Future of Dalit Class in India

 

Future of Dalit Class in India

- Bhagwan Das

(April 23, 1927 – November 18, 2010)

 

(Note: Although Bhagwan Das ji had written this article in 2001, the shortcomings and weaknesses of the Dalit class in which he had identified and predicted the dark future of the Dalit class, are proving to be completely correct today. Therefore, to secure their future, the Dalits should adopt Buddhism and fight for their rights by forming a strong organization. And the responsibility of establishing a classless society rests on them - S.R. Darapuri.)

(Translation from Hindi to English by SR Darapuri, National President, All India Peoples Front)

It is not possible to make predictions about any individual, community, or group. Only astrologers claim to know or tell about the future, which is mostly based on guesswork and is proven wrong. But still, most of the people in our country believe more in Hindu astrology. Marriages are solemnized by asking the astrologer for auspicious time. The foundations of buildings are laid by consulting astrologers. Election papers are filed after consulting astrologers. But still women become widows and marriages fail. Buildings collapse and people win and lose elections.

But looking at the present-day leaders and keeping in mind the experiences of history, some estimates can be made. They too are sometimes proven wrong. For example, according to the famous scholar and thinker Karl Marx, born in Germany at the end of the 19th century, proletarian dictatorship will be established in the period before the Communist revolution. Then it will establish socialism and finally communism will come in which there will be neither an exploiter nor the exploited. But nothing like this happened. On the contrary, the first experiment done in Russia failed.

Nevertheless, by properly collecting and analyzing the facts, some estimates prove to largely be correct. For example, the book “Thoughts on Pakistan” written by Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar about the establishment of Pakistan in 1940 proved to largely be correct.

Dalits and Minority Groups There is a difference between the Scheduled Castes and the minority groups – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Persians, Jews etc. What binds the minority people is the identity of religion or race, but what binds the Scheduled Castes is only a list given in the Constitution, not a separate identity.

Before 1935, there was a long list of Untouchable and Backward Castes, but at that time, the Shudra and untouchable castes were obsessed with being called upper caste Hindus. Every caste claimed to be Brahmin/Thakur. Congress and other Hindu political and social parties carried out vigorous propaganda to take advantage of this weakness of the Untouchables and Backward Castes.

Their interest was that the number of Dalits should not appear large and the population of Hindus should not decrease. The British Government added grounds or criteria to solve the difficulties arising from untouchability and created a new list which was called Scheduled Castes Order. 429 castes were included in it. In this too, the Jatava caste of Western Uttar Pradesh held meetings at many places and protested against their inclusion in the Scheduled Castes because some of the leaders, who were victims of Arya Samaj's propaganda, claimed that they were descendants of Krishna and were Rajputs. They should not be included in the list of Chamars. In some districts, the name of Jatavas was removed from the Scheduled Caste. The Dhanukas also protested in a similar manner. Their name was also removed from the list in some states. Same thing happened with the people of Dhobhi caste also. The Kolis in Himachal were trying to become “small Rajputs” because the Arya Samaj had a lot of influence on them.

A new constitution was made in 1949 which came into effect from 26.11.1949. A separate list was also added to the new Constitution which was much longer than the old Constitution. It includes more than 900 castes. In the new Constitution, under Article 341, the President has been given the right to specify the Scheduled Castes and the Parliament has been given the right to add or delete names. Parliament decides who is considered scheduled and who is not. In 1930-35 many castes wanted to be left out of the list of Depressed Classes, today many are demanding inclusion.

Thus, the identity of the Scheduled Castes depends only on the Parliament or the Supreme Court. There is nothing else connecting them. If their names are removed from the list, they will not remain untouchable in the eyes of law.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar made many efforts to unite the Dalits across India. The first attempt was made in 1927 in the form of a mass movement to take water from Chaudar Talab in Maharashtra. Apart from the Mahars, many other untouchable castes cooperated in the struggle, but after this movement, no other movement was launched for human and civil rights. To achieve his goal, Babasaheb continued his struggle for promotion of education and political rights and achieved success.

