Hinduism under the pretext of Valmiki Jayanti - Kanwal Bharati

Hinduism under the pretext of Valmiki Jayanti

(Kanwal Bharati)

 

The Yogi government of Uttar Pradesh's saffron party has decided to celebrate Valmiki-Jayanti (31 October) at the government level in each district to compensate for the political loss caused by the Hathras incident. The order issued by the state government's chief secretary, RK Tiwari to the divisional commissioners and district officials, states that along with other programs at sites and temples related to Maharishi Valmiki, lamp lighting, lamp-donation and continuous eight, Twelve- or twenty-four-hours recitation of Valmiki-Ramayana and a program of bhajan etc. should also be done. Surely it is such a vicious trick to woo Valmikis, who shoots two targets with one stone. The first target is that the Adi poet Valmiki, who is regarded as a cleaning worker or a scavenger community as his god, though it has been imposed on him by the RSS itself, will be happy with the decision of the Yogi government that the government should give so much respect to their god It has been, while this government had ended Valmiki-Jayanti holiday. The second goal is that through this event, the work of scavengers will be linked to RSS Hindutva. The text of Ramayana means the recitation of the story of Rama and Ravana, that is, to tell that Vishnu himself was born as Rama and killed the anti-religious Ravana and other Rakshas (demons). Then they will be told that the scavenger community is the protector of religion, the protector of society and the protector of the nation. They will not be told that the scavenger community should also come into the mainstream of development by becoming doctors, engineers and professors, and for this they need to leave the dirty profession of scavenging and become well educated.

       Yogi knows very well what is the situation in the education of Valmiki community? They also know that in the name of government job, only the post of scavenging worker in municipalities is for them. The broom itself has been their destiny. Are they for this destiny? Do they not have the right to be highly educated? The BJP provided a separate reservation for them, because by doing this it cleverly separated the scavenging workers from the Dalits who are Ambedkarites, so that they too do not become Ambedkarites. But the BJP government did not take any step towards the development of their education. But why? When they will not have education, is the provision of separate reservation not to fool them?

       What are the unbroken recitations and hymns of the Ramayana? What do they mean? Is this not the same type of 'hang' as in the decades after independence, Brahmins created a new hang called 'Kirtan' to strengthen the roots of their religion, i.e. Brahmanism. I remember, this kirtan was also done in our colony. My age was ten or twelve years old then. It was an uneducated colony, so I also liked kirtan. Yesterday, in the house of Jagdish, today in our house, then this kirtan used to happen in Ramlal's house the day before. Why did this happen? It was not my age to know the implications of this. But when I read Chandrikaprasad Jigyasu's book 'Ishwar and His Guddes' in 1975, I understood why the Brahmins took the hang of this Kirtan? If there is a revolution against Brahminism in any of the constituents of the Dalit classes, then Brahminism becomes restless and immediately starts a counter-revolution to suppress it. At that time, the Brahmins feared that there would be no revolution of Dr. Ambedkar among the Dalit-backward classes, so they took the hang of the Kirtan and started an undertaking to add the Dalit classes to Hinduism. Jigyasu wrote - "There is a boom of kirtan in the whole country. City-to-city, village-to-village, home-to-home kirtan-mandalis continue from one end of the country to the other. The custom of Ghar-Ghar Kirtan and Akhand Kirtan is going on. And by making Hare Rama Hare Krishna's rote, the shaken roots of the Brahmanshahi religious empire are strengthened by making the innocent people blind devotees of the Gudde gods of Brahmins.

       However, in order to keep the Valmiki community connected with Hindutva, many RSS organizations like Bharatiya Valmiki Dharma Samaj (Bhavadhas) and Adi Dharma Samaj (Adhas) are doing equal work among them, which is working in the spirit of RSS, but some Ambedkarite organizations are also working among them, who are motivating them to give up their dirty scavenging profession, teach children and join the ideology of Dr. Ambedkar. They also teach them that Maharishi Valmiki was a Brahmin, who was a feudal poet, he has no connection with the scavenger society. They explain to them that as long as you keep Valmiki as your God, there will be no upliftment of you, so the sooner you leave Valmiki, become an Ambedkarite. Valmiki does not ask you to be educated, they just ask you to follow in the footsteps of Shri Ram, who protects Brahmins. But Dr. Ambedkar asks you to educate, agitate and organise  for their rights. As a result of this, a parallel revolution is also going on in the Mehtar commu,nity against the so-called religion being run in the name of Valmiki. After the Hathras-scandal, this Ambedkarite stream strongly polarized against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Mehtar community, which alerted the RSS, and since then became active in undertaking to keep the sweeper community connected to Hinduism. In Uttar Pradesh, celebrating Valmiki-Jayanti at government expenses in Mehtar settlements on 31 October and doing a unbroken recitation of Ramayana is under the same undertaking.

