Dalit Uprising and After
Why Hindutva Would Not Be the Same Again
-subhash gatade
When I was born I was not a child
I was a dream, a dream of revolt
that my mother, oppressed for thousands of years ,
dreamt.
Still it is untouched in my eyes
Covered with wrinkles of thousand years, her face
her eyes, two lakes overflowing with tears
have watered my body.....
- Sahil Parmar*
Well known Gujarati poet Sahil Parmar's poem 'When
I Was Born' perhaps reverberates these days in Gujarat when we are witnessing a
Dalit Upsurge- a first of its kind at least in that regions history. It will be
a talk of folklore for times to come how flogging of dalits in a village in
Saurashtra by Hindutva fanatics suddenly erupted into a mass movement of dalits
which could catch imagination of the people cutting across different sections
of society. An attempt is being made here to understand the dynamics of the
movement and its likely impact on the future trajectory of Hindutva.
I
Love Cows, Hate Human Beings ?
There are moments in the trajectory of any
authoritarian/fascist/right wing project where one of its closely guarded
secrets suddenly tumbles out in the open and then it becomes difficult for it
to fix it. The Hindutva brigade today finds itself in a similar situation -
thanks to the dalit upsurge in Gujarat which is still unfolding before our
eyes.
The historic march to Una town of Saurashtra
region- under the banner of Una Atyachar Ladat Samiti might be over ;
thousands and thousands of dalits who had gathered there from different parts
of the state and outside might have returned home but their resolve not to
undertake the despicable caste practice of manual scavenging and disposing of
cattle carcasses still reverberates all over the state. And their demand before
the state government that within next one month - by 15 th of September - it
starts distributing five acres of land to each rural dalit family for
rehabilitation is reaching far and wide and gathering fresh support.
None from the Hindutva fraternity had ever imagined
that in their so called 'model state' itself , they would be faced with
such a challenge which would put their carefully crafted pan Hindu social
coalition to test. It was beyond their comprehension that dalits - the
most downtrodden section in the Varna hierarchy - who had been slowly
roped in down the years in the Hindutva politics and a section amongst them had
also become a party to the anti-minority violence in 2002, would one fine
morning turn their backs on them and would readily join hands with the 'other'
demanding a life of human dignity and putting in jeopardy the very raison
detre of the project.
And as can be expected in such a situation, they
literally floundered when they were asked to react to this
uprising. The multiple voices which emerged from the broader 'Parivar'
were an indication of their confusion.
No doubt talking in multiple tongues has always
been part of their overall strategy but this time it also demonstrated
disorientation in their own ranks. The moot question became whether to
uphold the perpetrators - who were following the script - or support the
victims. And thus one found the Prime Minister exposing majority of the cow
vigilantes as being anti social elements and asking the home department to
prepare a dossier about them and another significant leader of the same
'family' denouncing such characterisation as being 'anti-Hindu'. The confusion
was understandable. In fact, it was for the first time in recent times that
Hindutva Supremacists are discovering that the more they push one of their key
agenda centering around cow politics - which has served them well till date -
the more there is possibility that their dream of Hindu Unity would see further
fissures. ( Vidya Subrahmaniam describes it as 'A reverse Ram Mandir
Moment' in her article on present situation in UP.http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/its-mayawati-versus-modi-in-up/article9022511.ece?
ref=topnavwidget&utm_source=topnavdd&utm_medium=topnavdropdownwidget&utm_campaign=topnavdropdown)
Apart from Dalits, who have come under increasing attack at the hands of
overzealous 'cow protectors' and are slowly turning against the 'Parivar'
itself , large section of peasant population is peeved over the fact that
politics around cow has made their life miserable as they are not able to
do away with cattle who have become old or have stopped producing milk. One of
the couplets by Saint Tulsidas captures Hindutva's plight beautifully 'Bhayal
Gati Saap Chachunder Jaisi..'.
II
“Rashtravadi toh hamare saath hain, humein Dalit
aur pichchde ko saath lana hai.”
