Why so dalit?

^{Art by Emmanual LaFont}

If you thought this is my heritage due to my lineage, you are mistaken. Compared to many fellow Dalits, I lead an asritocratic life and its been so for a couple of generations now thanks to my grandfather. Inspite of that, why am I so dalit? I am not sure when it sprang up, or what turned in me. And this is just that opportunity to reflect and introspect on this very thing of “Dalit Identity”.

Before I start my introspection, for people who do not know what Dalit is. I, myself, came across the Dalit, pretty late in my childhood(thats how aristocratic I am in comparison), just in casual conversations my family were having throwing this word around while dicussing Indian and Church politics. So now to understand the word Dalit you would need to understand the Caste System in India, and being an Indian you cannot escape Caste, no matter what religion you belong to- Hindu, Christian or Muslim.

‘What comes by birth and can’t be cast off by dying – that is caste,’

Also, Arundhati Roy describes caste in an essay introducing B.R. Ambedkar’s 1930s classic, The Annihilation of Caste:

What we call the caste system today is known in Hinduism’s founding texts as varnashrama dharma or chaturvarna, the system of four varnas. The approximately four thousand endogamous castes and sub-castes (jatis) in Hindu society, each with its own specified hereditary occupation, are divided into four varnas – Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (soldiers), Vaishyas (traders) and Shudras (servants). Outside of these varnas are the avarna castes, the Ati-Shudras, subhumans, arranged in hierarchies of their own – the Untouchables, the Unseeables, the Unapproachables – whose presence, whose touch, whose very shadow is considered to be polluting by privileged-caste Hindus … Each region of India has lovingly perfected its own unique version of caste-based cruelty, based on an unwritten code that is much worse than the Jim Crow laws

And Dalit is a word that describes all people who belong to a class of untouchable, unseeable and unapproachable in the Indian(or many of the sub-continent nations) caste system.

Why Identify? #

Yes, it’s true, in my urban stature I am nowhere close to being untouchable, unseeable or unapproachable, and hence I keep iterating my relative “aristocratic” status. But the plight of my fellow Dalits is still so apalling that I cannot be but that I identity. For me the two facets of identity that are critical in the context of calling myself a Dalit are empathy and collective consciousness.

Dalit Identity provides much insights and interactions with fellow Dalit folks in this struggle, that has being going on much before the [Mahatma Jyotirao Phule] coined the term dalit(meaning oppressed or crushed). And without these first hand interactions, which seldom happen without identity, it would be very difficult to empathise with the struggle for equal status, dignity and sustainable harmony. And through empathy I am driven to participate in the struggle.

Identity helps to me wire into the collective conciousness of the struggle. In this new age consciousness takes many forms- art, music, movies, writings, social media, etc., yet collectively it intends to educate, agitate and organize for the struggle to recalaim human personality. To follow the template, educate, agitate and organize(in that order), proposed by the founding father of the Indian Constitution, Babasaheb B. R. Ambedkar it is very critical to engage with identity.

“My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side, I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle, not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality”
[Babasaheb Ambedkar addressing the All India Depressed Classes conference held at Nagpur from 18th to 20th July 1942.]

Now, the identity is even more so important as Dalits are not a race, and they cannot be distiguished from other castes just by the color or features, but the their story of oppression dates back more than 3000 years, and it is even worse because of its validation by the Hindu scriptures.

With Identity comes also responsibility.

• Identity is a struggle for dignity
• Identity is a fight for exclusion inclusion
• Identity is peaceful expression
• Identity is struggle for harmony

Also, this fight for identity is not a fight against our Hindu brethren. Rather it is a fight against the caste system that is part of every religion- Chritianity, Islam and Hinduism. This fight is of redemption and inclusivity. This fight of identity is to annihilate caste, so future generations see only compassion, harmony and equity, and nothing else.

Finals words from the man himself, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

Jai Bhim!