Dalit’s struggle for social justice

Ram Puniyani

August 4, 2017

This July (2017) a large procession of dalits was arrested while they were taking out the Azadi Kooch under the banner of Rashtriya dalit Adhikar Manch (National Forum for Dalit Rights). The march was to commemorate one year of Una flogging on the issue of Holy Cow. Since then young leader Jignesh Mevani with others has been trying to organize the oppressed people under Dalit Atyachar Ladhat Samiti (Committee to fight against atrocities against Dalits), with the slogan “Give us land-you keep Cow’s Tale”. They had first refused to dispose of dead cattle. Many a carcass was put in front of collector’s offices. The demand emerged from the movement that they want land for their dignified survival.

As such this movement comes as a big landmark of the depressed castes for their dignified survival. While the condition of dalits had been partly improving after independence, the betterment has been taking place at the snail’s pace. There are various obstacles to this process of transition, the failure of dalit leadership being the major one. During last few years we have seen the rise of atrocities against dalits, with the Government in power that aims at Hindu nation. At places, upper caste has become more assertive as seen in the Saharanpur violence. Here the upper caste Thakurs stopped the installation of Ambedkar statue, leading to oppression of this group, who in turn said that they will convert to Buddhism.

While manual scavenging persists, condition of workers involved in cleaning continues to stagnate or worsen, the Swatchta Abhiyan (Cleanliness Campaign) comes more as a photo op opportunity rather than the real effort to address deeper causes of lack of cleanliness, for which apart from poverty, the caste culture, where a section of community is supposed to take care of cleaning, is the major factor. With the present Government coming to power the suppression of dalit aspirations is hitting the roof. The incidents of banning Periyar Study Circle in IIT Madras and the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula are just the reflections of the state response to the efforts of dalits for enhancement of their social and economic conditions.

It is in this backdrop that the issue of cow-beef has been whipped up to create social divisions for consolidation of the sectarian politics. While the Muslims are the overt and obvious victims of this campaign, dalits and large section of poor farmers have also suffered a lot. The incident of Una may be a tip of the iceberg. It is this incident which brought to fore the latent discontent of dalits to an overt and strong fashion. As such after Rohith Vemula’s death, the discontent started building up overtly. The traditional dalit leadership did not have time to take up the issue. It was around Rohith Vemula issue that raising the issues of caste oppression was labeled as ‘anti national’. Now the newer and young leadership has come forward and is asserting to build and lead this campaign into a higher level of resistance against the age old caste system.

Jotirao Phule and Ambedkar were the pioneers of the movement which strove for equality at social and political level. Equality got enshrined into Indian Constitution. The reservations did give a lift for these communities, but that has not been a panacea. With the rise of Indian state, public education system and public sector enterprises, dalits benefitted a lot and did come to a level where the march towards equal society found its base. From the decade of 1980s the efforts are on to undermine this process by bringing to fore the issues related to identity, like Ram Temple, Holy Cow, Ghar Wapasi, love Jihad and so on. The implementation of Mandal Commission was also seen as a big challenge to caste structure and in response the Ram Temple movement was brought up with bigger intensity. In the din of such issues the core issues of social transformation have been shifted to the margins of society.

The efforts of Hindu nationalist politics have boosted the identity politics. They have also co-opted the likes of Udit Raj, Ram Vilas Paswan and Ramdas Athwaley. Those who were looked up to lead got lured to the power and have cultivated convenient arguments to cozy up Hindu Nationalism. To add to this tribe of dalit leadership, now Ramnath Kovind, a RSS trained dalit has been made the President of India! Due to the clever process of social engineering; a large section of dalits have been mobilized to become the part of rightwing campaigns, to the extent of being the foot soldiers of Hindu nationalism. At the same time the dalit icons have been manipulated to give them a right wing tilt.

At social level organizations like Samajik Samrasta Manch have played the role of promoting liaison between castes. Here the explanation of caste is manipulated to show that caste inequality is due to Muslim invaders. This type of understanding totally negates Ambedkar’s ideology. As per Ambedkar the caste system is due to the Hindu scriptures, which have been here much before the Muslims came in. In Ambedkar’s scheme of things caste annihilation is the core around which dalits politics should revolve. So today on one side Ambedkar’s annihilation of caste, goal of Samta (Equality) is being sidetracked by the Hindutva ideology’s Samrasta (Social Liaison). This has been the trajectory of dalit movement, where the quest of dalits politics for equality has been cleverly bypassed.

The newer campaigns and movements, post murder of Rohith Vemula and post Una hold a big promise for bringing back dalit politics on the rails, these movements are picking up the threads of Phule-Ambedkar scheme of things to work towards annihilation of caste. In this newer mode of campaign, the movement is not just aspiring for identity issues and age old Reservations but is trying to articulate the material aspiration of dalits in the form of land rights and related issues, something which has been forgotten for last quite some time.

