Avis Inde : Dalit

Dalit liberation struggle entered a new phase with Chalo Una

Chalo Una campaign of the Dalits in Gujarat is causing discomfort to BJP

While flogging the Dalits in Una of Gujarat, the Gau Rakshak gang, cow vigilante of the RSS led Hindutva brigade, could not anticipate the massive typhoon that was yet to storm the bastion of Hindutva fascism in India, Gujarat. This West Indian state was the citadel of the fascist Hindutva brigade since the early 1990s when Lal Krishna Advani, the son of the soil, was carrying out the most nefarious communal agenda in post-1947 India. Narendra Modi, the man whom Advani groomed and made his blue-eyed boy, became the strong man of the very state by organising a large-scale state-sponsored genocide of Muslims in 2002. Narendra Modi made Gujarat the citadel of his brand of Hindutva politics, which got endorsed by the RSS and then implemented on a pan-India scale. The flogging of the Dalits was quite common in the casteist Gujarati society until the oppressed people burst out in anger.

The spontaneous struggle of the Dalits, which outnumbered and lampooned the upper caste, feudal, Patidar movement of last year, brought the Hindutva camps to its knees, so much so that Anandiben Patel, the puppet Chief Minister, was made a scapegoat by Modi and Amit Shah. A strong rally of the Dalits in the capital city of Gujarat and their assertive attitude forced the ruling classes to retreat, even when the majority of the upper caste Gujaratis consider the flogging of Dalits a normal thing. The government of Gujarat in general and Narendra Modi, in particular, wants to handle the situation in a way that can save the BJP and the Modi regime from a disaster in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls scheduled for 2017. BJP is trembling in the very state where they managed to secure more than 50 per cent votes in the last parliamentary elections. The “Gujarat model” of the Dalit struggle is inspiring the out-castes in different corners of India to rebel against the caste apartheid system promoted by the ruling classes and their state apparatus.

Attacks on Muslims, Christians, tribal people and Dalits are on the rise throughout the country since Narendra Modi-led BJP government usurped power through a polarised verdict in 2014; the cow vigilante attacks too grew manifold since the last few months. The lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Bisada village of Dadri in October 2015 by a cow vigilante mob; killing of a Muslim man in Jammu and Kashmir by cow vigilantes; killing of two Muslim men in Balumath forest of Latehar, Jharkhand, over cow smuggling allegations; flogging of Dalit youths by cow vigilante forces in Una, Gujarat; the attack on the Dalit family by 40 rowdies of the fascist Bajrang Dal in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka; attack on two Muslim women by cow vigilantes in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh; the flogging of two Dalit youth in Amalapuram town of East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh; all these incidents bear the testimony that there seems to be no end of the acts of bigotry under Modi government's misrule.

Even after several deaths caused by the cow vigilante troops of the RSS, the national mainstream corporate media, funded and owned by the foreign monopoly capital and their Indian crony compradors, mostly upper caste Baniyas, ignored the news, or shall we say swept the atrocities committed by the Hindutva thugs below the carpet and focused on an imaginary threat perceived from Muslims and Pakistan and plunged into inciting communal hysteria by peddling the chauvinistic demagogy as a parameter of nationalism. It was assumed that there can be no strong and united resistance to these cow saviour thugs who were killing and intimidating people with full-fledged support from the state machinery. Gujarat, the hitherto bastion of Hindutva politics, proved them wrong.

The rise of the Dalits in Gujarat and their march to Una from all over the state protesting the Brahminical atrocities and declaring an end to the traditional professions imposed on them by the Brahminical ruling classes, which again formed the basis of their socio-economic ostracism, is in itself a very significant development in a state where only one force has monopolised the right to speak and right to determine the course of politics so far. The rally by the Dalits in Una was a challenge against the Brahminical ruling classes, who on one hand ostracised the Dalits, and on the other hand, used them as pawns against the Muslim community.

The Dalits unitedly demanded their right to land and called the upper castes to deal with the nitty gritty of cow cremation, as the oppressed community feels no allegiance to the bovine, which is considered to be a motherly animal by the cow worshipping upper castes, especially the Gujarati Vaishyas, Baniyas, who are the de facto rulers of the state and the socio-economic pillar of the Hindutva brigade. The rally was itself a challenge to the hegemony of the Patidar (Patel community) and the Baniyas, who also owns a fair share in the trade and commerce of the country and have nearly monopolised the trading in the stock market. The hatred of the upper castes was manifested when the participants in the Chalo Una rally were heckled and assaulted at different places by the upper caste goons with full support from Vijay Rupani’s BJP government.

