By Dr Asavadi Prakasa Rao
 |
| Dr Asavadi Prakasa Rao |
We, the SCs, are
second to none in patriotism; so let’s think mainstream and broadminded,
instead of feeling being on the margins. We have a responsibility to the nation
and we will discharge it.
Social harmony is
one of the most important activities of nation building; and here I would like
to focus on it from the angle of the Dalit situation.
To go into the
genesis of caste at this stage is superfluous, I suppose. A number of religious
leaders and social reformers right from Buddha’s down to the present times have
done their best to eliminate caste, but nobody has totally succeeded. Whether
you attribute it to the ploys of the rulers or to the conspiracy of the upper-castes,
one thing in our contemporary situation is undeniably glaring – that each and
every one has been doing their best to strengthen the foundations of the very caste
system they profess to dismantle.
Though it is
evidenced that caste discrimination has almost disappeared in the matter of
community events like festivals, feasts, fairs and temple visits, nobody knows
when the much ingrained and pent-up caste-gestalt is going to burst out next.
Ironically, the lowest order of the castes in the caste hierarchy has itself
become a breeding and battle ground for internecine conflicts, and the upper-caste
leaders are adding fuel to this fire. It is also a naked truth that the leaders
of caste associations – who do everything in their command to promote and
perpetrate caste consciousness and jealousies in order to ensure that their
position of leadership remains unchallenged thanks to the shows of strength
they organise from time to time – do nothing concrete for their members, but snap
up every benefit for themselves.
To me it appears
that the inter-caste differences would gradually wither away not by hating, fighting
and thrashing one another but by promoting inter-caste empathy and harmony
only. This idea may infuriate some of the caste leaders and activists, but it
is my well-considered opinion in the background of my work in this direction
over the last two decades. Let’s have a dispassionate and amicable approach.
It is undisputable
that some of the upper-caste people are humiliating the non-caste people, viz.
Dalits; but all is not lost if both the groups and the government have an open
and clear mind on the issue.
Discrimination against Dalits
Here
is a litany of facts of discrimination against the Dalits:-
1. SC employees
are refused tenancy of residential portions; if at all they are let out, they
are let out only to those SCs who have converted to Christianity. Sometimes
houses are let out to the SCs without an idea of their caste; but once their
caste identity is uncovered, they are harassed and hounded out. Acts like this
force the SCs, a major segment of the Hindu society, to walk out into the fold
of other religions.
2. The SC labour is
engaged in temple construction but they are not allowed entry into them,
post-construction. Their services are used in the weddings of the upper-castes
but when it comes to serving food, they are offered only the stale leftovers.
3. When students
are taken out on excursions, the SC students are, in some cases, kept away from
certain facilities; they are not allowed anywhere near the kitchens or temples.
4. When
well-meaning efforts are made to involve the SCs in ceremonies like cow
worship, the people of other castes are boycotting such ceremonies. Even in the
temples built in the SC colonies on the initiative of the government or the TTD
(Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams), prominence is given to the devotees of upper-castes
and the SC devotees are excluded or given a left-handed treatment. Half-hearted
and token attempts would do no good.
5. Even now in the
rural hotels, the SC customers are not allowed into the main dining area; they
have to sit in the veranda and use only those plates and tumblers earmarked for
them; after using them, they have to wash and return them onto the allotted shelf.
6. Separate
residential colonies, hostels, schools and graveyards are set up for the SCs;
but they are being built on the outskirts, flung away from the main town or
village. On the one hand we decry the age-old caste discrimination, but on the
other we perpetuate the caste segregation in a modern way. This is an example
of governmental incompetence and conceptual muddle-headedness.
7. The caste
Hindus are using more than the necessary space for the tombs of their dead in
the graveyards; and they don’t allow the corpses of the SCs to be buried in their
graveyards of the upper-castes. When a member from the families of the educated
and cultured SCs living even in a general residential complex or locality
passes away, the non-SC residents create a ruckus and force and hurry up the
bereaved to carry away the corpse immediately on a plea that the presence of
the dead body bodes ill for them, not mindful of the loss to and mourning of
the bereaved family.
