NEED FOR PARADIGM SHIFT:
I want be personal. There resistance that I speak of is from my own background of being a Christian and a student of social sciences. Having internalized the principles of equality and fraternity both on account of my faith and life, I have been a critique of those who clam superiority in the of religion, status or cast. Both my faith and my discipline of specialization has ingrained in me that striving to build a human community. That is the primary task of all humans and any discrimination is anti-human, anti-national and anti-constitutional. I have no hesitation to assert that the project of cultural nationalism is an anti-constitutional and anti-human project that needs to be denounced and opposed if we are committed to the constitutional project of equality, fraternity and justice offered to us by Sri B.R.Ambedkar, the architect of the constitution of India.
In a situation, where both institutional and physical violence continues across the country with increasing number of atrocities on the subaltern communities, I am proud to be what I am. In number programmes and conferences, I have asserted by identity as Christian. Even if I do not assert my identity, my name makes it clear my roots and my faith. There is humanity and universality both in my faith and the discipline I work with. Just Like me there are other groups and communities of people in India who are not a part of a legacy of hate and intolerance. I am comfortable in their presence and they have enriched my life and the life of the community. We are a nation of difference communities. To be different is to enrich and to learn from others. We have learnt and valued diversity as a way of life. That is what the constitution clearly mandates. The dominant cultural nationalism which in fact is a minority nationalism, has been our main enemy that has advocated unity in uniformity, Which is an attack on the constitution of the land and its people. Given the multiplicity of communities in india, no single culture can be allowed to be imposed on the land. The attempts to impose a single cultural is real and unless and until communities assert for their specific space with their identity, India may experience greater violence and bloodshed. The two reasons why a caste cultural characterized as cultural nationalism is to be opposed is that it is primarily a culture of a small minority that threatens the cultures of others and another important reason is that it is oppressive cultural premised on hierarchy, hate and violence. Without a paradigm shift from uniformity to diversity, hierarchy to egalitarianism and from intolerance to affirmation, we cannot be a nation of equals. Economic progress and development is bound to affect. Since the country belongs to all, all communities in India must assert for a place of their own not as a concession but as a right. All said and done, this country is a country of the subalterns- the tribals and the dalith’s, the minorities and the backwards. Any attempt to divest the subalterns from their ownership of the country and its resources through myths, beliefs and dogmas need to be resisted.
I want be personal. There resistance that I speak of is from my own background of being a Christian and a student of social sciences. Having internalized the principles of equality and fraternity both on account of my faith and life, I have been a critique of those who clam superiority in the of religion, status or cast. Both my faith and my discipline of specialization has ingrained in me that striving to build a human community. That is the primary task of all humans and any discrimination is anti-human, anti-national and anti-constitutional. I have no hesitation to assert that the project of cultural nationalism is an anti-constitutional and anti-human project that needs to be denounced and opposed if we are committed to the constitutional project of equality, fraternity and justice offered to us by Sri B.R.Ambedkar, the architect of the constitution of India.
In a situation, where both institutional and physical violence continues across the country with increasing number of atrocities on the subaltern communities, I am proud to be what I am. In number programmes and conferences, I have asserted by identity as Christian. Even if I do not assert my identity, my name makes it clear my roots and my faith. There is humanity and universality both in my faith and the discipline I work with. Just Like me there are other groups and communities of people in India who are not a part of a legacy of hate and intolerance. I am comfortable in their presence and they have enriched my life and the life of the community. We are a nation of difference communities. To be different is to enrich and to learn from others. We have learnt and valued diversity as a way of life. That is what the constitution clearly mandates. The dominant cultural nationalism which in fact is a minority nationalism, has been our main enemy that has advocated unity in uniformity, Which is an attack on the constitution of the land and its people. Given the multiplicity of communities in india, no single culture can be allowed to be imposed on the land. The attempts to impose a single cultural is real and unless and until communities assert for their specific space with their identity, India may experience greater violence and bloodshed. The two reasons why a caste cultural characterized as cultural nationalism is to be opposed is that it is primarily a culture of a small minority that threatens the cultures of others and another important reason is that it is oppressive cultural premised on hierarchy, hate and violence. Without a paradigm shift from uniformity to diversity, hierarchy to egalitarianism and from intolerance to affirmation, we cannot be a nation of equals. Economic progress and development is bound to affect. Since the country belongs to all, all communities in India must assert for a place of their own not as a concession but as a right. All said and done, this country is a country of the subalterns- the tribals and the dalith’s, the minorities and the backwards. Any attempt to divest the subalterns from their ownership of the country and its resources through myths, beliefs and dogmas need to be resisted.
