Attached please find my original article carried by World Focus.The scanned pages from the journal cannot be, for some technical reason beyond my control attached.Regards,A. K. Biswas
Ambedkar! thou should'st be living at this hour:
Dalit and tribal in dire straits
A. K. Biswas*
I
The arduous but indefatigable struggle of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar for social justice has essentially two objectives: dignity and emancipation of the untouchables, who though are euphemistically called dalit these days. They stand discriminated, despised and degraded in every sphere of life, social, economic, political, spiritual, cultural and emotional. He wanted to vest those millions of underdogs with dignity, which was possible only if they were liberated from Hindu subjugation, a gift of caste system. But his agenda has been tampered with and and platform invaded. Those who claim to be followers of his ideals have not lived up to his expectation. In whichever walks of life they are they have not been sincere with commitment to his ideology. They have failed carry the caravan ahead. The dalits, who have made mark in any sphere of life should have devoted themselves to uplift those who have fallen behind as co-travellers in the onward march. This has not happened. The entire dalit nation without any exception---irrespective of achievement---are viewed as social lepers unfit for intercourse on terms of equality, justice, fairness or respectability per se.
The Hindus enslaved the Shudras by their scriptures. Their entire nation remain captive of a microscopic minority. And, unfortunately, however, there were tall leaders who loudly advocated slavery of Shudras, nevertheless, as the only divine highway for their salvation. "The Shudras who only serves (the higher caste) as a matter of religious duty, and who will never own any property, who indeed has not even the ambition to own anything is deserving of thousand obeisance........The very Gods will shower down flowers on him." This is the delicious recipe Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi borrowed from Shastras for salvation of the Sudras. In thoughts and actions all through his life, the Mahatma did not forsake this cardinal principle ever. In the teeth of dogma subscribed by the man hailed as "The Father of Nation", redemption of the untouchables from the abyss of Hindus orthodoxy, prejudice and superstition is well neigh impossible, if not unimaginable. The country has adopted Gandhian philosophy as the state policy for growth and development. India has progressed since 1947 no doubt but its blessings have not reached many millions living in the social margins, economic deprivation and political bondage. The oft repeated claim of rapid strides and high growth really does not reflect on the life of ordinary Indian. When the river swells in high tide every boat---big or small--- rises. The high tides have pushed up only few boats of the privileged, leaving the rest tens of millions in the stagnant corners. The hyped development is a mirage to the masses. The consequential crisis looming large on the horizon is not only serious, but also threatening to overlook the ground realities with equanimity of mind.
Sometime back, Prof. Amartya Sen observed "For a minority of the Indian population—but still very large in actual numbers—economic growth alone has been very advantageous, since they are already comparatively privileged and need no social assistance to benefit from economic growth. The limited prosperity of recent years has helped to support a remarkable variety of lifestyles..................Yet an exaggerated concentration on the lives of the relatively prosperous, exacerbated by the Indian media, gives an unrealistically rosy picture of the lives of Indians in general. Since the fortunate group includes not only business leaders and the professional classes but also many of the country's intellectuals, the story of unusual national advancement is widely and persistently heard. More worryingly, relatively privileged Indians can easily fall for the temptation to focus just on economic growth as a grand social benefactor for all." (Italicized by this writer)
(*The writer is a retired IAS & former Vice-Chancellor, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur.)
The warning is real and warrants close and sympathetic attention for immediate course correction. But unfortunately, this fortunate and narcissistic group seems to be the driving force behind many initiatives of recent years to target dissenting and discordant voices in the country. They appear to have hijacked the direction and objectives from the public authorities. The case of the silent majority for priority does not appeal to them.
The Noble laureate sharpens his point further. "Some critics of the huge social inequalities in India find something callous and uncouth in the self-centered lives and inward-looking preoccupations of a relatively prosperous minority. My primary concern, however, is that the illusions generated by those distorted perceptions of prosperity may prevent India from bringing social deprivations into political focus, which is essential for achieving what needs to be done for Indians at large through its democratic system. A fuller understanding of the real conditions of the mass of neglected Indians and what can be done to improve their lives through public policy should be a central issue in the politics of India." Who would bring that grassroot realism of the lives and living of the neglected Indians? The SC and/or ST elected representatives under the present system of election through joint electorates will never dare to do so. They have been living a vegetative life. And this explains the relevance of Ambedkar whose demand for separate electorate aimed at freeing the scheduled castes from tutelage of dictatorial upper castes. The need for their It brooks no delay. This should be done suo motu along with the ongoing phase of liberalization on economic front before a political crisis forces its on the unwilling or deleterious drivers of the destiny of the nation.
