Press Gallery
A Section for Media News on Dalit Issues
Dalits threaten to convert if displaced
The Times of India/22 December 1998
KANPUR: Nearly 10,000 dalits of Gudar Basti here have threatened to convert to Islam on January 1 following a notice served on them to vacate the railway land where they have been residing for decades.
The dalits claim that the area has already been declared a slum. The residents, most of whom are engaged in rearing pigs or are rag pickers, assert that they are registered voters and their present address should be deemed to be their permanent address. If their grievances were not redressed by December 31, they would embrace Islam.
The Shahar Qazi, Maulana Manzoor Ahmed Mujahiri, when contacted, confirmed that the residents of Gudar Basti had been in touch with him and sought his help. On humanitarian grounds, he said, he was bound to help them. The Qazi, however, refused to comment on the conversion issue.
ADM, S P Mishra, said votaries of different religions were trying to hold out promises to the dalits. The administration, he said, had already expressed its readiness to settle them on land on the outskirts of Kanpur.
On their part, the dalits are ready to embrace any religion for a better life. ``We will do anything. We will change our lifestyle, modify our eating habits, anything to get rid of our present life.''
They have lost faith in politicians who, they say, visit them only during elections. Now they had been asked to their land.
``I was asked to deposit Rs 56,000. I never had that much money. The administration jailed me and also put my wife in jail when she went to the tehsil to enquire about me. Two other women were also detained,'' alleged Tej Singh.
Shila Devi (45) said she did not mind putting on a burqa if she was assured an honourable life. ``We are treated like dirt and now they are snatching away our home as well.''
President's brother is RSS camp in-charge
The Times Of India/19December 1998
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: K.R. Bhaskaran, younger brother of President K.R. Narayanan, is the ``sibir adhikari''(camp in charge) of the RSS college students' training camp being held at Mattancherry in Kochi.
Mr Bhaskaran's prominent position in conducting the camp, that aims at motivating the youths, has come as a big morale booster to the RSS in Kerala. But senior leaders of the RSS told The Times of India that Mr Bhaskaran's was not a sudden interest in the organisation but one that had grown over the years.
``Mr Bhasakaran had for long been keen on reviving Indian culture which is essentially Hindu. He believed that without a moral base or `dharma', society would not flourish,'' said Sangh leader and secretary of the state BJP, P.P. Mukundan.
Mr Bhaskaran was also the chief guest at the RSS' Vijayadasami day celebrations organised at Uzhavoor, the President's native village.
According to Mr Bhaskaran, the RSS ideology calls for a strong nation where fundamentalism and terrorism have no role. He points out that members of the backward castes and the minorities have been joining the RSS in Kerala. ``Hindu culture is the most tolerant in the world. It does not preach hatred towards any other community,'' he is quoted as having said in his address to the RSS youths.
Three Dalits tonsured for marrying outside
The Times of India/19 December 1998
CHENNAI: Three Dalit men who were humiliated by their villagers for marrying outside their castes, will begin an indefinite fast outside chief minister M.Karunanidhi's residence on December 23. Joining them will be Pudhiya Tamizhagam president K. Krishnaswamy.
The three Dalits last month, were allegedly tied to trees, had their heads tonsured and were threatened with being burnt alive if they returned to Kulathur village in Pudukkotai district.
A Dalit, Paulraj, had married outside his community and his friends Arumugam and Subramaniam, whose spouses are also from different castes, had supported him.
While the parents of the girl have not complained, it is believed that a powerful Hindu caste group had sparked the protests. This group, with increasingly prominent political connections, has been responsible for other atrocities on Dalits in the last five years.
The case came into the open when the three came here seeking help from the Pudhiya Tamizagham, a party that takes up Dalit issues.
It is also alleged that the police had booked the suspects and released them soon afterwards. Mr Krishnaswamy is joining the fast demanding that the DMK government provide protection to the men and ``tackle the caste issue''.
In a statement, the Tamil Nadu government denied any negligence by the state police. It said on Friday that four persons had been arrested and that the district collector had been asked to investigate the matter along with the superintendent of police.
Mulayam Sees Conspiracy behind Women's Bill
The Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (RLM) convener and Samajwadi Party president, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, asserted here today that his party would not allow the Government to introduce the Women's Reservation Bill in its present form and dubbed it as a conspiracy by upper caste leadership of major parties and as a revenge against the implementation of the Mandal Commission report.
Addressing a news conference here a visibly agitated Mr. Yadav accused leaders of Congress (I) and Left parties of falling into a ``political trap'' of the BJP and appealed to them to realise the ``real game-plan'' behind the Bill. ``The Bill in its present form is a question of life and death for us and we will take it up with the people''.
He reiterated his party's conditions for support to the controversial bill - the percentage of reservation to women should be limited to 10 per cent; there should be quota within quota with proportional reservation to women from minorities, OBC and SC and STs.
He charged the BJP and the Congress (I) with hatching a conspiracy to push through the Bill today in just five minutes and said he had alerted RLM MPs about it. ``These parties want to deprive the women from the downtrodden sections of their legitimate rights and we will not allow it happen''.
On the incidents in the Lok Sabha during the day, Mr. Yadav charged Trinamul Congress leader, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, and a few other women MPs with attacking RLM MPs without any provocation and with the intention to divert attention from the countrywide Opposition sponsored strike.
The Samajwadi Party president said a delegation of the RLM MPs called on the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. G.M.C. Balayogi, and apprised him of their version of the unruly incidents on the floor of Lok Sabha during the day. ``We have asked the Speaker to take appropriate action against the guilty persons involved in the incident. If no action is taken by December 14 we will not allow functioning of the House''.
Mr. Yadav accused the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, of adopting double standards and said while he had condemned the incidents of July in the Lok Sabha wherein MPs of Samajwadi Party had snatched copies of the Women's Reservation Bill from the hands of the Union Law Minister, Mr. Thambi Durai, and wondered why he had not uttered a single word about today's incidents.
HC seeks report on custodial rape of tribal woman
AHMEDABAD (UNI): The Gujarat High Court yesterday directed the State Government and the Director-General of Police, Mr. C. P. Singh, to submit a detailed report by December 15 with regard to the recent incident in Vadodara district in which a tribal woman was allegedly stripped, tortured and raped at a police station. A division bench of the court, comprising Mr. Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Mr. Justice M. S. Shah treated as suo motto writ petition a letter from Bharatiya Janata Party legislator and lawyer Mr. Yatin Oza in this connection and posted the matter to be heard on December 16. Mr. Oza had stated that no concrete action, except suspension of the police Sub- Inspector, Mr. P. H. Choudhary, had been taken so far. Expressing shock over the incident, he said the suspension of the accused police official was merely an eye-wash. The court has issued notices to the State Government, the DGP, the Inspector-General of Police (Baroda Range) and the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Rural), asking them to show cause why the suo motto petition should not be admitted.
Campaign for Dalit rights protection begins today
A national campaign to draw attention for protection of the human rights of Dalits is being launched here from tomorrow.
The campaign, focusing on the prevailing caste system which is the root cause of untouchability, will be inaugurated by Union Minister for Health Dalit Ezhil Malai. Talking to the media-persons here today, convenor of the campaign N. Paul Divakar said the beginning of the campaign coincided with the golden jubilee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It would conclude on Dec 14. He said the campaign would highlight the plight of 240 million Indian Dalits and another 20 million living in other countries of Asia. Stressing the need for creating awareness among the Dalits regarding their rights and acquaint other sections of the society, about the excesses being committed on them under the garb of untouchability, he said. This has been necessitated as all other methods to improve Dalits’ conditions had failed in the last 50 years, he said. Mr Divakar further said the main demands to be raised during the campaign would be removal of untouchability in the new millenium, establishing equality, dignity and sustainability, building a new social order and highlighting the fact that Dalit rights were human rights. Claiming that the Dalits were being subjected to the worst kind of human rights violations by the higher castes, he said that the campaign would also demand effective implementation of the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act and rules in all the States of the country.
The responsibility of monitoring the implementation of the Act should be given to the National Commission for SC\ST, he demanded. Among other demands to be raised during the five-day campaign are ensuring the right of reservation of Dalits and other most backward classes in all private enterprises and companies which are provided any form of subsidy by the Government, restoring the ownership of all the lands that were taken away from Dalits and bringing out a white paper by the Government on the atrocities committed against Dalits and welfare activities undertaken for them during the last 50 years. He disclosed that a number of programmes would be launched by the campaign committee during the coming year. These include a campaign to collect 10 million signatures and holding silent marches to the Parliament.
Ambedkar's death anniversary commemorated
More than a lakh members of the dalit community gathered at Chaityabhoomi at Dadar beach to commemorate the death anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar on Sunday.
The congregation paid tribute to Mr Ambedkar for breaking the shackles of casteism and uplifting the oppressed communities. The entire ceremony was peaceful, the police said.
Thousands of followers of Ambedk1ar started pouring into the metropolis from Friday itself. They came by trains, buses, jeeps and other vehicles from all over Maharashtra. Some of them came from neighbouring states like Gujarat and Karnataka. The city police had made elaborate arrangements. However, there was considerable confusion at Dadar railway station where no arrangements were made to regulate the crowd.
23 m Christians to protest today
Even as 23 million Christians all over the country geared up to observe tomorrow as the national protest day, the Gujarat Government today threatened to stop aid to those educational institutions which would remain closed as part of the agitation.
