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The Snake That Ate Dinosaurs

And other Essays 2010-2011
Mangesh Dahiwale

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INDEX
1. What is wrong with India? /3
2. Ambedkar's India /7
3. Ambedkar, King and Obama /11
4. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Martin Luther King, Jr's and the Historical Bible of the civil
rights movement /13
5. Crisis in Dalit Movement /14
6. Vision and Direction /19
7. Internationalism and revolutions: What about India? /24
8. Information technology and social movement in India /27
9. Thoughts on Women's reservation bill /29
10. Caste crossfire: Clash of Historical interpretations and upside down world /30
11. Movies, books and social change /33
12. The Basic Teachings of the Buddha by Glenn Wallis /35
13. From Primitive society to enlightened society /36
14. Tribute to Bhagwan Das /38
15. The snake that ate Dinosaur /40

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1. What is wrong with India?

India is the largest democracy in the world. It is to the great achievement of the country of such size and
such diversity to become a democratic country. Election of Obama as the president of USA showed that
Democracy offers a posibility of change in the leadership. Same can be said about Mayawati. She is a
woman. She is a Dalit. Both these classes impede people's rise to power. But democracy made it possible
for Obama in USA and Mayawati in India to come to power. This is the power of democracy. There is no
other way out for depressed and outcaste people of the world.

Democracy offers such a way out to more freedom and more power to people. It shifts the power in
favour of people who would otherwise remain at the mercy of the elites and rich. Democracy cannot stand
of its own, and it has pillars and most importantly solid foundation. The foundation of democracy is
society which is nearly equal and minimum gap between the rich and poor, and haves and have nots,
knows and know nots. The democracy can work in true sense if there is social democracy; which is an
attitude of respect for a fellow human being. In fact democracy starts from the grassroots and rise above
to give rise governments and states. American democracy could rise as it was based on the strong
foundation of local democracies.

However, every state and government is different as they have different problems and different societies
to respond to. India is a different society. The ageold enemy of democracy (and its most deeper form
social democracy) is alive and kicking. This is caste system. Not only caste system is alive, but its ugly
manifestation "untouchability" is alive and affecting people to a greater extent. Caste system is a major
stumbling block in the democratic India in the true sense. Besides caste system the communalism is
posing a major threat to democratic foundation of India. The people who feel left out are resorting to
violent ideaologies. India is at the present point of time has become a very interesting place where there
are thousands of social movements are proliferating leading to unprecedented changes and not to say
complex problems.

Communalism is often attributed to Muslims in India. But there is also a saffron side to it. This side is
much more dangerous than Muslims. This is evident by the information collected by Hemant Karkare,
who effectively brought out the linkages between Hindu terror and public offices and their political
connections. The Hindu nationalism is very dangerous as it makes the oppressed majority in India forget
their suffering and target straw man, that is, Muslims. India is a nation of slaves, according to Hindu
scriptures itself. The majority of Indians belong to the middle classes, who are traditionally Shudras. They
constitute over 54 percent of India's population. They are laggards in public institutions. Their percentage
share in the public sphere is far less than their population. Only dominant castes among them have
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benefitted due to political power, even then, those dominant castes are far lagging in public services and
businesses. Over 16 percent of India's population is Scheduled Caste. They are being targetted as people
without merit by educated elites in India. Then there is 9 percent of Scheduled Tribes, and hundreds of
millions of people are denationalised as they are never brought within the process of census. They are
termed as nomads.

In a sense, reality of India differs from people to people, and there is no unified vision of what India as a
country should be. This is a big problem. As Dewey said, every state is an experiment, and every nation is
a nation in making. The idea or concept of India that people have in their minds affects the society at
large.
If we look at the ideas of India, there are some remarkable ideas which come into open. There is an idea
that India is Hindustan. This idea further leads to concepts like India for Hindus. Hindu India is a myth
which like all other myths affect public life. However there is a big problem with Hindu India. The word
"Hindu" itself is of persian origin and have bad connotations. None of the so called sacred scriptures of
Hindus do not include this word. The concept of "Holy land" and "father land" advocated by Hindu
nationalists doesnt sound so appealing to 54 percent OBCs, 16 percent SCs and 9 percent STs and
millions of denationalised Indians called nomad and denotified tribals. What can be holy about the land
which makes them Shudras, untouchables and criminals. The bigger question of nationalism and casteism
have been resolved by superficial arguments by Hindu ideaologues. Limited nationalism of Tilak, with
Bramhans at the top; and obnoxious nationalism of Savarkar with "Hindu" as a national caste and
"Bramhan" as the individual's family caste cannot resolve the larger question.

There is also extreme Hindutva advocated by RSS. The essence of nation as Hindutva. Actually it is very
important to carry on debates and discussion on what constitute Hindutva. This links to language based
nationalism; Marathi Nationalism, Hindi Nationalism and Tamil Nationalism. Then there are regional
varients of nationalisms.

Pakistan is creation of Muslims from India, now called Mohajirs in present day Pakistan. Pakistan as a
nation, like India, is facing the similar hydra-headed problems, but is it mostly based on ethnicity. Since
its inception, the Muslims migrated to Pakistan, mostly from UP and major Provinces wanted to keep
power for themselves, and didnt resort to democratic elections as it would have offered a challenge to
their power from Baluchis, Pakhtuns, Sindhi, Punjabis and most importantly from Bengali speaking
Muslims. Urdu like Hindi is language of nationalism. Less than 10 percent people spoke what is called
Urdu today when Pakistan was created. Indians should look at Pakistan as a nation of ethnic groups. One
can clearly see what happened to Pakistan and how Bagla Desh was created. The extreme Islam is not the
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doctrine of the majority of people in Pakistan, but that identity depends on extreme Hinduism. Both the
extreme groups benefit from keeping alive religion based hatred. In the end, the losers are poor and
disadvantaged people in both the countries. There is a more scope in resolving issues if both the countries
focus on problems of common citizens, and not make efforts to feed them with pills of religion based
nationalism. Both the sides should understand that Cricket is just a game, and not a war.

For India to become a solid democracy, it is important for more and more Indians to know the reality of
Pakistan and deprivation of people in that country. India houses second largest population of Muslims in
the world. Sacchar Committee report brought very ugly facts about social and political deprivation of
Muslims in India. Needless to say that majority of the Indian Muslims are converted from lower castes in
India. Census of India is bringing this social reality on the surface as most of the Muslims are also
registering as the lower castes. India will have to solve the problems of Indian Muslims.

There is no scope for Muslim India, but growing fundamentalism in the Islamic world (however the
recent revolutions in the Arab world gives a positive hope for democracy, human rights and freedom,
which the Islamic Scholars are claiming the essence of Sharia) can sweep away Muslims in India to the
violent ideologies.
There is a growing Urban Middle Class India. The suddenly rich class is very impatient without any sense
for responsibility and sense of charity. Indian sense of charity is limited to giving donations to temples,
which in the end benefit the custodians of the temples, who are invariably Bramhans. The famous case
can be the case of Tirupati Balaji where billions of money were pocketed by a few individuals. Urban
Middle class India get swayed by campaigns like anti-corruption, but never get swayed by more crucial
issues of human rights and atrocities. It is entangled in the caste muck and god industry. One can safely
call it Middle Caste Nationalism. One can call it economic nationalism too.

All the credit to keep India intact goes to democracy and constitution. Constitution as an instrument of
democracy has succeded in India till date. The periodic elections, the multiparty system and adult
franchise keeps the hope of the people alive. If it had not been for the constitution of India, India would
have fallen into a big mess. The proper checks and balances that constitution provides, if made more
effective then most of the issues of Governance can be solved. Even when there are so many nationalisms
proliferating in India, the real hope is offered by the Constitution, which defines ultimate goal for India as
a nation, and that is J ustice (social, political and economic), Liberty, equality and fraternity. The standard
therefore for any nationalism to be valid in India are these constitutional values. The question is whether
Hindu, Muslim, Linguistic, Middle Class nationalisms are in accordance with these values, if not these
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nationalisms are anti-national. The problem of India is problem of not understanding what constitute real
India; India based on J ustice, liberty, equality and fraternity. Is anyone opposed to these values?

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2. Ambedkar's India

The idea of India is new. In fact there is no India besides the legal or constitutional India. India is not
constituted by waging war with the several principalities. India was a landmass conquered by invaders
from time to time, starting with Aryan invasion of India to English invasion. In the kaleidoscope of time,
it is very difficult to get the clear essence of what constitute India. Definition of India eludes people like
the mirage in the hot summer. Over this question of idea of India or to define India, lots of ideological
fights and battles are waged, of course, without any fruitful result. This was however case till India got its
own constitution in the year 1950, the idea of India became clear at least conceptually, and the cacophony
of opinions and ideas about India came in the manageable limits of understanding, and in fact, making
India for its citizens, present and future.