The social liberation of 300 million neglected and underprivileged Indians is not a mean job. If they are left there and the current course of infatuated media blitz centering the minority continues unabated, the doomsday may be far, but how far off nobody knows or can forecast? There lies the need for Ambedkar whose clinical analysis and dissection of the present crisis with prescription of an enlightened roadmap would see underprivileged through and help India march ahead.
In a recent national seminar at the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi many, like me, were amazed to hear distinguished scholars advocating exclusively the Gandhian model of social justice, empowerment or justice for the dalit, marginalized, deprived and discriminated. When they speak about the need for education of the dalit and tribal, they emphasize that education should or has to be rooted in Indian cultural values. In a discourse of social justice for dalit in one of nation's prominent institution, strangely, we did not hear even vague reference to Ambedkar! This might not be an isolated instance or institution in this regard.
India marked by peace and stability under British rule had powerful bureaucracy, strong defence and effective security forces, relatively impartial judiciary, widespread transport and communications network, etc. Nonetheless, the Indians fought for freedom through political mobilization. The British transferred power to Indian hands after about 200 years. If one goes through the volumes of proceedings of the Indian National Congress ab initio, he would be surprised to note the glowing encomiums and unexpectedly high accolades showered by many distinguished Presidents in its annual conferences on the British for many blessings the Indian Empire had experienced under the alien rulers. Nonetheless the leaders and countrymen launched movement for freedom to gain political power. Political power in the hands of a self governing people is the key to their all-round growth, development and prosperity, social, economic and cultural. India's polity, though self-governing, unfortunately, is not oriented to inclusive growth, effervescence and efflorescence indeed. Divided and subdivided into myriad castes and communities, millions of people for thousands of years have remained under far worse form and condition of subjugation and domination of few castes. Their subjugation is nothing less and demeaning than slavery and total dependence under alien rulers. Enfranchisement of the victims of dominant castes from their thraldom and subservient position could be achieved by political power only. They would then replace literacy by equitable and quality education which is the solitary golden key to open all doors and resolve all problems of the life of the underdogs. Indian society was opposed to education for all. Many great leaders and celebrated educationists have, under Hindu cultural delusion, however, viciously campaigned against education low castes. Effective political power too has been denied to them by colorful subterfuge wrapped in reservation of seats in legislative bodies, e. g. Assembly and Parliament, or other elective bodies. Political reservation has made the dalit and tribal political leaders, almost without exception, slaves of the parties they join or had joined.
II
High ambition in untouchables unwarranted and frowned by the Mahatma!
This brings us to the Poona Pact signed between Ambedkar and the Hindu leaders in Yarvada Central Prison, Poona in 1932. Gandhi had launched fast-unto-death against separate electorates announced by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. To the Mahatma, the system of separate electorate for the untouchables was "injection of a poison [..….] calculated to destroy Hinduism." Though the shastras hold Shudras as slaves of the upper caste since millennium, Gandhi, so infatuated, found nothing wrong in it. The British had handed down an action plan to undermine if not destroy such an institution, which he denounced. To undo separate electorates, he declared his resolve to end life to save Hinduism. After 4 days of the fast, a Pact was signed in Central Jail on September 24, 1932. The Pact undid separate electorates for the depressed classes and brought in its place joint electorates which enchained them to Hindu political leaders' whims and fancies. The pact dashed and destroyed the dream of political enfranchisement of the untouchables.
Little probe into the Mahatma's love for untouchables may be well rewarding in this background. He vetoed appointment of Rameshwar Agnibhoj, an untouchable leader, as a Minister in the Cabinet of Central Provinces and Berar, [Madhya Pradesh] headed by Dr. Narayan Bhaskar Khare (19 March 1884 – 1970). A Congress leader, Dr. Khare had served as the prime minister in the first elected government of the Central Provinces and Berar from August 1937 – July 1938. Agnibhoj was a well-known freedom fighter. The Mahatma who was ready to stake his life for the untouchables in the Round Table Conference, London in 1932, had disapproved, says Ambedkar, "the appointment by Dr. Khare of Mr. Agnibhoj—- a member of the Scheduled Castes—as a minister in the Congress Cabinet in the C. P. when Mr. Agnibhoj was in every way qualified to be a Minister." The volta face of the great man is striking though. How and why was Gandhi hurt over appointing Agnibhoj as a minister? He "was opposed to the creation of such high ambitions among persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes." The modern avatar of the Hindus had chided Dr Khare publicly for the calamity designed to provoke ambition in the hearts of the untouchables. This is a rarest of rare vision of the man hailed as the Father of the Nation! Drona had the thumb of forest dweller Eklavya chopped off to nip his ambition to become an accomplished archer in the bud. Ambition propels and energies a man to scale unprecedented or dizzy heights. An ambitious people drive a nation ahead to prosperity and sublimity. But Gandhi felt perhaps that high ambition in scheduled caste went against the grains of Hinduism, did he? Germination of ambition in them was also greater than his life. In his eyes, it was an evil. The Mahatma was a perfect specimen of the bigoted Hindu who are no better than their rapists, murderers, oppressors in daily life. Nowhere in the universe ambition has been denounced in such fiendish manner!!
