Dalit solidarity: the way
forward
When we address
Dalit issues in the present century, we are actually talking about three
different categories of Dalits, who face physical and mental untouchabilities
in evident or discreet ways. The first one is Urban Dalits, who are the second
or third generation of educated Dalits. They are comparatively rich; their
children are having good education and jobs; and they try their level best to
be part of the mainstream; many a time in vain. The second category is the Urban
as well as rural lower middle class Dalits, who do not have English medium
education; do have vernacular education in the primary level; and manage to get
the jobs of clerks, teachers and such that help them to lead a life of lower
middle class. They are also trying to be the part of the social matrix with
their deliberate efforts using their talents and the comparatively feeble
financial freedom they have. But most of the time they do not succeed because
of their caste identity itself. The third group of the Dalits are the most
vulnerable rural people, who engage in agricultural labour, construction sector
in the cities, household labour, unskilled labour and even manual scavenging.
Their children are drop outs from school or not even have gone to school. They
are malnourished and the real ‘wretched of the earth’.
The important
factor is that, even though there are three realms of lives among the Dalits,
there should not have drastically different approach to these three sectors for
the emancipation of them, because of the Dalit factor makes many commonalities
amongst them. A mere financial freedom will not make a Dalit able to climb the
ladder of social order; a scholastic degree will not help him or her to prove
his/her mettle beyond the doubts; and even a political position, even such as
of Mayavati, will not wash away the doubts of the caste people about the
credentials of the Dalits to be leaders. So an approach to emancipate the
Dalits should be multi-faceted. It should come from within the Dalit fold, yet
need the solidarity of the like- minded people.
Dalits and
land
For the Dalit emancipation,
the authority over land by the Dalits is very much needed. As the continuation
of British Colonialism in India, there had a shift in the values over the authority
over the land taken place. The colonialisation helped to draft clear cut
definitions on the authority and rights over the land, especially by the
elites. People are divided more evidently as the owners of the land and mere
workers in the land. This demarcation by the colonial capital powers, with the
help of Indian caste system, made land into a commodity rather than a system to
produce food. This commodity, which has a higher value in the transaction, gave
more prominence for the owners and added vulnerability to the workers. Because
of the Indian caste system, in all these gradual shifts of values, the Dalits
are kept outside of the ownership and destined to be mere spectators whose
responsibility was to toil without uttering a word.
Land reforms by
the political parties in the independent India were the next major shift. Paradoxically,
the most acclaimed land reform in Kerala, which was performed by the Communist
Party, helped only the middle- class/ caste people. The Dalit intellectuals all
over India, especially from Kerala, are very critical about this land reform,
which claims a drastic change in the structure of ownership over land. The
motto of the land reform was to hand over the agricultural land to the farmers.
But when it was made into practice, the real farmers, the sons and daughters of
the soil, the Dalits were cornered to only 10 cents of land for each Dalit family,
while the middle men, mainly the OBCs and casteist Christians got the lion’s
share of the land. This absurd turn out of the land reform in Kerala by the
radical Communist party is the result of the discreet yet powerful influence of
the Indian caste system which is spread to every walk of life.
Gradually agriculture
has become another trade/business rather than a process to produce food grains.
The land has acquired more value when the globalisation made the entire world
as a market. This made the ownership of land by the Dalits more difficult. The
question of authority over land by the Dalits were countered by the argument
that the new automated systems and new forms of technology- based forms of
agriculture will make the need of the cultivable land and thus cultivation bare
minimum. The argument was that, since the need of agricultural land becomes
very less, there is no point of Dalits raise ownership over the cultivable
land. They have to look forward for new forms of livelihood. But we know that
the technology- based agricultural form do not able to shrink the needed area
of land yet. On the other hand Dalits are more aware of the ownership over
land, in which they know to build a new way of life and thus new status.
Land is becoming
more and more a question of resource, which is actually denied to the Dalits. As
part of claiming the ownership of land, new land struggles are happening in
various parts of India. One of the recent struggles of that kind is the
‘Chengara land struggle’ in Kerala. Both the left and right wing governments
were compelled to address the issues. The churches in Kerala have shown mixed
response to this struggle. Being one of the prominent owners of land in India,
Indian churches have the responsibility of addressing the issues raised by the
landless Dalits in India.
Acquiring of
land in the name of so- called development also is another form of the deprivation
of land for the Dalits. People have raised strong resistance against these kinds
of invasions such as in Singur and Nandigram. But unlike in these places the
struggles of the Dalits for the authority over land miserably fail. Propaganda
is done vigorously against the Dalits who demand authority over land and the
Dalits are branded as Naxalites , when they raise this issue.
Isaiah 5:8
clearly points out the responsibility of the church to be in solidarity with
the landless Dalits. The verse says: “Woe to those who join house to house, who
add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell
alone in the midst of the land!”
Dalits and
Economic policy/Development business
The neo economic
policy, which has already taken India under control, has adversely affected the
Dalits in India. While the resistance against the globalisation and liberal
economic policies were challenged by the people, the elites in India were the
supporters of the policies saying that ‘there is no alternative’.
The new forms of
so- called ‘development’, which is the by- product of the neo economic policy,
pushed the Dalits again to the peripherals. According to this new development
paradigm, huge buildings, express high ways, malls, dams, nuclear power plants,
factories and such are the symbols of development. It is very evident that all
these are not directly connected with the basic amenities of the common people.
