S.Chandramohan : Poet of the 21st century Ambekarite era

                                                            

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Sathyanathan Chandramohan’s poetry reflects the brilliance of his thought process and the rebel inside him. The seer diversity and variety of issues that he has taken up shows his concern for human values that transcends the boundaries of nation state, caste, class, gender and religion. In true sense only a humanist could do so.

I had the privilege of close association with legendary Mulk Raj Anand, whose first novel ‘Untouchable’ with an introduction from E M Forster created ripples internationally and exposed the hidden caste hatred including the issue of manual scavenging prevalent in our society, even when I was just a village boy from Uttarakhand as he would pronounce, where I was fortunate to have met many laureate of Indian writings who took up the issue of the marginalized but very few coming from the communities. During the Mandal’s war in 1990, we saw English language media was used as a tool to spread hatred against the Dalits and marginalized. They were mocked and there were absolutely negligible numbers of writers who could pose a counter cultural question to the brahmanically corrupted intellectual elite which looked secular in their mask yet uncomfortable to the core question of social justice but in the Mandal two, we saw the Dalit OBC students were writing their own blogs, had learnt to use social media strongly and numerous websites and journals emerged to counter the ‘merit’ propaganda unleashed by the ‘devotees’ of corporate culture in India who never ever saw ‘wrong’ in the corrupt practices by these in educational institutions in the name of ‘donation’.

In the following ten years after Mandal, we saw counter narratives taking bigger shapes. Alternative media grew with web portals like “countercurrents.org” providing space to the forces struggling against all forms of exploitation including brahmanical cultural subjugation and capitalist onslaught on socialism and state’s accountability. Magazines like ‘Forward Press’ energized debates on Bahujan literature and enlightened us with stunning Bahujan cultural discourse with number of emerging young writers. With growing new young writers challenging the popular brahmanical discourse the contempt and assault on them is also visible throughout the country. But, the Rohith Vemulas in our universities have refused to play Eklavya today and therefore consciously proving that Ambedkarism and legacy of Dalit Bahujan consciousness, which refused to be part of brahmanical structure has finally arrived.

‘Forward Press’ initiated this debate as what is Bahujan literature and last few years they have brought wonderful collectors editions. There are various definitions for literature. One, which raises your consciousness while for many, it must come from those who suffer and are historically exploited, neglected and subjugated socially and culturally. True, those who suffer will definitely provide a different insight than those who sympathise with their cause and are standing with them yet both are necessary. For me the Dalit Bahujan literature can not just be autobiographical sketches as each one of us has a different narratives but also posing ideological questions that have emerged from the heroic work of Phule Ambedkar and Periyar apart from the great humanist legacy of Raidas, Kabir, Nanak, Tukaram, Namdev, Ayyankali, Ayothidas, Narayan guru and many others who not just fought against injustice but provided a much better and humane alternative to brahmanical caste based ‘graded inequality’ as described by Baba Saheb Ambedkar where dominant castes have always suppressed the others. We must desist from compartmentalization and regimentation of diverse Dalit Bahujan’s thoughts, which are multicultural and multi lingual. If we try to create a monolith of it, the beauty of it would be lost. Hence it is important to have narratives of diverse communities who built our society. A Dalit narrative can not be just urbanized ‘educated’ construct but also the story of a Dom in Varanasi’s ghats or Mushahars fighting for their battle or Nats, Kalandars, Kushwahas, Rajbhars, Kols, Tharus, Balmikis (and they too have diversity among themselves), Kanjars, Sansis, Banzaras, and so many others who are not known in popular discourse and are out of bound from the ‘writers circle’. The Dalit Bahujan popular discourse must challenge the ‘meritorious’ brahmanical discourse from an alternative path and not through becoming part of that discourse which attempt to create a monolith of everything under artificial construct of ‘Hinduism’ simply because they have similarities in certain things. As research have shown there were over 300 versions of Ramayanas and each different than the popular one of Tulsi Das’s ‘Ram Charit Manas’ which imposed a patriarchal Rama on all other version and was further popularized by Ramanand Sagar’s magnum opus Ramayana on Doordarshan. The counter narratives of the Dalit Bahujan discourse are as diverse as Ramayana or Mahabharata. There are thoughts influenced by Ambedkar-Periyar’s ideological construct, which demolish the brahmanical myths woven around negative and pathological characteristics of Asuras or Rakshasas and talked of a modern secular society based on rational humanist principles of French or Russian revolutions.  But one has to understand that it was not merely ideological constructs of the legends that shape Bahujan-Dalit literature as various communities celebrate different festivals in diverse ways. So, every festival in India has a counter perspective but the brahmanical mainstream in India actually suppressed these narratives and placed the upper caste brahmanical narrative as the sole identity of cultural India.

As I mentioned young dynamic youths of the Dalit Bahujan communities are challenging the brahmanical hegemonic narratives today. Not only are they getting empowered by the strong thoughts of Dr Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar but are taking inspirations from their friends too who have been supporting and participating in the global resistance movement against culture of monopoly and private control over the public resources. Chandra Mohan represent a well defined modern poet who want to stand with all forms of discrimination and has got a language which many will definitely envy. Moreover, Chandra Mohan’s brilliance in poetry has surpassed any one that I have come across so far in terms of variety of issues that he takes up. He has not just spoken against caste violence and untouchability but subject likes gay rights, Soni Sori, Irom Sharmila, Mujaffarnagar, unfair globalization have come under his scrutiny resulting some of the finest poetry of our time that touch the inner chord of your heart.

