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HUM HINDUSTANI: Not remembered on Republic Day J Sri Raman
Dalits continue to be the victims of double oppression and diabolical atrocities that include a generous share of gender crimes. Worse, intermediate castes empowered by constitution-based measures have celebrated their liberation with repeated bouts of savagery against their lesser brethren
The high point of January 26, Indias Republic Day, for six decades has been the colourful parade in New Delhi. Contingents of soldiers, students and others march down the Rajpath (originally the Kings Way) running from the Rashtrapati Bhavan or the Presidents Mansion (once the Viceroys House) to the famous India Gate and beyond. The president takes the salute, as the chief guest in the form of a foreign dignitary watches the spectacle.
The event has undergone a transformation in more than its embellishments over the years. The anniversary witnesses no national recapitulation of the message of the main architect of the countrys constitution that proclaimed it a republic.
There was a time when common people used to throng the venue and line the Rajpath on both sides, while roadside vendors of eatables did roaring business. The people achieved a physical proximity to the prime minister and other government leaders that can now only appear a fantasy. The theme of the parade, too, underwent a transformation. The crowd then used to rejoice in the sight of the march to the tune of patriotic songs. The invitees and invitation-wanglers have subsequently been applauding an increasingly awesome display of arms intended to impress and intimidate.
The theme of security internal and external has come to dominate the days proceedings. A subject, raised by the father of the Republic, has been forgotten, and hardly figures even in the pious platitudes heard amidst the fireworks on the occasion.
On January 26, 1950, when the Republic was born with the adoption of the constitution, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar did not hail the historic event in hyperbolic terms. He said, ...we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man, one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life?
He added, If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of democracy, which this Constituent Assembly has so laboriously built up.
He was not talking of the contradictions of life to be found in every continent. His specific reference was to the particularly stubborn contradiction that his country and this subcontinent suffered from. His questions were about the compatibility of the caste system and oppression particularly the plight of the Untouchables described now as Dalits or the Oppressed. The questions remain unanswered to date.
Ambedkar, the Dalit leader with a couple of doctorates, was the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly. The man who played a main role in the making of the document said: If I find the constitution being misused, I shall be the first to burn it.
The threat could not be dismissed: Ambedkar had set out in his mission by leading a mass campaign to burn copies of Manu Smriti, or the Law of Manu, that laid down the caste system with the Untouchables at the abysmal bottom. As the scholarly rebel explained subsequently, It is not that all parts of the Manu Smriti are condemnable, that it does not contain good principles and that Manu himself was not a sociologist and was a mere fool. We made a bonfire of it because we view it as a symbol of injustice under which we have been crushed for centuries.
The constitution, however, has not invited such an action by proving as inflexible as either Manu Smriti as the caste system. But, amended 94 times so far, the document has not by itself proved the deliverance for Dalits. The scheme of affirmative action, or caste-based reservations in education and state-sector employment, has not sufficed to give the Dalits their due space and status in the nations life.
The system itself has been under sustained attack. It figured, in fact, repeatedly in the Republic Day debates on television channels as something that militated against meritocracy. During a debate in parliament, Ambedkar answered this criticism long ago with the axiom: A representative government is better than an efficient government. Was this also not the nationalists answer to the arrogant colonial argument that talked of the natives unfitness to govern themselves?
The fact, however, remains that the scheme has not raised the Dalits status significantly enough. Yes, India did have an Ambedkar from the pre-reservation days, a Dalit President in KR Narayanan (1997-2002), and has a Dalit Speaker of the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of Indias parliament) in Meira Kumar. This may warrant some pride, but hardly makes for the Dalits woeful under-representation in not only the strategic parts of the state apparatus, but also in several other areas ranging from medicine to the media.
Dalits continue to be the victims of double oppression and diabolical atrocities that include a generous share of gender crimes. Worse, intermediate castes empowered by constitution-based measures have celebrated their liberation with repeated bouts of savagery against their lesser brethren.
On its 60th anniversary, the Republic of India cannot be said to have spared serious thought on how to erase the most stubborn of stains on the countrys social fabric. It preferred to hail the military might on display in the parade and heave a sigh of relief later on the day passing off without incidents.
