Genesis of anti-Dalit Mentality

  Genesis of anti-Dalit Mentality  

                                                        --Dr RAJ BAHADUR YADAV

Understanding the anti-Dalit Mind-set [An Article]

Some questions usually crop up in my mind,"Why do the Dalits still face injustice and discrimination in our society?Why do so many people[including leading politicians] look down upon Dalits even after 69 years of our Independence?"On July 20 this year, Mr Dayashankar Singh, the Vice-President of the BJP Uttar Pradesh unit made some avoidable  misogynistic comments about Ms Mayawati at a felicitation function held in Mau, comparing her with a prostitute.He accused her of accepting huge amounts of money from aspiring candidates for allocating party tickets for contesting the Assembly elections. The top BJP leadership swung into swift damage control exercise and expelled Mr Singh for six years from the party. William Shakespeare said nearly four hundred years ago,"My tongue will tell the anger of my heart/ Or else my heart concealing it will break". Though it is also a fact that Mr Dayashankar Singh apologized also for his thoughtless comment about Ms Mayawati yet even he knew that damage had already been done. Next day, on July 21, a large number of Bahujan Samaj Party[BSP]  supporters gathered near the statue of Dr B R Ambedkar at Hazratganj in Lucknow  to protest against the perceived humiliation of their supreme leader.  In this protest rally, the BSP supporters raised derogatory slogans against the family members of Mr Singh. His mother, Mrs Tetra Devi, got registered an FIR  against the BSP leaders with the Hazratganj Kotwali police station, complaining about  very abusive language they allegedly used against her daughter-in-law and a school going grand-daughter. Obviously, whatever had happened from July 20 to July 22  was quite unfortunate in a big state like Uttar Pradesh. 

 Our leaders are, no doubt, great experts in using political  pyrotechnics to settle score with one another but they should avoid dragging family members into such controversies. On April 4, another BJP leader, Madhu Mishra, who was heading the women's wing in Uttar Pradesh,  reportedly  went public saying,"Those who used to polish shoes are now ruling us". She was also expelled from the BJP party. It is a grim reality that most of the Indians suffer from caste dilemma and a retrogressive hangover of ancient and feudal times. If we wish to march ahead as a nation, we must try to respect our fellow countrymen. The gory details of merciless flogging of four  Dalit men for skinning a dead cow in Una in Gujarat have caused a great resentment among the Dalits of the country.  The Dalits of Gujarat came out in large numbers on streets protesting against beastly treatment meted out to them in the months of July and August . Even the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, has very strongly condemned the growing attacks on Dalits  in the name of protection of cows.Several Members of Parliament cutting across party lines have welcomed the sensible stand of Mr Modi.The common people have admired Mr Modi for having spoken the truth which has perhaps not been liked by the fringe elements. The other day, the Punjab police was able to arrest the "Gau Raksha Dal" chief who was allegedly involved in the acts of "sodomy,rioting,extortion and other charges". A youth from Saharanpur had deposed before the Judicial Magistrate that he was forcibly taken to a cow-shelter in Rajpura[ near Patiala] where he was sodomized. The youth's shocking allegation was that"Also, some goons urinated in my mouth". This is certainly not the cultured way of protecting the cows.
  According to media reports, a few days back, a shocking incident took place in Saharanpur's Usand village. A man from Dalit community visited a lawyer's  office alongwith his 15-year-old daughter to get prepared some documents for her. He requested the lawyer to wait a little bit for the payment of his fee as he was short of money at that time but he was bluntly told either to make the payment or leave his daughter as"collateral" to him. Here again, the Dalits spilled out on roads, crying for social justice. Two  Dalit women reportedly succumbed to their injuries caused by the police lathi-charge. Such incidents of caste hatred and discrimination weaken our strength as a big nation.  When we try to look at this rigid feudal mind-set closely, we can locate it  as a great sequel to our ancient caste system which has been in existence for the last more than four thousand years. Though it is also a reality that under the pressure of modernisation and urbanization, the traditional caste system has developed some visible cracks also yet its resilience to adapt itself to changing times is quite puzzling even to sociologists. In India,caste has been a person's basic  identity and  class also for thousands of years though after our Independence, there has been an upward mobility among the Dalits and Backward Classes[BCs]. The million-dollar question is :"When did the caste system come into existence? Dr B R Ambedkar thought that it did not exist before 400 BC, arguing very forcefully that before the advent of "Varna" system in India, the blood of all major races had co-mingled. Most of the Indian historians agree that untouchability was not in vogue before 600 BC and a prominent historian like Dr Ramsharan Sharma also maintains that it actually emerged between 600BC-300 BC. In Rigveda's famous hymn, Purush Sukta, there is a mention of Brahmana, Rajanya,Vaisya and Shudra. Many thinkers believe that the Varnas originated in the Vedic society[1500-500 BC]. The first three social groups like Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas have parallels with other Indo-European communities but the addition of the fourth one of Shudras can possibly be an exercise in lateral thinking. In Manusmriti, there is a profound elaboration of the Hindu societal organisation which might have attained a definite shape by the time" the Golden Period" of Indian history began under the powerful Gupta Kings[320-550 CE].The renowned historian, Prof. D N Jha, is of opinion that the emperors of Gupta dynasty donated large tracts of fertile land to Brahmins who had a powerful impact upon the whole society. Most of the Brahmins lived in large mansons and had several servants to attend to. Dr Paramhanshi Jaideva in her book, "Dalits in Early Buddhism"[2002] informs us that Lord Buddha did not believe in the sanctity of the Varna system. In the eyes of Lord Buddha, any upright and virtuous man could rise high in life irrespective of his caste affiliations. In other words, the caste had not become absolutely  endogamous  even in the times of Lord Buddha. Buddha believed that there was a time when there was no priesthood,no sermons and no kingship. There was no personal property. Hence, there was no violence. Buddha taught his disciples that all the four social groups were equally pure and what mattered was their conduct. During the long reign of Gupta rulers, the caste endogamy was probably born,creating distinctions of "jati' and"kula"[tribe].Brahmins taught the holy scriptures, the Kashatryas acted as kings and warriors, the Vaisyas cultivated the land and looked after cattle, whereas the Shudras' main task was to serve all the above-mentioned castes. Many castes like barbers, bamboo weavers,hunters,chariot-makers

