Well-Done Maharashtra DALIT Protesters: But Next Steps are Vital
Sept 29 - Nov 6/7/8 - Nov 28/29/30... '06 are just some dates. But these dates may turn to be a turning point in Indian history. We are deliberately using the word "may" because things now depend, to a large extent, on the Maharashtra Dalit Activists who demonstrated their worth, their capacity as future makers of history in Nov '06. For those outsiders not much acquainted with the events, we present briefly the happenings within next two paragraphs, and then we shall proceed to the main points.
Khairlanji is an obscure village in Bhandara District of Maharashtra, India's most 'developed' state that can boast of having a Western-World standard wealthy-men's Metropolis Mumbai. In this village, an incident of gang rape cum murder of a whole family of Dalits occurred on Sept 29 . Surely not 'extra-ordinary' news it was, thousands of such cases occur each year in this 'largest democracy', so advanced as to burst few atomic bombs or conjecture a lunar expedition. The only 'exceptionality' the Bhotmange family had was that by their hard labour and their little land they were seemingly upwardly moving - a 'SC' family having a graduate boy, albeit working as an agro-labour, a college going daughter... We quote next few sentences from a web page only for the sake of brevity: << The Bhotmanges had been fighting their caste-Hindu neighbours for ten years. Two of their original five acres were seized in 1996 to make a road to other villages. More recently neighbouring farmers were trying to build yet another road through their land to irrigate their own crops more easily. For ten years, the local police had refused to register any of the Bhotmanges' complaints. Surekha Bhotmanges' cousin had some ties to the police and to the Congress party organization. He was using the little influence he had to defend the family, and for that he was beaten up by a gang of local men on September 3. Surekha and her daughter Priyanka, who had witnessed the beating, boldly identified those responsible to the police. Over three weeks later, on September 29, twelve men were finally arrested, presented to a local court, and promptly released on bail. They went directly from the courtroom to the Bhotmanges' hut. ...The caste-Hindu mob easily broke into the defenceless hut. They stripped Surekha and her three children. Sudhir and Roshan were ordered to rape their mother and sister. When they refused, the family was beaten with bicycle chains and paraded naked through the village about 500 meters to the village square. ...Surekha and Priyanka were gang-raped for over an hour while Sudhir and Roshan were hacked to death with axes. Then the women were killed and men shoved sticks into their genitals. The bodies were dumped into a canal. ... Police initially ignored charges brought by the two family witnesses. When the bodies were finally fished out, evidence of rape was suppressed. ...>> [ anti-caste: maharashtra burning; http://www.foraproletarianparty.net/Dalit_And_Caste_question/www.anti-caste.org%20] The anti-Dalit fellows of Bhandara may get heartened to know that same level of police effort is available in the self-proclaimed 'most cultured' state WB ruled by CPIM, in the case of gang rape cum burning-alive of a Dalit teenager activist Tapasi Malik on Dec 18 '07 dawn, who was one of the thousands fighting the govt land grab for the TATA in Singur. The police 'could not find conclusive proof of rape as concerned body-parts were burnt very badly' and quickly cremated the body; while the ruling party and their servile media started a character-assassination misinformation drive to malign the martyr!
But what amount of injustices and insults the Dalits have to bear? Last summer during the upper-caste students 'protest' against OBC quota enhancement newer volleys of insults were hurled to all 'lower caste' people. The late summer gave Khairlanji. Mainstream media bypassed the intolerable insult. Mainstream parties, well, Dalits will thank them for their self-exposure: they did virtually nothing. Even those parliamentary parties, politicians who live on Dalit vote-bank bothered not. The socio-religious Dalit gathering in adjacent city Nagpur on October, commemorating 50th year of Ambedkar's and co-workers' conversion to Buddhism, did not vent out the seething wrath. Then, to the mainstream media and govt, 'all on a sudden' and 'out of the blue' came the first Dalit slap on Nov 6 . " Nagpur: Police lathicharge protesting Dalits . Police fired teargas shells and lathicharged an angry group of Dalits that indulged in arson and violence in Indora in northern part of the city on Monday. They were protesting the killing of a Dalit family in Khairlanji ...police said. ...A large number of Dalit activists pelted stones and tried to set fire to the office of assistant commissioner of police at Indora and torched his vehicle, as well as other vehicles, including over 20 motorcycles, police said. ...The demonstrators also burnt tyres on the highway to block vehicular traffic. ..." [ http://www.foraproletarianparty.net/Dalit_And_Caste_question/www.rediff.com/news/2006/nov/06dalit.htm ] Consequent flares did spread a little, the website of indiadaily.org reported 3 days of violent protests on Nov 9 "...a group of Dalits protestors entered the Chief Minister's Secretariat , and staged a dharna outside the CM's office in Mumbai. Dalit groups from Vidarbha have continued protest and asked for the justice for Bhaiyalal family ". On Nov 24, the Ambedkar Center for Justice and Peace protested against the killings of Dalits in India before UN at New York [ http://www.foraproletarianparty.net/Dalit_And_Caste_question/www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/06spec.htm ].