As far as constitution is concerned, it is a country projected in the future based on the very important
values of liberty, equality and fraternity. These are the values on which the modern India at least
constitutionally is constituted. These principles were very dear to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar who can be
termed as the founding father of Modern India. He started advocating these principles very clearly
through his important writings and speeches since 1930s, and even in the beginning of his struggle. The
roots of India as a Modern India lies in the 1920s and 1930s, and the decades that followed shaped the
future of modern India. It is still an unfinished project. It is still a nation in making as there lies a huge
gap between the ideals that are laid in the constitution of India and that of the realities of political, social
and economic situations. There is a long way to go. However to choose the goal for a nation is itself a big
step forward, and clears lot of ground and opens up practical ways to realize what is envisioned in the
constitution of India.

Let us look at India as an idea. Some right wing elements in India want to make India into a Hindu India.
There is still a strong movement especially led by the upper caste Hindus to supersede the present
constitution of India, and make it subservient to Dharma Shastras, which necessarily means India based
on the Caste system with Bramhins at the top. This project of India has given rise to extremism which can
sometimes lead to gross violence with the intricate network of people involved in various state agencies.
The strategy of the Hindu Militia is to create a fear amongst the masses of the growing Islamic terrorism,
and to forge a pan Indian identity. They are very largely successful in some of the major states of India,
and the state sponsored terrorism, which is a blot on constitution of India and Democracy, killed hundreds
of individuals in the riots following Godhara. The idea of Hindu India is anti-constitutional, and hence
anti-national. The proponents of this idea come in various colors starting from Tilak, whose idea of Hindu
Nationalism was based on the supremacy of the Bramhins, and that of Gandhi, whose concept of India
based on Hinduism, led to fear in the minds of the Muslims and untouchables alike. Religious nationalism
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has done more harm to India than any good. Some people argue that it was necessary for the national
movement for independence. To the objective mind, the process of transfer of power to Indians started in
1919 and it was really a question of how the power with be shared by different stakeholders based in
Administrative British India and its Princely States.

There was a growing discussion in India about the future India since 1920s. In this period, various Hindu
nationalistic organizations were formed. The Hindu Mahasabha was formed in 1915, and RSS in 1925. At
the same time, Muslim League was formed, which was later taken over by J innah, initiating political wing
for the Muslims in the Indian subcontinent.

Similarly, Indians also started taking interest in Socialism, and its core ideology of Marxism. They even
participated in the International conventions, and J .N. Nehru participated in one of such conventions. The
socialists in India were in touch with the international organizations advocating communism. They have
an idea of India as a communist India.
The idea of Islamic India led to formation of two nation states exclusively based on religion, later divided
into one of the states claiming linguistic identity. (Pakistan is Islamic republic and Bagla Desh is based on
Bagla Nationalism). Even today Indian Muslims constitute over 13 percent of Indian population, and in
modern India, they have been degenerated into second class citizens of India as shown by the Sacchar
Committee report.

Let us look at the profiles of the leaders who led various movements in defining India. All of them were
elite upper caste and educated in England. Most of them were lawyers and hailed from established
families. Gandhi came from Bania family and his family was established and had a network of Banias to
support him in his political action. Nehrus father was already rich man. J innah also came from a rich
family. In the contrast, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar came from Dalit family, a self made man, but he was
educated more than any Indian of his times, including the national leaders. He not only studied in England
in the London School of Economics, but also studied in the famous Columbia University in USA. He was
a lawyer, an economist and a statesman. While rest of the leaders built on already existing political and
social structures, he had to found his own political structures and create a social organization to dismantle
the very structures that supported politics of other elite Indian leaders. He stood intellectually higher than
leaders of his time, and therefore he has higher vision of India. His vision of India was narrow view of
acquiring political power, but to give an Indian society basis of liberty, equality and fraternity, which he
eventually did when he drafted the constitution of India.

As he came from the untouchables caste, which constitute 16 percent of Indias population, he knew the
suffering of the common Indian citizens. Having lived in the villages and poor urban localities, he was
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closer to masses than any Indian leader of his times. While others tried to create artificial poverty around
them, he had no choice but to live among the poor and the wretched. Besides untouchables, he had to also
look the suffering of other major sections of Indian society, which included 9 percent tribals, and 54
percent other Backward Classes. In short he represented illiterate and unconscious majority of Indians,
including the interests of the converted lower castes in India. With the awakening of this mass, no doubt
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar has acquired a centre figure in any discourse of India.

What was his concept of India?

He advocated India as a social democracy firmly established on the principles of liberty, equality,
fraternity and humanity. For him state was a mechanism to bring about radical changes in the society. He
wanted a welfare state to fight two evils plaguing Indian society; social exclusion and economic
exploitation. Therefore his vision of India is casteless and equal India. This necessarily defines Indian
nationalism in a broad sense of the word Nationalism. This is what Indian constitution aimed at bringing
radical change in India.

Ambedkars India is only hope for India. The Hindu Nationalism cant work for the majority, because the
OBCs, SCs, STs and women will have no place in it. Islamic Fundamentalism will wreck havoc in India
with its fundamentalist ideology. The Maos India that a Naxalite groups are trying to bring with create an
autocratic state. Marxist India cant solve problems as clearly seen in the states of Kerala and West
Bengal. Incidentally these ideologies are antithesis to the essence of India as defined in the constitution of
India; liberty, equality and fraternity.

Dr. Ambedkars India is enlightened, equal, free, just and compassionate India. While he advocated a
total revolution in India, his methods are firmly rooted in democracy and use of intellect in the Modern
world.

In his very important paper, Reason or Revolution, Karl Popper advocated that method of scientific
thinking can lead to lot of changes in the society, thus making human intellect an instrument of social
transformation. This idea is not new, but can be located in the philosophy of J ohn Dewey who was a
teacher of Babasaheb Ambedkar at Columbia. Similar intellectual challenges were posed by the Buddha
in ancient India to make society think more about the realities around them with a view to transform
them. According to Popper, the species changed due to evolution based on trial and error, and those
species which survived went ahead in the evolution, and rest of the species which couldnt survive were
wiped out. We human beings are biologically same species, and we make each other suffer due to wrong
ideas and opinions. This is what Babasaheb Ambedkar pointed out in the Annihilation of Caste. This is
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what Popper is referring to, which means that we do not have to kill each other. We have to change each
other through critical analysis of ideas and opinions in any sphere, including the religious sphere.

Babasaheb Ambedkar therefore provided a criticism for various anti-human ideologies. In a sense he
criticized the very notions that cause immense suffering to fellow human beings. Ambedkars idea of
India is therefore based on the tradition of criticism, both personal and social, with a view to lift the
society on the higher planes of existence. He was not a status quo-ist. He wanted to dismantle the
structures that enslaves individuals and do not let me realize their inner potential fully. From this
perspective he opposed the very idea of the caste system and religious fundamentalism. He brought a
tradition of debates and discussion and through it changing the very minds of the people for better. Alone
he stood against powerful forces of his time, but in the end, it was he who laid a strong foundation for this
country irrespective caste, creed and gender. He laid the economic foundation of India. And if he had not
brought significant changes in the law, the famous Hindu Code Bill, the women in India would have
languished perpetually in slavery. If he had not made efforts to uplift untouchables, tribals and OBCs,
people like me would have been up against the very country that I am ready to work for now.

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3. Ambedkar, King and Obama
Addressing Indian Parliament, Obama referred to Dr. Ambedkar and how the constitution drafted by him
is ensuring equal rights to all Indian citizens. This came as a relief to many Dalit organizations, which
sent petitions and letters to office of President Obama directing his attention to the problems of Dalits and
what Dr. Ambedkar did for modern India.
This incidence reminded me of similar visit by yet another great man to India in 1959, Dr. Martin Luther
King, who praised constitution of India, and his pro poor campaign was inspired by Indian constitution.
At least one can say that it has some influence. Comparatively Indian constitution though was newly
drafted and enacted in the year 1950, it was advanced than the American constitution in terms of Civil
Rights. Martin Luther King was impressed with the range of safeguards that Indian Constitution provided
to ensure civil rights to the Untouchables, but surprisingly no one told him of Ambedkar then. We have
evidence to know that he was familiar with Dr. Ambedkar or had heard of him, though he was indirectly
had a connection with him. The book that he called Bible of the Blacks-the strange Career of J im Crow-
was written by the person who was inspired by Dr. Ambedkar.
He might not be familiar with the connection between the untouchables of India and Blacks. The
important connection was between WEB DuBois and Dr. Ambedkar. In fact, C. Vann Woodward, the
author of the strange career of J im Crow remarked that Dr. Ambedkar was a very keen student of Black
movement and knew more than many contemporary scholars of Black history. Danial Immerwahr who
wrote an important paper in this connection has drawn attention to how the elite Indians obscured the
problem of the Indias untouchables and succeeded in camouflaging the category of caste with the
category of colonialisation of the Indians. Race and caste are similar categories compared to Race and
colony. This is a very important finding. Despite of this, Martin Luther King showed his solidarity with
the Dalits, and he declared that all the Blacks in America are untouchables.
Recent years saw growing interaction between the Dalits and the world community. This is largely due to
the fact that many Indian Dalits are traveling all over the world. This growing interaction is leading to
growing solidarity for the Dalit movement in India, which was, so far, neglected by the Human Right
defenders and activists throughout the world. India also saw rise of power to Dalits and they are having
third largest national political party in India. Besides that there are thousands of movements all over India
led in the name of Ambedkar. Dr. Ambedkar has emerged as the most important public icon after the
transfer of power to Indians in 1947. His legacy is continuing and with this his important role in Indian
democracy is beginning to be understood by the Indians who do not want get dragged into the religious
polarities of politics and fundamentalism.
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For the conflict ridden society, his writings and speeches can be the guide. The way he guided and
educated Indians through his writings, particularly his book Thoughts on Pakistan is still relevant and
important. And his book What Congress and Gandhi have done to the untouchablesdemonstrates that how
petty politics of power of the dominant elite groups can sabotage the social democratic movement through
faulty narration and propaganda.
As the most powerful man on the earth (which is beginning to change after Chinas rise), Obama need to
learn from the legacy of Ambedkar and King that what is important is not waging war against the other
nations in the name of democracy, but create and promote social democracy which is always and will ever
based on the trinity of principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, of this, no doubt, Fraternity is the
essential principle.