The whole country shouted loud for Nirbhaya and the ‘establishment’ responded with a ‘Nirbhaya Act’ but news of rape and murder of Dalit or tribal girls do not prick our conscience. There is no protest; no dharanas for the safety and security of the Aadivasi girls are victim of highhandedness of our security agencies in Bastar. His poem, ‘ Rape of a tribal girl’ exposes the duplicity of our sensitivities and the farce that our ‘intellectuals’ and ‘media’ play.

‘No newspaper carried a headline or a photo feature,

No youth were roused to protests,


No city’s life came to a standstill,


No furore in the parliament,

No nation’s conscience was haunted,


No Prime Minister addressed the nation,


No TV channel discussions,


No police officials were transferred or suspended,

No candlelight marches,


No billion women rising,


A tribal girl was raped and murdered!’

The pain of migration result in loss of identity and a majority of those migrate to cities are Dalit Bahujans like the blacks of Africa. One has to just feel how  Chandra Mohan explain it beautifully in his poem, ‘ Black Migratory’

 ‘Birds Migratory birds

 most of them have dark feathers

 sing mostly Bhojpuri, Bengali, Odiya

fly towards floating clouds

 lives lost in transit’.

Chandra Mohan is not short of words. He possesses an extraordinary quality of weaving his narratives and ideas in shortest yet impressive ways. As a poet his worldview is as wider as possible and modern in the absolute term of Ambedkar’s vision of enlightened India and therefore he questions the traditions and wrongs happening in the name of traditions. We need to counter the brahmanical narrative through questioning them and demolish the myths woven around them. Therefore, issues of Khap Panchayats and killings of innocent lovers in the name of traditions and morality come under sharp attack in his verses.

‘Moral Police ‘

when lover couple

 hid in a hood of a tree

they chanced upon love letters

some of them half burned

 some of them centuries old

along with a picture of Shoorpanaka

 sans her nose, ears and breasts!

Capitalism and religious fanaticism or theocracy work together and compliment each others. In India capitalism has come handy for Brahmanism to push its agenda to suck our resources and subjugate the Dalit Bahujan-aadivasis further and that comes for an excellent narrative in his poetry, ‘A Neo-liberal Miscarriage’

‘Every drill driven into the earth

                                                 

 for oil punctures

 holes into her womb

 gangrenes of depletion

 mushrooming clouds of subatomic fury

 a miscarriage of neo-liberal development’

Chandra Mohan has rightly termed Dalit literature as the literature of resistance and biggest movement world over and he is placing both Dalit-Bahujan literature together. Today, the Bahujans too are questioning the history and historical wrongs.  It is important for them to write their own history as beautifully mentioned by him in the interview, ‘ 

As the African proverb goes ‘, Until the lions have their own historians, the story of the hunt will glorify the hunter’, Dalit literature is the documentation of the resistance of Dalit Bahujans against Brahmanical Social Order. It is one of the world’s oldest resistance movements. Dalit literature aims to complement the larger civil rights struggle of Dalit Bahujans the world over and I believe we are at the cusp of a big change. Our voices are beginning to be heard.

His poem ‘ History’ speak of that thinking that every historical ‘document’ of the brahmanical construct need to be questioned and rewritten by the Dalit Bahujan historians.

‘

What is history?

Its a declamation

 delivered on a podium

on a pedestal that rusts away

My poems are steel arrows

 that pierce the podium from below’

Ambedkarite scholar Rohith Vemula’s institutional murder agitated all the right thinking persons in India particularly those hailing from Dalit Bahujan communities. The incident actually exposed the brahmanical structure inside our campuses and how those who questions and want to live an independent life, live with their own understanding face obstacles at ever level. Chandra Mohan deserve fullest applauds for this wonderful narration of students suicides inside our campuses in his poem, ‘ Killing the Shambookas’.

‘Jim Crow segregated hostel rooms,

Ceiling fans bear a strange fruit,

Blood on books and blood on papers,

A black body swinging in mute silence,

Strange fruit hanging from tridents’

As Bahujan magazines such as ‘Forward Press’ find it difficult to sustain in the absence of solid financial and advertisement backing, the movement it has launched for a counter Bahujan perspective will continue in the greater interest of society. Chandra Mohan reflect the coming of the Ambedkarite age of articulate young Indians who will not only throw open challenge to the brahmanical literature and their falsified constructs but will go far ahead of them in terms of quality and sincerity of the issue. One of my dear Ambedkarite friends late N.G.Uke had a favorite quote about the quality of an Ambedkarite, ‘ We have to be better than ‘their’ (brahmanical’s) best’. I think this age has finally arrived with the remarkable verses of Chandra Mohan which will not just questions the wrong done to them or to any one else but also participate in all the international movement for human rights, human values, social justice and equality. The modern Dalit Bahujan literature need not just be ‘reactionary’ but provide alternatives of a better world and respond to the crisis of our time and Chandra Mohan’s verses are doing that impressively. There is pain for closure of ‘Forward Press’ which gave new ideas to Bahujan literature and empowered young Bahujan talents into writing and resisting the popular brahmanical myths yet there is happiness when we see hundreds of youngsters coming up, challenging and resisting at all the levels including social media. And this will keep the movement growing as the whole Dalit Bahujan age has arrived as the new young are taking up social media and firing through their blogs, alternative platforms and it is they who will continue to carry the torch of resistance and revolution. It is here the success of the movement. We hope these young minds will continue to revolutionise the web-world and more importantly bring voices from diverse communities, hitherto unknown to us and keep the flame of change going. Chandra Mohan’s poetry reflects that positive change among the youths of Dalit Bahujan communities which is definitely a great hope for future.

