“I, Ravidas, proclaim all Vedas are worthless”

The Legacy of Guru Ravidas on his birthday (Gurpurb), 30th January

by Pardeep Singh Attri

Chaudan saai tetees ki magh sudi pandras,

Dukhion ke kalyan hit pargte Guru Ravidas

As per this couplet Guru Ravidas was born on 15th of Magh Saudi, full-moon day of 1433 at Seer Govardhanpur at Kashi (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh). His father’s name was Santokh Das and mother’s Kalsa Devi. Guru Ravidas married to Mata Loona, a very humble woman who supported him throughout his life.

During the times of Guru, the large section of society was tottering heavily under brutal enforcement of caste system and untouchability practices, the then Untouchables bearing the most. Socially ostracized and put under strict caste-based restrictions they were living a life worse than animals.

In such environment, Guru Ravidas, a cobbler and an untouchable himself, emerged as a formidable challenge to Brahminical hegemony and spoke for the rights of downtrodden. He openly denounced all he brahminical scriptures like Vedas, Puranas, Smritis, Upanishads etc as these promoted the hegemony of Brahmins and justified the social inequality and exploitation of masses. As he says -

Charon ved kiya khandoti, Jan Ravidas kare dandoti

(I, Ravidas, proclaim all Vedas are worthless) Read more… »

“Dr Ambedkar’s Buddhist movement is, I believe, the best hope for Buddhism in the world today”

An Interview with Dhammachari Subhuti

By Anoop Kumar

Dhammachari Subhuti, a British born, is an ordained member of International Buddhist order known as Friends of Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). This order was founded in London in 1967 by another British Buddhist monk known as Urgyen Sangharakshita to promote Buddhism in the West. Highly impressed by Babasaheb Ambedkar’s interpretation of Buddhism and its role in contemporary times, this Buddhist Order has been working with Indian Buddhists from ex-untouchable communities since last thirty years through its Indian wing known as Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayak Gana (TBMSG).  However, recently the Order has been renamed as the Triratna Buddhist Order (Triratna Bauddha Mahasangha) and the wider movement is called the Friends of the Triratna Buddhist Order or Triratna Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayak Gana in Hindi (TBMSG).

Dh. Subhuti speaking before Buddhist youth in Baudhgaya, Bihar (December 19th, 2009)

TBMSG has been working for the last thirty years in Maharashtra, and in some other states too, among the Dalits who have embraced Buddhism following in the footsteps of Babasaheb Ambedkar. How did your association with Ambedkarite Buddhism and Dalits begin?

Though our Indian wing was formed in 1979 as Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana, but our relationship with Dr Ambedkar and his Buddhist followers goes long back, even before the time of Babasaheb’s conversion to Buddhism in 1956.

Urgyen Sangharakshita, our teacher and the founder of TBMSG, although he was born in England, was at that time living in Kalimpong in West Bengal, where he had settled after his ordination as a bhikkhu. He first encountered Dr Ambedkar in 1950, when he read ‘The Buddha and the Future of His Religion’ in the Mahabodhi Journal. Read more… »

Dalits, Muslims and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ – Much ado about zilch!

By  Pardeep Singh Attri

Interesting news which caught my eye today (January 16^th, 2010) “Human Resource Department’s internal appraisals of ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ showing most of its physical target’s for 2009-10 are set to be fully achieved.” – With 85% schools opened of set target, 78% teachers, 92% schools with drinking water, providing free textbooks to 92% school students.

Keeping the Muslims down

Are all the governments working for all these? Are all the children getting chance for betterment or this scheme also have just proved like just another government scheme, those never reaches to common people and common people read and listen about them only on T.V channel advertisements?

There are about 45% Dalits who don’t know how to read or write and the literacy rate for Dalit women is just 37.8%. Read more… »

“Only whores choose their own partners”

Honouring Dalits with Blood

By Pardeep Singh Attri

Never changing story: A Balmiki woman surveys her ransacked home Jhajjar. Gohana. And now Salwan, where ‘justice’ by a caste panchayat saw dalit bastis looted and burnt.

Once, I asked writers who had already written on the issue of ‘Khap Panchayats’ that “what’s the role played by caste in the brutalities of ‘Khap Panchayat’ i.e. how Dalits suffer in ‘Khap Panchayat’ system?