Christians, annoyed over the series of attacks on the community this year, have decided to hold rallies and keep their educational institutions closed tomorrow. In New Delhi, a delegation led by Archbishop Alan de Lastic, the chairperson of United Christian Forum for Human Rights, will present a memorandum to Parliament and the Government. A notification issued by the Gujarat Government this evening warned that by keeping the educational institutions closed tomorrow, the Christians would be violating the terms and conditions of the recognition granted to them by the Government.
This could lead to the stoppage of aid to them, the notification said.
Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel had yesterday said that the Christian employees of the State Government would not be allowed to take leave to participate in the rally.
HTC adds from Calcutta: Even as there have been no incidents of attack on the Christians in West Bengal, all educational institutions run by Christian missions in the state will remain closed tomorrow. This will be in response to a call by the united Christian forum for human rights (UCFHR) for a protest day all over the country to register the community's agony over the "concerted attacks on Christians" in some states in the recent months.
Addressing newspersons, Mr Herod Mullick, general secretary of Bangiya Christiya Parishad, said that cases of assaults on priests, nuns and members of the Christian community had gone up as never before. In a veiled reference to the Sangh Parivar, he said that such attacks were aimed at pressuring the community into submission to the fundamentalist agenda by some elements with political patronage.
Despite the constitutional safeguards, the minorities were being discriminated against. As part of the programme on the protest day, Christians will stage a peaceful sit-in demonstration at the Moulaid junction, central Calcutta, where speakers will highlight the spate of attacks on the Christians.
While acknowledging that the left front government was more tolerant towards the minorities, sources in the parishad said the marxist government was guilty of interfering in the running of government-aided missionary schools.
Seventy ST children tonsured in Andhra village
HYDERABAD : The tonsuring of 70 Scheduled Tribe children in a remote village in Visakhapatnam district has kicked up a controversy forcing Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to order an enquiry into the incident.
The children are students of an ashram primary school at Pedabayalu located in the Paderu agency area and the reason offered by the school authorities in tonsuring the children was that they were suffering from scabies and their heads were full lice and dandruff. However, a section of the Scheduled Tribe community is agitated over the mass tonsuring.
They have demanded strong action against the headmaster as well as the district welfare officer for tonsuring the children without consulting their parents. They alleged that the children were first forced to cut their hair and were later threatened with dire consequences if they complained against the teachers to the officer probing the matter.
P. Raja Rao, the district's Girijan student union president, said he failed to understand how tonsuring would cure the children from the skin disease they are said to be afflicted with.
The school authorities should have sought the services of qualified doctors from Paderu or from Visakhapatnam instead of tonsuring the children, he said. Others felt that because the children belong to the Scheduled Tribe community, the teachers could take the liberty of tonsuring them.
Most of the children are in the 7 to 13 age group and are studying in classes III, IV & V. All of them also live in the school itself. Amidst all the hue and cry, the children are thrilled by the attention they are getting from various government officials, the media and voluntary organisation and are unable to understand what all the brouhaha is about.
It seems that the school headmaster got the idea to tonsure the children from district tribal welfare officer T. Tajababu Rao, who had inspected the school the previous day. Seeing that many of the children were suffering from skin diseases, he directed the headmaster to ensure that the children remained clean and healthy.
Subsequently on Sunday, the headmaster called a barber, K. Eshwara Rao, and had all the boys tonsured.
After the news appeared in the vernacular Press, the district authorities directed the project officer of the integrated tribal development agency to conduct an enquiry into the incident.
The enquiry gave a clean chit to the headmaster as almost all the students said that they volunteered to have their hair cut. But the local people have rejected the enquiry saying that officials were trying to protect each other as senior officials were involved in the incident.
As the matter was snowballed into a major controversy, the Chief Minister ordered the district collector to enquire into the matter and submit a report to the government.
If neglect and decay were to have a monument, Nalanda in Bihar would fit the bill. The celebrated centre of learning of a bygone civilisation, a heritage site under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), is far from being preserved. Weeds sprout from every possible crevice in the time-worn structures on the sprawling campus. And danger lurks in every nook and cranny in the form of snakes.
If the facade of the main temple is breathtaking, the once-hallowed interiors have to be gone through holding one's breath to escape the smell of human excreta. Finding fresh excreta on top of the temple, the man who claims to be in charge of the remains "for the last 20 years", foreman Kishori Paswan, apologised to The Week before revealing that the "men deputed to keep the place clean have become guides as it is the peak of the tourist season".And what do foreign tourists pouring in for the 'Buddha mahotsav' (October 28-November 8) find at the places associated with the Buddha? Wild grass and weeds. The rear of the main temple is a virtual carpet of weeds. The cluster of stupas behind the temple is indiscernible in the thick foliage. The creepers clinging to them stand in marked contrast to the ASI's claims that archaeological sites are adequately maintained.
The situation is no different at the monastery cells in the university complex. "The ASI seems to be doing nothing for the upkeep of the sites," said Vinod Singh of Dhanbad, a recent visitor to the university site. This is something the tourist guides have been harping all along. "Two sites were chemically treated for weeds last year, but to no avail," said a guide.
According to an ASI official, complete deweeding of the university complex and repairs to university structure, which is on the verge of collapse, will require Rs 15 lakh.
This money, he believes, could have been easily made available considering that Rs 50 lakh was reportedly spent on the three-day Rajgir mahotsav from October 24; its inauguration marked the start of the Buddha mahotsav. Sarnath, where Rs 57 lakh was said to have been spent on lighting, Bodhgaya and Nalanda were the other places where the celebrations were held.
ASI superintendent K.K. Mohamed has his tale of woe. "An amount of Rs 60 lakh is sanctioned every year for the upkeep of 143 monuments in Bihar and 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh, which is meagre," he told The Week.
However, the department would soon take some steps to clear the grass and weeds, he said.
If that is done it is the people in the nearby villages who will be affected most. They cut the tall grass in the gardens and inside the monastery sites for use as fodder, of course unauthorisedly.
The private security guards hired by the ASI admit their failure to stop the trespass and complain that the villagers enjoy the patronage of ASI officials. "To cut grass I pay Rs 20 a day to the saheb (official)," said Bablu Kumar of Kapatiya village.
Visitors are no doubt cut up with the state of affairs. "The state government should take over the maintenance of the site because under the ASI it will be ruined further," said Arjun Singh, a tourist from Ranchi. But Bihar Tourism Minister Jagadanand Singh pleaded helplessness because the 45 historical sites in the state were under the control of the ASI.
It's not just the ASI that's been a thorn in its tourism plans. Barely a kilometre from the Nalanda ruins is the Huang-tsang memorial constructed about 10 years ago in honour of the Chinese scholar whose travelogues have references to the university. The state government wanted to take over the memorial, "but the CPWD wouldn't let go," said Jagadanand Singh.
And as they squabble for a share of the tourism pie, neglect takes root.
Govind Jatav of Bhourana was cycling to Shivpuri to watch the Dussehra puja on October 1 when Hakim Singh Rawat stopped him demanding a bidi. Irritated at being stopped on his way to an auspicious ceremony, Govind ticked off Hakim Singh, who then flew into a rage and hit him with an axe. Govind's brother Bhamru Jatav took up the cudgels and beat up Hakim Singh.
Thus the bidi lit a caste conflagration: enraged by the attack on their fellow upper caste man, the Rawats invaded 30 Jatav houses in the village and ran riot for three hours thrashing the scheduled caste Jatavs. "They even tried to hang me," said Lohre Jatav, nursing his injuries.
The next day as the Jatavs rode on their bullock carts to the police station in Sirsod, gun-wielding Rawats waylaid them and beat them up. "Aur kar le report (Now you can report)", the Rawats taunted them. The police eventually arrived and admitted the Jatavs in hospital, where one man died.
Clashes such as these are becoming increasingly common in the state, which has so far been comparatively free of caste-related violence. The most affected is the Shivpuri district, and the tension has spread to other parts of the Chambal valley as well.
Lamera, in Tikamgarh district also saw violence on October 1, but here it involved the Thakurs and the Yadavs with the Brahmins caught in the crossfire. Lamera's sarpanch Rajkumari Singh's husband Thakur Ghanendra Singh had a vice-grip on the villagers, he being the money-lender and owner of a thresher. It was mandatory for all the villagers to rent his thresher during the harvest season. Things changed when a Yadav family dared to buy their own thresher.
When they failed to stop the villagers from renting the new thresher, the Thakurs tried to grab their lands. Bhuria Patel, who belonged to a scheduled caste, was among those who refused to sell their land for a song. He even dared them to do what they could to him. Infuriated by his temerity, the Thakurs attacked the Patel and Yadav families, and even some Brahmins who supported the lower castes.
Nothing in the houses was spared, not even roofs, utensils and grain stocks. "The Thakurs put pebbles in the grain so that we could not eat," said Phoolan Kachi, whose husband Halkai had supported Bhuria Patel. Bhuria lost Rs 1 lakh that he had saved to buy a tractor, and his brother Subrat's degree certificates were burnt. "Aur padh le beta (Go and study some more)," they told the boy. Subrat who had wanted to be a teacher, said he would now teach the Thakurs a lesson.
Chandrasekhar Dubey, a social activist, believes that such incidents are on the rise "as the downtrodden have started asserting themselves." Such defiance is seen in the assembly election arena, too. Deep Narayan Yadav, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Niwari, for instance, has a pointed election plank, "Oppose Thakurs".