Everybody knows that there was nothing 'unusual' -
as far as depradations unleashed by Hindutva fanatics under the name of cow
protection were concerned - about what happened to dalits from Mota Samadhiyala
village when they were skinning a dead cow.
One can recollect that such attacks were common
even in those days when BJP did not have majority of its own at the centre. A classic
example has been killing of five dalits in Dulina (Jhajjar ) - hardly fifty
kilometres away from the national capital - who were similarly skinning dead
cows, by a cow vigilante mob (2003) before Dulina police station itself with
leading officers of the police and administration remaining mute witnesses. A
leading Hindutva leader ( dead sometime back) even 'justified' the killings by
citing reference to ancient Hindu sciptures claiming that in 'Puranas cows were
more valued than human beings'. The killings definitely led to an outrage,
there were few symbolic arrests as well but the commotion died down soon and in
fact the perpetrators of this massacre were decorated as 'cow protectors'.
In fact, most such earlier attacks in recent times
had been rather more brutal. To name a few, lynching of two young men near
Latehar after their brutal torture near Latehar, Jharkhand by cow vigilantes ;
killing an adolescent near Udhampur who was sleeping in truck by throwing
petrol bomb under the suspicion that the truck was carrying beef ; near riot
like situation which emerged in Palwal, Haryana because of cow vigilantes
attack on a truck carrying meat or the way two transporters were fed cow dung
laced with urine when they were found transporting cattles for sale near
Gurgaon. Scan the internet to watch the 'valour' of these fanatics and you will
find scores of such criminal attacks on innocents. Videos after videos are
available which show how these self proclaimed cow protectors brutalised people
for carrying cows from one place to other or because of suspicion that they
were carrying beef and how their has been no action against them from the law
and order people.
But thrashing of Dalits from Mota Samadhiyala
village by cow vigilantes, uploading the video of their 'valour' on social
media has proved to be a turning point.
Anybody can see that the Dalit Uprising which the
Una incident has triggered has inadvertently or so unearthed the 'well guarded
secret' behind this exclucivist project - where it is clear even to a layperson
now that for Hindutva, dalits or other marginalised are lesser human beings or
the 'other', whatever might be its claims about the great samrasta it
upholds. There is a growing realisation that the formal posturing of Hindutva
politics, where it is presented /understood in the form of religious
imaginaries where 'minorities- may be Muslim or Christian - are portrayed as
the 'other' is one thing but essentially the whole idea of Hindu Rashtra is an
attempt to further legitimise the Brahminical project of hegemonising and
homogenising of Indian society where secondary position of Dalits has received
religious sanction also. An inkling of how they view Dalits and the backwards -
when they are talking among themselves - can be had from the recent comments by
PM Modi when he spoke at length at a meeting which was attended by 400 top
leaders of the BJP, at the end of the15 day patriotism drive. Newspaper reports
tell us that he called on his party to continue playing Nationalism card which
is 'central to the BJP's ideology.' Perhaps the most telling comment made by
him was the following : “Rashtravadi toh hamare saath hain, humein Dalit aur
pichchde ko saath lana hai.” The nationalists are with us, we need to bring
Dalits and backward groups." (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/nationalists-are-with-us-lets-reach-out-to-dalits-backwards-pm-modi-to-party-2993281/)
Was it just slip of tongue or an admission of the
truth that for Hindutva non-backwards, non-dalits i.e. upper castes have
sole claim over nation and dalits as well as backwards to be outside its
purview who need to be brought closer. (http://scroll.in/article/814769/the-daily-fix-what-did-modi-mean-when-he-said-there-is-a-chasm-between-dalits-and-nationalists)
Perhaps a marker of their continuing indifference
or disdain towards the plight of the dalits ( forget those bollywood type
dialogues where it was declared that 'Shoot Me but Do Not Shoot My Dalit
Brothers') could also be gauged from the fact that when the Dalit Upsurge was
at its peak in the state, the provocative statement by one of their own MLAs
from Telangana who 'justified' the beatings and uploaded a video on facebook
did not prompt them to take any action. His words were “Jo Dalit gaye ke
maas ko le ja raha tha, jo uski pitai hui hai, woh bohut hi achhi hui hai
[Those Dalits who were taking the cow, the cow meat, those who were beaten, it
was a very good thing to happen],”(http://scroll.in/latest/812903/anyone-who-kills-cows-deserves-to-be-beaten-says-bjp-mla-raja-singh).
