RELIGIOUS REBELS IN PANJAB

The Ideology of a Political Religion
The following statement is from the detailed research thesis carried out by an American research scientist from Berkley, University of California, America, on the life of the Untouchables and a quest for equal rights under the British Rule in India. A memorandum was presented to the British establishment Sir Simon Commission by the movement leaders. A leader of 2 Million Untouchables, Mangoo Ram Maguhwal, started the movement known as Ad-dhran, on his return from America where he was a member of the Gadar Party

1st Indian edition 1988 “RELIGIOUS REBELS IN PANJAB” By Mark Juergensmeyers "Religious as a Social vision the movement against Untouchabillity in the 20th century Panjab."
The author of these pages would like to thank Mr. Juergensmeyers for the use of his work.
Mangoo Ram address his masses
We are original people of country, and our religion is Ad Dharm. The Hinndu Qaum came from outside and enslaved us. When the original sound from the conch was sounded, all brothers came together- Chamars, Chuhra, Sainis, Bhanjre, Bhil, and all the Untouchables – to make their problems, known. Brothers there are seventy Million of us listed as Hindu’s, separate us, and make us free. We trusted the Hindu’s but they turned out to be traitors. Brothers the time has come: wake the government is listening to our crises. Centuries have passed,, but we were asleep, brothers. Look at the lines that Manu has written they lived Shepard’s and hunters and had to no sense of communal identities (Qaum)

People of the world considered our land as the crown of success, and paid tribute to our achievements and us. They respected and bowed down to our Kings. There was no enemy, no foe, no fear of foreign invaders, and no signs of internal dissension-------during this time of our great achievement. But when the Aryans came and destroyed it all scattering and subjugating the original people.

There were many wars – six Hundred years of fighting – and then the Aryans defeated our ancestors the local inhabitants. Our forefathers, the inhabitants of our glorious motherland, were pushed back in to the Jungle and into the mountains. Some of them stayed and asked for mercy; they were enslaved.

In the beginning when nature created the human beings, there was no discrimination. There was no difference
And no quarrels especially; there were any such concepts as high as or low castes. God (Ishvar) was meditating; all was in harmony. Everyone believed in one Dharm (Religious Truth) which nature had given him or her through intellect and knowledge; this Dharm was Ad Dharm. Nature gave birth to these original people in the valleys of the original mountains – the Himalayas.

Later on the Adi (the original people) spread out. Some migrated to mountains, others to Plaines. As their numbers increased, so did the search for better places. Some lived in the caves, the mountains and the Plaines central Asia and the Caucasian mountains. Some groups settled in Europe. Some groups came back to the original land, after some time and known as Aryans. There was another group, which didn’t go to the Caucasian mountains or central Asia, but settled in the plains near the original mountains, in the original land, these people are the original people.

Dalitts under the British Rule in India

In many ways the enlightened British ideals for India was more appealing to theAd Dharm than Gandhi and company.

Hope from God and help from the King
A request to the British Establishment By Ad Dharm Leader Mr Mangoo Ram Mughowal Distt Hoshiarpur Panjab India
India should not be given independence until the Untouchables are freed and equal other wise it would be a disgrace to the British Rule.

I beg your Excellency to consider about the Untouchables pitiable conditions and allow them to settle in some uncultivated piece of Land, which they will cultivate and thus relieve them from severe clutches of the cruel. They will be most thankful to your Excellency and pray for the prosperity of the benign Governor through out the lives. God has certainly helped the Ad Dharmmis for when we were at the lowest pit of degration, God sent to us Lord Mont more the Governor of Panjab so kind and loving ruler, all the right s and
Hope we are being given is due to this angel of mercy of the Pannjab, we pray earnestly for his long life.

Religious as a social vision: The movement against untouhability in 20th Century of Punjab
The following memorandum was delivered to the Governor of Punjab, Sir Simon Commission

REPORT-------AD DHARM MANDAL, JULLUNDUR, PB
The proceedings, principals, and over –all activities, from January- 1926-30th April1926

Published 15th May, 1931 by Kishan Steam Press, Railway Rd

PREFACE
In Bharat (India) one quarter of the population is Achut (Untouchables), who have been enslaved by the high caste Hindus for the last 5,000 years. These poor people been dethroned from their political and religious status to such an extent that their souls have been crushed --- crushed so hard that they have lost their hasti, Identity,, or selfhood. If you reflect upon these people and their conditions, you will realize everyone knows about it, even little children, all over the world. The shed light on their beginning is like re-chewing old food. The historians have written tones of book about them, enough books to fill London. We are not concerned about the historical origins of the Achuts, we should put the Achuts on the path of progress rather then telling them their past and inflame the Achut into a Jihad (Holy war) against any Qaum, (Community). That would be twice as bad as Untouchability. That is why we do not join those organizations, which wants to do away with Achut and the whole system of the lower castes; these movements would mislead the Achut into obliteration.

The fact of the matter is that before the British all other groups ruling Hindustan (India) mistreated the Achut. The present plight and population of the Achut are due to these invaders treatment of the Achut. The Achut are the descendants of the original people: they are the original children of Dharm-Khand (Paradise) and the mother land and were living a peaceful and spiritual life in their own land, when they were attacked and slaughtered with a double edge sword by the bloodthirsty invaders. However as kabir has said whoever cuts someone else’s throat, will some day have his own throat cut

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Today having been slaughtered with nature’s double –edged sword, the slayers are now lying along with their victims; because now they are under the of a government which has taken practical steps to crush the old order. But it is so well entrenched that no power in the world can shake it. As Guru Nanak ji said, he does whatever is done,, there in the hands of us human beings.

Anyone with an inclination to oppress the Achutt has gotten, is getting, and will get his punishment from Qidrat kamila(Nature Perfect) It is our belief that all creatures are created by parm-atma ( The Universal) Soul ), and if the strong oppress the weak. Then let the task of punishment in the hands of Ishvar(God) and we should go about our work. Unfortunately the proud people of the high castes are miles away from these ideals.

For this reason there have not been any significant achievements by the organization, which claimed to assist the Achut. The problems of the Achut cannot be understood by the high caste Hindu’s so the Achut lies in the same miserable conditions as before.
Facts do not:
Antaj Udhar
Patat Udhar
Achut Udhar
Dayanand Dalat Udhars

These organizations run by high caste Hind’s. They collect the money like beggars but then spend it for themselves. They do not spend money ffor the Achut. 99% of the Achut people do not even know the names of these organizations. But if you read their reports, they give exaggerated claimed of their achievements. The truth is that these organizations are compassed of selfish people.

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The Achut have three powers.
Qaumiat (nation hood, or communal pride)
Mazhab (religion)
Majlis (organization)

These powers are what every body wants. Whenever they can these generous reform groups try to destroy these powers so that the Achut will be absorbed into them. The Ad Dharm Mandal, which was founded in 119225 as a collective organization from all Achut in the Panjab has been actively opposing all these selfish organizations. This Mandal is the protector and defender of these three powers. It has a concrete program. These high caste Achut organizations that simply shed crocodile tears over the Achut, have tried to destroy the ad dharma Mandal. They have seduced and bribed some of our prcharaks. But the Ad Dharam Mandal’s for roots go too deeply: this cannot shake us.

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Example, a deputation was sent in 1928 to Simon, Royal commission. Another deputation was sent to His Excellency, Sir Geoffrey Fitzroy de Montmorency, KCIE, KCVOC, BEMA, ICS, Governor of Panjab, Lahor, in Jullunder, 12th October 1929. This day may be marked as the birthday of Achut; for we were recognized as human. We received rights we never had before: we got 8~ quota for legislative seats from the legislative assembly of India, and from many provincial assemblies. The local government also has recommended lO7~. The round table con­ference also mentions the need for the rights of the Achfit. The Education Department has also provided many facilities and has been very helpful.

All these items are facts, not exaggerated claims on paper. These are resolutions, which have been passed, and regulations, which have been put into effect. The day is not far away when the British government will, implement these plans.

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In addition to the political aspect of Ad Dharm Mandal, Jullundur, which has been very successful, there is even a greater emphasis on social reform. The religious and organizational status of the Achut has been raised due to our efforts. For example, we are getting education for Achut children. As one wise man of the Punjab put it, “Ad Dharm has performed miracles beyond imagination.” To us, no talk is worthwhile without action. We are not interested in simply collecting money, the way the others are doing. They collect money for their own luxuries, for their own names. Our principle is solely humanitarian. As someone has said, “it is only the struggle for humanity’s improvement, which is worth the pain of having been cre­ated.” And as Sri Guru Ravi Däas-Ji has said, in one of his kathans “for the spirit of sympathy, the whole body is created.”

In short, the founding of the Ad Dharm Mandal is for humanitarian purposes, and to fill our duty to humanity. We carry the banner of the downtrodden people; and we devote out entire lives to the cause, so that future generations may follow in our footsteps, and follow the cause, a cause that has long been neglected. We have neglected this report for the sole reason of explaining our purposes. So if people ask, “who are these people? Where did they ca from? What are they doing?” they will be able to know. As someone has said, “those who are truthful do not shout about it; the. Truth alone is witness to their achievements •“

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SECTION 1. The Rise and Fall Of the Ad Dharm.

Nature (Qodrat Kamila) created human beings from Adi (the original source] at the time that it reated all beings in the earth. The knowledge of karm-dharum(moral behavior] was also given to them at that time by nature. Nature made humans superior to animals. But among humans, all were equal.

In the beginning when nature created the human beings, there was no discrimination. There was no difference
And no quarrels. Especially, there were no such concepts as high as or low castes. God (Ishvar) was meditating; all was in harmony. Everyone believed in one Dharm (Religious Truth) which nature had given him or her through intellect and knowledge; this Dharm was Ad Dharm. Nature gave birth to these original people in the valleys of the original mountain’s – the Himalayas.

Later on the Adi (the original people) spread out. Some migrated to mountains, others to Plaines. As their numbers increased, so did the search for better places. Some lived in the caves, the mountains and the Plaines central Asia and the Caucasian mountains. Some groups settled in Europe. Some groups came back to the original land, after some time and known as Aryans. There was another group, which didn’t go to the Caucasian mountains or central Asia, but settled in the plains near the original mountains, in the original land, these people are the original people.

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Before the Aryans, our forefathers had great success in such fields as industry, arts, and science, liberal. Arts physical and spiri­tual arts In brief they were the most civilized people, when other peoples in the world at that time knew nothing of civilization or of science. Our people excelled in knowledge but in those places where the rivers of knowledge are flowing today, those people were primitive. The other people lived in trees, cave, ate bark and leaves and had no spiritual life. They lived as shepherds and hunters, and had no sense of qaum (nationhood]. This was their condition when the original land--Hindustan...was at the peak of civilization. Peoples of the world considered our land as the crown of success, and paid tribute to our achievements and us. They res­pected and bowed down to our kings. There was no enemy, no foe, no fear of foreign invaders and no signs of internal dissention. As great Kabir has said, in one of his kathano (sayings]: “First, God created his light, and from that, every human being was created.”

During this time of our great achievement, the Aryans heard about the original land’s civilization, and they came there. They learned the art of fighting from the local inhabitants; and then turned against them. There were many wars. 600 years of fighting. And then the Aryans finally defeated our ancestors, the local inhabi­tants. Our forefathers, the inhabitants of our glorious motherland, were pushed back into the jungle, and into mountains. Some of them stayed, and asked for mercy; they were enslaved. We do not regret that our forefathers were defeated, for in the future, this country was invaded many times, and the invaders were victorious.

Our forefathers were not only enslaved; they were mistreated. The victors acted like conquerors. The Aryan government practiced so much cruelty and injustice that the original people forgot their awn hasti (identity]. Whatever signs of their glory remained, was destroyed. The Aryans exaggerated their own achievements, and the achievements of the local inhabitants were tossed into the dust.

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In this period of time, Manü-ji was born. Manu made some regu­lations fatwah) and imposed them on the original people. For example, it was he who started the idea of discrimination, about how different people are to be treated differently. Aryans, to enslave the local people, adopted such principles of injustice as values. Books were written to teach humiliation, and taught in the schools as text­books. Every means for humiliation was used.

From that time onwards, hundreds of governments have come and gone, but the original people are still not free. From then on, Hindu Aryans still suppressed the original people. Not a single Hindu Aryan has shown the correct path of freedom to these suppressed and oppressed people. On the contrary, each generation was worse than the one before. The condition of the original people went from bad to worse. They followed the. Rules of Manu-bhagvan (God Mania].

Finally, Nature decided to change the conditions of these poor people. After the Hindu Aryan rule, which was tyrannical, unjust and discriminatory, the age of Islam came. They destroyed the unjust Aryan Hindu control, and ended Manu’s
a philosophy. They became Sympthizers. Rather then tyrants. They tried their best to get rid of discrimi­nation--this caste system. But unfortunately, Hinduism affected Islam and it too became the prey of discrimination.

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After the rise and fall of Islamic government, the flag of British rule began waving in this country. Why they took power, they tried to end the tyranny of injustice, and lay the foundations of peace. At about the same time, there was a Sikh government in the Punjab. But it did not last very long, because of their tyranny. The people would rather have the rule of the British than the Sikhs.

After the British government was established, the Hindu Aryans and the Sikhs did not change their attitudes. They continued to dis­criminate against people on the basis of so-called “high caste” and “low caste.” They continued to trap people in the case of discrimi­nation. At this time, Christianity came to India. Christianity tried to attract all Qaum, and especially the low castes, because the Achuts are an orphan-kind of people.

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Swami Dayanand saw the progress of Christianity and considered it a threat to Hinduism. He realized that Christianity was digging a hole in the foundation of Hinduism, which would destroy the whole buildings of Hinduism. The swami tried to think of a way to keep the Achut in Hinduism. The swami had to face much resentment but other by other upper caste Hindu’s in trying to do this, and they did not succeed in his purpose. Swami was intelligent, far –sighted and a true patriot of the Hindu mat (religion). He realized that there was not a Hindu government, which could keep the Achut under Hindu power. So he founded an organization called Arya Smaj; its sole purpose was to bring all of the Hindu organization together, so that the Achut would not leave their faith. They used many false fronts to keep the foundation of the Hindu caste system together.

Many other organizations were established. Preaching was done; Societies were formed and the whole movement of shuddhi (recon version) was started. They tried everything to obliterate the Achut. They seduced thousands of Achuts in the net of Shuddhi. They made allsorts of hypocritical arguments – which Achut was over; there was no discrimination. The poor Achut was trapped again by the Hindu Aryan, just like falling into the clutches of elephants’ teeth. In fact the Hindu Aryans were still followers of Manu, full of discrimination. The Achut realized these Hindu Aryans trapped them.
So they wanted organization of their own. The Achut themselves started taking interest in their own welfare; they did not trust the high the high caste Hindu. Organizations were made; societies were formed. They chose their own Gurus.

So in the beginning of 1925, a society was formed with the name, Ad Dharm: Rishi Balmik, Ravi Dass, Maharaj Kabir , Bhagwan Sat Guru Nam Dev were named as leaders. The first meeting was held in the village of Mughowal , Thana Mahalpur , Tehsil Gahrshankar , Hoshiarpur district , on 11-12 June, 1926, under the chairmanship of Sriman Babu Mangoo Ram. All section people of Punjab attended the meeting. All Achuts attended: Chuhrae, Chamar , Ravidasia , Sansi , Bhanjre , Ghadhilia , Burr , Julahae , Megh , Chambar , Kabirpanthi , Mahashae , Dom , Jatiyae. Also, other respectable people in ddition to Achut , from other quam: Christians , Sikhs , Muslims , Arya Samaj , Sanatani’s. With all groups present, it was a great success.

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Representatives of the Achut presented their positions eloquently and loudly. They exposed and told about all the hypocritical religions [mazhab]. The representatives of societies of the other religions criticized strongly the Ad Dharmis. After a lot of debate and argument, as inspired by the teachings of Rishi Balmik, Ravi Dass, Kabir, and Nam Dev, it was decided that the Achut should be called “Ad Dharm”

The society took the name “Ad Dharm” from this day. Everyone praised the decision; they shook the heavens with cheers. It seemed as if an old tree had come alive, or as if an old flower had burst into bloom. From this day, a completely downtrodden quam began calling itself Ad Dharm.

One hundred distinguished committee members were appointed, and JulIundur was chosen as the headquarters. The full name: “Ad [harm Mandal of Punjab, Jullundur City.”

The Resolutions gassed at Mughowäl:

I. a . We declare to the government and all the Achat brother­hood, that the Ad Dharm Mandal. is formed.
b. Our greeting: “Jai Guru Dcv”
c. Our faith (Itqad) is according to the sayings of Sri Guru Ad Prakigh Asankh Deep Granth.
d. Our sacred word is “Soham .“

2. The founders of our religion are Rishi VaImik, Guru Ravidas Maharaj kabir, and Bhagwan Sat Guru Nam Dev. And the Naam of the Granth (scriptures] of the founder has been established as Ad Prakaah.

3. This conference represents all districts of? Punjab, and it appeals to all Achüt in Punjab to call themselves only Ad Dharmis.