Caste violence is surely on the rise. In Paponi and Nadia, the Yadavs recently burnt the farmlands of the scheduled castes and tribals. In September, the sarpanch of Tilwara was forcibly removed from office and a Yadav was made sarpanch. In Bhattarpur, over 15 Brahmins have been killed in the past year. Satna, Rewa and Sidhi districts have also witnessed Thakur-Brahmin clashes and the Congress MLA from Chaudla, Satyavat Chaturvedi, resigned last year alleging victimisation of the Brahmins.
According to Ekta Parishad, an organisation fighting for the cause of the landless, the dominant castes have driven out others from over ten villages in the Chambal region. Rajpur in Morena district was abandoned by the Saharias, a tribal community, after a Saharia girl was raped by a Gujar. In Chandipura, the Gujars grabbed the land of the Saharias who had migrated to the city to work in the agricultural lean season.
The social fabric of the state is wearing thin as lawlessness increases.
Dalit youth thrashed for chewing paan
A Dalit youth was mercilessly beaten up today by at least six youths reportedly belonging to upper castes at Duni bus stand in Tonk district in Rajasthan.
According to reports, the Dalit youth incurred the ire of upper castemen by daring to chew paan in their presence. Taking it as an insult to them, the youths thrashed him and told him not to repeat the "blunder" in future.
Incidentally, none from the crowd at the bus stand came forward to save the Dalit youth, who in vain begged for mercy.
Later, when one Lal Chand and his family members went to a police station to lodge an FIR, the police reportedly refused to register it. Subsequently, some members of the Regar samaj reached the police station and forced the in-charge to register the FIR.
Meanwhile, encouraged by the "inaction" of police, some people reportedly belonging to upper castes, reached the house of Lal Chand and threatened his family members. Thereafter, members of the family rushed to the police station to lodge their complaint, but the in-charge told them not to disturb him.
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounting for a quarter of the country's population constitute the weakest section of our society. They suffer from abject poverty, illiteracy and backwardness. With a view to uplifting these deprived people specific safe- guards were provided for them in the Constitution.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, set up under Article 338 of the Constitution, was authorised to monitor all matters relating to them.
In its latest report, the Commission has painted a grim picture about the plight of these unfortunate people.
Over the last 50 years, gap in literacy, population below poverty line, employment and other indicators of development show that the condition of SCs and STs has not improved. More than 50 per cent of SCs and STs still continue to live below the poverty line.
Instead of taking steps to correct the situation, the government has issued circulars which seek to deprive the weaker sections of reservation in Government jobs to which they are entitled. While the SCs and STs are employed in lower category jobs such as sweepers, peons, clerks, sincere efforts have not been made by the government to ensure a full quota for them in top posts even after 50 years of Independence.
Near-nil representation in universities and the teaching profession exhibits the apathy towards these classes. Although they are entitled to scholarships, free hostel facilities, and free availability of books, the total allotment to SC and ST students is not up to the mark. The scholarships for them range from Rs 10 per month to Rs 250, which is totally inadequate.
Instances of caste clashes are numerous and reflect the deep-seated prejudices still dwelling in the hearts of the upper castes against them. This tendency has alienated the Dalits.
Wherever Dalits have organised themselves, there has been a backlash from the feudal lords, resulting in mass killings of Dalits, gang-rapes and even burning of Harijan bastis. While on the one hand they are being suppressed and tortured, on the other whatever concessions are available to them are being minimised. There is high incidence of false caste certificates procured by people who do not belong to the weaker sections to avail themselves of the concessions available to SCs and STs. Unscrupulous elements have made use of legal loopholes, prevalence of phonetically similar caste names to corner benefits and facilities meant for SCs and STs.
The SC/ST women continue to suffer from extreme deprivation and discrimination because of superstitious practices and their low status in family and society. This increases their vulnerability to exploitation. Female literacy rates are extremely low (23.73 per cent for SCs and 18.9 per cent for STs). Whatever development programmes have been initiated for them have only related to activities like piggery, sheep rearing, handicrafts, small business units, etc. Possibly, this is because of the low literacy level amongst them.
But the fact is that traditional occupations which they have been encouraged to take offer little scope for a rapid transformation of their lifestyle. The specialised courses offered by premier institutions like IITs, IIMs and other private institutes can lead to better career options. But SC/ST students are not in a position to avail themselves of these facilities because of high tuition fees. Unless they are offered fee concessions and reservations in these courses, they may never be fit for careers which can lift them from the degrading life they lead.
Why the weaker sections are unable to get out of the vicious circle of poverty is partly due to the present inequity relating to minimum wages.
The wage for the salaried class is fixed on the basis that one's earnings should take care of the needs of the entire family. These norms are not applied while fixing minimum wages for ordinary labourers, possibly on the assumption that among the poor both husband and wife work. Actually, both of them work because the income of one is insufficient to run the household.
However, with both parents working, the children are neglected and often have to start earning at a time when they should be in school. There is no foolproof system to ensure that only genuine claims of various communities for inclusion in the lists of SCs and STs are accepted.
In the prevailing situation, the matter of inclusion or exclusion of communities from the officially-recognised lists of SCs and STs is being abused by political parties and vested interests to build up vote banks.
LS MPs seek action against HC judge
Several members in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday demanded action against a judge of the Allahabad High Court, who as part of ``purifying'' his chamber, earlier occupied by a judge belonging to the Scheduled Caste, allegedly cleaned it with Ganga water.
Raising the issue during zero hour, Shailendra Kumar (Samajwadi Party) said the incident was shocking. Supporting him, Ramdas Athavale (RPI) said it was regrettable that untouchability was being practised at such a high level even 50 years after Independence. Birendra Singh (BJP) shared the members' concern on the issue.
Labour minister Satyanarayan Jatiya assured the House that the government would ascertain facts and take ``appropriate action.''(PTI)
An analysis of the Lok Sabha elections of 1998 has shown that the voter turnout of the Dalit social groups has increased.
Further, these groups are asserting their autonomous Dalit-Bahujan identity and are also active participants in the making of a new agenda. A few facts may be mentioned here to substantiate the argument that the Bahujan Samaj is a powerful force in the politics of the 1990s and their demands have to be on the centrestage of the political agenda.
First, the BJP has been compelled to respond to the new assertion of the Dalit-Bahujan Samaj by appropriating even the Mandal formula, which was vehemently opposed by it in the 1990s. In spite of serious opposition by the entrenched high castes in UP BJP politics, Kalyan Singh is not expendable because he represents the other backward castes and the party of high caste Hindus has to show that it cares for the interests of the OBCs and Dalits.
Out of the 179 Lok Sabha seats won by the BJP, it won 24 from the Scheduled Caste constituencies and 14 from the Scheduled Tribe reserve constituencies. The BJP won the majority of its Scheduled Caste reserve seats in the Hindi heartland like 4 in Bihar, 5 in Madhya Pradesh and 11 in Uttar Pradesh. The Jan Sangh/BJP before the middle of the 1980s was not at all sensitive to the Dalit-Bahujan phenomenon and it is making every effort to reach these hitherto underclass of the high caste Hindu society. Thus, the emergence of Dalit-Bahujan phenomena has made a Hindu socially conservative party to shift its public agenda to win the elections.
Second, an important explanation for the growing decline of the Congress lies in its failure to continue with the Indira Gandhi model of social coalition in which the Muslim minority and the Dalits had a significant position. The Dalits looked towards Mrs Gandhi as 'Mother' who would care for their interests. This protective umbrella role of the Congress collapsed because the Rajiv Gandhi Government was identified with the emerging "yuppie" class and the Narasimha Rao Government because of its new economic policy got projected as 'pro-rich' and 'anti-poor'.
While these facts only prove that Dalit politics has come to occupy a central position in the 1980s and 1990s, a further analysis may be made to understand the complex and contradictory inside story of Dalit-Bahujan politics. The Hindi heartland came face-to-face with the new challenge of Dalit social forces because of land reforms and the constitutional provisions for the reservation of seats in every public institution for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The beneficiaries of land reforms in UP, Bihar, etc., were the middle peasant backward castes and reservations in public institutions gave birth to a Dalit elite who were upwardly mobile.
While the post-Mrs Gandhi Congress leadership failed to respond to this silent social transformation, independent leaders from backward-Dalit social formations emerged and formed their own political parties. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and others floated all kinds of Janata Dals while the Kanshi Ram-Mayawati duo established a separate party for the Bahujan Samaj because social contradictions in India are not only between the high castes and the others, but are very much present between the other backward castes, the Dalits and the real Dalits.
This development of backward-Dalit-Bahujan politics in north India has revealed that the two largest States of the Hindi region are witnessing the elimination of an umbrella party like the Congress and its replacement by caste and sub-caste formations and leaders. UP and Bihar are witnessing only caste politics and caste competition around caste leaders and caste-based parties. The BSP cannot align with Mulayam Singh Yadav in UP or Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar because there is a fundamental antagonism among the multiple fragmented Dalit-Bahujan groups and leaders of the intermediate castes who promote interests which directly hurt the interests of those sections of the Dalits who are represented by the Yadavs or Paswans, etc.
While the Dalit-Bahujan Samaj has emerged to fight against caste oppression and caste exploitation and the villages of UP and Bihar, the real Dalits or Jatavs are oppressed by the middle peasant backward castes like Yadavs or Jats in western Uttar Pradesh.
