traveled, Mr Bhagwan Das has spoken at various national & international platforms on the conditions of Dalits in India and what is the best way of their emancipation. In freewheeling conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat, he speaks of the state of Dalit movement as well as political parties in India.
Please tell us about your childhood. Being son of a sweeper, what hurdles and obstacles you were faced with and how did your father react to them?
My childhood was different. My father came from a well off family. After the death of his father, differences occurred in the family and he came to live near Simla. He was not educated, as he could not go to school. My father worked as a sweeper in the post office. He had a house of his own and saved money regularly. He loved reading and had deep interest in Ayurveda. He took special care to educate my sister and me. A Maulvi was kept to teach us. So it was different unlike other untouchable families of that time where education was not considered important. He was financially well off and spent most of the time with his books.
In my native village untouchability was practiced in turning on the taps. The barber did not cut my hair; we could not enter a temple. We had to ask Hindu boys to give us water whenever we had to drink it but since my family was well off, we did not face any difficulty in this regard.
How did you come in touch with Dr Ambedkar?
Dr Ambedkar, then a labor minister visited Simla. I had read about Ambedkar particularly while reading Urdu newspapers. He was our harbinger of Hope. We did not know anything about him except an anti Ambedkar campaign in Congress paper which was the same as in Hindu papers. The only exception I found was in Hindi newspaper Kranti by Sant Ram BA.of Jaat Paat Todak Mandal.
I went to meet him for the first time and I waited for him for three hours because I was first a boy, all the people holding important position came and went away. At 7 pm I was taken inside his house. He looked at my face. I did not go to ask for anything from him but he said, ' What do you want?' " I do not want anything, as I was already employed", I said. I told him about my family and about my application. In 15 days, I got a letter of appointment. This time my boss was a Muslim. It was surprising as I found that most of the Muslims were terribly against me. Some of the Hindus were very helpful and progressive. Some of them were South Indian Brahmins and I found them quite progressive but Matlab Hussain, my immediate boss, had some complaint against me as I was overburdened with my work. I used to work till 7.30 pm. Everybody tried to exploit me. I left that job and joined Indian Air Force. I did not want to join army but navy appealed to me.
I was again selected for further training in UK but I had to deposit Rs 5000/- which I could not do and left Air Force in 1946 and went back to my family in Simla. There I was working with Scheduled Castes Federation and I came across very progressive people belonging to the communist parties, and one very progressive in the party was Kameshwar pandit. There we read a lot of Marxist literature and also learnt about Chinese experiment. I read about Mao Tse Tung but who appealed to me was Liu Shaoqi.
We used to hold study circle meetings. I was staying at Seva Nagar, in New Delhi. It was a peon's house where I stayed for two years, as I could not afford a better one. Then I shifted to Lodi Colony with a friend who was an ex -communist. He was thrown out of the party. He had been a whole timer. He was very fond of reading, not just Marxist literature but general reading also. Later, I was allotted house in Sarojini Nagar.
Here, I came in touch with Mr Shiv Dayal Singh Chaursia, a backward caste person and a few others who were working with him in the movement. I used to spend time in Gandhi Peace Library. Chaurasia was to write a note of dissent in the Backward Classes Commission. He took me to Dr Ambedkar to show the note of dissent, which was actually drafted by me. Dr Ambedkar did not have a high opinion about that note. He asked him to leave the note for his comments but started putting questions about me. He had forgotten that he had met me earlier also. I spoke most of the time in English and offered to work for him. It was three days in a week for which he agreed. Some times, he wanted to information/abstract about certain books for which I used to go to Library. But after the work was over, I used to sit with Dr Ambedkar for 10 minutes and put my questions to him.
What would you discuss with Dr Ambedkar? What would he say to the issue of such as conversion as he was promoting a particular idea of embracing Buddhism? What actually was your position on it? Why should not we convert to any other faith of our choice? Unfortunately, caste system goes along with you even after conversion? What choices do we have to save us from the oppression and exploitation of caste system?