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4. All, the Achut brotherhood should forget about caste and quarrels, and get along together. They should not fight with each other. Rather, all. Achut should start eating together, and have social relations with each other. They should practice kan-pan together (eating/drinking together).

5 • If some other qaum attacks an Ad Dharmi, the Ad Dharmis should defend each other.

6. All. Ad Dharmis should follow the Rishimanis, the Gurus, the Bhagats, the Mahatma all the great religious leaders. True worshipers of these saints will not believe in idol worship, the caste-system, or superior and inferior practi­ces.

7. All girls and boys of the Achut brotherhood should have com­pulsory primary education.

8. The Granths and Sashtra, which show Achut as slaves should be boycotted. To follow such books is a mortal sin.

9. It is legal to eat with Ad Dharmis. Others should eat from Ad Dharmis’ hands. And Ad Dharmis should be willing to eat with those who are also willing.

10. The Minister of Education, Panjab Government, Lahore, should give special scholarships and education for Achut children. We cannot bear the expenses of our children due to our poverty.

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Our children should be taken care of by the Government since private schools do not help us, or encourage the admission of our children. We should get grants that others get. And special schools ‘should be set up for Achut.

12. We are agriculturalists. We know our work well; but we are not paid enough in agriculture. Rural wages. We cannot take care of our families properly. Vacant lands should be given to the Achut qaum.

13. Agriculturalists from the Achut class should be treated equally by the Government to other qauui, especially in Lyallpur,Shekhupura, Sargoda, Montgomery, and Multon. En these districts, there should be more land for Ach6t, more employment.

14. Achut should be able to own the houses where they live, the term rayatnämma and similar terms, should be eliminated. (Rayat Namma) was the term used for servant/ Master, similar to Jajman / Kamin). Achut should not be included in the land transfer Act.
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15. We are not Hindus. We strongly request the government not to list us as such. Our faith is not Hindu, but Ad Dharm. We are not a part of Hinduism, and Hindus are not a part of us.

16. Ad Dharm should be listed separately in the census, and in other ways be given rights equal to Hindu.

17. We want proper representation on municipal councils, dis­trict councils, Legislative Assembly, police and military, and in every other department. We should get separate representation for officers as well.

18. India should not be given swaraj until the Achut are free and equal. Otherwise, it would be a disgrace to the British rule.

19 • The Dayanand Dalat Udhãr Mandal, Hoshiirpur; Patat Udhar Mandal, Antaj Udhir Mandal, Achut Udhär Mandal, Lahore Achut-­they do not represent Achut. They are simply used by upper castes for their own power. 997~ of the Achut have never heard. Of these organizations. They have been formed by the upper castes for their own interests, and the government should be aware of it. The government should not consider these people g~ our representatives.

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20. Red color i~ the symbol of the Ad Dharm. It Ls the color of the original inhabitants; the Aryans took it and pro­hibited Achut from wearing it. We request the government to allow us to wear red colors; we are going to have it; for this is our rightful color.

21. Those sastras, like Manusamiti, which treat Achut as slaves, should be banned and removed. These books have been obsta­cles in our progress.

22. The city of Jullundur has been chosen as the headquarters, and the government is notified to send any announcements, important documents and correspondence for us to the Ad Dharm Handel, Jullundur City.

23. This conference assures the government that we Achut are the well-wishers and true patriots of the English govern­ment. We have been, we are, and we will in the future, remain loyal well-wishers of the government.

24. All Ad Dbarmis should act on these principles and it is their duty to ask their Ad Dharmi brothers to also follow them.

25. The government of Punjab should issue strict warnings to all the branches of government that no one has the right to use Achut people without any wage., or to utilize their services without money payment.

(End of the 25 resolutions passed at the first Ad Dharmi conference, held in Jullundur, 1926.)

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After this conference, many conferences were held. Memorable especially were those at Adatnpur, Jullundur district. They also passed similar resolutions. In November 1926, the Ad Dharm Mandel, Punjab, opened an office in the city of Jullundur, where all the con­ferences of all the districts of Punjab were called, and similar reso­lutions were passed, unanimously. Also, the conferences made sugges­tions for running the Mandal permanently. A newspaper was initiated:
it was called “Adi Denka.” This is the official newspaper of Ad Dharm

To get financial aid, we appealed to all, the organizations and societies in India; but unfortunately, with the exception of the

Jat Path Thorak Mandal,
Lahore, no other organization encouraged us or helped us. We are very grateful to the JPTM for their encourage­ment. But our workers and administrators did not consider it fair to get their money, because we wanted to stand on our own feet.

Five hundred members were appointed as the administrative com­mittee for all the provinces of Punjab, and the names of these members are as follows:

(On pages 16-30 of the Report, each of the 500 hundred names are listed, by village and district. For the sake of brevity, these names are not listed here. The numbers of names, by district, are as follows:]

Hoshiärpur. • . .176 Siälkot. . . . 1
Jul lundur• . .120 Lähore • . 2
LyalLpur. • . • 90 Kangça • . • . 42
Sheikapurä. • .. 1.2 Patiila., State. 1
Ferozepur• . . 1.3 Bikaneer State 2
Ludhiinä. • . • 14 Kapflrthall State 15
Sargoda• . . 15 Bahawalpur State 2
Montgomery. • •. 18 Kapoorthala State . 4
Gurdäspur• • . 14 Melerkotla State 2
MultIn. • . . 10 AmbaIa . 2
Hissär. . • . B 5 Dalhousie. 3
ICarnil. •• . . I Gujrat • . . . 3
Guj ranwäla • . . 2

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En addition to the Punjab, there are members in:
Meerut
Delhi
Saharanpur
Dehra Dun
Kanpur
Lucknow
Allahabad
Benares
Calcutta

Also, members from foreign countries:

Malaya
Burma
Manilla
Philippines
Fiji
Africa
New Zealand
Canada
America
Russia etc.
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We are the original people of this country, and our Mazhab [religion] is Ad Dharm. The Hindu qaum came from outside and enslaved us. When the näd [the original sound from the conch I was sounded, all the brothers came together--Chamar, chuhrae, sainsi, Bhanjre, Bhil, all the Achüt~--to make their problems known. Brothers, there are seven crores, 70 Millions of us who are listed as Hindus--separate us, and make us free. We trusted the Hindus, but they turned out to be traitors, brothers. The time has come, wake up; the government is listening to our cries, brothers. Centuries have passed, but we were asleep, brothers. Look at the lines that Manü has written, but he is a murderer. There. Was a time when we ruled India, and we are the children of kings, brothers. We are the real people of India, brothers, and the land used to be ours. The Hindus came from Iran, and destroyed our qauin. They became the owners, and then called us for­eigners, disinheriting seven crores, 70 Millions of people. They turned us into khäna (nomads) they destroyed our history, brothers. The Hindus rewrote our history, brothers. There is hope from God (bhagwan] and help from the king [Badshah]. Send members to the councils and start the qaum anew, brothers. Come together to form a better life.15

Other Ad Dharm versions of the myth of origin emphasize the in­herent Superiority of the Achut qaum over the upper caste qaum. In the beginning, there was a paradise somewhere in North India, in which the original inhabitants [the “Adi”] lived in pleasant equality:
“In the beginning, when nature created human beings, there was no discrimination. There were no differences, and no quarrels. Especially, there were no such concepts as high or low caste. God (Ishwar] was meditating; all was in harmony.

According to the Ad Dharm cosmology, some of these original people (who were the ancestors of the present-day Achut) early mi­grated to Europe, where they became the Aryans, who later would in­vade India and become the higher castes. These Aryans were vastly ignorant and boorish folk: “These people were primitive. They lived in trees, cave, ate bark arid leaves, and had no spiritual life. They lived as shepherds and hunters, and had no sense of qaum [nationhood]. 17

215
Meanwhile, the present-day Achut were at the height of civiliza­tion, in the plains of Northern India:
“Peoples of the world considered our land as the crown of success, and paid tribute to us and our achievements. They respected and bowed down to our kings. There was no enemy, no foe, no fear of foreign invaders, and no signs of inter­nal dissention . . . during this time of our great achievement.”18

But then the Aryans came and destroyed the civilization, scat­tered and subjugated the original people:

There were many wars – six Hundred years of fighting – and then the Aryans defeated our ancestors the local inhabitants. Our forefathers, the inhabitants of our glorious motherland, were pushed back in to the Jungle and into the mounnntains. Some of them stayed and asked for mercy; they were enslaved.19

APPENDIX G

MAGOWAL, DISTRICT HOshiarpur IN THE AD DHARM SCHOOL:

HUGE PUBLIC MEETING
First Annual Conference 11-12 June Sunday-Monday 1927 We are the original people of this country, and our mazhab (religion] is Ad Dharm. The Hindu qaum came from outside and enslaved us.

When the Näd (the original sound from the conch) was sounded, all the brothers came together--chamar:, chuhrae, sainsi, Bhanjre, bhil, all the Achüt--to make their problems known. Brothers, there are seven Crores(70 Millions) of us who are listed as Hindus--separate us, and wake us free. We trusted the Hindus, but they turned out to be traitors, brothers. The time has come, wake up; the government is listening to our cries, brothers. Centuries have passed, but we were asleep, brothers. Look at the lines that Manu has written, but he is a murderer. There was a time when we ruled India, and we are the children of kings, brothers. We are the real people of India, brothers, and the land used to be ours. The Hindus came from Iran, and destroyed our qaum. They became the foreigners, and then called us foreigners, disinheriting seven Crores (70 Millions) f people. They turned us into khana badosh [nomad) They destroy our history brothers. The Hindus rewrote our history, brothers. There is hope from God [bhagwan] and help from the king [bãdshah]. Send members to the councils and start the qaum anew, brothers. Come together to form a better life. Destroy the matters of caste and creed, brothers. We have a generous government above brothers, so get, and us together and save the Ad Dharin qautn. Those who are murdering us will not listen to our complaints. Brothers, get together and pray to Bhagwmn rGodJ that the British rule may be eternal. Other than the government, no one has helped us, throughout the ages. A new successor to the throne (wait-shed] La about to visit us, and he is coming specifically to listen to the complaints of the people. They are coming to give us our rights, so we should be thankful.

Mangoo Rain and chand are requesting that the dissatisfaction and grumbling will be dispelled.

Do not call yourselves Hindus brothers you are all Ad Dharm.
Possession of Mangoo Ram of Garhshankar, Hoshilrpur district Punjab, who kindly allowed me to photograph it. The text, of the original is in the form of poetry, and is written in Punjabi language, Gurmukhi script. It was translated with the cooperation of Mr. Surjit Singh Guraya.J

The Ad Dharm myth continues the story beyond the arrival of the Aryans and the destruction of the original people’s civilization. The original people (the Achut) were subjugated with “so much cruelty and injustice” that they “forgot their own identity i”hasti” ,,21 From there, the story pauses briefly to denounce Manu (the legendary codifier of Hindu law), and moves swiftly into the present period. Not without surprise, we discover that those Aryan’s modern descen­dants are doing to the descendants of the original people much what they have done before. There is merit awarded to the British govern­ment and the Mogul government, who attempted to help the original people. Christianity is also viewed with favor, at least obliquely, in that they challenged the control of the Aryan Hindu: “Christianity tried to attract all qaum, and especially the low castes, because the Achüt are orphan kind of peop1e - - - Swami Bayanand realized that Christianity was digging a hole in the foundation of Hinduism which would destroy the whole building.

By Sir John Marshali, Director-General of Archaeology in India, might well have been an incentive for the myth constructions of the Ad Dharm leaders: “Of what race or races were the authors of this Indus civi­lization, and what was their religion In the present state of our knowledge only the vaguest answers to either question can be returned. The skeletal remains . . . comprised the pre-Aryan Dravidians of India as well as many other peoples.

“Big cities with teeming populations like Harappa and Mohenjo­daro could never have existed save in an agricultural country which was producing its own food on a large scale . . . there are strong reasons for inferring that the rainfall in Sind and the Western Punjab was ‘hen substantially heavier than it Ls now.

“The paucity of weapons at both Harappa and Mohenjo-daro is surprising.
“It is a foregone conclusion that this great civilization of the Indus must have made itself felt far to the East as veil as to the West.”

[Sir John Marshall, “India of 5,000 Years Ago, Part Two,” in the Tribune, Lahore, vol. XLVIII, no. 30, February 5, 1928, p. 5.1 ____

P 53

Ad Dharmis on the Way to Progress.
Since the Betting U~ of the’ Ad Dharm Mandal of Punjab in Jullundur City, much progress has been made. There have been meetings held and resolutions made all, over the Punjab; the attendance has been in the thousands. Especially in Hoshiärpur district and tehsil Desuä, the people were most active in arranging the conferences. The people of teshil Desuä mostly met the expenses of this organization.

In the last five years, at least 1,500 conferences were arranged. The result of these Ls that the AD religion in known by everyone and it is now possible for people to eat and socialite together. Social reform has made progress--especially in marriage ceremonies, cleanli­ness, hygienic preparation of food, and in education.. At least 50,000. AD children are getting education in various schools. We want to thank the Education Minister from our hearts. Because of our count­less requests, he paid attention, and granted free concessions for school tuition up to the primary level (grade LV). After the (grade IV) only half-fee. Scholarships will be Rs. 5 more than for other minority peoples (Rs. 13/month rather than Rs. 8/month). Also they pay Ad Dharamis Achut teachers will be 25/ month rather than 20 month.
We thank the officers, especially those of Jullundur Division, for this act of kindness. They have treated us with great respect; but we especially want to thank Mr. Chaudhri Sadrudin Khan, former inspec­tor and ex-headmaster of Normal Schools, for in one year he had a special class of 40 AD students, who are now teachers. The AD nation will always be grateful to him, even the little AD children will sing his praises.

Couplet: If I had as many tongues in my body as hair, I could not thank you enough.
P 54
God has certainly helped the Ad Dharmis, for when we were at the lowest pit of degradation, God sent to us Lord Montmore, the Governor of Punjab, so kind and Loving a ruler. Alt the tights and hope we are being given is due to this angel of mercy which God has sent to us, in the form of the Governor of Punjab.

We pray earnestly for his long life. Untouchability and the caste system, and the eating taboos, were a gift of the Brähmans’ God; we hope to send that gift right back to them. “We hope to become free and united.”

We hope that eating taboos will be removed, and this ghost of Untouchability will be sunk along with the Nehru Report, in the River Rävi. AU Untouchables will look at each other’s as caste brothers, and share each other’s misery; and among Bilmikis, Rivi. Dissis, Kabir­panthis there is no discrimination of any kind.

P 55-57

The Proof of Sympathy.
There are people who, for. Thousands of years have been exploit­ing the Untouchable people economically and socially, and preventing them from taking their rightful place in society. When our nation (qaum) found this out, we tried to pull our people up, and those other people put stones in our path. They tried to stop a running train. They used all kinds of tricks. They will take money and subscrip­tions for so-called Untouchable reform movements, but instead, they take the money and fill their own bellies without doing anything for us. To give an example, during the census count, if anyone even mentioned the word Ad Dharmi, they wouldn’t let us. These people say they are our brothers, but they treat us like eats and dogs. Especi­ally the Akali Jatt Sikh people would start making trouble for us during the census, if we started saying we were Ad Dharmis. They would trap us in our houses with thorny branches placed in out doors; they wouldn’t let us go to the wells for water. They wouldn’t let us buy goods from shops. They called us names, harassed us; and wouldn’t let our cattle out to feed. Our young daughters out on the roads were raped and insulted. Sometimes they burned our houses, looted and plundered. Wouldn’t give us wages for six months to a year. They took our cattle. They threw straw into our houses, ignited it, tried to burn us alive; and wouldn’t let us drink the dirty water From the village pond. Sound the ponds, there will, be Sikh volun­teers to guard the dirty pond. Without reason, they would have trumped up legal charges, and threaten us with guns, pistols, swords, etc. Our children were starving without food or water, but these upper class people had no mercy. Their fathers would go to the jungal and cut grass for food; then the Sikh volunteers would break our cooking utensils.

But in spite of all this harassment during the census taking, the Ad Dharmi people still broadcast their message. The Such Patwä­ris (village registrars), obeying the orders of the capitalists, would register us as Sikhs regardless of what we said. Some Mohaui~’eãn people, however, helped us, especially Dr. Peroz-ud-din Ahed, Presi­dent of “Hamdard Hindu Injamin Admadiya” [The Ahmadiya’s Hindu-Sympa­thizers Organization], of Kith Garh, Batilä, Sheikapura, Ludhiinä, Lyaupur, Gurdispur, and Jullundur.

P 58
Dangers to the Ad Dharm Movement
At the present, the Ad Dharm movement is faced with many dangers, which may be harmful to the Mandal. For example:
1. Dayanand Dalat Udhär, Hoshiarpur
2. Patat Udhar
3. Antaj Udhar
4. Achut Udhir, and other mandals.
They are trying to delude people and side-track their interests. To get money for themselves, they beg from the people. There is a say­ing, “don’t be afraid of the bad man, but be afraid of his bad deeds.” Therefore, we oppose the bad character and dishonest of these organi­zations, which present a threat to us. These organizations have taught many of our workers to work against their own consciences. Also, there are workers who use the name of Ad [harm Mandal, but take the money for them. This is the second danger.