At the end of the 1990s, Mulayam Singh or Laloo Prasad or Kanshi Ram feel helpless because a fragmented Dalit-Bahujan Samaj cannot win the majority of the State Assembly and the Lok Sabha seats on their own. Caste politics has not brought political dividends to Dalit-Bahujan leaders because it has fragmented every caste group including the Dalit-Bahujan Samaj. If, on one hand, the party of the Hindu Brahminical social order has woken up to the reality of conscious Dalit-Bahujans, on the other hand, pure Dalit-Bahujan political parties are struggling to establish their dominant position in the politics of UP and Bihar. Caste exclusion in politics is multi-edged weapon which makes every sub-caste project its exclusive identity. The Yadavs of UP cannot complaint if the Jatav also parade their separate Dalit caste identity and compete for political power.
The politics of Dalit-Bahujan Samaj tells a different story in other parts of India compared to the Hindu region since anti-Brahmin social reform movements preceded the politicisation of Dalit-Bahujan politics. E. V. Ramaswamy Naiker led a renaissance movement based on an anti-temple, anti-God social platform to awaken the oppressed castes from the influence of Brahmins and priests.
Similarly, in Maharashtra, social reform preceded political activisation of the Dalits. Dalit poetry and drama and Dalit education emerged as the platform for Dalit awakening. Such efforts of Dalit social reformists in Maharashtra created a level of awakening so that the Dalits maintained a distance from the Congress because Maharashtra Congress was identified with the Brahminical leadership of Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
The story of Dalit reform in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra has a lesson for all Dalit-Bahujan parties. Political assertion of the Dalits is a necessary but not sufficient condition for Dalit-Bahujan emancipation. It is a flawed political agenda of the Dalit-Bahujan leaders that political empowerment will necessarily lead to their social and economic empowerment.
Politics in democracy is an important activity for securing the rights of equality as a citizen but Dalit-Bahujan Samaj cannot achieve such equality because a powerful anti-Dalit Hindu Brahminical social order precedes the operation of the universal adult franchise-based democracy.
Dalit-Bahujan parties and leaders should make use of every political and public institution for protecting their rights and social dignity, but along with this they should launch a renaissance movement with other socially enlightened groups irrespective of their caste afffiliations against Adi Sankaracharya's idealist interpretation of society 'which denies the existence of the world as separate from God' and which believes that 'God (Brahm) alone exists, that the human soul (Atma) is a spark of Brahm and all the physical world is a mere illusion (Maya)'. The Vedanta philosophy of the Hindu social order believes in Liberation (moksha) only after death when the soul is free from the illusion of the physical world.
This metaphysical view is the foundation of the Brahminical caste society of the Hindus where Karma determines human existence in this world and caste hierarchy is linked with the doctrine of Karma. The Brahminical social order of Adi Sankaracharya and other vedantists superimposed the principal of caste hierarchy, caste inequality and hence caste oppression.
Unless this world-view, which is the foundation of Ramayan-Mahabharat and other streams of Hindu civilian, is powerfully attacked and the bliss of the 'other world' is challenged as illusory and social existence is accepted as a reality, caste emancipation among the Hindus will not be possible. Caste politics as an agenda of the present Dalit-Bahujan leadership has consolidated casteism in India because caste per se has become an identity. The alternative agenda for the real liberation of Dalit-Bahujan Samaj has to be based on a non-Vedic Charvaka (or Lokayata) that 'only this world exists' and that 'this world is only material in nature'.
The crux of the issue is that Brahminical Hinduism does not accept the principle of human equality even in theory. The believers in social equality cannot achieve emancipation from a caste-based social order without intellectually taking up the cause of an alternative social philosophy which has to be based on the fact that social life is organised by human beings in this world and Brahm or Brahman has no role in defining our social status. It is a difficult path because it will have many failure stories like that of Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu where God or Goddesses have re-emerged in a big way irrespective of the efforts of Ramaswamy Naiker.
In summation, it may be mentioned that a democratic revolution is going on in the country because the oppressed are also politically conscious, but the fear is that the present leadership may betray them by limiting the agenda of Dalit-Bahujan emancipation to electoral politics alone. Atrocities against Dalits will continue even if Mayawati is Chief Minister unless the material and cultural agenda for Dalits is also taken up in a powerful manner.
Dignity, self-respect and equal rights for the Dalit-Bahujan Samaj can be ensured only by transforming the mind-set which is prepared to reject that Brahm or God has created our unequal social order. B. R. Ambedkar's prescription of religious conversion failed because shifting from one religion to another only perpetuates the world-view dominated by belief in God and its supremacy in determining the human social order. If this is so, Hinduism or Islam or Christianity makes no difference for Dalit-Bahujan groups and they will continue to occupy inferior positions in society.
Unravelling Ambedkar
Cinema:
A wheatish-complexioned man
wearing a cream coloured coat is sitting in a library deeply immersed in books. An older man sporting a turban approaches him and asks him if he would join the freedom movement. The man with the books turns down the invitation. The year: 1915. The place: Columbia University, USA. The turbaned man: Lala Lajpat Rai. The man wearing the coat: Dr B.R. Ambedkar.Research is the foundation on which the film rests. "I went to Columbia University and then to the London School of Economics and Grays Inn in the UK, where Ambedkar studied law, to get information on the period when Ambedkar did his studies there," said Patel. "In all I spent four to five years researching the film."
In London he met the person who was in the Labour Commission when Ambedkar was labour minister. And Ambedkar scholars were only too eager to provide information. "There weren't different versions of Ambedkar but there certainly are different schools of thought," said Patel.
However, Patel was clear about what he wanted to do: sketch the personality of the man who is known as the father of the Indian Constitution. "I was trying to understand his personality and the kind of tension he had," said Patel. "Ambedkar was a brilliant person, a philosopher and a great humanist. But not many know of the movements he ran parallel to the freedom movement."
Shooting began in August 1996 in London, with ace cameraman Ashok Mehta taking care to give the early 1900s look, be it in the choice of filter or the time of the day to shoot. "To give the film authenticity, Mehta would shoot only early in the morning or in the evenings," said Patel.
In fact, the talent that has gone into the film is what makes it well-researched and slickly-produced. The script has been written by three people in collaboration, Soni Taraporewalla of Salaam Bombay and Mississippi Masala, Arun Sadhu, former editor of Free Press Journal, and the late Dalit poet Daya Pawar. The entire script was reviewed for authenticity by Ambedkar scholar Y.D. Phadke.
Award-winning director Kanchan Naik is the associate director and Oscar award winner Bhanu Athaiya, has designed the costumes. Nitin Desai's art direction and Amar Haldipur's background scores recreate the ambience of the Ambedkar era.
"I've been able to give the script what the script wanted," said Athaiya, who prefers not to compare the film with Gandhi which brought her the Oscar. Athaiya is constantly present during the shoot. "When one is working on a period film, it is risky to trust the final touches to the wardrobe department. In order to save my reputation, I see to it that I'm on the sets all the time."
The no-nonsense designer works only with actors who have total faith in her. "I don't work with anybody with whom I can't build up a rapport," she said. Mammootty, in that sense, was "okay". "There was no clash of any kind between us. There was no great free flowing communication either. I told him what my requirements were and he obliged. He put on weight for the film."
The toughest part for Patel was choosing an actor who would fit the role. "I searched all over the world for somebody who would be able to perform and look like Ambedkar," he said. "I chose Mammootty after screening hundreds of actors in India and abroad. I could see that he could go with the image."
Patel first worked on Mammootty's face on the computer, and what it did was so remarkable that Patel was convinced that it had to be Mammootty. "I met him in Chennai, told him about the project and then showed him what the computer had done with his photograph. Even he was astounded," said Patel.
Mammootty mulled over the script for six months and at the end of it he was well immersed in the personality of Ambedkar. Patel is all praises for the actor. "Mammootty is a wonderful actor," he said. "While he was shooting for Ambedkar he did not take on any other project. He was totally devoted to the film."
Mammootty plays the young Ambedkar and matures into middle age, a transformation that has been captured with such finesse that it seems as if Ambedkar is back in flesh and blood. "He took a lot of pains to appear as authentic as possible," said Patel.
He used to insert rings into his nostrils before the shots so that he could achieve a natural flare in the nostrils. Gradually he kept shaving more and more of his hairline as he got 'older' in the film. Patel's admiration for Ambedkar has increased manifold ever since he read up all of Ambedkar's works including some rare collected works that are with Indologists abroad.
The film, which will be ready in August, has been shot in Hindi and English and is simultaneously being dubbed in all regional languages. It has been edited and processed, with special effects, entirely on computer.
Besides London, the film was shot in New York and at around 80 locations in India including Pune, Baroda, Nashik, Nagpur, Kholapur, Mahad and the Film City at Goregaon near Mumbai. Patel created Mumbai of the 1900s in Film City, complete with the trams and the Parel chawl where Ambedkar stayed for many years.
The scene that Patel cherishes most is the one in which Ambedkar gives diksha to Dalits. In addition to cameras on the ground, there was one on a helicopter for the aerial view. For the shot Patel required a few thousand people and he approached Dalit organisations and the Republican Party of India (RPI) with the request. What followed took Patel's breath away.
"Dalits came from different parts of the place, wearing white, 1.5 lakh of them," said Patel. "Through a public address system they were told exactly what to do, but Mammootty's speech moved them to tears and they came up to touch his feet. All of us had tears in our eyes. Ambedkar is such magic."
Patel's well-researched film may have its share of controversy. It not only shows a totally different perspective of Gandhi but also features some of Ambedkar's acerbic comments on him. This is perhaps contributing to the tinge of nervousness in Patel as his masterpiece gets the finishing touches. He bends forward, sitting at the edge of the seat while watching clips of the film. "I've been told that Ambedkar should be sent for the Oscars," he said matter-of-factly. Whether it wins an Oscar or not, accolades it is destined to win. For the man it portrays is such.
