Bod Jaatir Hujjoti — English Transcript
Payal Tadvi and Rohith Vemula’s mothers had made an appeal to the Supreme Court. Based on their appeal, Supreme Court asked for a report on the status of caste-based discrimination in our country’s academic spaces — in our colleges and universities. When I read such news, a lot of questions come to my mind — how did this “caste” originate in the first place?
There are two theories. Some say that the caste system is an essential part of Hinduism. However, others have kept caste outside the religion.
When Ambedkar referred to the relevant caste-based practices, in his reply, Gandhi raised the concern whether the scriptures Ambedkar had referred to were original or misinterpretations. Ambedkar replied on this point stating that the people of the country do not concern themselves with the authenticity of scriptures. They never try to read the “original” version. They have full faith on the explanations given by the pandits. That might be the cause of this problem.
Why will the content of texts, those written hundreds or thousands of years ago, be at all important? If they do not have any rationality in them…
True. At times I do feel that this caste inequality might be a product of an ongoing power struggle. Let me tell you why — Rajputs are placed above the Jatts in the caste system, but owing to their present opulence and power, Jatts have risen over the Rajputs.
Perhaps, you mean to say that people with more money are able to lift themselves in the caste system? But, the recent events tell a different story. Let me tell a few — a few months back, a CPI MLA in Kerala, who happens to be a Dalit, sat on a demonstration in front of Youth Congress’ office. After she left, the members processed to “clean” the place with cow dung. Now, she being a CPI MLA, I looked up… was she really poor? The next incident happened in Karnataka — a Dalit BJP MP was stopped from entering an upper-caste Yadav settlement.
Perhaps this is why Ambedkar had “described Hindu society in a chilling metaphor — as a multi-storeyed tower with no staircase and no entrance. Everybody had to die in the storey they were born in.”
I really think caste system is getting more and more support for things outside religion. You will find how in the elections, the choice of candidates or the language that is being used in the rallies, is motivated by the caste system. If all of a sudden, the mention of caste in banned for all electoral processes, they would be in trouble! Then people would start voting solely on the basis of the work done! The book you mentioned, also had Arundhati Roy stating — “Democracy hasn’t eradicated caste. It has entrenched and modernized it.”
Talking of politics, Communism also has a problematic view on caste. They spend their time “force-fitting caste into reductive Marxist class analysis”. I believe such analyses can only spring out of privilege. Because we can find how even after improving one’s class, their caste stays as is.
We try and ignore caste.
This is where Ambedkar’s words become relevant — “caste system is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers”. You are segregating the people. Anyway, we have been talking about Gandhi and Ambedkar, who are long dead. Now when I interact with people on caste, they say things like, “Oh, caste discrimination is a thing of the past. People are a lot open-minded now.” That is all they say.
Then they are not updated with all that is going on!
The Indian origin citizens in United States have demanded that their textbooks should not mention that caste system is essentially Indian. They should instead mention it as something from South Asia as if it does not exist in India.
Think of what happened to Payal Tadvi! A doctor was forced to function as a clerk! And there were multiple attempts, something that she feared, to pass off the caste discrimination as an ordinary case of ragging. That way, it would be easier to ignore. “Caste discrimination doesn’t happen.”
This practice is pretty common!
This is where the problem lies — she knew that her suicide note would be destroyed and it was burnt. Her ordeal came to light only because she had clicked pictures of that note.
You mentioned about Payal Tadvi. Similar attempts were made in the case of Rohith Vemula as well and perhaps, his case triggered way more reactions. Rohith was a Dalit student studying at Hyderabad University, who was also into student politics. His stipend was suspended soon after his protests on issues related to the university. He was also thrown out of the hostel citing his involvement in a scuffle with an ABVP student. After all of this, he was still continuing with his protest but ultimately, he had to quit. When this incident came to the fore, there was a lot of debate in our country. During this time, a very important minister, Sushma Swaraj, claimed that Rohith was not a Dalit. Now, in order to examine this claim, one has to dive into Rohith’s past. We have seen in the documentary that his mother was a Dalit who was adopted. She was later married her off to a man who was unaware of her Dalit identity. When he came to know, he started torturing her, something Rohith has witnessed while growing up.