The Dalits live a miserable life in Gujarat where, according to the Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011, 76.73 per cent Dalit families earn less than Rs. 5000 per month. In Gujarat 63.24 per cent of Dalits are landless, and they have only 4.67 per cent representation in the government jobs. The state also has the largest number of Dalit and Muslim prisoners and the social discrimination is at the highest in the so-called fast growing state of Western India.

The assaults and violence on the Dalits can’t stop the fire from spreading itself in the venomous paradise of Hindutva brigade; the Dalits of Gujarat, unlike their counterparts in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, have somehow understood the importance of gaining financial freedom from the yoke of Brahminical oppression. They are now fighting for their land rights, which poses a challenge for the Patidar and Vaishya community in the communally polarised state. The Gujarati feudal lords will do everything possible to thwart the efforts of the Dalits to occupy land for themselves and the ruling classes will not shy from indulging in a large-scale bloodbath, as they did in the case of Bihar using the private armies of the upper caste feudal lords in 1980s and 1990s. Narendra Modi and his coterie will throw their hats, unofficially, behind the ruling classes of Gujarat to consolidate its upper caste elite vote bank. This will include the silent and affirmative nod to the violent campaigns.

The “Gujarat Model” is threatened by the demands raised by the Dalits for land, which will create further trouble for the Indian ruling classes in case this demand is echoed by the Dalits of other states as well, as the demand may get transmitted across borders of the state, thanks to the presence of large number of migrant poor in the state who came to Gujarat in search of a livelihood. The growth of the militant Dalit movement against the semi-feudal set up will also impact the working class to launch a broad struggle against the exploitation laden upon them by the enterprises running in Gujarat owned by either foreign monopoly and finance capital or their Indian comprador and crony lackeys. The initiation of such a broad struggle against the enemies of the people is something the Modi regime considers to be a true nightmare, and that is what they are working overtime to thwart under any circumstances. The international media, unlike the Indian media, is fully critical of Modi’s way of handling the situation, as the global monopoly and finance capital is scared of an impending turbulence at the heart of its haven of exploitation in India.

Though the movement that started in Una is filled with many shortcomings, though it is still devoid of any revolutionary agenda, and though the leadership of the struggle is still with the Ambedkarites, the fact is that this movement has opened the floodgate of Dalit liberation movement in the most reactionary state of India after Haryana. The struggle of the Dalits will surely grow from lower to higher stages and the battle will intensify in the coming days when the Dalits will in practice challenge the hegemony of the ruling classes and upper castes by claiming rights to land and fight for it. The experience of the Dalits will surely lead them away from the menial jobs that the upper caste rulers confine them to, and their fight for a dignified life will show them the path of democratic revolution, which can liberate them from the present bondages by overthrowing the existing semi-feudal production relations. The ushering of the new dawn of freedom of Dalits will cast doom on the Brahminical tyranny and compartmentalisation and nail the coffin of Hindutva fascism.

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, by Tanmoy Ibrahim

Brahminical Fascism

Purge the filth of Ambedkarite politics from the revolutionary ranks

When we talk about pragmatism in business and in the context of corporate leadership it may sound like the usual eulogising of a master by his slaves. Almost all companies in their corporate profile decorate their owners as pragmatic, visionary leader, etc. However, when we use the term pragmatic as an attribute of a leader or outfit from the left, there can be two meanings of the word. Firstly, it may mean that literally the person or the organisation in question is pragmatic; secondly, it may mean that the individual or the organisation has actually subscribed to the revisionist-opportunist political line and hence the attribution is supposed to act as a concealer and add the perfect unblemished look to the subject in question.

Following the upsurge of Dalit and Tribal rights movement in India a large section of official communists and a significant section from the self-styled radical left has started advocating that the communist movement of the country has to adopt a pragmatic approach regarding the question of Dalit and Tribal rights and look beyond the class angle to be, what they call, pragmatic.

When we raise the question regarding what should the communist forces do to exhibit their "pragmatism"? The answer given by the neo-left is -: adopt a pro-Dalit policy, uncritically follow B.R. Ambedkar and his teachings scripted in the "Annihilation of Caste", and unconditionally abide by the political line of the man. It seems that for the neo-Ambedkarite left, which is keen to substitute class war with caste war, the Annihilation of Caste is a new Bible or a new Indian Communist Manifesto. Their blue salute is now blended with the red salute; their blue flag is given prominence like the crimson banner of the international working class.

