Eliminating discrimination of Dalits: Poverty of law or poverty of mind?
Free for all
Friday, 23 December 2011
Author / Source : Shazzad Khan
It was about ten years ago. A Bangladeshi went to London at the
invitation of a resident living there. Early one morning, the
Bangladeshi, his host in London and the host's young son went out for
a walk. At a certain point, they were going to cross the road on a
zebra-crossing. When they stood on one side of the zebra-crossing, the
green traffic signal was on. It was early morning, and the traffic was
light. With a very natural instinct, the Bangladeshi looked around,
and seeing no vehicles approaching, was about to cross the road. But
the host dissuaded him. He said to his guest in a low voice, "Please
don't do it in front of my son. He has learnt that until the red
signal goes on, he has to stand with patience. If he sees that you're
crossing the road when the green light is still on, he may learn that
sometimes rules can be broken and that I don't want my son to learn
that.'' Just look at the example! It's the mindset that counts. This
was the very thought that rambled in my mind over and over again as I
was sitting as a silent spectator at a two-day International
Conference of Dalit's held on the premises of Senate Building of Dhaka
University on 11th and 12th December, organised by Manusher Jonno
Foundation (MJF). A host of speakers from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh spoke in different sessions. Although these
speakers had been different in their articulations and expressions,
one very common notion echoed all through that more than 250 millions
of Dalits in South Asia (five million in Bangladesh) are very harshly
discriminated as untouchables and lower-castes by the so called
"superior societies." The majority of these groups generally consider
themselves to be "superior" in a very literal sense, as they claim
having, superior religion, superior class, superior titles, superior
educational degrees, superior professions, superior languages and
superior statuses.
Unfortunately for them, this psychological frame of alleged
superiority is starkly unscientific and illogical and it is nothing
but absolute poverty of mind.
This is why, all the while, at the Dalit Conference, my mind was
rambling around the concern the man living in London expressed to the
visiting Bangladeshi. The core point is: unless we change our mindset
we can never change others, not even our own children.
In regard to wiping out discrimination of Dalit's we need to change
our mindset first – not laws and policies as often suggested – that
there is no superior-inferior relationship among humans and in
societies in regard to any considerations whatsoever. After the change
taking place in the frames of our minds, only then can we change our
families, societies and nations at large. Laws and policies may then
follow .
At the Conference, one notable speaker was Prof Debi Chatterjee. She
came all the way from India to speak about the historical evolution of
caste system in Indian subcontinent. The whole audience, including me,
was enthralled by her mesmerising articulation and narration of how
caste system evolved in this region and how we still are perpetuating
the system in our hearts and minds. The history that she narrated was
nothing new to us, because for the last few years many such
conferences and seminars have taken place unveiling the distress and
discrimination of Dalit's in Bangladesh and South Asia at large.
The basic fact that she expressed is that this caste system which
engulfs the Dalit's had been and continues to be in existence for
thousands of years. The signs of radical change still remains very
trivial. The fundamental reason for this is nothing but the crude
sense of superiority among humans in terms our self-styled determining
factors.
So when this deep-rooted mindset against Dalit's could not be changed
in thousand of years, how can it be changed overnights? It seems quite
ridiculous to find that our observations, deductions and conclusions
are often based on the issue per se, here Dalit issue, and we frame
our recommendations for change on that particular issue. Very
normally, as there exists discrimination of Dalits based on
untouchability and as many of us have initiated programmes to address
that for whatever reasons they might be, we throw our high-pitched
recommendations to treat the Dalit's equals as humans and ask the
bodies concerned do the needful by enacting legal provisions and
initiating programmes. But the irony is that we often forget that the
recommendations and advices that we blare are equally applicable for
many other sections of people in our family and in our society. One
very common example is the domestic workers without whose support at
the households our so-called "class" people's lives would have been
miserable and their gradual ascension to "levels of classes" in terms
of economic gains would have been stunted. Let's ask ourselves how we
treat them? Is it at all better than how we treat the Dalits? Let's
stop for a moment to think how we treat the street children, the
sex-workers, the fisherfolks, the disabled people, the Adivasi's, the
river gipsies, and many other marginalised and down-trodden
communities. Don't we on many occasions address them in a degrading
tone with Tui, Tor etc?
Let me conclude this article with an encounter I had a few years ago.
One of my acquaintances belonging undoubtedly to so-called
"upper-class" and naturally having access to a "certain club" of Dhaka
meant especially for that class, warned me that I won't be having
access to that club as I don't care for a dress-code that they set for
that club-goers.
It instantly reminded me that in the caste system the lower-caste
people cannot go to the houses of upper-caste people, especially
Brahmins. Indeed, in our society we also have caste system in a
different form in terms of accumulation of asset and power. Thus we
often say someone belongs to either upper-class, upper-middle-class,
middle-class, lower-middle-class or lower-class. In our society the
people living in the upper-class are like the "Brahmins" of
caste-system. Ironically, many such "Brahmins" often rally for rights,
equality, dignity and justice of the poor and marginalised, but in
their mindset there are Brahmins living deeply-entrenched and that is
why they behave as "class-superiors" in their practical lives.
So, however hard are we try to change the status quo of inequality,
discrimination and injustice, the keep running back into the status
quo again and again.
To honestly and really bring about changes in development there is no
alternative but to keep echoing the words that Prof Debi Chatterjee
put forward at the Dalit Conference to reject the ways of the Brahmins
who maintain the caste system, for establishing the rights of the
Dalits. This advice in fact is applicable to all issues in
development, and along with a positive and pragmatic change in our
mindset, holds the key to breaking this cycle of discrimination.
The write is a development worker.
He can be reached at shazzadk@yahoo.co.uk
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