And the not-so-visible flames were kept alive in Dalit hearts as proved by end Nov outbursts. Ambedkar's statue in Kanpur, UP, was vandalised on Nov 28 and the news reached MR instantly by electronic media. MR reached flash point again and this time with due vengeance. Rich men, even in their heaven Mumbai had their nightmarish days. Their police took many Dalit lives by bullets, but the Dalit fury has shown its vigour. The BBC commented " Thursday, 30 Nov 2006, 17:48 GMT Caste protests grip Indian state: At least three people have been killed in protests by low-caste Hindus across India's Maharashtra state, police say. One person died when police opened fire on protesters. Crowds attacked property and set fire to at least two trains on the outskirts of Mumbai (Bombay). More than 50 people, 30 of them police, were hurt in the protests and nearly 100 vehicles damaged... Police chief...told reporters in Mumbai that the three Dalit protesters had been killed in violence ... since Wednesday." [ news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6159541.stm ] The Western world's media was shaken. Their Indian counterpart, from Archliberal Economic Times to Hindu-fascist Organiser, outraged, gnawed and advised the govt their best. The Economic Times editorial headline termed the Dalit 'violence' irrational , but as reason behind such 'irrationality', they gently put 'A result of Dalit marginalisation' . The Organiser ridiculing Dalits for 'low presence' in the Dec 6 Dalit gathering in Mumbai complained bitterly of Dalit 'riots' and police inaction on Dalits who 'vandalized' 'middle-class' housing complexes ! [17th Dec issue, Aditya Pradhan's article]
However, the most important aspect of the November Protests was: the Dalits battled independently, without the leadership of any established so-called Dalit/Lower-caste parties like BSP, SP, etc, or RPI factions, etc. The established and not-so-established leaders of RPI-s were audible only in Dec 1 and on, when they talked about the Dec 4 Nagpur rally. And conceivably, as wrote Smruti Koppikar in website of outlookindia, "Once the fire was lit, many joined in for their own grab ? Dalit politicians, Naxal fringe groups, sections of the underworld that have a strong Dalit presence, opportunistic political parties that smell blood on the eve of municipal elections." As we lack 'parliamentary' sense in our head, and we are indeed proud of that ignorance, it is impossible for us to find reasons for non-action of Mayabati-Nitish-Rambilas and likes of 'national' stature, or, RPI-ites of MR, etc: why they ducked a 'good issue' of fishing in troubled waters and refurbishing/augmenting their images, and of course, vote-banks. To us, the point to focus on is simply: the Dalits fought independently, giving a damn about the leadership of any established so-called Dalit/'Lower-caste' parties or established leaders. It is not something that we want to see, or see something more than what really happened. There are many headlines available in the Internet like: "A new dawn for Dalit movement" [by Mandar Phanse] in ibnlive.com, "A New Dalit Movement Emerging from Maharashtra" [by Vidya Bhushan Rawat] in countercurrents.org, etc; also there were thoughts cum hopes of resurrection of the Dalit Panthers in some narratives. To get a few glimpses in a nutshell, we borrow from Mandar Phanse's abovementioned article posted on Dec 5:
<< Khandala: Bhai Vivek Chavan leads a double life, juggling between being a practicing advocate in the Pune courts and the leader of a militant Dalit outfit - Bharatiya Dalit Cobra. Currently he is on a walkathon from Pune to Mumbai - on a mission to convince Dalit and Muslim youth to act now. "Please, stand up, awake and fight. This is the basic principle that I walk on. It was the principle of Babasaheb Ambedkar from whom we get our energy. This is his advice," says Chavan. // Question him a little more and you find Castro and Mao sharing space with Ambedkar in his rhetoric. They form the better part of his sales pitch aimed at a ragtag band of youth who flock around him at every stop to listen to his fiery speeches. // "The courage shown by the kin of the deceased in Amravati and Osmanabad has boosted our strength. Take for example Dinesh Wankhede who died for our cause. His mother said that she will not cremate him. That is courage," says he to his followers. ... // Ulhasnagar: Experts say that the torching of the Deccan Queen was not entirely the fallout of mob frenzy. They allege it was masterminded by a set of educated leaders who motivated