8. In the aided
educational institutions owned, controlled and managed by upper-caste people
with political clout, they appoint more of their own caste people and favour
them with everything. But they deny similar concessions to the SC employees in
matters like grant of leave, permission to pursue higher education, and
selection for training for professional competency, in utter disregard of the
governmental rules and regulations. The SC teachers are used for the personal
service of the management/administration, and whenever the victims raise their
voice for justice they are slapped with legal cases and are cornered into
tendering their resignations. The upper-caste people are discrediting the SC
teachers with a tag of inefficiency even among the students.
9. In the
government offices where the SCs happen to be in a high position, the other
employees disregard them and extend no cooperation. They level allegations against
their SC bosses, drag them to courts and weaken them financially. The
government which has permitted the SC employees to float their welfare
associations is conniving at the formation of similar organisations by the
employees of other castes, and quite often they affiliate themselves to various
political parties. This superfluous protective measure for the unions of
non-SCs makes a mockery of the dictum: The strength of the weak is the ruler.
10. Caste fire is
being stoked even in the universities and hostels with mischievous creation of
groups, supported by outside big leaders. The merit of the SC students is not
recognised and the academic growth of the SCs is being stifled. Even when an SC
candidate gets into a position by virtue of merit, such selection or promotion
is derogatorily linked to their caste-label.
11. The non-SC
candidates are grabbing the benefits of SCs by producing false caste and income
certificates, managed from corrupt government officials, to gain illegal
admission into educational institutions and jobs. A foolproof machinery should
be in place to keep a tab on and check such irregularities and evil practices.
12. The
impressionable minds of upper-caste children are being polluted against the SC
children, with the former not being encouraged to mingle and play with the
latter, thereby crushing the innately lofty ideas and ideals in their budding
stage itself.
13. The lands of
the SCs are being grabbed, driving them into eternal poverty. The upper-caste
people are also luring or forcing the SC women into sex and also raping their
progeny in the name of wild justice.
14. If any of the
SC persons are fair-complexioned, handsome or a tad fashionable, wearing shoes
or goggles or decently dressed – the upper-caste people in the villages
controlled by big landlords are riven with jealousy and ungraciously taunt and
hurt them.
15. No concrete
actionable thought is in evidence to better the lot of the SCs living in
hovels, hurled away from the villages onto the fringes. Come elections, the
political leaders act chummy, pouring out barrels of sham love and concern.
16. If there is
any unexpected fall-out or disturbance at the hustings, the blame is laid at
the door of the SCs, their hamlets are attacked, and the innocent suspects are
punished. For the reserved constituencies, the upper-caste leaders select
docile and illiterate or semi-literate candidates so as to use them as their
pawns. If after being elected or getting into a good position, the SC leaders
stand on the side of their fraternity, they are sought to be expelled or
dispossessed. Educated and honest people from the SCs are not encouraged.
17. The plight of
the SC outcasts in the villages is such that even the people of the other lower
castes – engaged in trades like
haircutting and laundering, though they also eke out their livelihood at the
lower rungs of the caste order – not only refuse to serve the SCs but also join
the upper-castes in harassing the SCs.
18. The antiquated
Devadasi system is still being followed in some of the villages, continuing the
indignities of the women of the SCs.
What to do
The
list of insults and oppressions is endless, but we should not get disheartened
or give up. Everyone who is conscientious would do well to set the things
right. After all, we are all Indians; and the dicta in epics and texts like the
Mahabharata are a source of authority to us. Vyasa, the creator of the Mahabharata,
says: ‘Helping the needy is a sacred virtue; persecution of the innocent is a
grave sin.’ So let’s follow the spirit of this adage.
Dos for Upper-castes
I
hope that the people of the so-called upper-castes would empathically consider
and translate the following plans of action in right earnest.
1.
Treat not Ambedkar as a mere caste leader but place him in the pantheon of
other adorable leaders and give him his due honour. Limit him not to just his
birth and death anniversaries; seize every opportunity to consider and reflect
on his services. Desist from looking on his works and his followers as
untouchable. Do read his works and you will appreciate what a corpus of
valuable ideas he has brought forth by means of his extensive and intense
research of a multitude of relevant things to benefit the Indian society.
2. Teach your
family to be broadminded, caring and helpful to the SCs in a spirit of
solidarity and unity. Look upon the SC children on a par with your own. Invite
them to your homes and have dinner with them, sitting together. This would help
the SC children rid themselves of inferiority complex.