, sweepers,carpenters,goldsmiths and blacksmits came into existence because of occupational requirements in the society. In our ancient literature, there are many tales of conflicts between Aryans and the the local tribes. R.C.Majumdar has pointed out,"The Asuras, the demons and the Rakshakas, and the Naga people opposed the cultural expansion of the Aryans". The Aryans actually hated the life style of tribal people, their customs,rituals,language and food habits.When the local tribes were defeated and deprived of their territory, they were forced to join the fourth group of Shudras. Thus, Dalits remained at the bottom of the society as manual scavengers, the removers of human waste and dead animals for thousands of years. The mere touch of a Dalit drew the wrath of upper caste man who felt "polluted". Even the wind passing towards a high caste person from the direction of a Dalit was thought to have rendered him"impure". Many historians argue that sometime between 1900 to 4200 years ago, the two main genetic groups of Ancestral North Indians[ANI] and the Ancestral South Indians[ASI] mixed together. This racial co-mingling was "profound,pervasive and convulsive" also. This racial mixture deeply impacted every Indo-European and Dravidian group in India without exception. And then, strong caste endogamy must have shaped the marriage pattern for thousands of years in India. In the present context, it can be safely assumed that, we Indians, despite having different castes, carry in our veins the same blood. We share our ethnic ancestors and hence we must stop looking down upon one another in the name of caste. We must accept Dalits as equal and respectable citizens of our big country and gather enough moral courage to join them in their ongoing  struggle for equality and a dignified place in our society. Those who actually happen to oppose the upward mobility of the Dalits in the present day India are,in fact, doing it out of their ignorance of some deeper realities of Indian history.

Dr RAJ BAHADUR YADAV
Behind Kath Mandi, Kranti Nagar, Fatehabad[Haryana]