III.
Unpacking the Gujarat Model !
Recently Jignesh Mewani, convener of the 'Una Dalit
Atyachar Ladat Samiti' which is spearheading this upsurge was in the capital to
communicate the message of the movement to a broader audience and also garner
support for the Rail Roko programme organised by the front from 15 th
Septemember. He underlined the resolve of the dalits that they are firm
in their decision not to clean up other people's dirt, nor to lift carcasses of
dead cattle. He told the audience how twenty thousand dalits had gathered in their
rally in Ahmedabad and have taken a oath not to undertake any such profession
which they have been condemned to do because of Varna hierarchy and are
further stigmatised because of that. In a tongue in cheek comment he added
"We (Dalits) are not going
to clean up people's dirt any more. Modiji, now you are welcome to experience
the spirituality that is supposed to be there in scavenging."
Jignesh - who is an advocate and an activist - was
referring to Karmayog, a collection of Modi's speeches to trainee IAS officers,
brought out by a Gujarat PSU, in which he had said that scavenging was an
"experience in spirituality" for the Valmikis (a sub-caste of
Dalits). (See : https://kafila.org/2014/02/12/modi-and-the-art-of-disappearing-of-untouchability/)
Explaining the genesis of the movement and why the
flogging incident of Dalits by self proclaimed cow vigilantes affiliated to a
Hindutva organisation triggered the uprising he shared details of the lives of
deprivation and discrimination and atrocities faced by Dalits under the much
talked about Gujarat Model. According to him
- there are yearly thousands of
cases of atrocities against Dalits every year
- atrocities continued to rise
during Mr Modi's chief ministership which lasted for 13 years
- there are more than 55,000
dalits who are still engaged in the work of scavenging
- 1 lakh sanitation workers who
are still not getting minimum wages
- dalits in 119 villages in
Gujarat are living under police protection
- rate of conviction in cases of
Dalit atrocities is merely three per cent.
According to him glaring example of denial of
justice to Dalits has been the killing of three Dalits by the police with 'AK
47 rifles as if they were terrorists' in Thangarh in Gujarat in the year 2012
and despite the fact that more than a lakh Dalits demonstrated against these
killings there was no action by the government against the accused police
personnel.( As we go to the press one hears that Gujarat government has announced
an SIT to look into the killings and has also raised compensation for affected
families).
When someone in the audience posed a question about
availability of land in the state, Jignesh shared figures about availability of
land under various schemes and how dominant castes/classes have been in actual
possession of such land meant for the exploited and the marginalised. According
to him thousands of acres of land with the state which the it got during Bhudan
aandolan has also not been distributed. He also shared lesser known
provision about SC-ST sub plan which talks about 'purchase of land for its
distribution to the landless' in case of its unavailability. His simple poser
which struck a deep chord with the audience was that 'if under the name of Development
the state can allocate thousands of acres of land at throwaway prices to the
Ambanis, Adanis and the Tatas why dalits should be denied their rightful due.'
He also explained how the recent changes undertaken by the state government
under the land acquisition act have many 'draconian' provisions inherent in it
where the 'consent' clause has been deleted - means if the government wishes to
hand over land to the corporates for 'development' work, then it can simply
take over the peasant's land supposedly for 'public goods', offer some symbolic
compensation and need not seek her/his consent.
To the poser that if Dalits leave their
'traditional profession' which grants them some sort of 'economic security' he
quoted Ambedkar who had asked his followers during the historic Mahad Satyagrah
(1927) that they should get ready to 'die of hunger' to live a life of dignity
but should never undertake such stigmatised professions.