The third dan5er is the attacks on the Ad Dharm Mandal, Jullundur, by workers and prachãrak of other organizations. The Ad Dharm Mandal is the only true representative of the Achiit, but since its inception it has been subject to these attacks, through writings and speeches. They have tried to stop our movement, and have been attempting t* woo away our innocent pracharak with fancy promises of green gardens and beautiful songs. Those people who were bragging about Achüt reform have been proven dishonest; they are actually fortifying the wall of Hindu prejudice. En the guise of helping the Achut they are only helping themselves. There is no more truth in their claims than there is fragrance in a paper flower. The Achut will no longer con­sider any of these Mandals as their representatives. Those Achut who were deluded, have now left those movements and are joining the Ad Dharm movement by the thousands.

P 60
The fourth danger--the greatest danger of all--is in the villages where the pure Hindu and Sikhs make it difficult for the Achut to keep his own hasti (identity]. In the olden times, the Ad Dharmi people were dependent upon them, and so considered themselves Hindus and Sikhs. The Ad Dharmi people were victims of the Hindus’ and Sikhs’ greed. Now, it is the age of freedom and light, and the Ad Dharmis have realized their mistake. So instead of being exploited by them, the Achut try to establish their own identity, as in the last census, when they chose to be described as Ad Dharmi rather than as Sikhs and Hindus. As a reprisal, shameful and degrading treatment has been meted. Out to the Ad Dharmis, which may be a forerunner of a permanent danger. Therefore, the Hindus and the Sikh pose the greatest threat to us, and in the future, they viii continue to try to crush our movement.

P 61

The Present Demands of the Ad Dharm Mandal
1. We request to the present government to establish Ad Dharm as separate from Hindus.
Ad Dharmis are not Hindus. Hindus have tricked our people; so in the past censuses, they let themselves be described as Hindus and Sikhs, which is completely wrong. Hindu mazhab [religion) and Ad Dharm mazhab [religion] are absolutely separate.

2. During the present census taking, those villages dominated by Hindus and Sikhs forced Ad Dharmis to claim that they were Hindus and Sikhs, even when the Ad Dharmis protested. This should be inves­tigated; and the census should be revised to indicate the correct number. In those cases where “Chuhra” or “Chamar” were listed in­stead of “Ad Dharmi,” or in those cases where the caste was listed as Ad Dharmi but the religion was listed as Hindu, the correct list­ing shou1d be only Ad Dharmi

3. Since the beginning of the present census taking, the news­papers have mentioned the harassment of the Hindus and Sikhs against the Ad Dharmis. These reports should be investigated.

4. From ancient times until now, the Ad Dharm qaum [people] were: zariat peshã [land cultivators]; but after they lost their rule their dealings have been with the zamindir [land owners]. But actu­ally, Ad Dharmi is zariat peshä, and should be listed as such in the Land Exchange Act by government action. We should be treated as a separate qaum, and receive special arrangements for land ownership.
P 62

5. The Ad Dharm people are among the most loyal people of India, and should be given the right of citizenship and property. The houses that they have been living in, from ancient times, should be considered their own houses. The Ad Dharm people, from ancient times have been victims of unemployment. Without Sarmäya (capital], they could not be capi­talists. Therefore the Ad Dharmis have been poor, and have not had the strength to face Sikhs, Hindus, and others with means. We have no land, so we request that the land measured as 15 million cultivable acres, which is lying unused in the hands of the Punjab government, should be given to Ad Dharm people under the same conditions that land is given to other people.

In the army and the police, the rights given to others
“There were many wars. Six hundred years of fighting. And then the Aryans finally defeated our ancestors, the local inhabitants. Our forefathers, the inhabitants of our glori­ous motherland, were pushed back into the jungle, and into the mountains. Some of them stayed, and asked for mercy; they were enslaved.”19

The similarities between this story, and some archaeologists’ suggestions about what happened to the pre-Aryan Harappan civiliza­tion jYi N5~’f!h !mJLi Lu 1700 D.C., are more than striking.20 In fact, the whole “Adi” myth may well have been inspired and informed t~ y the scholarly theories on the Harappan Civilization, which were rife at the time. Sir John Marshall discovered the site of Harappi in 1921, in Montgomery district of the Punjab. Perhaps it is only coincidence that the Ad Dharm and the other Adi movements began soon after that, and that nearby Lyallpur district became one of the strongest bases of support for the Ad Dharm movement. None­theless, the newspapers of the Punjab were full of speculation about the I[arappan findings during the early 1920’s, and the question * Remains open. The original announcement of the Harappan finds is promirif”Itly published in the Lahore Tribune, vol. XLI, September, 1921. The Mohenjo-daro excavations were also exciting news. A full-page article Should also be given to the Ad Dharmis. Direct conviction as officers, and responsible posts should be given to us. And just as other qaum has had regiments named in their honor, we should have an army or police regiment named after us, under Ad Dharmi leadership.

8. Even though on the railway board, we have representation, it has not been in proportion to the percentage of our people to the population, as is the case with other people. So we should be given more positions, not just tokenism.

[p. 63)
9. In municipalities, district boards, and other such depart­ments, other qautn have received proportionate representation. We also should receive that.

10. In the next election, in all, municipalities and the dis­trict boards, and assemblies, we should receive 187. Representation.

11. In Normal Schools, those Ad Dharmi boys who graduate with good qualifications and degrees, ought to be guaranteed positions. Ad Dharmi boys ought to feel proud of their achievements, and that they are helping their qaum.

12 As long as India’s weak minorities--especially Ad Dharmis and the Mohenjo-daro people--are not given full representation, and there is no guarantee of their proper treatment, there should be no change in the central government.

13. Along with Hindus, Mohamadans, Sikhs, Jews, Parole, Christians, Buddhists, and Jams, we the Ad Dharmi should be classi­fied as a separate religion.

14. We inform the Punjab Government Labor Board that the Ad Dharmi are the laboring class people, and that because of the com­pletely unjustified agitation about swaraj (Independence, we are even more unemployed. We request the government to think of us as laboring class people, and get us work.

[p. 64)

15. In Hindu schools, our children are being ignored or are forced to learn Hindu ideas. They are treated with so much hatred; they have to leave the school. So we request the government to give us separate schools so we. do not have to put up with this harassment. If a government inspector comes to these schools and says something good about an Ad Dharml child, or if a teacher says something good about an Ad Dharmi child, there is hatred towards that child. We have received many cases of bad Hindu and Sikh treatment of our chil­dren. We need separate schools so that our children can learn about their background; these schools should have Ad Dharmi administrators and teachers, so that our children are properly taken care of.

P 627
16. In some villages bigär (slave labor) is forced from Ad Dharmis; this should be investigated and that activity stopped.

17. There are no Ad Dharmis represented on the village panchäyäts, so we should boycott those decisions. We ought to be represented, in proportion to our population. These panchlylts have no status, and we are not under obligation to obey them.

18. In those villages where Hindus and Sikhs are in power, we want to find out how many Ad Dharmis have been forced to give their religion as Hindus and Sikhs. Also these poor people are having trouble in surviving, receiving torture, etc., afraid of life and property. The government should make arrangements for where they can live.

19. There are organizations, which use the name of Untouchables, but actually exploit them. Primarily Dayanani Dälät Udhar Mandal, Hoshiärpur; Antaj Udhär; Patat Udhär; Achüt Udhar Mandal, Lahore; and others. These are some of the names that these organizations are taking; they use catchy names and attract funds, but actually they are exploiting the people. Sometimes they may buUd a •ch~gI. Qi dLg s u~11, kuI: they are interested in ttieir own people, not the Ad Dharmi people. The government ought to intervene and investigate these Mandals, these jamayat (organizations], to see whether the organiza­tions actually do what they say they do, so that this sort of trickery might be ended. We are the only true representatives of the Achut qaum [people]. These other jamayat [groups] are dis-uniting and mis­leading our people.

20. It is true that the children of the Ad Dharm qaum (people] do not pay any tuition up to Primary (grade IV), but after that they have to pay half tuition. That is too much for Borne families. The government ought to be generous in granting scholarships, so our boys can stand on their own feet and compete with the Hindus, Sikhs, and others on an equal basis.

[p. 66)

21. In India, especially Punjab, we Ad iJharmLs are weak in edu­cation compared to the other qaum (peoples], therefore any system of joint electorates would be very harmful, because we would not have a sense of fair play. So we request the government to abolish joint electorates, which are impractical, and establish separate electorates.

22. Our qauuu mostly works with leather. All over Hindustan [India], we tan hides and prepare raw leather, but we do not make any more from it • the word chamar comes from two words-- ‘chaniri” meaning leather, and ‘kir’ meaning to make. So we request the government, if they have need of shoes and boots for their army, police, and industry, and if they want the best kind of leather, they should come directly

P 628
To us the Ad Dharm Mandal of Jullundur City and not deal with some medium. The government will, save money and gets better quality leather.
Further, they ought to remember that leather comes from our labor, and we who work with leather ought to get the benefit of it.

23. For imdad-bahmi [cooperative help], there are many banks; but especially in the villages, these banks are only for those people who have land, which we do not. So we want banks opened for our advantage also.

24. For bail, we ought to get the same rights as others. We are not given bail. Hindus and Sikhs will not give us bail. For this reason some of our small businesses have had to close, without bail. It should be possible for one Ad Dharmi to guarantee bail for another Ad Dharmi. We should not have to go to a Hindu or Sikh to bail. us out.

25. Our people are industrious and industrial.. We till, weave, and make leather. We should not be called “criminal minorities.” We should not be put in the category of jaräyam peshä (criminals],

26. The Ad Dharmi qaum people have suffered from unjust professional taxes Levied by the district board and the municipalities. It was done on behalf of the village landlords and the other officials. In none of these offices were Ad Dharmis represented. Since Ad Dharmi people are not represented on any of these boards, no tax of any kind should be levied. Moreover, the Ad Dharmi people are too poor to pay it.

27. Anything regarding the Ad Dharmi qaum (people--letters, mail, and documents--should be addressed to: Ad Dharm Mandal Jultundur City This is the only Mandal. (Organization] which is the true representative of the Ad Dharm cause. It has been there for the last six years.

The Expenses of Ad Dharm Mandal.
People have been asking questions about where the Ad Dharm Mandal gets its operating expenses. Most people see~n to accept the idea that it comes from an illegal. Source, otherwise, we would not get the money to stand on our feet. They think someone must be help­ing us.

So, we should explain clearly, without a doubt, that the Mandal supports itself. The workers of the mandal go from house to house, village to village, collecting the money from the Achut barädari [brotherhood].

The Mandal volunteers from the beginning have never accepted money from any society or any government. In the future, they will continue to keep it that way. But, regardless of what we say, we know that in the minds of Hindus and Sikhs, the idea persists that we get our money from the government. This is a blatant lie. As a matter of fact, these Hindus think that the Mohauedans founded by the government--or the Ad Dharm.

There is a famous saying, “he who is a thief thinks everyone is a thief.” These proud, selfish upper caste people ought to look in their own back yards; they have been mistreating the Ad Dharmis for centuries and are not willing to admit it. If the Ad Dharmis are separating themselves from the upper castes, it is only the fault of the bad treatment of the Hindus and the Sikhs. The world is changing; they do not realize that we are trying to change ourselves with the world. Everybody else is fighting for freedom, why shouldn’t we? Why are the upper castes so envious and jealous of our progress? The Hindus and Sikhs just want us to be their faithful and loyal dogs. We tell them in ringing clear terms: neither government, Mohamdans or Christians have any influence in our movement. We are simply asserting ourselves. We see the speed at which thik’gs are changing in the world today, so we simply ask for our rights. We are askin8 the 5QverQuoIIL to give US the rights were given to other minor­ities of India.

So at this point no qaum [people) or mazhab [religious group] ought to raise objections. People like the Ad Dharmis are trying to improve themselves through their own efforts. Everyone ought to feel happy about this.

There is a managing committee of 600 members. They bring in the money by themselves, or from their brothers at the meetings. We keep account of all income and expenses.

Those People Who Took Refuge In Ad Dharm:

The numbers of other Quams (peoples], which have joined us, are as follows:
Jam - 2
Brähman - 20
Arya Samij - 5,000
Sikhs - 350,000
Christianity - 2,000
Mohaumnedan - 10

An Account of Income and Expenditure of the Ad Dharm Mandal. Punlab Jullundur City.
51.6
REPORT ENDS
Closely identified as the author of the Ramayana to be very strongly linked to Chuhra solidarity; the Ri.shi became, instead, a symbol of assimilation. Harijan identity in the Congress and proletariat unity in the Marxist movements is too closely touched with upper-caste alignment to be strong bases for Scheduled Caste solidarity strategies; but they provide a sense of solidarity nonetheless.

In summary, the strategy of solidarity has been successful in the following ways:

a. Numerically. About two million Punjab Scheduled CasteMembers have been involved in the movements, a third of the total

Number of Scheduied Gagt~ m~he,~a.
b. through organization. Village-level workers have been particularly effective, as have newspapers, in giving a Punjab­wide consciousness of caste unity.The numbers of participants in the movements are approximately as follows. The figures are from the height of the movements’ strength, regardless of date. Figures for Christianity and Ad Dharm are from the censuses, adjusted for non-census followers; other figures have been computed from the movements’ records (Radhasoami, Arya Samaj, Ambedkar, Congress, CPI/cPI-M), and by approximation (Valmiki, middle class).
Christianity (inc. West Punjab) 600,000 Ad Dharm 1,000,000 Ambedkar movements 10,000 Radhasoami 200,000 Arya Samaj 10,000 Valmiki Sabha 100,000 Congress (KaUjan wing) 10,000 CPI/CPI-M 10,000 Middle class 10,000
TOTAL 1,950,000
51.8
Alignment The major issue in assessing this strategy is whether the Scheduled Castes aligned with useful parties, and how tangible were the benefits. This strategy assumes a society in which there is conflict; and in which the strategic goals are those of reform. To the Scheduled Castes, the perceived conflict was among the dominant elements in society, the reform was toward more egalitarian economic, social, and political structures.
The British, while they were around, were favored subjects for alignment. The benefits were considerable, and tangible. The army, the government institutions, the missionary schools and hospitals, all offered the possibilities of employment with­out much concerrn about caste Illusionary causation offered other benefits. Individuals aligned themselves with the British; Christianity, as a Scheduled Caste movement, was the most obvious group effort at alignment to secure the more tangible benefits, as well as to seek the total social and spiritual alternative, which Christianity provided.
Alignment with the British was done also in more subtle ways, for more subtle benefits. The Ad I3harm ‘s friendship with the British, and that of Ambedkar, provided several advantages to the Scheduled Castes: a) the British gave them protection to organize, through police, the legal system, and the umbrella security of a government free from the local systems of social control; b) alignment with British gave the Scheduled Castes some leverage against the upper castes, by asserting their independence from upper caste control, and demonstrating that the lower castes

TABLE: SCHEDULED CASTE SECTS: VARIATION FROM 1891-1921
Variation Percentage
1891. 1911 1921 1911-21
Saint worshipers 345, 318 139, 573 -59.6
Dadu Panthi. 7,314 11,324 386 70.8
Gugapir 35,344 4,859 1,812 -62.7
Kabir Panthi 108, 951 89,254 46,505 -47.9
Kalu Panthi 85,400 36,406 21,257 - 41.6
Namabansl. 972 5,471 + 462.9
Pakuji 6,226 5,347 -14.1
Panj piria 77,685 27,363 -64.8
Rai Dasia 106, 770 27,158 -74.6
Ram Raya 52,458 2,001 201 -90.0
Sewak Darya 948 19, 821 4,073 -79.5

Sects of low castes 981,311 14,424 -6.8
BALMIKI 315,674 221,104 -30.0
Lalbegi 466,172 449,991 -3.5
Ramdasia 349,242 199,465 239,99 +20.3
Balashahi --------- 3,330 +100.0

Reform sects 130,195 239,890 +84.3
Arya 100,783 223,153 121.4
Brahmo 700 305 -56.4
Dev Dharm 3,094 3,597 -16.3
Nanak Panthi 21,756 9,723 -55.3
Radhasawami 3,862 3,112 -19.4
Sikh sects
Mazhabi 4,058 726 2,305 +217.5
Ram Dasia
(Keshdharis) 20,863 8,106 10,568 +30.4
Radhasawami 424 378 -10.8
Ram Dasia 1,752 2,206 209
(Sahajdharis: 1,752 2,206 209 -90.5
Sikh Raidasias)
Source:1921. Census, Punjab, Vol. XX, chap. IV, pp. 180-81, and 1891 Census, Punjab, Vol. XIX, chap. IV, pp. 100 ff.

P 597
APPENDIX F
REPORT OF THE RD DBARM MANDAL, 1926-1931
A Note about This Translation:
The following report was translated from the original, written in Urdu script, and containing a polyglot vocabulary of Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and English. The translation was prepared in cooperation with Mr. Surjit Singh Goraya and Mr. Hassan Hamdani; I accept res­ponsibility for the final English version, and any mistakes, which may be contained herein. Mr. L.R. Bailey of Jullundur City, Punjab, made the original copy of this report available to me from his personal library; I wish to express my great appreciation to Mr. Bailey for his kind cooperation. To my knowledge, there are no other existing copies of this report available, either in public or private libraries.

