On March 18, 1956, the slogan “Jo zameen sarkari hai, woh zameen humari hai.” rang through for the first time in India. It was by none other than Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at a seminar for land redistribution. Ambedkar was a votary for control over land and production to Dalits, a social and political movement he had headed pre-Independence in the 1930s.

As India gears up for elections in 2024, 68 years later, this issue hovers on the margins with only a few Dalit movements articulating this core demand that signals structural change, most being caught up in issues only related to identity.

Today, 102 of the total of 543 seats go to the polls in the 18^th Indian Parliamentary Election. Of these 102, 39 lie in the state of Tamil Nadu where Dravidian politics rules but the struggle for land for Dalits, especially women is hard. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh (Bastar), Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra (five seats of the Vidharbha region of which in four land distribution is a key issue, though not articulated), Rajasthan (13 seats), Uttarakhand (all five seats), West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Lakshwadeep, Pudicherry, Udhampur (Jammu) are among the states that go to election. In none of the campaigns by the prominent political parties in various states, has the issue of land distribution been audible or visible.

For over more than a century, the land for Dalits Movement has cost many lives. At the heart of the demand is one for socal equity and economic justice for India’s historically marginalised scheduled caste communities. According to the 2011 census of India, over 71 % of the Dalit community work as landless labourers. Shockingly, this section of India’s most marginalised holds, in total, only about 9 % of agricultural land – despite the scores of agricultural reforms issued after independence.  To emphasise the point, land ownership is itself very much an issue related to caste.

Today in 2024

The road to land ownership for Dalits was and continues to be filled with obstacles. Dalits were offered a semblance of ownership through “community land” arrangements in the pre-Independence era. These lands that they may have gotten after struggling to reclaim them through existing legal provisions are often encroached upon (historically) by upper-caste zamindars, resulting in tense confrontations between them and the landless labourers of the village. Entrenched interests among the bureaucracy and even elected representative ensure that these do not get “cleared” from the evictions. Recognising this historic disenfranchisement over land, and recognising that the community remains vulnerable to social violence despite the existence of laws, ensured the 1989 law –brought in after 38 years of the enactment of the Constitution –addresses this: there is a provision against such encroachments. For instance, Section 3(1) (f) and 3 (1) (g) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989  recognises wrongfully occupying or cultivating land that belongs to or is allotted to a member of a Scheduled Caste or Tribe, and is an enabling provision, facilitating the transfer of such land as grievous crimes.. It also includes unlawfully dispossessing a member of a Scheduled Caste or Tribe from their land or property, interfering with their rights over land, property, water, or irrigation facilities, damaging crops, or stealing produce. However, district Magistrates and Collectors rarely move an inch to implement the law, neither is their any people’s or political pressure for lands to be vacated and handed over to the Dalits. Today, despite these provisions, there are over 31 conflicts over land that affect the lives of over 92,000 Dalit individuals across the country, according to the Land and Conflict Watch.

In March 2024, a movement, unseen and unheard of in the mainstream discourse, was led by women and driven by the aspirations of Punjab’s Dalit community, who make up about 32 % of the state’s population. These women protested in the state in the form of the ‘Mazdoor Paidal Jodo Yatra’.  The protest raised crucial demands which included the call for land ownership rights, basic housing, relief from crushing debts, fair wages, and an end to the entrenched scourge of caste-based discrimination. This move is crucial because in agrarian states like Punjab constitutes around 85 % of Dalits as landless labourers whereas neighbouring Haryana ranges at a harrowing figure of 92 %.

A polity that lived under the influence of a text like the Manusmriti, depressed castes were systematically denied property rights, which ended up setting the stage for continuing inequality. For instance, in regions like Punjab, these discriminatory legacies have endured even after prohibitions were officially lifted, leaving Dalits excluded from land ownership despite constituting a significant portion of the populations and fighting for the rights promised to them by the law.

For instance, though the Punjab Village Common Lands Regulation Rules was introduced in 1964 and it specified that about one-third of the communal land managed by a panchayat would be designated for use by Dalits. However, in reality, despite this law, the situation for the state’s Dalits remained the same.

Tamil Nadu, a Dravidian state?

Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, about 90% of Dalit farmers are concentrated in the workforce of agricultural labourers.

Nicholas, who is a senior member of the Tamil Nadu Land Rights Federation, spoke to Sabrang India, about the history and present of land right issues in the state, “We started to work on Panchami Land. It is also called “depressed caste land.” It was distributed by the British for socio-economic welfare by Queen Victoria in 1892.”

As per records, it was a report by the acting collector of Chengleput and cricketer James H.A. Tremenheer  on the socio-economic conditions of the ‘pariah’ population that led the British government to enact land distribution law called the Depressed Classes Land Act. This land today is known as Panchami land. According to a ruling by the Madras High Court, Panchami land cannot be sold by anyone who doesn’t belong to the Scheduled Caste group.

However, despite this provision, the actual distribution of land for Dalits started in the beginning of the 20th century. Nicholas, with decades of experience working on land rights, continues, “All over Madras Presidency, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. However, when states were divided after independence, we found out that 1.2 million acres was distributed in Madras Presidency, while only about 300,000 acres of land was redistributed in Tamil Nadu. Furthermore, even when this took place, it was found that most of the land was usurped by landlords.”

Many films have depicted the fight for reclaiming their land in Tamil Nadu. The  Dhanush starrer, Asuran, set in 1976, also depicted the issue. Nicholas further describes the abolition of the The Tamil Nadu Board of Revenue Abolition Act, 1980 through which the posts of Village Munsif and Village Karnam were replaced by  the posts of Village Administrative Officers. However, Nicholas marks one important distinction in this change that made a huge difference.