Box
Gujarat Model: Dalit, tribal, OBC
landless denied surplus land, Patels “received” 12 lakh acres
Fresh facts have come to light
suggesting that, in Gujarat, there has been extremely questionable progress in
the allocation of surplus land to the landless, acquired from big landlords
under the Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling Act, 1960. Based on RTI
applications, the district registrar of land records, Junagadh, has admitted
that out of 11 of 16 villages for which information was sought, “no survey of
surplus land has taken place” for the last 24 years, hence there was no
allocation.
In another instance, in Navsari
district, Gujarat government declared that between 2006 and 2008, while Modi
ruled the state, it had “allocated” land to 7,542 landless beneficiaries, but a
year later, it admitted the land titles were yet to be given to 3,616
beneficiaries. “However, now, on the basis of an RTI reply, we know that things
have not changed even in 2015.
In an article published in “Dalit
Adhikar”, a Gujarati periodical, Jignesh Mewani says, “Information with us
suggests that the Gujarat government, in all, acquired 163,808 acres land under
the Gujarat Agricultural Land Ceiling Act, 1960, and we feel most of it has
been allocated to the landless only on paper. The landless, mainly Dalits,
tribals and belonging to the other backward classes (OBCs), haven’t yet got
actual possession of land.”
Mewani says, “Chief beneficiaries
of the land-to-the-tiller policy have been upper caste Patels. About 55,000
Patels were allocated 12 lakh acres of land declared, mainly in Saurashtra and
Kutch regions of Gujarat. But as for Dalit landless agriculturists, they have
received not even 12 inches of land. Only a very small section, which is very
close to the powers-that-be, has gained.”
According to Mewani, “Let us
give a sample of the Gujarat government’s good governance: We made in all
65 RTI applications between 2011 and 2015 to find out facts about allocation of
just 6,500 acres of land in different villages. Yet, officials are refusing to
give copies of land titles which may show that land has been actually handed to
the beneficiaries.”
Associated with Jan Sangharsh
Manch, a Gujarat-based human rights organisation, Mewani says, “Of the 163,808
acres of surplus land, 70,000 acres of land is under dispute with the revenue
tribunal, Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court. While this land may not be
allocated, there is a need to answer as to why the rest of the land, too,
remains unallocated.”
In fact, says Mewani, there are
15,519 acres of surplus land, on which there is “no dispute” at all, yet the
Gujarat government is “refusing to act,” ..
Jignesh's claims about continuous denial of justice
to Dalits or the great hiatus which exists between claims by the government and
the actual situation on the ground is a fact which even earlier reports by NHRC
have admitted.A cursory glance at its 2009 report had declared that Gujarat
accounted for 3,813 complaints of human rights violation of the total of 94,559
cases from across the country, which was less than only Uttar Pradesh and
Delhi. (Indian Express, 20 th March 2009).
A 23 page confidential report submitted by the
state Social Justice Department to the State Chief Secretary and legal
departments provides glaring examples of ‘mishandling of cases registered under
Prevention of Atrocities Act against SC/ST. (Express, Sep 15, 2006). The rate
of of conviction of cases under the Prevention of Atrocity Act against SC/ST in
Gujarat is mere 2.5 per cent while rate of acquittal is 97.5 per cent.
The report provides details of how cases are not
investigated properly by the police and the hostile role played by public
prosecutors during time of trials.
– Act clearly stipulates that
offence which are registered under this act cannot be investigated by an
officer below the rank of DySP but more than 4,000 such cases have been
investigated by Police Inspector or Police Sub Inspector.
– Acquittal of the perpetrator
because victim not identified as member of SC or ST community. Reason, not
attaching caste certificate of the victim with the case papers
– Public prosecutors false claims
before the courts that act has been modified by the state government altough it
is known that it is a central act
– Granting of anticipatory bails
although there is no such provision in the act. Interestingly the Parliamentary
Committee on SC and ST affairs had also expressed concern over such
anticipatory bails granted ‘in atrocity cases in the state of Gujarat’.
