Oped»
My name is
Subhash Sarki
SEP 05 -
Dalits have evolved officially as an identity group with
constitutional recognition after a long and arduous journey of
struggle in Nepal. They spearheaded their movement for social
recognition and political space alone and together with both peaceful
and armed movements. As a result, a Dalit does not hesitate to occupy
a seat at a table where a high caste Hindu is sipping tea even in
rural parts of Nepal. However, the fundamental question remains
whether the high caste person actually looks up to the Dalit when he
discloses his identity at the table.
A diagnosis of the Hindu high caste mindset is not much difficult when
we have so many Dalits who themselves do not prefer to publicly admit
their Dalit identity. This is clearly shown by the decrease in the
Dalit population from 15.7 percent in the 1991 census to 12.8 percent
in 2001. Along with an improvement in the socio-economic status,
Dalits seem to be inclined to hide or change their traditional family
names with something sounding close to high caste Hindus. Changing the
ancestral family name and assimilation with Hindu high castes has been
their strategy to release themselves from the humiliation of being a
Dalit.
A section of Dalits has nurtured and promoted the idea of Mahatma
Gandhi who believed that their status could be raised by changing or
obscuring their traditional last names while still retaining elements
of the caste system. But their status has not improved significantly
more than half a century after Gandhi conferred on them the name
Harijan to elevate them to a Hindu high caste. Although India has
achieved double-digit economic growth and a Dalit woman Mayawati has
been elected to the position of chief minister of the Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh, incidences of humiliation and caste-based violence
against Dalits have not ended.
The flipside of the proposition is even scarier because the effort to
be absorbed into the Hindu high castes puts Dalits at a morally worse
situation for promoting caste discrimination. Despite all the efforts
and successes to assimilate Dalits into the Hindu high castes, a
certain section of them is likely to remain where they were. Jacques
Derrida, pioneer of the theory of deconstruction, has long before
inferred that complete erasure is always postponed. The promoters of
the movement have then obtained a place in the Hindu high caste and so
bear moral obligation to sustain its characteristics. It requires them
to impose discrimination and humiliation on the remaining Dalit
population, from whom they have just separated, so as to maintain
their position as high caste Hindus. A worse situation arises in this
hypothetical situation when the former survivors surpass the ethical
boundary of social justice which they had been pursuing until
recently.
The movement towards assimilating into the Hindu high castes also puts
its promoters at risk of psychological vulnerability of perpetuating
humiliation upon oneself. For example, a person working in an
organisation maintains a sufficient distance from Dalit colleagues for
fear of his or her Dalit identity being revealed. They refuse to
recognize themselves as Dalits. They do not fall short of inflicting
verbal and behavioural humiliation at Dalits just to emphasize that
they belong to the Hindu high caste.
A friend of mine who adapted a high caste surname said that his
children grew up with their newly adopted last names, and never
thought that their parents belonged to a Dalit community. One day,
they went to a village where they encountered a taste of
untouchability when entering the home of a high caste Hindu. These
Dalits are destined to a fortune no better than that of Oedipus the
King who suffered not knowing what he was running away from his whole
life.
Entrapped in a similar deception, Dalits choose the route for their
liberation engineered by Bahunbad. The route must be quicker and
easier, but the destination they are heading for is, however, always
procrastinated so as not to allow their liberation. Bahunbad always
disguises the obviousness of sustaining its "superiority" only
prolonging the emancipation of Dalits because the "superiority" of the
Hindu high caste is a matter of their difference from Dalits and their
delayed full-fledged identity evolution. It is done by disqualifying
the ability to use the reasoning of Dalits via perpetuation of
stereotype images.
The whole range of Bahunbadi discourses have inundated the Dalit
identity with stereotype images so that their vision to see beyond
their traditional identity has been limited. They cannot look at their
distinctly glorious history of occupational contribution to the
evolution of the modern world. While society was immersed in the
illusion of angels and super lords, the ancestors of the Dalits were
laying the foundation of art and science. They were excelling in the
use of iron, gold, silver, bronze, animal skins, clothes, wood, bamboo
and whatever material was available during the time. No expert
knowledge is required here to see the correlation between their work
in the pre-civilization period and current science and technology to
confirm that Dalits were actually down-to-earth thinkers and
practitioners and not barbaric and impure as represented by the images
in Bahunbadi discourse.
Any effort to escape impurity ends in its acceptance as long as Dalits
look for their liberation within this Bahunbadi discourse. The
politics of annihilation will thwart the evolution of Dalit identity
to its entirety. Whatever economically and socio-politically elevated
position Dalits attain, the Hindu high castes will continue to look
down upon Dalits for their Dalit identity, whether they reveal their
Dalit identity or not, as
long as the image of Dalits is perpetuated to maintain "superiority"
of the Hindu high castes. Dalits will not be able to fully garner
respect and dignity as long as they search for their elevation within
the current Bahunbadi discourse. A new discourse has to be started by
admitting that history has been constructed in a wrong manner so as to
fully develop the Dalit identity and logically lead the Dalit movement
that can place Dalits at the forefront as a graceful and dignified
social group.
Posted on: 2011-09-06 07:09
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