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4. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Martin Luther King, Jr's and the Historical Bible of the civil
rights movement

C. Vann Woodward, who died in 1999 at the age of 91, was America's most eminent Southern historian,
the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Mary Chestnut's Civil War and a Bancroft Prize for The Origins of the
New South.

The Strange Career of J im Crow is one of the great works of Southern history. Indeed, the book actually
helped shape that history. Published in 1955, a year after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of
Education ordered schools desegregated, Strange Career was cited so often to counter arguments for
segregation that Martin Luther King, J r. called it "the historical Bible of the civil rights movement." The
book offers a clear and illuminating analysis of the history of J im Crow laws, presenting evidence that
segregation in the South dated only to the 1890s. Woodward convincingly shows that, even under slavery,
the two races had not been divided as they were under the J im Crow laws of the 1890s. In fact, during
Reconstruction, there was considerable economic and political mixing of the races. The segregating of the
races was a relative newcomer to the region.

Hailed as one of the top 100 nonfiction works of the twentieth century, The Strange Career of J im Crow
has sold almost a million copies and remains, in the words of David Herbert Donald, "a landmark in the
history of American race relations."

This is how this book is linked with Babasaheb Ambedkar. In Woodwards autobiography, he says that
there were two main influences that led him to write that book. The first was the burgeoning civil rights
movement. The second, though, was Ambedkar. Here is what Woodward says:

A new and extraordinary foreign perspective came my way during the Second World War, while I was on
duty as a naval officer in India. With a letter of introduction in hand, I sought out Dr. Bhimrao Ramji
Ambedkar, acclaimed leader of Indias millions of untouchables and later a figure of first importance in
Indian constitutional history. He received me cordially at his home in New Delhi and plied me with
questions about the black untouchables of America and how their plight compared with that of his own
people. He also took the time to open to me the panorama of an ancient world of Indian segregation by
caste and to show me how it appeared to its victims.

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5. Crisis in Dalit Movement

In Khairlanji, on 26th September 2006, Surekha Bhotmange, her daughter, Priyanka and her two sons,
were killed by a frenzied mob. In total four people were killed. They would have been just killed like any
other killing. But before they were killed, the women were stripped naked, and humiliated and maybe
raped (the evidence of which is very difficult to establish due to lapses in the postmortem procedure and
reporting, but circumstantial evidences prove beyond doubt that their modesty was outraged as the bodies
were found naked). One of the men (one among the two brothers) was blind. The mob didnt spare even a
blind and helpless person. The whole incidence did not get much press, and whatever it space it got in the
newspapers whose front pages are adorned with scandals and gossips, painted this heinous incidence as
just another scandalous murder by the mob.

Due to alertness of a few local activists, the case came into public after one month. And the
demonstrations were held everywhere, not only in the state of Maharashtra, but also all over India, and
world. Hundreds of peaceful demonstrations took place, which were suppressed by the violent and brutal
police action. Thousands of people were baton by the Police and in some cases the peaceful
demonstrators were branded as seditious and anti-national. Still hundreds of cases are pending in the court
of law. For the first time in Indian history any case raised such a fury for justice, and this fire for justice
was finally extinguished by the infamous judiciary in India, which instead of acting as the custodian and
guardian of Justice favored the perpetrators by invoking the decision of the lower court.
The Dalits in India, who constitute almost a quarter of Indias population and five percent of the worlds
population, are wondering about their fate after this infamous reversal of justice. What is their fault? Why
is justice denied to them? Why they have to eat rats? Why do they have to clean human excreta? Why
they are forced to the life of subordination? Why their humanity and dignity is snatched? How long will it
take to end their plight? How long it will take to send their children to good schools?

There is a crisis in the Dalit movement. The movement that Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar started facing
infinite series of hurdles is in crisis. The Dalits as it were are treated with tokenism, tokenism as a
technique to blunt the movement of Dalits includes offering one post here and another post there, and in
reality not doing anything to solve to solve the problem of caste discrimination and the practice of
untouchability. The tokenism as a technique is not only used by the governments, but also by the
established national and regional parties to just show that they care for Dalits, but in reality they do not do
anything to end it.

The laws that are made in this country are also against the Dalits, even if they look effective on paper,
they dont do anything in reality to stop their plights. The example of this is infamous Prevention of
Atrocities Act of 1989, which looks such a great social legislation on papers, but the conviction rate is
less than half a percent. If this is not the mockery of the law, what else can it be!!

The Dalits in India are the poorest of the poor, and in some situations their condition is so pitiable that
they have to eat rats to survive (The Mushahars). In several cases their condition is so pitiable that even
the rats may be eating them.

The techniques that Babasaheb Ambedkar used need to be revisited. In Dalit community, there are people
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with varying mentalities, and some of the politicians act as the brokers, some people willingly sale the
community interests for their private gains. This doesnt mean that the majority of the Dalits do not want
change or bring in revolution. This is very much evident in case of Khairlanji agitation during which
thousands of people came on the streets to express their feelings and their willingness to work and
sacrifice for the society.

As a technique to take the fight further, we have to try to reach to individuals of the community. We have
to find means to reach the people through various media like pamphlets, emails, cell phones and
newspapers both our newspapers and mainstream newspapers.

The message can be simple.

We condemn the decision of the High Court to reduce punishment of the casteist perpetrators who
massacred and raped mother and her daughter and killed her two sons.

We demand reopening of Khairlanji case.

We demand application of Atrocity act on the killers.

On the internet forums:

We can express our feelings through writing on our blogs, writing emails to as many people as possible.

The National Crime Bureau of India publishes reports on crimes in India. They also publish crimes
committed against the Dalits. They reports thousands of cases of such crimes, which include rapes,
arsenals, looting etc. These reports are based on the records available in the police stations across the
country. Parallel reports are also published by voluntary organisations like Human Rights Watch (HRW)
and recently several reports are published by national and international agency. It is the fact that needs no
further elaboration that crimes are committed against the Dalits. The severity of the crimes will shock any
sane and thinking human being. The Dalits suffer violence by the hands of caste Hindus all over India.
The Dalits suffer all forms of disadvantages. The Dalits suffers due to poverty. The Dalits suffer due to
lack of health care and proper sanitation. The Dalits suffer due to lack of education and lack of access to
education. The Dalits not only suffer in villages which are dens of caste Hindus, but also in the cities like
Mumbai. They live in the city slums in the rat-infested shacks. They have to do lowest of lowest
dehumanising jobs like cleaning human excreta. They are whipped, paraded naked, raped and killed. This
happens every day in India, the country which boast of its rising economic power. The country is built on
the labor of the lower castes. Without the availability of cheap and exploitable labor of Dalits, this
country would have been nothing, its agriculture would have been nothing, had it not been for the landless
laborers who are mostly Dalits and are exploited for a pittance.