Dalit woman to hoist flag on I-Day
BHOPAL: Chief minister Digvijay Singh on Tuesday directed officials that a dalit woman sarpanch should hoist the national flag at the district headquarters of Tikamgarh on August 15 next.
Addressing a press conference here, the chief minister said Gundiya Bai Ahirwar, the dalit woman sarpanch of Pipara village in Baldevgarh block, would unfurl the national flag at the district headquarters on the Independence Day. She could not hoist the national flag at a local school in her village on August 15 last year due to protests from the deputy sarpanch and some higher caste people from the village.
The chief minister said the determination of Ms Gundiya Bai was appreciated by the state government and she would hoist the flag at the state government-sponsored function at Tikamgarh.
At a time of the unfortunate ascendancy of sectarian politics, it is hardly surprising that there should be a move once again to include details relating to caste in census data, overturning their elimination since 1951 when the first census of free India was conducted.
Clearly the political class has decided that since caste, along with religion, has come to play an increasingly decisive -- and highly divisive -- role yielding quick dividends in politics, it is necessary to have as much information about such groups as possible.
It also has to be up to date, for much has obviously changed since 1951, which belonged to the nearly forgotten Nehruvian period when India was supposed to be marching towards a casteless society. But now that we are in headlong retreat from such utopian ideals, it is being suggested that we should begin once again to find out everything we wanted to know about caste but were afraid to ask.
Such an approach would have been fine had caste been no more than an innocent bit of statistic. But it is not. Along with apartheid, which it resembles even through the original purpose of its evolution - dividing people on the basis of varna or colour - varnavyavastha is a shocking concept which classifies human beings in ascending or descending orders, depending on which way you look at it, based solely on the accident of birth. The manner in which it was perpetuated - denial of education to those lower down the scale - also has a striking resemblance to apartheid.
Just as, according to 'Manusmriti', the only occupation for a 'Sudra' was to serve "without malice" the other three classes and not to study or even overhear the Vedic scriptures except at the cost of the most drastic penalties, the apartheid regime did not want to give the "wrong type of education... to natives", as Dr H. F. Verwoerd said. According to him, "what is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? What is the use of subjecting a native child to a curriculum which in the first instance is traditionally European? I just want to remind the Honourable Members (of Parliament) that if the native inside South Africa today in any kind of school in existence is being taught to expect that he will live his adult life under a policy of equal rights, he is making a big mistake."
Given the dehumanising basis of systems such as these, harking back to them in any form is a retrograde step. A vicious and degrading system associated with the concept of untouchability (which even apartheid could not conceive) must not be treated casually as just another entry in official records. Of course, the conditions like those in ancient India, or in South Africa in the recent past, cannot be replicated. It is salutary to remember that during the so called Golden Age of the Gupta period "there is definite evidence that the persecution of the Sudras had reached a pitch of hysteria scarcely surpassed in cruelty", according to Iqbal Singh in his book on Buddha.
But there is little doubt that a reincorporation of these concepts in official and, therefore, increasingly in public life will revive the customary prejudices and memories of the old, and sometimes not so old, injustices. After all, a Brahmin is not just a tag like school teacher. He represents the "eternal incarnation of 'dharma.' For he is born for the sake of dharma and tends toward becoming one with the 'Brahman'." Such an exalted person will not sup easily with anyone once his I-card proudly proclaims his high status.
What is more, categories breed more categories. Each caste group, even Brahmins, have sub-sects. In Bihar, Bhumihars are not quite the "eternal incarnation of dharma" for they took to the plough, which the eternals are not supposed to touch, instead of sticking to their priestly duties. In Bengal, the Brahmins are divided into two broad sects divided by the Ganga-Bhagirathi. Those who dwelt in ancient Gaur (the old name of Bengal) on the eastern side of the river are Barendras, and those on the western side are Rahris. In my parents' and grandparents' time, they did not inter-marry. Such restrictions have since become less severe. But will they not be revived as individuals are identified once again in terms of their caste and, inevitably, intra-caste sects?
Similarly, there are two categories among those who go by the surname of Sen. One is Kayasth and other Baidya, the latter being the offspring of a Brahmin and a Vaishya. Because of the Brahmin connection, the Baidya Sens consider themselves superior to the other Sens. Again, over time, these distinctions were becoming muted. But caste enumeration will undoubtedly see the old battlelines being reestablished because a Baidya will not want to be classified along with a Kayasth just as Rahri Brahmins will not like to be placed in the company of the Barendras. There must be many such examples in different provinces. Those who argue, therefore, that there is nothing wrong in reintroducing caste in census data because, after all, they will only reflect the reality, forget that the slow blurring of distinctions between various groups will now come to an end. It will be back to the bad old days again.
The British saw caste and religion as central to the organisation of Indian society and hence vital for their "technology of governing", as G. Balachandran says in his essay, 'Religion and nationalism in modern India.' According to him, "introducing caste and religion into the census enumeration procedure meant that Indians were being encouraged to ask these particular questions about themselves and about their cultural and social systems."
As a result, "the groups involved grew self-conscious enough to take steps to alter them in their own favour. For instance, the 1881 census... classified as a Hindu "any native who was unable to define his creed, or who described it by any other name than that of some recognised religion or of a sect of some such religion." But as the distribution of government jobs and political power came to depend on census returns, this definition was challenged by a Punjabi Muslim deputation. The separate classification of Sikhs and the fear of "losing" the untouchables "galvanised the dying body of orthodox Hinduism into sympathy with its untouchable population", as Lala Lajpat Rai noted at the time.
What was true then is equally true now, and the matter of government jobs and political power has ensured that politicians have become active once again to use the potent factor of caste to further their own interests. The propelling force in this respect was undoubtedly reservations for the OBCs. In North India, that retrograde step followed the rise of petty regional chieftains belonging to the intermediate castes who lacked the national vision of an earlier generation of leaders. Since these local 'satraps' could not see beyond their own castes, they gave a fresh lease of life to this concept, leading first to reservations for categories not envisaged in the Constitution, and now to the inclusion of castes in the census data.
India is already paying a price for the resurgence of communalism because of the secular flirtation with Muslim bigots, as in the Shah Bano case, and the concomitant Hindu mobilisation by the Sangh Parivar. As a result, communalism has ceased to be a dirty word, and casteism, too, is now flaunted with much pride. Their atavistic nature makes them un-amenable to any rational effort to play down their significance. The potency of caste can be imagined from the fact that it has survived in even formally egalitarian religions like Islam, Christianity and Sikhism in India while religions like Buddhism which sought to counter the Brahminical influence faded away in the land of its birth.
Fifty years after the elimination of the listing of castes, the move should have been not to retrace the fateful steps but to go forward, especially in the first census of the new century, by doing away with the questions relating to personal background and concentrate on more general categories like lifestyle and economic conditions. The 1991 census took a step in this direction by focussing on household matters like fuel consumption to determine the impact on forest resources and to ascertain the use of alternative energy sources for cooking. Literacy levels, especially among women, and employment are two other areas which call for intensive surveys. But the politicians will be less interested in these aspects than in caste, language and religion.
Nine held for bid to hush up gangrape case
Nine persons have been arrested for allegedly trying to hide the gangrape and murder of a 17-year-old Dalit girl at Asadpur village in Muzaffarnagar district on Tuesday.
Inspector-general of police (Meerut zone) R.C. Sharma said on Friday that the nine persons arrested were panchayat members who had ordered the family of the victim, including her father Veer Singh, not to inform the police. Mr Sharma said more arrests were likely.
Official sources said the incident occurred around 11 a.m. when the girl had gone to her house to collect lunch for some agricultural labourers working in a sugarcane field.
She was allegedly gangraped and strangled and the body was left on the street.
According to Veer Singh, the panchayat was informed two hours after the incident. However, the panchayat members, mostly belonging to the upper castes, ordered him not to inform the police as it would tarnish the image of the village. Also, the body of the victim taken secretly at night and thrown into the river near Sukratal village.
When a resident of the village informed the police on Wednesday, the body was fished out by two official divers and sent for post-mortem.
UTTAR PRADESH : Ambedkar villages hit by administrative apathy
Standing as scarecrows, the bare wooden electric poles in Kalyanpur in Sitapur district tell an abject story of exploitation and callous neglect. The story is the same in any of the 11,218 'Ambedkar villages'. Dilapidated huts, perennially closed schools, parched fields and despondent villagers speak of an unfulfilled promise
The Ambedkar villages, five in every district, were so named as part of a development scheme planned in the wake of Ambedkar Shatabdi Varsha (Ambedkar centenary year) in 1990-91. The scheduled castes and tribes account for more than 50 per cent of the population in these villages and about 46 lakh of them were expected to benefit from the scheme by the end of 1996.
Though the government claims this aim has been achieved, most of the development programmes including literacy drives and pension and housing schemes were either not at all implemented or were started under pressure and left halfway. The default is despite every district having an 11-member committee headed by the district magistrate (DM) to implement and examine the schemes.
In Kalyanpur a solitary handpump quenches the thirst of over 500 villagers. The one installed under the Ambedkar village scheme soon went phut and has not been repaired so far.
Incomplete houses, begun under the Indira Awas Yojana (Indira housing scheme), dot the landscape. In the case of other eligible candidates, they are yet to receive the money intended for developing the site. The original plan was to finish construction by December 15, 1995.