“After 1978, Chief Minister MG Ramachandrana abolished the Munsif system because landlords were exploiting it. He introduced Village Administrative Officers. Yet, what was unprecedented was now, about 18% of the officers were Dalits due to reservation. Soon they came to know about it as they did not know about the land distribution provisions earlier. Thereafter, it was these Village Administrative Officers who passed on this message to civil society organisations that started to take up this issue in northern Tamil Nadu. However, it was difficult to collect land documents, only a few officers cooperated, and others did not.”

“In 1994, a group of peasant people led by civil society organisations led a march. Two Dalits were shot down on 10th April 1994. It became an emotional issue in the state, and many Dalit movements started to take up the issue of Panchami land.”  However, Nicholas and fellow activists soon discovered that only by systematic means will they achieve justice, after which they formed the Dalit Land Rights Federation in northern Tamil Nadu and collected standing orders of the government. “We mobilised Dalit women in the northern districts and that was an incredible move. In the beginning, it was difficult, but the Right to Information Act of 2005 made it very easy to get the Panchami land documents. The women started to submit claims and petitions for their land. They used to negotiate and land tribunals were set up. Only through this were they able to reclaim Panchami land, but only some parts of northern Tamil Nadu.” 

However, decades on, the figures still remain dismal. According to Nicholas, nearly 90,000 women have applied for land with documents, but only 3,000 women got their land back. “Still this was a big win. The leadership of the Dalit women was unrelenting, they did not compromise anywhere.”

However, the struggle did not end there. There was a new hurdle, a new challenge. “At the same time, Special Economic Zones were passed in 2006. Then the consolidation of land by the state became an issue all over India, including Tamil Nadu. It was given to the corporate sector, and it saw several protests not to use Panchami land for industry. These protests are continuing. At that time, (2006) the Forest Act granted land to tribals. Coastal communities were evicted. The land issue became an issue for all communities following which in 2009, we formed the Tamil Nadu Land Rights Federation, including small and marginal farmers, fish workers, slum dwellers, and tribal people who were displaced.”

Gujarat 

“In India, classes arose in the form of caste,” explains elected MLA Jignesh Mevani from Vadgam, Gujarat. He quotes D. D. Kosambi, as he begins, “There has always been an exploitation of castes because of the Manuwadi-Brahmanwadi structure – land ownership is decided by caste. As a nation, we decided to be a socialist secular republic – with this idea came the concept of social justice. Socialism waswas inspired by Marx, Lenin, Dr Ambedkar, Vinoba Bhave, Gandhi. Distribution of land thereby remains crucial to the annihilation of caste.”

Jignesh Mevani, an advocate and human rights activist before he entered mainstream politics and contested elections further elaborates, “However, it is consistently seen that before land can go to the Dalits, the landless, the land tillers, and the OBC and Adivasis, it goes to the corporate class, the real estate mafias etc. Nowadays there is too much focus on identity, little focus on real, material issues. Today the daily income of a farmer is 27 rupees. The combined income of a farmer’s family, with the money from several working members, including those who do odd jobs or work as ASHA health workers, is 10,218 rupees.”

He goes on to cite the case of Gujarat, where he says the rightful land of Dalits is usurped by the “so-called upper castes – even though on paper it may be allotted to the Dalit community, it will still be under the physical possession of the so-called upper castes.”

He also cites the provisions under the SC/ST Atrocities Act, highlighting how existing provisions criminalise encroachment on land owned by Dalits.

It was in 2009, Mevani states that he discovered thousands of acres of land was in such a state in Gujarat. Land was allotted to Dalits only on paper, but possessed by the members of upper castes. Land to the tiller has become land to the tycoons. We have a neoliberal government.” He explains how district magistrates would not even file FIRs in such  scenarios which left members of the Dalit community extremely vulnerable to violence and death.

Battle through Gujarat’s courts

Therefore, in 2009, he filed a PIL in the court, with his lawyer Advocate Mukul Sinha. Following the PIL, the government admitted facts through three affidavits filed before the high court admitting the encroachment, and the non-registration of FIRs in such cases of land encroachment.

That is when Mevani adopted a parallel path, grass root action. “I myself therefore decided to bring out such cases over other districts in the state.” Mevani then conducted a field investigation over three years in the state, discovering scores of cases across the state. These cases, he says, were not new but went back to the 1980s and 1960s. Following his PIL, the ministry of development in Gujarat released a Report which states that over 39% of the land allotted for the Dalit community was encroached upon by Other Castes. Following Mevani’s field investigation, the revenue department further released a state-wide circular instructing civil servants to conduct a state-wide survey and assessment for such land disputes. The first and only Report was finally compiled – however, instead of conducting the actual survey, the concluding paragraph stated that the redistribution of land, in such cases of encroachment, was “huge and gigantic task”; this was the final dismissal of my petition.” The path of justice came to an abrupt end in the courts then.

The Report also noted that over 163,000 acres of land had already been allotted to people belonging to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe community in Gujarat. Knowing from the ground that this was just a paper achievement, Mevani filed an RTI in 2014 inquiring about the land allotment and the response to the RTI revealed that only 18,000 such people were actually granted the land.

“What this essentially means is that the government is intent on protecting the interests of the so-called upper castes, the ruling class. However, our land struggle has ensured that over 25,000 bighas of land worth over 750 crores is distributed – this was done by the community.” A lawyer by profession, Mevani himself has reportedly represented applicants filing for restitution of their land over 20 times, according  to a report. Citing the struggles wrought in the Una Movement, he concludes, “the struggle continues.”