These obvious facts fail to change the mindset of the upper caste Indians. The rising middle class
(including Dalit middle class) has no sense of duty towards other citizens of India. There is a complete
absence of public consciousness. It is also true that the Dalit middle class, though not numerical very
large, but significant, failed its own community by staying neutral and in case posing major hurdle to the
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movement of the Dalits. The movement does not just seek change in the mindset of the people, but it also
seeks changes in the institutions that perpetuate injustice and violence. There are several issues and they
can can be enlisted as many as thousands when it comes to Dalits. There is an issue of lack of unity
amongst the Dalits. Unity can only be reached if the people feel a need that there is need to be united.
Unity can not be forced on the community. Dalits do not realise that they can be the most powerful
community in India. Only if, and that is a big only if, they can be united. In fact they can rule India easily
if they work together and learn to understand the importance of unity. There will never be uniformity in
the vision and outlook of all Dalits all over India, but they can certainly be united. The national unity of
Dalits is the need of all Dalits at this crucial juncture of Indian history. This is to say that the Dalits
wherever possible must work with other Dalits, and the severest issue that they face is that of violence
against them, or the possibility of dragging them on the violent path by those who propagate violence as
means of bringing social change. Violence for and against them will lead to uncontrolled chain reaction
which has the capacity to blow the very foundation on which this country is founded. The sooner upper
castes in India realises this the better it is for them and the future of this country. No country can afford to
remain in the perpetual wars. The small wars here and small wars there will one day lead to mighty wars
that will perish this country.

State has equal responsibility in annihilation of caste. But the governments so far have not done anything
other than cosmetic changes and in many cases tried to perpetuate the caste system. No government so far
has taken any steps to annihilate the caste system. There is no law which claims to seek the annihilation of
caste system. The government itself is responsible for supporting the practice of manual scavenging in the
state sponsored organs. The J udiciary which is not represented proportionally showed its ugly face in the
Khairlanji case.

Dalits should know that they have a numerical strength to change the political structure in India, and that
is the reason why some of them are wooed by the Political parties to show that they care for the Dalits.
The Dalit votes are decisive, because for them the only weapon is the weapon of vote.They do not have
wealth. They do not have say in media. They have nothing, and the psychology that is given to them by
Hindu social system make them fearful and at the same time helpless. But fear and helpless are the mental
states and can be replaced by confidence and strength, which is there in the Dalit power. Nay if the Dalit
Power becomes strong, it will gain an unstoppable momentum for the social change in India.

The Congress party comes in power because of the Dalit votes. No political party in India can neglect
Dalits. They cannot afford it. They can ignore it at their perils. This is such a simple fact in the Indian
political life. The only political game is how to keep the society fragmented and fractured so that this
fissure creates political strands which will benefit the dominant players in India, and the payoff to Dalits
is nothing. Their payoff is violence, insult and further slavery. Why do not Dalits all over India cogitate
over this simple fact that if they prostitute their dignity they prostitute their entire generation and make
arrangements to further enslave their own sons and daughters?

The single solution to all the problems of Dalits is the unity, but anyone who had worked with the society
will know that it is very difficult to achieve, though not impossible, and one of the factors that can unite
them is the crisis in the societies which wakes them from the slumber. The duty of Dalit elite is to create
that creative tension which will wake the larger masses from the slumber and darkness and urge them (or
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propel them) to fly high in the sky and in the light. There is always an escape possible from this dungeon
of caste and untouchability. However the problem is that the Dalit movement is fractured, and it is
fractured by the consciousness of the caste that is imbibed by the caste psychology. From where the
seeming solution to this problem come? It has to come within the Dalit community itself. When we are
surrounded by the packs of wolves, we have to safeguard our lives.

To my mind, the movement at one time can touch one issue which can unite the larger community and
mobilize them. Some issue that will pinch their hearts and consciousness and that issue is undoubtedly is
that of dehumanization and insult and denial of dignity. The caste based society doesnt treat individual as
I-you but as I-it, making the other individuals into inanimate and insentient object. For the caste
Hindus, the Dalits are not the people, but objects to be played at their whims and fancies. The movement
does not need leaders as once the people are mobilized natural leaders will appear from them itself. There
is always a discussion of leadership, but even a cursory look at the society can show that there are
thousands of leaders awaiting to be born in the Dalit Community.

After Babasaheb Ambedkar, barring a few exceptions like Kanshi Ram, D.K. Khaparde, Mayavati, the
Dalit leadership is in shambles. In fact we have failed to generate leaders on all levels and of all calibers.
There is a need of thousands of leaders in our community, but not at the cost of larger vision of solidarity
amongst us. The future leadership of Dalits needs to be all inclusive and tactical, and focused on the gains
of community. There might be different approaches, different ways and even different styles of
leaderships, but all of them should have honesty and commitment at its centre. The roots of the leaders is
the general public, and without creating public (creation of public is a difficult process as they are the
essence of every change in every society), leadership cant emerge. Only in the process of creating public
a true leadership can emerge and thrive. The public can be created around certain consciousness, certain
issues, certain vision, certain goal and certain ideology. We do not have to worry about multiplicity of
views, consciousness, issues, visions, goals and ideologies so long as they are directed to serving society
and not playing with it.

The biggest challenge is to create public and leaders. The leaders should imbibe the vital elements of our
movement just like our forefathers for whom tactics mattered as much as ethics and vice versa, for ours is
a moral battle against tattered morality and corrupt view, we have every chance to succeed. The
leadership must grow with the challenges facing the society. We can look at the crisis as creator of leaders
and public. It is not just the Khairlanji incidence that has created crisis, but if we look around us, there are
many crises going on in every home, every village, every society, every community and the entire nation
as far the Dalits are concerned.

People at the time of transfer of power, when there was a larger crisis of future of Dalits in the Indian
politics, Babasaheb Ambedkar fought with the British and Congress Party, but our people on Babasaheb
Ambedkars call fought the battle on the streets. Hundreds of people in Vidarbha courted arrested and
were jailed. The direct action is as important as legal battle. The direct action doesnt just mean strikes,
demonstration and bandhs, but it can mean any form displaying publics displeasure with the current state
of affairs. It can take a form of mass petition. It can take form of signing oaths to annihilate the caste
system and to be a dedicated soldier of the battle against the caste system and practice of untouchability.
It can mean forming small associations, organizations, and institutions to support the larger cause that will
18

eventually blow the caste system in India.

An efficient and creative political leadership is also important. And politically nothing is impossible or
beyond reach is shown by the BSP. If the BSP can get absolute majority in UP, it shows that the Dalits
can get absolute majority in Centre. It is not impossible or beyond reach. The only obstacle is the
psychological dependency on the political parties and political bosses. There is a lot to be learn by the
other states from the BSP which showed and demonstrated what is possible for Dalits in Politics. A
success speaks louder than hundreds of words and speeches. The overall movement and its small rivulets
must work for larger political gain in the longer run, which will not put the other political parties on
guard, but ensure a complete security to our community based on the principle that dare you touch us
now, and reap the consequence afterwards.

It is not difficult to achieve that kind of political strength. Overall our politics should be, and is, based on
the Constitutional authority, because our father wrote it, and only way to keep his legacy alive is to make
alive the values and principles which are there to be awoken in the constitution of India. The greatest
safeguard for us is democracy. We have to learn to make full use of Democracy in India. Without
democracy, the Dalits would have been hauled into the darkest dungeon by the upper castes. Whatever
light there is, is due to the presence of Democracy in India, and no one can stop us from using this
greatest value for realizing our social, economic and political rights.

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6. Vision and Direction
Where are we since 1956?
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar died in the year 1956. During his lifetime, he singlehandedly led the movement
of the untouchables and won important landmark victories in their favour, such as access to education,
representations in institutions and rise in political consciousness. What Babasaheb Ambedkar achieved in
a short span of 34 years of his active public career is unique in the history of the world. He stands tall in
the galaxy of the luminaries who sacrificed their lives to liberate their fellow human beings. Though he
addressed his followers who were mostly from the untouchable castes, his vision of social change, or
reclamation of human personality, was universal. This vision often comes clear and shining in his
innumerable speeches and in the debates of the constituent assembly of India. This vision also crystallized
in the Constitution of India, which Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar drafted. The story of Ambedkar era will
inspire generations to come and his name will remain forever so long humanity lives is beyond doubt.
During his lifetime, Babasaheb used various methods and strategies to create a society based on the
values of liberty, equality, fraternity and manuski (Manuski is the Marathi word often used by Babasaheb,
and it has connotations of humanity, humanness and respect for human life) through education, agitation
and organization. He gave to his people self respect, dignity and most importantly moral courage to fight
any odds. He started political parties, fought for the transfer of power to the untouchables, liberated Hindu
women from heinous Hindu laws tainted by male chauvinism, gave representation to the untouchables
and made passionate plea to include OBCs (Shudras) in the process of democratization of the Indian
masses, created political and legal structure to make it possible for social democracy to take its shape in
heterogeneous country like India. His achievements are innumerable.
The focus of the succeeding paragraphs is to look at what happened after 1956, in other words, where do
the followers of Babasaheb stand as of today. I am going to describe the situation in general. The broader
areas that I am going to look at are: education, institutions, politics, religions, and other areas which
include; academics, science and research, sports, media and entertainment.
Education:
Considerable progress is made in this area. After 1956, there are thousands of doctors, engineers and
lawyers amongst the followers of Babasaheb Ambedkar and many of these professional are living well to
do life. The recent trends in globalization have exposed a lot of followers of Babasaheb to the outside
world. This was not possible without Babasahebs efforts. Despite of that majority of the Dalit population
is illiterate and have no access to education. There is certainly quite an advancement, but still a long way
20