According to Bachhu Lal of Kalyanpur, though a few accounts were opened in the cooperative bank of the area about three years ago to disburse the amount, follow up has been nil. Some villagers, alleged panch Raghunandan Prasad, paid money to the officials in a bid to speed up things. Finally, only a few pucca dwellings have materialised and the main 'beneficiaries' have been officials concerned or the near and dear of the gram pradhan.
Kamla Devi, a panchayat member, also accused the block development officer and pradhan of reaping dividends. Grievances are many but approaching the DM for their redressal is a remote dream for the illiterate villagers. Jangwalal, an old resident of the village, asks, pointing to the electric poles: "Where is the wire and how can we have electricity when the lineman demands Rs 1,700 for the connection?"
The promise to build toilets, after collecting Rs 125 from each villager for the purpose, remains unfulfilled. The villagers feel betrayed by the politicians and officials and "deceived in the name of Ambedkar".
In Pachera, another Ambedkar village in Sitapur district, the only primary school opens once a month as the teachers have to come from Lucknow and other far-flung districts. A women's literacy programme exists only on paper. For the villagers who know nothing except that their's is one of the Ambedkar villages, life continues to be as miserable as ever.
Here, the scheduled castes and tribes account for around 70 per cent of the population. There are only seven pucca houses, that too built from the amount received from the government for voluntarily undergoing sterilisation. No dwellings were constructed under the Ambedkar village scheme, complain the villagers. Two handpumps were installed recently and the paved road ends just from where the village begins.
"Everywhere you have to pay bribes for getting the work done," said Bindeshwari, the only law graduate in the village. The sugarcane fields are dry for want of irrigation. "The seenchpal who supervises irrigation of the fields never allows us to water them if we don't pay extra. He also exploits us by irrigating only two bheghas (unit of land) but entering eight in the record books," he complained.
Another failed scheme is Trysem, a self-employment project for the rural youth which was to train them in minor jobs like cycle repairing. Despite the scheme, over 150 youngsters of Kheri, Faizabad, Barabanki and Hardoi districts have migrated to the cities in search of jobs.
Though the government, in July 1995, had made it obligatory for the officials to carry out periodical inspection of the villages to ensure effective implementation of the schemes, the visits have either not materialised or not borne fruit.
For instance in Pachera the DM's proposed visit in June 1996 was cancelled. In Kalyanpur, Adhichhat and Demhora no DM or commissioner has ever visited in the last five years. This left the villagers at the mercy of lower-level officials who exploited them and went scot free.
Garhwal and Kumaon divisions, which together have 1,532 Ambedkar villages, have also known no development work. Those in the eastern districts of Balia, Basti and Faizabad have also not been benefited much. However, officials of the separate directorate formed for the programme feel that the political instability in the state since 1991 could be one of the reasons for its failure.
All the same, the government claims to have extended the benefits to 8,000 villages by 1995. More than two years after the scheduled completion of the development programmes all that the villagers have is a plethora of complaints against the implementing authorities.
A Dalit village faces fury of upper castes
Rajaram Satapathy/The Times of India News Service/30 May 1998
BHUBNESWAR:``We don't have money to buy food. How can we afford medicines?'' ask Kelu Behera and Gunduchi Behera. The two, both dalits, have been lying in the general ward of the capital hospital here for the past one week. They were injured in an attack on their village by upper caste men.
Bhanpur village, 40 km from here, today wears a deserted look. Many of the 36 landless dalit families have left, apprehending more attacks. On May 20, the village was attacked by people of higher castes from the nearby Gadapadanpur village. One person was killed and several others were injured. Women and children were also not spared.
Eighty-year-old Jayee Behera, who is blind, lost his son Chandramani, the only earning member in a family of six. ``What will I do? Who will look after his daughter and three sons? The youngest child is only eight years old.''
It all started when some youths of Gadapadanpur village took exception to a dalit boy addressing them as ``brothers'' and not saanta (my lord). ``He was looking for our two cows when he met some youths at the village temple. When he asked them about the cows, they took exception to his calling them brothers. They charged him with entering the temple and defiling the deity. They then beat him mercilessly,'' said Behera.
Initially, the Bhanpur dalits were hopeful that the elders in Gadapadanpur would work out a solution. However, when they were attacked with ``bombs and other lethal weapons'', they approached the police.
Puri district superintendent of police (SP) Pradeep Kapoor, when contacted, said one person had been arrested so far. Efforts were on to nab the other culprits, he added.
At Gadapadanpur, people do not think they have done anything wrong. ``The dalits must know their place and behave accordingly,'' said a woman who did not want to be identified.
Supporting her, D.K.Mahanty from the same village said since the dalit boy had defiled the village deity, he had to be ``taught a lesson''. ``They are forgetting their social status. It is an insult to us. We are not prepared to compromise on this,'' he asserted.
``The police are primarily responsible for the attack on dalits. If they had intervened on time, Jayee Behera's son would have been saved,'' said Baisnamba Parida of Ambedkar-Lohia Vichar Manch, who along with others recently visited the villages.
``The Bhanpur incident only indicates the continuing atrocities on weaker sections of society in the state,'' Mr Parida said. He claimed that 80 dalit houses were torched by higher caste people at Kadua village, 120 km from here, on Thursday.
Dalit woman's murder rocks HP House
SHIMLA: The gruesome murder of a 32-year-old dalit woman of Kathiala village in Kangra district reverberated in the Himachal assembly on Monday. The woman was allegedly stripped, tortured and then burnt to death.
Cutting across party lines, members including Krishna Mohini (Congress) and Rikhi Ram Kaundal (BJP), raised the matter through a call attention motion in the assembly.
According to chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the incident took place last month. The woman's charred body was found under a tree near her house on the day of the incident. A land dispute was said to be the cause of the murder. Seven persons had been so far arrested, he added.
Ms Mohini alleged that the killers later went to the village and threatened the witnesses against reporting the matter.
Mr Kaundal claimed that the victim had been running from pillar to post for help because she feared violence. He alleged that 15 persons were working in the nearby fields, but did not come to the woman's help. He claimed that the local police had connived with the killers. He urged the chief minister to ensure that the culprits were brought to book.
Mr Dhumal said he had issued instructions to the police to investigate the incident and submit their report within two months. The director-general of police had been instructed to monitor the investigations, he added.
Giving details, he said earlier, the woman was allegedly beaten up by members of the rival family and she had filed an FIR in the Jwalamukhi police station.
A buffalo belonging to the family of the deceased had also been allegedly poisoned and attempts had also been made to burn her house, said Mr Dhumal. There were allegations of the complicity of some panchayat officials in the matter, he added.
He said so far seven persons had been arrested and remanded to judicial custody till July 25. However, one of the main suspects was yet to be arrested as he was serving in the army. The superintendent of police of Kangra was taking necessary steps to arrest him.
He warned of action against any official found taking a partisan stand in the investigations of the case.
F
or them life was miserable under the laws of Manu -- and it is still bad under Marxist rule. Fifty years of Independence and 20 years of Communist rule haven't delivered the sudras of Rohini from the curse of untouchability. Hindu apartheid, in its most virulent form, can still be seen in this big and bounteous village of West Bengal.The road to Rohini is beautiful. A serpentine earthen track cuts effortlessly through vast fields of paddy till it reaches this flourishing settlement. It was once the seat of the Sarangis, a family of fierce zamindars, where the doms and the hanris -- two untouchable communities -- lived in constant fear. Today, the village boasts of a school, a block development officer and a huge CPI-M office.
The zamindars have gone, but not the social stigma. "We are treated like dogs," says Sukhram Mukhi, his voice quivering with emotion. Mukhi used to work in the BDO at Rohini, but suffered endless humiliation at the hands of other employees in the government department.
Doms and hanris are two scheduled caste communities that rank fairly low among the lowly sudras. Although they are artisans by profession who earn their living by making and selling bamboo products like mats and baskets, the upper castes had always treated them as untouchables. And they do so even now.
Fifty years back, when India awoke to a bright light of freedom, the untouchables of Rohini languished in the Dark Ages. The promises and prospects of a new era meant little to them. For many years after Independence, say Bijon Sarangi, a teacher and social activist, the doms and the hanris had to wear bells round their necks whenever they stepped out of their para (locality) and passed through the upper caste quarters of Rohini.
The sound of the bells alerted the brahmins, kayasthas, vaidyas, and members of other superior castes of the approaching untouchables. And thus cautioned, upper caste passerby steered clear of the sudra's path to avoid contamination. Even their shadow was considered unclean!
True, the times are no longer as harsh as they once were, but the taunts that the doms and hanris suffer even now can be heart-breaking. In much of the Jhargram sub-division where Rohini is located, the upper castes still revel in referring to a pariah as 'hanri". "Shoo, hanri!" they shout every time they try driving away an intruding mongrel, says Sarangi.
Like elsewhere in India, the untouchables of Rohini live at the farthest corner of the village to ensure minimum contact with members of the upper-castes. Evidently, the Marxists, who hold sway in the region by controlling the panchayats and other institutions, have failed to eradicate social segregation.
In fact, the instances of discrimination are often reminiscent of the racism encountered by black Americans or the apartheid that had traumatised South Africa. And if that sounds a bit exaggerated to be true of a place that has long been touted as a bastion of Leftist values, here is a sampling of the ostracism the sudras of Rohini suffer.
Even now, doms and hanris are not allowed inside the house of the upper castes. And if, for some reason, they do make it there, the house is washed and plastered afresh with 'cleansing' cow-dung. If the untouchable happen to accidentally touch any foodstuff, it is promptly thrown away. And a bath is a must, even in a bitter winter night, if an upper caste were to be touched by an untouchable.
