Especially in the villages where they are economically dependent on upper caste groups.
The main reason is dalits are poor and depending the upper caste for their bread. They worked in the upper caste people’s land and they lost the rights of their land .
Dalit movements and development should not be blocked with reservation.
Dalits were brain washed by the dominant upper caste and their politics.
Dalits were satisfied with the free TV and gas stove, saree and blankets etc etc.
M C Raj in dalitocracy studied the detail root of the dalit problems and
Also suggest the development of dalit. He and his REDS with dalit panchayat is the next step of dalit movement .
He analyzed the dalit politics through ambedkar, Jinnah and Gandhi.
In this triangular view he came to the conclusion of identifying the dalit religion.
Before Aryans invaded India the people in this land. The mohanjadaro-Harappa sindhu region, the Nagars, the Dravidians have their own religion. The Aryan’s religion (Hindu) slowly accepted the same as their own religion. The history of Aryan, Hindu and India were in the single line .
Many research works were already confirming the same.
>Ramesh Chandra Dutt, - Civilization in Ancient India
> ramesh chandra majumdar -ancient indian history
>vivekananda - lectures of ramayana
>ancient indian history of cambridge univ 1922 publication
> radha kutha mukerjee - hindu culture and rig veda
> Dr krishnaswamy iyenkar's south india and indian arts
> P T Srinivasa Iyengar's advanced history of India & Aryan tamil culture,
> H G Wells -world history
> New age encyclopedia
M C Raj, in Dalitocracy comes to the conclusion that the “ordinary daliths naturally get attained to these Hindu traditional symbols which originally belong to them without ever bothering about the high level of Brahminization that has taken place deep inside these symbols” (pg 69)
· E.g. Hindu put ‘thiruneeru’ in their forehead. The thiruneeru is white powder ashes.
Lord Buddha’s ashes were called ‘mahapoothi’ the followers of Buddha used to put three lines in their forehead with mahapoothi to show the symbol of buddham, dhamam and sangam.
· Hindu religion had accepted the “pothi viruksha” /Panyan tree in all their temples. It also created one god named vinayaga and permantly made him to sit under the panyan tree to wiped away the Image of lord Buddha from daliths mind.
· The thread ceremony (poonool) was the practice of Buddha saints.
‘Upa nayanam” – nayanam means eyesight. Upa nayanam means wisdom of the eyesight. This practice of Buddha saints were become the symbol the Aryans, and their Hindu priests. Slowly it became the only identity of Brahmin.
· Hindu goddess kaali, pitaari and drupathi were the dalith ancestor/dalith goddess of manimekala, sambathi and Dharaa.
Between 3rd century and 10th century A.D several puranas like Vishnu purana, Garuda Purana were written by vested interests with the sole aim of creating innumerable divisions among all the four varnas according to the stories concocted by them. Their imagination was wild. The concocted stories were believed by the people and got devided themselves into more than 4000 sub-castes.
The social nenaissance movement of the shiva saints in the south took all the efforts to demolish the influence of Jainism and Buddhism in the south India. Adi sankarara (788-820 A D) toured all over India approached the Kings in several regions, enlisted their support for holding debate with Buddhist monks and with the connivance of rulers he staged a show of winning over the Buddhists and establishing the superiority of the brahminic religion.
Those who kept protesting the Brahminic religion for a long time were named as Chandalas – the sinners and declared that they should live outside the main living quarters in very village. They also declared that they should be treated as “UNTOUCHABLES” and called as dalith.
The winner of the Hinduism Adi sankara and his philosophy of “athvaidham” has been criticized by other Hindus, the duvidham and vashiduvidham philosophers as “Prasanna pavutham” . Adishankarar’s athvaidham was originally from Buddhist philosopher “kandapathar”.
The height of all this is Hinduism which was always against Buddhism said at last that Lord Buddha was the rebirth of ThirumaaL / the avatar of Lord Vishnu.
Buddhism is totally washed away from its birthplace not only with arms and swords but also with the brilliant, cunning ideas of Brahmanism. Pandit Ayothidashar from Tamil nadu had explained in details of the above social war how Brahmanism had taken over the religion of the people.
M C Raj in his Dalit Political Theory says that these were the reasons why most dalits have a natural affinity to Hinduism.