They replied there is no such survey or measure available to check out this, ‘Dalits’ are killed when they marry into another caste but in Haryana the problem is of ‘Khap’ (marrying within ‘Khap’), the other replied ‘Khap Panchayats’ are against modernization’ not against “Dalit’.

I wasn’t satisfied with the answers, so I tried to search and write this article explaining with brief history what led to the increase in the number of Khap Panchayat’s illegal decrees, ‘fatwas’ against Dalits.

‘Khap’ (group of 84 villages) is a system of social administration and organization in northern India (highly influenctial in Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh).

Khap Panchayat’s whole-sole motive/purpose is to work and maintain clan/caste system alive (which they have done with perfection!) and they have always worked as anti-Dalit, anti-women, and anti-modernization.

Sometimes these ‘Khap Panchayats’ are equated with ‘Kangaroo Courts’, which are the ‘sham legal proceedings’ and which are set-up in order to give the impression of a fair legal process.

Why  Landlords Are Furious

Jajmani system under which there was some interdependence between the landlords and Dalit agricultural labors, but after the green revolution (in 1970s) the dependence of Dalits on landlords decreased to some extent. This Jajmani system was broken up and Dalits got liberated from bonded labors after green revolution. Read more… »

Salute to Women Liberator - Savitribai Phule

On her Birthday, 3rd January

By Pardeep Singh Attri

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened - Buddha

Savitribai Phule (1831-1897), one of the supreme names who fought against the totalitarianism of caste and other social evils in India.  She was born in Naigaon, (Tha. Khandala, Distt. Satara) her father’s name was Khandoji Nevse and mother’s name was Lakshmi.

Historians, who are ought to be free from fear, sincere, open minded, open hearted, truth seeker and also have courage to show the truth at any cost. But it’s unfortunate that historians have shown distorted picture and did not show the truth to the people. As a result of this, almost everyone confuses history with fiction & historians have made people blind, deaf & dumb – have disabled people from thinking rationally.

I have always wondered why the “Teacher’s day” is not celebrated on the birthday of Savitribai Phule, the lady who started first ever school for the downtrodden. Read more… »

The Day We Defeated Brahminism

The Battle of Bhima Koregaon: 1st January, 1818

By Pardeep Singh Attri

“If we wish to be free, we must fight. Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” – Patrick Henry (March, 1775)

Bhima Koregaon Pillar: Honouring the Bravery of Untouchable Soldiers

History of India is nothing but the struggle between untouchables and so called upper castes. However the Indian historians have always misled us by not showing the true face of Indian History.

The glorious victory of few hundred untouchable soldiers over numerically superior Peshwa’s army in the battle of Koregaon, fought on 1st January, 1818, is one such chapter in Indian history whose significance has been carefully hidden.

On that day, when many were busy celebrating the new year, a small force of 500 mahar (an untouchable caste in Maharashtra) soldiers in the British army were preparing for a war against the most brutal Indian state of that times – Brahmin Peshwa rulers of Pune, Maharashtra.

In the history books, this battle is considered an important one and is known as second Anglo-Maratha war that resulted in the total destruction of Peshwa kingdom and sealed the victory of British Empire in India. However, there is a different historical dimension to this war that all of us need to be aware of. Read more… »

महात्मा गांधी अंतरराष्ट्रीय हिन्दी विश्वविद्यालय के प्रशासन के खिलाफ दलित चार्जशीट

Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University is located at Wardha, near Nagpur, Maharashtra.  Formed in 1997 to promote and develop Hindi languague and literature, this University was established by Union government through Act of  Indian Parliament.  However, like any other educational instituion of the country, this university also has turn itself into a brahmanical space reverberating with nepotism and anti-Dalit/caste prejudices. Given below is the chargesheet prepared by Dalit students, who have been protesting against the University administration for quite some time. What is happening in this University is nothing peculiar but is just one reflection of the debasement of our university system. Is Pandit Ramchandra Guha listening?

The following peice has been taken from a blog [http://mgahv.blogspot.com/] run by the University students. We will shortly publish this peice in English too.