This translation is rather fluid; it was made with the inten­tion of keeping the spirit and meaning of the original report intact, while rendering it in easily understandable English. Some words do not translate easily. Where words are difficult to translate, we have maintained the original word, with our recommended English Translation in bracket.. The interesting term 10qauun,” is usually translated as “people,” although it might reasonably also be trans­lated as “nation,” “religious community,” or even “ethnic group.” “Achut,” when used to describe the concept of religious impurity, is translated as “Untouchable,” without reference to the original word; the original word is used, however, when the word refers to the Achuit as a people, as in the “Achflt qaum.” “India” sometimes is “Bharat,” sometimes “Hlindustan.” There are several words used for religion; we distinguish between “maahab” and “dharm,” and leave in the original other philosophic or special concepts, which might be open to interpretation. In romanization of the original terms and personal names, we have attempted to be as simple as possible. We use lines to distin­guish between a short “a” and a long “i, “. And between a short “u” and a long “ii.” In some cases, dots underneath a consonant indicate that it is retroflex, or that there is an aspirated “s.” For some personal names, we have retained the individual’s preference for romanized spelling; Mangoo Ram, for example, prefers his name spelled that way. Similarly, certain other proper names are spelled in customary fashion; Punjab, for example, rather than Panj~b, and Ad Dharm rather than Rd Dharm.

Page numbers in brackets indicate the page in the original re­port, with the title page preceding page 1. There have been no significant omissions from this translation of the Ad Dharm Report--the only exceptions are two lists of names omitted for the sake of brevity. This is also true, curiously, among many of those members scheduled Castes who have left India and attempted to make r fortunes abroad. Especially around 1940, when an enthusiastic follower of Dr. Ambedkar became the Punjab government official in charge of issuing passports, there was a stampede for

And among certain sub-castes of (Chamars from the Jullundur Area. Perhaps as many as 50,000 Scheduled Caste members
Live in England, especially in the Wolver Hampton (Birmingham) Middlesex (London) areas. However, there are perhaps 200,000
Caste Punjabis mostly Sikh living in the same area, whom also have come from the Jullundur area of the Punjab. migrated against by the British, the Sikhs pass the disfavor The Scheduled Castes who prescient their own pubs which are mocked as “Chamar pubs” by the Sikhs. It was in next of casteisrn in England that the new Ad Dharma arose 0; the disappointment with the failure of separatism’s Ic goal gave rise to a renewed movement for identity and it. In summary, the strategy of separatism has been successfully in its failure. The disillusionment over the impose­ of real detachment from the old identities and the old incident, which I learned about through interviews, is Described in chapter VI of this study.

Figures (207. of the total Indian population in the U.K.) related from information supplied by the Office of the High Commissioner in Birmingham, and from estimates of those Caste leaders whom I interviewed in England in July 1971. For its genre, no group in the Punjab can equal Radhasoami. In stature And following. Only Nirankari comes close, and Nirankari, associated With Sikhism, is an atypical case?

Almost half of Radhasoami’s followers are from Scheduled Castes, by the present guru’s own estimate; 103 and although they may have been accepted into the movement, absolute equality comes slowly. The single Scheduled Caste member on the 11-member Trust Committee is also a Member of Pariiament--Sadhu Ram, the former Ad Dharmi, Ambed­karite, and Congressman--who cannot justly be considered a ghetto Untouchable. The majority of the Scheduled Caste member’s living at the Dera is servants. The langar, or dining hail, is a special Problem; until five years ago, separate dining halls were maintained for upper castes and lower castes. The fact that the Radhasoami’s organization does show preference, not along overt caste lines, but toward the rich and success­ful, and this has the de facto effect of restricting poorer Sched­uled Castes, not unlike the way the Northerners in the United States unwittingly discriminate against American Blacks. The President of the Trust Committee is the Rani of a former princely state in Gwalior, and the members of the Committee are distinguished government of facials or businessmen, over half of whom do not live in the Punjab, where the majority of the followers reside; the cost of a place in the Dera starts at Rs. 8,800 (or at the very cheapest, a few old 106 places sell for Rs. 3,500), much beyond the means of the average Scheduled Caste member. So from the standpoint of wealth and privi­lege, the Radhasoami Dera is not a very egalitarian place at all. Nonetheless, involvement in Radhasoami is a new phenomenon for West End Road, Soutball, which was known, pejoratively, as the “Chamarwali pub” because of the nature of its clientele. Fights broke out between the Sikhs and the Chamars, in factories and pubs; there have even been allegations of killings related to caste tension. The British did not seem to notice these matters; they discriminated against all of the Indians equally. The Scheduled Castes, in turn, seemed indifferent to the British attitudes; Chamars had grown up with the experience of caste and racial prejudice. But the Sikhs were genuinely irritated, and took their irritation out on each other and on the Chamars. The Sikhs separated into varying rival camps; there were the Amritsar Jats and the Doab Jats and the Malwa Jats from Ludbiana, each with their own Gurdwaras.

The artisan caste Sikhs had their separate Gurdwaras as well; one for the Ramgarhias Carpenter caste and another for the Bharteas But the Chamars felt that they were not welcome within any of the Sikh Gurdwaras The Scheduled Castes came to Britain expecting to find life dif­ferent, in some way, and were not pleased with the Sikhs’ attitudes towards them. The Chamars earned as much as the British occasionally placed the Sikhs, sometimes more; and them as foremen over Sikh work crews, to the great disdain of the Sikhs. The Sikhs tried to explain to the British factory supervisors about the dic­tates of custom; and the Chamars responded, in at least one of these instances, with a lawsuit against the Sikhs.’26

The Scheduled Castes acted more bravely in Britain than in the Punjab, perhaps because they felt that their caste community in Britain was placed into a new context of competition against the Closely-knit and compatible leadership team, and with an ideology which clearly emphasized the distinctive separateness of the Achut qaum. There were organizational gains to be made by this purifica­tion process, but some losses as veil--they may have alienated an important segment of Scheduled Caste leadership, and boxed in their strategic options for compromise and coalition in the future.

2. Securinz an identity. 1929-1931: the zreat census.
Having settled, for the time, the identity issue, the Ad Dharm proceeded into the busiest couple years of its history. The confer­ences and demonstrations came fast; and, as we have previously noted, the organization made its greatest expansion during this time, with the establishment of a dozen branch organizations. It was a time of treat political activity in the Punjab, with the various British government commissions forming the foci for communal politics and government appeals; as we shall soon see, the Ad Dharm was in the midst of that, as well. But the event that loomed the largest in the Byes of the Ad Dharm Leaders were the census of 1931: “our big trial.”~ The census was a big trial for the Ad Dharm for several reasons: recognition by the census would imply a certain legitimacy for the Ad Dharm, in the eyes of the upper castes, as well as for the Ad Dharm followers; a large census tabulation would prove their numerical strength, or, conversely, betray it; and perhaps most important, a sizable number of people recording themselves as “Ad Dharm” would indicate that Mangoo Ram and his Jullundur team had considerable control over the Masses, and thus enhance considerably the leadership’ Importance and ability to negotiate effectively with government and the other movements. Earlier, Msngoo Ram had mentioned three inherent powers of the poor: quiet (communal pride), mazhab (religion), and majlia (organization). The census returns could indicate maui. in a big way; thus the census was an indicator or power, and potentially a creator of power as well.

On October 10, 1929, the Ad Dharm leaders brought before the Government the notion of having Ad Dharm listed as a separate reli­gion on the census. The suggestion was accepted, to the great sus­picion of many upper caste observers, who felt that the Government had its own reasons for wanting to support fissiparous tendencies on the part of the Untouchables. In the Census Report of 1931, the Government states explicitly that it included the Ad Dharm only at k. ~ a~ hi and the Ad Dharin Mandal; “The Punjab Ad-Dharm Handal had petitioned the Punjab Gov­ernment before the census operations started in 1930, re­presenting that the depressed classes should be permitted to return Ad-Dharmi as their religion at the time of the census as they were the aborigines of India and ~uhi1a the Hindus kept them at a respectable distance they did not believe in the Hindu religion. The President of the Pun­jab Ad-Dharm Mandel was informed that a clause was being provided in the Census Code requiring that persons return­ing their religion as Ad-Dharm would be recorded as Achut27

Even if the government had reasons of its own for listing the Ad Dharm in the census rolls, the demand for separate census recog­nition had been an original one for the Ad Dharm, and lay close to the rationale for their existence. At the first Ad Dharm conference, these resolutions were passed:

“We are not Hindus. We strongly request the government not to list us as such. Our faith is not Hindu, but Ad Dharm. We are not a part of Hinduism, and Hindus are not a part of us. The Ad Dharmi should be listed separately in the census, and in other ways be given rights equal to Hindu.”28

With the acceptance of Ad Dharm on the census lists as a bona fide religious community, the first hurdle had been traversed. It was then necessary to make good the implications of that recognition, by insuring a massive number of respondents claiming Ad Dharm, in­deed, as. Their natal religion. This took much doing. In fact, the great build-up of Ad Dharm as an organization--the branch offices and the scores of workers in the villages--developed at this time precisely for the purpose of maintaining a good showing at the cen­sus. One of the few resources of the poor i.e their sheer numbers; and Ad Dharm was determined to turn that resource into a form of power.

The Part was not lost on the other major religious communities
of the Punjab. What Macgoo Ram might stand to gain through the cen­sus would be partially at the expense of the Sikhs and Hindus, for it would be from their communities that the Untouchable names be lost. For the Sikhs and Hindus, also, the census was a form of power, since the communal seats in government councils were based, in part, by the numbers of persons listed as members of the respec­tive religious communities. Thus, the bush beating of the Ad Dharm workers during the census polling in 1930 was not looked upon with kindness or detachment by the upper castes. This account, in the Ad Dharm Rei,ort, indicates the violence and tension of the period:

“During the census count, if anyone even mentioned the word Ad Dbarmi, they wouldn’t let us. These people say they are out brothers, but they treat us like cats and dogs. Especi­ally the Akali Sikh people would start making trouble for Us during the census, if we started saying we were Ad Dharmis. They would trap us in our houses with thorny branches placed in our doors; they wouldn’t let us go to the wells for water. They wouldn’t let us buy goods from shops. They called us names, harassed us; and wouldn’t let our cattle out to feed. Our young daughters out on the roads were raped and insulted. Sometimes they burned our houses, looted and plundered. Wouldn’t give us wages for six months to a year. They took our cattle. They threw straw into our houses, ignited it, tried to burn us alive; and wouldn’t let us drink the dirty water from the village pond. Around the ponds, there mould is a Sikh volunteer to guard the dirty pond. Without reason, they would have trumped up legal charges, and threaten us with guns, pistols, swords, etc. Our children were starving without food or water, but these upper class people had no mercy. Their fathers would go to the jangle. [Wastelands] and cut grass for food; then the volunteers would break our cooking utensils. But in spite of all of this harassment during the census-taking, the Ad Dharmi people still broadcast their message.”29

As the Ad Dharm Report clearly indicates, the Sikhs seemed to take the threat from the Achut more seriously than the Hindus. Ac­cording to one witness, “the Hindus were treating the Sikh a badly, by taking some of their people into Hindu census rolls, so the Sikhs

Ad Dharm Indicate the violence and tension of the period:
During the census operations, in early 1931, an incident at Nankana Sahib, the Sikh shrine at the birthplace of Guru Nanak, exacerbated the already dreadful relations between the Ad Dharmis and the Sikhs. The Ad Dharmis were holding a rally to encourage people to list their religion as Ad Dharm, and to mourn the death of several Achut who had been killed by upper caste Sikhs at that site. The such alleg­edly broke up the rally by destroying the kitchen where the meals For the rally were being prepared, throwing the hot rice at the participants, and beating up several of the Ad Dharmis. In other Places, two Ad Dhartmis were killed because they encouraged people to record their religion as Ad Dharm. on the census. These Incidents Were widely publicized by the Ad Dharm, as a way of dramatizing their plight, and urging the importance of the Scheduled Castes recording Ad Dharm as their religion. As one participant stated it:

“Recording our religion as Ad Dharm Lu the census was an act of great sacrifice.”33

The Ad Dharmis did, however, persevere • the census period may have been the high watermark of Ad Dharm spirit and popularity. Ad Dharm workers would go from village to village, urging the Achut to go to the census recorders with red armbands and turbans. This song summarizes the spirit: “Leave the bickering behind, and tie your turban red we do not have to record any qaum other than our over So, Ad Dharmi, be strong. The effort was amazingly effective. The final total of Ad Dharmis reported in the 1931 Puujab Census was 418,789.~~ That num­ber was roughly equal to the numbers of Christians in the Punjab; and Christianity had been converting Punjab Untouchables for over fifty years, whereas Mangoo Ram matched them in only five. In Jul­lundur district, eighty percent of the Scheduled Castes reported themselves as Ad Dharmi, and in Hoshiarpur the figure was almost as high. A half dozen other districts registered at least half of their Scheduled Caste population as Ad Dharm~ and there were high percen­tages in many other districts (a quick summary of the returns is revealed in the statistics and map included earlier in chapters). The census report, under the heading, “Revolt of the Untouchables­ Described the victory as follows:

“There has been in the last few years a movement among the untouchable classes to organize themselves as a separate community in order to consolidate their position, and many of them have returned themselves, particularly in the cen­tral districts, Jullundur and Hoshiatpur, as Ad-Dharmi or the followers of Ad-Dharmis, meaning the ancient or original religion of Hinduatan.”36

Elsewhere, the census report, under the heading “A 5ev Religion,” Mentions Ad Dharm thusly:

“The most notable feature of the present census from the standpoint of return of religion has been the adoption of the term ‘Ad-Dharmi’ by numerous Chamaru end Chuhras and other untouchables.”3 7

The total number of Ad Dharmis, compared with the total popula­tion of the entire Punjab, was not overwhelming, however. The per­centage was only about 1.5 percent, perhaps only a tenth of the total numbers of Scheduled Castes in the Punjab. The Ad Dharm leaders claimed that the widespread intimidation against those wanting to record themselves as Ad Dharmi prohibited more names from being com­piled. According to the Ad Dharm Report:

“PurLn5 ~e proven~ c~u-takiu~1 those villages domi­nated by Hindus and akfls forced Ad Dharmis cc claim that they were Hindu and Sikh, even when the Ad Dharmis pro­tested. This should be investigated; and the census should be revised to indicate the correct number. In those cases where “Chuhre” or “Chamar” were listed as Ad Dharmi. But the religion wan listed as Hindu the correct listing should be only Ad Dharmi.”38

Independent newspapers, and the Census Report itself, also con­curred with the allegations of intimidation against the Scheduled Castes during the census recording. There was also a rumor that the village patwaris (record keepers) and other census takers simply ignored the Scheduled Castes response to the questions, and put down whatever they wished. Consequently, many Ad Dharm leaders felt that the actual number of those who wanted to record their names as Ad Dbarm may have been at least four times that of the actual tabu­lation--two million instead of less than a half million.4’ And they may veil have been right. “In the army and the police, the rights given to others should also be given to the Ad Dharmis . . . Just as other qaum have had regiments named in their honor, we should have an army or police regiment named after us, under Ad Dharmi leadership •‘t46

c. Economic demands. These demands ranged from general requests to relieve unemployment, to this very specific request, directed to the government:

“If they have need of shoes and boots for their army, police, and industry, and if they want the best kind of leather, they should come directly to us, the Ad Dharm Mandal of Jullundur City, and not deal with some medium; the government will save money and get better quality leather “47

A more typical economic request, however, and perhaps a bit more thoughtful one, is contained in these excerpts from a letter of Man­goo Ram to the Governor of Punjab, written in English:

“I beg your Excellency to consider about (the Untouchables’] pitiable conditions and allow them to settle in some un­cultivated pi~n~ of land, which they will cultivate, and Thus relieve them from the severe clutches of the cruel. They will be most thankful to Your Excellency and pray for the prosperity of the benign Government through out their lives.

“For Your Excellency’s information I beg to add that I have already submitted such reports to the local author­ities concerned but in-vain, because the authorities are also high class people or the application is not forwarded by the sub-ordinates who also belong to the same community.

“I shall be highly obliged for the kind act, which Your Excellency will under-take in case of these poverty stricken people.”48

Educational demands. In general, there were requests for more schools, reserved seats for Scheduled Caste children, and special
Scholarships to allow the children to attend school. One demand went *a bit further, however and requested separate schools:
A comparison between the Ad Dharm’s arguments for separate education, and the recent demands for separate ethnic studies depart­ments in American colleges, is interesting. “In Hindu schools, our children are being ignored or are forced to learn Hindu ideas. They are treated with so much hatred; they have to leave the school. So we request the government to give us separate schools so we do not have to put up with this harassment. If a government inspector comes to these schools and says something good about an Ad Dharmi child, or if a teacher says something good about an Ad Dharmi child, there is hatred towards that child. We have received many cases of bad Hindu and Sikh treatment of our children. We need separate schools so that our children can learn about their background; these schools should have Ad Dharmi administrators and teachers, so that our children are prop­erly taken care of.”49

i.e. Demands for general social reform. These demands called for an end to “bigar” (forced labor),50 and for the government to no longer regard the Scheduled Castes as “castes,” but as “the laboring class.”51 There were also miscellaneous demands against harassment, prejudice, and the like.