3. Invite the SC
female folks to the ceremonies in your family like weddings, baby showers, and
other feminine and auspicious events and honour them. This engenders a feeling
of goodwill and support in them.
4. If your son or
daughter marries inter-caste, encourage them; and don’t heed motivated
criticism about it. Create conditions conducive to their happy married life. If
misunderstandings crop up, talk it out patiently with the couple and help
resolve the differences. Counsel them to think from the angle of humanity and
harmony, but not money and property. Tell them that the pivot of a happy
successful marriage does not rest on the beauty of the skin or physical
temptation, but on selfless and sublimating love.
5. Ensure that the
food, clothing, shelter, education, jobs etc, meant for or due to the SCs, are
not denied.
6. The itinerant
crafts persons, artists and traders from the SC/ST communities go from village
to village and stay in the small cloth tents they pitch up outside the
villages. Accommodate them in your localities, be friendly and generous.
Enlighten them on how to lead respectable lives. Proactively take up their
needs with the authorities and see that these lowly ones get the required
facilities.
7. Attend the
meetings organised by the underprivileged for themselves, hear them through
until the meeting ends, and try to read the concerns and agony gnawing away at
their hearts. Facing a variety of humiliations they long for self-respect and
equality. When you go amidst them, you are most likely to encounter a barrage
of barbs, accusations and damnations; but don’t get charged up and don’t take
them to heart. Be broadminded, patient and helpful as a father would be to his
grown-up son like whom the downtrodden tend to behave.
8. It is advisable
to shed the caste names of streets, villages and persons; and discontinue the
circulation of proverbs etc that are derisive of particular castes. Literary
and cultural organisations should assume a proactive role in this.
9. There have been
many noble souls in the history who have endeavoured to bring about harmony
among diverse sections of the society. Organise their birth and death
anniversaries and convey their work and message. Identify the merits in the
respective castes and adopt and disseminate them. Pick out eligible persons
with requisite attitude from the neglected strata, have them trained as domestic
and temple priests to conduct religious rites and ceremonies.
10. Please accept
that reservations are not a charity but a social responsibility and that they
would contribute to a welcome social transformation and integrity.
Dos and Don’ts for the SC brethren
And
there are dos and don’ts for the SC brethren as well. Let them consider and put
them in action without any prejudice or misgiving. Let them elevate their
status like a lotus springing out of the mud, like a flash of lightning
emerging from a cloud, and like a diamond transmuting from the carbon. Didn’t
Arundhati come from the outcastes, Vyasa from the fishing, Valmiki from the
hunting, Kalidasa from the cattle-keeping, Kabir Das from the cotton-cleaning,
Kanaka Das from the blanket-weaving, and the Telugu poetess Molla from the
pot-making lower castes? Think over.
1. Make proper use
of the government’s resources and the helping hand of well-wishers. Don’t
hanker after freebies, but be ready to work hard. Once you have developed on a
par with the average benchmark, give up the facility of reservations and help
those who are in a lower position to stand on their own. Don’t live beyond means
or on debts but learn to be contented. And avoid pomp and greed.
2. Avoid polygamy
and extramarital liaisons. Shed misogynistic attitude and be loving to your
better half. Have limited children to be free of financial straits. Since
education gives wisdom, give good education to your children. Spend quality
time with them quite often, relating your life experiences and advising them
how to lead a life free of pitfalls.
3. Don’t delude
yourself that higher education is the panacea for each and everything, but
persuade your children to acquire skills in one or more of handicrafts that are
to their liking, alongside their regular studies.
4. Don’t give in
to vices like intoxicants and gambling. If you do, you will be a butt of
ridicule and hatred. Don’t wish for or accept hush money, for illegitimate
earnings would not last. Be an example of morality and honesty. Mark that, a
mazer of congee earned with the sweat of your brow is far healthier than a bowl
of lavish pudding coming from a venal wallet.
5. Keep up both
personal and environmental hygiene. Don’t let your gastronomic weakness tempt
you to eat the meat of dead animals. If you still do, at least don’t wear it on
your lapel. Don’t kill the animals or dry the meat in the open. The educated
need to enlighten the SCs in the slums on the importance of cleanliness and
clean surroundings.
6. The educated
SCs should stand by the folks of itinerant tribes who are equally backward, and
stay in touch with them. Spare at least an hour of your time in the evenings
for their free education. Often visit the student hostels to find out their
problems and offer solutions. We will be bold enough to do all these things
only when we are not weighed down by an inferiority complex.