“They see their cultural symbols in Hinduism and they do not have the critical consciousness to look into the deeper and subverted meanings of these symbols” (pg: 69)
The anti Brahmanism scholars followed the Lord shiva, the shivanism.
“We are not Hindus”
Monomania Sundaranar, a Tamil shivanism scholar in the meeting at Trivandrum, Kerala, raised this voice when vivekanandas was giving lecture on Hinduism. Vivekananda was shocked when the audience responded to his lecture. Monomania sundaranar explained the Aryan’s Hindu religion is totally different from Dravidian religion and faith.
In Tamil nadu also ,
1981 census registered the name of Dravidian Religion with status equal to the Hindu religion. It seems M G Ramachandran was the only CM in the
Dravidian politics that changed his religion as “Dravidian Religion”
When he became chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
But the so-called Dravidian religion mixed with Hinduism and denied permission to dalits to enter the temple. Nandanar, who was a dalit and a strong devotee of Shiva, wanted to enter an auspicious temple for shiva in Chidambaram. The Brahmin priests told him to walk through the fire so that he could be purified before entering the temple.
The symbol of lord shiva , the Shiva link is totally misinterpreted and degraded by the Aryans as a phallic symbol, since it is an object of Non-hindu worship. However now shiva is transformed as HINDU god and
Accepting all brahmanical customs. There is no place for dalit in
Shivanism.
Hence, we have to look into the ancient, adidravida’s faith and worship.
The ancient Tamil literature called sangam illakiyam, the section of pura naanooru poem NO: 335 emphasize the strong evidence of Dravidian Religion.
“ They performed pooja with flowers to Natural, - memorial stone the symbol of brave soldier who killed the enemies war elephants and died in the war. The nadukal –memorial stone of the brave soldier was their god and the memorial stone worship was their religion.
The same poem has identified the sons of the soil. They were “Thudiyan, paanan, paraiyan kadamban in naankallathu kudiyumillai”
The poet insists that the above four community people were the only citizens of the nation.(son of the soils) and others were not.
But it cannot be possible that any nation/society have only singers/drun beaters and dancers . ( thudiyan – one who beats ‘thudi’ a musical instument, parayan - one who beats ‘ para ‘ a kind of drum, panar –singer, kadambar – one who dance / (or agriculturist) ).
Then why this voice raised in this manner?
This was the period that the above four community, the original inhabitants of the nation, who were subjugated by the Aryan invaders. They were treated as secondary citizens and losing their status in the society. Now This four community were classified as schedule caste- dalit .the voice of the poet emphasize the social changes of his period.
DALITH, THE ADIDRAVIDA have their own religion. What is that?
M C Raj, in his dalitocracy has stated that the dalith religion in this Root. The famous Dravidian Veda. The THIRUKURAL also mentioned the same type of Dravidian religion. We must note this that the Famous Tamil scholar Thiruvalluvar was also identified as dalith.
M C Raj stated in his book that “ Instead of gods and goddesses let us place our hopes on mother earth and all our ancestors. Their thought and feeling waves can influence our way of life. Let heir photos be in our homes. Let us look at them daily and get inspired” (pg: 198)
M C Raj further tries to go some extent of this ideology and advised the members of the dalith panchayat parliament to avoid all the symbols of braminism.
“Members of the dalith panchayat parliament are requested to come with black and blue dress whenever it is possible for them to set an example to others.
Members are further advised that to use Blue thilak while entering the parliament for meetings. Members who use RED thilak which is symbol of Brahmanism may be asked by the Speaker to go out and come back with blue Thilak”
The atheist group of Periyar E V Ramasamy and his followers uses black colour dress code. Now it is no more. It is slowly become the identity of Ayyappa (one of the Hindu god) followers.
(If M C Raj noticed the black dress of ayyappa followers I am very much sure he will not give more important to this dress code and BLUE THILAK etc.).
M C Raj gave the lessons for the dalit future from its past history.
He emphasized that ‘absence of an established religion of their own has hampered dalit participation in the national politics from an empowered position of strength.”