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देश भर में धर्मनिरपेक्ष प्रशासक की छवि निर्मित करने वाले पुलिस अधिकारी विभूति नारायण राय के महात्मा गांधी अंतरराष्ट्रीय हिन्दी विश्वविद्यालय में कुलपति बनने के बाद दलितों का उत्पीड़न तेजी के साथ बढ़ा है। क्या कोई धर्मनिरपेक्षवादी जातिवादी नहीं हो सकता है ? दलित उत्पीड़न की घटनाएं एक नई बहस खड़ी करती है।
——–

Dalit students sitting on protest in the campus

1. विश्वविद्यालय के अनुवाद विद्यापीठ में राहुल कांबले ने एम फिल की परीक्षा में टॉप ( स्वर्ण पदक) किया लेकिन पीएचडी में उसका नामांकन नहीं किया गया।अनुवाद विद्यापीठ में दो विद्यार्थियों का ही नामांकन करने का फैसला विश्वविद्यालय ने किया। पीएच.डी. के लिए चयनित विद्यार्थियों में राहुल कांबले को तीसरे नंबर पर दिखाया गया। लेकिन जब चयनित दो विद्यार्थियों में से एक विद्यार्थी ने अनुवाद विद्यापीठ में पीएचडी में नामांकन नहीं लिया तो राहुल ने अपना दावा पेश किया। लेकिन लगातार तीन महीने तक उसे प्रताड़ित किया गया। उसने नामांकन की पूरी प्रक्रिया को समझने के लिए सूचना के अधिकार के तहत विश्वविद्यालय प्रशासन से जानकारी मांगी थी।

अनुवाद विद्यापीठ के डीन प्रो. आत्मप्रकाश श्रीवास्तव ने सूचना का अधिकार कानून का इस्तेमाल करने की आड़ लेकर राहुल का नामांकन लेने से मना कर दिया। राहुल कुलपति विभूति नारायण राय के समक्ष अपनी फरियाद लेकर गया। लेकिन कुलपति ने बजाय उसके साथ न्याय करने के प्रो. आत्म प्रकाश श्रीवास्तव से माफी मांगने का निर्देश दिया। राहुल ने प्रो. आत्म प्रकाश श्रीवास्तव से चार बार माफी मांगी। उनके पैर तक पकड़े। लेकिन कुलपति ने नामांकन की स्वीकृति नहीं दी। आखिरकार राहुल ने आंदोलन करने की चेतावनी दी। Read more… »

“Why the Dalits alone should take the entire burden and responsibility in fighting against caste system?”

An Interview with Manjula Pradeep

By Gomathi Kumar & Sanjay Kabir

Manjula Pradeep is the Executive Director of Gujarat-based Dalit organisation Navsarjan. After receiving her Masters in Social Work (MSW) she joined the organisation in 1992 and has been  working on different issues since then. Apart from leading organisation’s legal cell on Dalit atrocities, she has been in forefront of the movements for agricultural labourers, bonded labourers and developing women cooperatives in the rural areas of Gujarat. In 1997, she completed her law degree to be able to take up cases related with caste and gender atrocities. Leading Navsarjan since 2004, Manjula Pradeep has trained hundreds of grassroots activists and has represented Dalit and Dalit women’s issues at various national and international fora.

Recently, your organisation has been in news for the study on  practices of untouchability in Gujarat? What are the findings of this study?

Illustraion by Rajesh Kumar, JNU, New Delhi

Our study on the practices of untouchability covered 1655 villages in Gujarat and took three years to complete. We have shared some of its findings with the media to create awareness. In the study, we found 99 different practices of untouchability and have tried to identify the specific regions where these are practiced. Most prevalent practices are related to right to equality in religion and religious affairs. In more than 90 % of the villages, Dalits are not allowed to enter the temples or to touch the idols and worship articles. They are not allowed to participate in the religious processions and other rituals.

In addition to that, Dalits are not allowed to sit on the chair or cot before any non-Dalit. They necessarily have to sit on the ground. The other practice that comes out very prominently is on food. Dalits are generally not invited in the community meals, if invited they are seated separately and have to carry their own vessels. They are served tea in cups ironically called Ram patras that are kept separately in non-Dalit households. Then we find untouchability being practiced against Dalits in providing basic amenities like drinking water, use of ration shops, postmen not providing their services, not allowed to touch the vegetables in shops etc. Read more… »