The second attempt was made to form a political party. The first political party was the Independent Labor Party, which was founded in 1936, but it was not only a party of the untouchables. Its objective was to uplift the working class. In this, apart from castes like Mahar, Chamar, Mang, Mehtar etc., upper caste Hindus also became member MLAs but its jurisdiction was only Bombay province.

The second attempt took place in 1942 when for the first time in the history of the untouchables, an independent party of the untouchables was established. This party was named Scheduled Castes Federation. People from many untouchable castes joined this party and an organization was formally formed. But this organization was for political gains, its foundation was weak. The biggest weakness was the caste system of the untouchables. The castes like Chamar, Khatik, Bhangi, Mehtar, Dhobi, Mala, Madiga etc. are formed only based on different professions but due to the education and side effects of Hindu religion, they consider each other as inferior and practice untouchability. It is not possible to form an organization in such circumstances. For this reason, when atrocities occur, they are unable to unite and either fight or help.

The sentiments of casteism are so strong that if people of one caste convert to one religion, people of another religion will stay away from that religion. If people of one caste join a party, people of another caste will stay away from it. Even within the party, caste is taken into consideration while distributing posts and tickets. Due to this, every party remains a party of one caste like the Republican Party in Maharashtra or the Bahujan Samaj Party in North India. Many parties come into existence due to casteism but a good organization is not formed.

Babasaheb tried to make the third attempt through religious conversion but he died after 53 days of starting this movement. And the religious movement which could have broken the caste system and created a new identity unit, could not be formed. Religious conversion fell victim to the same weaknesses that political movements did.

Most of the leadership of this movement were political leaders, they could not give the right direction to the religious conversion movement. They tried to run politics and religion in the same manner. This caused more damage to the religious movement.

Babasaheb had suggested many ways for progress and had made many provisions in the Constitution. These benefits have reached the untouchable castes even though he worked for the awakening and upliftment of all the untouchables. He had very few followers. Most of the people took advantage of those provisions and facilities but did not accept his teachings. They did not want to be free from the slavery of Hindu religion and caste system. Being victims of slavery for centuries, they had started loving slavery. The speeches of Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, MPs, and MLAs from backward castes after the demolition of Babri Masjid are a good proof of this.

Today, on the one hand, atrocities on Dalits are increasing all over India, and on the other hand, opposition to reservation is increasing. The doors of progress are being closed through privatization, on the other hand Dalits are not organized even in any one area. Those young men who want to take up politics as their field of work, do not consider joining politics but entering the Parliament and Legislative Assembly as politics. Instead of adopting the difficult path of struggle, renunciation, sacrifice, and mass movement, they join those parties which have more hope of winning them a seat or which can give them more money. They remain more loyal to their masters in the Parliament and Legislative Assembly. In the eyes of Dalits, Ram is neither their ideal male hero nor God because he was a supporter of Brahminism and Varna system and when he regained consciousness, he committed suicide by taking water samadhi in Saryu River but the people of Shudra castes got the voice from their masters due to ignorance and political selfishness. They are praising him. What could be more proof of backwardness and slavery than this?

Movements in the interests of the poor/labourers and vulnerable people, distribution of land, fight against unemployment, inflation, corruption are not run by parties, nor by youth looking for “political jobs.” He does not believe in such “useless” activities. This is how power will come into our hands and then we will do whatever we want. Once upon a time, Congress also used to raise similar slogans. Bahujan Samaj Party also used to raise similar slogans but after coming to power, it did nothing for the upliftment of Dalits.

The untouchables could not launch a movement for distribution of land, whereas the Republican Party, understanding its importance, had launched a big movement in 1964-65 and had achieved great success. Farm labourers, small farmers, artisans, untouchables, and people from backward classes started considering it as their party but its urban leaders remained entangled in urban problems. That party broke into pieces due to the weaknesses of the leadership and the caste system and wrong election laws. Congress and other parties did a great job in breaking it because it was becoming a big threat to them.

The untouchables could not organize due to caste sentiments. They love caste so much that they are unable to give up their attachment even after going abroad. Organization is not possible without discrimination and hatred.

It does not seem possible that they will ever gain political power through elections under the laws and systems prevalent today.