Some of these demands appeared to have been met. Or more accu­rately, the conditions to which Mangoo Ram referred were alleviated, and Mangoo Ram took credit for having prompted government into the change. The government recognition of the demand for Ad Dharm’ s listing on the census was obviously something for which Mangoo Rem could, indeed, take some credit. But the Ad Dharm for Scheduled Caste positions in government councils and government jobs may, or may not, has influenced the government’s increased allowances. The case of education is similarly uncertain. Nonetheless, Mangoo Ram was quick to announce victory at each government concession:

“At least 50,000 Ad Dharm children are getting education in various schools. We want to thank the Education Minister from our hearts. Because of our countless requests, he paid attention, and granted free concessions for school tuition up to the primary level (grade IV). After the grade IV only half-fee. Scholarships will be rs 5 more than for other minority peoples (rs 13/month rather than rs 8/month). Also, the pay of Ad Dharm teachers will be rs 25/month rather than rs 20/month. We thank the officers, especially those of Jullundur division, for this act of kindness. They have treated us with great respect; but we especially want to thank Mr. Chaudhri Sadrudin 1Qian, former inspector and ex-headmaster of Normal Schools, for in one year he had a special class of forty Ad Dharm students, who are now teachers. The Ad Dharm qaum will always be grateful to him; even the little Ad Dharm chil­dren will sing his praises:
If I had as many tongues in my body as hair,
I could not thank you enough.”52

The demands were formulated at the mass conferences and rallies of the Ad Dharm movement, and presented to the government by Mangoo Rem and the other leaders in special delegations~ The occasion of government commissions and public hearings also presented an oppor­tunity to air grievances and present demands. As N.G. Barrier has noted, these commission hearings were political events in India; they stirred communal and parochial interests, by presenting a forum for their hearings.53

Perhaps the most significant of the commission hearin5u were those of the Simon Commission, in 1928. The Indian Statutory Com­mission, called “The Simon Commission,” after Sir John Simon, the chairman, was the British government’s attempt to inquire into the workings of the Government of India Act of 1919, to see whether the patterns of diarchy, communal representation and the like, were satisfactory. It was touted as the forerunner to even more sweeping reforms, and the emergence of semi-autonomy for the Indian gov­ernment; but because only British were on the Commission, the Indian National Congress and other nation­alist elements boycotted the hear­ings.

On February 24 - 27, 1928, on the eve of the hearings, there was a meeting of the “All India Depressed Classes Conference” in

Especially those of Jullundur division, for this act of kindness. They have treated us with great respect; but we especially want to thank Mr. Chaudhri Sadrudin Than, former inspector and ex-headmaster of Normal Schools, for in one year he had a special class of forty Ad Dharm students, who are now teachers. The Ad Dharm qaum will always be grateful to him; even the little Ad Dharmi chil­dren will sing his praises:
If I had as many tongues in my body as hair,
I could not thank you enough.”52

The demands were formulated at the mass conferences and rallies the Ad Dharm movement, and presented to the government by Mangoo in and the other leaders in special delegations~ The occasion of lenient commissions and public hearings also presented an opportunity to air grievances and present demands. As N.G. Barrier has said, these commission hearings were political events in India; they feared communal and parochial interests, by presenting a forum for their hearings.53

Perhaps the most significant of the commission hearings were Simon Commission, in 1928. The Indian Statutory Corrosion, called “The Simon Commission,” after Sir John Simon, the Birman, was the British government’s attempt to inquire into the markings of the Government of India Act of 1919, to see whether the terns of diarchy, communal representation and the like, were satisfactory. It was touted as the forerunner to even more sweep reforms, and the emergence of semi-autonomy for the Indian government; but because only British were on the Commission, the hearings were boycotted by the Indian National Congress and other nation’s elements.

On February 24 - 27, 1928, on the eve of the hearings, there s a meeting of the “All India Depressed Classes Conference” in the newspapers at the time, but they did attract the attention of some of the upper caste organizations. A member of the Indian National Congress remembers the appearance of the Ad Dharmis in Lahore during the Simon Commission hearings with some disdain:

“There we were with our big procession, chanting ‘Simon Commission Murdabad,t* and there was Mangoo Ram with his procession, chanting ‘Simon Commission Zindabad. i*~ 62

According to the Ad Dharm Report.. Mangoo Rain and the delegation presented a list of demands to the Simon Commission in “written form and in speeches.”63 In fact, the Ad Dharin delegation even printed their memorandum in three languages (English, Urdu and Gurmukhi), in two editions, by the thousands of copies. Considering all this effort, and the obvious importance to which the Ad Dharin regarded the event, it seems to be something of a pity that there is no indi cation whatsoever that the Ad Dharm delegation actually met the Com­mission. The official record of the hearings has printed in full, the Memoranda and discussion of those delegations appearing before the Commission, but the Ad Dharm is not one of them. This is all the more curious in light of the fact that groups similar to the Ad Dharm appeared before the Connection in other parts of India- -Bombay, Lucknow, and Madras, for examples. But not Punjab. There was apparently some display of unhappiness over the ab­sence of any Scheduled Caste delegation at the Lahore hearings of the Simon Commission. The newspapers report a Sunder Singh com­plaining about the matter; the reply from the Commission was that time was short, and since M.C. Rajah was on the central committee,

“Destroy the Simon Commission,” and “Long live the Simon Corn mission,” respectively. Sort earlier described, plead for support of the Ad Dharin’s argument for qaum status, and assurances that, as quid pro guo, there would be Ad Dharin support for the crown. The Ad Dharm made it quite clear that they were prepared to sup­port the government to embarrassing lengths. The arrival of a new British officer to the Punjab would be the occasion for Ad Dharm Messages of welcome and support. The praise of some British offi­cials was almost religious:

“God has certainly helped the Ad Dharmis, for when we were at the lowest pit of degradation, God sent to us Lord Montmore, the Governor of Punjab, so kind and loving a ruler. All the rights and hope we are being given is due to this angel of mercy, which God has sent to us, in the form of the Governor of the Punjab. We pray earnestly for his long life.”76

Support of the British apparently had a double logic: on one hand, there were direct and positive benefits to be gained by govern­ment policy. And, on the other hand, the government could be used to assert the Achut’s independence from the dominance of the upper castes. The government also had something to gain from supporting the Ad Dharm; for it maintained a loyal community, the Achut, while at the same time keeping that communality from being aligned with a hostile one--the nationalist upper castes.

The Ad Dharm for several reasons, therefore, opposed the Congress movement. Congress was anti-British; and the British had become Ad Dharm’ a friend. Moreover, Congress was dominated by upper caste Hindus, whom the Ad Dharm feared would use whatever power they might accrue in order to dominate the Achut even more. In other words, the Ad Dharm did not want independence, if independence meant government by the upper caste Hindus; they would rather take their chances with the British. The ~Lp!i ~Reoi.t said as much: pushing and shoving; one thing lead to another, and before the day had ended, the Ad Dharmis had broken up the heavy kilns for making salt, beaten up some of the Congressmen, and stolen some of the pots and kettles.83

That incident was perhaps the most violent, but there were other occasions on which the Ad Dharm would appear as obstacles to the goals of Congress. Their response to Nehru’s call for the abol­ishment of separate electorates for all but Muslims, in 1928, is summed up in this statement:

“We hope that . . . the ghost of Untouchability will be sunk, along with the Nehru Report, in the River

During the Round Table Conferences in London in 1930 to 1932, Mangoo Ran sent telegrams to Dr. Ambedkar pledging the Ad Dharm’s support. And when the Round Table Conference talks collapsed in disagreement over separate electorates for the Untouchables7 the Ad Dharm strongly supported Dr. Ambedkar’s position against Gandhi.

Gandhi’s response to the attempt to impose a system of separate electorates for the Untouchable community was as dramatic as it was strong. Gandhi vowed to “fast unto death,” and began, in September 20, 1932, his “epic fast. Perhaps for the first time in India, a crisis of national proportions was centered upon the plight of the Untouchables. As one historian overstated the situation, “it threw the country into a state of alarm, consternation and confusion.

Gandhi’s position was, no doubt, sincerely maintained in the best interest of the Untouchables; he felt that separate electorates would prolong the division of society into caste and Scheduled Caste. Some Scheduled Caste leaders, including the venerable M.C. Rajah, sided.