He pointed out the reason given by Gandhi for not accepting the separate electoral system for dalit . He mentioned, “ If dalit communities had their own religion identity Gandhi would not have gone on a fast unto death. His major contention was the separate electorate would divide hinduism’ (pg 177)
To establish strong foundations for dalit political future in this country,
Dalitocracy suggested to “ spread dalit life centered around Booshakthi (earth as mother) and on ancestor worship. Persuade dalit people to give up all other gods and goddesses that have enslaved them till today” (pg 184)
With all this studies on facts our identity is “we, the daliths are not HINDUS”
But the Indian daliths?
The British started their rules in India; they set up Supreme Court of India at kolkatta. They got the Muslim laws and Christian laws from the respective religious heads and they could not find anything for Hindus.
At that time the Brahmins in kolkatta gave Manushasthra to sir William Jones the European judge of the Supreme Court. This is how the varunashrama dharma and traditional customs and usages were entered into the Indian law court.
The Indian constitution is saying whether u believe the Hinduism or not,
If you are not a Muslim or Christian then you are a HINDU.
Hence the citizen of India except Muslims and Christians all are HINDU. (Law 13, 25(2) A & 372). Elements of Hindu law or ordinations of Pundits, scholar Maine, D F Mulla and V Anaimuthu were discussed about this issue many times.
DR Ambedkar as chairman of the constitution drafting committee was aware that those who prepared the first draft of the constitution in 1947 had cunningly enjoined provisions to protect varunashrama dharma and traditional customs and usages. With an aim to defeat their purpose, Ambedkar presented the amendment in the form of the “Hindu code bill” in 1947, that all the laws which were in force till date of adoption of the Indian constitution will stand abolished”
The Brahmin did not accept the above draft and they allowed not passing in the parliament as the upper castes were dominated in the parliament. Hence, Dr.Ambedkar resigned from the cabinet in 1951as his draft “Hindu code bill” rejected in the parliament.
The above is an example how our constitution gave protection to varnashrama dharma and customary laws.
None of the political parties or social movements or the Dravidian movements had taken any meaningful initiatives till now to pass in Hindu code bill, drafted by Dr.Ambedkar in the parliament.
Dalitocracy ‘s summarize the on future course of dalit politics and gave many suggestions.
In classical theory governance is allocation of material and spiritual values. To this dalit political theory identifies the need to add ‘equal’ distribution to values. Material values will be land, water, shelter and food. Spiritual values are the norms and laws of governance that people can make for themselves. (pg 247)
But the following “secular state” status in India is differ from the original principles of secularism of Europe.
Our government says it is secular state. Secularism as a concept was a European one. If India wanted to function as a secular state it should adopt the principle of secularism as conceived by its originators.
The former sankaracharya, chandra sekarendra saraswathi of kanchee Mutt took initiative to see that the constitution of India was not designed on the line of real secularism where religion will be separated from education and from the state.
Immediately he deputed Agnihotram Ramanuja Thattachariya to Delhi with an errand to meet the important members of the constitution drafting committee and convince them not to adjoin the ideology of secularism as propounded by the Westerners. He succeeded in his attempt.
Hence, as per Indian law we are forced to accept that we are Hindus.
The suffix and prefix of dalith community
We are dalith.
Indian dalith
India does not have any identity to her citizens. Our Indian identity is valued in our passport and other legal documents.
No people in Europe are as different, one from another, as our people. There is not that much difference between England and Holland as there is between Madras and Bengal.
Says: Pramatha Chaudhuri: Bengali Patriotism - Sabuj Patra 1920
India is a nation without nationality.
Hence, Indian dal ith is not our picture.
Me, Indian, tamil dalith.
Tamil identity shows the region and language identity.
That’s all..
No .. Tamil nadu have more than 75 sub castes in dalith community itself.
Hence every dalith in India is identified with many suffix and prefix.
Even though iam the fourth generation at mumbai, maharashtra my identity never become Maharashtrian . in maharashtra the tamil dalith will not get any reservation facility in education or jobs. The caste certificate does not have any value at maharashtra.
In tamil nadu, the arunthathiyar – the sub caste of schedule caste is fighting for their reservation wthin the reservation.
The dalith leaders thol. Thirumaavalavan, DR krishnasamy and Athiyamaan
Represent their own sub-caste pariyan, pallan and arunthathi respectively.