Rising Ambedkarite assertion is the biggest challenge to brahmanical hegemony in India

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Hyderabad Central University scholar Rohit Vemula’s tragic death has created a sense of grief and outrage all over the country. Students are at unease and the nation perhaps for the first time after years reflecting the somber mood that something terribly wrong has happened. Rohith’s extraordinary letter in death has become a classic perhaps for every one of us to keep us, read and reread it and ponder over as who is responsible for Rohith’s untimely death.

There are a number of people right from the right-winger to left thinkers to Ambedkarites who are decrying Rohith’s suicide while many making this act as a heroic. I want to make it very clear that Rohith was not a coward even when his last act showed that he had lost hope from all corners perhaps including his own people who he might have thought would help him. We are happy that teachers are not taking classes and seeking revocation of the suspension of these students but why has it taken so long since August. Can’t we understand and read a young sensitive mind who come under tremendous pressure with loads of hope from families that their children will study and will get a job. Definitely many become vocal in politics and social movements which is important but none can deny that the hope and aspirations of their parents is that they will study and find a stable honorable lives for them. Hence, Rohith did not get justice from the University, which remain absolute brahmanical in nature with Dronacharayas sitting and wanting every one to become an Eklavya. Today’s Ambedkarite students are not ready to become Eklavya and that is the root cause of brahmanical games of ‘saam daam dand bhed’ to crush the revolutionary spirit of Ambedkarism which has become the main challenging ground to brahmanical hegemony.  Therefore, it is important to understand that while the parochial brahmanical forces were doing their work what did we do or plan to do in future to stop such desperation of our bright young children. We can’t allow this to happen but for that we need lot of introspection, which people ignore deliberately in their blame game, which of course is well known to all of us. My only point is that it is time we create a strong support and solidarity group of people in every city which not only support them in their future endeavors but most importantly act on time to suggest the right guidance which does not destroy their life due to our rhetoric and jargons.

After May 2014 elections, the Hindutva forces have been active in the University campuses all over the country as education is the most important sector for the Sangh Parivar. ABVP is hyper active and they are after all those who differ with them. Ambedkarite students have become the ‘biggest’ ‘threat’ for them apart from the left. The Hindutva was quite comfortable with Congress’s upper caste seculars who did not change radically. The left associations and student Unions in the past had been anti reservationists and therefore there was a huge credibility crisis particularly whenever question of their relationship with the Dalit Bahujan organisations came into focus but off late organisations like AISA have been raising this issue and worked more on the Dalit issues which is a positive side. Dalit groups too have understood that if there is a possibility of alliance it could only be with the left progressive elements who have to focus not just on imperialism and capitalism of international variety but Brahmin bania imperialism in India too. Unless we speak unambiguously on the brahmanical imperialism in India and the way it enslaved people and tried to crush their spirit, we can’t really eliminate it. The Ambedkarite-Periyarist—Phule-ite Bahujan philosophy and social action has revitalized the entire movements and they become the real challenge for the brahmanical elite class who are ready to discuss ‘pros and cons’ of ‘international terrorism’, American imperialism and capitalism but glorify ‘Indian’ culture as the ‘most’ ‘tolerant’. So the Hindutva is comfortable in countering every one on international ground or when you start speaking on Islam as they want to look more ‘liberal’ in all terms than the theocratic Saudi regime. Dalit Bahujan discourse is a nightmare for Hindutva intellectuals as well as those who claim to be ‘liberal’. I can vouch many of the so-called intellectuals, sarkari babus in our secretariat; professors in our universities have filled with filth regarding Ambedkar. Once you speak to them their faces turn pale. Dalit Bahujan discourse actually exposes the brahmanical myth of tolerance and multiculturalism and therefore there are attempt to crush this spirit through various means. When you fail through a counter arguments then bring the ‘power’ of administration to suppress these voices. Yes, the biggest power to crush rising Dalit Bahujan assertion in India is actually brahmanical manipulation in power circles whether it is administration, judiciary and finally horizon of media which is totally in the control of corporate misinterpreting everything.

I would just narrate one incident on January 18^th at the Shastri Bhavan in Delhi when the students of various Universities in Delhi protested. The media was making a mockery of the students. Some of the photographers were aiming to take photographs of some of the girl students who were standing at one corner talking among them, perhaps smoking. The photographers wanted to take a photograph perhaps for a negative comment. There was verbal altercation when a girl stopped them to take photograph or video of a private affair. The reporter including the Times Now was angry and was shouting,’ if we put our cemara down, the police will beat them up and none would care for them.. aukat samajh aa jayegi’ he said. Many of the reporters wanted to walk out from the place but perhaps the incident was so powerful that they could not do so. At four when all the students came from JNU, the police did not give them time and started using water cannon. I was taking photographs but became very upset and in exasperation I shouted this is unethical. A media photographer who was taking photographs asked why you think police is wrong? How will they handle these students who are hooligans. Does the media feel that the protesters have no right to protest against something wrong has happened? We can understand police’s duty but when there is section 144 then why police allow the protest? When the protest is there why cant the Ministers or bureaucrats come and speak to students? Why they allowed the students to be handled by the police who misbehaved with them.