       There is no objection in assuming that there should be a recitation of Valmiki's Ramayana on Valmiki-Jayanti. But the objection is on why the recitation of Ramayana should be in the Mehtar settlements itself. Why is this recitation not happening in the Hindu colonies of the upper castes? Is it only the scavenger community that needs Ramayana recitation? There are many other castes among the Dalits, but what is the reason that the Dalit love of the RSS and the BJP is manifesting on the sweepers? Is it because other Dalit castes do not consider Valmiki as God? Or because they don't do the scavenging occupation? Obviously, upper caste Hindus need scavengers, to clean toilets, to clear roads, and to clean sewers and gutters? India is the only country in the world, where cleaning of gutters is done by scavengers, the way they enter and clean them is life-threatening and till now several hundred people have died by entering the gutter. In other countries, gutter cleaning is done by machines, but in India, scavengers are made to work because the machine is expensive, while the scavenger is a very cheap labour, whose death is not even the responsibility of the government. Therefore, it is very important for the Caste-Hindus to remain uneducated and poor of the Mehtar community, because they can get out of the Hindu fold by being educated.

It is time for introspection for the people of our Valmiki community, especially the educated. Does the recitation of Ramayana need them? Will listening to the recitation of Ramayana solve their social and economic problems? How long will they ignore their problems? Do they want to be scavengers for generation to generation? If not, think about what they need for a better future -- broom or education? If they want to make a better future for themselves and their future generations, then abandon the broom, and adopt education. In every situation, teach your children, do not put them in dirty profession.

I will also appeal to my Dalit brothers to stop going to the Shakhas' of the RSS. This is not your friendly organization, but an organization that ruins you and your future. It is an organization of Brahmins, working to establish a Hindu state in India. The aim of this organization is to strengthen the Brahmin religion based on Varna-system and destroy its opponents. Its opponents are Christians and Muslims, against whom it incites hatred among Dalits. People come out of the Sangh Shakhas not as humans, but as communal goons attacking against Christians and Muslims. It is also important to keep in mind that the RSS is also primarily an anti-Dalit organization. It is strongly opposed to the education of Dalits, their reservation and their economic uplift. As long as Valmiki society is not free from the net of RSS, it cannot develop itself independently.

 

 

 

Why will Yogi government celebrate Valmiki Jayanti?

-         S R Darapuri, National Spokesperson, All India People's Front

According to a newspaper report, the Yogi government will celebrate Valmiki Jayanti on a large scale in Uttar Pradesh this time. The order issued to all the district magistrates from the level of Chief Secretary says that it should be organized on a large scale in all the districts. In this lamp should be lit up at all the places in the districts connected with Valmiki and Ramayana path and bhajans arranged in temples. The district administration will identify and organise local cultural troupes and artists and ensure public participation in it. The said order further says that the precautions related to Covid should be taken care of.

The first question about the above event would have arisen whether it is the duty of the State Government to organise the birth anniversary of a great man belonging to a particular religion at the government level and at government expense. Has the secular concept of the state abolished from our Constitution? Has our state become a Hindu state (Hindu Rashtra) rather than a secular state? If yes, it should be a big challenge and concern for all secular citizens. What does it mean in our Constitution to be a secular state? Earlier, the foundation stone of the Ram Mandir was officially laid by Narendra Modi as prime minister in Ayodhya on 5th August which was also a major step in this direction by the RSS/BJP. So, all citizens who believe in the Constitution and secular values of our country should seriously consider how much they agree with the RSS/BJP's agenda to make India a Hindu nation? If not, then they will have to oppose the RSS/BJP agenda to form a Hindu state by standing in favour of the constitution-ordered secularism.