Some people have benefited from reservation but very few of those who have benefited from reservation have worked to uplift the society but reservation is not a permanent thing. If the number of educated people increases and unemployment among educated youth increases, then reservation will become meaningless.

People who follow Hindu religion and caste system as ideal are becoming powerful day by day. They want to establish Ramrajya (Hindu Rashtra) and many people from Dalit and Shudra castes are helping them in establishing Ramrajya. Ramrajya would mean caste system and rule of the upper castes. This Constitution which claims equality, talks about rights will be abolished in Ramraj because Ramrajya was a state of inequality. There was a kingdom of injustice in which Shudras and women did not have the right to live with dignity.

In these circumstances the future of the untouchables is in danger. They have no friends and no allies. Some people can form organizations to come to power in a sporadic manner but are unable to get organized. The most pathetic condition seems to be of those who claim to be Ambedkarites. Now people have started laughing at them because while they criticize the Brahmins on the stage, in their daily life they follows the rules, highs and lows, superstitions and customs made by them. They do not consider it a mistake to remain as Mahars, Chamars, Bhangis and Khatiks even after adopting Buddhism. They do not want to learn anything from history.

Given these circumstances and weaknesses, the future of Dalits seems bleak. The intoxicating and dangerous slogans of “Hindutva” will cause great harm to Dalits. Gandhi and Congress had prevented them from organizing and had created obstacles in creating their identity. Tried to keep them away from other minorities. The main reason for this was that they wanted to strengthen Hindu religion. Leadership in Congress was in the hands of people from the so-called upper castes.

Now the party that came to power on the slogan of Hindutva is also doing the same thing that Congress had been doing. Make the untouchables fight with the Sikhs and then defame them by blackening their faces. Make the untouchables fight the Muslims so that they cannot gather. Promote Hindu customs and casteism among the untouchables so that they cannot organize themselves and create a threat to them. There may be a difference in the methods of the two parties but not in the objectives.

It is in the interest of Dalits that they should follow the path shown by Babasaheb Ambedkar and become free from the slavery of casteism, conservatism and customs and create their own identity. Remove the influence and traces of Hindu religion from your life considering it as poison. In clear words, they should free themselves from the slavery of Hindu religion. Separate your name, lifestyle, food habits, clothes, everything, create your own identity. Build a new society, a new social and economic system based on the principles of Buddhism. Only then will they be able to live with dignity in the times to come and will be able to liberate the victims of their kind of exploitation.

Hindu religion is the main reason for slavery, backwardness, poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, mental and physical weakness, and disorganization of Dalits. For progress, and a life with dignity, it is as important to be completely free from this slavery as it is for a slave country to be free.

(Bhagwan Das was a colleague of Dr. Ambedkar. It was he who took the issue of untouchability in the Indian subcontinent to the international level. In 1983, he presented this issue in the UNO)

 

THE VICTORY OF AN UNTOUCHABLE

            THE VICTORY OF AN UNTOUCHABLE
               (From the Pages of History)
              The Reader's Digest- March 1950
-            Condensed from Christian Herald Blake Clark.

     

(Note: This article appeared in The Reader's Digest- March 1950. It was typed out by Mr. Bhagwan Das. I found these six pages in the documents of Bhagwan Das. From it, we can imagine how much Mr. Bhagwan Das laboured to preserve literature about Dr. Ambedkar. It was the same devotion which made Mr. Bhagwan Das to collect speeches of Dr. Ambedkar in the shape of four volumes as “Thus Spoke Ambedkar Vol. I-4.” It was done by him in the sixties when no other book except “Life and Mission of Dr. Ambedkar by Dhananjay Keer” was available in the market. We are highly indebted to Mr. Bhagwan Das for this historical work. - SR Darapuri)

         