Now if we try to understand the caste question and the caste oppression that is prevailing on the Dalits of the country, do we really have to see it through the prism of Ambedkar and his model of Bahujan Samaj? Is it true that Marxism-Leninism does not have any solution for this 2000-year-old problem? Is Brahminical fascism an independent enemy that has evolved all by itself and has no relationship with the socio-economic conditions of the country?

Was the classical approach of treating the problem of caste oppression as an inalienable part of class oppression wrong? If so then how was it wrong?

The neo-left Ambedkarite forces claim that by blending Marxism with the political doctrine of Ambedkar they can annihilate caste problem of the country. The neo-left advocates disguised in radical robes argues that Brahminical fascism, promoted by the state machinery, is the principal enemy of the Indian poor and in order to form an egalitarian society according to the theoretical guidelines laid down by Ambedkar the Brahminical fascism must be smashed.

It is all good words and good determinations, even Jesuit priests may share similar values alike these neo-radical lefts swearing allegiance to Ambedkar. Still, from a Marxist outlook, we cannot restrain but can only harshly criticise and oppose their vile agenda, whose shell may look enticing, however, the core is quite grotesque to scare us badly.

Understanding the peculiar caste and class conditions of India

Let us dissect the peculiar problem of caste oppression and apartheid that makes the Indian situation uniquely positioned in the world working class movement.

The castes came into existence with the Aryan migration and Indo-Iranian migration to the Indian subcontinent after the end of the Harappa civilisation. The fair skin Brahminical race occupied the land of the ancient Tribal and aboriginal people of the Indian subcontinent, destroyed their communal lives and took them as slaves wherever the Aryans could lay their hands on the aboriginal people. They created the Dasa class, a slave class in the Slave-Owner society with mostly captives that they took. Though the slave owner men were particular about marital relations within the same clan, especially their women were married off within their clan that transformed later into caste and sub-caste (gotra), the men never felt shy to sexually exploit the Dasa women to bear an offspring whom they have largely disowned. These offspring was later placed below the hierarchical level of the men to whom their lineage belonged to. Love was forbidden since then, but rape was sanctified.

The slave-owner society was built on the Varna Shrama system that divided the people on the basis of their occupation and acted as the embryo that matured into the caste system in next few centuries.

Soon with the advent of the feudal production system that destroyed the slavery-based society, new class alignments took form largely based on the loosely linked Manusmriti, the theoretical foundation of the modern caste system. Within 500 CE the Indian society was divided on the basis of division of labour, based on the Manu doctrine, the elite Brahmins enjoyed the top hierarchy due to their aristocratic priestly position, land ownership, etc. The other upper castes like Kshatriyas enjoyed the exclusive right to the monarchical positions and remained in a strong mutually beneficial alliance with the Brahmins protecting their hegemony in the Indian society. The labouring and wealth-producing classes were casted at the bottom of the hierarchy and were oppressed in the most inhuman way by the higher stratum of the feudal social order. The ostracism of several oppressed castes began at this period, which still exists as untouchability in the Indian society. The Dalits were the outcastes; the Dalits were out of these four main castes - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, and they were considered untouchable, unapproachable, unseeable. The Brahminical hegemonic system made each stratum of the caste system to oppress the strata that were below their own. The feudal land ownership pattern that allowed the greater role of the priestly class and the warriors made the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas maintain supremacy in the society along with the trader Vaishyas, who formed the basis of a comprador section of Indian society.

The monotheistic Islam, which claims to be the first religion that promoted international fraternity, succumbed to the Indian condition and gave way to caste system to riddle its system. The converts from the upper caste Hindus were awarded higher social (if not religious) hierarchy than the lower caste Muslim converts who were still forced to do the same economic activity, which was forced upon them by the feudal society according to the Hindu caste hierarchy. On a large scale, the Dalits were left untouched from the Islamic conversion agenda, due to their “unclean” professions. Most of the lower caste Muslims will comprise of the weavers, washer-men, fishermen, folk musicians, etc. Similarly, Sikhism and Christianity failed to overturn the casteist apartheid and replicated their own model of casteism.