In fact a detailed and systematic study of 400
judgements done by Vajibhai Patel, Secretary of Council for Social Justice
(March 2005, Year 11, No.106, http://www.sabrang.com) had
compelled the government to work on this 23 page report. It tells us that
utterly negligent police investigation at both the higher and lower levels
coupled with a distinctly hostile role played by the public prosecutors is the
main reason for the collapse of cases filed under the atrocities act. It is
worth noting that he has meticulously documented these judgements delivered
under this act since April 1, 1995 in the Special Atrocity Courts set up in 16
districts of the state. The study also blasts the common perception is that the
inefficacy of this law is due to false complaints being lodged or compromises
between the parties, in actuality it is a complicit State that has rendered the
Act toothless.
IV.
'Keep Cow's Tail With You, And Give Us Our Land'
..on March 20, 1927, Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar led the Mahad satyagraha – for drinking water from the
Chavdar tank at Mahad. This was the “foundational struggle” of the dalit
movement, a movement for water – and for caste annihilation.
In his statement at the time, Dr.
Ambedkar put the movement in the broadest possible context. Why do we
fight, he asked. It is not simply for drinking water; drinking the water
will not give us very much. It is not even a matter of only of our human
rights, though we fight to establish the right to drink water. But our
goal is no less than that of the French Revolution. ..
And so dalits went to drink the
water at Mahad. They were met with ferocious repression: at attack by
caste Hindus followed. The dalits retreated, came back several months
later on December 25 for a renewed struggle, and since the collector had given
an injunction against any further attempt, Ambedkar decided to honor this
and instead burned the Manusmriti. A fitting climax to the first battle of
dalit liberation!
Dalit Uprising in Gujarat and the manner in which
it has rattled the state government and has severly impacted the BJP's well
laid out plans to consolidate its support base among Dalits has been a whiff of
fresh air for every peace and justice loving person in this part of Asia.
What has caught imagination of the people is the key
slogan of the movement which says 'Keep Cow's Tail With You, And Give Us Our
Land'. It is a single slogan which encapsulates question of caste
discrimination as well as communalism and puts forward a positive demand to
fight material deprivation - which has been an integral part of the sanctified
hierarchy of caste.
The emphasis of the movement that Dalits leave the
'stigmatised professions' - which has condemned them to be the lowest position
on Varna/Caste hierarchy - and wholehearted participation of thousands
and thousands of Dalits in it , the militancy it has added to the Dalit
movement has broken a new ground in the dalit movement.
No doubt that there was lot of spontaniety in the
movement but the way it moved ahead and has added new edge to dalit assertion
could not have been imagined without the young leadership which took charge.
Their inclusive approach also helped them rope in activists of other
organisations or attract many such people who are opposed to or uncomfortable
with Hindutva politics on a common agenda of . Inclusiveness of the movement
was also evident in the fact that Muslims - who have been put in very miserable
condition post 2002 carnage - also joined the Azaadi Kooch to Una.
Many welcomed it on the way in large numbers and also travelled to Una in
their hundreds for the 15 th August independence day rally held there.
A less discussed aspect of this upsurge is the fact
that dalits are merely seven per cent of the state's population and have not
had a long history of militant movement but despite these limitations the
impact of the movement has been phenomenal. Not only it compelled the BJP to
change its Chief Minister for mishandling the movement but it also disturbed
its dalits outreach plans elsewhere.
Remember barring the historic struggle led by
Dadasaheb Gaikwad - a close Comrade of Dr Ambedkar - in late 50s in Maharashtra
where issue of land was highlighted, rare have been the occasions in post
independence times that issue of material deprivation of dalits was creately integrated
with socio-cultural discrimination and political marginaliation.Una has changed
the picture. It has also raised many unheard of slogans in the dalit movement.