Mevani, who arose to the fore with his leadership in the 2016 Una movement, cites the example of the changes that can be brought by distribution of land, “U.N. Dhebar was the chief minister. He facilitated the distribution of 12 lakh acres of land to the Patel community. After the transfer of such a huge land parcel, they generated surplus following which people bought more land parcels. This led to the creation of industries, real estate, migration –  not to mention a sizable portion of the community in the Silicon Valley in the USA.

The community,” he adds, “started playing a dominant force in politics as well. Today there are 40 MLAs from the Patel community in the Gujarat assembly. Now, moving to Varna-Vyavasta, today a chunk of the land owning class to which the Indian state carried out land distribution, comprises of Shudras, namely, the Reddys, Patels, Jats, Yadavs, Gurjars. However, the government did not allocate land to the landless Dalits.”

This young MLA from Gujarat, a state not known for values of social justice, cites an example which displays how the community fought for itself, on its own, bereft of the help of the government, “Dr Ambedkar’s close Dadasaheb Gaekwad led a struggle for land rights for the community. Do you know how much land was restored to the community after the struggle? 39 Lakh acres of land. The Congress government had to eventually accept the demands of the movement which saw over 360,000 Dalits being detained and arrested. No one knows about this.”

Maharashtra

This pattern seems to follow in many parts of India. In 1958, a movement started in the Konkan area of Maharashtra under the leadership of Dr. Ambedkar for land rights. The most significant land rights agitation was conducted by the Republican Party of India from December 6, 1964, to February 10, 1965, during which over 3 million Dalits were arrested. Following this, the The Bombay Inferior Village Watans Abolition Act, 1958 was launched. This was launched after the abolition of the watan system. The watan system was enacted by the British where they granted lands to certain community, many were granted land and some of them including the Mahar and Ramoshi communities. With the new law the government aimed to assist Dalit families to reclaim land. However, none of this was to avail as much as it should have.

A report by Firstpost records how, at present 2.5 lakh of the total 6 lakh acres of the watan land given to the Mahar and Ramoshi communities is either used by the government or it has been grabbed by upper caste farmers.  Similarly, the  Maharashtra Agricultural Lands (Ceiling on Holdings) Act, 1961 was also introduced by the government which sought to create an upper limit to the amount of land an individual could own. The remaining land, as per the law, would be redistributed first to tenant farmers and then to landless dalits and adivasis. However, there has been reportedly a failure by the government to implement this law. For instance, even today, according to the  2011 census, 81 % of Dalit farmers are agricultural labourers and only 9 % of total land holdings are held by the community in Maharashtra,

How the Dalit land rights movement emerged pre-Independence

Dr Ambedkar time and again raised the importance of land rights for India’s scheduled castes and tribes, especially in initial years of his movement. Babasaheb Ambedkar firmly believed that the ownership of land and its produce was essential for dismantling the caste system and its processes of exploitation. Therefore, the struggle for land rights is not merely a recent event but a chapter within a larger narrative of struggle and resistance, a part of the history that is shaped by historical injustices and the quest for emancipation.

During negotiations for independence with the British at 1931 Round Table Conference in London  Dr Ambedkar spoke valiantly about the issue of exploited classes in India, and the need for them to be socially and  economically independent in an Independent India.  He had raised these issues time and against. He had even formed organisations such as the Bahishkrit Hitkarni Sabha and Konkan Praant Shetkari Sangh (KPSS, 1931) for the rights of farm labourers. Detailed in the book India: Legacies and Challenges of the Land & Forest Rights Movement, in the 1930s these efforts in fact allowed him to “build a formidable organisation of peasants here that not only mobilised farmers across various caste groups, but also tried to emphasise that long-lasting peasants’ solidarity in India could only be achieved if and when other social questions (of discrimination) are taken up seriously.” In the eight decade after India’s indepdence access to land remains a distant dream for India’s Scheduled Castes, more evidemce if any were needed how deeply entrenched caste disticntions and discriminations still remain.

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The post Absent in Elections 2024: Dalits and the historic battle for land appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The institute shockingly, failed to intervene. Even worse, the names of the signatory students who had signed the letter was made public. One masters’ student, who was among those instrumental in getting students together to sign the protest letter, has even been arrested!

It is a 23-year-old student belonging to a Dalit community from Latur district was arrested on January 22. This arrest took place after a senior student filed an FIR against him for putting out a status on WhatsApp against the frenzy created all around on the consecration day. In this post, the student took a critical view of the “celebration.” This was a copied post from another fellow student. In fact, many students had put out social media statuses in protest of the ongoing celebrations on the IIPS campus. However only this one student was singled out and arrested

Some students that The Wire spoke to say that the post was a mere excuse. “The said student would have become a target anyway. Many students and even the administration were not happy with the student and his friends’ endeavour of organising students against the Ram Mandir celebration,” said one of the students, who too had signed the letter sent to the director.

In the letter, the students have written: “IIPS is a multicultural campus annually organising various celebrations which includes Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra, Christmas, etc. which epitomises the promise of grooming a secular young generation who can contribute prosperity to a diversified nation-state like India. But the celebration of Ram temple consecration is a pure act of political agenda orchestrated by the various outfits, which can harm the secular sentiments of students while celebrating in an institute like IIPS, where such celebrations cannot be done.” In the letter, the students sought restrictions on celebrations on campus and said the celebration had the potential of “further deepening the divisions among student fraternity by spreading hate and fear”. The Wire has a copy of the letter.

 The letter was overlooked. But after the student’s arrest, those who had submitted the letter were even forced and bullied into writing an apology. Quite contrary to the concerns raised in the earlier letter, the students this time round were made to apologise for “hurting sentiments of those celebrating the Ram temple consecration.” Both the letters were addressed to the director.