to go in this area. However there is a considerable mass of the educated lot who can lead the movement
inaugurated by Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Institutions:
Due to representation, one will find a good representation of Dalits in governmental or semi-
governmental institutes. Though many seats go vacant, still there is a representation in these institution,
which includes Executives and at the moment, the Chief J ustice of India is from the untouchable
background.
Politics:
BSP set up a new convention and broke the myth that Dalits cant come to power. Now the BSP is the
third largest party in India, with party structure established in the all the states of India.
Religion:
Conversions to Buddhism are happening all over India, and followers of Babasaheb have taken Buddhist
practices seriously and at the least a new culture on Buddhist values is emerging in Maharashtra which
will soon spread all India.
Other areas:
In other areas like academics, Science and research, sports, media and entertainment, the participation is
meager and far less compared to extent and opportunities in these areas. There is much stride to make in
these areas so that these areas are effectively influenced to make contribution in the social change in
India.
I have attempted to take stock of the situation in general so as to derive some specific conclusions which
will be practical in nature and in a way help us to suggest whither we go from here and how.
1. Though there is some progress, there is a long way to go towards annihilation of caste
2. The caste is not annihilated, it is not only prevalent in amongst the Indians at large, but also the Dalits
practice the caste system within their own community thus an effective and coherent movement is not
possible
3. The success in some areas indicate that the movement is not dead at all and far from it, it is kicking and
thousands of Individuals and organizations are working since 1956 for advancement of their kind in
several areas.
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In this situation of diverse interests and commitment and various interpretations of vision of Babasaheb
itself, it is very important to clearly define the goal. The task is made easy by Babasaheb himself, when he
declared that the battle is for the Reclamation of Human Personality.
In case of untouchables in India, their personality is mutilated by the Hindu Caste system and practice of
untouchability. Let no one say that the practice of untouchability is ended in India. The study conducted
in 2006 clearly showed that untouchability is still practiced massively all over India. Caste system
mutilates and degrades the human personality is the important conclusion and to reclame the personality
and restore it is the goal of the movement. Once the goal of the movement is clear, one can spell out the
strategies and use various structures towards achieving the goal. Needless to say that Babasaheb
Ambedkar fought entire life towards this goal.
The mutilated personality:
Caste mutilates the personality in two ways: internally and externally
The external factors such as presence of caste puts limitations on the growth of individuals and it crushes
the personalities by the predominant value system like Brahmanism. It needs various strategies to
dismantle the external structures and factors and political power is the sure way of doing that as the
society lacks requisite social and economic strength. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar looked at democratic
principles of Governance as a way to dismantle the external structures that mutilates the human
personality from outside.
The internalization of the caste system and its values is the most important factor in reclaiming human
personality. Enough progress has been made since 1956 that most of the members from the untouchable
caste are free to reclaim their human personality by freeing themselves from the caste, but contrary to that
many, if not most, of them are still entangled into the labyrinth of the caste identities. They take pride in
the narrow caste identities and thus limit their own growth and that of the larger community that Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar strove hard to create. Basically, humans do not need support of identities to live a
fulfilled life. They can be just human and act in the world. But the security is one of the psychological
problems of human beings and they try to find it somewhere, including in case of Indians, the identity of
the caste. The faster the followers of Babasaheb cast away their caste, faster will be the social movement
towards realization of the values of liberty, equality, fraternity and manuski. This is not to say that one
should be nave and not understand caste. One should strive to understand the dynamics of the caste
system and see how this dynamics can be used to gain access to power for the disenfranchised
communities in India.
The larger goal is therefore reclamation of human personality; of our own and that of others.
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The Grand single strategy which will influence various methods and tactics are therefore as follows:
1. Recruiting oneself for the social revolution
We always try to recruit others for the battle, but what is important is self recruitment for this noble and
great battle. After the recruitment follows the training. We must strive to train our selves so that first of all
we save ourselves from the heinous caste identities that pull us down from the level of humans. This can
be done by following the straightforward path of the Buddha. I am just describing it in some details
below.
Applying the principle of no-fixed self (Anatta)
However hard we try to fixed self in our experience of body and mind, we cant really find it, The Buddha
asked us to find, rather challenged us to find, the fixed self. The self is conceptually created. It is the
outcome of the social, cultural and family conditioning. The caste is same as this. It is just a label, but this
labeling process creates a perpetual cycle of locking ourselves in the narrow and limiting selves. Once we
break from this illusion of atta and see that reality and nature of our being, we no longer fix ourselves in
the labels.
Applying teachings of the impermanence
Everything changes. If we understand this basic truth of the existence, it is very easy to brave and not to
hear unknown.
Unsatisfactoriness of the self centered life
The self centered life is basically a limiting life and it is not the full expression of what we really are, to
use the jargonic language, social creatures. It is therefore essential to understands limits of self
centeredness and family life or life confined to one caste.
2. Recruiting other human beings for the social revolution
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar is a great example of this. He not only recruited and trained his own caste men,
but influenced and opened up a broad and glorious vision for all the people who came in his sphere of
influence. He has no enemy and he often said that he carries no animosity even in the worst situations.
There are various ways to recruit other human beings; one of the important way is to open up a new Vista
of world for them, another is challenging their intellect so that they can think big and for themselves.
Whither we go from here
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1. Building communities of people who are trying to create a society beyond caste through practical
methods
2. Making caste and social discrimination the most important issue in politics, debates on national and
international levels
3. Immediate followers of Babasaheb casting away their caste and reclaiming their personality, which is
the essence of social revolution that Babasaheb inaugurated.
If we work on these simple things slowly and gradually, the complex things will happen surely and
suddenly!!

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7. Internationalism and revolutions: What about India?

Internationalism and revolutions: What about India?
This article per se is not about internationalism. It is about linking the revolutionary spirit of human
beings all over the world which influences one another irrespective of their national boundaries. Let us
begin with the revolution in England in the 17th century, where in Royal army fought against the
Parliament army. The crown of England belonged to different dynasties with their roots in other European
countries, and the first victory of the parliamentary army over the royal army transferred the power in the
hands of people who were not the rulers then, and it took hundreds of years before the women got right to
vote in UK, which only happened in 1920s. The end of Stuart Dynasty in England, one can say, unleashed
the forces towards modern Parliament and Democracy.

England pursued the course of colonialisation, but not only that, all other countries from the continental
Europe fought against each other to get hold of lands and people in the rest of the world. (Germany was
left out from this struggle and it was busy in solving its own political problems). The English
colonialisation of America happened at the same time when they expanded in the east. The east was
having its own development and in the 17th century, Agra was more populous than London, and if
sources are to be believed, more advanced market than London.

We can look at the colonialisation from the present linguistic and religious map of the world. I am giving
these examples to show that nothing happened in vacuum or independently of events in certain countries,
as a matter of fact, these events are interconnected with the human spirit that loves liberty, equality and
fraternity, which goes beyond nation, language and cultures. Wasnt the Bostons tea party related with
the tea brought from India?

The French support and influence on American Revolution is very strong, and had it not been for France
to fight together with then Americans, it would have been difficult for American to win their war against
the British. Wasnt the French support connected with their defeat by the British on Indian soil? One of
the gentlemen who effectively participated in American Revolution was English gentleman was Thomas
Paine. His pamphlet provided a ideological framework for American revolution, famously known as
Common Sense. His another important work Rights of Man influenced the great social revolutionary
in India, Tatyasaheb J otiba Phule, who was one of the Gurus of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. Thomas Paine
also influenced the revolution in France, and the British connection of the French revolution cant be
underestimated. Voltaire was much affected by Newtons rationality and scientific temper.

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One of the important revolutions in the history is that of revolution of proud Blacks in Haiti, and their
glorious struggle to fight the colonialist and found the nation of their own in Haiti. This happened at the
same time when revolutions were taking place all over the places. What was happening in the east then?

The so called the east and the west were always connected. There were always interactions between
people through trade, commerce and religious missionary work. The Buddhist monks traveled all over the
places from India, to both the east and the west. In the modern times, who can forget the contribution of
J ohn Dewey in China and Japan, the famous teacher of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in the Columbia
University. Many of the ideas which fertlised science in the west went from the east, including celebrated
zero, and the mathematical algebra derives its name from Arabian Al J abr.

The point that I am arriving at is this: it is very important to link people to cause revolution in any part of
the world.