One of the questions was on Buddhism as he was always asking us to embrace Buddhism. I asked him that I could not enter a Buddha Vihar. How do you say Buddhism is better than any other religion? I have been to Burma, seen Tibetan Buddhism but have not come across anything worthwhile. Study is a different thing but as for as social practice is concerned, I do not find anything different in it."Dr. Ambedkar replied, 'all you said might be right.. Now onwards it would not happen again." I studied a lot of books on Buddhism and other books on religion particularly Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Kadianis etc, but Marxism and Buddhism attracted me the most. About Sikhism, I have a very poor opinion. I came close to them because I was teaching two children belonging to them. One of the student's father was a doctor, who used to invite me to Gurudwara. I used to go there. Once there was one festival on which they had a langer (community dinining) in the Gurudwara. One man asked the doctor; 'you are making us eat with the Churas and Chamars.' It was a shocking experience for me in the Gurudwara. After it I studied Sikhism and found that they had 10 Gurus, all belonged to the Khatri caste, none married outside their own parental caste and the fourth guru included teaching of Ravidas, Kabir and others in the Guru Granth Sahib but in practice Sikhism is no way different from Hinduism. If a convert comes from a Carpenter community, he is a Ramgarhia, if is he a convert from a Scavenger caste then he is a Mazhabi, if he is a convert from liquor seller caste then is an Ahaluwalia. Where has gone the caste system? It goes from the front door and comes back from the window. They never started a movement to condemn the caste system. After that incident, I never went to a Gurudwara.
I was still critical of Buddhism but felt that if Untouchables continue to follow the religion they have been following then there was no chance of their ever unifying. If Hinduism is preaching untouchability against these castes, these castes themselves practice untouchabiliity among themselves. Now for instance, if you go to a Chamar, he looks down upon a sweeper and if you go to a sweeper, especially in north India to those who call themselves Balmikis, they will never have anything with Helas, Doms and Mehtar. Balmiki movement started in 1930s and was mainly started by Arya Samajis because they (Bhangis) were converting to Christianity. One person Tetar was asking the Christians to convert them but the upper caste priests were not ready to convert them for the fear of losing the other people from the Church.
Upper castes converted to Christianity after 1857. There were Muslims, Hindus who became Christians. When the missionaries started converting the untouchables they too started going to the Church but holding the Holy Communion was a problem. The upper castes started their prayer meeting in the morning and the Untouchables were told to conduct their Church meetings in the afternoon. So Kashmiri Gate church had two services, one in the morning and the other in the evening for the Untouchables.
I also found that people who were converting to Buddhism were Buddhists just for the namesake. It is unique to India that even after leaving their religion and embracing an other they still stick to their castes. You cannot get rid of your caste. Unfortunately, a majority of those converted to Buddhism were Mahars hence Mangs were looked down upon by the Mahars and they did not bother about Chambhars.
What were your impressions about Baba Saheb Ambedkar when you first met him?
My father used to talk proudly about him. The first thing which impressed me very much when I first met him was his love for learning and the second thing his character which was immaculately clean.His worst enemies could not charge him on that front and the third his commitment to the cause of Untouchables. But when I was working with him in the Labor Ministry, I found his involvement in the development of this country. He sent six Scheduled Castes to UK who later held important positions in the Central Ministry. Besides the SCs, he was interested in the industrialization of the country after the British left.
A lot has been written about Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism. Many Dalit intellectuals interpreted it as his anti Marx philosophy. Where does Ambedkar Stand on Marx?
He was not against Marx but against dogmatic people because the books written by Dange and other upper caste elite Marxists did not appeal to him. But he studied Marxism seriously and also the labor movement of UK. He was much interested in modernizing India and that is why he introduced this thing when he was labor minister. If you go through his speeches in Parliament, they indicate an inclination for progress and modern thinking and that is a common link between Nehru and Ambedkar.The writers have not highlighted this aspect of Dr. ambedkar, as they have not done independent research. They had much respect for each other. Ambedkar was not a great admirer of Nehru when he joined the government but when he had opportunity to interact with Nehru his opinion became very different.
What is your reaction to the state of Dalit Movement today? There are so many Republican parties as well as different caste based organizations. Then there is political philosophy of BAMCEF and BSP. What do you think is their future?
When Ambedkar entered the field he started Independent Labor Party and in that he had not only the Untouchable leaders but leaders from other communities also such as upper castes who joined the movement and the Party. In 1942 he felt that it was not enough so he formed Scheduled Castes Federation and it was exclusively for the Untouchables of India. After India's independence he felt that SCF was meaningless hence he started Republican Party of India and it was not a party exclusively for the SC people. He wanted to broaden the base and take up the economic issues for advancement of India but people who took over the leadership of RPI did not understand him and did not follow him. They wanted RPI for caste mobilization and hence it split on caste lines. Today there are so many wings of RPI that you do not even know.