The British colonial rule strengthened the feudal production relations in order to consolidate its colonial occupation of India and to thwart any growth of free capitalism in India. The comprador capitalists, who started as the mercantile capitalist class acting as suppliers for the British colonial rulers, were devoid of any revolutionary characteristics found in the free bourgeoisie in the Western countries. The reason of their collaborative nature was due to their origin from the womb of British imperialism to serve its interest and due to their inherent bond with the feudal production system for the sustenance of their business ventures. The comprador nature of the Indian bourgeoisie helped the British imperialism to use this class as a pawn to farther their colonial agenda in the future.

The British handed down power to the comprador bourgeoisie in 1947 and went to the backstage, transforming India from a colonial and semi-feudal country to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. The lack of a revolutionary transformation of the base and the superstructure of the Indian state made democracy a utopia in the country. As Ambedkar said - "Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic."

The ruling classes of modern India consists of the same crony comprador capitalists and feudal landlords, who are determined to preserve the semi-feudal production relations, with active buttressing from foreign monopoly and finance capital. Though due to the compulsions imposed by the business interests of the foreign corporations the ruling classes carries out some reforms of the semi-feudal production system, however, such reforms are quite superficial and void of any revolutionary substance, as the sole aim of such reform measures is to protect the semi-feudal economic system rather than smashing it. Thus, rather than getting wiped out, the caste system was strengthened over the years through a host of measures from the ruling classes.

Modern caste apartheid and communal fascism owe its existence due to the prevalent semi-feudal production relations in the agricultural sector, which happens to be the largest employment provider in the country. The villages of the country consist more than 75 percentage of the Indian landscape and hence the large population of the country that lives in the countryside falls under the direct command of the feudal patriarchal caste hegemonic Brahminical fascist system. The thoughts and actions of the individuals are shaped according to the environment they live in, their class and caste origin, their socio-economic status and other such factors.

Unless the base, i.e. the economic foundation of semi-feudal production relations is smashed and the land ownership pattern undergoes a subsequent revolutionary change, the curses like caste apartheid and communal fascism will not wither away. This is a fact that every Marxist should acknowledge if they have understood an ounce of Marxism ever. However, the case with our neo-Marxists is completely different when they blend Ambedkarite theory with Marxism to gain political mileage in the electoral politics.

What is wrong with the Ambedkarite pragmatism of the neo-left?

The neo-left subscribes uncritically to the Ambedkarite theory of caste annihilation. They talk about annihilating the caste system and caste apartheid promoted by the Brahminical fascist system, without talking about the need for a democratic revolution to overthrow the existing semi-feudal production relations. This way they advocate an opportunist polity shrouded in revolutionary costume to hoodwink the people of the country.

Dr B.R. Ambedkar was a Dalit face of the British imperialism, who served the purpose of the British imperialism wholeheartedly like his bête noire Gandhi. During the entire British direct colonial rule, Ambedkar never took a revolutionary standpoint against the imperialist plunder and loot, never supported the attempt to build up a nationwide armed revolutionary war against British imperialism, he never supported the communist forces, in whom he saw a spectre that kept haunting his masters. Rather he threatened to break worker's strikes in Maharashtra on caste lines, took up positions offered by the colonial government, whenever it suited him, and much alike Mayawati of the present era, depicted his lap dancing for the colonial masters as a sign of Dalit empowerment, while in reality, it was a deceitful act to dupe the people of the oppressed castes and to instil a false hope regarding emancipation from caste oppression within the semi-feudal production system.

Dr Ambedkar rejected the path of anti-colonial and anti-feudal democratic revolution that aimed at overthrowing the ruling classes with force to bring forth a drastic and radical change in the society. He rather advocated and pushed the Dalits towards constitutionalism, tried to turn them servile to the bureaucratic machinery and opposed any attempt to bring the Dalits into the revolutionary fold. He rejected the Marxist-Leninist concept of democratic revolution and said “… My definition of democracy is — a form and a method of government whereby revolutionary changes in the social life are brought about without bloodshed. That is the real test. It is perhaps the severest test. But when you are judging the quality of the material you must put it to the severest test. Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards our fellow men…” This was his classic example of peddling the wine of Gandhism in a blue bottle to hoodwink the Dalits on behalf of the upper caste Hindus, who were to lead the state whose guideline he drafted. This is the reason that he never supported the Great Revolt of 1857 so that it can be portrayed as an upper caste Hindu and Muslim mutiny against the British who were generous for the Dalits.