7. If you are in
electoral politics, acquire the ability and credibility to contest not only in
the constituency allotted to you but also elsewhere. Take care that your
political managers don’t siphon off your budgeted funds. Organise the affairs
and work in such a way that you can mobilise the support of the people of other
castes as well.
8. Call
get-togethers and meetings at frequent intervals, undo your weaknesses, and go
ahead as per the situational demands.
9. Identify the
spots of social reconciliation and harmony and publicise them. Circulate
pamphlets about the social leaders and saints who have worked for social
conciliation, in order to awaken the people. Organise their memorial meetings
and broadcast those parts of their ideals and teachings that have a present
relevance.
10. It is unfortunate
that the differences between the various sub-caste categories of SCs is leading
to internecine conflicts; and the upper-castes by exploiting our ignorance are
fomenting further discord among ourselves. Hence all categories under SCs
should be vigilant and have a consensus.
11. The elected
representatives from the SC constituencies shouldn’t be sold away to the upper-castes
at the expense of the SCs. They should wean the SCs away from acts like –
slaughter of animals like cows on their own instead of getting the meat from
the slaughter houses; skinning the animals; and lifting the night-soil – into
productive and respectable ways. A sense of self-respect should be instilled in
spite of their poverty.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda about
Brahmins and Dalits
Swami
Vivekananda relates how his guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a Brahmin served
the Pariahs (outcastes). On one such occasion the Paramahamsa prayed:
“Oh, my Mother,
make me the servant of the Pariah, make me feel that I am even lower than the
Pariah.”
(Selections from the Complete Works of Swami
Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Twenty-second Impression, Dec 2006,
p 350).
Now the Brahmins
and the people of other castes need not clean the outcasts’ homes, but let them
empathise and embrace them in the spirit that the Paramahamsa did, and it will
accelerate social harmony, and the country would emerge must stronger.
Had the upper-castes
drawn the Pariahs into their fold centuries ago, we would have had an
unchallenged might of repulsing the foreign attacks on our country, says Swami
Vivekananda.
Vivekananda debunks
the so-called inherent or genetic merit of the Brahmins in the field of
education, and stresses the need to invest any amount of money and care on the
education of the Pariahs and also on the natural equality of the human spirit (while
addressing the Brahmin community in general at Kumbakonam) thus:
“Ay, Brahmins, if
the Brahmin has more aptitude for learning on the ground of heredity than the
Pariah, spend no more money on the Brahmin’s education, but spend all on the
Pariah. Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed. If the Brahmin is
born clever, he can educate himself without help. If the others are not born
clever, let them have all the teaching and the teachers they want. This is
justice and reason as I understand it. Our poor people, these downtrodden
masses of India, therefore, require to hear and to know what they really are.
Ay, let every man and woman and child, without respect of caste or birth,
weakness or strength, hear and learn that behind the strong and the weak,
behind the high and the low, behind every one, there is that Infinite Soul,
assuring the infinite possibility and the infinite capacity of all to become
great and good.”
(Selections from the Complete Works of Swami
Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Twenty-second Impression, Dec 2006,
p 208).
Dalit Poet Boyi Bhimanna’s Views
I
don’t presume any competence to offer suggestions to the governments. But I
have a heart to endorse any good suggestion irrespective of its source. Reputed
Dalit Telugu poet and Padma Bhushan awardee Dr Boyi Bhimanna has made quite a
few proposals and they are worth considering. He says:
“When there are
laws governing religious conversions, why don’t we have such laws for caste
conversions as well? If the latter is allowed, the distinction between castes
gets gradually blurred, and thereby the caste system loses its sting. If all
the concerned – the outcastes, the downtrodden, the progressives and the
nationalists – come onto a single platform and try for it, the proposed
legislation would not be difficult. This is the only way for a coherent Indian
nation. The rest are simply frauds.”
If humanism is to
replace the caste, this is a very good proposal, but the million dollar
question is: How far will it be possible in the current milieu where caste
organisations are formed and consolidated by the very people who detest the caste
system?
Boyi Bhimanna
looked upon caste as a superstition, since hunger, thinking faculty, pain and
suffering are common to all. After all, a human gives birth to a human only;
and what flows in everyone’s veins is the same blood. Unfortunately, nobody is
realising this. This was his anguish.
