Why No Dalit Personal Law?
By Prabhat Sharan
25 April, 2010
The Verdict Weekly
Generations have grown up in the pale of society with their death
cries disappearing in the dark penumbra of a moonless sky. Like
disemboweled creatures, they have been shunned, exploited,
discriminated, disparaged, despised and humiliated.
And for centuries their wails and howls have been mingling helplessly
with the swirling dust motes inside their fusty and musty cracked
thatched walls of huts dotting the fringes of towns and villages.
Call them Sudra, Chandala, Nisada, Antya, Bahya, Antyaynis, Harijan,
Dalit or down-trodden. Call them by any name the fact is that people
of these communities cut out like cancer by the Indian societal
structures are yet to see the elusive white clear moonlight of justice
bathing their lives.
The emancipation movement ignited two centuries ago has now become a
wheel trapped in a morass, spinning and digging deeper, throwing out
muck but not inching forward. The movement has reached an impasse and
people continue to live and die in the void of dark shadows of the
society.
Recently in a seminar "Modernity, Tradition and Resistance in South
Asia," organized by Mumbai University, during an informal talk, a
radical sociologist, Dr. Neshat Quaiser from Jamia Millia Islamia
Central University, raised a startling proposition and a query.
Dr. Quaiser's proposition was that since Dalit community has always
been outside the realm of Hindu fold and the Brahmanical structure,
Dalits should have their own Personal Law since they have an
independent identity. The very fact by allotted a lower order in the
Brahmanical varna structure, Sudra had nothing to do with losing any
kind of caste identity.
"Why till date has there been no demand for Dalit Personal Law? There
are no two opinions over the fact that Dalit for ages have been
exploited and oppressed by Hindu Brahmanical structures as well by the
succeeding ruling class and communities- be it Muslims or Christians.
They have been tortured by everyone, but surprisingly neither Dalit
politicians, nor activists, nor intellectuals, nor intelligentsia
class, from community, itself in recent times have ever bothered to
raise the issue of Dalit Personal Law.
Dr.Quaiser's argument is that since Dalit community is outside the
realm of Hindu fold as they are not a part of the Hindu varna system,
Dalit should have their own Personal Law and their emancipation,
self-esteem and self-respect lies in asserting their independence away
from the Hindu fold and not by tinkering or seeking social reforms by
being inside the Hindu system.
Noted historian Ram Sharan Sharma, in his classic work "Sudras in
Ancient India-A social history of the lower order down to
circa.A.D.600," tracing the exodus to the Indian sub-continent in
pre-Vedic era states that early literature does not show that there
was any class division as the society was still in the pastoral stage.
Similarly, sociologist Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya mentions, "The
genuinely earlier portions of the RgVeda knew neither
caste-distinction nor contempt for empirical knowledge and it's
functioning in different spheres of life. Far from being looked down
upon that Tvastr, the craftsman, was raised to the status of a
powerful deity. The making of the world was conceived in terms of wood
craft, done as if by a carpenter's or joiner's skill. Subsequently,
however, this attitude was not maintained which may be illustrated
with reference to what happened to the fate of the Asvins, the
master-physicians, whose position was lowered and right of drinking
Soma in the assembly of gods denied. Material Sciences came to be
known as avidya or false knowledge. " (Indian Puberty Rites-pp75,
Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi-Second Revised Ed:1980.)
According to Sharma, "It appears just as the common European world
'slave' and Sanskrit 'dasa' were derived from the names of conquered
peoples, so also the word Sudra was derived from a conquered tribe of
that name. There is no doubt that Sudra existed as a tribe in the 4th
century B.C, for Diodoros records the advance of Alexander against a
tribe called Sodrai who occupied modern Sind. (Sudras in Ancient
India-pp34, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Reprint :Delhi 2002.)
Sharma further points out that Sudras appear as a tribe in the
earliest part of the Atharva Veda and "all these peoples seem to have
been inhabitants of north-western India where in Mahabharata, the
Sudra tribe is described as living with the Abhiras…the occurrence of
the term Sudra in what is regarded as the earliest and the most
characteristic part of the Atharva Veda should be understood not in
the sense of varna, but in that of a tribe." (ibid-pp36.)
In fact, Sharma points out that Sudras also had their own gods, some
Aryans others non-Aryans. Thus, "Brahmanical statement in the stories
of creation that Sudras did not have any gods does not represent the
correct position…the Brahmanical legends show a deliberate attempt to
deprive the Sudra of the right to worship and sacrifice which he
formerly shared with his Aryan fellowmen, or enjoyed independently as
a member of aboriginal tribes." (Ibid-pp83)
Marxist philosopher Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya in "Lokayata-A Study in
Ancient Indian Materialism," quotes Manu the most vociferous
anti-Sudra describing "Ganapati as the deity of the depressed class,
the Sudra." (Lokayata-pp131, People's Publishing House, New Delhi,
Eighth Edition:2006.)
And this view of distancing Sudra tribe from the priestly class
started emerging towards the end of Rg Vedic period when the pre-class
society starting moving from pastoral society to agrarian society
which required labourers.