the masses to implement it. // Mumbai: Says Editor, Workshop , Sunil Kadam, "The people who participated in pelting stones on roads were all Phds and MPhils. Hundreds of educated youth guided them in torching the Deccan Queen. The Deccan Queen was intentionally targeted because they knew it would attract the attention they wanted. That's why they let the Koyna Express go." // Osmanabad: Dalit leaders add credence to Kadam's views when they claim credit for the recent incidents, which rocked Maharashtra. // Says President of the Bhimshakti Shivshakti Sena, Yashpal Saravade, "After Khairlanji, the Dalits have their own identity. The Dalit youth today don't identify with Dalit parties. They have militancy in their blood." ...>>
Even if one smells some exaggeration in those quoted remarks, s/he cannot ignore the fact that the reportage as a whole bears an essence: The Dalits too are in a state of searching-cum-acting, they too are summing up the lessons of history in their own way; they are not acting only spontaneously, but based on their realisation ? the same phenomenon as is observed particularly among several sections of the working class, and also other toiling people. Moreover, only in this manner one can start explaining the Nov-Revolt of Dalits in MR. And this is a crux - you put "working class" or "poor-peasant agro-worker" in place of the word "Dalit" in a sentence quoted by Phanse: "The Dalit youth today don't identify with Dalit parties", and get an emerging overall image of the society, needless to say, not at all the whole picture. This leads to seeing the objectivity beneath the reality.
Let us see the history that Dalits are summing up
Dalits were in the movement led by Ambedkar. That era saw his multi pronged effort - awareness drive, fighting to civilise the civil-society in a civilised manner, affirmative action by legal-constitutional means and so on, plus the socio-cultural cum religious protest/revolt against Manuvadi Hinduism in the form of conversion to Buddhism. [Henceforth, and in general, we may write only 'Hindu' or 'Hinduism' as Manuvad is a part and parcel of Hindu religion.] After his demise on Dec 6, 1956, the Republican Party or any party whatsoever using his name could not carry forward the Dalit struggle higher. Rather, the RPI as a parliamentary party and as a movement disintegrated, and to a good extent despoiled, with many joining bigger mainstream parties. The Congress, which always tried to project itself as 'an umbrella organisation' covering all 'cutting across all divisions (!)' had its Dalit Quota too, from the AICC down to state legislatures - we have seen Babuji (Jagjiban Ram) for many years, used for pulling Dalit votes and quelling Dalit restlessness. But Dalits had faced increasing assaults under Congress regime. End 1960s to early 1970s saw extraordinarily increasing number of violence against Dalits, though the rise of democratic aspirations and fights of the lower-depth of the society have to be taken into account. The first half of 1970s saw two opposite trends: a revolutionary trend, e.g., Dalit Panther; and, a reformist parliamentary trend, e.g., thru JP movement, of which the latter rose and the former crumbled within short time. This corresponded somewhat to national and international scenario: the last short-lived wave of the first offensive of the international communist movement, the movement that as a whole was defeated and the defeat expressed itself shockingly in 1989-91; and the rise of a more-rightwing-variety of social democracy, which in places yielded to stern-rightwing bigwigs like Mrs. Thatcher, Regan, Mrs. Gandhi, et al. With the arena of revolutionary politics virtually void, the Dalits were compelled to get solace from parliamentary erstwhile 'socialists'; but the hope crushed miserably. Another 'new' parliamentary 'hope' was floated in the form of BSP in the late 1980s. Again this expectation failed shockingly: BSP gave the first Dalit Chief Minister, but they nevertheless just played with Dalits as pawns of chess in power-politics of parliament and assemblies, even allied with Hindu-fascist BJP for power share. The same parliamentary nature of BSP electoral-politics and rule, same as any other parliamentary party of India, was manifest during 1990s. To make the disillusionment graver, there were corruptions, nepotism, lavish life style, etc of the so-called 'Dalit leaders'. And then, how can a jhopri-basti or rustic Dalit girl/boy find nearness, closeness with the nouveau-riche Dalit leaders mingling with bigwigs of the society!