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CAA: Should United Nations Norms be respected in Domestic Policies?

Ram Puniyani

March 14,2020

In the wake of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) UN High Commissioner, Michele Bachelet, has filed an intervention in the Supreme Court petition challenging the constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act, as she is critical of CAA. Responding to her, India’s Foreign Minister S. Jai Shanker strongly rebutted her criticism, saying that the body (UNHCR) has been wrong and is blind to the problem of cross border terrorism. The issue on hand is the possibility of scores of people, mainly Muslims, being declared as stateless. The problem at hand is the massive exercise of going through the responses/documents from over 120 crore of Indian population and screening documents, which as seen in Assam, yield result which are far from truthful or necessary.

The issue of CAA has been extensively debated and despite heavy critique of the same by large number of groups and despite the biggest mass opposition ever to any move in Independent India, the Government is determined on going ahead with an exercise which is reminiscent of the dreaded regimes which are sectarian and heartless to its citizens, which have indulged in extinction of large mass of people on grounds of citizenship, race etc. The Foreign minister’s assertion is that it is a matter internal to India, where India’s sovereignty is all that matters! As far as sovereignty is concerned we should be clear that in current times any sovereign power has to consider the need to uphold the citizenship as per the principle of non-discrimination which is stipulated in Art.26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political (ICCPR) rights.

Can such policies, which affect large number of people and are likely to affect their citizenship be purely regarded as ‘internal’? With the World turning into a global village, some global norms have been formulated during last few decades. The norms relate to Human rights and migrations have been codified. India is also signatory to many such covenants in including ICCPR, which deals with the norms for dealing with refugees from other countries. One is not talking of Chicago speech of Swami Vivekanand, which said that India’s greatness has been in giving shelter to people from different parts of the World; one is also not talking of the Tattariaya Upanishad’s ‘Atithi Devovhav’ or ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam’ from Mahaupanishad today.

What are being talked about are the values and opinions of organizations which want to ensure to preserve of Human rights of all people Worldwide. In this matter India is calling United Nations body as ‘foreign party’; having no locus standi in the case as it pertains to India’s sovereignty. The truth is that since various countries are signatories to UN covenants, UN bodies have been monitoring the moves of different states and intervening at legal level as Amicus (Friend of the Court) to the courts in different countries and different global bodies. Just to mention some of these, UN and High Commissioner for Human Rights has often submitted amicus briefs in different judicial platforms. Some examples are their intervention in US Supreme Court, European Court of Human Rights, International Criminal Court, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. These are meant to help the Courts in areas where UN bodies have expertise.

Expertise on this has been jointly formulated by various nations. These interventions also remind the nations as to what global norms have been evolved and what are the obligations of individual states to the values which have evolved over a period of time. Arvind Narrain draws our attention to the fact that, “commission has intervened in the European Court of Human Rights in cases involving Spain and Italy to underscore the principle of non-refoulement, which bars compulsory expulsion of illegal migrants… Similarly, the UN has intervened in the International Criminal Court in a case against the Central African Republic to explicate on the international jurisprudence on rape as a war crime.”

From time to time organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been monitoring the status of Human rights of different countries. This puts those countries in uncomfortable situation and is not welcome by those establishments. How should this contradiction between ‘internal matter’, ‘sovereignty’ and the norms for Human rights be resolved? This is a tough question at the time when the freedom indices and democratic ethos are sliding downwards all over the world. In India too has slid down on the scale of these norms.

In India we can look at the intervention of UN body from the angle of equality and non discrimination. Democratic spirit should encourage us to have a rethink on the matters which have been decided by the state. In the face of the greatest mass movement of Shaheen bagh, the state does need to look inwards and give a thought to international morality, the spirit of global family to state the least.

The popular perception is that when Christians were being persecuted in Kandhmal the global Christian community’s voice was not strong enough. Currently in the face of Delhi carnage many a Muslim majority countries have spoken. While Mr. Modi claims that his good relations with Muslim countries are a matter of heartburn to the parties like Congress, he needs to relook at his self gloating. Currently Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia and many Muslim majority countries have spoken against what Modi regime is unleashing in India. Bangladesh, our neighbor, has also seen various protests against the plight of Muslims in India. More than the ‘internal matter’ etc. what needs to be thought out is the moral aspect of the whole issue. We pride ourselves in treading the path of morality. What does that say in present context when while large section of local media is servile to the state, section of global media has strongly brought forward what is happening to minorities in India.

The hope is that Indian Government wakes up to its International obligations, to the worsening of India’s image in the World due to CAA and the horrific violence witnessed in Delhi.

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India’s Composite Culture and Muslim Stalwarts

Ram Puniyani

August 9,2020

Contrary to present impression that Muslims are separatists due to whom the partition of India took place, the truth is that Muslims contributed to freedom movement and upheld India’s composite culture in equal measure. The partition process, mainly due to British policy of ‘divide and rule’ well assisted by Hindu and Muslim communalists is being hidden from the popular vision in India and Muslims in general are held responsible for the same. Not only that the communal historiography introduced by British to pursue their policies has become the bedrock of communal politics and worsening of the perceptions about Muslims is in progress in India.