Not only is such an arrest of a student from campus is unusual as normally, the police never enter the space without the institute administration’s permission. Instead of immediately criminalising the issue, whenever there is such a dispute between students, a complaint is made first with the institute before escalating it with the police. But here, the complainant from a second-year master’s student, went directly to Govandi police station. It was also entertained. The student was booked under Section 153 (A) and 295 (A) of the Indian Penal Code for “creating enmity between religion”.

The police in the remand application claimed that the student had offended “Hindu students with his WhatsApp post.” The student was arrested and kept in police custody for two days. On the third day as he was sent to Arthur Road central jail, a local court granted him bail.

The student is back on campus. The Wire even reached out to him for comment but he did not want to speak.

As an aftermath of the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony, students’ organisations like the Ambedkar Student Association (ASA) have been disbanded. A student, who was a part of the association, said that soon after the arrest, students dropped out and their WhatsApp group was deleted. “We are being targeted for our political understanding and assertion. Most of us come from poor family backgrounds and we don’t have the wherewithal to fight the right-wing forces. So, students just decided to dismantle the group,” a student who was earlier associated with the ASA said.

Apart from this institute, even the prestigious Film and Television Institute (FTII) saw violence break out over protests against the January 22 Ayodhya event. Though the issue there was some of the students wanting to show Anand Patwardhan’s documentary Ram ke Naam, here too goons from outside somehow got to know, were allowed inside the campus and in fact indulged in violence against FTII students.

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Only the naive believed that things will change for women and Dalits living in Uttar Pradesh after the Hathras rape and murder put the state under the scanner. Then came the announcement of ‘Mission Shakti’ on the first day of Navratri, by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath. This campaign was launched in Balrampur, where a 22-year-old woman had died, days after she was allegedly gang-raped by two men on September 29. 

CM Adityanath, said he decided to launch this mission from Balrampur, “to pay homage to the victim…  Mission Shakti aims at guaranteeing security & respect for every woman in the state.” He warned that there will be zero tolerance in cases of crime against women, and those guilty will be dealt with an iron hand. 

महिलाओं एवं बेटियों की सुरक्षा व सम्मान की भावना के प्रसार हेतु जारी ‘मिशन शक्ति’ के द्वितीय दिवस पर स्वावलंबन, आत्मनिर्भरता और सशक्तिकरण की प्रतीक ‘महिला जनप्रतिनिधियों’ से वर्चुअल संवाद… https://t.co/Zwwq9oDY0v

— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) October 18, 2020

However criminals, especialy those hunting, raping and killing Dalit girls and women do not seem to care. A 15-year-old Dalit girl has been their latest victim, dying in a Delhi hospital, after she was set ablaze, allegedly by the family of the man who had raped her. The man accused of raping the Dalit minor is in jail, and the police are apparently investigating the link between the two incidents.

According to a report in the Indian Express, the 15-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly set on fire in Bulandshahr on Tuesday and died at Delhi’s RML Hospital later in the day. The teenager was a rape survivor and the family was being pressured to withdraw her complaint. The FIR filed by the family says seven people entered their home and set her ablaze using petrol, reported the IE, adding that in a video recorded in hospital, she can be heard purportedly saying, “There was an ongoing case of molestation by the same people who came today…”

यूपी में एक और बेटी का आख़िरी बयान। इस बार बुलंदशहर। pic.twitter.com/NE7gBJKlLZ

— Vinod Kapri (@vinodkapri) November 17, 2020

The report quotes Bulandshahr SSP Santosh Kumar Singh who confirmed the sexual assault: “In August, a girl was raped by a man. He was arrested. The accused is currently in jail. On Tuesday, we received information that the same girl has been set on fire under suspicious circumstances. Till 11 pm, it appeared she had attempted suicide. But as per the family’s complaint, seven people tried to immolate her.” Seven people have been booked and three arrested so far, said the police. The victim’s family, told the media that those accused of setting her on fire are relatives and acquaintances of the rape accused, who is in prison. He was charged under POCSO and SC/SC Act.

The victim’s uncle was quoted by IE saying they were “being threatened to withdraw the rape case and have a decision in the panchayat. Around 8.30 pm Monday, I received a call from an unknown number – they threatened and told the family to withdraw the case or face consequences. At 9.30 am Tuesday, when the girl’s parents were not at home, we were told that she was set on fire. We rushed her to a nearby hospital and they referred us to Bulandshahr. From there, we were asked to go to RML in Delhi.Doctors treated her for 15-20 minutes…she was declared dead.”

The FIR names Sanjay, Banwari, Badan Singh, Veer Singh, Jaswant Singh, Gautam and Kajal reported IE, the accused they live close to the victim’s home. Initially an FIR was filed under IPC Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting), 506 (criminal intimidation), 452 (trespass) and relevant Sections of SC/ST Act to be updated with Section 302 (murder) as the victim has died.

Uttar Pradesh, has been in the limelight for a massive rise is crimes against women, inlcuding rape, murder, and molestation, espcialy against Dalit women and teenagers. However the state government is now focused on discussing ‘love jihad’. Chief Minister Adityanath has already sounded his ‘warning’ to Hindu-Muslim couples: “I warn those who conceal identity and play with our sisters’ respect. If you don’t mend your ways your ‘Ram naam satya’,” the Hindu funeral chant warning interfaith couples of dire consequences.

Crimes against Dalits reported from Uttar Pradesh in the past few weeks include:

November 17: Dalit girl gang-raped inside public toilet

The victim and her mother alleged that they were forced out of Aliganj police station in the Etah district of Uttar Pradesh when they went to file a complaint in the gang rape case, reported Mirror Now. The victim accused the former village head and two other men for gang-raping her. According to news reports the victim and her family have been running from pillar to post to get justice. According to the news report, the victim has identified three accused as: former village head Rajiv, Anil and Akash.  