Inter-caste Marriages
Some
of the thinkers advocate inter-caste marriages as an antidote to caste
discrimination, but this is true only to a certain extent, since the binding
factor in love-marriages is essentially a temporary physical attraction between
two individuals but not the ideal of inter-caste harmony or caste-eradication.
In fact, many an inter-caste marriage is breaking down in course of time. This
is what Bhimanna felt.
The inter-caste
married couples should discard their caste identities, but not cling to one
caste or the other lest their children should face problems in finding their
partners. It would be wise if the children of inter-caste couples look for and
choose their life partner in the children of another inter-caste couple. There
should be a stipulation in the electoral laws that a representative should have
married outside the caste and that too from a low caste, and a poor family,
because the SCs on their own cannot afford to negotiate and settle matrimonial
alliances with the people of upper-castes. Even where the upper-caste people
are accepting brides or grooms from a lower caste, ostensibly in the name of
social unification – but for their own vested interests, they don’t respond
when the people of such lower caste are in some crisis, much less stand by
them. So such marriages should be given legal sanction.
Ultimately, the
question of caste should come up only when governmental concessions are the
criterion. Well-off people irrespective of their caste not being in need of
such concessions, should not mention their caste in the applications concerned
and serve as an example for others; and there need not be any legal objection
to it. Still if any official declines such application, they should be liable
for prosecution. This is how Bhimanna pondered over the issue.
Dalits, a Shade-giving Tree
The
outcastes are a symbol of a shade-giving tree which takes in the air (carbon
dioxide) breathed out by everyone but releases a salubrious air (oxygen), and
also yields flowers, fruits, firewood and timber. Just like a silent selfless
tree, the outcastes are serving everyone, even as mutely bearing the agony of
axe-cut like insults, and with no return. ‘A noble and sublime soul is needed
to even out this teary tale of the Dalits,’ said Gurram Jashuva, famous Telugu
Dalit poet and Padma Bhushan awardee.
Let us, the Dalits, be dispassionate &
broadminded
While
we are on a mission of castelessness and social equality, let us not do
anything that goes to aggravate caste stratification. On the one hand, we say
that we should not be called by our caste name; on the other, many of us have
begun to suffix their caste names to their first names. Is it right on our
part? And in such cases, if anyone calls us by such suffix, how can they be
wrong?
A stigma has come
to be attached to the Atrocities Act, since some of our members have been
abusing it as a tactic to blackmail or settle the score with a non-SC
individual for extraneous reasons. We have to be doubly discriminating while
filing a case invoking this Act.
It is not enough
if we go on a spree of erecting the statues of Ambedkar without emulating his
hard work. The money spent on this activity, could better be utilised for a
more meaningful welfare of our community.
We should not
endlessly insist on and enjoy the reservations. If it is continued, it could
threaten to rebound as reverse discrimination. Reservations should be limited
to a single generation in any family. The qualifying income for reservations
could be raised from time to time but only in proportion to the rising cost of
living, and not on considerations of vote-bank politics. If it is
disproportionately raised, it would hurt the prospects of the poor and meritorious
in the upper-castes, many of whom are already feeling the pinch. Recently the
Central government has raised the OBC creamy layer limit from Rs 6 lacs to Rs 8
lacs of annual income. I feel this is not called for. With this raise, it shows
as if an OBC person with an annual income of Rs 8 lacs is still poor, whereas
an upper-caste person with an annual income of Rs 2 lacs is rich! Isn’t it
preposterous? It would be unethical to eat the cake and have it too.
Equality can’t
come about just on the basis of laws and reservations or by wilful
confrontations; there has to be social understanding and give-and-take as well.
In this gigantic and sacred task, everyone – from the SCs to the upper-castes –
should be a willing partner. Things cannot, however, be achieved overnight; it
takes a good deal of time to realise our dreams. In the meanwhile, let everyone
be clear-sighted, committed, persevering and patient.
Excellent discussion of the realities of the life of Dalits and recommendations of what needs to be done, not just at the governmental level, but within our communities. The reference to Vivekananda's philosophy is an eye-opener.
ReplyDeleteExcellent discussion of the realities of the life of Dalits and recommendations of what needs to be done, not just at the governmental level, but within our communities. The reference to Vivekananda's philosophy is an eye-opener.
ReplyDelete