To Times Of India

IT'S US... WE ARE INDIANS

This is in response to “I’m Dalit”, your article in Sunday Times dated April 16, 2006. I agree to the writer that the dalits were subjected to injustice for about 1000 years. Why me, I’m sure that the 1b populations of the Indian Peninsula wont deny that. I give my condolences, for the smart Dalit kids that were out of the system for so many years. My question here is, how long are going to play this seesaw game? Is it that the Dalits want to take some kind of revenge? So now its your turn, after another 1000 years it will be mine, then may be the millennia after that is yours. When do we become Human and become intelligent as we were meant to be? I believe that it’s high time that we reach the equilibrium and look ahead for the development of the country rather than fighting amongst us. The dalits were subjected to injustice, but so were Blacks in the USA, the tribesmen of South Africa. The world realized its mistakes and repaired it to move ahead in harmony and development. When do we as Indians match them?

I also want to make one more point. It was because of the few amongst the Brahmins that the communities began to recognize the Dalits as humans. Fighters like Sane Guruji, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekanand, and Veer Sawarkar etc were all from upper castes. Even at grass root levels, all of my fore fathers, who have worked for the Congress during the independence struggle never discriminated the “Indians”. Then why is it that the Dalits feel the need to take any such kind of revenge? Its us my friend, we are Indians.

Ref:

I am a dalit. I too have some reservations

A reader responds to the Times Review story last Sunday — ‘I’m a brahmin. I have some reservations’
Dear editor,
My father first encountered casteism when he went to a tea stall outside his native village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. The shopkeeper inquired about his caste and then offered him tea in a dirty coconut shell. My father was from the ‘Koliar Sambavar’ dalit caste. Tea was served in steel tumblers only to the forward castes (FC). My father’s uncles and aunts were aged over 50 but FC kids aged 10 to 12 years would stand outside our street and summon them by their first names. Government buses in those days would come only up to the FC streets as the drivers refused to enter our streets.
My father tried to enter the village school many times but he was driven away. The teachers were all brahmin. Brahmin children sat on mats, children from other castes sat on the ground while dalit children were shooed away. When my father discussed this issue with his elders, he was informed that brahmin children were entitled to all these benefits by birth.
My father, however, observed that most of the brahmin kids were lazy, some were plain stupid and one was even mentally retarded. But, they all went to school and sat on mats while brilliant dalit kids were kept out of school.
At the time of independence, 99% of all government functionaries of Tamil Nadu were brahmin whereas they formed only 3% of the population (The figure is disputed but is a reasonable approximation — editor). Rajgopalachari stated that children should be given training in the vocations of their parents, that is, children of cobblers should be trained to mend shoes etc, but he never talked about it after Periyar countered that the children of brahmins should only be trained to beg for alms.
In Tamil Nadu, as in all over India, dalits were restricted outside the village limits to
their own small clusters.
They are denied basic
facilities like well water,
education and temple entry. They are called by
derogatory names. Dalit
women are routinely
raped. They are supposed to
expose the upper half of their bodies (in the presence of higher castes). In FC-dominated villages, they are made to work as slaves. They are not paid anything. They are given enough cereals to survive. They are naturally expected to offer sexual services to the FCs. Dalit men are not allowed to ride bicycles. They are also not allowed to fold their ‘vesties’ in the presence of FCs. Dalit children are abused by their FC classmates and harassed by their FC teachers. Dalit kids who make it to the IITs are subjected to relentless abuse by vicious brahmin kids. These institutions are known as ‘Iyer Iyengar technology’ institutes.
My father felt insulted by the discrimination. He often discussed these tales of humiliation with me. I often felt that true equality would be possible only if the FC children were denied education for 1,000 years and our caste people were given 99% of all government posts. The FC children had enjoyed these ‘reservations/quota benefits’ because of their birth and not on account of ‘merit’. Dalits have enjoyed reservations for about 60 years, whereas the FCs have enjoyed reservations for more than 2,000 years.
I sympathise with T Surendar (author of the story this reader is responding to). The plight suffered by brahmins during the last 60 years is truly horrendous. Imagine being stripped of 100% domination by virtue of birth. Their children have every right to feel that they have been born in the wrong caste. The insults, humiliations, rapes, murders, tortures and house-burnings suffered by my ancestors appear to be a picnic in comparison. Truly, I am lucky to be born in a dalit caste. I thank my ancestors for the degraded lives they lived. They were treated as less than beasts but it is because of them that I have got reservations. I have been born in the right caste. After all, 22.5% reservations is life. My heart is overwhelmed by compassion for FC kids. I make them this offer. Please become ‘Untouchables’ from today. Live outside civilisation and be treated like animals. After 2,000 years of such glorious life, I promise you that your descendants will be given 15% reservation for 100 years in all government jobs. It is the offer of a lifetime, nay millennium. You will not regret it. It is a promise.
Brahmins have dominated every sphere of life for nearly two millennia because of their birth and not because of merit. Merit is not the issue. It never was. So drop these contrived pretences. FCs are not agitated on account of danger to ‘meritocracy’. They were happy with reservations for 2,000 years. In fact, they have the scantest of regard for equality, justice and fairness. The only reason for their agitation is that others will now enjoy the benefits, which they had cunningly cornered for themselves.
Yours truly,
Sam George