Nor are they allowed to draw water from wells or tubewells belonging to the upper castes. There can be serious trouble if they do. They are, however, free to use public tubewells sunk by the government.
But what if they do need water to drink at an upper caste home? The need does occasionally arise during festivals and ceremonies when feasts are organised by the upper castes.
The untouchables, too, are welcome at ceremonial gatherings but they seldom get beyond the courtyards of the rich, where they are made to wait till the feasting is over. Then, the leftovers are dished out on soiled leaf plates for them to scavenge on. "We and the dogs eat together after everyone else has eaten," says Jaladhar Patar, who nurses a deep sense of hurt for the way his community is treated. "And, as for the water, it is given to us in buckets meant for flushing toilets."
And rubbing salt to injury is the fact that, despite the state government's much-publicised literacy campaign, children from dom and hanri homes are actually being prevented from going to school.
It's not that they are refused admission openly, but the means of keeping them out are subtle and devious. "Teachers tell our children to bring their own asaans and they asked to sit separately in class," laments Debu Mukhi, whose son dropped out of school recently. Debu had come to accept this discrimination in seating arrangement, but was beaten by a financial burden thrust upon him. "The teacher told me to buy books worth Rs 500 for my son. This was totally beyond my means," he says.
And no dom or hanri is allowed to enter temples and offer prayers. But priests don't mind taking money from them in lieu of offerings in kind. Many hanris play the dhak, an exhilarating percussion that lends a distinct aural flavour to Bengal's Durga Puja. But the priests would frown if they were to pray. No wonder, they worship their own gods -- lesser ones perhaps -- like the elephant, for instance.
The upper castes of Rohini concede that untouchability was indeed a problem once, but expectedly deny that it continues to divide their village. Motilal Singh, a primary school teacher and a member of the Panchayat Samity, at first tried to disclaim any knowledge of casteist discrimination, but admitted "there could be isolated instances", when confronted with specific cases.
Most of those from the upper castes seemed embarrassed and stressed that the situation was changing. The wall that separated the castes was crumbling with the spread of education, they claimed, but admitted that vestiges of the past still survived. They tried explaining the divide by saying that the upper caste attitude was a reaction against the filth and squalor in which the lower castes lived. "That's what really separates us," asserted Niranjan Das, a small-time businessman.
Others argued that the situation in the "enlightened" cities was in no way better. "Do you have dinner with your servant at the same table?" they asked somewhat triumphantly.
Rohini is not an isolated case when it comes to castiest discrimination.
There were reports of similar sectarian repression in the Bengali press in early October. But the state government and ruling CPI-M, dominated as they are by an upper-caste oligarchy of the Mukherjees, Bannerjees, Chakrabartys, assorted Guptas, Boses and others, initially tried to rebut the reports and then decided to hold an enquiry.
On a broader scale, the castiest bias in West Bengal's society and polity, even under a self-righteous Marxist regime, is all too apparent to await official acknowledgment. There are several indications to suggest that the government's own attitude is heavily loaded against the lower castes and tribes.
In February, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes expressed dissatisfaction at the way the state government was denying these communities their rightful share of funds for welfare schemes.
The Planning Commission says the percentage of budgetary allocations for SC/ST welfare schemes should be the same as the percentage of SC/ST population in any state. According to the 1991 census, SCs comprised 23.62 per cent and STs 5.59 per cent of West Bengal's population, but reports say the government provided only four per cent and two per cent for the welfare schemes meant for them in the 1996 budget.
Not surprisingly, H Hanummanthappa, MP, lodged a complaint with state chief secretary Anish Mazumdar against what amounted to a gross violation of Planning Commission directives and diversion of funds meant for the uplift of the ST/SCs into schemes that were benefiting those higher up in the social hierarchy.
The situation is equally revealing when it comes to giving jobs in the reserved category. One estimate has it that 70,000 posts, reserved for SC/STs, are lying vacant in various state departments. While jobs go abegging, nearly 67,000 applications for SCs; 5,338 for STs and 56,650 for Other Backward Classes remain uncleared by the state government.
There are complaints of harassment in the field of education as well. SC/ST students are entitled to book grants and hostel allowances, but there is said to be a backlog of over two years in the disbursement of such aid.
And added to all this is the sordid story of eviction from land. Jnanpith award-winning writer Mahashweta Devi is untiringly chronicling cases of tribals and Scheduled Castes being driven from their land by property developers, entrepreneurs, tea garden owners, and retired bhadraloks building their little villas in the countryside.
But everywhere the government and the political parties turn a blind eye. It's little wonder then that they fail to see the grotesque reality of Rohini.
Ayodha site claimed by Buddhist
AURANGABAD:The Japan-born Buddhist monk Bhadant Arya Nagarjun Surai Sasai has claimed that the disputed site at Ayodhya belonged to a shrine dating back to the times of Lord Buddha and demanded construction of a "Buddha vihara'' there.
In a memorandum faxed to President K R Naryanan and Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, the copies of which were made available here, he said the Buddhists should assert their rights on this ancient site to build a Buddha vihara. He also demanded excavations to be conducted to unravel the historical facts so that the issue of the dispute site could be amicably solved.
The monk claimed that Ayodhya, also known as Saket, was the birth place of the great Buddhist monk. and Sanskrit poet Ashwaghosh who authored the famous "Buddha-Charita'' in the First Century AD. Sasai said Ayodhya was the second capital of the Gupta dynasty during the 4th century.
Allow me to begin with an apology, for I have not yet read Arun Shourie's book, Worshipping False Gods and am still debating whether I should buy it and give him the extra royalty (maybe I'll just borrow my editor's copy). But I have read the excerpts carried by Rediff On The NeT, listing his complaints against Dr B R Ambedkar, and noted that during a seminar recently, he defended his book saying it was based on the works of Ambedkar himself.
To criticise someone for his work without having read it seems unfair, and to this I plead guilty. Maybe what Shourie says about Ambedkar is true, but that really is not the debate. He misses the point completely about Ambedkar not taking part in the Independence movement because Ambedkar was primarily concerned with the plight of some people who were then treated as 'untouchables', 'unapproachables', and the worst, 'unseeables'. India has got her freedom, millions of dalits and adivasis have not. For them, the British raj has been replaced by brahmin raj. So much for 50 years of non-independence.
Shourie's main grouch is that Ambedkar did not participate in the freedom struggle. Today, as Indians are caught up in the hype and hoopla of the country's golden jubilee of Independence, this appears to be a cardinal sin. But who did participate directly in the fight for freedom? In the turmoil that preceded India's independence, different people had different agendas, and rightly so, because India did not just need political freedom but a complete renaissance and reformation, and economic upliftment.
Ambedkar's goal was very clear: He wanted to help his people, the dalits or depressed classes. And he had to help them because no one else was willing to do so, least of all the brahmins and banias who thronged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and rightwing parties, or the Congress.
In his prejudice, Shourie fails to realise that Ambedkar probably feared a political freedom which once again gave the brahmins the right to practice untouchability. The upper castes did precious little to reform Hinduism or improve the plight of the untouchables (who then were treated as such). Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Ram rajya with panchayats (village councils), never realising that these same villages kept the untouchables out of the village, did not let them draw water from the wells, never let them enter the temples, did not let them take part in the decision-making process, and denied them decent employment and education.
Nehru -- too caught up noticing the unity between Hindus and Muslims (revealing his brahminical prejudice of ignoring the dalits) -- would comment on how secular it was that a Muslim played the shehnai at the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, but never realised that the same temple barred dalits from entering it.
During the Peshwa rule of the Maratha confederacy, Mahars were not allowed to enter villages and treated in a most inhumane fashion. That is a known historical fact, but not necessarily remembered. However, the British were more kind to the untouchable Indians than the Hindus. They created a Mahar regiment, employing and educating them. (Shourie may soon write a book on the treachery of the dalits for siding with the British!). Is it any wonder that the Mahars preferred to fight with the British against the brahmin Peshwas in the Anglo-Maratha wars, because if the latter won, the Mahars would once again have become untouchables?
The British rule was their emancipation, not the Peshwa's. The British army gave Ambedkar's father access to education, and he would later become a school teacher in the Mahar regiment. In turn, Ambedkar could study right up to his Ph D and more.
Certainly, the cruelty of the Hindus was not forgotten in a hurry. Ambedkar, and many others, must have been worried that if India got independence without a reformation, the plight of the dalits would be as bad as before. Let us also remember that social reforms, which started at the beginning of the 19th century, were slowly pushed aside as the political agenda moved centrestage. The Social Reforms Committee was not allowed to participate in the Indian National Congress meetings from the beginning of this century. Which is why even today, caste oppression continues and in 1986, a woman committed sati. India's reform process remains mostly incomplete as Indians prefer to hail the brahmanic Tilak over reformer Agarkar.
Mahatma Gandhi did contribute his mite towards helping the dalits. He gave them the name Harijan (which today has been rejected but was certainly an improvement then), cleaned the toilets of dalits (shocking the upper castes), and fought with his supporters and benefactors to ensure that dalits could stay in his ashram in Ahmedabad. Gandhi had, after all, suffered the pain of untouchability: he had been thrown out of a train in South Africa simply because of what he was, just as dalits are denied numerous facilities simply for being. Also, how could you fight racism in India while condoning casteism within the Hindus? Unfortunately, many Indians did not share the same principle or logic.They were keen to overthrow the 100-year-old British raj, but also sought to preserve their 2,000-year-old caste prejudices.