Today, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said this is not a caste issue. BJP is trying to convey that Bandaru Dattratreya is a backward caste person. A TRS MP said on TV that the Rohith was not a Dalit. What do they want to convey. They say that Rohith has not charged any one in his letter written before suicide and that he was suffering from depression. We want to ask who called Rohith anti national? Why is the Sangh Parivar not allowing students to organize seminars, conferences of their choices including film, Mujaffarnagar abhi baki hai when they can bring a Subrahmanyan Swamy to Delhi University and organize a seminar on Ayodhya. The entire government machinery is clearly visible here in the service of brahmanical forces and the real threat for them come from the Ambedkar-Periyar-Phule discourse and therefore attempt to deify Ambedkar and deny his literature to people and crush the spirit of those who swear by his idealism. Many of our friends were upset with political leaders visiting Hyderabad University but why are two chief minister M/s KCR and Chandra Babu Naidu silent on the issue? The PM who tweet every day has kept quiet so far though he speak through his arrogant spokesperson appearing on various corporate channels.

Rohith’s letter to Vice Chancellor on December 18th is widely been ignored where he calls him worst than Donald Trump and asked him to give suicide pills and a rope to all the Dalit students so that the University can live in peace. This is a castigation of the entire structure of Hyderabad University, which has seen shameless caste discrimination over the year. There are reports that around reports that in the past 15 years over 10 Dalit students have committed suicide inside the Hyderabad University Campus, which indicate how the University has become a slaughterhouse for the Ambedkarite Dalit students.  We don’t know whether the University ever felt necessity to look into these affairs as why one community of students feeling suffocated and isolated. Unfortunately, in the caste ridden Indian academia the answer to these questions would be that they don’t have ‘merit’ or the people suffering from depression or other psychological disorder as the Sangh Parivar elements are now claiming about Rohith.

Sangh Parivar’s lie machine is at work. Having been exposed on the issue of their anti-Dalit stand, they are now trying to save face and charging Rohith and other students with various charges including being arrogant and terming every one  as ‘brahmanical’ who disagree with them. The fact is that Rohith’s letter to vice chancellor is an eye opener and it is surprising why the VC did not even bother to speak to him and other boys. Was it because they were Dalits and particularly Ambedkarites ?  It is now coming to light now that the action taken against Rohith and his friends were on the basis of order from Union HRD Minister Ms Smriti Irani who claimed that her Ministry does not interfere in the ‘University’ administration’.  Ms Irani has become the hallmark of what is ailing our educational system. She has lost the plot as she continue to play in the hands of Sangh Pracharaks who are determined to destroy our education system and corrupt it with their brahmanical thoughts. It is not without doubt that people like Deenanath Batra are welcome in the HRD while a sinister campaign is launched against the respected historians terming them as ‘left wing’. It looks as if the Ministry is on the fast mode to change everything, which has rightly been defined by Sitaram Yechury as Hindutva Revival Department (HRD). The letter written by Smriti Irani on the instance of another Minister from the state Mr Bandaru Datratreya clearly violate the autonomy of an institution which Ms Irani is claiming so proudly to show her innocence.

The worst part is the Hindutva machinery outside is terming now that Rohith was suffering from some mental disorder or depression because his friends had not supported him. Whether Rohith’s friend supported him or not is another matter but in this case the Hindutva’s monsters can not shy away from the fact that they are prima facie the people who were responsible for his death. The Vice Chancellor of the University was simply an administrator who did not stand in front of the pressure being put by the political leaders and a letter from HRD minister was treated like an order.

Today, many in the media are crying how a Dalit student has faced the wrath. Some are suggesting that this is not caste violence but a case of two groups fighting with each other and political leaders jumping in to support their group. This is a clear attempt to deflate the whole issue of caste prejudices prevalent in our institutions. Sangh’s open agenda is to kill the rebellion spirit among students particularly those with Ambedkarite stream hence it is working on multiple agenda. One side, it is pushing Ambedkar to a demi god status by erecting memorials many of which were being demanded by Dalits for years but at the same point of time it need to be know whether the government is sincerely created these monuments or spending money from Special Component Plans for Dalits. At the time when Dalit scholars are not getting scholarship, when the government has stopped all the welfare measures in our villages, when the land and livelihood of our people are being snatched to make way for big corporations to loot them, it is Hippocratic to think that this government respect Ambedkar and his socialist vision. Ambedkar might have issues with various political leaders of his time but it does not mean he was pro Sangh or pro capitalist both of whom he despised terming the Hindu Raj as calamity for the nation. The government has clearly do not believe in Ambedkar’s socialist agenda and hence the students and all the followers of Dr Ambedkar who are alive because of his writings and life for the cause have become a threat for the Hindutva status quoists. As Ambedkar said, he would love if there were Voltaire’s here who could dissent against the brahmanical hegemony, which that was complete. Today, this hegemony is being challenged by none other than young revolutionary Ambedkarites who did not pick up guns but who with their thoughts and ideas have become the biggest dissenters of our time against Brahmanism which is being claimed by Bandaru Datratreya and others like him as being ‘anti national’. Yes, speaking against brahmanical crookedness in India is next to being anti-national in the eyes of those who did nothing except selling this nation to foreign multinationals and were absolutely absent during our freedom struggle.