Understanding the Paradox of Changes among dalits of Punjab

special article
Economic & Political Weekly EPW octoBER 11, 2008 49
cParamjit S Judge, Gurpreet Bal
A study of dalits in two districts of Punjab reveals that
ghettoisation remains common (including in urban
areas). While the traditional caste occupational structure
has changed, this is less so among dalits in rural areas.
Caste endogamy remains the norm.
The study shows that casteism is powerfully
embedded in the collective consciousness. The caste
system is oppressive due to discrimination, exclusion,
exploitation and untouchability, but at the same time it
situates the dalits in the system as a collective identity.
Their desire is to end all kinds of discrimination,
oppression and exclusion, but not the caste system in
its entirety. This is an instance of a deep-rooted
internalisation of a world view.
This paper is based on interviews of 1,600 dalit
respondents randomly selected in Amritsar and
Jalandhar districts of Punjab.
Since independence, the forces that have been unleashed to
ameliorate the conditions of the dalits in India include conscious
efforts on the part of the government through constitutional
provisions, reservation policies and special development
programmes. Besides, there have been numerous instances
of the efforts by the dalits through political mobilisation towards
improving their conditions. All these efforts towards changing
the socio-economic conditions of the dalits for the better are destined
to have a bearing on the caste system as such. This paper is
an attempt, based on empirical investigation, to understand the
paradox involved in the changes that are taking place among the
Punjabi dalits. The main objective of this paper is to examine
whether at the empirical level all these forces have made an
impact with regard to the conditions of the dalits in Punjab.
Equally important is to see whether the caste system has been
eroded at different levels of the lives of the dalits. Ghurye (1969)
identifies the following features of the caste system: segmental
division of society, hierarchy, restriction on feeding and social
intercourse, civil and religious disabilities and privileges of the
different sections, lack of unrestricted choice of occupation and
restrictions on marriage. In certain respects, the present study is
linked to the identification and examination of certain dimensions
of the caste system that are expected to change.
In the specific context of Punjab, with dalits constituting 28.85
per cent of the population of the state, attempts have been made
to identify certain key dimensions of change in the socio-economic
conditions of the dalits [Jodhka 2002 and Judge 2004]. Based on
the empirical research some dimensions have been examined
by
these two studies, namely, social ecology, religious places and
economic conditions.1 Equal attention is needed for the investigation
into the issues that are linked with the way the dalits
construct their orientation towards change with regard to caste
endogamy and caste identity. It may be added that the caste system
and casteism are equally important in impeding and facilitating
certain basic changes in the system. The caste system is
marked by political and economic asymmetry and cultural plurality,
whereas casteism is the system of ideas and principles that
justify the system. As a system of justificatory ideas, casteism is
embedded in the mind and the world view of the people and
may persist longer than the changes in the caste system through
education, occupation and social ecology. Keeping in view the
central features of caste, the following aspects have been examined
here to map the changing (and not so changing) contours of
Punjabi dalits: social ecology, hereditary occupations, religious
places, caste endogamy and caste identity.
The present paper is a part of the report submitted to the University
Grants Commission that funded the project ‘Education, Empowerment,
Emigration and Entrepreneurship: A Sociological Study of Mobility
among the Dalits in Punjab’. The authors wish to acknowledge the
assistance provided by Bhupinder Thakur, Gurpreet Singh and Manoj
Birdi as research staff. Critical comments of M Rajivlochan are gratefully
acknowledged.
We are grateful to the referee of this journal for giving useful
comments as a result of which we have been able to improve the
paper tremendously.
Paramjit S Judge (paramjitjudge@yahoo.co.uk) and Gurpreet Bal
(gbal.judge@gmail.com) are at the Department of Sociology,
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
speciAl article
octoBER 11, 2008 EPW Economic & P 50 olitical Weekly
Before proceeding to a discussion of the above-mentioned aspects
of the changing and perpetuating conditions of the dalits,
it is important to briefly state the methodology of the study. The
study is based on the interview of 1,600 dalit respondents
randomly selected in two districts of Punjab, namely, Amritsar
and Jalandhar. An equal number of the sample (400) was drawn
from each of the four units that were identified as social types,
namely, Amritsar city, Amritsar villages, Jalandhar city and
Jalandhar villages.2
1 S ocial Ecology
The social organisation of physical space is one of the most important
dimensions of understanding change in a society. The
notion of the ghetto basically emerged in the Jewish context in
which it was understood that the Jewish population was confined
to overcrowded localities. There are historical reasons for the
emergence of the phenomenon and in the post-Holocaust period,
the situation has somewhat undergone a
change with regard to the Jews. The ghettos,
however, have not disappeared. It has
been found that ethnic communities and
blacks live in ghettos. Two reasons are ascribed
to the process, namely, a low income
level and sociocultural/racial distinction
from the dominant population of
the community. The latter is so strong
that it tends to become the only reason
for ghettoisation. An informal network
develops in which the dominant community
creates a system of checks to
ensure the denial of entry to the “others”
as residents in the locality. In other
words, the social organisation of space
occurs in such a manner that the
economic dimension in the determination
of physical space gets marginalised.3
It is important to mention that few attempts have been made to
understand the social organisation of the urban physical space
with regard to the dalits. One of the ways of understanding the
social organisation of space is to know the caste background of
the neighbours. It is important to begin our discussion on the
neighbourhood patterns. Table 1 shows the caste background of
the two neighbours of the respondents. It may be pointed out that
the respondents were asked to reveal the caste background of the
neighbours residing on both sides of their houses.
It is evident from the data that the respondents have been predominantly
living in a neighbourhood where the people of their
own caste reside. The fact that draws immediate attention is that
even the cities are not free from caste-based neighbourhoods.4
The social ecology of the urban areas acquires importance
because
of the general understanding that cities are the modern
centres where caste distinctions do not operate in the market situation.
Possession of capital and goods for exchange becomes the
most crucial basis of interaction. So far as the market is concerned,
similar principles may operate, though the western
experiences of immigrants reveal that even the market situation
could create exclusionary practices on the basis of birth-ascribed
features. Influenced by the city life in the western countries and
repulsed by the Indian village life, B R Ambedkar did not only
create a critique of the village republic the way it was constructed
by the British administrators [Moon 1989], but also asked the
dalits to leave the villages and go to the cities [Virdi 2004]. However,
as Judge and Bal (2005) have argued, the migration
of the
Punjabi dalits neither followed any such perception that their
conditions would undergo change nor was there any increase in
migration rate. Even now the proportion of the dalits in urban
Punjab is less than that of villages. As a matter of fact the expanding
cities have enveloped the villages that made many of them
city-dwellers. The city was to them a place where the market situation
could be clearly separated from the residential space. In the
case of residential spaces the concentration of dalits in certain
localities is obvious. It is evident from the data in Table 2 that in
the case of 18 wards in Amritsar and 21 wards in Jalandhar the
percentages of the scheduled castes
(SCs) are above their population percentage
in the state ranging from 29 to
85 per cent.
There is another fact that comes to
the fore in the case of all the localities
in both the cities. In Amritsar, balmikis
in Gowal Mandi, mazabis in Guru Ki
Wadali and meghs in Haripura localities
are in an overwhelming majority.
In Jalandhar ad-dharmis/chamars in
Boota Mandi and Mithapur, balmikis
in Ali Mohalla and meghs in Bhargo
Camp are living in their own caste
localities. In such a situation in which
social ecology corresponds with the
caste background, the classical notion
of the city is seriously challenged. The
political
economy perspective would
lead us to the understanding that such a situation could have
emerged due to the overlapping of class and caste positions. It
may be partially true. But it was seen that even in the case of economic
mobility, as is illustrated by the ad-dharmis of Boota
Mandi, social ecology is marginally altered. The prosperous addharmi
respondents had then started living in the adjoining
Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar in palatial houses, but the locality was
still mainly inhabited by the ad-dharmis. Sharma (2003) in his
study of a small town in Rajasthan has shown how the social
organisation
of space is closely associated with the caste. There is
a likelihood of a small town showing the ecological segregation
of castes. The interesting
aspect is that all the big cities of Punjab
like Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar have the same kind of
pattern. Such a pattern organises the social space in such a way
that the perpetuation
of caste identities seems highly probable.
At the same time, such aggregation of people of one caste at one
place facilitates the mobilisation process.
The villages hardly show any changed scenario with regard to
the settlement pattern. As is evident from Table 1, the dalits
continue to have segregated houses. In the villages of Amritsar
Table 1: Caste Background of Two Neighbours
Caste Status Urban Rural Total
Same caste 736 (92.00) 766 (95.75) 1,502 (93.88)
Both higher 7 (0.87) 15 (1.88) 22 (1.37)
One same, one higher 48 (6.00) 18 (2.25) 66 (4.12)
One high, one lower 9 (1.13) 1 (0.12) 10 (0.63)
Total 800 (100) 800 (100) 1,600 (100)
Figures in brackets are columnwise percentages.
Table 2: Number of Wards according to the Percentage of the
Scheduled Castes in Amritsar and Jalandhar
% of the Amritsar Jalandhar
Scheduled Castes Number % Number %
of Wards of Wards of Wards of Wards
0-5 16 25.81 6 10.91
5-10 11 17.74 4 7.27
10-20 13 20.97 18 32.73
20-29 4 6.45 6 10.91
29-50 16 25.81 13 23.64
50-85 2 3.22 8 14.55
Total 62 100 55 100
Source: Census of India, 2001.
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Economic & Political Weekly EPW octoBER 11, 2008 51
district the dalit locality is called ‘thathi’, whereas in the Jalandhar
district it is called ‘chamarhli’ [Judge 2004]. It is already
argued by many scholars that the location of the dalit colony is
towards the southern-western direction of the village.
2 Hereditary Occupations
Occupational mobility is an indicator of both economic and social
mobility. Sociologists take occupation, education and income as
the determining variables of the class position of the individuals
and families. Occupations do not change in a makeshift manner,
as there is a definite relationship between economic change
and the emergence of new occupations that require certain
skills. Capitalism/industrialisation is credited with creating
occupational diversification that broke the traditional hereditary
character. In India, caste and occupation had close
proximity
to the extent that even the caste names could reveal the
nature of hereditary occupation. For example, chamar, mochi,
bhangi, lohar, nai are some of the caste names that are the names
of the occupations as well. In the existential world of village India,
the caste name invariably invoked the occupation. For example, jat
meant peasant, saini meant vegetable grower, julaha meant
weaver, and so on. Obviously, the arrival of capitalism
with new occupations
that required education was destined to break the correspondence
between caste and occupation.
There has been a lot of diversification
of occupations among the dalits,
which is clear from the fact that the
dalit respondents are involved in as
many as 46 occupations in both the urban
and rural areas. However, everything
has not changed. As is evident
from the data in Table 3, 28.75 per cent
in the cities and 49.5 per cent of the
dalits respondents in villages are still
involved in the low status occupations.
In the case of male respondents, sweeping
and agricultural
labour, and in the
case of female respondents and male respondents’ wives, to be a
maidservant or domestic help is the predominant occupation. It
was also noticed that many of them tried to conceal their occupation.
Table 3 also shows that among the respondents 17.12 per
cent in urban areas and 9.66 per cent in rural areas do not have
any occupation. A probe into the matter reveals that they had
actually concealed the fact that they were either sweepers
or maidservants.
Understanding the change and persistence in the occupations
of the dalits depends upon how we look into the matter with regard
to the occupational characteristics of the respondents. One
way of understanding is that there has been a definite change in
occupations as there is some percentage (about 6 per cent) of respondents
occupying prestigious occupations as they are industrialists,
big traders, large landowners, etc, whereas the other
would be that some of the respondents are still located on the
lowest occupational rungs. It is also plausible that there is a class
formation among the dalits. Another way of looking at
the empirical reality is that change is taking place in a gradual
manner. It may be pointed out that dalit castes have also been at
the bottom of the class structure. They were involved in polluting
occupations. There is a difference between caste and class mobility.
One is related with status enhancement, whereas the other is
economic. In the case of dalits the two were combined and it
could be anticipated that if the dalits stopped doing defiling
work their status could change. Such a change has occurred in
a limited fashion though the nexus between caste and occupation
has been fractured.
3 R eligious Places
All the respondents, irrespective of their rural or urban
backgrounds, were assertive with regard to one query, namely,
whether they were allowed to enter the temple/gurdwara belonging
to upper dominant castes. What was that assertion? There is
no restriction on their entering any temple/gurdwara. Rather
many balmiki respondents in both Amritsar and Jalandhar cities
laughed at the query and declared that “nobody could dare stop
us from entering a temple”. However, the dalits of Punjab are
struggling against the upper dominant castes, particularly the jat
Sikhs, on issues concerning the religious places. The issue of religious
places has historically evolved in two phases. First, it was
related with the right to worship in the temple. Ambedkar led
dalits to make a forced entry in the temples
in the initial stages of his struggle for
equality of worship [Zelliot 1970]. The
second stage began when the dalits
either had their own religious places or
they started “reclaiming” their religious
places. So far as the issue of entry into
religious places is concerned, it has
almost been settled. Jodhka (2002) and
Judge (2004) have noted the practice of
not allowing dalits to enter the temple in
Patiala district. But, such instances in
Punjab are rare.
The issue of religious place is an important
dimension of intercaste interaction and caste system.
One dimension of religious place is what Jodhka (2002) has
brought out in his study, wherein he noted that in 51 villages the
dalits had their own gurdwaras though the number of such villages
could be much more. It has been pointed out that there are 10,000
dalit gurdwaras in Punjab [Webster 2007]. The implication of
this finding could be very interesting. One of the interpretations
of this empirical fact is that the dalits are not allowed to enter the
gurdwara and in protest they have constructed their gurdwaras
[Jodhka 2002 and Bal 2007]. The practice of untouchability at
religious places among the Sikhs is almost absent in the Doaba
region of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawan Shahar
districts of Punjab.5 There is a widely held belief that there
is caste hierarchy among the Sikhs though the caste system
lacks rigidity that is prevalent in other parts of the country. The
existence of the practice of untouchability is invariably denied.
There is another way of understanding the issue of the separate
gurdwaras. Let us look into the historical and anthropological
dimensions of the religious places and their caste-linked
Table 3: Categorywise Occupational Levels of the Respondents
Occupational Prestige Category* Urban Rural Total
I 25 (3.12) 16 (2.00) 41 (2.56)
II 46 (5.75) 9 (1.12) 55 (3.44)
III 8 (1.00) 1(0.12) 9 (0.56)
IV 58 (7.25) 20 (2.20) 78 (4.73)
V 171 (21.38) 147 (18.38) 318 (19.69)
VI 124 (15.50) 133 (16.62) 257 (16.06)
VII 231 (28.88) 396 (49.50) 627 (39.18)
VIII/NA 137 (17.12) 78 (9.66) 215 (13.43)
Total 800 (100) 800 (100) 1,600 (100)
*These occupational categories have been constructed on the basis of
D’souza (1985). These categories have been arranged in descending
order in terms of prestige of the occupation.
Figures in brackets are columnwise percentages.
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octoBER 11, 2008 EPW Economic & P 52 olitical Weekly
existence in Punjab, which, metaphorically, could be stated as “a
religious place of one’s own”. Historically, the social structure of
a Punjab village typically followed the all-India pattern in which
the entire social organisation revolved around agriculture. In the
present Punjab, prominent castes of landowners are jats, sainis,
lobanas, kambohs, mahatons, khatris and brahmins. The numerically
preponderant and politically dominant caste among them
in Punjab is that of the jats. Since more information is available
on the jats, it is appropriate to select them for an illustration of
the entire issue. The jat landowner traditionally had a large
number of service castes that were related to him under the
“Jajmani” system. As the entire village community depended on
agrarian production for its existence and livelihood, the landowner
occupied the central position so far as the economic life of
the village was concerned [Judge 2002]. All other castes were
limited in number except for the agricultural workers who invariably
belonged to the dalit castes. This fact of the existence of the
service castes and their proportion in the population of village
has been noticed by Dirks (2002: 76) in India in general, “No village
contained more than a few of these families…”. The construction
of a religious place in such a situation could only be
done under the patronage of the landowning caste.
Most of the villages in the Doaba region in particular are without
any temple despite the presence of the Hindus, whereas all
the jat Sikh villages have gurdwaras. Over a period of time, the
number of gurdwaras in the villages has begun to rise. There is a
general impression that there is a caste basis for the gurdwaras.
Each caste tends to have its own gurdwara. Such an observation
is partially true. To understand the reality underneath, one may
raise a question as to why the jats have more gurdwaras if the
logic of caste basis is taken into consideration. As a matter of fact
there is a gurdwara for each locality called ‘patti’ in Punjab. The
dalits having their separate gurdwara is a recent phenomenon.
The green revolution process brought changes in the Punjab
economy and society. The arrival of migrant labour pushed the
dalits out of the agrarian relations, as they were displaced as
agricultural
labourers due to which they had to go to the cities to
look for work in the non-agricultural sector. The conditions of the
dalits relatively improved and they diverted their attention to the
affairs of god. The balmikis constructed their temples, addharmis
their Ravidas temples and ramdasias and mazabis their
gurdwaras. It should be pointed out that so long as a caste community
is poverty-stricken and its members are finding it difficult
to make both ends meet, it may not be able to construct its
temple or gurdwara in the village. In the case of the Sikhs it is
quite probable that during the period of the Singh Sabha movement
the construction of gurdwaras according
to the locality and
caste was discouraged due to its claim of equality among all the
Sikhs. The conversion of jats to Sikhism in the Doaba region at
the turn of the 20th century due to the proselytisation
activities
of the Singh Sabha movement leads us to raise a pertinent question,
that is, what did happen to their religious places of worship?
Since the jats as the landowning
class had a Hindu past, it was
expected that they might have constructed some temples. We
know that so far as ancestor worship is concerned those places
are still intact. However, the question of temples relating the
jats to their Hindu past has not been settled. There are two possibilities.
One, there were no temples of any sort in the villages
of Punjab. Second, the jats after their conversion to Sikhism
appropriated
the sacred place as well.
So far as the Doaba region of Punjab is concerned, the above
argument holds well, but the Majha region in which Amritsar
district falls presents a different case. During data collection the
mazabi respondents of Amritsar district reported caste-based
exclusion of religious practices. Many of them said that the upper
caste Sikhs did not allow them to carry the sacred book to their
residence for purpose of performing various rituals/ceremonies
on the pretext that their houses were dirty. Similar information
was given by the mazabis of Guru Ki Wadali – an erstwhile village
that has become a locality of Amritsar city. No such thing
was reported in Jalandhar district. The respondents while asked
about the religious places said that their villages
had common
gurdwara(s). It clearly shows that a certain degree of religious
exclusion is practised in some parts of Punjab.
It may be reiterated that a separate gurdwara does not imply
that its existence is a consequence of exclusion. There are three
kinds of gurdwaras of the Sikhs. First, there are historical gurdwaras.
These gurdwaras are linked with the Sikh gurus or certain
events in the Sikh history. The Golden Temple in Amritsar
is one of the examples of historical gurdwaras. The second type
of a gurdwara is what have now become very well-known religious
places, namely the ‘deras’.6 The deras are a part of both
the Hindu and the Sikh religious traditions of Punjab; and if we
take the Sufi tradition into consideration, then it is possible to
put even the places of the Sufi ‘fakirs’ as a part of the same tradition.
In the early medieval period, there were deras of ‘Nath
yogis’. Sufi saints had their own deras. After the emergence of
Sikhism, the institution of deras could be found among them.
The ‘nirmalas’ and the ‘udasis’ had their own deras. These
deras have also come into conflict with the mainstream
religious establishments. Recently, deras have also become
places of contestation among different castes. The third kind of
gurdwaras is called the social gurdwaras. It is here that the
issue of untouchability or exclusion has emerged. In the 10
villages studied in Amritsar and Jalandhar districts, there was
no historical gurdwara.
A question was asked about the number of religious places and
their responses are given in Table 4. It is interesting to note that
Table 4: Number of Religious Places in Each Village
Village Jat/Kamboh Common Mazabi Hindu Dera Sufi Church Balmiki Ravidas
Gurdwara Gurdwara Gurdwara Temple Pir’s Tomb Temple Mandir
Gehri 1 1 2 1 1
Galowali 1 1 1 1
Bhoma 1 3 1 2 1
Kotli Dhole Shah 1 1 1 1
Nawan Pind 1 1 1 1 1
Udhowal 2 8 1
Adharman 1 1 2 1
Meham 2 1 2 1 1
Bath 1 1 16
Mehtpur 2 8 1 1
Total 7 7 6 6 3 39 3 7 2
(First five villages are from Amritsar district, whereas the rest five are from the Jalandhar district.)
special article
Economic & Political Weekly EPW octoBER 11, 2008 53
there was a clear-cut distinction between the Amritsar and
Jalandhar villages. In the case of Amritsar villages, the predominant
trend was to identify the gurdwara with the caste, whereas
the villages in Jalandhar district had the predominance of common
gurdwaras. Notably, the mazabis and balmikis abound in
terms of religious places though the largest number of religious
places in villages was that of Muslim Sufi saints. The Muslims of
the eastern Punjab migrated to the western part of Punjab after
Partition. However, it may be noted that while mosques in villages
have disappeared, the tombs of Sufi saints are well-maintained. It
implies that the composite religious tradition of Punjab has not
been completely eliminated by the efforts at constructing a single
religious tradition.
Finally, the existence of a distinct religious space is a different
dimension from that of a separate gurdwara if the issue implicates
the religious practices of the dalits. Comparing to the ideal
typical constructions of the deprivation of dalits, the existence of
a place of worship is a major transformation
in the conditions of the dalits.
The issue of the gurdwara is complex
because some of the respondents reported
discrimination that comes close
to untouchability. However, the construction
of the gurdwara on the part
of the Sikh dalits could be considered
in terms of their ability to do so. Caste
was always present and strong even earlier. It was not what
Gupta (2007) thinks about the rising tide of caste consciousness,
rather the change is with regard to the rising awareness of
the dalit castes and its manifestation in the public sphere. The
political economy of the religious place indicates that there is
some improvement in the economic conditions of the dalits. The
existence of separate gurdwaras for different castes presents an
illustration of untouchability
as well as of dalit mobility however
limited it may be.7
4 E ndogamy and Intercaste Marriages
Caste endogamy is regarded as one of the major citadels on which
the caste system rests. The notions and practice of hypergamy
and hypogamy existed in the Indian tradition, but these are more
a part of mythological stories than reporting of actual cases. The
combination of caste endogamy and the institution of arranged
marriage have made caste almost a permanent system. Caste endogamy
is also a result of a principle that has transformed into a
mentality. Vovelle (1990: 12) defines the examination of mentality
“as the study of the mediations and of the dialectical
relationship
between the objective conditions of human life and the ways
in which people narrate it, and even live it”. In a way the notion
of mentality implicates the combination of objective and subjective
conditions with a difference from traditional understanding
of this dichotomy. The subjective is understood in terms of
how it is narrated/told. It seems natural to think, expect and
anticipate that the people belonging to the lower castes whose
stake is in the demolition and destruction of the system would
support intercaste marriages. Caste identity presupposes
endogamy in spite of the fact that in a patriarchal system the
identity of the male is more important than that of the
female. The respondents were asked to give their views on
the significance of caste endogamy if they thought that it was
desirable. Table 5 indicates the views of the respondents with
regard to caste endogamy.
It is obvious that the dalit respondents living in villages overwhelmingly
consider caste endogamy significant in comparison
to the urban dalits. Less than 3 per cent of rural respondents
stated that caste did not matter, whereas 29.12 per cent of the
respondents
in the urban areas viewed endogamy as insignificant.
In both the settings there was comprehensive support for
caste endogamy. Tradition is a vague word and the caste system
could be plausibly regarded as a part of Indian tradition. Since
the rural respondents are supporting caste endogamy, it is clear
that this view cuts across caste lines. On the other hand, a considerable
proportion of the urban respondents regarded caste endogamy
as not significant. Keeping in view this fact, it is proper to
see the castewise
responses of the
urban respondents. The conjecture is
that the ad-dharmis and meghs would
be more tilted towards the insignificance
of caste endogamy than those
of mazabis and balmikis.
The data presented in Table 6 show
clearly that among those who emphasised
traditions as the reason for
supporting caste endogamy, the majority belonged to the
mazabi, ad-dharmi/chamar and sansi castes. At the same time,
among the ad-dharmi respondents one-fourth of them considered
the issue unimportant. If we take a closer look at this table
and see how each caste is distributed in terms of its emphasis
on caste endogamy, then only meghs could be considered to
be more amenable to marginalise caste endogamy. In that
sense, our conjecture is partially substantiated. The second
main caste that does not attach a crucial significance to caste
endogamy is that of the balmikis. It may be concluded that the
dalit castes consider caste endogamy significant as a part of
the tradition.
Related with the issue of endogamy is the event of intercaste
marriage. The respondents were asked whether intercaste marriages
could destroy the caste system. The responses are given in
Table 7 (p 54 ). Again there are rural-urban differences in the
sense that 96 per cent of the urban respondents are of the view
that it is possible to end the caste system if intercaste marriages
Table 5: Significance of Caste Endogamy
Significance Urban Rural Total
Tradition 518 (64.75) 775 (96.88) 1,293 (80.82)
Better understanding 20 (2.50) 1 (0.12) 21 (1.31)
Family support 24 (3.00) 1 (0.12) 25 (1.56)
Does not matter 233 (29.12) 23 (2.88) 256 (16.00)
Do not know 5 (0.63) - 5 (0.31)
Total 800 (100) 800 (100) 1,600 (100)
Figures in brackets are columnwise percentages.
Table 6: Castewise Responses: Why Caste Endogamy Is Significant (Urban)
Responses Caste Tradition Better Family Does Not No Total
Understanding Support Matter Response
between
Spouses
Ad-dharmi/chamar 150 (71.77) 2 (0.95) 4 (1.91) 53 (25.36) - 209 (100)
Megh/kabir panthi 141 (57.08) 4 (1.62) 9 (3.64) 92 (37.25) 1 (0.40) 247(100)
Balmikis 109 (56.48) 7 (3.63) 5 (2.59) 71 (36.78) 1 (0.52) 193 (100)
Mazabi 108 (80.59) 7 (5.22) 5 (3.73) 13 (9.70) 1 (0.75) 134 (100)
Sansis 3 (100) - - - - 3 (100)
Dumnas 7 (50.00) - 1 (7.14) 4 (28.57) 2 (14.29) 14 (100)
Total 518(64.75) 20 (2.50) 24 (3.00) 233 (29.12) 5 (0.62) 800 (100)
Figures in brackets are rowwise percentages.
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octoBER 11, 2008 EPW Economic & P 54 olitical Weekly
come into practice. Interestingly, most of the rural respondents
have showed uncertainty with regard to intercaste marriages.
They remain undecided about the issue. The urban respondents
are more articulate
with regard to the issue than the rural
respondents. One of the reasons is that all the urban respondents
have personal knowledge of such marriages due to which many
of them think that such marriages never succeed or caste is deeprooted.
An attempt was also made to further examine the urban
respondents. Table 8
presents castewise
data on whether intercaste
marriages
could destroy the
caste system. Predictably,
the ad-dharmis,
meghs, sansis and
dumnas constituted
the major proportion
of those respondents
who were of the view that it was possible to end the caste
system through intercaste marriages. Balmikis and mazabis were
not sure of the proposition.
In terms of education, as shown in Table 9, the responses are
predictable. It is widely understood that education creates awareness.
Obviously, educated respondents in the urban areas consider
the proposition as a possibility. It may be further pointed
out that even the educated respondents are not wholeheartedly
supporting the view.
The issue of intercaste marriage has wider ramifications. In
a society in which modern institutions provide space for
interaction among people belonging to different castes, there
is always a possibility of certain frequency of intercaste marriages.
The issue is also related to how the other caste
groups understand it.
The following may not be a common occurrence, but such cases
appear once in a while: Despite filing a writ in the Punjab and
Haryana High Court for security, a couple – Ashwani Kumar and
Baljeet Kaur – were murdered by the girl’s relatives – “punishment” for
marrying against her family’s wishes.
Ashwani, a Balmiki, and Baljeet, a jat, belonged to Rauli village falling
under Mehtpur police station (The Sunday Tribune, July 15, 2007, p 1).
The case refers to the area in Jalandhar district from
where the sample of villages was drawn for the present study. In
contrast to Amritsar district, the dalits of Jalandhar district, as
we have seen, have done well in different walks of life. However,
the upper caste dominant jats do not think so. There is
still another issue with regard to intercaste marriages. Can we
look at the possibility of intercaste marriages among the dalits?
The same rule applies here also. The caste hierarchy among
the dalits prevents any possibility of breaking caste barriers
through intercaste marriages [Judge 2002].
However, it is equally important to know the actual number
of intercaste marriages in which at least one of the couple is
from a dalit caste. Table 10 gives the data on the cases of intercaste
marriages in which dalits are involved. The data could be
interpreted in various ways of which three seem plausible. Let
us first look into the dominant pattern. A majority of cases
(56.35 per cent) reporting intercaste marriages are that of
between a dalit boy and a non-dalit girl. One of the reasons
could be that since the dalit boys are socially more mobile
than dalit girls, owing to the factor of patriarchy, the mobile
and educated dalits can marry from the upper castes. An
illustration of this could be given of the family of Steven Kaler
in Boota Mandi, Jalandhar who is a factory owner. The castes
of the wives of his three brothers are brahmin, upper caste
Jain and khatri.
Secondly, in some cases the girls belong to the backward
classes like nai and jheer, where the differences in the positions
in the caste hierarchy could not have evoked a hostile response.
Thirdly, a case of a non-dalit girl marrying a dalit boy is invariably
controversial and the family of the girl opposes it. The
conflict tends to keep the case alive in memory. On the other
hand, a dalit girl marrying a non-dalit boy makes the girl
invisible as she leaves the locality and there is not much reaction
to such cases. After some time the case is forgotten.
However,
it is clear that despite all preferences for cast endogamy
and reactions against intercaste marriages, change is also taking
Table 7: Whether Intercaste Marriages Can
Destroy Caste Systems
Response Urban Rural Total
Possible 384 (96.00) 16 (4.00) 400 (100)
Desirable 107 (52.45) 97 (47.55) 204 (100)
Caste is deeprooted
140 (92.72) 11 (7.28) 151 (100)
Such marriages
do not succeed 36 (92.31) 3 (7.69) 39 (100)
Undecided 133 (16.50) 673 (83.50) 806 (100)
Total 800 (50.00) 800 (50.00) 1,600 (100)
Figures in brackets are rowwise percentages.
Table 8: Castewise Responses to Whether Intercaste Marriages Can End Caste
System (Urban)
Responses Caste Possible Desirable Caste Is Such Marriages No Total
Deep-rooted Do Not Response
Succeed
Ad-dharmi/
chamar 125 (59.81) 25 (11.96) 17 (8.13) 9 (4.31) 33 (15.79) 209 (100)
Megh/
kabir panthi 138 (55.87) 38 (15.38) 35 (14.17) 2 (0.81) 34 (13.76) 247 (100)
Balmikis 71 (36.79) 28 (14.51) 52 (26.94) 9 (4.66) 33 (17.10) 193 (100)
Mazabi 40 (29.85) 16 (11.94) 32 (23.88) 15 (11.19) 31 (23.13) 134 (100)
Sansis 3 (100) - - - - 3 (100)
Dumnas 7 (50.00) - 4 (28.57) 1 (7.14) 2 (14.28) 14 (100)
Total 384 (48.00) 107 (13.38) 140 (17.50) 36(4.50) 133 (16.62) 800 (100)
Figures in brackets are rowwise percentages.
Table 9: Intermarriages as a Means to End the Caste System according to the
Education of the Respondents (Urban)
Responses Caste Possible Desirable Caste Is Such Marriages No Total
Deep-rooted Do Not Response
Succeed
Illiterate 28 (7.29) 11 (10.28) 33 (23.57) 11 (30.56) 30 (22.56) 113 (14.12)
Literate 11 (2.86) 2 (1.87) 8 (5.71) 3 (8.33) 4 (3.01) 28 (3.50)
Primary 55 (14.32) 21 (19.63) 24 (17.14) 5 (13.89) 25 (18.80) 130 (16.25)
Middle 59 (15.36) 16 (14.95) 36 (25.71) 4 (11.11) 21 (15.78) 136 (17.00)
Matriculation 99 (25.78) 35 (32.72) 28 (20.00) 7 (19.44) 37 (27.82) 206 (25.75)
+2 53 (13.81) 12 (11.21) 4 (2.86) 3 (8.33) 9 (6.77) 80 (10.00)
College/graduate 53 (13.81) 7 (6.54) 5 (3.57) - 5 (3.76) 71 (8.88)
Postgraduate 7 (1.82) 2 (1.87) - - 2 (1.50) 11 (1.38)
Diploma/
professional degree 19 (4.95) 1 (0.93) 2 (1.43) 3 (8.33) - 25 (3.12)
Total 384 (100) 107 (100) 140 (100) 36 (100) 133 (100) 800 (100)
Figures in brackets are columnwise percentages.
Table 10: Incidence of Intercaste Marriages Involving Dalits
Caste Status of the Couple Amritsar Amritsar District Jalandhar Jalandhar District Total
Boy dalit, girl dalit 13 (27.66) 3 (25.00) 8 (17.78) 3 (13.63) 27 (21.43)
Boy dalit, girl non-dalit 20 (42.55) 7 (58.33) 32 (71.11) 12 (54.55) 71 (56.35)
Boy non-dalit, girl dalit 14 (29.79) 2 (16.67) 5 (11.11) 7 (31.82) 28 (22.22)
Total 47 (37.30) 12 (9.53) 45 (35.71) 22 (17.46) 126 (100)
(100) (100) (100) (100)
Figures in brackets are columnwise percentages.
special article
Economic & Political Weekly EPW octoBER 11, 2008 55
place. However, the general response of the dalit respondents
regarding intercaste marriage is negative.
5 Dalit Identity
The project of ending the caste system seems to have lost direction
in the face of tradition and resilience of caste. The defining
features of caste clearly have showed that the attack on caste has
to take place from all fronts if it is to be destroyed. If the caste
differences do not disappear or wither away with all round efforts,
then the next logical question is what is to be done? Is it
possible to end a system that has been in existence for centuries
with the stroke of a pen or micro-level efforts? One of the
preconditions for the destruction of the caste system is the end
of all caste-based identities.
One of the numerous castes of Punjab is that of the jats. They
are also the dominant caste in the villages. They are proud of
their jat identity. Similarly, the graffiti written on four-wheelers
like trucks in particular would show the arrogant jat displaying
himself. The most popular graffiti is ‘putt jattan de’ (sons of jats).
No other caste group would find such mention. Recently, a similar
trend could be found among the chamars of Punjab, as is evident
from the following
graffiti: ‘putt chamaran de’ (sons of chamars),
then “chamar power”. However, the following graffiti behind a
truck is notable for its identity assertion: ‘Awen bharam ne
mutiaran de, marhi neet rakhade munde chamaran de’ (Young
women are mistaken in thinking that the chamar boys have evil
intentions). Such examples may be rare, but present before us a
different trend in the caste issue. There has been a rise in caste
assertion and it is not from the upper castes where it was
always present. The dalits have begun to assert their caste identity.
The contemporary political scenario is also favourable to such
assertion. Mayawati’s coming to power in Uttar Pradesh is an important
aspect of this assertion. Whatever might be her political
strategy, she essentially represents dalits. The present is marked
by the perpetuation of caste in which the politics of numbers
has led to a situation where it is in the interest of the dalits to
articulate and manifest and maintain their caste identities.
6 C onclusions
The findings of the empirical study point towards the paradox of
change among dalits. At the level of the caste system, inequalities
and exclusion continue to show their existence, the evidence of
which could be ascertained on the basis of data on social ecology,
occupation and access to religious places. Secondly, at the level of
casteism as a world view the dalits are unable to construct the
plausibility of a society without caste. The relevance and indispensability
of caste in marriage has been largely accepted by them
though there are apprehensions that without ending caste endogamy
caste may not disappear. Articulation of dalit identity for political
gains in the electoral process is again an important issue of
concern. From the perspective of the dalits, the end of the caste
system is the most radical change that could be thought of. The
traditions, however, do not allow the dalits to emerge as a homogeneous
category. Casteism is powerfully embedded in the collective
consciousness of the dalits as a result of which their orientation
towards caste system is ambivalent. For them the caste system
is oppressive due to discrimination, exclusion, exploitation
and untouchability, but, at the same time, it situates them in the
system as a collective identity. Their desire is to end all kinds of
discrimination, oppression and exclusion, but not the caste system.
It is an instance of deep-rooted internalisation
of a world
view – a process of reification in which like the Marxian market
and relations emerging from that caste becomes a natural, absolute
and ahistorical fact for members of the society. While the
need is to think of Indian society without caste, the possibility of
caste differences without inequality seems real.
Notes
1 Jodhka (2002) has examined the issue of untouchability
by further probing into the issues like access
to village streets, sharing of drinking water sources,
unclean occupation, practice of untouchability in
modern institutions, police behaviour, etc.
2 Each unit has distinct social characteristics in terms of
caste. For example, Amritsar city consists of balmikis,
mazabis and meghs, Amritsar village mainly the
mazabis, Jalandhar city balmikis, ad-dharmis and
meghs and Jalandhar villages were comprised addharmis
and balmikis. It may be informed that the
dalits are 28.78 per cent in the Amritsar district and
37.69 per cent in Jalandhar district.
3 There could be an exception to the general rule in
the sense that in the class society some rich
blacks, such as Oprah Winfrey, may be living in
the posh and white-dominated neighbourhood.
4 Judge and Bal (2005) have shown how the organisation
of the social space in Amritsar and
Jalandhar cities in the case of the dalits exhibits
strong association with caste.
5 The following empirical observation may be important
in understanding how untouchability has declined
in the Doaba region: In village Ajram in
Hoshiapur district there are three gurdwaras out of
which one belongs to the jats and the other non-dalit
castes, and two to the ad-dharmis. When the authors
attended a ‘bhog’ ceremony in the gurdwara meant
for the jats and other non-dalits, it was interesting
to find that the priest belonged to the julaha caste.
This priest was a stopgap arrangement, because the
gurdwara priest was unwell and he belonged to
the mazabi caste. The person who prepared the
‘langar’ (community food) belonged to the ad-dharmi
caste. On top of that, the women who were
cooking chapattis belonged to the bazigar caste.
6 Recently, clashes between ‘Sikhs’ and the followers
of Sacha Sauda sect have made the word ‘dera’
common.
7 The issue of religious places provides for varying
interpretation largely due to the complexity involved
in the situation. Having a separate gurdwara
thus could also be understood as “assertion for
autonomy” as stated by Jodhka (2002) though religious
communities tend to construct horizontal
solidarity unless there are internal sectarian fissions.
References
Bal, Gian Singh (2007): ‘Viaktigat Suntarata, Dera
Sacha Sauda Vivad and Dalit-Kisan Samasya’,
Nawan Zamana, July 22 (Punjabi).
Dirks, Nicholas B (2002): Castes of Mind: Colonialism and
the Making of Modern India, Permanent Black,
New Delhi.
D’souza, Victor S (1985): Economic Development, Social
Structure and Population Growth, Sage, New Delhi.
Ghurye, G S (1969): Caste and Race in India, Popular
Prakashan, Bombay.
Gupta, Dipankar (2007): ‘The Threat from Within’,
Hindustan Times, July 28.
Jodhka, Surinder S (2002): ‘Caste and Untouchability
in Rural Punjab’, Economic & Political Weekly,
May 11, pp 1813-23.
Judge, Paramjit S (2002): ‘Punjabis in England: The
Ad-Dharmi Experience’, The Economic & Political
Weekly, August 3, pp 3244-50.
– (2004): ‘Interrogating Changing Status of the
Dalits of Punjab’ in Harish K Puri (ed), Dalits in
Regional Context, Rawat, Jaipur, pp 100-31.
Judge, Paramjit S and Gurpreet Bal (2005): ‘Dalits
and Urban Social Space’, Indian Social Science
Review, 7(2), July-December, pp 98-120.
Moon, Vasant (1989): Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar:
Writings and Speeches, Vol 5, Government of
Maharashtra, Bombay.
Sharma, K L (2003): ‘The Social Organisation of Urban
Space: A Case Study of Chanderi – A Small Town
in Central India’, Contributions to Indian Sociology,
Vol 37, No 3, September-December.
Virdi, S L (2004): Bahujan Manifesto, Guru Ravi Dass
Society of Calgary, Calgary.
Vovelle, Michel (1990): Ideologies and Mentalities,
Polity Press, Cambridge.
Webster, John C B (2007): ‘The Dalit Sikhs: A History?’
in Tony Ballantyne (ed), Textures of the Sikh Past:
New Historical Perspectives, Oxford University
Press, New Delhi, pp 132-54.
Zelliot, Eleanor (1970): ‘Learning to Use Political Means:
The Mahars of Maharashtra’ in Rajini Kothari (ed),
Caste in Indian Politics, Orient Longman, New Delhi,
pp 29-69.