Rohith’s brother also had to face discrimination. When he did not have 6000 rupees for his transfer certificate, his college senior came forward to help him and gave him shelter. But in return, treated him like his domestic help…
It is interesting how after all of this, Rohith’s suicide note will always remain and will be available on the Internet for anyone to read. The fact that in 2016, a person had to die due to his caste identity, is a matter of national shame.
People from specific castes have always been stepping inside the drains and taking out the slush. This is even after Supreme Court’s directions.
And they have died in doing so.
We know how numbers are suppressed but even the altered statistic is scary.
Inter-caste marriages are often ending in honor killings. This incident is about an MLA’s daughter who had eloped with a Dalit man. After she escaped, she was live on Facebook to tell how she had been receiving death threats. Now, as she is from a privileged family, this is still possible. Such incidents of violence also happen in large numbers in our rural areas but they do not reach us in time.
You are right. There is usually violence when an upper caste woman marries a lower caste man. However, if it is an upper caste man marrying a lower caste woman, there chances of violence are much lower. It must be a man who decides the caste of an union! And this tendency of serving punishment…
Yes, there are so many different ways to punish! A lower caste kid had once entered a temple in Maharashtra. He was punished. How you ask? He was made to sit on hot tiles.
There was this wedding procession in Madhya Pradesh. People took offence to the groom, being a lower caste man— celebrating, riding a horse and bursting crackers. Moreover, on one hand we talk about right to education and on the other, a student gets picked up on his way to his Class 12 exams in Gujarat and gets beaten up badly before being allowed to return.
There is much similarity between what you just narrated and what Arundhati Roy referred to, in her essay “The Doctor and the Saint” — “If a Shudra listens intentionally to the Vedas, the Gautama Dharma Sutra says, his ears must be filled with molten tin or lac.” Now this is about the texts. What about epics? A Brahmin had come to meet the king to complain about the death of his son and to enquire about the cause of his death. Hearing this, the king set up a meeting with the best intellectuals. These learned men concluded that in some forest, a Shudra is undertaking penance to become a Brahmin and that is the cause of death. The king had to behead the Shudra as the solution. Now, this Shudra was Shambuka and the king, Ram.
I did not know Shambuka’s tale but I know another one. Few princes were practicing archery under the guidance of a famous coach. And there was a tribal boy who hid behind the bushes and learnt archery by observing their training. One day, the princes and their coach came to know that there is a tribal boy who is a very good archer. This made the best archer among the princes, insecure. To put an end to his insecurity, the coach went to this tribal boy and said, “Good job! You are a self-taught! That’s all fine but you don’t need to be an archer anymore. Offer me your thumb as my coaching fee, dear.” And the tribal boy did. This story has always been taught to us as a brilliant example of devotion. I recently read an article on this story which said— “if it were not for this incident, nobody would have ever known Eklavya…Dronacharya uplifted Eklavya from just being a student to becoming an epitome of discipleship.” I think these ancient stories have their own contexts and might be justified based on the value system during those times. Why keep justifying them in our present context? Can we not read them with an unbiased mind?
I disagree about this “bias”. Why? Well, a story titled “Choturtho Panipother Juddho”, written by Subodh Ghosh, comes to mind. We can see how Stefan Horo keeps fighting throughout the entire length of the story, only to be defeated in the end. The writer comments on how we, the upper-caste privileged, have defeated Stefan through our politically correct lenses. That is why I think being “unbiased” is not important here. My sympathy as well as my empathy should only be kept for them who are deprived. (*Actually, no. It should be kept for all.*) But that doesn’t happen.
Instead, we punish them.
There will be no shortage of instances! This one is of a Dalit family in Maharashtra. The head of the house, Surekha, is educated. Her fault? Her children — two sons and a daughter, all have been educated. So, the neighboring upper caste people did not let them have electricity or a renovated pucca house. They even lynched one of their relatives to death. After Surekha’s police complaint, few people got arrested only to be released the same evening. That night, the “mob dragged Surekha, Priyanka and the two boys, …out of the house. The boys were ordered to rape their mother and sister; when they refused, …they were lynched. Surekha and Priyanka were gang-raped and beaten to death.”