November 14, Fatehpur, Dalit sisters murdered, bodies dumped in pond:

Two Dalit sisters, both minors, were killed, and their bodies ere dumped in the village pond in the Asodhar area of the district. The bodies bore injury marks in the eyes and were retrieved from the pond late in the evening, police told the media. The girls aged 12 and eight were from a Dalit family, and had reportedly gone to the fields in the afternoon to fetch vegetables but did not return, reported the Dailyhunt. The family members of the victims have alleged that the assailants killed the girls after an unsuccessful attempt to rape them, said the police. 

October 14, Barabanki: Teenage Dalit girl’s body found in paddy field

The victim’s family suspect rape as they found the half-naked body of their teenage daughter on  night of October 14, 2020, in a paddy field where she had gone to work. The Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki police found her the tied-up and half-naked body of a teenage Dalit girl in the village paddy field. The area is only 40 km from the state capital Lucknow. Media reports quoted Superintendent of Police RS Gautam saying that an initial probe suggested that the girl was strangled by her own shirt. The family members alleged that her semi-naked condition suggested sexual assault too. Gautam said the girl was missing, after she left home to cut paddy crops. The family found her body in the field while searching for her on the same night. The incident occurred in Tipri village within Satrikh police station limits. Police and the administration did not share the post-mortem report but sought the opinion of doctors, who carried out the post-mortem examination, regarding the possibility of rape.

October 13, Gonda: Three Dalit sisters, attacked in their sleep with acid

Three Dalit sisters, all of them minors, were attacked with acid while they were asleep inside their residence in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district. It was a tweet by the Gonda police that made the incident public. The oldest of the three, aged 17, had 35 per cent burn injuries, while the other two, aged 12 and 8, escaped with 25 per cent and 5 percent burn injuries, respectively. The family members told police that at around 2 A.M, all the three sisters came running downstairs, howling in pain. Their father initially thought the burn injuries were from a gas cylinder, but later realised it was an acid attack. The girls’ parents recently fixed the marriage of their eldest daughter, a high school passout.  She received the maximum burn injuries out of the three girls. The family does not suspect anyone so far, SP Pandey said, adding that the attacker must be from the same locality as it’s a small town. 

October 29,  Amethi,  Dalit man burnt alive by upper-caste men 

Victim’s family claims that the five men often threatened to extort money from the Panchayat leader. At least three upper-caste men were arrested for allegedly burning alive the husband of Bandoiya village’s Gram Panchayat President in Amethi district. The victim, Arjun Kori, was found outside the house of the accused with burns on 90 percent of his body. He succumbed to his injuries while enroute to a hospital in Lucknow.

According to President Chutaka, her husband had gone out to the village square for a cup of tea on Thursday evening. However, he never returned. Chutaka alleged that Krishna Kumar Tiwari and his four friends abducted Arjun and burnt him alive in their front yard. She claimed that Tiwari threatened them to extort money. Tiwari believed that he was entitled to a ‘cut’ of the government money Chhotka supposedly received. However, when they denied the existence of any such money, the five men burnt the man in a fit of rage, said Chutaka. Before his death, Arjun’s family recorded his statement wherein he accused K. K. Tiwari, Ashutosh, Rajesh, Ravi and Santosh for burning him alive. The family registered a case of murder at Munshiganj police station against the five men. 

October 23, Firozabad district, Dalit teen stalked, molested, shot dead

The Class XI student was returning from school when the three men had allegedly molested her, later they followed her home and shot her in the head. According to a news report in The Telegraph, the Dalit teenager was shot “five times in the head and killed” allegedly by three youths who she had stood up to for molesting her. The three men were identified as Manish Yadav, Sopali Yadav and Gaurav Chak. “She had told us about the incident after returning home. At night, we were walking on the terrace after dinner when the youths came on a motorbike, entered our house and shot my daughter. We rushed downstairs and found her lying in a pool of blood. The trio ran away on seeing us,” the father of the 16-year-old girl told police. He told the police that the men had “been molesting and harassing girls in the area for the past several months.” His daughter, just a teenage schoolgirl, had bravely protested when the trio attacked her. 

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Minority Lives Matter

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When Parma Bai put the red shawl on my shoulder as the programme was about to begin, I was overwhelmed. The other friends said that this is made by local Vanakar community person who was supposed to be participating in the training programme but could not come due to his own reasons.  I told friends that after our programme is over, I would like to visit some of the villages including this friend who made it for me.

Our day had started with all of us garlanding the statue of Baba Saheb Ambedkar at the chowk of the city of Bachau and that made me realize how people started thronging in since the morning to pay their tribute to Dr Ambedkar on December 6^th.

Parma Bai is 62 year old Kutchi woman belonging to Dalit community. She came here travelling nearly 150 kilometer to participate in a training programme on Dalit and Land Rights. Her village faces threat as the Gujarat government has ‘annexed’ all the land of nearly 100 families under the ‘Shrisarkar’ land act which is actually meant to grab individual land of the people in the name of technicalities. Most of those suffering from the state land grab are the Dalits. Parma Bai has a charming personality. Her son was a plumber but he learnt driving and left India and now working as a driver in Muscat.  I ask her about Baba Saheb Ambedkar and his meaning to him. “He is everything for us. He is our God,” she says. He did what we could not have got, she said. Whatever we are today, it is because of him, she says. I ask, whether she follows Buddhism and she says, no, we worship Ramdev Peer but the new generation is embracing Buddhism she says. Even her son is inclined towards Buddhism as suggested by Baba Saheb. Parma Bai says, she won’t stop her sons from embracing Buddhism if they decide to do so.

For me listening to Parma Bai was a treat and a realization how Baba Saheb Ambedkar touched the life of common Indian in almost every part of the country and when you hear about their narrative and understanding of Dr Ambedkar, you only have tears in your eyes about the man his mission and his vision for his people.