Gandhi's main aim was political, which culminated in Independence. One can see today that while he defeated the British totally, his work regarding the dalits remained incomplete. The sheer pressure of time and the political tasks ensured that Gandhi could never devote sufficient time and energy for the cause of the dalits. But more important, to do so would risk offending his main supporters: caste Hindus. Hence, Gandhi would make contradictory statements like he believed in the varnashram, but opposed untouchability!
Maybe there was little else he could do. A leader, after all, is a representative of his people. He leads them, even a little in directions they dislike, but can never be too different from their aspirations, or too radical for their consumption. Gandhi was a leader of India's masses, and Indians then were (and to a large extent even now are) extremely caste conscious. The people would follow him to fight the British, not their own caste prejudices. They were unwilling to reform Hindus society beyond certain symbolic gestures; even Gandhi could not force them. To do so would mean no longer being their leader, someone else would have led India to freedom.
Ambedkar too had a clear agenda. He wanted the maximum benefits for his people, and realised that caste Hindus would be less amenable than the British. A question to ask is what would Ambedkar have gained by being part of the freedom struggle? Would it have helped the cause of the dalits? Would the upper castes in the Congress have had time for this Mahar, no matter how erudite? Would they have listened to him, followed him? Was it only a coincidence that no dalit could reach the top echelons of the Congress party before 1947? There was little for Ambedkar to contribute to the political freedom struggle from within the Congress; no party outside really mattered for political independence except the Muslim League, for reasons rather different as it later transpired.
Even the case of reserved constituencies came after a bitter battle, made possible only after Gandhi went on a fast to oppose separate electorates for the dalits. After Ambedkar was forced to relent, caste Hindus temporarily showed some consideration towards India's worst-off. Gandhi too would try and do his best to alleviate their miseries after his fast, but with limited success. And then politics came back.
There is so much Ambedkar had to do to get freedom for his people. In his struggle, he would need to use use every trick available, and opposing the British was not going to help. Perhaps what he did appears unpalatable, but maybe they were necessary then. Ambedkar's opponents were not the British: it was the Hindus who were unwilling to change or compromise. In fact, since the British were the first to help the dalits, their longer presence was better.
Ambedkar has his place in history. When Columbia University put up his bust on its campus, they did not link him to the struggle to India's freedom, but to the far more important struggle for freedom for all Indian people. Justice, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity may mean little to many, but they were what Ambedkar sought to put into practice and to give to every Indian, regardless of his caste or creed. Today, millions in India revere him for the same reason. They do so because he led the cause of emancipation of India's most oppressed, and also gave our country a Constitution which even the lousiest politicians have not been able to destroy. He struggled to give more humane and just laws to Hinduism, but was unable to do so completely because of rightwing opposition. Most important, he gave the former untouchables a voice, and an awareness of their rights. The result: from being denied the chance to attend school, today we have a learned dalit as India's first citizen.
Incidentally, along with Ambedkar, others too had their own missions, most of which were at cross purposes. For instance, what did Shourie's ideological gurus, the rightwing parties, do? They couldn't prevent Partition, they did little for freedom and even less for the dalits. What was their contribution to Independence besides some of its members assassinating Gandhi? Or opposing liberal laws in the name of protecting Hinduism? But for Shourie, revealing his rightwing prejudices, this is perhaps one topic he has not looked into nor is he likely to.
Today, Shourie believes that if you were not for Independence, you were against India. By his ridiculous logic, all the Indians who worked for the British in some way or the other, were traitors fit to be shot dead: the policemen, the soldiers, civil servants, the whole lot who kept the British administration running. There were many great Indians who did not participate directly in the freedom struggle but helped India no end -- economists (C D Deshmukh), technocrats (Visvesvarya), etc. In fact, think of the freedom struggle and one subconsciously thinks of Gandhi, Patel, Nehru, and the Congress party. But we know that others too were involved.
Also to damn someone for his shortcoming alone is to miss the complete picture. Every Indian leader had major flaws, which is why our Independence came with a price. Congress greed and Jinnah's ego and vanity created Pakistan, Gandhi's tactics had their limitations, Nehru's socialist ideas of yore hurt India's economy, his secularist ideas made a mess of Kashmir; Patel was considerably less secular, but is called India's Bismark! Each of our leaders are revered for their contribution, and should be criticised for their shortcomings. The same for Ambedkar. But you cannot dismiss any of them completely; to do so is to be arrogant and biased.
Last, it may seem even more unfair to criticise the writer himself: one must not judge a work by the author. But in Shourie's case this becomes inevitable simply because one must be clear whether his work was done by a disinterested scholar seeking the truth, or by someone seeking to propagate his ideology. Shourie has written against the Muslims, Communists, and the secularists, all seen or perceived to be the opponents of the Hindu rightwing. Now Ambedkar. Rightwing (mainly the upper caste) Hindus cannot accept Ambedkar because dalit emancipation for them means weakening of the brahmins' and upper castes' power and privileges. That it also strengthens India's social and political is obviously not their concern
The recent furore following the desecration of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar's statue in Bombay has largely been interpreted as the resurgence of the dalit movement in India. A phenomenon which first saw its genesis in the philosophy and personality of Dr B R Ambedkar 50 years ago. In his latest book,
Worshipping False Gods, Arun Shourie challenges Dr Ambedkar's contribution to Indian Independence. The book has already run into controversy and several dalit organisations in Maharashtra want it banned.Ambedkar's public life begins in a sense from a public meeting held at the Damodar Hall in Bombay on March 9, 1924. The struggle for freeing the country from the British was by then in full swing. Swami Vivekananda's work, Sri Aurobindo's work, the Lokmanya's work had already stirred the country. Lokmanya Tilak had passed away in 1920. The leadership of the National Movement had fallen on Gandhiji. He had already led the country in the Champaran satyagraha, the Khilafat movement, in the satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act, against the killings in Jallianwala Bagh and the merciless repression in Punjab. This National Movement culminated in the country's Independence in 1947.
In a word, a quarter century of Ambedkar's public career overlapped with this struggle of the country to free itself from British rule. There is not one instance, not one single, solitary instance in which Ambedkar participated in any activity connected with that struggle to free the country. Quite the contrary--at every possible turn he opposed the campaigns of the National Movement, at every setback to the Movement he was among those cheering the failure.
Thus, while the years culminated in the country's Independence, in Ambedkar's case they culminated in his becoming a member of the Viceroy's Council, that is -- to use the current terms -- a Minister in the British Cabinet in India.
The writings of Ambedkar following the same pattern. The Maharashtra government has by now published 14 volumes of the speeches and writings of Ambedkar. These cover 9,996 pages. Volumes up to the 12th contain his speeches and writing up to 1946. These extend to 7,371 pages. You would be hard put to find one article, one speech, one passage in which Ambedkar can be seen even by inference to be arguing for India's Independence. Quite the contrary.
Pause for a minute and read the following:
Allow me to say that the British have a moral responsibility towards the scheduled castes. They may have moral responsibilities towards all minorities. But it can never transcend the moral responsibility which rests on them in respect of the untouchables. It is a pity how few Britishers are aware of it and how fewer are prepared to discharge it. British rule in India owes its very existence to the help rendered by the untouchables. Many Britishers think that India was conquered by the Clives, Hastings, Coots and so on. Nothing can be a greater mistake. India was conquered by an army of Indians and the Indians who formed the army were all untouchables. British rule in India would have been impossible if the untouchables had not helped the British to conquer India. Take the Battle of Plassey which laid the beginning of British rule or the battle of Kirkee which completed the conquest of India. In both these fateful battles the soldiers who fought for the British were all untouchables...
Who is pleading thus to whom? It is B R Ambedkar writing on 14 May 1946 to a member of the (British) Cabinet Mission, A V Alexander.
Nor was this a one-of slip, an arrangement crafted just for the occasion. Indeed, so long as the British were ruling over India, far from trying to hide such views, Ambedkar would lose no opportunity to advertise them, and to advertise what he had been doing to ensure that they came to prevail in practice. Among the faithful his book What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables is among the most admired and emulated of his writings. It was published in 1945, that is just two years or so before India became Independent.
As we shall see when we turn to Ambedkar's views on how harijans may be raised, it is an out and out regurgitation of the things that the British rulers and the missionaries wanted to be said, of the allegations and worse that they had been hurling at our civilisation and people. The book has been published officially by the education department of the government of Maharashtra, and is sold at a subsidised price! It constitutes Volume IX of the set Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches. It reproduces the speech Ambedkar made at the Round Table Conference -- a speech which served the designs of the British rulers to the dot, and for which, as we shall soon see, they were ever so grateful to Ambedkar for it became one of the principal devices for thwarting Gandhiji.
In the speech Ambedkar addresses the prime minister and says, "Prime minister, permit me to make one thing clear. The depressed classes are not anxious, they are not clamorous, they have not started any movement for claiming that there shall be an immediate transfer of power from the British to the Indian people.... Their position, to put it plainly, is that we are not anxious for transfer of power from the British to the Indian people.... Their position, to put it plainly, is that we are not anxious for transfer of political power...." But if the British were no longer strong enough to resist the forces which were clamouring for such transfer, Ambedkar declared, then his demand was that they make certain arrangements-- arrangements which we shall encounter repeatedly in his speeches and writings, the essential point about which was to tie down the new government of Independent India.
Excerpted from
Worshipping False Gods by Arun Shourie, ASA Publishers, 1997, Rs 450, with the author's permission. Those interested in obtaining a copy of the book can contact the distributor at Bilblia Impex Pvt Ltd, 2/18, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110001or bibimpex@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in