They were ready to hold hands with dominant caste people and their supportive political leaders but not ready to stand together even at election times.
The kherlanji issue is become maharastrian dalith issue and the waves have the limited area. This is the case of tamil nadu Keelavenmani, thinniyam, thaamirabarani issues.
The regional state lines are strongly build in the dalith community by the dominanat caste leaders and political parties to keep them always in their
Control. This is the way the strong manpower of dalith community is prevented to reach the power.
Hence, is it possible to dalit communities in India to take the dalit party at the national level? ( pg 138)
M C Raj said that “ it is possible that apart from these 24 of dalit members of parliament elected by the dalit people other dalit candidates will manage to get into the parliament by getting their names in the party list of different mainstream parties” (pg 138)
We wish, we expected this should happen in Indian politics. But in Indian states the SC/ST welfare minister ship is allotted to dalit and nothing else.
“Mayawati’s sarvajan UP, a dalit candidate can win only from a reserved constituency. In the last UP elections, the BSP fielded only 4 of its 93-dalit candidates in the general constituencies. None of the four candidates could win. The Brahmins and the OBCs clearly did not vote for them.” (Hindustan times 17/1/2008)
Quotable Quotes of dalitocracy :
The resistance under the leadership of Gandhi was against the colonization of India. But no thought was given to the colonization of dalits within India by the dominant caste forces.
Mohammad ali jinnah got Pakistan as his resistance was a non-negotiable one. Ambedkar got only reservation because his resistance was still a negotiable one. This was possible because there is a caste constitution in inda above the constitution of India. (pg 11)
Gandhi was a fundamental Hindu who wanted the dalit people to remain as a strong vote bank of dominant caste Hindus. In order to do this he gave then the name Harijan which contextually means bastard children. Gandhi knew this connotation of the term that he borrowed from Narsi Mehta, also of Gujarat.
Reservation seems to have blinded the dalit eyes to many other burning issues of livlihood rights. Most prominent among these rights is the one on land. (pg 182)
Even if the category of poor is used as criteria for distribution of land dalits will be the most eligible ones to receive land. This is precisely the reason why subsequent governments are not willing to distribute.(pg 183)
The victory of Gandhi over Ambedkar was a victory of cultural nationalism over political nationalism.
Aggression and violence are not mark of being powerful but of being powerless- safeguard ourself from the psychological insecurity.
Dalit organizations have used the mechanism of protest to achieve their ends as well as to gain visibility to their struggles. In the process they have ended up making protest as their ultimate achievement. They make protest after protest without makig much proactive moves. This is because the protests are always in reference to what others are doing to the dalit people. When others are not creating enough troble for the dalit people its leadership just waits to another atrocity to take place. (pg 160)
Dalit political leaders end up as stooges of dominat caste parties by taking their dalit strength into the partu. They do not bring the strength of their respective political parties back to the community. (pg 161)
Dalit leadership has heavily depended on the ideas of Babasaheb Ambedkar and his ways, thinking that following Ambedkar means adhering to his principles blindly. This has resulted in inadequate measures to go beyond Ambedkar.
There is no political thinking at all at the level of dalit youth. Who has to be held responsible for this state of affairs within the community?
Often there is no sense of community within the dalit intelligentsia itself. Each dalit intellectual is a world of his/her own. This is a clear indication to know that dalit intelligensia itself is not sure of where it wants to go, much less where it wants the dalit community to go and worst of it all it does not know where it wants the country to go.
After Ambedkar dalit intelligentsia seems to have gone into hibernation.when will it come back to life? The comforts of hibernation seem to be too good to be given up . (pg 183/184)
Book: DALITICRACY
The Theory and praxix of dalit politics
Author : M C RAJ &
Jyothi
Published by: Ambedkar Resource Centre,
Rural Education for development society
Shantinagar, TUMKUR
Karnataka 572 102 < India
Price : INR 300 /Euro 30
Pages : 275
Ref: > Periya Era -sep 2008
Ø Ayothidasar aayvukal – Raj Gowthaman
Ø Essentialism and cultural Narratives : A social-Marginality perspective – Prof. Ramaswami Mahalingam, University of Michigan, USA
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