While the Dalits had reasons of disillusionment to some extent, there was nowhere to go away from the so-called Dalit-Parliamentary Parties & Politicians: They saw the established communists (!) CPI, CPIM in the process of their getting more and more degenerated. These parties used working class and other toiling people as tools to power, these parties imbibed in them ruling class values and vices becoming out and out petty-reformists day by day; naturally these parties did not have the authority to attract exploited Dalits and lead them to rebellion. We did not have a truly revolutionary party of the proletariat. By their actions and inactions, those old communist parties de facto projected themselves as just some other "gentlemen's party" intended for some reforms for the have-nots ? in the eyes of the Dalits. Moreover, the betrayals of the CPIM, CPI etc have been becoming more brazenly naked. The so-called 'Naxalites', 'revolutionary communists' could neither undo the errors, mistakes of the past communist movement, with some even not recognising the 'defeat'; nor it could, as a whole, get rid of reformism totally. In addition, it will be a tall claim if the 'Naxalite' camp boasts of totally doing away with socially dominant Hindu ethos and practices. A generation of Dalits would remember the ridiculous fumbling of CPI, CPIM and some so-called Naxalite groups during, say, the Mandal days of VP Singh rule or their abject surrender to the ruling class sop of 'reservation'. We shall see what 'reservation' begot a little later.
On one hand, capitalist development in the society, albeit in a dawdling, limping manner, did increase democratic aspiration among exploited masses. However, since early 1990s, Globalisation-Liberalisation marginalized increasingly all exploited masses including the Dalits and Muslims. All established parties, from BJP-Congress-CPIM-CPI to SP-RJD-JD factions-BSP-DMK-AIDMK-AGP-AKALI-Telegu Desham-etc-etc all have succumbed to the Globalisation-Liberalisation policies, all became just the same. Government jobs are vanishing rapidly. New factories are full of slave-like contract labours. Jobs of traditional artisans etc are dwindling and threatened. On the other hand, the so-called affirmative action, 'reservation', did not serve at all as a tool of social progress towards equality barring development of a thin layer of Dalits. The wretchedness of the Dalits vividly expressed itself from an unexpected corner , a govt investigation report for Muslims - the Sachar report, showed the Dalits as the most backward among all "Socio-Religious Categories". It proved the emptiness of the ruling class ploy - reservation . In addition, the non- or anti-revolutionary path of capitalist development led by imperialist-allied Indian bourgeoisie could not eradicate, rather indulged, all sorts of reactionary social traditions. Consequently, atrocities on Dalits have not decreased at all. But, even Babuji's daughter and now minister Mrs. Meera lamented: in only less than 3% of cases of atrocities on Dalits the alleged offenders are convicted and punished by the 'law of the land' . The whips are being lashed fiercely and increasingly intolerably, while no radical organisation that proved its worth is at hand to lead rebellion.
Moreover, as we saw earlier, this Liberalisation-Globalisation era had shown one 'egalitarian!' aspect - it has shown that all established parliamentary, parliament-centric, parliament-slave parties, ranging from Congress, BJP, CPIM, CPI to BSP, SP, RJD, JD-fractions, from Punjab's Akali to Assam's AGP, from Kashmir's National Conference to Kanyakumari's DMK-AIDMK, they all are same - rather the very process of Liberalisation-Globalisation has made all these seemingly different parties equal in deeds. Their utmost important obligation now is to serve the interest of foreign and native capitalists and vested interests of the society. So if anything is to be done against this ghastly system of oppression, you are to keep apart from all those parties, you are to think in new terms, think of new ways, new organisations.... History taught these tough lessons with whip lashes to all the exploited people including Dalits.
And this explains the presence, and perhaps in some cases leading-role, of highly educated Dalit youth in the revolt actions ? they demonstrated by their deeds that 'reservation' could not and cannot do away with unemployment problem even among highly educated Dalits, the unemployment and marginalisation problems are getting accentuated by this Liberalisation-Globalisation policy of the governments of all shades; and moreover, it could not wipe away the caustic abuse, humiliation that always accompany reservation, always accompany Dalits even in higher ranks of jobs; more exactly speaking, it intensified insults from the 'upper-caste'. Whole six decades of reservation, constitutional provisions, social 'understanding!', 'education!', etc, 'goodwill missions'... have shown the Dalit youth: Reservation is not the salvation from this system, rather a tacit approval of slavery with some sops within this system. And really, constitutional provisions cannot erase deep-rooted social mal-'traditions'; that needs a thorough social change, nothing short of a revolution - which only can revolutionize the society, its 'values', 'culture', 'views', and radically change the social psyche.