Institutions feel offended if you suggest you want to speak to student on Ambedkar’s vision of India. We have faced this many times. At one premier institution in Delhi where I was a guest speaker two years back, I was not allowed to speak by a senior faculty when I raised caste question. Can you imagine this happen in a prestigious medical college of Delhi and student and faculty remain helpless as none wanted to disturb. The brahmanical status-quoists under this government have been blowing their trumpet very high. They have become extra powerful thinking they can do anything at their whims and fancies because they think nothing would happen to them.

The education system suffers from the Dronacharya syndrome. The teachers don’t want Dalit students. If they are there, they want to make them ‘mainstream’ which means you don’t ask any uncomfortable question but most of the time complains about you. Most of them are patronizing and at many central Universities, which I call, have been converted to merely primary schools where master scholars are suppose to just listen. Many of the students who wanted to speak to me about their subjects stop because they suggest that if they write of what I tell them will not fetch them good marks. So even if you don’t like Lord Rama or can expose the entire Ramayana or Gandhi, you have to love them in your answer-sheets otherwise you may lose good marks. What kind of institutions are we making? What kind of students will we create where you have to just appreciate the brahmanical dharma as the best culture of the world, the most tolerant, vibrant and in this context the Dalit Bahujan thought is a direct challenge. None other apologetic of tolerance brand will challenge it as the brahmanical supremacy has to be exposed through their own mythological crookedness and when you force students to write about their greatness then one can understand what kind of scholar will we create from the corrupted institutions.

Go to any university and seek the books of social sciences. How many of our students in the schools and colleges know about Savitri Bai Phule, Joti Rao Phule, EVR Periyar, Sahu Ji Maharaj or even Bhagat Singh. All the students have known to these icons through their socializing and external efforts and not through our regular curriculum where you find Gandhi, Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, Dayananda Saraswati and many more. Ambedkar is reduced to the constitutional drafter and Bhagat Singh, a hotheaded person who disagreed with Gandhi. Now we are getting new icons in history who are Deen dayal Upadhyaya and his integral humanism, Veer Savarkar who sought relief from the British and apologized, Shayama Prashad Mukherjee and many others who mostly sided with the British.

Definitely our educational institutions are under the brahmanical assault which got emboldened under the new power elite took over India but Rohith’s death has a lot to be answered by all others who were he close associate. Many friends suggest he should have fought but we must realize he was fighting since August so what has happened? Why did he commit suicide? Why did he write that he is still alone and felt unwanted since childhood? A person who is with the social movements and yet feeling lonely is a big answer to many things. We must understand that as a student his first aim was to complete his education as he was carrying a lot of hope from the family and friends who were supporting that time.  Since August, he had not got his scholarship money from the university and for the past 12 days he was out in open. People came and joined hand but it too delayed response when the things were lying since August. Why is that we could not resolve this issue? Why is that friends in and around Hyderabad who might be in the faculty, teachers, academics, administrators ever tried to resolve this issue which should not have been a big deal even if the Sangh was asking for their rustication. Was Rohith frustrated that there was no solution in the sight and that merely sitting on hunger strike or dharna is not going to take him anywhere? It happens. We have seen when we fight for a cause. Many times the cause is left deep aside and the leaders carry one with the issue. Their interest is not in solving the issue but carrying it forward, making noise. These are dark realities of our time. You might be looking the issue from your ‘big’ angle but for those for whom every single minute remaining outside and losing their time is painful, agonizing is a terrible wait. People don’t wait when justice is delayed whether by the delaying tactics of people or legalities of judiciary. For a young fresh sensitive mind, these are hard to bear. He fell to it. Definitely that is not a crime. It is our abject helplessness. When one sees no solution in sight he become a loner or at the end lose hope in everything including himself. When one sees becoming a tamasha himself a sensitive soul will walk out. That is the reality of our time. I can vouch for it as I have passed through this phases in my life feeling utterly lonely from childhood and it remain till today even when I am very active with people. It is terrible. We can fight with our enemies but we become helpless when those we expect to support and stand with us are not there or just using it. Dalit Students need peer support groups who are in effective positions around them, who can guide them and resolve the issue through negotiations or even by approaching to right authorities or courts. Young minds cannot sit on indefinite dharnas in front of those where none listen to you, this deaf and dumb government but from our side, we cannot afford to lose them and hence it is the duty of those who can influence administration and staff locally. Universities must be given clear guidelines, as they have no right to destroy the career of students and must be given everything in writing. The government departments whether educational institutions or secretariat never give anything in writing or never even acknowledge a letter. This must be made mandatory as what efforts the institution did to bring the students back to his studies. Universities or law cannot be for retribution otherwise there is no difference between us and IS.

The University Vice Chancellor need to own the responsibility apart from the Union HRD Minister and the other minister Bandaru Datratreya. As I said Dalit students face deep rooted prejudices in our campuses and isolation is not the issue. Will the government ask the universities to form special committees so when such cases come they are handed sensitively? Can we ask the government to make stricter law so that students do not face harassment because of their caste, identities and ideologies? Let universities and colleges become space for diverse opinion, dissent and sensitive to the cause of society, which will help India in creating an enlightened society. We must remember that youth will revolt against parochial and vicious ‘moral policing’ of all kind if allowed in the campus. Ambedkarites youths want a modern democratic republic of Dr Ambedkar’s dream and perhaps that is the biggest challenge for those whose dream a Manuwadi India. Rohith’s death has clearly shown the line that it is fight between Manuwad and Manavvad and you have to decide which side of ideology do you wish to associate as your decision will make or break India.