Rather, these are all about huge amount of investment and thus opportunities
for corruption in large scale. This type of ‘Dominant Developmental Paradigm’
suggests that there will be a trickledown effect that will eventually help the
people from the margins. In Indian situation, it is evident that the
trickledown effect is only an illusion. The menial jobs and unskilled labour in
the construction sector are pointed out as the example of trickledown effect.
Dalits in India are mostly doing these kinds of jobs. In fact, across India, these
people are underpaid. Even in the most hyped Common Wealth Games, the unskilled
labourers worked in the construction of stadiums were not paid properly. The
common factors of the various forms of this type of development are corruption,
undue concentration of wealth into the hands of a few, and the marginalisation
of the Dalits again to the peripheries.
On the other
hand, the Dalit lives are made miserable with the illogical fuel price hike,
grabbing of small pieces of land of the Dalits in the name of development, weird
priorities like UID in which thousands of crores of rupees are spent that could
have been used instead on education/ health care/ housing, corruption, discreet
and visible forms of untouchability, shrinking job opportunities and
reservation in the public sector, and zero reservation in the private sector.
The liberal economic policies badly affect the Dalits, who are not capable
enough to run business in small scale or large scale because of the peculiar
nature of Indian social matrix. Business is a process which involves interactions;
inter linking and mutual support of various people and factors. Because of the
‘Dalitness’ of the Dalits, the businessmen already in the field, who are from
the casteist background, deliberately push out the Dalits. The exceptions are very
few.
Since the neo
economic policies do not help the process of emancipation of Dalits, it is the
responsibility of the social organisations and the church in India to help the
Dalits to have a sustainable form of financial management and openings and
space for innovative efforts for financial freedom.
Dalits and
reservation
Reservation is
not a mere job giving programme. It is all about participation of the Dalits
and other vulnerable communities in the power. Dr Ambedkar’s vision and the struggles
for the equal rights of the Dalits made reservation a reality. The effect of
the reservations in the lives of Dalits is highly commendable. Reservation is
not an end in itself; it is one of the means of the emancipation of Dalits.
But the
reservation system has been disrupted and challenged by deliberate and discreet
ways. The casteist government officials find various methods to not to fill the
vacancies under reservation. The norm, that if a Dalit has the marks to be
counted along with the open merit s/he should be given the job under the open
quota, used to be violated by giving the job for the Dalits only under
reservation quota. This makes the presence of the Dalits in the service sector
half of the real number of posts. Many other strategic steps have been taken by
the casteist people to make the reservation shrink.
The open fight
against reservation by the groups like ‘Youth for Equality’ is another way of
curbing the possibilities of the reservations. The Dalit Christians and Dalit
Muslims are kept outside of the benefits of reservation based on the infamous
Presidential order in 1950. The Dalits are thus denied the fundamental right of
the freedom to choose their religion. Propaganda is in the peak that the people
with ‘merit’ do not get job and other opportunities because of the reservation
for the Dalits. But the fact is that even the vacancies, which come under
reservation, are not filled.
Indian church
does have the responsibility to stand for the reservation of the Dalits; since
Jesus has a preferential option for the poor. Churches in India should be
willing to give more reservation in the establishments and institutions run by
them for the Dalits. More voices should be raised for implementing reservation
for the Dalits and other vulnerable communities in the private sector.
Dalits and
Education: Focusing the next generation
Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar rightly pointed out that “The backward classes have come to realize
that after all education is the greatest material benefit for which they can
fight. We may forego material benefits, we may forego material
benefits of civilization, but we cannot forego our right and opportunities to
reap the benefit of the highest education to the fullest
extent. That the importance of this question from the point of view of
the backward classes who have just realized that without education their
existence is not safe.” A good number of Dalits in India understand the
importance of education; many of them strive to get good education; and only a
few can achieve proper education. This is happening because of the caste system
still prevails in India checks the education of the Dalits in various hidden as
well as open strategies.
The Dalit
students, especially in the higher education realm, undergo a deep mental and
financial struggle. Many Dalits committed suicide in the recent past who were
students of IITs and IIMs. The reasons are mainly the harassment from the
authorities/teachers/dominant caste students, and difficulty to cope with the
urban set up and medium of English. Church’s intervention is much needed in
this because Education is the first and foremost tool of Dalit emancipation.
Giving importance for the education of Dalit students is really a need of the
hour because preparing for the future is important for Dalits in India where
the casteist mind set is getting worse and anti- reservation, anti- Dalit
feelings and the support for ‘meritocracy’ are gearing up.
Dalits: Need
of a common spirituality
The major
problem Dalits face in India is that they are divided in various levels such as
religion and sub- castes. Since India is
a country in which most of the people are theists rather than atheists, the
religious aspects can be a force to struggle against the odds for the Dalits.
But unfortunately, Dalits face discrimination within almost all religions. At
the same time Dalit brothers and sisters are confined to their own religions
and invisible barriers keep them away from uniting as a single force.
Finding out or
forming a new spirituality for the Dalits by bringing together the common
factors of the religions, which are emancipatory in nature is the way out of
this vicious circle. Christianity is one of the major religions, which
evidently and strongly talks about the emancipation of the marginalised and the
oppressed. Drawing common indications from other religions will definitely make
a common platform for the Dalit struggles.
We need a
better networking
In order to work
towards a future of Dalits, which is emancipatory in nature, a greater network
is needed amongst the churches, like- minded people, groups and organisations. Fastest
communication systems can be considered as a good result of globalisation. How
do we use it for Dalit resurgence is the question. A solidarity work for the
transformation of the people from the margins is inevitable.