WE ARE PROUD TO BE MINORITIES:
Let me now place certain facts about India. 16.2% of India’s population is dalith’s Nearly 60% of dalith’s live in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states. Though provided with the lowest rank in Hindu society, beneath the traditional caste system, they are termed as Hindus for political reasons and expected to perform the most menial jobs, particularly handing cadavers and human and animal waste. Physical contact with a Dalith is still considered ritually polluting for other castes even after 60 years of independence. Without being Hindus, they have been termed as Hindus without their consent. Even converts to Christianity and Islam have country and discriminated. Christians are 2.1% with a distinct culture of their own. The backwards constitute 54% of the population. All these groups are different with their own culture and yet 90% of Indians are called Hindus and they live on the dictates of the caste masters who do not number more than 3% of India. The upper caste Brahmins and their indoctrinated followers vehemently oppose any challenge to the caste hegemony. In terms of culture, the subaltern culture is related to the productive processes. It is a culture of work and toil, celebration and togetherness. The subalterns without any gain do the entire process of production. The dominant group manages it, living in accordance with the dictates of the Brahmancial social order and inflicting pain and torture on the producers of wealth. In contrast to the subaltern way of life centered on farms and fields, with interaction with the productive processes, the Brahmanical way of life is ritualistic, premised on myths, beliefs and dogmas centered on temples and excessively individualistic, selfish and corrupt. Since the subalterns are involved in production, subalterns philosophy of life is liberative, producing food for the hungry, living a life of sharing and caring, with qualities of public and social good. On the other, the cultural nationalists are parasites, living on the labours of the subalterns by manipulating the social order with their exploitative and ritualistic way of life. The present exploitation of the subalterns is due to the internalization of the Brahmanic philosophy of hate and intolerance by the subalterns. The need is to internally to break out from those internalized dogmas of the heart and mind and work on a collective new philosophy of life.
CONVERSIONS ARE A WEAPON OF RESISTANCE :
See how the Brahmanical social order controls the minds and hearts of the subalterns. Just take the example of conversions. Dalith’s have not been Hindus. And yet when they embrace a religion of their choice, there is reistance. There are told that they are Hindus and they have no right to move away from the religion of their birth. Who has defined that religion of their birth? Not the subalterns or the discriminated groups. The discrimination is so immense, that discrimination groups have not even been allowed to society and polity function is an indicator of the manner in which the communal forces have made inroads into the polity.
HINDUTVA IS ANTI-CULTURAL:
Why is hindutva nationalism against conversions? Reasons may have lot to do with economics. Dalith’s when they move away from hierarchical religion of Brahmanism and move into egalitarian religions, their self-image changes. As they get educated, they are not prepared to accept the caste masters Those who fattened themselves with free labor for centuries in their unjustly inherited property are threatened by demands of fair wages and refusal to do menial jobs. Otherwise why should conversions threaten anybody in the country? If the Brahmanic social order says they oppose it on ground of culture, it is important to educate them on the meaning of culture. Culture is an expression of human aspiration and values in the form of literature, performing arts, living patterns, religious practices and a gamut of activities related to human social life. One has never heard of RSS promoting, literature, arts, song, and dance of subaltern communities. On the other hand, they have been known as destroyers of culture. They have been in the forefront of destroying artistic paintings, Maqbool Fida Hussein’s Gufa in Ahmadabad, attacking the Ram Katha panels of sahmat exhibition, disrupting Gazal concerts of Gulam Ali, preventing the filming of Deepa Mehta’s film Water and to cap it all in destroying an architectural heritage of Babri Masjid. The game plan in communalizing the Sufi shrine for political mileage in Baba Budan Giri, where all irrespective of religions paid their respect to the mystics is well documented in Karnataka. There have been attacks on Ambedkar statues and chiristian Churches, dalith’s groups and congregation of Christians. Can these destroyers of culture expressions be called cultural by any sense of the word? Its ‘culture’ has politics oozing from every nook and corner of its fields of activity. The RSS culture is disguised politics, a cleverer way to achieve its goal of strengthening caste order by remaining insulated from the adverse effects of those political actions. It has been banned on occasions for its political interventions in society, Gandhi murder, after Babri demolition, which was spearhead by its progenies VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal including many a luminaries who came to occupy the positions of power. And yet even without being in power it is able to control politics through various mechanisms. Several state Government are majoritarian government. It is because they are majoritarian, Gujarat happened and riots in Mangalore continued for a week. In the states where BJP government rule, the process of communalization goes on in to gear. With the employees being openly participating in RSS, the divisive processes will move faster and running the administration on the lines of Indian Constitution will become all the more difficult.