Tolerant’ ‘aberrations’

‘By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Indian Parliament paid glorious tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar on his 125^th birth anniversary celebrations and prime minister asked that the values of the constitution be promoted all over the country yet the home minister wanted the ‘Socialist secular’ word to be deleted as they are ‘redundant’ and ‘misused’ in India and not part of the original preamble. Even if these two words were not there and there might have been reasons does not mean that they have no relevance. How could Ambedkar who espoused the cause of socialism giving absolute guidance through directive principles not like ‘socialism’?

The violence and cruelty in this country are not new but the problem is how our media comes out with general reference suggesting these are ‘aberrations’ and then harp on great golden past of ‘tolerance’ and then this country jump out with candle lights and black badges against ‘aberrations’. In Parliament Rajnath Singh said Ambedkar was humiliated and discriminated yet he never felt leaving the country and Congress Party’s leader in Lok Sabha Mr Mallikarjun Khadage retorted by saying as why should he leave the country, he was the ‘moolniwasi’ indigenous habitat of the country, Aryans came from outside to oppress us.  What have we done to address those concern of Dr Ambedkar if we say we genuinely respect him and his thoughts. His concern was for a social democracy but has it been addressed. Will the government outlaw the Khap Panchayats and promote self arrange marriages that transcendent religious, caste boundaries. Will it protect those who do so? Modi’s successor in Gujarat felt that the 22 commandments of Dr Ambedkar to Dalits, can create animosity between the societies and hence withdraw the book on Ambedkar.  Have we seen any country where you want to create temples of man, worship him but refuse to implement his socio cultural thoughts? Will political parties take to Ambedkar’s vision of Prabudha Bharat and it is possible only through a fair implementation of our constitutional values and ensuring they become part of our daily habits culturally too.

When values of liberalism, freedom of thoughts and respect for dissent comes in our heart and become part of our core values then we are capable of even admitting that not everything was ‘golden’ in our past. It is not important to say that all our forefathers were the greatest people on earth and did not commit any atrocity or mistake on any one. When you are surrounded by those who believe more in jargons and high voltage ‘nationalism’ to fulfill their ulterior political motives you start glorifying and justifying everything of the past and that result in distortion of facts and converting many people into heroes and others who disagree to be as villain. The liberal ‘followers’ of these theories actually will condemn these incidents but term them as ‘stray’ or fringe.  But today the situation is not that simple. It is not just the physical violence but academic dishonesty and projecting our past as always ‘golden’ and liberal. We are not a theocracy and the constitution gave us freedom of expression to remind the good and bad of our past so that the current generation could learn from both. Hiding the dirt of the past will only create a highly intolerant society. It is time to remember some of the incidents termed as aberrations and our reactions then after the independence.

1.    

 In 1948, immediately after the independence, a fanatic Brahmin assassinated Gandhi but the nation remained calm. I shudder to think what would have happened if the murderer of Gandhi were a Dalit or a Muslim but then most of the ‘intellectuals’ pointed out that it was a murder carried by a RSS affiliated organization and not really by a Hindu or Brahmin fanatic. We were told that it was an aberration as people of India love tolerance.

2.     In 1982 thousands of innocent Muslims were butchered to death at a place called Nellie in Asam in the name of ‘outsiders’. The government of India failed. There were other ‘communal riots’ engineered in Bijnaur, Moradabad, Bhagalpur and Meerut. The victims did not get any justice and we satisfied with these aberrations. Life was as usual as ever.

3.     

In 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by the two body guards of her who happened to be Sikhs and the ‘people’ decided to teach Sikhs a lesson of their life. For next three days the country saw planned massacre of the worst kind in India in which children were burnt to death and people were chased away simply because they practiced another faith. Human Rights Organisation worked day and in night yet we said it was an aberration. Some said it was ‘emotional’ outburst while the ‘power’ justified it as ‘jab bada ped girta hai to dharati hiltee hai’ when a big tree falls the earth trembles. The movement against the highhandedness of the prime minister had just started but rather than being apologetic he challenged the opponents in the plain Bollywood style, ‘ Unko naani yaad kara denge’.

4.     In 1991 when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the Tamil terrorists the entire country remained calm. Why? There were no accusations and counter accusations. His cremations passed peacefully. There was no aberration as perhaps the killers were not Muslims. I walked through the streets of Delhi that day to see the empty roads but no ‘terror’ unlike the first three days of Indira Gandhi’s assassination when the city was virtually burning.

5.     In 1992 the Hindu fanatics demolished the Babari Masjid proclaiming that it was a temple where Lord Rama was born and that the said temple was demolished by Emperor Babur hence it was a history ‘correction’ project for them. Accordingly, Babari Masjid was the symbol of slavery and must be demolished to pave the way for a grand Ram Temple. It is well known fact how the idols of Lord Rama were installed in the masjid yet even if those factors are not accounted none has given right to street goons masquerading as politicians to become constitution unto themselves. World watched with horror how the lynch mob of Hindutva climbed up to the monument and demolished it. 