You have been critical of BAMCEF? What were your basic differences with them?
BAMCEF is not a political party. It says it is a Backward, SC and Minority Employees' Federation. If it is an employees federation than it is not a political party. BAMCEF was actually started by some people in Poona. They say we are trying to raise the consciousness of the people but how can an organisation, which has no political ideology and progrmme do that. But even today, strictly speaking it is not a political party. It is still in utter confusion and now it has got spilt into three. And each speaking its own language and frankly speaking dominated by Chamar community in certain areas. In some areas of Vidharbha, it is dominated by the Mahars. It does not have an all India appeal because to organize SCs is not an easy job because they are divided into more than 800 castes. And there are castes and sub castes. Caste rivalry is there. Chamars are divided into more than 60 castes while Sweepers are divided into 12 castes. Valmikis are dominating the sweeper community but they cannot carry Dhanuks, Hellas, Doms and others with them.
So Dalit movement has become a movement of a few enlightened castes. When I started Ambedkar Mission movement, I asked in writing that one member of the family must marry outside his /her parental caste. That is the only way to show that you work against casteism. In my case, I have relationship with 6-7 communities including Malas, Dhanuks etc. If you do not do it then what is the use of saying that you want to break it?
What conversion has changed for the Dalits? One great Dalit cultural icon blamed conversion for taking away the revolutionary spirit from the community.
It is good to break away and bad to continue in the tradition that has subjugated you. It is also important to understand whether it takes away the revolutionary spirit or not. It is a lack of understanding. Look at this in this way, if you continue to be divided on caste lines you can never become a strong force. All Shudra castes are dividedand and atishudras are hopelessly divided because reservation gave opportunities only to those who are enlightened enough to make use of reservation and not others. In western UP, these were the Jatavs who were in business and educated people actually monopolized the jobs. What about others? In case they continue to remain in their communities/castes and not broaden their base, there is no hope. Secondly, here you are strengthening Hinduism, a religion which has exploited you.In ceremonies such as marriages, cremations, festivals, Mundans, you are following them and strengthening it. You are not strengthening yourself. In case the Dalits embrace other religion what will happen? They embraced Christianity but maintained caste. They embraced Islam and maintained caste because Islamic society is divided into three main castes :Ashraf, Ajlaf and Arjal. Ashrafs are Shaikhs, Sayyeds, Mughals and Pathans who came with invaders and they looked down upon Ajlaf who got converted here. And the third category people were the working class people; the lower castes and untouchables who converted to Islam and were termed as Arjals. the Butchers who were converted from Khatiq claim that they are Quraishis because they came from outside. Julaha is an untouchable caste but after conversion he claims himself as Ansari who came from Ansar. The fact remains that despite all claims of unity Muslim society remains divided into three castes and there are no inter marriages. Christianity, Islam and Sikhism have failed because they were sticking to the originality of religion, presence of God and a holy book, which is claimed to have been created by God.
If people continue to be divided on caste line then what is the future? Religion is of nominal or little value for the people. They stick to it mostly for political reasons, not because it gives them identity and history but majority of people who are forced into different religions, they use it only for marriages and burial. Nothing is wrong with it. Dr Ambedkar thought, we need a revolutionary change and for that religion has to be changed. It needs to be based on reason, compassion and brotherhood. He studied Buddhism and as Lord Buddha said towards the end of his life that there is no place for God. He wanted happiness of the people too. Unfortunately, the leaders of Buddhism were not able to carry that message. They maintained caste and at the same time call themselves as Buddhist.
What is the status of Dalit movement today?
Unfortunately, the movement never reached the agrarian communities. Dr Ambedkar chalked out a programme to reach 70% of our population, which lives in villages and was treated very badly by the dominant communities. If it is Marathas, Kunbis in Maharastra, it is Jaats and Gujjars in UP. He thought that Bengal is different. IN Bengal land went to Dalits because of land reforms. Unfortunately, the leadership of the movement came from the urban areas. Educated, semi educated people took over the leadership of the movement. The movement did not go beyond that. Some people tried to educate people in the villages but working in the villages is very different, because society there is horizontally and vertically divided and land holding community is the worst enemy. What Ambedkar did was that he gave a call to the people to migrate to the cities. So the people who could not face situation in the rural areas migrated to urban areas but the situation differs from state to state.