A few days back, in a village in Uttar Pradesh, Dalits were not allowed to fetch water from the common taps even during an ongoing water crisis. And when government tankers were sent for relief, they were diverted away from the Dalit settlements.
This has been going on for long. Even Ambedkar faced similar discrimination. This time, he was in Hyderabad and he had gone to drink water from a nearby tank. “They were surrounded by a mob of angry Muslims calling them ‘Dheds’ (a derogatory term for Untouchables).” Ambedkar made an important observation here “that a person who is Untouchable to a Hindu, is also Untouchable to a Mohammedan”. It is impossible to escape. This problem can not be escaped even in death! I read a very recent news in the papers that a Dalit had died…
in Vellore…
and his body was not allowed to pass. His body was lowered using ropes…
from a bridge…
This is the reality!
We did not get any follow-up update on what happened to the people who had not allowed to pass in Vellore. All I found was that Dalits and lower caste people are usually framed in large numbers. There is this report by National Crime Records Bureau where they had prepared the composition of the inmates and convicts based on factors like religion or caste. It is being seen that the percentage of Dalits in prison outnumbers their percent in whole population. And, there is another Status of Policing in India Report, where police personnel had admitted that they feel that Dalits are more prone to committing crimes. But how so? It was learned through a survey that the caste sensitization program that a police undergoes while joining the force, which trains them to be impartial while dealing with marginalized sections, is not repeated anytime in the future, throughout their career.
I really think that this problem is at the very core — the caste sensitization never happens in school or college. That is where the real issue is.
True. I remember that in our books, it merely touched upon the four varnas. And that was all there was.
Absolutely!
It is thought of as something of the distant past and of no relevance in today’s reality. On that note, there are few common festivals which have relevant alternate interpretations or versions. These versions clearly underline how every time the devil being killed is merely a tribal person and how they have been tortured and discriminated against. You will find an alternate version of Durga Pujo as well. This version is relevant to all the successors of Mahisasur, the people belonging to asura tribe. For them it is their tribal king who had been framed. While this happens, on the other side, the privileged group — between friends, between people of similar age, in family meetings, all discussions related to caste almost always start and end with the same thing — reservation. While some would say things like, “The upper caste people have been enjoying their privilege for long. That is why we still have this provision.”, the people from upper castes would cry about how merit takes a beating at every step due to reservations. I have always wondered if merit is all that is important, how is it represented in management quotas? That can not surely be merit! Say, I would like to make all the public transport systems equal, i.e. there is equal opportunity for everyone. Some would suggest, “Hey, why don’t you open up all the seats for every one? Let everyone avail public transport!”. But, will that ensure equal opportunity to all just by making all seats equally open for all? What about women or people with a handicap (*or elderly*) if I do not reserve few seats for them? They would not be able to avail public transport after a few days! Perhaps this is where equality vs equity comes into the picture for reservations…and moreover, for our country this might be caste-based but this is a little different in USA — the gap between people of color and the white people are similar to ours in the caste system. Even there, whenever there is a debate on affirmative action for people of color, the reaction is exactly same as in our country, “should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more.”
On this context of reservations, there is an important point from Arundhati Roy — “In truth, ‘merit’ has become a euphemism for nepotism.” Do you wonder how? Reservation is also there in our existing system. A Brahmin’s child is always a Brahmin. Others won’t have this opportunity. Is this not reservation? It pretty well is! And the people who get discriminated get reservations — then they get discriminated again for getting the reservation — then there is a need for more reservation. This is a vicious cycle one can not escape.
There is a figure called gross enrollment ratio. It is defined as the percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 23 who have opted for higher education. In West Bengal, for 100 people belonging to Scheduled Castes, only 10 opt for higher studies. Now, if I do not arrange for their reservation, how will the next 40, or 50, or 60 odd students be able to join? If you really want to put an end to the pain-killer in the form of reservations, you have to get the operation done! Get caste out of your system! Is there any other option?