The writer is a journalist based in Chennai, India. A peace activist, he is also the author of a sheaf of poems titled At Gunpoint
Dalits continue to be the victims of double oppression and diabolical atrocities that include a generous share of gender crimes. Worse, intermediate castes empowered by constitution-based measures have celebrated their liberation with repeated bouts of savagery against their lesser brethren
The high point of January 26, Indias Republic Day, for six decades has been the colourful parade in New Delhi. Contingents of soldiers, students and others march down the Rajpath (originally the Kings Way) running from the Rashtrapati Bhavan or the Presidents Mansion (once the Viceroys House) to the famous India Gate and beyond. The president takes the salute, as the chief guest in the form of a foreign dignitary watches the spectacle.
The event has undergone a transformation in more than its embellishments over the years. The anniversary witnesses no national recapitulation of the message of the main architect of the countrys constitution that proclaimed it a republic.
There was a time when common people used to throng the venue and line the Rajpath on both sides, while roadside vendors of eatables did roaring business. The people achieved a physical proximity to the prime minister and other government leaders that can now only appear a fantasy. The theme of the parade, too, underwent a transformation. The crowd then used to rejoice in the sight of the march to the tune of patriotic songs. The invitees and invitation-wanglers have subsequently been applauding an increasingly awesome display of arms intended to impress and intimidate.
The theme of security internal and external has come to dominate the days proceedings. A subject, raised by the father of the Republic, has been forgotten, and hardly figures even in the pious platitudes heard amidst the fireworks on the occasion.
On January 26, 1950, when the Republic was born with the adoption of the constitution, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar did not hail the historic event in hyperbolic terms. He said, ...we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man, one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life?
He added, If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of democracy, which this Constituent Assembly has so laboriously built up.
He was not talking of the contradictions of life to be found in every continent. His specific reference was to the particularly stubborn contradiction that his country and this subcontinent suffered from. His questions were about the compatibility of the caste system and oppression particularly the plight of the Untouchables described now as Dalits or the Oppressed. The questions remain unanswered to date.
Ambedkar, the Dalit leader with a couple of doctorates, was the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly. The man who played a main role in the making of the document said: If I find the constitution being misused, I shall be the first to burn it.
The threat could not be dismissed: Ambedkar had set out in his mission by leading a mass campaign to burn copies of Manu Smriti, or the Law of Manu, that laid down the caste system with the Untouchables at the abysmal bottom. As the scholarly rebel explained subsequently, It is not that all parts of the Manu Smriti are condemnable, that it does not contain good principles and that Manu himself was not a sociologist and was a mere fool. We made a bonfire of it because we view it as a symbol of injustice under which we have been crushed for centuries.
The constitution, however, has not invited such an action by proving as inflexible as either Manu Smriti as the caste system. But, amended 94 times so far, the document has not by itself proved the deliverance for Dalits. The scheme of affirmative action, or caste-based reservations in education and state-sector employment, has not sufficed to give the Dalits their due space and status in the nations life.
The system itself has been under sustained attack. It figured, in fact, repeatedly in the Republic Day debates on television channels as something that militated against meritocracy. During a debate in parliament, Ambedkar answered this criticism long ago with the axiom: A representative government is better than an efficient government. Was this also not the nationalists answer to the arrogant colonial argument that talked of the natives unfitness to govern themselves?
The fact, however, remains that the scheme has not raised the Dalits status significantly enough. Yes, India did have an Ambedkar from the pre-reservation days, a Dalit President in KR Narayanan (1997-2002), and has a Dalit Speaker of the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of Indias parliament) in Meira Kumar. This may warrant some pride, but hardly makes for the Dalits woeful under-representation in not only the strategic parts of the state apparatus, but also in several other areas ranging from medicine to the media.
Dalits continue to be the victims of double oppression and diabolical atrocities that include a generous share of gender crimes. Worse, intermediate castes empowered by constitution-based measures have celebrated their liberation with repeated bouts of savagery against their lesser brethren.
On its 60th anniversary, the Republic of India cannot be said to have spared serious thought on how to erase the most stubborn of stains on the countrys social fabric. It preferred to hail the military might on display in the parade and heave a sigh of relief later on the day passing off without incidents.
The writer is a journalist based in Chennai, India. A peace activist, he is also the author of a sheaf of poems titled At Gunpoint