The inspiring story of how India's present Law Minister won human rights for himself and thousands of other former outcastes. After swallowing insults for centuries, India's 45 million lowly Untouchables - one-eighth of the country's population are breaking their shackles of economic slavery and social degradation. At their head is handsome, jet-eyed, 56-year-old Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, present Law Minister of India. Himself an Untouchable, and he had dedicated his life to a fight for his people's rights.
Four thousand years ago Aryan invaders divided India into four Hindu castes. At the top of the ladder, they placed the Brahmans, who were the priests and scholars; on the second rung were the Kashatriyas, the rulers and warriors; on the third were the Vaisyas, the artisans, and merchants; the lowest rung was occupied by the Sudras, unskilled labourers whose destiny was to serve the other three castes. Below them, not even given a place on the ladder, were the outcastes, the Untouchables. Their doom was to do India's most offensive work, such as sweeping dung from the streets and cleaning latrines. Some lucky Untouchables became curers of rawhide, grass cutters, basketmakers, and wool combers. They cringed as they salaamed; they stepped into the mud to allow others to pass.
A man's caste determined how he lived from the cradle to the grave even whom he married, whose house he could enter; no one could rise to a higher level than the caste into which he was born. And the caste Hindu could not risk his chances for promotion in the next life by contact with an Untouchable. Sometimes even an outcaste’s shadow was supposed to defile the soul of a Brahman.
Ambedkar's father was fortunate enough to serve in the British army. He then settled in Satara in the Bombay Presidency because the local teacher agreed to get the boy Bhimrao to attend classes. Bhimrao was the only Untouchable among the 500 grade-school students. He spent the years isolated in a far corner of his classroom, although he was the brightest boy in the class. The teacher would not touch his "polluted" exercise book or let him recite it. As water is considered one of the most easily tainted commodities, when Bhimrao was thirsty the teacher called a servant who turned on the tap for the stream to fall into the lad's upturned mouth. At recess, while the other boys played cricket, Bhimrao could only stand at a distance and watch.
Despite almost overwhelming handicaps, Bhimrao won a competitive scholarship and entered Elphinstone High School in Bombay. It was a public school, under British rule, and he had to be accepted. But the prejudice continued. In the classroom was a movable blackboard. The boys left their lunches on its platform. During a geometry lesson one day the teacher told Bhimrao to go to the board. A roar of protest went up from the class: "He will spoil our lunches!" Every student ran to the platform and retrieved his food. Then the tainted boy could demonstrate his theorem, defiling nothing but the chalk.
As Bhimrao grew older he learned more about caste. Untouchables were forced to work for some Hindus; they could not bargain over wages but had to accept what the master offered. Every Indian city and village had its Untouchable ghetto, where large families frequently lived in one room, slept on the floor, and shared a single toilet and water tap with as many as 150 people. Bhimrao's resentment grew. "Education" he said to his father one day, "could rescue our people from the depths.".
Far away from the slums, in his vast turreted palace, the nighty Gaekvar of Baroda somehow heard of Bhim Rao Ambedkar. He had assisted other promising individuals from the Depressed Classes, and now he made it possible for this zealous student to finish college in Bombay, then to sail for further study in the United States.
On his first day at Columbia University young Ambedkar was deeply stirred by two new experiences. He dined in a cafeteria on a basis of complete equality with other students; and he was given a room in a dormitory where he shared the shower room, lounge and drinking fountain with everyone else.
Few students on any campus have ever exhibited such a voracious appetite for knowledge. He became absorbed in history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics. When he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1917, he had more than double the credits required,
After further study in London and in Germany, Ambedkar returned to Baroda, where he learned from the Gaekvar that he was to be groomed for the Job of Finance Minister. The Accountant General assigned him a desk. Soon a clerk carrying papers for him came down the aisle. In front of Ambedkar's desk was a carpet, an excellent conductor of contamination. Standing at its far edge, the messenger flung his bundle at the desk. That was the last work Ambedkar received. After six days of mortifying idleness, he asked his superior's permission to spend his days in the public library.
Then one morning as Ambedkar was leaving hie room at an inn he saw a dozen Parsis members of a select caste armed with clubs coming up the stairway. "Get out! Get out!" they shouted. He fled for his life. Unable to find lodgings, he wrote to the Gnekvar, who referred him to the Prime Minister. But the Prime Minister, the highest official in the state told him "Sorry, I can do nothing."