Sharing his story in our programme was Jaga Solanki, 58 years. He has 3 sons and four daughters.  Though he could not get any education, his children got an education, though not in the way he would have wanted. They were four brothers. His village Ambilayara, which is about 18 kilometer from Bachau town, in Bhuj district have about 50 families of Dalits, about 250 families of Koli Thakurs, 60 from Darbar, 250 from Patel and about 250 from Rabari i.e. maldharis.  The MLA and MP of the area also hail from Dalit community, but are of not much use.

The community had legally owned 2.5 acres of land for cremation in the name of land for ‘shamshaan’ but one dominant Patel grabbed a large part of the area meant for the cremation against which the Dalits in the village fought for their battle nearly four years.  The battle started in 2012 with sitting for 11 days at Bachau Taluka Panchayat, but the Nagar Palika Parishad did nothing.  Then they sat on dharna at the Bhuj district head quarter for 9 days where a compromise happened and the Zila Panchayat head accepted that the land belongs to the Dalits and must be given to them. But no official was ready to take action against the dominant Patel who had built cemented structure there.  The situation remained the same and every time the officials were using tricks to finish off any public protest.  In December 2015, the local collector had decreed the two acre land in favor of the cremation place for the Dalits but there was no implementation. The struggle continued till one day, Jaga’s younger brother died under very suspicious circumstances on his field. His body could be found the next day and police did not help. The body was sent for the post mortem to Jamnagar but Jaga refused to accept the body.  Four dayshad passed and the situation was becoming out of control and therefore finally police had to act and demolish the illegal structure constructed by the Patel. Jagga Solanki finally succeeded to bury his brother’s dead body at their own place.

Even though Jaga Solanki is not literate, he knows things about Baba Saheb Ambedkar and wants his family to follow his path of Buddhism. We cant get anything of these Hindu Gods. The entry of the Dalits in the village temple was not allowed hence they built their own Ramapeer temple. I fould him very enlightened person whose successful story of struggle is an example for all of us.

After staying for an hour at Shri Jaga Solanki’s place and meeting his children, we decided to move to another village Vanat Nagar weaver colony which has about 60 families of the community. I enter into the house of Shri SavjiVankar who has two sons and two daughters. His daughters are married and now he is supported by his wife, sons and daughter in law in his weaving work.  I loved his house which is very open and have a lot of trees but it is combined house in four plots. He does not own any agricultural land, hence the family totally depend on weaving. I thank Shavji for his red shawl that was offered to me during our programme, I ask him about how many can be weaved in a day and he respond that they can make two when all work together and material is ready. The entire family does work for weaving on a contract basis for a Bhuj based NGO which give them Rs 1800/- per day for the entire work. I am amazed. “Then you must be earning over Rs fifty thousand per month,” I ask. “No Sir.  The thing is that we don’t even get work for 10 days and can you imagine, I along with my son and wife and daughter in law are engaged in the entire exercise. We know that the organization might be selling this in an expensive rate but, we cant do anything as none come to us directly.’”  I call this is absolute exploitation but then in the absence of our own marketing management Dalits despite all their merit don’t get the right price.

His son Arvind joins us. He is happy but complained the exploitative mechanism which is contract based and no social security. “I passed 12^th standard,” says Arvind “but my teacher never wanted me to learn English. He would say, are you going to be in England by learning English.” Arvind says, that today, he feel that because of inability to communicate in English language, I am unable to contact directly to people abroad. If I had learnt English, I would have been dealing with clients directly and our business would have flourished and not depended on any one.

He says, our work is very difficult. To prepare raw material for weaving, it take nearly eight days but there is no payment for that. We are paid only when we ‘technically’ start working on our machine but this is wrong as most of the work is done long before that but that is not compensated as ‘work’. I am shocked to see this Gujarat model where you don’t care how the families live and don’t even pay for the meritorious work.

Arvind’s six-year-old son Divyesh writes his name in English on my note pad when I ask him to do so. Arvind says,“I want to get my son educated in best school and must learn the English language.”Savji also feel that they have been exploited for long but it is because of Baba Saheb Ambedkar that they have got life and dignity. Today, the entire family believe in Buddhism and want to follow the path of Baba Saheb. Savji is so happy with my coming there that he bring a shawl to offer me which don’t want to take given his hard work but he is determined to give it to me ‘as you are doing a great service of our society and Baba Saheb mission’. I inform him that speaking to him and the family has given me lot of thoughts how Baba Saheb Ambedkar influenced the lives of millions of people.

It is late in the evening now and there is darkness so we start to move and my last destination is the house of local activist Ram ji working with MARAG organisation in Bhuj. His mother had already cooked food for me including Bajre kee roti. Ram ji’s family too embraced the thoughts of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and they are now challenging the system. Ram ji fought hard at personal level as he fell in love with a girl from Patel community but after nearly a decade old struggle, now both the families have accepted them.

Over 110 families embraced Buddhism in Kutch on October 14^th, 2019 including Shri Jaga Solanki and the Buddhist movement in the region is going to spread. Listening to all these voices of communities which have faced marginalisation and caste discrimination, it looks very clear that they are ready to fight back now with their honor and dignity and Buddhism and Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s mission is their biggest strength. A short yet meaningful visit to Kutch on the Mahaparinirwan Diwas of Baba Saheb Ambedkar enabled me to meet these wonderful and enlightened people and it was my duty to bring those stories to people elsewhere to understand how Baba Saheb influenced the lives of  common people in India.