In southern states the situation is slightly better in the sense that land was owned by the Brahmins and they have been thrown out in South but in the North India the land was not owned by the Brahmins but by the other people. They are the middle communities and became Hinduised. The movement of rural landless people has not been initiated by RPI. They had it in their programme but it was never promoted because most of the leaders came from cities who were interested in winning reserved seats and used poor people for winning elections only.
Scavengers remain the lowest among the Dalits. How do you describe their condition today? What are the impediments in their development?
It is not a community itself. It is divided into 12-14 castes. But in South the division is not that bad. In Andhra, Madigas who are basically Chamars have seven castes among them working as scavengers. Hence the division is not that strict and harsh as in North India. Most of them are employed under the municipality, cantonment boards, and station staff offices. They have a long tradition of people exploiting them and promoted as Jamadars in their department. Inspite of the fact that it is a lowly paid occupation, people pay bribe to get jobs .Even in Delhi you have to pay bribe to get a job under MCD.
Unfortunately, efforts have not been made to unite the sweepers. Why? Because you take up the case of one particular area and you choose a leader from these quarters. Others are working in private quarters in Mohallas under the bridge system. In this system you work under several masters, get left over food, old cloths, food on marriage or any other festivals so it is not but several local masters.
If they unite then due to economic weakness, they do not remain so for long. That is why the sweepers and scavengers even today remain to be one of the poorest and backward communities. One reason is leadership, second is economic and third is your locality. And this job does not need hard work. It is definitely a dirty work and looked down upon by every body. These factors result in many problems, like drinking and wasteful expenditure. Hindusiation has weakened them as they imitate the Hindus. Efforts have not been made by different people and leaders to unite different castes and make them acquainted with the programmes of the government. Even the commissions have not been able to do that. Educationally, they are backward because their school drop out rate is very high. Efforts have not been made to spread education in these classes.
I have been associated with the movement from the age of 16. I have also been associated with labor movement. Unfortunately ambitious political people take benefit of ignorance and backwardness of these people. Right kind of people are now training the Dalits and giving leadership but unfortunately 'illiterate' people with little knowledge are stand in the way. I think there is hardly any organization free from these accusations- Congress, BJP and others.
I am happy with the new young people are writing about the movements. When I meet them in conferences and seminars, I feel there is a hope, though it is not easy. The population of right thinking people is showing an upward trend. Could you ever imagine that the sweepers of Punjab would hold mass conversion for Buddhism. New trends are coming up. New kind of leadership is coming up. Unfortunately they do not have the means to support them.
Political Power is the Master Key. What do you say to it?
Well, there was a time when Baba Saheb Ambedkar said that. When you speak to different kinds of audiences particularly political leaders, it makes sense. But you will also have to get rid of the weakness within the society. He also said about promotion of education. What is being done on that side? It is wrong to say that he laid emphasis on political power only. Political power without right kind of ideology means nothing. I think people are misquoting Ambedkar that political power is the master key. He might have been speaking at Scheduled Castes Federation and with political leaders. But why we do not talk about his other works. It is not enough.
Globalization has banged on our door. There are movements against it in various parts of India. Many of our friends have written positively on it suggesting that it would benefit the Dalits. What are ypur views on it ?
The government would have a different complexion, if we had 10% people in the civil services. Now with the judgment of the Supreme Court they are going to suffer more in the years to come. This globalization does not affect the weaker section at the moment. But under globalization, if the international movement on the issue of Dalits is properly handled, even in globalization they can have a share. Globalization has a political model and an economic model and it leads to empowerment but behind these ideas are people who want to solve their problems, find the market, create new market and create new classes. In western countries people are trying to create consciousness and awareness among the down trodden communities to develop leadership.
Dr Ambedkar was a truly humanist leader of our time but it ldifferent castes have made him look like as if he was a caste leader. How do you describe Ambedkar?
He was a rationalist in thinking with the interest of SCs in mind. He never considered British to be their friend. But he got an opportunity because British wanted to expand the executive council but they selected other progressive people also. I think he was the most capable and learned person among his contemporaries. He had economic programmers which he could implement through the Ministry of Labor which was then considered an orphan Ministry and through that he tried to promote industrialization of India and tried to create a class of technically trained people. No body had done that earlier.
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