Yet another example of this has been a series of tweets by the bureaucrat, who is close to retirement, K. Nageshwar Rao. Contrary to the service rules he has made statements, through his tweets which are appreciative of RSS-BJP and demonise the stalwarts Muslim leaders who not only contributed to the freedom movement but also later gave valuable service in laying the foundation of Independent India. As per Rao, his tweets he accuses Maulana Azad and the other Muslim Education ministers of “deracination of Hindus”. After naming “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad — 11 years (1947-58)”; “Humayun Kabir, M C Chagla & Fakruddin Ali Ahmed — 4 years (1963-67)”; and, “Nurul Hassan — 5 years (1972-77)”, he posts: “Remaining 10 years other Leftists like VKRV Rao.”

He points out that their policies were meant to “1. Deny Hindus their knowledge, 2. Vilify Hinduism as collection of superstitions, 3. Abrahamise Education, 4. Abrahamise Media & Entertainment, 5. Shame Hindus about their identity! and 6. Bereft of the glue of Hinduism Hindu society dies.”

Then he goes on to praise RSS-BJP for bringing the glory back to Hindus. These statements of his on one hand promote the Hate and on the other tantamount to political statement, which civil servants should not by making. CPM politburo member Brinda Karat has written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah to take suitable action against the erring bureaucrat.

Rao begins with Maulana Abul kalam Azad. Surely Azad was one of the major leaders of freedom movement, who was also the youngest President of INC, in 1923 and later between 1940 to 1945. He opposed the partition process tooth and nail till the very last. As the Congress President in 1923 he wrote a remarkable Para, symbolizing the urge for Hindu Muslim unity, “If an angel descends from heaven and offers me Swaraj in 24 hours on condition that I give up Hindu Muslim Unity, I will refuse. Swaraj we will get sooner or later; its delay will be a loss for India, but loss of Hindu Muslim unity will be a loss for human kind”. His biographer Syeda Hamid points out “He spoke without an iota of doubt about how debacle of Indian Muslims has been the result of the colossal mistakes committed by Muslim League’s misguided leadership. He exhorted Muslims to make common cause with their Hindu, Sikh, Christian fellow countrymen.” He was the one who promoted the translation of Hindu scriptures Ramayan and Mahabharat in to Persian.

Surely Mr. Rao, neither has read Azad or read about him nor knows his contributions to making of Modern India. While today, the ideological formation to which Mr. Rao seems to be pledging his commitment is critical of all that happened during Nehru era, it was during this period when as education minister Azad was shepherding the formations of IITs, Academies of Science, Lalit kala Academies. It was during this period that the efforts to promote Indian composite culture were undertaken through various steps.

The other stalwarts who are under the hammer have been outstanding scholars and giants in their own field of education. Humayun Kabir, Nurul Hasan, Dr.Zakir Husssain gave matchless ideas and practical contributions in different fields of education. One can say that contrary to the accusations, India could match up to the Computer era, software and associate things, due to creation of large manpower in these areas mainly due to these foundations which were laid down particularly in the field of education during this period.

The charge that these ‘Muslim’ education ministers white washed the bloody Islamic rule is a blind repetition of the offshoot of communal historiography introduced by British. While Kings were ruling for power and wealth, their courts had Hindus and Muslim both officers. The jaundiced vision sees this as a bloody Islamic rule but as a matter of fact the syncretic culture and traditions developed precisely this period. It was during this period that Bhakti Traidtion with Kabir, Tukaram, Namdeo, Tulsidas flourished. It was during this period that humane values of Sufi saints reached far and wide. It was during this period that poets like Rahim and Raskhan produced their classic literature n praise of Hindu Gods.

We also need to remind ourselves that large number of Muslims participated in the freedom Movement. Two scholars Shamsul Islam and Nasir Ahmad have come out with books on the myriad such freedom fighters, to recall just a few names. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Zakir Hussain, Syed Mohammad Sharfuddin Kadri, Bakht Khan, Muzzafar Ahmad, Mohammad Abdir Rahman,, Abbas Ali, Asaf Ali, Yusuf Mehrali, Maulana Mazahrul Hague.

These are just a few of the names. The movement, led by Gandhi, definitely laid the foundations where composite Indian culture and respect for all religions, others’ religion was paramount and this is what created Indian fraternity, one of the values which finds its place in the preamble of Indian Constitution.

This blaming of Education ministers who were Muslims is an add-on to the process of Islamophobia in India. So for there have been many actions of Muslim kings which are selectively presented as being bloody, now the post Independent History, where glorious contributions have been made by Muslim leaders are being used to further deepen the divisive process. We need to pay respects to builders of modern India, irrespective of their religion.

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