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The archaeological evidence shows that the first ever city—Harappa– was built in the Indian Sub-continent around 2850-2900 Before Christ in the world. The name Harappa sounds like a South Indian divine man’s name among agrarian and cattle herding communities. For example, Mallappa, Beerappa, Veerappa are very famous names in South India. In Kannada and Telugu regions the names that end up with “Appa” are very popular among the Shudra and Dalit communities. Names like Mallappa and Beerappa are now divine names of God-Heads that have cattle rearing and agrarian community life.

The Harappa city was built on the bank of the Indus river, which is in present Pakistan after the partition of India. But it represents the whole human history of building civilization and culture. It represents the civilization of advancing animal economy, constructing technology of building houses, streets, tanks, canals, and forts almost 1500 years before the first Indian spiritual book Rigveda was composed or written.

The Indological and archeological studies also established that this civilization was built by Indo-Africans before the Aryan race had shown its traces in the Indian Sub-continent. The contemporary Indian village and cultural transformation shows that without there being villages, urbanization of the society does not take place. All kinds of local experiments take place in the realms of cattle economy, agriculture and technology building and management. This has seen happening during my life time too and that could be the course of history of emergence of the city of Harappa also. No city emerges without villages all around.

There is a civilizational culture in Indian sub-continent to build villages and cities in the name of persons. For example, my village name is Papaiah Pet. Older generations than that of mine told us that one fisher man called Papaiah with a family name Uppari and my grandmother Lingamma with a family name Kancha ( who was a shepherd widow) built their first round of thatched houses and gradually that village of fishermen/women, shepherds, toddy tappers came into being. Gradually by my mother and father’s generation along with shepherds and fishermen/women , toddy tappers (as the surroundings of the village had hundreds of palm trees), tillers of land by using buffalo and bullocks settled down and expanded the village. Over a period of time along with the main village population the Lambada tribes, whose main occupation was cattle rearing settled down. By now the village has a population of 4500 people. It is a major Panchayat. For the last 10-15 years reverse migration from the village to urban areas is taking place.

Similarly, the city of Harappa could have been built by the early villagers that got transformed into urban dwelling with a man’s name called Harappa. Building the city of Harappa would have been impossible without several villages surrounding that city. In the Indus valley region several villages would have emerged much before the city of Harappa was built. Unless there was some sort of agrarian economic development, building a city is impossible.

For example, in my childhood building a house in my village was done without the use of any carpenting tools. The natural wood logs were used for building a thatched house and I could see over a period of time carpenters emerging from the same village population with a skill of crafting wood in a sophisticated manner. Most of the walls of the houses would be of mud prepared by the family labor and skill. Gradually, there emerged brick makers for building brick wall houses. Though pot making was already there, before my eyes more sophisticated pot makers emerged with diversified skills. When I was a child, tilling the land with buffalo or bull drawing plough was common. The technology of plough was very underdeveloped, therefore, the animals and the human beings who were handling the plough would suffer a lot. But I have seen the village carpenters becoming more and more skilled and improving the plough in shape and size. Meanwhile, similar changes also occurred in the skill domain of ironsmiths, and so on. For example, in my childhood I used to cry a lot when the barber was shaving my head, as the knife which was very hard and the skills of the barber used to be very underdeveloped.  Gradually, that situation changed quite fast. The knife became sharper because of the advanced ironsmithing skills of the smith and also improvement in the shaving skills of the barber. I saw such changes in every sphere of life within the village economy. I also saw how these technological advancements and skill improvements shifted to nearby towns and the process of urbanization taking place in a gradual manner.

The studies on Harappa show that urban civilization was far more developed than the one I saw in my childhood in the town where I studied for my high school graduation  called Narsampet. It also has shown the signs of class formation, which was of course a common phenomenon, both in the villages and urban areas. Class formation is an advanced stage of an economy. The Harappan city could have been built in  socioeconomic conditions that existed in my life time.

The city civilization did not confine to one small place. It was wide spread. That was the reason why cities like Mohenjodaro and Dholavira came into existence in faraway places. That also indicates that the  village economy was very wide spread in the Sindhu region. Quite interestingly we do not see any signs of such civilization developing in the Ganga region. We do not even know that if there were villages in Ganga region by the time  city of Harappa was built. Why? The answer to this question needs to be searched in what is known as Vedic economy in subsequent years. The Vedic economy is known as pastoral economy where cattle grazing and surviving on the animal products became the main stay. That in essence means the Vedic economy and social life became more backward than the Harappan economy. The urbanization disappeared. Even bigger villages do not seem to have existed.

The archeological studies mapped up on genome studies have shown that the Harappan urban civilization was built by Indo-Africans, whose physical characteristics match more with physical charaterisitcs of South Indians who are Dravidians ( The Dravidians are nothing but Indianized mixture of Indo-Africans). The Vedic civilization, culture and linguistic society was built by Indo-Aryans, whose migration seems to have taken place from middle east ( mainly from the present day Iran). This civilization is said to have survived during 1500 to 1100 BC.

Historically this civilization is also known as the one which followed the Harappan civilization. As there is not much archeological evidence on this civilization the earliest and most authentic evidence for this civilization comes from the Rigveda, the first Brahminic scripture of India. The roots for the Indian caste system are seen in this text. It was composed in the Indo-Aryan language, Sanskrit, which is even today the main property of the Indian Brahmins, as the priests in Hindu temples. They alone read, recite and interpret even in the 21 century all the Sanskrit texts. No Shudra (who constitute about 60 per cent of the so called Hindu population) have the basic right to read or study in the Hindu religious schools, colleges. No Shudra has a right to become the priest in any Hindu temple. No Shudra philosopher emerged from the Hindu Brahminist society from the days of writing  of Rigveda to present. Only Brahmin or Kayasth writers are treated as Hindu philosophers. The Buddhist tradition has a different genealogy of thought and philosophy.

