A Meeting With A Young Dalit Activist in Mhow
April 14 2008. Mhow (MP). Indore District, Madhya Pradesh, India.
This small cantonment town is full of thousands of visitors, mostly from the Mahar community of Maharashtra. These visitors are here today to pay tribute to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar the father of the Constitution of India. Dr. Ambedkar was born in Mhow in 1891. His father was a VCO or Viceroy Commissioned Officer, the equivalent of a Sergeant, in a battalion of the Mahar Regiment which was stationed in Mhow. The two major political parties – the Congress (I) and the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is ruling Madhya Pradesh have sent their leaders to honour Dr. Ambedkar. Mr. L. K. Advani the top gun and the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP has arrived to inaugurate a fourteen feet high statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
I walk around meeting a cross section of Dalits who have come here on this special day. I meet Rajbeer Singh Gautam at a book stall which he is managing. There were books on Buddhism, Ambedkar and caste conflict spread on the tables. I could also see compact discs with recitations of Buddhist chants. Rajbeer is twenty eight years old and belongs to Muzaffarnagar district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He is married and has one child – a son.
Uttar Pradesh is one of India’s most volatile states in the political sense. It is being ruled by the BSP or Bahujan Samaj Party - a party set up by the oppressed castes. It is led by the very aggressive lady politician Mayawati. Rajbeer hands over a chair to me and I sit down to talk to him as potential customers keep arriving. The others in the stall handle the customers. Rajbeer tells me that he had converted to Buddhism in 1989. He was inspired by the late Kanshi Ram to abandon Hinduism and seek shelter in Buddhism. Kanshi Ram was an employee of the Central Government before he resigned his job and started motivating the oppressed castes in the Hindi belt to unite and fight their upper caste tormentors.
Rajbeer tells me that he is the son of an ex-employee of the Indian Railways. And that his father’s services were terminated by the Station Master under whom he was working. The upper caste Station Master, according to Rajbeer, did not like his lower caste subordinate. In 1998 he came to Indore district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to pursue a technical course at the Indo-German Tool Room. After completing his technical education he got a job in the industrial estate of Pithampur which is barely ten kilometres away from Mhow. This town was supposed to be developed as the ‘Detroit of India’. But successive State Governments did not keep their promises and Pithampur went through a slump. It is picking up now thanks to the economic boom.
When I ask him how he compares Madhya Pradesh, the state he resides in, with Uttar Pradesh, his home state, in the matter of Dalit rights he says that Madhya Pradesh is far behind. He tells me of villages in Indore district where a person of the lower castes cannot drive through an upper caste residential area. He also reminds me of an incident which had occurred in a nearby village some years ago when members of an upper caste had objected to the cremation of the dead body of a member of the lower caste in a crematorium used by the upper castes. The incident had led to violence in the village and the state government had to intervene by sending in the police to make peace between the two warring factions.
By a strange coincidence I was in the same village that day visiting with an ex-classmate. I did not see any violence but my classmate told me about it. The affected communities in this conflict were the Patidars and the untouchables. The Patidars are the leading farming community of Madhya Pradesh. Their ancestors had migrated from Gujarat a few centuries ago and they belong to the same community as the Patels of Gujarat. Ironically they form part of the OBC or 'Other Backward Community' - a list of communities which gets special previliges from the government including job reservations and reserved seats in professional colleges.
According to Rajbeer anyone wanting to observe the caste divide should go to the schools in rural Madhya Pradesh where the government gives a free mid day meal to school children. "If you go during lunch time you will children sitting in different lines. Each line will contain children belonging to one community. And if there are a sufficient number of Muslim children in the school one can see a separate line for them too."
When I asked him about the leaders of various national parties who visited Mhow to pay their respects to Dr. Ambedkar he said that all of them were seeing the Dalits as a vote bank. That the Dalit vote could not be ignored hence these leaders made a beeline for Mhow every 14th April. He observed that work on the Ambedkar memorial had stopped after 14 April last year. But when the Bahujan Samaj Party under Mayawati won the elections in Uttar Pradesh the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh resumed the work on a war. footing. He mentioned the fact that in most posters put up by the major political parties Dr. Ambedkar was not given pride of place. These posters had been put by almost all the major political parties across Mhow. According to him barring the Bahujan Samaj Party which treats Ambedkar as a guiding force the major political parties like the Congress(I) and the BJP merely pay lip service to Ambedkar.
He also mentioned the fact that most of the locally important Hindi papers published from Indore did not do justice to the function which was held in Mhow. They published advertisements which were issued by government departments and for which they were paid. None of them thought it fit to publish something on Dr. Ambedkar and his work and thoughts. In this context he remembered seeing an article in Priya Pathak a Hindi newsweekly from Mhow which described the Ambedkar memorial as the Taj Mahal of Mhow. He said he wished that the major papers had also given similar importance to the event.