The Mahatma had proclaimed at the Second Round Table Conference in London that he represented the untouchables of India in himself and disputed the claim of Ambedkar in this behalf. His classic statement, "I want to save them against themselves. Separate electorates to the untouchables will ensure them bondage in perpetuity [.............] Do you want the untouchables to remain untouchables for ever?." He played to the gallery and deceived the untouchables. The full-blown pretension and morbidity of the Mahatma merits no further elaboration. He simply backstabbed them. His devotees are avid in pursuing the line and approach in the same spirit. The same attitudinal make up, by and large, runs through the veins and arteries of the Indian political classes ever since. The system of joint electorates is a political curse for the dalit as well as tribal communities. They have not been empowered; rather they have been sterilized of their vitality. They have been enslaved and their bondage are two fold, social as well as political. The country can amend the Constitution but the codes of Hindus scripture are above amendment and human intervention. But the political empowerment of the dalit and tribal through joint electorates in the present form has placed them under the boots of the Hindus.
What if Ambedkar refuse to sign Poona Pact?
A pertinent question agitates educated and socio-politically conscious dalits no end, "What would happen had Ambedkar refused to submit to blackmail and threats and did not sign Poona Pact?" A tearful Devdas, Gandhiji's son knocked at the door of Ambedkar with impassioned plea to save the life of his fasting father from jaws of death. There were apprehension and threats of bloodbath across the subcontinent against the untouchables, who were to gain political power under separate electorates. The Hindus were agitated following virulent rumour mongering. But what could happen? Were untouchables at risk?
The threats had little chance to be translated into action. The British would not have allowed, not to speak of risk a catastrophe of bloodbath, like the holocaust involving lives of tens of thousands of innocent untouchables. The repercussion of such a fatality would invite unprecedented ignominy and opprobrium of the international community for the British Empire and its rulers. Their failure to provide security of life and properties to the untouchables would go into history as a dark chapter. And the Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald would not remain blind to genocide of the untouchables resulting directly resulting from his own government's policy decision. The Government surely would not remain passive and inactive. They would suppress with iron the riotous Hindu hooligans, targeting the untouchables who were to benefit from the system of separate electorates. With the separate electorates granted to the Muslims and the Sikhs in deference to their wishes and demands, they would stand aloof from the threats of action Hindus issued against the untouchables. Moreover, the low caste men, largely the untouchables, have been historically drafted for physical violence against any section (specially minorities, Muslims particularly) by the scheming political classes. If the untouchables were the targets, the chances of large scale pogrom was perhaps a rarity, although sporadic outbursts could not be ruled out. But the show of force by the British would drive the rioters and provocateur to their dens for cover and safety. The threats and blackmails, I feel, would have ended in smoke. Nonetheless Ambedkar did not risk the lives of millions of untouchables across the vast subcontinent. And once the phase would blow over, sanity marked by peace would come back.
III
Elastic docility of dalit and tribal MPs and MLAs gift of joint electorates
A scene played out in the Parliament on December 20, 2012 when 117th Constitution Amendment Bill, which was previously passed and adopted by the Upper House, could not be introduced in the Lower House (Lok Sabha). A Member of Parliament snatched away the Bill. The audacious incident was flashed with relish as a breaking news all over the country in hundreds of channels in every language and dialect, bringing to the attention of millions of viewers. The MP whose unseemly behaviour led to adjournment of the Lok Sabha sine die represents Nagina Constituency, District Bijnour, U. P., reserved for scheduled caste. Holder of a B. Tech. degree, the MP, Yashvir Singh is a Dhobi by caste. He did so in compliance to his Party's mandate, thought he is well aware of the paramount importance of the Bill which seeks to amend the Constitution for enshrining the right to reservation in promotion for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes government employees. In class I services (IAS, IPS, etc.) of the Government of India, it is noted, there is no reservation. A Member had highlighted in course of debates in Rajya Sabha that out of 80 secretary-level offices under the Union Government a solitary office is held by a scheduled caste. None from the scheduled tribes, he also underlined, has yet made that mark. Gandhi alone, we can see, was not "opposed to the creation of such high ambitions among persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes", the whole Hindu nation devotedly follow the same philosophy. Yashvir Singh's Party had deployed him to do the assassin's job calculated to harm the interest of 300 million dalits and tribals.