Recently Barak Obama visited India. He is the outcome of the celebrated struggle of Black leaders in the
first half of the last century, but their struggle goes far in the past. Though for whatever reasons, people
like Abraham Lincoln dwelled on the conflict between union or slavery, and ultimately resolving it by
tying them together in the Civil war, by creating the black regiment and freeing the slaves, there was
always a thurst towards the end of slavery. When we look back into the history we can see that American
Bill of Rights were full of discrepancies as it failed to give and treat the Blacks equally with the white
citizens. At least one can clearly see that there were whites who fought and died to end the slavery,
though the movement was led by very talented and resourceful Black leaders. The movement and efforts
of last hundreds of years culminated eventually in Obamas presidency. This is not to say that Obama is
not a talented man. He is the smartest man alive on the earth with his wide ranging knowledge and skill to
lead the longest democracy in the world.

I am trying to link up two things here; revolutions and internationalism. The constitution that Babasaheb
Ambedkar wrote gave a gift of democracy to India, thus making it the largest democracy. The success of
Indian democracy can also be attributed to the structures of democracy that the British rule created in
India, mostly during the First World War. Had there been not the practice of democracy, it would have
been difficult to ensure continuation of that in India. However the similar experience of Pakistan, which
failed to carry on the democracy, and rather tilted in favour of Theocracy, is struggling with lot issues,
such as internal strife and so on.

Despite of the fact that there is Democracy in India and its eventual part in acting as a great leveler, so
many things in India needs to be changed, and one of them and the most important of them, is the
26

dismantling of the caste system. The caste system creates the practice of untouchability and kills the spirit
of human innovation, rather its completely inhuman to believe in the caste system. The Indian struggle
against the caste system, though should be led by the Indians themselves, and effectively they have to
mobilize their forces, needs the support of international communities. Unless there is a global awakening
that there is something pathetically wrong with India, the internal issues, which are not internal, but
human issues, will not be solved.

The soccer world cup pitched an advertisement Say No to Race, why Indian Government did not pitch
for the simple sound bites Say No to Caste. The silence over the important issues speaks louder than the
roaring claim that India is becoming a developed nation. Mere glance at the statistical figures will show
that such is not the case, and still there is a long way to go, long long way to go!!

The important aspect of the social revolution in India is therefore make the revolution an international
revolution and invoke the revolutionary human spirit of people all over the world.

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8. Information technology and social movement in India

The traditional control over the information is main cause of creation of hierarchy and
domination of one group over another. It is applicable to not only society, but also in economics
as clearly demonstrated by Nobel Laureate, J oseph Stiglitz, in his pioneering work on
information economics. A symmetrical and skewed information will always create imperfect
markets and therefore the state will have to insure that the information is available freely and to
all, thus resulting into two important public legislations; Corporate Social Responsibility (in
which the private sector will have to disclose crucial information not only to the stakeholders,
but also to the citizens) and Right to Information (The state will disclose all information to the
citizens except in few areas of national defense etc).

So much so about the information and its availability. The information also needs a medium to
reach to the masses, otherwise the masses can not have requisite information to form their
opinions and hence judgments about schemes, policies and intentions of the political classes. The
media that communicates such information (in many cases such information is useless to the
welfare of masses and information can be ornamental and entertaining) is largely dominated by
the politically and socially dominant classes in India. In this grave situation where the
information is communicated based on the importance of it to dominant players, the common
citizens languish in the dark dungeon of ignorance and eventual suffering and helplessness.

Knowledge is power is very important aphorism of Renaissance Era, but how will citizens form
knowledge without having correct information is a big question that needs careful attention.
Faulty information will lead to faulty inferences and faulty inferences leads to faulty actions.
Right to information is important but what is also important is the right information.

Day to day experiences of the common masses in India are far from televised images and sports
which feeds into pockets of already rich companies. The picture begins to emerge clearly if one
just look at the front page of any news paper.

I would like to bring to surface two important news items. One is related to Indian Premium
League (Known as IPL where the payers auctioned for crores of Indian rupees), the bidders put
their bait for the prospective players and hundreds of crores are spent (rather wasted) on a minor
few players. The same newspapers carry in the fine print news about India's rank in the Global
Hunger Index, in which India lies miserably low. A quarter of world's hungry population lives in
India and the situation is worst than the sub-Saharan region. The more important question is: Are
28

citizens of India hungry for food or entertaining sports?

Food is an existential issue, no sport person can sport without food. Despite of this why there is
so much encouragement to the sports and not to the food which is the crucial national problem.
Why is there no reference in the media about hunger and poverty? What we are ashamed of
nation?

Adding fuel to fire and readers will let me use this metaphor for the lack of other one is the
question of inflation. The rise in prices of the essential commodities is the most important
concern for the common citizen. The prices increased by whopping 50 percent. If the Chana Dal
was priced Rs. 100 in the past, now the citizens have to pay Rs. 150 for the same. The prices
fluctuates more than the fluctuations of power in the rural India where people play the volley
with prices in the game of Indian Poverty Leagues, in which players have no alternative, but to
sell their dignity and honor.

Such a disgusting situation and our national psyche. I began with Information technology and I
ended up talking about two important problems of India's citizens; hunger and inflation. I have
barely touched the monster problem or for the weak hearts the mother of problems; the caste
system. There is a direct correlation between poverty in India and status of the people in the
social ladder. The more lowered caste you are, the more chances that you are hungry and
frightened by the ever rising inflation.

Right information is a need of time and dissemination of it is important and disadvantaged
classes should get hold of every possible media to reach out and Speak the Truth!!

This is applicable to netizens who are regularly on internet to catch the facts and spread them. At
least people have recourse to facts to interpret the world around them so that they are free from
malicious grip of the information fed by the dominant classes. The freedom starts with speaking
out and let us speak.

I am writing this on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the Buddhist Circle, the egroup that
was founded in 2001 and grown into a network of over 1000 people, who are not only concerned
with writing the truth, but change the world in which each of us can participate equally and fully.

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9. Thoughts on Women's reservation bill
We as a nation have come a long way after passing the Women's Reservation Bill, at least, at the
moment, in upper house. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar a pioneer in women's liberation who
introduced a very important social legislation, Hindu Code Bill, for women's liberation and
equality, said something which is very important: I measure the progress of the society by the
progress of the women in that society. This is very true as the society consists not just of men,
but half of the society and social experience is that of women's.

The caste hindus opposed the Hindu Code Bill and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar resigned in the
protest. The another reason that he cited in his resignation treatment is the Government's apathy
to the Other Backward Classes, though it was mandated by the Constitution of India by Article
340. What followed is Government's appointment of the Kaka Kalelkar commission, whose
report was then thrown in the dustbin by the Congress Government only to be brought alive by
V.P. Singh Government. Both the issue of liberation of women and that of OBCs was so crucial
to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. The present opposition to the bill is a bittersweet memory of what
happened in the 50s.

At present, two national parties are headed by women in our country. The INP is led by Sonia
Gandhi and the BSP is headed by Mayavati. Compared to what Mayavati achieved without any
political heritage and social disadvantage is something extraordinary in the caste ridden Indian
society. Her aspirations were kindled by the possibilities of a new world shown by Dr.
Babasaheb Ambedkar. But not all women are in such a position to throw away dominance of
men and caste prejudices.

The women's reservation is a welcome step and their participation on the larger scale will
improve general efficiency of Government and our political structure, but without inclusion of
the women from disadvantaged sections through proper legal representation, it will remain just a
weapon to control disadvantaged classes through the hegemony of upper caste men and upper
caste women.

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10. Caste crossfire: Clash of Historical interpretations and upside down world

In Maharashtra, Sambhaji Brigade (Sambhaji was the son of the famous warrior king, Shivaji, who is the
centre of this piece of note) along with Non Bramhanical movement organisation, BAMCEF launched a
campaign to remove the statue of Dadu Kondadev, successfully. The statue was removed promptly after
the resolution was passed Pune Municipality Council to that effect. Dadu Kondadev, according to the
textbooks on Maratha history, was a mentor of Shivaji, the seventeenth century ruler of parts of
Maharashtra. He effectively established what can be termed as Maratha empire. He has become a symbol
of Maratha Nationalism. An explanation of the term "Maratha" will not be out of place here. He was
Marathi speaking ruler. Maratha as such is not a caste, but a designation for Marathi speaking people,
who were mostly in the service of Shivaji and his successors.

Shivaji rose to power from a small principality and built a Maratha Empire. He was forgotten quickly, but
was discovered in the 19th century by no other than the Great leader of Non-Bramhanical movement,
J otiba Phule. The first written text on Shivaji is a ballad written by Jotiba Phule, who praised Shivaji's
many qualities as a just ruler. However, Shivaji was co-opted by Tilak, who used him as symbol to create
what can now be termed as "Hindu" Nationalism. Studies on Tilak and his concept of Nationalism
indicate that he opted for Bramhan Nationalism, in the guise of Hindu Nationalism. As always, people in
India are interested in the caste of the great people. All the evidences proved that Shivaji was from the
landowning community, and his caste is not clearly indicated, but he was definitely non-Bramhan. Unlike
the great Maratha prince, Shahu Maharaj, whom Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar termed as the "father of silent
social democratic revolution", Shivaji was not opposed to Bramhans. In fact, he faced humiliation by
kissing the toe of Gaga Bhutta in his desire to be recognised by the Bramhans as the Kshatriya. While
Shahu Maharaj took a clear cut stand against the Bramhanical hegemony.