He said that a silver statue of Dr. Ambedkar had been installed in Columbia University where Dr Ambedkar had studied during the early twentieth century. According to him no such honour had been accorded to the great man in India. When I used the search engine google I discovered that a bronze bust of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had been installed in the Lehman Library at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at the Columbia University in June 2000.
This small cantonment town is full of thousands of visitors, mostly from the Mahar community of Maharashtra. These visitors are here today to pay tribute to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar the father of the Constitution of India. Dr. Ambedkar was born in Mhow in 1891. His father was a VCO or Viceroy Commissioned Officer, the equivalent of a Sergeant, in a battalion of the Mahar Regiment which was stationed in Mhow. The two major political parties – the Congress (I) and the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is ruling Madhya Pradesh have sent their leaders to honour Dr. Ambedkar. Mr. L. K. Advani the top gun and the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP has arrived to inaugurate a fourteen feet high statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
I walk around meeting a cross section of Dalits who have come here on this special day. I meet Rajbeer Singh Gautam at a book stall which he is managing. There were books on Buddhism, Ambedkar and caste conflict spread on the tables. I could also see compact discs with recitations of Buddhist chants. Rajbeer is twenty eight years old and belongs to Muzaffarnagar district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He is married and has one child – a son.
Uttar Pradesh is one of India’s most volatile states in the political sense. It is being ruled by the BSP or Bahujan Samaj Party - a party set up by the oppressed castes. It is led by the very aggressive lady politician Mayawati. Rajbeer hands over a chair to me and I sit down to talk to him as potential customers keep arriving. The others in the stall handle the customers. Rajbeer tells me that he had converted to Buddhism in 1989. He was inspired by the late Kanshi Ram to abandon Hinduism and seek shelter in Buddhism. Kanshi Ram was an employee of the Central Government before he resigned his job and started motivating the oppressed castes in the Hindi belt to unite and fight their upper caste tormentors.
Rajbeer tells me that he is the son of an ex-employee of the Indian Railways. And that his father’s services were terminated by the Station Master under whom he was working. The upper caste Station Master, according to Rajbeer, did not like his lower caste subordinate. In 1998 he came to Indore district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to pursue a technical course at the Indo-German Tool Room. After completing his technical education he got a job in the industrial estate of Pithampur which is barely ten kilometres away from Mhow. This town was supposed to be developed as the ‘Detroit of India’. But successive State Governments did not keep their promises and Pithampur went through a slump. It is picking up now thanks to the economic boom.
When I ask him how he compares Madhya Pradesh, the state he resides in, with Uttar Pradesh, his home state, in the matter of Dalit rights he says that Madhya Pradesh is far behind. He tells me of villages in Indore district where a person of the lower castes cannot drive through an upper caste residential area. He also reminds me of an incident which had occurred in a nearby village some years ago when members of an upper caste had objected to the cremation of the dead body of a member of the lower caste in a crematorium used by the upper castes. The incident had led to violence in the village and the state government had to intervene by sending in the police to make peace between the two warring factions.
By a strange coincidence I was in the same village that day visiting with an ex-classmate. I did not see any violence but my classmate told me about it. The affected communities in this conflict were the Patidars and the untouchables. The Patidars are the leading farming community of Madhya Pradesh. Their ancestors had migrated from Gujarat a few centuries ago and they belong to the same community as the Patels of Gujarat. Ironically they form part of the OBC or 'Other Backward Community' - a list of communities which gets special previliges from the government including job reservations and reserved seats in professional colleges.
According to Rajbeer anyone wanting to observe the caste divide should go to the schools in rural Madhya Pradesh where the government gives a free mid day meal to school children. "If you go during lunch time you will children sitting in different lines. Each line will contain children belonging to one community. And if there are a sufficient number of Muslim children in the school one can see a separate line for them too."
When I asked him about the leaders of various national parties who visited Mhow to pay their respects to Dr. Ambedkar he said that all of them were seeing the Dalits as a vote bank. That the Dalit vote could not be ignored hence these leaders made a beeline for Mhow every 14th April. He observed that work on the Ambedkar memorial had stopped after 14 April last year. But when the Bahujan Samaj Party under Mayawati won the elections in Uttar Pradesh the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh resumed the work on a war. footing. He mentioned the fact that in most posters put up by the major political parties Dr. Ambedkar was not given pride of place. These posters had been put by almost all the major political parties across Mhow. According to him barring the Bahujan Samaj Party which treats Ambedkar as a guiding force the major political parties like the Congress(I) and the BJP merely pay lip service to Ambedkar.
He also mentioned the fact that most of the locally important Hindi papers published from Indore did not do justice to the function which was held in Mhow. They published advertisements which were issued by government departments and for which they were paid. None of them thought it fit to publish something on Dr. Ambedkar and his work and thoughts. In this context he remembered seeing an article in Priya Pathak a Hindi newsweekly from Mhow which described the Ambedkar memorial as the Taj Mahal of Mhow. He said he wished that the major papers had also given similar importance to the event.