What else the MR Dalits could do when the 'old' had rotten and then deceased and the 'new' is yet to born! They did the right thing. Frustration, passivity, helplessness gave way to passion of teaching those exploiter-scoundrels and don't-caring-upper-class-urban-elites a good lesson! Revolutionary proletariat will congratulate the Dalit protestors of Maharashtra. You too have shown the world that we all, the other India, the real India is still alive and undaunted. The Nov 06 Dalit uprising in Maharashtra is a clarion signal of the germination of the 'new'. They broke apart the 'chains' of loyalty towards and dependence on all old established "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition" parties! Surely the 'old' is still dominant, but the 'new' is emerging, germinating, even if very slowly, at times almost imperceptibly; the new is not asleep, or a future-thing only. All next steps must be designed in such a way as to serve the germinating seed, helping it to grow, blossom. Nothing should be done which may cripple the growth of the embryo.
The most important question facing us is:
But what to do next?
Here the Dalits can get some hints from previous other rebels in the ongoing course of struggle and transformation of the toiling masses. The rebels are not going back to their earlier "home" position in general. A new trend has set in: a trend to dissociate from the 'old', a trend to get organised 'separately', a trend to think and act in a 'new' way. Obviously there are some/much 'old' remnants, like the old practice of external-leader-dependence - where the sought after external leader is 'educated', 'good speaker and negotiator', 'have inroads in the power-circle, entry in top-level'... etc - which naturally means, in most cases, a leader not from within, but coming from 'their' class. This trap must be avoided. There must be a continuous conscious fight against old way of thinking that leads to reformism. Petty reforms of the present society will yield nothing. How this process of formation of the 'new' is going on among the working class - the Dalit rebels may study that. [In this issue of this magazine, we have covered the story of Calcutta Electric Supply Co. contractor workers.] Though we must hastily add here: there are not and should not be any prototypes to repeat blindly. And rebels must think a hundred times before quickly putting faith on any organisation/group/etc and jumping into joining that. Remember: We were betrayed many times, now we must judge cautiously. They used our physical power to climb the power-ladder of this ugly anti-human system - now we must use our mental power too with the aim of destroying this system.
Namdeo Dhasal, one of the founders of the Dalit Panther, [who unfortunately accepted govt title, even shook hand with Hindu-fascist leader in a ceremony of publication of his own book, for which we had to listen scorn from many quarters] said some words after the November rebellion. "The mission was always to abolish the caste system. You cannot achieve it by organising a single caste." Dalit rebels know that. And they also know if really toiling peoples' revolutionary organisation crop up, then in that organisation the toiling Dalits along with toilers belonging to Other Oppressed Caste People, Oppressed Nationalities & Adivasis, Muslim and Other Oppressed religious groups etc will be overwhelming majority. In case of agricultural labourers' organisation, in some of the states of India, only Dalits + Adivasis + Muslims will be the main bulk. These '+' signs are neither 'electoral arithmetic calculations', not just arbitrary mathematical manoeuvres; there are lots of commonness among Dalits, Tribe-peoples, oppressed-nationalities, and also all toiling oppressed people in general . These '+' signs are there in life, only they have not yet got concrete conscious expressions in terms of organisations and movements. Majority is ours, in potential sense, though not actually existing now. But again, the point is: what for the numerical strength will be used, and who will use that? Let us re-emphasise: nothing short of a thoroughgoing change, a revolutionary change of society can put an end to the double exploitation crushing not only the Dalits, but also peoples of Tribes, Muslim people and people of other religious minorities, oppressed Nationalities, etc - and also toiling peasants, agricultural labourers, workers in general, irrespective of caste-religion-nationality etc. So this numerical strength is to be used for CHANGE. And that change means a change towards a system where toiling people will govern, towards a workers-peasants state through democratic revolution under the leadership of working class.
The 'working class leadership' on the revolution does never mean leadership of a revolutionary party : the working class [here and elsewhere always including agricultural labourers] itself has to be leader of the revolution; and that can be assured only when the advanced elements of the class actually take a lead in protests, agitations, rebellions against all ghastly systems of exploitation, all kinds of oppressions, including caste-based ones, and take up the cudgel for the annihilation of castes .
Lastly, advanced class-conscious workers also should keep in mind the 'double exploitation' factor. Non-Dalit working class activists must always keep in mind that Dalit is not just some 'identity', which a sizeable section of the oppressed masses are clinging to, it is not 'just another' factor to be taken into account. Several millions of people are being oppressed for several thousand years only with this 'identity', this 'factor'! One of the fundamental tasks of the coming revolution in India, or South Asia in general, is the 'annihilation of castes'. Moreover, advanced workers and working class activists who are by birth 'upper-caste' ones, by their deeds, through their revolutionary activities against all ghastly systems of exploitation, by their taking up the cudgel for the annihilation of castes, must erase the heinous caste-labels on-and- in them that insult their revolutionary proletarian selves.
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