I have titled this post this way, as i see a lot of us Upper castes talking about Caste annihilation and about the aspect of Social Justice of the Amartya Sen  kinds “for” the Dalits of ‘India”. But in the process of standing up against this structure of caste we all fail to acknowledge the fact that we are also part of this wretched thing and are a community that is responsible for the caste oppression that happens at TISS and elsewhere in the country, by virtue of being an Upper caste.

Now that i have given a brief history of the reason for this title, i shall try to address some of the questions of caste discrimination, identity politics, dalitisation, the ‘silly debates” that one has about the emancipation of the Dalits and tribes  and of course to not forget the a section of us students who keep abusing Hindu gods and goddesses as though they were our own friends.

As an upper caste, we would like to work ‘for’ the emancipation of the most oppressed communities namely the Dalits, but there is a catch in it, we would like to work ‘for’ them without getting ourselves dirty, nor would we like to let go off the powers be it political or power of any other form as that would mean we will have to work ‘with’ them which then hurts our upper caste ego. And this ego is that of the upper caste in me who never wishes or acknowledges the fact that as an upper caste we are also part of the problem. The same goes with Social Justice, would social justice not mean justice for the most oppressed communities? be it on campus or elsewhere.

Many upper castes like myself, think that those who are working around the issue of dalit liberation on campus are presumptuous and assume that they are the only ones who can liberate fellow dalits. Now i ask myself, what right do we even have as upper castes to talk of dalit liberation and who are we to liberate or for that matter lead the liberation. I do not disagree about the support that we as upper castes offer in the process of liberation of the dalits but the discretion and the power to decide if they want this support or not still remains with the dalits.

There are also a section of us upper castes who believe that there is no caste based discrimination that exists on campus. How can we believe it, or even understand it when we have not even understood or for that matter felt caste based oppression that happens on campus. Now let me substantiate this argument with an example at TISS, not that i have heard only one such instance,but there are many such instances. During my 1st semester on campus, a dalit student in class asked for water for an upper caste student who was carrying a bottle and this upper caste student refused and asked him to drink from the coolers placed around the campus, this happened during one of the breaks. But immediately after that another student from an upper caste community asked the same person for water and s/he promptly gave him/her the bottle with water. Now for us upper castes this would ‘just’ mean that s/he did not want to give him/her bottle of water as that is the only way we are programmed to think.

There have been many questions and talks about the politics of identity, dalitisation and the ‘silly” debates about the emancipation of the dalits and tribes and there are many versions to these things. Firstly, i had in a post on another blog written about the politics of identity and mentioned that the politics of identity starts not when one is contesting electoral politics, but it starts right from the  time our parents start the process of socialisation and this is definitely defined and structured based on our own caste/class and religion. So when one does not question about this particular kind of socialisation how is that we are able to easily bad mouth people who subscribe to identity politics and call them “the Furtive Messiahs’ without even understanding that we are all part of the politics of identity right from the time we step into this campus. The identity could vary from region, religion, caste and class. Why do we not talk about this politics of identity when we make our friends when we step into this campus? the answer to this question is very simple, we are more comfortable with the people who we think have similar understanding or are just simply speak the same vernacular language which we are most comfortable with. And if this particular thing translates into electing a representative from one’s own community it becomes dirty and divisive.

Now the aspect of dalitisation is a very interesting question to ask oneself, why do we as upper castes only question the dalitisation and not look at the aspect of Sanskritisation that is prevalent both on campus and outside with all the moral policing that one could think of which is conforming to the  Dominant religions’ thoughts and principles. If one could Sanskritise then why should one not dalitise ? That is because for us upper castes, a Dalit nation is not only unimaginable but unacceptable as it questions our fundamental existence. Here i would like to say that, a Dalit nation for me means a nation where principles of democracy, justice, equality and fraternity exists in its fundamental form and these principles are applicable equally to all people regardless caste, class, gender and religion.

A lot of us upper castes take offence to the abuses a dalit showers upon the gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion, but at the same time we forget that we are the same upper castes who use the names of lower castes like ‘Bhangi’, ‘Chandala ‘, ‘Chamar’ and many other such names as abuses on others. This is not offensive to us even though these are the very people with whom interact with everyday but an abuse by a dalit on gods and goddesses who just exist in frames and ‘temples’ is taken as offensive. A dalit who believe that its the same irrational religion which is responsible for their situation and position in society is expected to prostrate and conform to these very oppressive gods and goddesses. When Dr Ambedkar’s, who the dalits consider as their father, statues are desecrated by upper castes where did our conscious about being respectful go? And what about all the disrespect that the dalits face day in and day out by us upper castes? If they can bear all this for centuries then why is it that we are not able to accept their rational arguments/ abuses about our own goddesses and gods and accept that the crux of the caste problem lies in the Hindu religion and one cannot annihilate caste when one conforms to the Hindu religion.

These are some things that we as upper castes must think about cause the burden of annihilating caste lies in the hands of the dalits of this nation, and those of us who have acknowledged and accepted our position of power and privilege and are willing to step behind and support them in the process of annihilation. This will lead to a society that is truly democratic, secular, just and equitable.

I would like to end this post with a quote by Dr Ambedkar, “In Hinduism, conscience, reason and independent thinking have no scope for development”

P.S: For any of you who would like to take this discussion forward, disagree to what i have said above, please feel free to stop me and talk, but do come if and only if you are open to arguing and listening to things that are rational and reasonable.