Why this elastic docility of the dalit MP? The joint electorates have rendered the SC and ST elected representatives for Assemblies and Parliament into a pulp. They are boneless. And their meekness is an enviable asset for all political parties, so much so they that do not oppose even matters vitally concerned with their community interest. These MLAs and MPs of reserved constituencies across the country have never ever taken any public stand in matters pregnant with community welfare and welbeing. They are mortally afraid that their public stand and advocacy of matters of interest of the communities they represent, would hurt the sentiments and interests of the socially dominant sections. There is rarely any issues of social and economic interest of the underdogs that do not vex them or provoke their ire or arrogance. Dalit and tribal have been or are still being subjected to genocidal massacres with sickening repetition across the country: their women were/are raped, sexually assaulted and harassed, right of their education denied, minor children exploited, etc. Their representatives never mustered courage to condemn these crimes. They did not create pressures on the government to bring an end to these crimes. The criminals of the offences mostly belonged to the dominant castes. If the SC or ST MLAs or MPs dared to condemn them, they are afraid, they would not get party nomination in future elections. Secondly, if nominated at all, the upper caste voters who are in majority than SCs or STs in reserved constituencies, as the case may be, would not support and vote such vocal SC or ST, because of their role which offended them and benefited their communities they hate and despise. If the innumerable massacres carried out by the Ranvir Sena, an upper caste militia in Bihar is considered, the case becomes clear. Never any dalit MP o MLA had ever confronted the government for failure to provide foolproof measures for security of live and properties of the dalits in Bihar during the last three decades of the 20th century marked by genocidal attacks.
IV
Modern Prahlad unfit to complete revolution Ambedkar started
Virtually the entire brigade of SC or ST MLAs or MPs in post-Poona Pact era are the modern prototypes of mythological Prahlad. The very deity Vishnu bhakt Prahlad worshipped killed his father. The devotee's loyalty to his father's killer nonetheless did not sag nor did he suffer any qualms of conscience as a consequence. The modern Prahlads in Assemblies and Parliament are sabotaging the causes of the people they are supposed to represent. They are not at all worthy of complete the unfinished revolution of Ambedkar had started. Their helplessness as political animal has rendered them vulnerable. The representatives' incompetence is solely responsible for exploitation of their respective communities. They dare not do things they are expected to do as representatives of the SC or ST communities for fear of antagonizing the dominant upper caste voters. On the other hand, these Prahlads feel safe and secured to perform every bidding of the upper castes, howsoever, insignificant, mean or ignoble that might be. They appease thereby the dominant castes of their constituencies in preference to the deprived and discriminated sections. As a result, the educated, conscious and analytical sections of the SCs and STs are totally dissatisfied with the quality and performance of their MPs and MLAs. They are nincompoops and their election from reserved constituencies actually help them to promote their personal interest only. When I spoke to elicit the views of Hon'ble Speaker Uday Nayaran Chowdhary, Bihar Bidhan Sabha, himself a dalit, few weeks back, he expressed his strong disappointment over the role of SC and ST MLAs. A veteran of Bihar politics, the speaker was fully in agreement of the view that the MLAs of reserved constituencies were unable to perform their duties towards the deprived and discriminated dalits or tribals for fear of inviting the ire of the socially dominant classes. In fact, the interests of dalit or tribal communities are usually at loggerheads with that of the dominant sections. Nowhere in the country hitherto a school, a college, a health centre, a community hall, a drinking water facility, irrigation channels, a deep/shallow tubewell for irrigation, to note a few, has come up in areas dominated by dalits or tribals. Such public utilities are or have been sited in the first instance to benefit the upper castes, even though they were fewer in strength in comparison. Access of the dalit or tribal around to these utilities is denied by the dominant sections. This amounts to practice of untouchability and discrimination but police, if such instances are at all reported for intervention, usually side with the offenders. The offenders against dalits or tribal are rarely brought to justice---conviction rate even under the special law, i. e. the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 is deplorable 4% of less. The "uncle judge syndrome" has pervaded and permeated far and wide, and it is no longer confined to Allahabad High Court. SC/ST Students in institutes of excellence, e. g., IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, engineering and medical colleges face brutal discrimination as also prejudice, driving many to commit suicide. List of unfortunate incidents are long and on the rise with every passing year but no action against the offenders has been taken, despite enquiry report pinpointing the offenders. The life of tens of millions is so full of miseries and despondence as to drive them to wish like poet William Wordsworth if Ambedkar were alive amongst them today. By paraphrasing his sonnet "London, 1802" we can say,
"Ambedkar! thou should'st be living at this hour:
India hath need of thee:
[…....…...................]We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea;
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on itself did lay."