Except for odd jobs answering correspondence, one of India's best-educated men lived in Bombay for the next year and a half unemployed, poverty-stricken, and miserable. Finally, he became a professor of political economy at Sydenham College, where he worked only long enough to save money for further study in England. In 1923 he returned to Bombay a barrister with a doctorate of science from the London School of Economics. His treatise, "The Problem of the Rupee," was acclaimed by economists the world over.
But, to appear before the High Court, a barrister had to have his brief drafted by a solicitor of the same caste. As Ambedkar was the first Untouchable to enter the profession, no one would do this work for him. He took up practice in the District Court, where this rule did not apply. In cases of appeal to the High Court, clients tried to persuade solicitors to assist him, but to no avail. Finally, a Brahman friend who needed the money agreed to help him. Immediately the other barrister boycotted the Brahman and vigorously opposed Ambedkar.
Stubbornly he fought back. Once he said, shaking his fist at a group trying to disbar him, "Someday I will sit on this bench and you will call me 'My Lord. ‘ He might have fulfilled this prophecy in 1942 when he was offered a judgeship, but he declined the appointment to accept a post on the Viceroy's Executive Council.
Ambedkar started a weekly vernacular newspaper, now called Janta (The People). Each Saturday afternoon, in every Bombay Untouchable tenement, illiterates eagerly gathered around a fortunate one who could read and listen to Ambedkar's editorials. Assailing caste for its economic inefficiency, he urged Untouchable boys to take jobs different from those of their fathers.
To help working-class boys and girls go to college, Ambedkar formed the People's Education Society, which canvassed for funds and leased a deserted army barracks in downtown Bombay. There, at Siddharth College, 2600 of all castes now, receive a full-fledged university education from a faculty of nearly 150 well-qualified professors. Having observed at Columbia American students' healthy regard for working one's way through college, Ambedkar introduced the same idea to India. Classes begin at 7:30 and, except for laboratory courses, are over by 10:30, leaving time for students to put in a day's work in the office or mill.
Appointed as a Labor Member in the Governor General's Executive Council in 1942, Ambedkar persuaded the government to earmark 300,000 rupees a year for scholarships to send Untouchables abroad for study. The first 30 students, educated in England and the United States, are now back in India at work as engineers, teachers, and lawyers. Even more far-reaching in its effect was his success in getting 12 per cent of the posts in government service reserved for qualified Untouchables.
Some ideas of the Untouchables' loyalty to Ambedkar may be judged by their response to his first political campaign when he was a candidate for the Bombay Legislative Assembly in 1947. Long before daybreak on election morning thousands of Untouchables, their loose cotton dhotis flapping about their legs, were striding through the dark from district villages into Bombay. By 6 a.m. they were at the voting booths, waiting for them to open.
In this district Hindus far outnumber Untouchables. But while 30 percent of the qualified Hindu voters came to the polls, 80 percent of the Untouchables appeared, and Ambedkar received more votes than any other elected assemblyman but one. *Nothing can stop him" observed a foreigner long resident in India. "He has the power of incorruptibility".
Looking like a serious bespectacled Roman Senator in his immaculate white Indian robes, Ambedkar still lives a simple life. His wife is a physician of the Brahman caste.
Ambedkar is now engaged in perhaps creating a constitution for the biggest task in India - a new republic. As chairman of the constitution drafting committee, he must defend each article before the Constituent Assembly, which must ratify it. A dramatic moment in Ambedkar’s career came on November 29, 1948, when he introduced Article 11, the fulfilment of a lifetime dream. Slowly, in commanding tones, he pronounced it: "Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden ... and shall be punishable in accordance with law." In a unanimous standing vote, the entire Assembly roared its applause.
Ambedkar would be the last to claim that he abolished the slavery of Untouchability single handed. Gandhi was a most potent force; largely through his work, the 7 temples are now open to Untouchables. Industrialization, too, with its enforced mingling, has blurred caste lines in the cotton and jute mills. Now, in many cities, the Untouchables eat in the same restaurant with caste Hindu enters the same barbershop, rides the same bus, sends his children to the same school. Last year several thousand Untouchables married outside their group. Even in the villages, some small progress is under way; but the fight for equality in rural areas has been hard.
The very fact that the Untouchables themselves, after centuries of a steadily ingrained inferiority complex, are now taking the initiative in their own cause is encouraging. And their leader is not afraid of adversity. After all, "he says, "kites rise against, not with, the wind!"