F

    From    December 7^th, 1992 onwards we found ‘secular’ people remembering Gandhi and condemning Sangh Parivar and its affiliates with utterings, ‘our age old tradition of tolerance’ is broken. It brought shame to Hinduism. Rather than saying that you cannot correct history and if you try to dig too much you will only find the Buddhist structure underneath and if they want to correct everything then you can imagine what will be left in India? But again demolition of Babari Masjid was described as aberration of the Hindutva fringe.

6.     Immediately in the aftermath of the Babari Masjid riots were engineered in Mumbai in 1993 and state apparatus failed to protect the people of the city as political rivals were raising the issue. Hundreds died and none was punished so far. In fact, the hate mongers became managers of the city and now control the levers of power.  Bombay is the city of tolerance, we were told and this incident was an aberration only.  The case continues in the court and the Tamilnadu government seeks commutation of the death penalty respecting the ‘sentiments’ of the Tamil people and it is so as the murderers are not Muslims.

7.     The thugs burnt a Christian Missionary Graham Stains and his innocent children in the forest of Odisha blaming him for engaging in ‘conversion. We all cried and condemned the incident and called it the work of a ‘fringe’ and mad man influence by the toxic ‘ideology’ of Hindutva. On the other hand, we don’t have much appreciation for his wife who pardoned the barbarians who killed her husbands and children so brutally.

8.     In 2002 hundreds of people died because of the absolute failure of the state. A former member of parliament was burnt to death while begging for protection. We heard many stories of brutality and barbarism. Many attributed to Godhra incident of burning of Hindus in the train who were returning by the Sabarmati Express by the mob incited by the Muslim fanatics. Now, there were two kinds of people who said Godhara accident was not planted by Muslims as if they can’t do it and the other said it was only Muslims who did it and that Hindus have a right to avenge it and therefore all that happened in post Godhara incident in Gujarat was justified. Our position was clear on both the front. State cannot justify tit for tat as it needs to protect people and provide justice to the victims. If the Muslims of Godhra were engaged in certain incident that can’t be a justification for their lynching in rest of the state and in the country. The duty of the state is to provide protection to its citizens irrespective of caste and investigate the matter and bring justice to the people whoever he or she is.

9.     In between we had seen the murders of Dalits in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Maharastra, Gujarat by the upper caste landed communities. None went to jail. We had numerous caste murders, honored killings, khap justice killing innocent lovers who dared to cross caste and religious boundaries, in the most brutal and barbaric way. There was not a tear shed for them. Communities laughed blamed others and went scot free. We the romantics blame a few fringes and said it was an aberration.

10.  Then came the ‘horror’ moment of India. December 16^th Nirbhaya rape put blame on violence against women on the prime minister and the then government. The ‘nation’ burnt and cried. It wanted a new law which was given to it. The ‘nation’ wanted to hang the perpetrators of the crime. We protested and wanted our streets, markets, home become ‘secure’ for our girls but when a British woman make a documentary and ‘reveal’ the dirty reality of the society in India, we all wanted a ban on the film. We said that the ‘nation’ is against the culture of ban yet if somebody exposes its culture then that must be banned. The film on Nirbhaya was banned because the upper caste lawyer was seen saying that if his daughter would come late and had a boyfriend he would not hesitate to burn her. We saw the statement in deep dismay and utter disgust yet we decided to shoot the messenger and said such episode do not ‘reflect’ our society which is very tolerant.

11.  A Christian professor’s hands were chopped off by the Muslim fanatics for allegedly ‘insulting’ prophet Mohammad. The Hindu communal became liberals asking for the human rights of the professor while the ‘secularists’ ignored the ghastly incident. We all said Muslims are not like that and these are fringe.

12.  In district Kannur, Kerala a Dalit woman Chitralekha was hounded, named and humiliated by the people including that of those belonging to ruling left front leaders that time because she became an auto driver much to discomfort of many drivers who wanted to throw her out because she belong to the Dalit community. She fought for her battle for nearly 11 years yet our national conscience did not wake up.

13.  In 2013 Western Uttar Pradesh saw the communal flashpoint. How the Mujaffarnagar violence killed people. Blame game started. The goons got political legitimacy and finally went to their political parties and became ministers. Those who were killed, raped and left homeless still suffer. The helpless People came in the street, protested with candlelight suggesting that such ‘aberrations’ don’t  takes place next time if we follow Gandhiji.

14.  Now people are being killed for their food menu inside the home. Akhlaq was killed for no fault of his as it was alleged that his family was cooking beef. We felt outraged at it and said the Hindutva fringe do not represent India. Hindus and Muslims have lived together and have been very tolerant. Several years’ back two dalits were killed for tanning the skin of a dead cow in Jhajjar town of Haryana. The hypocrisy is ‘liberalism’ that in this country killing a cow is punishment and raise so much of ‘passion’ while killing a Dalit does not attract that much of passion and condemnation.

15.  Hundreds of Dalit families faced tyranny of the caste Hindus in Harayana and none came to support them. When they converted to Islam after all option failed they were threatened. Now two Dalit children were burnt in Harayana and the nation woke up to protest,’ the killers of these brutalities don’t represent us as these are aberrations’. The minister compared them to dogs and get away with it only to show how much are we ‘tolerant’ towards those who spit venom every day.

16.  When rationalists like Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Govind Pansare were killed no remorse was shown. In fact people were threatened with dire consequences. None of them were part of any mainstream political party. They had been speaking against prevailing superstition in the society an issue none of the political parties dare to question hence not much botheration about their killings. But today when the world watch us in horror and our culture of ‘tolerance’ stand exposed then we have started singing again that ‘they’ do not ‘represent’ our society.