After the Hindu fundamentalist party, Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) came to power in 1999 and 2014, with complete involvement of the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) , Shudras have become the main drivers of this fundamentalist ideology. The anti- minority campaign was carried with support of Shudra muscle power. But no Shudra is allowed to become the priest and philosopher in India. Most rich temples like Thirupathi (Andhra Pradesh) Jagnnada (Orissa) and Vishna Devi (Jammu) Ayodhya Srirama temple (Uttar Pradesh) Srikrishna temple Madhura (Uttar Pradesh) and Guruvayyur (Kerala) will not allow a Shudra to become a priest. The monopoly to read, recite and interpret all Vedas still remains with one small caste, Brahmin. The RSS is also headed mostly by Brahmins with the authority that they are Veda pundits. The RSS which uses the Shudra (OBC) votes and muscle power for the advantage of Brahminism but never fought for their equal rights in the spiritual system. The Shudras have their historical roots in Harappan civilization as most Shudras have their genetic heritage from the Harappan Indo-Africans. In other words the Harappan civilization and productive and artisanal culture was theirs. It is quite obvious that there were no Brahmins, Brahminism and Sankrit culture during Harappan times.

It is not known how the Harappa civilization, including its cities disappeared and how the whole civilization was taken back to pastoralism after the Aryan Brahminism became hegemonic. As I said earlier in the Vedic pastoralist economy, well developed villages are not mentioned—leave alone Harappa type cities.

Vedic Brahminism tells that its pastoralism slowly transformed into agrarian economy in a period of  1000 years. However,  a careful reading of the Rigvedic hymens shows that the scripture quite surprisingly does not invoke God but it invokes Agni (Fire) as the most worshippable force. The first hymn reads as follows:

 [01-001] HYMN I. Agni.
1 I Laud Agni, the chosen Priest, God, minister of sacrifice, The hotar, lavishest of wealth.
2 Worthy is Agni to be praised by living as by ancient seers. He shall bring hitherward the Gods.
 3 Through Agni man obtaineth wealth, yea, plenty waxing day by day, Most rich in heroes, glorious.
 4 Agni, the perfect sacrifice which thou encompassest about Verily goeth to the Gods.
 5 May Agni, sapient-minded Priest, truthful, most gloriously great, The God, come hither with the Gods.
6 Whatever blessing, Agni, thou wilt grant unto thy worshipper, That, Angiras, is indeed thy truth.
7 To thee, dispeller of the night, O Agni, day by day with prayer Bringing thee reverence, we come
8 Ruler of sacrifices, guard of Law eternal, radiant One, Increasing in thine own abode.
9 Be to us easy of approach, even as a father to his son: Agni, be with us for our weal.

In those times Agni could not have been seen as an agent of cooking but could have been seen as the most powerful agent of burning the enemy’s resources—houses, cattle, crops, grain  and other resources of livelihood. The next major worshipping agent in Rigveda was Vayu ( Air). The Air ( or Wind) was an aid of Agni in the process of destruction.

When I was just 3-4 years old child my entire village—Papaiah Pet Chenna rao Pet Mandal, Warangal District–  got burnt down. In the revenue records of the village this was a land mark event. The terrifying stories of how Agni destroyed  the village and the blowing Vayu was helping it carry the fire from one end of the village to the other end were told and retold as a terror narrative by the eyewitnesses. Those houses that were not on the wind’s way were safe. But most of them got burnt down to ashes ,including my house. The villagers used to abuse the Agni Devudu (God Fire) and Vayu Devudu (The God wind) for burning and for spreading that destruction from house to house, for several decades. That Agni destroyed our  houses, some of the cattle, grain and few people who got trapped were burnt to ashes. Not even their bones could be seen.

The fire started in the Westward of the village in a small hut with cooking hearth accident, as the thatched house had very low roof. For all those village masses the Agni and Vayu were never positive and helpful Gods but destructive Gods who came to destroy their village. No doubt both those elements are useful and they know that. They were called Devudu (God) no doubt as the Rigveda writers did.  In the village discourses Fire god not referred to creation but only referred to destruction.

Imagine for a moment, if an enemy had planned that destruction, for that person Agni and Vayu which gutted the whole village and turned it into ashes become the positive Gods who caused his/her victory.

In the Rigveda Agni and Vayu find more place than Brahma or Indra. In fact Agni, Vayu, Indra and Horse (as a worship animal) find more place than God in any descriptive sense in Rigveda. Why this? No ancient spiritual text in the world places Agni and Vayu in the place of God or above God? The notion of God is highly philosophical where the Agni and Vayu are tangible materials. There is hardly any scope for philosophizing the tangible materials like Agni and Vayu as with the notion of God.

The notion of God is more than anything else deals with creation. Destruction is not central to God. Of course, God could be imagined as force of punishment for wrong doing with a view of reform or rectification. Agni has no such nature and character.

One established historical fact is that the cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Dholavira are great cities of life and civilization. There was lot of science and technology, involved, in building those cities. There is no indication in Rigvedic texts which worshipped  a burning materialist agency like Agni but not God of creative nature that it were those forces which destroyed that civilization.

Does it not indicate that the writers of Rigveda themselves believed in destruction but not in construction of civilizations? Does it not lead to the conclusion that it were these forces that constructed caste theory in the same text that Shudras who do agrarian tasks, cattle grazing, carpenting, smithing of bronze and iron, pot and brick making should be treated less than human beings and priests (Braahmins) who perform rituals should be treated as Bhoodevtas (Gods on earth).

(An abridged version of this article was published in Daily O on 19/08/2018 with a title “Shudras, Not Aryans, built the Indus Valley Civilization)      
Prof. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University

This article was first published on countercurrents.org.
 

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