V
Gandhi had created an oversized hallucination that separate electorates would perpetuate untouchability. And he felt that under joint electorates, the Hindus would be integrated in one body forgetting or suppressing identities and differences of castes. This was his hypocrisy and the deception. Not to speak of others, he himself stood against integration of the Hindus embracing the untouchables into the mainstream. Joint electorates have strengthened the sway of the upper castes over the dalit and tribals, who including their MPs and MLAs are merely their supplicants and vassals. Gandhiji's hypocrisy has been glaringly exposed by citing already the instance of Rameshwar Angibhoj. Gandhi did not want education for the peasants by a diabolical argument: "it is not necessary to make this education compulsory. Our ancient school system is enough….. We consider your modern school to be useless." Education useless for peasants? A study carried out by an agency of the UN in mid-990s and found that a literate farmer contributed 15-20% and a literate factory worker 30-35% more in the production than their respective illiterate counterparts. And ancient system of education was imparted through tolls, pathshalas, chatushpathi etc. Those tolls, pathshalas or chatushpathis run and managed by Brahmans were cesspools of superstition and orthodoxy and were not open for admission to the students from lower social strata, not to speak of the untouchables. So the Gandhian scheme precluded education for the untouchables. It is pointed out that the Kayasthas of Bengal represented to the Government of Bengal seeking admission into the Government Sanskrit College, Calcutta (estd. January 1, 1924). Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar as Principal, after citing scriptural ordinances, besides many ifs and buts, grudgingly recommended that the Kayasths could be admitted in Sanskrit College. This was in 1853. Next year, the goldsmith caste petitioned the government for the favour to be extended to them. Vidyasagar summarily refused to consider their request, pointing out that "in the scale of castes, the class (goldsmith or Suburbanite) stands very low." It was a different matter that the Government did not accept the recommendation of the principal of the college, who is celebrated as an educationist and social reformer.
But Gandhi repose robust confidence in the ancient system for education of his countrymen, irrespective of caste, sex, place of birth or religion. India is the inveterate enemy of dalit getting access to education at all. In place of education, the elite and intellectual classes want them to remain content with mere literacy. Education, that too quality English education is an extremely undesirable for them because modern education holds potential for enfranchising the dalits. The country's literacy of 65% (2001) is a statistical illusion and cannot be taken very seriously. In the absence of any viable alternative, we are constrained to rely on census data but it suffers from inherent bias and manipulation. Rarely it is free from calculated fabrication and fudging. Apprehension of manipulation of educational data in the census reports in independent India can rarely be trashed or brushed aside lightly. Manipulation of data of educational achievement is a necessity for the authorities to present an charming picture to the foreign audience to shield India's shame in the comity of nations. Many African countries, free from caste virus, has achieved far greater rate of success in education. Bangladesh and Bhutan have marched ahead of India in the Human Development Index. Prof. Myron Weiner, after prolonged and wide ranging consultations came to the conclusion about Indian attitude. "The Indian position rests on deeply held belief that there is a division between people who work with their mind and rule and people who work with their hands and are ruled, and the education should reinforce rather than break down this division. These belief are closely tied to religious notions and to the premises that underlie India's hierarchical caste system". Gandhian ethos still pervades thoughts and actions of those who are the country's experts, planners and administrator of education.
The dalit and tribal communities comprise the majority of the BPL families who are enveloped by blinding darkness of illiteracy. The countrymen would better note that National Rural Employment Scheme, Indira Awas Yojana or literacy programmes are utterly insignificant to keep them contented any longer. These schemes rarely meet their aspiration or ambition. But if Gandhian refrain still is the guiding principle that encourages to crush ambition of the scheduled castes or tribes in the embryo, the time may not be far off to explode their anger sooner or latter into a devastating conflagration.
The writer can be reached at biswasatulk@gmail.com
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