'Dalits of the World Unite', 'Workers of the World Unite' or 'Jai Bhim', 'Lal
Salam' and Jai Savitribai'. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jqgA75o5PE)
Analysts have rightly put it that dalit movement in
recent times has largely remained limited/focussed on what can be called issue
of 'Identity/Asmita' but Una marks a new beginning where issue of
'existence/astitva' has also come to the fore. Possibly gone are the days when
'victimhood' was highlighted or rhetoric of 'Brahminism down-down' was repeated
ad nauseum and a careful silence was maintained about economic issues. As a
revolutionary activist shared in his email '[a]n important thing to note is
that the Una Struggle can also be seen as part of a continuum where social
movements connects itself with anti-systemic struggles.'
Definitely the Una struggle which has sent shivers
down the spine of the Hindutva Supremacists cannot be seen in isolation. It is
rather a continuation of growing dalit assertion against Hindutva depradations
especially after the ascendance of Modi led regime at the centre. The
realisation has slowly sunk in that not only it wants to attack affirmative
action programmes but its economic policies - coupled with its regressive
sociocultural agenda - are bringing ruin to the dalits and other marginalised
sections of society. It is becoming more and more clear to them that the people
in power want a docile/pliable dalit polity which can dance to their tunes.
They want Ambedkar but not the real one but his sanitised version. How much
they are scared about real Ambedkar and his ideas can be learnt from a decision
of the Anandi Patel led government. It literally dumped four lakh copies of
Ambedkar's biography which it had printed for massive distribution as the
author of the book had also included 22 vows which Ambedkar recited with his
followers at the time of conversion to Buddhism.
And this realisation has given rise to a tremendous
reaction. Ranging from the successful campaign against derecognition of
Ambekdar Periyar Study Circle active in Chennai IIT by the management (https://kafila.org/2015/06/05/no-to-ambedkar-periyar-in-modern-day-agraharam/),
or countrywide movement - where students and youth were in the forefront -
after the 'institutional murder of Rohith Vemula' (https://kafila.org/2016/01/22/long-live-the-legacy-of-comrade-vemula-rohith-chakravarthy-statement-by-new-socialist-initiative-nsi/),
or the massive mass mobilisation against demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan in
Mumbai by the BJP led government or the 'Zameen Prapti Movement' in Punjab led
by revolutionary left where Dalits have come together to form collectives etc,
one can easily see that such assertion is increasing in its intensity and
militancy.
..In Punjab, the share of the
Dalits in the 1,58,000 acres of Panchayat land is 52,667 acres. There are also
legal entitlements for them in the Nazool Lands. However, the actual possession
of these lands has remained with the landlords and rich peasants. As per the
agricultural census 2010-11, the SCs in Punjab, who are a third of its population,
owned just 6.02% of the land holdings and 3.2%of the land area of the state. Of
these operational holdings also a large proportion (nearly 85%) are said to be
unviable due to the small size of less than 5 hectares.
Since 2014, the Dalit peasantry
organized under the banner of ZPSC (Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Samiti) and holding
its red flag with the blazing sun firmly aloft, has begun to assert their claim
over what is rightfully theirs. These lands used to be auctioned to dummy
candidates of landlords; a gaushala in Sangrur district has been given land for
30years at the rate of Rs 7000 an acre by the Akali-BJP Govt. of the state
where as the price for Dalits is over Rs 20,000an acre. This spreading struggle
in districts of South Punjab has been met with police and landlord
repression , false FIRs against ‘unknowns’ but the struggle rages on like a
spreading blaze.
If the unexpected shift of a section of Dalit
masses - for various reasons - towards BJP was an important factor in its
ascent to power in the year 2014, this growing assertion of dalits is a proof
that they cannot be hoodwinked anymore. With the real agenda of these Hindutva
Supremacists out in the open - which is witnessed not only in its attacks on
right to life and right to livelihood of every exploited and marginalised
section but also in its hurry to co-opt Ambedkar but bulldoze every element of
dalit assertion - the battlelines have been finally drawn.
And the unfolding Dalit Uprising has added new
lustre to it.
(Note - *translated from original Gujarati by G K
Vankar, http://roundtableindia.co.in/lit-blogs/?tag=sahil-parmar)