He said that a silver statue of Dr. Ambedkar had been installed in Columbia University where Dr Ambedkar had studied during the early twentieth century. According to him no such honour had been accorded to the great man in India. When I used the search engine google I discovered that a bronze bust of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had been installed in the Lehman Library at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at the Columbia University in June 2000.
“How do you feel about parties like the Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena which want all North Indians out of Maharashtra?” I ask him. He is dismissive of such parties and their leaders. “They will do anything to retain their popularity among their upper caste communities,” he says. “This is also vote bank politics, they will woo any community which can give them votes and bring them to power.” When I ask him about his political affiliations he says he feels closest to the Bahujan Samaj Party which is ruling Uttar Pradesh – the most important state in the Indian political scenario. He tells me that he votes for the BSP.
”Do you see any progress among the oppressed communities?” I ask him, “especially with regards to education.” He accepts the fact that there is progress. But he is not satisified with it. He points out that there are attempts to deny students of the SC/ST categories the various scholarships that the government is giving them. He says that there are moves to give these scholarships to students who score first division (60%) marks or higher. “Such students do not need help as much as the weak students do,” he says, “if such moves succeed it will mean that hundreds of thousands of students from the oppressed sections will not be able to continue their education.”
"What about the Brahmins aligning themselves with the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh?" I ask him. "Is it not a positive sign? The very same Brahmins who would refuse to interact with the Dalits except with condescension or contempt are now accepting Mayawati as their leader." He says that he is not impressed, "The brahmins will do anything to be close to the centre of power. They are smart. This is just a move on their part to be able to take their share when Mayawati rules Uttar Pradesh."
”Do you see any progress among the oppressed communities?” I ask him, “especially with regards to education.” He accepts the fact that there is progress. But he is not satisified with it. He points out that there are attempts to deny students of the SC/ST categories the various scholarships that the government is giving them. He says that there are moves to give these scholarships to students who score first division (60%) marks or higher. “Such students do not need help as much as the weak students do,” he says, “if such moves succeed it will mean that hundreds of thousands of students from the oppressed sections will not be able to continue their education.”
"What about the Brahmins aligning themselves with the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh?" I ask him. "Is it not a positive sign? The very same Brahmins who would refuse to interact with the Dalits except with condescension or contempt are now accepting Mayawati as their leader." He says that he is not impressed, "The brahmins will do anything to be close to the centre of power. They are smart. This is just a move on their part to be able to take their share when Mayawati rules Uttar Pradesh."
As I leave his book stall he writes his name, address and contact telephone number in the note book I am carrying. He invites me to come to Indore when I want to see literature connected to Ambedkar, Buddhism and the caste struggle in India. I see in him a North Indian Dalit Panther. Someone who will keep the flame of Dalit dissent burning. He represents the new generation of educated Dalits. The generation which is familiar with using mobile phones and the internet. The generation for whom driving a car is not the great thing it used to be for their fathers and grandfathers. Driving a car is still a major achievement for millions of Dalits who are living in the rural areas.
But inspite of all these technological advancements he also knows that the vast majority of Dalits still lead lives of misery and the fight must continue on their behalf. He himself represents a generation of Dalits who are educated and are trying their best in the private sector where profits are the only thing which seem to matter. But this is a sector which gives them hope and dignity. It is not any surprise that he has shifted from his home state of Uttar Pradesh which has a very bad record of industrialisation to the Malwa area of Madhya Pradesh. The Malwa area is one of the most prosperous areas in India. It has good climate, sufficient water, good agriculture and a good record of industrialisation. Will he grow with the years and become more mature, incisive and assertive or will he end up bitter and frustrated? Only time will tell. But there is hope on the horizon. As India prospers the Dalits also feel the positive effect. Critics say that a very small percentage of Dalits are affected by this progress as industry too has an anti-Dalit bias. But the political power of the Dalits cannot be denied. And if they vote en masse any coalition government at the Centre or any State Capital can be propped up or brought down by them. This gives them an idea of their clout and importance. And this adds to the hope.
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But inspite of all these technological advancements he also knows that the vast majority of Dalits still lead lives of misery and the fight must continue on their behalf. He himself represents a generation of Dalits who are educated and are trying their best in the private sector where profits are the only thing which seem to matter. But this is a sector which gives them hope and dignity. It is not any surprise that he has shifted from his home state of Uttar Pradesh which has a very bad record of industrialisation to the Malwa area of Madhya Pradesh. The Malwa area is one of the most prosperous areas in India. It has good climate, sufficient water, good agriculture and a good record of industrialisation. Will he grow with the years and become more mature, incisive and assertive or will he end up bitter and frustrated? Only time will tell. But there is hope on the horizon. As India prospers the Dalits also feel the positive effect. Critics say that a very small percentage of Dalits are affected by this progress as industry too has an anti-Dalit bias. But the political power of the Dalits cannot be denied. And if they vote en masse any coalition government at the Centre or any State Capital can be propped up or brought down by them. This gives them an idea of their clout and importance. And this adds to the hope.
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© Dev Kumar Vasudevan., all rights reserved.
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