On July 11, 2016, a video of cow vigilantes
mercilessly beating up seven Dalit men for skinning a dead cow in Una district,
Gujarat, came to light. In protest against the incident, many Dalits have
refused to handle cow carcasses(body,शवो). The gau rakshaks should
be happy, but they are not. Non-Dalits, presumably including gau rakshaks, have
retaliated(react,प्रतिकार) with more violence against
Dalits — this time for not picking up cow carcasses — in Samter (August 16),
Bhavra (August 20) and Rajkot (August 24), all in Gujarat.
Herein lies the Dalit dilemma(doubt,दुविधा) — he is damned if he
does and he is damned if he doesn’t.
The bane of Hindu society is varna, the
four-tier arrangement said to be sanctified(holy,पवित्र) by the scriptures. The
arrangement encompassed the majority and assigned them places, but it also
excluded a large number. The excluded were the outcasts or the untouchables.
Inequality by birth was the basis of the arrangement. That inequality stayed
with you throughout your life. Violence against Dalits is the punishment for
disobeying the rules of the arrangement. Rohith Vemula summed
it up: “My birth is my fatal accident.”
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The
Dalit Mobilisation
The Dalits have decided that enough is
enough. They have decided to mobilise. The scale of social mobilisation of
Dalits in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and to some extent in other parts of the
country, has not been seen in recent times. Although much of the media is not
covering them, massive rallies and marches are being held. There is palpable(clear,स्पस्थ)
anger in the community because of the sense of impunity(free from blame,दंडमुक्ति) with which they are
being subjected to violence in certain parts of the country. According to the
National Commission for Scheduled Castes, in 2015, Gujarat reported the highest
crime rate against Dalits, followed by Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Dalits are angry about the hollowness(falseness,खोखलापन) of the current
hyper-nationalism where everything about India is called great and every
criticism is labelled as anti-national. They are angry about the way the Una
incident and other such incidents are being dismissed as isolated or as
conspiracies. It is noteworthy that the boycott of cow carcasses, the rallies
and the marches have happened through social, not political, mobilisation.
After a long period of silence, the Prime
Minister spoke on August 6. He said, “I get so angry at those who are into the
gau rakshak business… I have seen that some people are into crimes all night
and wear the garb of gau rakshaks in the day.” The very next day, at a rally,
he said, “You can shoot me rather than target the Dalits.” This is a strange
statement for a Prime Minister: he should use the enormous(big,बड़ा) powers of his office to punish the perpetrators(criminal,अपराधी) of violence.
Change
Agonisingly(painful,पीड़ाजनक) Slow
Change is taking place, but it is
agonisingly slow. In urban areas, where economic and professional identities
usually take precedence(priority,तरजीह), and in parts of India where social movements have
brought about change, a majority of Hindus do not feel passionate about the
caste order. Many Hindus may still prefer marriages within the caste, but have
friends among Dalits. Many may express angst about the reservation system, but
do not begrudge(envy,ईर्ष्या) the limited preference to Dalits in educational
institutions and in some jobs.
However, there is a section of Hindu
society that continues to look back with nostalgia(regret,खिन्नता) at the days of caste
domination. Many of them have read a sign of approval in the BJP’s victory in 2014. The cow vigilantes are the latest
manifestation of centuries of a supremacist ideology. The flurry of bans on cow
slaughter and beef consumption, and the aggressive majoritarian narrative, have
given them fresh wind.
Few people saw the casteist agenda more
clearly than Dr Ambedkar and ‘Periyar’ E V Ramasamy. Both were pessimistic(negative,निराशावादी) about the reformation of
Hindu society. Dr Ambedkar did not think that Dalits could find dignity within
the fold of the Hindu religion and urged(forced,मजबूर) them to convert to
Buddhism. Periyar’s way was atheism and rationalism. The third way is reform of
the Hindu social order and accelerating the trends that will usher(show,दिखाना) in a new social order —
education, industrialisation, urbanisation, communication and technological
advance.
The
Constitutional Goal
For the Hindu hyper-nationalists, the idea
of a ‘Hindu’ nation is superior to the idea of a constitutional democratic
republic. They will sweep the pains of caste history under the carpet. They
think that to uphold the idea of a ‘Hindu’ nation it is necessary to underplay
its flaws and hide the price that is paid by millions of Dalits and the
minorities. On the other hand, the Constitution-makers did not deny the
existence of these problems: they acknowledged the prevalence(spreading,प्रसार) of caste differences and
discrimination(unfair,भेदभाव) and formulated what they believed would be intermediate
solutions, such as reservation for the Scheduled Castes and rights of
minorities.
The real focus of the Constitution is to
secure a set of natural rights that every Indian should enjoy, irrespective of
the historical injustices. It is to make caste, religion and gender irrelevant
to citizenship and citizens’ rights.
The project of creating this sense of equal
citizenship is still a work-in-progress in this vast and complex land. Hindu
hyper-nationalism, which is a form of majoritarianism, is at odds with the
constitutional project. The conflict(battle,विवाद) is playing out, in an
increasingly violent manner, before our eyes. The consequences(result,परिणाम) of a long-drawn conflict
will be terrible for the country and its progress toward the goal of a peaceful
and prosperous nation.
courtesy:indian express
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