Where there is this talk on merit and reservations, the role of media is pretty peculiar. What is their narrative? Dalits and lower caste people are all busy with superstitions and black magic!
This is what happened on 15th August. They reported on a man named Anup Sardar whose fever showed no signs of receding even after multiple visits to the health centers. And finally when his family ran out of funds, Anandabazar Patrika quoted his wife saying that they do not have enough to take him to R.G.Kar. Naturally, the man died after two days without any treatment. Anandabazar flipped the entire narrative after his death and started establishing superstition as the primary cause and not the lack of money. They even quoted his wife lamenting about not taking him to a doctor! The report ended with a remark by one of the state ministers on how incidents like this sets us back by centuries. People, mostly upper caste people think about how the lower caste people rely on black magic, when they themselves do! The most popular form of black magic they indulge in is astrology! That is also a form of superstition. Devoid of rationality, logic or science.
Yes, you will find scores of channels giving airtime to astrologers. And the hypocrisy is in the claim that Hanuman can never be a Dalit! Hanuman was never a Dalit!
This documentary had won the national award for being the best investigative documentary. In one of the scenes, after showing conflict for most of the film, it focused on a Dalit woman. Sitting on the steps, she explained why the Dalits were not interested in the ongoing conflict between mosque vs temple — even if a temple came up, they would anyway be denied entry.
The idea of caste and its related discrimination is so innate and deeply rooted in us that it is often difficult to realize at first. Take for example, which terms do we use as common slangs? “Badjaat”, “Itar”, “Chamar” — these are few basic slangs that we use very casually. What are we doing here? Aren’t we really reducing an entire section of the society to a few racial slangs? Oh, and the hypocrisy! When we get to hear someone outside India, calling “nigger”, we consider that as a racist comment!
Identifying oneself with one’s caste is problematic in itself. Perhaps you do not intend to discriminate against others…perhaps you don’t. But the moment you embrace your caste as a matter of pride, you end up endorsing caste discrimination or the caste system in general. “I like the caste system but I really think all castes are the same.” This is an illusion! Say, something not like slangs but like Brahmins wearing janeyu. Your intellect or rationality should prevent you from wearing or even a basic idea of humanity.
Why do you think people wear janeyu if not for displaying it as a matter of pride? I think similar motivation works behind Jatts putting caste stickers on their vehicles. The idea of being a Jatt. Although you had no role to play in this selection.
Are you forced to take up your ancestral occupation? My question lies whether you won’t be able to follow the career you wish to.
This gets interesting. Being a Brahmin, you are not taking up priesthood. Being a Baishya, you are in IT and not business. All is well. But when it comes to marriage, you are looking for someone of your caste! All I want is nothing more, To hear a Baniya knocking at my door!
Pages after pages of caste-based matrimony classifieds, shouldn’t they be illegal? Caste can never be your identity. And there are both good and bad people. Some of them use their caste identities while the others don’t.
Gandhi in the letters following Annihilation of Caste, asks, why are you not citing the good examples in Hinduism? Chaitanya, Ramkrishna, etc. To this, Ambedkar replied that what will the people do if the bad apples outnumber the good? They would follow them who would promote the caste system. You can not stop the people from doing so. Even the Romans had a division in their society — patricians and plebeians. The plebeians were not allowed inside the parliament.
And you can only be a patrician by birth.
Exactly! And that system has been abolished long ago.
I don’t know when it will be abolished here. But how are we representing the margins in our culture? and how much of it is a part of culture? Let’s take Aranyer Dinratri. Simi Garewal played the character of the tribal girl. Her portrayal and her clothes were all great. However, I felt the black paint used on her was horrible. I kept wondering, perhaps this too is a cultural appropriation?
Ok. But I really don’t think so. Satyajit Ray also made something like Sadgati!
That is true! I did not intend to cancel him. Come to think of it, in the movie Court, there was this story where songs were being written on Dalits and their struggles. And in Bangla, we had Lalon’s songs on caste.
In abundance! Caste and its perils featured in his songs and that too, directly! But if you talk of the recent times…
Have something to add to the episode? Send us a mail!