The need of the labour led to spinning of religion and ideology so as
to regularize the system of labour supply. "A clear line was drawn
between mental and manual labour. The denial of Vedic education to the
Sudra implied that he was condemned to physical labour…and this was
justified on the basis of mythical origin from the feet of the
creator. (Sudras in Ancient India-pp316.)
The Sudra community which had by then an amalgamation of several
tribes also incorporated slaves or dasas. In, "Slavery in Ancient
India," Dev Raj Chanana delineates the emergence of the practice of
untouchability after the inclusion of tribes like Chandala and slave
or dasas, whereby "the duty of a Sudra whether slave or not (he could
be a free person,) to undertake all the dirty jobs that a slave had to
do." (Slavery in Ancient India-pp116 People's Publishing House, New
Delhi, Third Reprint:2008.)
Almost everybody then who was anti-Brahmin were, termed as Sudra. Thus
Jains, Buddhists and Ajivkas all were termed- or in Brahmanical
literature "condemned"- as Sudra. Buddhism which had the strongest
influence was confined to artisan Sudra.
But almost all the reforming religious movements of Buddhism, Jainism,
Saivism and Vaisnavism never questioned the Karma theory which acted
as pivotal doctrine to the Brahmanical social stratification order.
The religious reforming movements merely contained social discontent
and according to Sharma, "By promising religious equality in places of
other forms of equality they helped to reconcile the lower orders to
the existing social system. The spirit of protest against social
inequities which marked these movements in earlier stages withered
away in course of time and they identified themselves with the
essentials of the varna organization." (Sudras in Ancient
India-pp326.)
The point here is not to carry out an in-depth research on the origins
or the conditions that led to the emergence of the inhuman practices
of the ruling societies in the Indian sub-continent, but to emphasize
the fact that the communities tribals and non-tribals clubbed together
and termed as Dalit, had nothing to do with the brahmanical societal
code which have been deliberately imposed on them so as to gain a
permanent servitude from them.
Ironically, the scenario has not changed much even today for these
exploited and oppressed communities. To reduce it to one causative
factor would be erroneous but then causes for any effect tend to be
inter-connected, having a common string running across them.
According to Dalit activist and Ambedkarite, Rahul Gade, the sub-human
condition and the dehumanization of millions of people living in
broken crucibles with fractured lives and torn dreams of a simple
life, is primarily due to the short-sighted political and economic
gains of the Dalit political leaders, activists, intelligentsia and
pro-Dalit Intellectuals who just want to work within the caste system
and want to be a "part of the Hindu system itself."
Gade holds Dalit elites responsible for the failure of emancipation
movement, stating "it seems some elite Dalits in unwary upbeat mood
perhaps for self-serving reason naively aim to reform the Hindu
religion."
Moreover, Gade further says Dalit intellectuals for some reason refuse
to overcome the "Dalit obsession leading them to emphasize from every
platform their Dalit identity in a negative way." This negative and
low-esteem emotive facet offers no solace to the oppressed community
and in fact has only increased the distance between elites and the
masses.
Social action theorist, Dr. Vivek P.S from Mumbai University's
Sociology Department also concedes the growing frustration of the
masses vis-à-vis the elites. "Not all scholars but a section of
intelligentsia and intellectuals deem it as a statement of style to
keep on harping emotive aspects in every form of analysis of caste
oppression."
Dr. Vivek who had also spent several years organizing Safai Kamgar
(Sweepers and Scavengers) in Mumbai points out that the refusal to
consider the class-interest-analysis has also furthered their
alienation from the masses. And being over-focussed on emotive
aspects, they hardly bother about the economic interests and its
ramifications while analysing any given issue pertaining to Dalits.
Though not significant in numbers, the section is certainly powerful
in Indian polity and research academia and they have become a kind of
Dalit Brahmin looking down upon the oppressed masses- using their pain
and sufferings for narrow gains."
Grass-root Dalit activist and journalist, Raj Jagtap goes further in
condemning not only Dalit political leaders but also intellectuals who
parrot Dr. B.R.Ambedkar at the drop of hat. Dr. Ambedkar sincerely
believed that in every country, "the intellectual class is the most
influential class," and thus Dalit intellectuals were expected "to
carry the torch of liberty. But what is happening is totally
different."
"In my interaction I have found that like politicians a group of
pro-Dalit and Dalit intellectuals have formed a coterie and behave
like shopkeepers out to sell wares comprising pain, woes and tears.
Though not all of them, but a majority of them want oppression to
continue so that shops will keep on running… and that is one of the
reasons that they want to remain in the Hindu fold, forgetting that
Babasaheb (Dr.B.R.Ambedkar) had made it very clear that the object of
emancipation movement had nothing to do with Hindu social reform. It
is a sad thing to see a mad scramble is on to paint a bright future
and ironically not many of them want the bright future to condense in
the present," Jagtap points out.
The point of this article is to rake up a healthy debate so that a
path forward can be chalked out for the millions of oppressed toilers
waiting for the elusive cool clear white light of justice and equality
to erase the blisters scarring their lives.
Prabhat Sharan is a Senior Journalist with interest in social, working
class, wild-life conservation, philosophical and literary studies. He
can be contacted at sharanprabhat@gmail.com
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