The bone of contention between the Bramhans and non Bramhans on Shivaji is about two figures;
Ramdas and Dadu Kondadev. They were Bramhans, and according to Bramhan historians, they were king
maker, or instrumental in making Shivaji the king emperor. This view is opposed by the Maratha leaders
(mainly the Kunabis) and they claim that Shivaji was influenced by Tukaram, the great Marathi saint-
poet. According to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Tukaram's social revolution paved a way for Shivaji's
political revolution. The quarrel reached its summit when J ames Laine published a book on Shivaji,
indicating that Dadu Kondadev was a biological father of Shivaji. What followed was mayhem and
burning on Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune.

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Recently an ultimatum was given by Sambhaji Brigade and Bharat Mukti Morcha to remove the alleged
humiliating statue of Dadu Kondadev in Pune. The PMC complied and what followed is an interesting
story, worth telling in many words, but due to restriction of space, a few lines will suffice.

Shiv Sena was founded by Bal Thakare, whose father was one of the greatest social reformer Maharashtra
has seen. His name is Prabodhankar Thakare (Prabodhan means to make people enlightened). He was the
staunchest opponent of Hinduism and bitter enemy of Bramhanism. His books spit venom on Bramhans
and Hinduism, and they are now in wider circulation, thanks to the efforts of Non-Bramhanical
movements in India, and mostly in Maharashtra. Shiva Sena made Shivaji a prominent figure in arousing
the sentiments of people, it was a "Maratha Nationalism" card played by the CKPs (Chandraseniya
Kayastha Prabhu). No doubt the CKPs due to their Shudra status as that of Shivaji remained very loyal to
Shivaji, unlike Bramhans. The Marathi historical documents reveal how CKPs fought with Bramhans, the
battle continued till Prabodhankar Thakare. Shiv Sena benefitted by this churning in of emotions around
"Maratha Nationalism", however the lower caste Marathas didnt benefit due to coming of power of Shiv
Sena in Maharashtra. Presently, a new card of nationalism is played by nephew of Thakare, which can be
termed as "Marathi Nationalism". One can say that both "Marathi" and "Maratha" brand of nationalisms
are anathema to the Indian constitution.Now Shiv Sena and MNS is taking a stand that Dadu Kondadev's
statue should be reinstalled.

Simultaneously, there was a lot of uproar in "Marathi Sahitya Sammelan", the congregation of Marathi
writers, which was headed by famous Buddhist Ambedkarite writer, Uttam Kamble. The issue was
inclusion of Godse who killed Gandhi in the publication of Marathi Sahitya Sammelan. It was opposed by
the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), however there was a clash of people on the renaming of the ground
on which the congregation was held. The irony of the situation is that the Shiv Sena opposed renaming of
the ground in the name of Thakre's own father, Prabodhankar Thakre.

It is undoubtedly clear that history and historical interpretations are becoming bone of contention between
social and political classes. One can say that it is a great game of "History", but it is not just about history,
it is about caste and history. It is about history morphed, changed, interpreted, re-interpreted and eventual
weaponised to set people apart with an eventual clash with real weapons of mass destruction. It is time to
look at future. Though past can be light and heavy depending on who is benefiting from it, it is important
to look at the coming future from the view and vision of our constitution, which encourages
transformation through debates and discussions, evidences and facts. There can be doubts about history,
but there is beyond doubt a political game is being played with players shifting sides depending on the
their hold of power and desire to hold the power.

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At the moment, the world remains upside down, where the most pressing issues of caste exploitation and
poverty are relegated to the position of gross negligence, and banners are raised over the issue who did
what in the barren past.


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11. Movies, books and social change

For the first time in Indian Cinema, the movie, Raktacharitra, is made into sequence and is being released
back to back. The main character in the movie is from lower caste, whose father is murdered by
conspirators from upper caste. The movie begins with politics of caste, and then culminates into gory
scenes of violence which reminds one of the massacre in J ehanabad and Naxal infected areas in India.
Though it is difficult to watch those gory scenes, but they act as a reminder to amount of violence in real
life in India; killing of civilians, uniformed, dalits and tribals.

The first part ends with protagonist becoming a big leader through democracy, and the ultimate message
is this that the change can be brought in if the perpetrators are punished (in this case not in the court of
law or punitive police system which is shown to be corrupt and biased) and democratic system of
elections is used to gain control of power. As such it is a masala movie, but what makes it stand above
other movies is the clear depiction of the tension between the High castes and low cates. In other movies
that made it a big on the box office, particularly Dabhangg, where Salman Khan claims that he is from
high caste, and that is, Bramhin, and same with Shahrukh Khan in Swadesh, though there is a lovely
dialogue clearly indicating caste system and untouchability. So the movies are not caste immune, and
besides Akrosh, which is a remake of "Mississippi Burning" in Priyadarshan's style based on massacre of
civil right activists in America which eventually led to massive protest.

Coming back to Indian Cinema, which is lavish in creating surreal images and give birth to gods and
goddesses, both real (who can forget temples of South Indian actresses) and imaginary (Santoshi Mata),
has failed miserably in educating public through entertainment. The unending sequences of songs and
marriage ceremonies can grip the audiences to such a level that they never realise that most of the Indians
are not married the way it is shown in the Indian movies. It is completely different world far away from
reality of Indian society.

May the movies not only touch the issues of Page 3 and Corporate life, but also show the social realities
as they stand.

Yesterday, Ramchandra Guha published his book: Makers of India, and in his interview in the
newspapers, he claims that Gandhian literature is consciously promoted while the other makers of India
have been neglected. This is a very right and objective observation. The state control rationing of
Gandhian literature could fool the western people, but it couldnt fool the Indian masses, and important
figures, perhaps far important than Congress leaders, were kept alive by the masses with their sweat and
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money. Not only that but the personalities like Mahatma Phuley who thought beyond his present time,
and create a solid foundation for Indian democracy, and EVR Ramaswamy Periyar who at least for
sometime demolished the Bramhanical tyranny only to be replaced by dominant middle castes in the state
of Tamil Nadu.

India is changing, and so will be media and books. In fact they do not have to change, they only have to
work towards bringing out the reality and contradictions in the Indian society. Indian society is seeing rise
to power of Dalits in UP, and the Dalit led party is the third largest party in India, and if it continues to
grow with this pace, will soon make important headway. There are public intellectuals like Arundhati
Roy, P. Sainath and Meera Nanda and a galaxy of stars who try show the humanity what is wrong with
our country and how to work for a better society.

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12. The Basic Teachings of the Buddha by Glenn Wallis

I have been reading Glenn Walliss basic teachings of the Buddha since 2007. This is not a voluminous
book, but the beauty of the book lies not in his size but its content and the arrangement of the material.
The material consists of 16 Suttas from Pali Tipitaka. The scheme of the book is the introduction to
history of Buddhist texts, which also introduces philosophical gloss over the texts and words. He also
examines the texts as such from the very creative standpoint of philosophers of literature, like Umberto
Eco and Italo Calvino. In fact this book introduced me to the great writings of Calvino and Eco; the giants
of literary creativity. He also gives a touch of lightness to the introduction by bringing poetic inspiration
from Emerson and Whitman. The introduction is worth reading many times, because of its beauty and
vista that it opens up to the readers.

The main body of the book consists of 16 texts selected very carefully from the vast expanse of Pali
Buddhism. It introduces the readers gradually to the basic teachings of the Buddha. The main body is
followed by guidance to the texts selected by Wallis. The guidance is like a key to unlock secrets of the
16 suttas. Glenn Wallis is the scholar of Sanskrit and Pali language. In fact he wrote his doctoral thesis on
Vajrayana Buddhism and he has been practicing Buddhism from last 30 years. The clear illustrations of
the teachings and commentaries on certain world give the reader an encouragement to practice the
teachings of the Buddha. This book can be titled as the guide to practice the Dhamma. I had an
occasion to sit in a meditation with him in Philadelphia with my Indian Buddhist friends. In that
meditation session he brought alive the naturalness of the meditation practice.

The 16 texts are also divided into 16 legs of schematic journey, beginning with our home that is our body
and mind. The first sutta talks exactly about how we are wandering in the foreign domain (the world of
sounds, sights, tastes, touches, smells and thoughts) leaving behind our natural habitat (the body, feelings,
mental states and reality). The 16th text is the Mahasatipatthana sutta, which is about how to live like the
Buddha.

This book makes the Buddhas personality human by freeing the personality of the Buddha from
mysterious atmosphere. He makes Buddha human and hence accessible to any human being. This book is
not just a delight to read, but a very important addition to the body of Buddhist literature, which aims at
liberation of human minds and end of suffering.