WAY OF KANSHI RAM:
How do we resist this game plan to demolish the secular edifice of the country laid by Sri. B.R.Ambedkar through gifting the constitution? One of the ways is the way of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar,perfected by Sri Kanshi Ram. With the birth of Bahujan Samaj in 1984, Dalits came to discard the worship of gods and goddesses of Hinduism in Uttar Pradesh. Define their identity and choose a faith of their own. Their identity has been defined by the hindutvavadis and it is the duty of the Dalits and others to live according to those dictates if they have to survive. It is an abominable situation. There cannot be a country where others define the identity of people and individuals have no choices. This is the biggest human right violation. Thousands of Dalits, defying that social norm, in recent years, have been attending mass ceremonies of conversions as a sign of protest against caste and discrimination. More than religious events, these have been political moments in the assertion of the Dalits for dignity and equality. The recent event on 14th October 2006, 50th anniversary of the adoption of Buddhism by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the central city of Nagpur, which received international coverage, where more than five thousand Dalits converted to Buddhism and Christianity, were a part of a protest against the injustices of India’s caste system. He was the first prominent Dalith to urge low-caste Indians to embrace Buddhism. As the chief architect of Indian’s constitution, he wrote anti-discrimination provisions and quota systems into the country’s law. Dalits arrived by the truckload at a public park in Nagpur for ceremonies, which began with religious leaders giving fiery speeches against the treatment of lower castes. The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamilnadu have all passed laws restricting conversions. Gujarat has reclassified Buddhism and Jainism as branches of the Hindu religion, in an attempt to prevent conversions away from Hinduism eroding the BJP’s bedrock support. Officially, caste discrimination was outlawed when India gained independence in 1947, but many of the country’s 180 million Dalits know that people’s attitudes towards them remain the same. They are still often expected to do the most menial jobs In many villages, they are also prevented from drinking water from wells used by high caste Hindus. They are not attended to in public schools and the public restaurants are still not open to them.
STATE IS A HINDUTVA WEAPON:
The second incident that comes to my mind is the September 2006 measure of the Madhya Pradesh Government to life the ban on the civil servants joining RSS and participating in its activities. Civil servants are banned from participating in the political organizations since it is a communal group. In Gujarat when this permission was granted in January 2000, the president on receiving the protests intervened. Mr. Vajapayee prevailed upon the state BJP and got this permission revoked. Now chouhan Government in MP has lifted the ban. Government servants can now join and carry on the RSS work openly. The measure is to infiltrate into various of the state apparatus by sending its trained swayamsevaks to work in different areas of bureaucracy in states as well as at Center. Already the ‘social common sense’ is so doctored that in the times of violence a big chunk of police and other state officials aid and abet the violence against minorities, putting aside the norms of constitution and even the civic decency. The role of RSS and the complicity of police and other officials in the anti minority programmes whether it is a Gujarat or recently in Mangalore is well known. A measure of the kind will open the floodgates for the total communalization of the civil service, which is the backbone of the state apparatus. This is happening in an aggressive way. By fact of being born a Hindu, irrespective of the caste, the Hindu offers adherence to the Brahmanical way of life. Each one has come to accept one’s position into the caste hierarchy. The Sangh Parivar has capitalized on the beliefs of the caste order by the masses and has transformed the political order in to a hindutva order. The way various bodies both in the BSP voters came to discard posters/ calendars depicting Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Busts of Lord Buddha and Ambedkar replaced the little local deities. This transformation took place in most of the villages of uttar Pradesh in three years. As a result by the beginning of 1990, a Dalith middle class had become visible in UP, though in embryonic from. The newly empowered Daliths entered the mainstream society with a mainstream religion. By mid-90s, from most BSP homes, Hindu Gods and Goddesses had fled making place to Ambedkar and a Lord Buddha. Kanshi Ram did nothing publicly to convert to Buddhism. This miracle occurred in less then decade. I am not saying people should or should not covert. That is left to the people. However, if Kanshi Ram had lived a few more years, he might have led millions of Dalits to convert publicly the way Baba Saheb did. Is conversion, a public way of denouncing caste and caste oppression? I tend to believe and it has revolutionary impacts. The symbols of Ambedkar, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Phule and Periyar are symbols of revolution and a new social order that threatens the existing system and challenges the very premises on which it is premised.
