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Sreelatha Menon: The dalit treasure hunt
Sreelatha Menon/New Delhi - Feb 28,2010 00:42 AM
There is no end to the variety of demons that the mind can engender.
The feeling of hatred or fear based on one's position in the caste
hierarchy is only one of them.
In a Madurai village, some people recently went to the extent of
building a wall so that they are saved the "impure'' sight of dalits
living in the other part of the village.
In north Indian villages, a Harijan basti is a common sight.
Caste-based discrimination is a mental illness, a virus that hits the
brain, as Dr A Rosaiah of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai
puts it.
In this lunacy, all institutions become suspect. Recently, the social
justice ministry's Ambedkar Chair at Indian Institute of Public
Administration (IIPA) and Pria, a non-government organisation,
organised a workshop on dalit leadership in panchayats. At the event,
activists pointed fingers at the panchayati raj system itself.
Is panchayati raj the right way to go? Is it right just because
Mahatma Gandhi recommended it? It was something BR Ambedkar, known as
the father of the Constitution, was against. He felt it could not work
in a caste-ridden society.
There are so many cases of dalit panchayat presidents acting as rubber
stamps, of panchayat presidents being forced to sit on the floor, of
being forced to wash their chairs at the time of leaving.
Today, if a dalit becomes a panchayat president, he becomes the worst
enemy of his community, says Paul Diwakar, who heads the National
Campaign for Dalit Human Rights. The reason is that he is chosen by
the upper caste leaders of the community. So, he acts in the interests
of his "masters," leaving the dalits feeling betrayed.
This proves right the thesis of dalit leaders that India got freedom
from external masters but continued to be a slave of internal masters.
There had to be a cultural revolution, Ambedkar had said, to reverse
the hierarchical system. How can dalits get their due?
Quotas are like a balm. But a balm is not enough, for there are fresh
wounds every day.
Five years ago, Arun Khote, a dalit activist, started an online news
magazine to document atrocities on dalits. It goes to almost everyone
who matters in the country. Yet, the country doesn't recognise the
apartheid that is being played out in the name of democracy.
Just shedding tears about these atrocities is not enough. There has to
be a celebration of the wealth that the community stands for. The
wealth of its tradition and history needs to be studied.
The social justice and empowerment ministry's Budget allocation has
seen a huge jump in this Budget. It beats both the National Employment
Guarantee Scheme and the government's education and health programmes.
The Ambedkar Foundation under the ministry has already made a
beginning by setting up ten research chairs in ten different states.
In New Delhi, the IIPA conference brought together researchers and
dalit organisations. This will lead to more information on dalit
culture, where seeds of a cultural revolution lie. Khote is talking
about dalit festivals, dalit music. It's a new beginning to kill the
virus of hatred.
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