Mayawati's Govt Sanctions Untouchability in Govt. Schools

"Mayawati's SARVJAN GOVERNMENT officially sanctions UNTOUCHABILTY in Govt. Schools"
Reference news captioned "Phool Kumari sits on dharna at VidhanSabha" in Indian Express reproduced in Dalits in News dated 21st,December. It clearly establishes that Mayawati's Sarvjan govt. has now officially sanctioned UNTOUCHABILITY in govt. schools. The Dalit lady appointed as cook for preparing mid-day meals in a school right in the capital city of Lucknow has been dismissed on the ground that the village Pardhan had appointed her in a wrong manner. But the fact remains that her appointment was hundred percent correct as per the govt. orders. Now an OBC woman has been appointed in her place. This action of the govt. officials has triggered a chain reaction in other Govt. schools in U.P. It has appeared in media that high caste students of a school in Kannauj district have also refused to take food cooked by a Dalit lady cook. Thus U.P. Govt. headed by a Dalit Lady has officially sactioned UNTOUCHABILITY in govt. schools. The right course of action should have been to take action under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against the Brahmin Principl who instigated the students to bycott the food cooked by a Dalit cook but instead of that the village Pardhan who happens to be a most backward class fellow has been suspended on frivolous grounds. The vari ous DalitOrganizations including Dr. Ambedkar Mahasabha have taken up this issue and petitioned U.P.State SC/ST Commission to look into the matter. The Commission have issued summons to the officials of Lucknow district administration and Education Daptt. From this incident you can just imagine the fate of U.P.Dalits who are regularly facing atrocities and untouchability in Sarvjan Govt. headed by Mayawati.