After B.R. Ambedkar, there has not been any other individual in the past hundred years who has impacted millions of minds the way Kanshi Ram did. No BSP voter lifts dead animals any more. If a cow, buffalo or bullock died in a village, irrespective their owners, Dalits were required to lift them and throw in the fields outside the village. That was the caste tradition. The BSP voters stopped doing that by mid-90s. Today non-Dalits collect their own people to load dead animals on a tractor or bullock cart and dispose them in the fields. Emancipation from this age-old humiliating practice restored the Dalit esteem. Kanshi Ram was a university of emancipation. He overturned Brahmanism upside down. In pre-BSP times, most Dalit politicians of UP desiring to become MLA/MPs would surrender their individuality and dignity at the doorsteps of mainstream political parties. Their acts of submission would cause humiliation to the entire community. Kanshi Ram scripted a situation where hoards of non-Dalit politicians desiring to become MLA/MPs would fall on the feet of the BSP. This act restored esteem among the Dalits. A Dalit could now look at his non-Dalit fellow and smile. Not knowing how to deal with this exceptionally new situation, the non-Dalit intelligentsia has begun accusing the BSP of practicing Brahmanism. Nay, it wasn’t and it isn’t. Kanshi Ram had, in fact, overturned the Brahmanical notion of ‘falling on the feet’. In less then two decades, Kanshi Ram made UP Dalits walk with their heads high. The challenge for all of us is to critically examine the path Kanshi Ram as shown and work on it.
EDUCATE-AGITATE-ORGANIZE:
That needs education, on education that is not imparted in the classrooms. Classroom education is Brahmanncal with every aspect of oppression present in it. It provides no enlightenment to the mind and thus not an education that would help to challenge the system. To challenge the system, we need to challenge the symbols of region, symbols of hierachy as Kanshi Ram did and place them with alternative symbols. Educate-Agitate and Organize is an Ambedkar its slogan perfected by Sri Kanshi Ram. There is pedagogy here, a way of life and a path to resistance. The DMK movement was more radical in tamilnadu in the sixties and seventies. As a mark of protest they destroyed statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, denounced Brahmanism and the two languages of Sanskrit and Hindi associated with the local Brahmins and the North Indians upper caste and through the Dravida movement educated people of the rich culture of the Dravidians, the original people of India. Through protests on the streets, writings in papers and journals that were started fro the purpose, scholars and politicians of the Dravida movement denounced the exploitative caste culture and announced a culture of subalterns, diverse in content and nature, Yet unifying with universal principals of affirmation, unity, oneness and human equality.
The entry into institutions of the state and society is equally important. Education should make it possible to the Subalterns to direct the destinies of the country. Conscientiousness at the social level should make it possible for the minorities and subalterns to make into the positions of power. Once the group acquires political power, the institutions of the state can be liberated from the ideologues of the Sangh Parivar. An alternative ideology of the Bahujans will come to rule in the place of the fewjans and provide liberation to the masses chained and imprisoned by the doctrines of caste and hierarchy.
The way of resistance is hard and needs persistence. And yet when all the discriminated groups come together on a philosophy of egalitarianism with new symbols and images, a new India can be created; a different world as visualized by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar-of equality, fraternity, community and diversity is possible. Let me conclude with those works of Rabindranath Tagore "Into that heaven of freedom, let this country awake". Let us awake, let us dream and let us venture out and challenge caste, hierarchy and all its symbols, myths, beliefs and dogmas.
-Dr. Ambrose Pinto
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