More about Glenn can be found out at http://www.glennwallis.com/

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13. From Primitive society to enlightened society

Human beings are evolved species. They came to where they are in the geological time scale due to
natural selection. The beautiful principle that Charles Darwin discovered explains the origin of species,
including us. Charles Darwin was greatly affected by slavery, and in a way, through his discovery he
proved that all humans are one species. They are mutable species. On the scale of time, we began to arise
in our present form just a few million years before. Prior to that we might be in the form of Pikia, as
speculated by Stephen J ay Gould in his famous book Wonderful Life on Burgess Shell ancient fauna
found in North America.

Human beings are different than animals. They are endowed with special consciousness or mind that can
reflect. It is termed as reflective consciousness, consciousness that is aware of itself. Human minds are
capable doing complex tasks that include reasoning, language and literature. They wonder about their
origin, and their end. The human mind is not just rational, but also emotional and volitional. The later two
aspects of human mind dominate his rationality and his intelligence.

Though it is begin to change with the changes in intellectual advancement of humanity through science,
the past beliefs are still dominating humanity at large. Human beings as it were are torn into two mental
compartments; one compartment dominated by beliefs which has no basis in facts and other compartment
dominated by science which is based on evidences, facts and experiments. Beliefs may have origin in
primal fear of death and destruction. This seems to be largely true if we look at the religious texts and
philosophies of the ancient times. The beliefs are based on the fantastic stories which feed on human fear
for change and destruction. The religions begin with the beginning of the universe and creation of human
beings therein, except Vedic Bramhanism which posits beginning of the world directly to the creation of
the Varna system. Unlike Abraham based religions (J udaism, Christianity and Islam) which is based on
Creationism by intelligent being (God), Bramhanical creationism is based creation of Varna system, but
only confined to the creation of men without any attention to creation of women.

The concept of soul (the eternal me) is also a dominant concept in the religions. The creator (eternal
outside) and soul (eternal inside) are the twin pillars on which ancient societies stood up. The pillars were
blasted by science, including advancement in understanding the nature better, and understanding human
mind as a natural fact. Human beings crave for certainty and we fear contingency. In fact uncertainty and
contingency created the present life form. Change is the reality of life, and basis of modern developments,
when human minds engaged with the nature around to use it to make human life better. Man is a tool
making animal, and this quality of mind has brought men out of caves in the cities.

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These tools including the modern tools are meant to make human life easier, and more refined tools that
responded to needs of human beings needed understanding of the nature. The more one understands
nature, the more it is easy for human beings to live a better life. This understanding of nature and human
beings quest to understand it has not entered into understanding human societies, morality and politics.
This is more or less true about Indian society, which is still based on the caste system, which denies basic
humanity to masses. The system of caste benefits only a few and keeps masses perpetually in the poverty
and suffering.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was the only Indian who looked into these issues from the scientific methods.
He is in a true sense a philosopher of science who inquired into the nature of Indian society and found
what is wrong with it. He not only found what is wrong with it, but gave a solution, which is embedded in
his total scheme of liberation of humanity from inhuman social norms and religious ideas. He demanded
critical inquiry based on scientific methods of the Brahmanical religious books, which have led the Indian
societies where it is today, that is fragmented humanity divided into thousands of war camps.

In Buddhism, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar found systematic method to awaken human beings. This is very
remarkable that the Buddha who was born in India was the first to pose intellectual challenges to
humanity. He gave remarkable methods to know the fountainhead of our experience, the instrument of
experience and the creator of that what is possible, and that is that, human mind.

Key to change the world in the right direction is to understand the human mind and the mind of the world
as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar remarked.

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14. Tribute to Bhagwan Das

Death of great people always reminds us of their good done to others. Bhagwan Das is one of the stars
and heroes after Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, who not only shouldered his responsibilities, but helped to
strengthen the struggle of the Dalits all over India.

I often met him at his Munirka residence many times in New Delhi, and also in recent years I went to see
this great man, and learn at his feet the great learnings of his years with Babasaheb Ambedkar. He
belonged to so called Bhangi community, and he tried all his life to convince Bhangi community people
that they are Broken people (Bhangis) and not Valmikis (a hinduised identity posed on them by the upper
caste Hindus to Hinduise them and bring them under Hindu flag in 1920s and 30s). Sometimes he was
rebuked by his own people. I learnt from him the great stories about Babasaheb's life in his flawless
English. He was a High Court advocate and fought many important cases, but to my mind his important
contribution is in making Dalit/untouchable problems outside India. As such the strategy of the dominant
classes in India is to hide the ugly truth of caste and discrimination and create a rosy picture, but Bhagwan
Das not only spoke in UN about the problems of the untouchables, but also he was a member of many
Human Rights commissions, including IMADR founded by Burakumins of J apan. He also worked with
people so discriminated from Nepal and parts of South Asia.

His another important contribution is in the area of publishing Babasaheb's speeches in famous volumes
which nurtured my childhood and teenage fascination for Babasaheb, which were published under title
"Thus Spake Ambedkar". These speeches were the only source to learn about Babasaheb's message in th
eearly days of the movement till Maharashtra government started publishing the blue books which sort of
fueled social revolution all over India.

In the early days, Bhagwan worked throughout India to make SSD stronger and along with his friends
from Punjab, including L.R. Bali got lot of important works published in Hindi, another milestone in the
Ambedkarite movement after Babasaheb Ambedkar. Samata Sainik Dal (SSD) acted as a very important
force at the time of Babasaheb, and it continued its work even after Babasaheb.

He was a fearless fighter, and even when he grew old he kept copies of paper cutting related to Dalits and
development in various fields. He told me many stories, and one of them that I will relate is this: one day
he was reading a book written by Darwin: Origin of Species, and Babasaheb came and saw him reading it,
became fascinated and told him that he havent read that book, but found the ideas of Darwin interesting.

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The way he talked about Babasaheb created the scenes lively in my mind. His library was immense and
he was fond of books. He was always surrounded by books. His grasp of western philosophy was strong
and deep, and also his hold on English language, but also he was master of Urdu Language. In fact he
wrote books in Urdu.

I salute this great man, and I hope sincerely that teh Dalits throughout India will follow in his footsteps.
One of his action to show his efforts to end the caste system is to marry off his son and daughters to
people from all different caste thus creating a truly Buddhist classless and casteless family.




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15. The snake that ate Dinosaur
The title is not describing some myth, but the fact brought to the light by the fossil findings in Gujarat,
India. The natural historians brought into light many amazing facts about the history of life. However this
fact inscribed in the fossil rock about 67 million years old is special and it shows how reptiles preyed on
the Dinosaurs themselves. The Dinosaurs ruled the world for 100 million years like kings of the earth and
other species unquestionably the mammals and reptiles lived like pygmies in the era dominated by the
Dinosaurs. Compared to reign of Homo Sapiens the Dinosaur reign is far larger in the length of time. And
here in Gujarat we found an evidence of a snake devouring babies of Dinosaur.

It is almost a political lesson to the state of Gujarat which is infamous for twisting history and killing the
members of the species brutally in the name of nationalism and Hindu fundamentalism. The evolutionary
history of nation states and of the religions themselves is shorter than the blink of eye compared to the
history of life forms before the coming of stage of erected apes. The sophisticated consciousness of such
species which explores the deep time and the species existing before millions of years is blurred by the
narrow conception of existence informed by the religious texts. The speculative nature of such texts
creates further ado, which is harmless till it comments on the relations between people of the same species
and their position in the divine creation, which creates a divine tragedy of mass murders, riots and
killings.

The directed inquiries even at such a mundane thing like stone and rocks can teach us lessons which can
never be taught by the so called sacred scriptures. The facts are always interpreted by the people
according to their conditioning, and hence the quarrels emerge out of multiplicity of the interpretations
that each of us try to get at when some facts are reveals. Sometimes we believe in the interpretations of
the interpretations ad infinitum.

The fact that Snake ate Dinosaur should challenge some of the interpretations of the skewed minds
finding solace in hatred and ultimate waste and destruction of the precious human life. The world throws
us such revealing and earth shattering evidences of our marginal position in the stream of life. However
we try to create an interpretation that we dominated the earth and that we are the final product of divine
will to enjoy the fruits of the creation. One can understand this logic to certain extent, but when we look
at our more human acts and behavior and how we hold religious interpretations as the truth statements
and in the name of those interpretations took up the sword or in modern avatar took up AK 47 and kill
other human beings.

In what can be called the poetic justice, the fossils were found in Gujarat, the laboratory to experiment
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with the fundamentalist doctrines. In India, not a lot of people will read about the snake that ate
Dinosaurs. Generally the love for science is low in the country where the people get buoyed by the seeing
that Ganesh drinks milk. The scientific facts cry out for audience. Stupid, it is simple scientific fact of
surface tension!!