Now, the second question arises, why is the Yogi Government organising Valmiki Jayanti for the first time? Is it not connected with the intention of cooling the countrywide outrage in the Balmiki community caused by the recent incident of rape and murder and inhuman burning of a Balmiki caste girl by the district administration in Hathras? It is well known how the government at all levels in Hathras tried to deny rape and indulged in the character assassination of the victim. How the family members of the deceased were intimidated to change the statement and were allowed to be terrorised by the accused side. This has agitated not only the family of the deceased but also the Balmiki community all over the country. One of the responses is the boycott and demonstration of sanitation work by the Balmiki community in Agra. There have also been demonstrations against the incident and the anti-Dalit attitude of the government across the country and abroad. This outrage is further aggravated when the administration, in response to the incident of Hathras, begins a repressive action on the adoption of Buddhist Dhamma by 250 people of the Balmiki community in Ghaziabad.

However, if it is seen, Maharishi Valmiki has nothing to do with the present Balmiki community because he was neither a Shudra nor an Untouchable. He was a Brahmin, as he himself introduced himself in the Valmiki Ramayana as the son of The Sage Parcheta (Brahmin). Valmiki Rishi's name being linked with the Balmiki community is also an interesting story. This story starts from Punjab. In the twenties, when a large number of Chuhar were becoming Christians in Punjab, it was reducing the population of Hindus. To prevent this, a Brahmin named Ami Chand Sharma in Punjab wrote a small treatise called Balmiki Prakash and propagated that Valmiki is the religious guru of the people of the Chuhra caste and the Ramayana is their religious scripture. He also said that the name ' Chuhra ' is disgusting and they should apply Balmiki surname with their name. He smartly did not call Valmiki their ancestor, but their religious guru, otherwise Balmikis could claim to be Brahmins because Valmiki was a Brahmin. Thus, the conspiracy of the Hindus to stop the exodus from Hinduism by discounting the Hindu trap in the name of Valmiki was successful and they were able to keep them trapped in the dirty profession of scavenging.

As is well known, most of the people in the Balmiki community are engaged in scavenging, which is considered to be the most hateful act. These people do scavenging work in cities, towns and municipalities. Because of this profession, they are also hated. It is the most difficult and dirty thing to pick faeces manually, carry it on the head and to clean the dry latrines. Though there is a law to prevent this, no government is interested in implementing it. Modi says that they have a feeling of spiritual happiness. A person dies every third day in gutter cleaning in cities and towns. They are not provided the safety equipment for landing in the gutter. Every Health Manual of the municipality has fixed the number of employees as per work but hardly the number is complete anywhere. In many places, Safai Karamcharis are not paid salaries for several months, which is why they are burdened with debts. Now, instead of regular appointments, contract labour practice has been introduced in which Safai Karamcharis are badly exploited.

On the one hand, Modi has run a national cleanliness drive (Rashtriy Svachhta Abhiyan) in which there is spending crore of rupees on advertisements, but there is no provision to improve the working conditions of Safai Karamcharis and give them a living wage, etc. At the same time, there is no agenda for modernisation and mechanization of cleanliness work. In the name of Swachhta Abhiyan, there is no account of where crores of rupees collected as tax from taxpayers are being spent.  Gutter cleaning is done by machines in all civilized countries of the world as has been started to some extent in Delhi also. But there is no such arrangement in other cities of the country which results in one gutter death every third day. So, if the BJP is interested in the welfare of the Safai Karamcharis, it should show interest in improving their working condition instead of the gimmick of celebrating Valmiki Jayanti. At the same time, the Safai Karamcharis should also unite to agitate for their legitimate demands and should resort to strike etc. 

It is also true that many people in the Balmiki community have been freed from the deceit of Valmiki and have adopted the Buddhist Dhamma by freeing from Hinduism and taking Dr. Ambedkar as their ideal. They have adopted new professions by leaving the dirty profession of scavenging. The adoption of Buddha Dhamma by Balmiki community in Ghaziabad by renouncing Hinduism is a measure of their liberation.

It has been observed that so far most of the Balmiki community is politically linked to the BJP, which has also been used in riots against Muslims. The riot of Moradabad is a vivid example. This community is considered to be a staunch Hindu. The Balmiki community becomes agitated about any kind of comment about Valmiki.  It has a sizable population in Uttar Pradesh and other states also.  Now, if the community is angry with the BJP over the issue of Hathras and gets politically detached from it, it will be a major setback for the BJP's social harmony formula. So, the sudden wake-up of the Yogi government is not an unwarranted Valmiki love, but a vested political interest. So, it is to be seen whether the Balmiki community follows the path shown by Dr. Ambedkar for their liberation by understanding the deception made earlier in the name of Valmiki or allows themselves to be befooled again in the name of Valmiki Jyanti.