17.  Amir Khan and Shahrukh Khan are actually the ‘brand’ ‘ambassadors’ of ‘Indian tolerance’ and ‘inclusive’ democracy world over. We don’t realize that this country could not convince Maqbool Fida Hussain to return as the Hindutva’s lunatics continue to threaten him with diverse cases in different courts. Sad that there is no mechanism from saving people from such kind of ‘legal’ ‘terror’ where you don’t know who and where can file a case against you. The local courts are ready to take such frivolous petitions and failing to respond could place you in jail. With all this, we have shown remarkable ‘tolerance’ for those who are spitting venom on social media against the opponents, threatening them with murders and exporting people to Pakistan as if they have an agreement with the latter.

18.  In the past fifty years, we have ‘tolerantly’ witnessed the silence annihilation of Aadivasi culture in the name of development. Millions have been uprooted from their native land to make India a ‘world power’. We have land for big corporate but no land for the honorable and dignified settlements of Aadivasis. Every big dam can narrate you story of slaughtering of aadivasis from their land.

19.  Even after 68 years of our ‘independence’ people clean filth, go deep into pit to pick up garbage, millions are still engaged in picking human excreta. Prime Minister’s Swachch Bharat cannot eradicate it as it attempt to hide the dirty reality of manual scavenging. As a society, don’t we think that we should have been highly ‘intolerant’ towards such discrimination but then what to do we are a ‘tolerant’ society.

20.  That we have tolerated so much to see women’s are disallowed in the temples along with Dalits. Girls are being killed in the womb, sold in the market in many places. Going out without a male aid is a challenge and we witness this with great tolerance.

21.  Haven’t we ‘tolerated’ too much the discrimination to people in North East that AFSPA still remain in force despite protests by the people there. We will ‘glorify’ Irom Sharmila as ‘greatest’ but not ready to listen to her voice.

These are just a few ‘aberrations’ in a society where it is happening at a regular stretch. You need to just go deep into communal violence, massacre of Dalits, violence against women, untouchability, manual scavenging, anti land grabbing protests, encroachment of big corporations in the forests, big dams etc to see the level of ‘tolerance’ that India has towards its own people.

The tolerance-intolerance debate reminds me of a great word of wisdom by Sardar Hukum Singh in the Constituent Assembly related to minority-majority issues. He warned against majority communalism as soon the thin line disappear and criminal communalism become war cries of ‘nationalism’. If the minorities who always are threatened react by asserting as well as displaying their cultural identity then it is easily termed as ‘communalism’. Minority’s assertion to their identity therefore become a dissent and must be dealt with harshly.

But in the current phase India is passing through that kind of tolerance where a ‘Muslim’ cannot express anything against the ‘popular’ notions and he must be proud of our ‘great’ heritage at the same point of time Hindus can speak anything without getting noticed. So there is no doubt that we were never tolerant towards dissent. Muslims may be becoming victim of this ‘intolerance’ now but we have history of celebrating killings right from the mythological text. Don’t we celebrate burning of ‘Holika’ during the Holy festival ? Haven’t we seen celebration of killings of Ravana, Meghnath, Kumbhkaran, Suparnkha, Tadka at such a huge level ? How can our children think of tolerance and Dharma. How you define it. Rama who exiled his pregnant wife and left her, spied her and doubted her chastity while Ravana who did not even touch her despite abducting her just to avenge his sisters humiliation. How will our children become rational when they are told do just follow the ‘symbolism’ and not to think as why should we celebrate killing. Don’t we celebrate killing of Mahishasura. No body wants to know as why these people were killed. The only arguments for them as that they were ‘asuras’. So it means you can kill any one who is ‘asura’ which was their identity. It means your rights and wrongs are judged by your identity. That is the crux which most of our historians refused to accept. Muslims-Christians face it today. Dalits-aadivasis faced it life long not just from the caste Hindus but also from the upper caste Muslims and Christians too.  You cannot be tolerant, civilized when you justify killings in the name of identities. It is important we start scrutinizing these religious texts and historical text as what is wrong. The wrong is in our thinking process and social attitude where your identity and display of identity is a ‘dissent’ and that has to be crushed. History is a tool of the power elite to intimidate others through distorting and corrupting the knowledge system. So Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali are good as Rahul, Vijay, Shankar or so on but not as Mohammad, Aslam or Naushad. They cant speak anything on Muslim issues as that would prompt reaction from the ‘trolls’ who will abuse you, intimidate later and kill you finally. Isn’t it the biggest sign of  ‘tolerance’ that we as a society continue to legitimize them and justify their acts to which ‘liberals’ would again throw their ‘jumla’ of ‘aberration’.

Europe, Canada, Australia and Newzealands Parliaments have apologised for what they have done to indigenous people. It was a great gesture. Our Parliament is discussing so many things during the 125 years of Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, the father of our modern republic yet none in the Parliament ever spoke of the historic injustice done towards the Dalits, Aadivasis and the shudras in 2000 years of history of brahmanical brutalities and cruelties. It is time Parliament show some intolerance towards this tolerance of barbaric culture to our own people by our own forefathers. Are we ready to apologise for what the Manusmriti and its masters did to India's Bahujan masses and that would be the real tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar if we accept the fact that we were brutal, barbaric and maltreated to our own people and now time has come to undo those historical wrongs.