Hidden Apartheid
Caste Discrimination against India’s “Untouchables”
India February 2007
More than 165 million people in India remain
vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, and
violence simply because of their caste. India’s
“hidden apartheid” relegates Dalits, or socalled
untouchables, to a lifetime of
segregation and abuse. Caste-based divisions
continue to dominate in housing, marriage,
employment, and general social interaction—
divisions that are reinforced through
economic boycotts and physical violence.
Hidden Apartheid was produced as a “shadow report” in
response to India’s submission to the United Nations Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“Committee”), which
monitors implementation of the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“Convention”).
The report documents India’s systematic failure to respect,
protect, and ensure Dalits’ fundamental human rights.
Severe violations persist in access to education, health, housing,
and property, and freedom of religion, free choice of
employment, and equal treatment before the law. The report also
documents routine violations of Dalits’ right to life and security of
person through state-sponsored or sanctioned acts of violence,
including torture.
More than 165
million people in
India continue to be
subject to
discrimination,
exploitation, and
violence simply
because of their
caste.
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
2
India’s Obligations under the Convention
As a State Party to the Convention, India has an obligation to
prohibit and bring to an end caste-based discrimination. Article 1
of the Convention guarantees rights of non-discrimination on the
basis of “race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin.” In
1996, the Committee concluded that the plight of Dalits falls
under the prohibition of descent-based discrimination.
The Committee is a body of independent experts responsible for
monitoring states’ compliance with the Convention. India’s
report to the Committee was more than eight years overdue.
Although it covers more than a decade of India’s compliance with
the Convention (from 1996 to 2006), it does not contain a single
mention of abuses against Dalits—abuses that India’s own
governmental agencies have documented and verified.
Hidden Apartheid fills that gap and presents Committee
members with information that is essential to a fair assessment
of India’s record and, ultimately, to encouraging the government
to live up to its domestic and international human rights
obligations.
The 1950 Indian Constitution abolished the practice of
“untouchability” in all its forms, and a number of laws and
special measures have since been adopted to address castebased
discrimination and abuses. India has consistently cited
these laws and policies to show that it is protecting Dalits’ rights.
While these laws and policies are welcome, they have been
implemented sporadically and often not at all.
The information detailed in Hidden Apartheid demonstrates that
India has failed to enforce its laws in violation of its obligations
under Article 2 of the Convention to pursue by all appropriate
means a policy of eliminating caste discrimination, and to ensure
that all public authorities and institutions do not engage in castebased
discrimination.
As a State Party to
the International
Convention on the
Elimination of All
Forms of Racial
Discrimination,
India has an
obligation to end
caste-based abuses
and segregation.
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
3
This failure is exemplified by police treatment of Dalits. India’s
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)—a statutory
government body that India describes as the apex national
institution to protect human rights and redress grievances—has
commented that the law enforcement machinery is the greatest
violator of Dalits’ human rights.
According to the NHRC, police responsibility for the widespread
torture of Dalits in custody, rapes of Dalit women, and the looting
of Dalit property “are condoned, or at best ignored.” Dalits,
jurists, and human rights groups claim that a lack of political will
and immunity laws that shield those responsible for human
rights abuses from prosecution allow torture and other forms of
custodial abuse to continue unchecked.
Under a theory of collective punishment, the police often target
entire Dalit communities in search of select individuals. Dalit
women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence by the
police. Dalits are also vulnerable to arrest under draconian
security laws.
Under Article 2 India must also ensure the development and
protection of particularly marginalized groups. India grants Dalits
certain privileges, including “reservations” (quotas) in education,
government jobs and political posts. Like many of the protective
measures adopted, the reservation policy has not been faithfully
implemented.
Caste-based occupational distribution is often reinforced in
government employment quotas, with Dalits assigned primarily
to the posts of sweepers. Reservations in higher education
continue to be met with a great deal of resistance, leading to
under-enforcement. Additionally, there has been widespread
public opposition to reservations for Dalits in local government
bodies, often leading to acts of violence against Dalit candidates.
According to government estimates in 2000, the unemployment
rate for Dalits and tribal groups was double that of non-
Custodial torture of
Dalits, rapes of Dalit
women, and the
looting of Dalit
property by the
police “are
condoned or at best
ignored.” –
National Human
Rights Commission
of India (2004).
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
4
Dalits/tribals. Public sector divestment is estimated to have left
200,000 Dalit employees jobless. Dalits continue to be
significantly underrepresented in most professional strata. Dalit
representation in India’s high industries and service sectors is
dismal. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes has stated that the private sector, which
continues to enjoy government patronage, should also be
brought under the purview of the reservation policy.
The Government of India has established several programs for
the development of Dalits. According to the NHRC, however,
many such programs fail to reach their target groups.
Additionally, India has failed to address the multiple forms of
discrimination faced by Dalit women. Even as compared to Dalit
men, Dalit women do not have equal access to employment
opportunities or justice mechanisms. They must contend with
threats to their personal security, including trafficking and sexual
violence. In some states in India, Dalit women are forced into
prostitution under the devadasi system and are ultimately
auctioned off to urban brothels. This puts them at particular risk
of contracting HIV/AIDS.
Residential segregation of Dalits is prevalent across the country,
in violation of India’s obligations under Article 3. Segregation is
also evident in schools, in access to public services, and in
access to services operated by the private sector. In his 1999
Annual Report, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary
forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerance found “untouchability” to be “very much alive” in
rural areas.
A recently published survey investigating the extent of
“untouchability” in 565 villages in 11 Indian states found that the
practice continues to profoundly affect the lives and psyches of
millions of Dalits. “Untouchability” practices were documented
in almost 80 percent of the villages surveyed.
The Dalit woman
faces triple
discrimination
because she is an
untouchable, of a
poor class and is a
woman. – National
Campaign on Dalit
Human Rights
(2006).
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
5
The open dissemination of propaganda targeting both Dalits and
religious minorities by Hindu nationalist groups—whose
members have incited and engaged in widespread violence—
calls into question India’s commitment to fulfill its Article 4
obligations to condemn the promotion of hatred and
discrimination in any form. Educational measures to combat
caste-based prejudices are also sorely lacking.
Dalits’ fundamental civil, political, economic, social, and cultural
rights are routinely violated by state actors and private
individuals, in violation of Article 5 of the Convention. Castemotivated
killings, rapes, and other abuses are a daily
occurrence in India, resulting in routine violations of Dalits’ right
to security of person and protection of the state. The police have
systematically failed to protect Dalit homes and Dalit individuals
from acts of looting, arson, sexual assault, torture, and other
inhumane acts such as the tonsuring, stripping and parading of
Dalit women, and forcing Dalits to drink urine and eat feces.
Much like cases of police abuse against Dalits, attacks by private
actors often take the form of collective punishment—entire
communities or villages may be punished for the perceived
transgressions of individuals who seek to alter village customs or
demand their rights.
Between 2001 and 2002 close to 58,000 cases were registered
under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989—legislation that criminalizes particularly
egregious abuses against Dalits and tribal community members.
A 2005 government report states that a crime is committed
against a Dalit every 20 minutes. Though staggering, these
figures represent only a fraction of actual incidents since many
Dalits do not register cases for fear of retaliation by the police
and upper-caste individuals.
In a study of 11
Indian states, the
practice of
“untouchability”
was documented in
almost 80 percent of
the 565 villages
surveyed. – Action
Aid India (2006).
Every 20 minutes, a
Dalit becomes a
victim of crime. –
India’s National
Crime Records
Bureau (2005).
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
6
Political rights, including the right to vote freely and the right to
stand for election, have repeatedly been denied to Dalits through
acts of booth rigging, restricted access to polls, intimidation, and
violence.
Dalits’ right to freedom of residence is severely curtailed by the
practice of “untouchability,” which often dictates where Dalits
must live. Dalits’ right to freedom of movement within India is
affected by conditions that make Dalits vulnerable to migratory
labor and forced displacement, particularly in the aftermath of
episodes of caste violence.
Strict prohibitions on marriage and other social interaction
between Dalits and non-Dalits violate the rights of Dalits to marry
and choose their spouse. Endogamy is a hallmark feature of the
caste system. Inter-caste marriages are frequently extra-judicially
punished by acts of public lynching, murder, rape, beatings, and
other sanctions against the couple and their relatives. On August
6, 2001, in Uttar Pradesh, an upper-caste boy and a lower-caste
girl were publicly hanged by members of their own families for
refusing to end an inter-caste relationship.
The right to own property is systematically denied to Dalits.
Landlessness—encompassing a lack of access to land, inability
to own land, and forced evictions—constitutes a crucial element
in the subordination of Dalits. Land reform legislation is neither
implemented nor properly enforced. When Dalits do manage to
acquire land, access to it is often denied. In 2004, the Dalits of
Kalapatti village, Tamil Nadu, were forced to flee after an attack
in which upper-caste neighbors burned and destroyed over 100
Dalit homes.
Dalits in India face a number of restrictions on their right to
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Dalits are
frequently denied entry into places of worship. Some Dalits have
responded to ill-treatment by upper-caste Hindus by converting
en masse to Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam. However, the loss
of constitutional privileges upon conversion (to Christianity and
On August 6, 2001,
in Uttar Pradesh, an
upper-caste boy and
a lower-caste girl
were publicly
hanged for refusing
to end an inter-caste
relationship.
In 2004, the Dalits
of Kalapatti village,
Tamil Nadu, were
forced to flee after
an attack in which
upper-caste
neighbors burned
and destroyed over
100 Dalit homes.
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
7
Islam) is a serious impediment to Dalits’ freedom to choose their
religion. In addition, the introduction of anti-conversion
legislation in several states has made religious conversion
extremely difficult if not impossible. Tragically, even conversion
does not guarantee escape since “untouchability” is practiced
across all faiths in India.
The denial of the right to work and free choice of employment
lies at the very heart of the caste system. Dalits are forced to
perform tasks deemed too “polluting” or degrading for non-
Dalits. According to unofficial estimates, more than 1.3 million
Dalits—mostly women—are employed as manual scavengers to
clear human waste from dry pit latrines. Dalits comprise the
majority of agricultural, bonded, and child laborers in the
country. Many survive on less than US$1 a day. Dalits are also
discriminated against in hiring and in the payment of wages by
private employers. Laws designed to eradicate exploitative labor
arrangements are largely ineffective.
Dalits are often refused access to health care in violation of their
right to the highest attainable standard of health and social
services. In a number of cases, those who are admitted to
hospitals receive discriminatory treatment. Caste-based
occupations, such as manual scavenging and forced prostitution,
frequently expose Dalits to serious and sometimes fatal health
hazards.
Manual scavengers are routinely exposed to both human and
animal waste without proper protection. This has severe
repercussions for their health; most suffer from anemia, diarrhea,
vomiting, and respiratory diseases. In many cities, Dalits clear
sewage blockages without protective gear. Over 100 die each
year from inhaling toxic gases or from drowning in excrement.
Many Dalits survive
on less than US$1 a
day.
More than 1.3
million Dalits –
mostly women –are
employed as
manual scavengers
to clear human
waste from dry pit
latrines.
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
8
The right to education free from discrimination is not secured for
Dalit children. Ninety-nine percent of Dalit students are enrolled
in government schools that lack basic infrastructure, classrooms,
teachers, and teaching aids. They are made to sit in the back of
classrooms and endure verbal and physical abuse from teachers
and students. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on the
right to education, teachers have been known to declare that
Dalit pupils “cannot learn unless they are beaten.” The effect of
such abuses is borne out by the low literacy and high drop-out
rates for Dalits. Upper-caste hostility toward Dalits’ education is
linked to the perception that Dalits are either incapable of being
educated, or if educated, would pose a threat to village
hierarchies and power relations.
Dalits are denied equal access to public places, such as police
stations, government ration shops, post offices, schools, water
facilities, and village council offices. More than 20 percent of
Dalits do not have access to safe drinking water. Only 10 percent
of Dalit households have access to sanitation (as compared to 27
percent for non-Dalit households), and the vast majority of Dalits
depend on the “goodwill” of upper-caste community members
for access to water from public wells. Dalits are also excluded
from, or receive discriminatory treatment in, private businesses
such as food stalls, barber shops, and cinemas. Dalits are made
to use separate crockery and cutlery and drink from separate tea
glasses which they are then required to wash.
Attempts by Dalits to defy the caste order, to demand their rights,
or to lay claim to land that is legally theirs are consistently met
with economic boycotts or retaliatory violence. For example, on
January 5, 2006 Punjabi Dalit activist Bant Singh was beaten to
the point of losing his limbs for seeking justice for the gang rape
of his daughter. On September 26, 2006 in Kherlanji village,
Maharashtra, members of a Dalit family were brutally beaten and
killed by an upper-caste mob because they refused to let uppercaste
farmers take their land.
Teachers have been
known to declare
that Dalit pupils
“cannot learn unless
they are beaten.” –
UN Special
Rapporteur on the
right to education
(2006).
Dalits depend on
the “goodwill” of
upper-caste
community
members for access
to water from public
wells.
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
9
Both state and private actors commit the abuses documented in
Hidden Apartheid with impunity. In violation of India’s Article 6
obligations to ensure effective remedies against acts of
discrimination, police, prosecutors, and judges routinely fail to
properly pursue cases brought by Dalits. Police systematically
fail to properly register these crimes under the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the
Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1995. Even on the relatively rare
occasions on which a case reaches court, the most likely
outcome is acquittal.
The innocuous treatment of the caste system in school textbooks
and curricula, along with insufficient media attention to Dalit
issues, all suggest that the Indian government is failing to take
effective measures to counter caste prejudice, in contravention of
Article 7 of the Convention.
Dalit Rights Movements
In response to centuries of inhuman and degrading treatment,
and in spite of tremendous obstacles, Dalit rights movements
across the country are growing, as are their demands for basic
dignity and human rights.
Dalits have also begun to raise their voices in international
forums, such as the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism,
successive World Social Forums, and in hearings before various
UN human rights bodies.
International scrutiny is growing and with it the condemnation of
abuses resulting from the caste system and the government’s
failure to protect Dalits’ rights.
They have got my
limbs, but I have
still got my voice, I
can sing. –
Dalit activist Bant
Singh (2006). Singh
was beaten to the
point of losing his
limbs for seeking
justice for the gang
rape of his daughter.
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
10
On December 27, 2006 Manmohan Singh became the first sitting
Indian prime minister to openly acknowledge the parallel
between the practice of “untouchability” and the crime of
apartheid. According to Singh, “The only parallel to the practice
of ‘untouchability’ was Apartheid in South Africa. ‘Untouchability’
is not just social discrimination. It is a blot on humanity.” Singh
added that “even after 60 years of constitutional and legal
protection and state support, there is still social discrimination
against Dalits in many parts of our country.”
We welcome Prime Minister Singh’s remarks and hope that this
statement will prompt vigorous reforms and state action that will
begin to close the gap between India’s human rights
commitments and the daily reality faced by over 165 million of its
citizens.
The only parallel to
the practice of
“untouchability”
was Apartheid in
South Africa.
“Untouchability” is
not just social
discrimination. It is
a blot on humanity.
– Indian Prime
Minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh
(December 2006).
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
11
Recommendations
The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human
Rights Watch call on the Indian government to take active steps
to comply with its obligations under international human rights
law and respect, protect, and ensure the rights of Dalits. In
particular, India should:
• Eradicate caste-based segregation in residential areas and
schools, and in access to public services.
• Implement laws and government policies to protect Dalits,
and Dalit women in particular, from physical and sexual
violence.
• Ensure appropriate reforms to eliminate police abuses
against Dalits and other marginalized communities.
• Ensure proper investigation and prosecution of crimes
against Dalits.
• Identify obstacles in the implementation of legislation
designed to protect Dalits and take steps to overcome
these obstacles. In particular, ensure the effective
eradication of exploitative labor arrangements and
implement rehabilitation schemes for Dalit bonded and
child laborers, manual scavengers, and for Dalit women
forced into prostitution.
• Combat hate speech and other actions inciting caste or
religion based discrimination and violence.
• Implement the recommendations of the 2004 National
Human Rights Commission report on atrocities against
Dalits.
• Ensure proper implementation of the “reservations” policy,
including providing protection for Dalit candidates in local
elections.
• Ensure proper implementation and monitoring of Dalit
development programs.
Hidden Apartheid February 2007
12
About the Report
Hidden Apartheid is based on in-depth investigations by the
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Human Rights
Watch, Indian non-governmental organizations, and media
sources. The pervasiveness of abuses against Dalits is
corroborated by the reports of Indian governmental agencies,
including the National Human Rights Commission, and the
National Commission on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes. These and other sources were compiled, investigated,
and analyzed under international law by NYU School of Law’s
International Human Rights Clinic.
Hidden Apartheid is available for download at www.chrgj.org and
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/india0207/
For more on the work of the Center for Human Rights & Global Justice see
www.chrgj.org
For more on the work of Human Rights Watch on Asia see
www.hrw.org/asia