Ambedkar held most reactionary views regarding the Tribal people of India, whom he never felt ashamed to call "savage" while discussing their issue in his most hyped - Annihilation of Caste. Ambedkar's position on the Tribal people was the exact copy of Gandhi's reactionary position on the Dalits, whom he never wanted to have voting rights. Ambedkar called for taking away the voting rights from the tribal masses and also placed emphasis on "civilising" the tribal people, a job the Indian state is doing since a long time with paramilitary troops, drones, helicopter gunships, and of course the various prototypes of the Salwa Judum.

Instead of inspiring the Dalits of the country to join the revolutionary ranks for a broad class war against feudal landlords and British imperialism, Ambedkar, while acting as a true agent of the British imperialism, formulated a sectarian reformist political line for the oppressed castes and asked them to seek liberation from Brahminical repression by changing the Hindu religion and its practices only. Dr Ambedkar, while imitating an anti-Brahmin stir, secretly adhered to the diktats of Savarkar and other fascist leaders of the right wing Hindu fascist organisations, who ordered him to not adopt any Abrahamic monotheistic religion. This made him chose Buddhism, which the Hindutva brigade considered a part of the Hindu religion. (Keer, Dhananjay; Dr Ambedkar: Life and Mission; Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, 1954)

Ambedkar never criticised the semi-feudal system, never considered feudalism as a source of caste apartheid and divorced the caste system out of its economic origin, and treated it as an independent entity. This forms the core of his metaphysical ideology, which is subscribed equally by the right-wing forces like the BSP, Republican Party, and the neo-left parties that tend to serve Ambedkar's metaphysical theory of caste annihilation in a crimson glass. The Ambedkarite forces kept on blaming the Marxists during the entire period of their political activism of subscribing to “dogma” and mechanically implementing Marxist policies of the foreign countries in India, and blamed communist movement of the country to be devoid of pragmatism.

The neo-left opportunists who blame the Marxist-Leninist approach to resolving the caste issue through the praxis of class struggle, calls their own hotchpotch theory the most 'pragmatic' one in the Indian context. They do this deliberately to dilute the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle of the Indian people that aims to establish a people's democratic state in place of the existing semi-colonial and semi-feudal state ruled by the amalgamated forces of feudalism, comprador capitalism and imperialism. Their tall talk of pragmatism and eulogies offered to Ambedkar are efforts to magnify the negligible contributions of the British-trained social reformer in order to drive a wedge between the people of different castes, between the tribal people and Dalits, so that the anti-feudal democratic revolutionary forces are weakened.

These pseudo-lefts, who swear allegiance to the Ambedkarite theory of caste annihilation and remains mum on the anti-feudal democratic revolutionary struggle, are equally dangerous like the Hindutva fascists, Islamic fundamentalists, and other communal forces. The working people of the country in general and the Dalits, in particular, should be vigilant against these superimposed friends as they will try hard to divert the oppressed castes and communities from the path of revolutionary struggle against semi-feudal production relations, and force them to live under the juggernaut of semi-colonial, semi-feudal exploitation and oppression.

The unity of the poor, the oppressed, the toiled masses is a very urgent need of the moment. The Ambedkarite, Hindutva, Islamic, and other sectarian forces are determined to sabotage the revolutionary struggle of the poor by using sectarian rhetoric to incite one part of the people against another. This had been the general trend of the Indian ruling classes since the late 1970s to destabilise the revolutionary struggle for democracy and freedom, the aspiration of 1200 million Indian people. The rise of the parliamentary Dalit movement was significant after the wave of militant peasant rebellions that rocked the country since Naxalbari in 1967 to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar during the 1980s and 1990s, where the fighting peasants mostly belonged to the Dalits and Tribals, and they took on feudal landlords of upper castes with full might.

The neo-Dalit politics began in the 1970s to usurp the gains of the militant revolutionary movement against feudal landlords by Dalit peasants in order to divert the struggle to a reformist blind alley. Since the neo-Dalit and right-wing Bahujan Samaj movement started gaining prominence in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, it started stabbing the growth of the Dalit peasant’s struggle for land and political rights.

Experience has proved that only the revolutionary struggle of the poor masses of workers and peasants against the existing semi-colonial and semi-feudal system can smash the spine of the caste apartheid system nurtured by the Brahminical feudal lords. Only with the overthrow of the semi-feudal production relations, the Dalits can win for themselves the true liberation from the yoke of Brahminical tyranny. Any swindling from the revolutionary struggle against the feudal landlords, comprador capitalists and their foreign masters will only strengthen these enemies of the people.

There cannot be ideally any scope for a peaceful and constitutional resolution of the caste problem, neither can the constitutional promises end caste oppression, nor can they wither away the caste apartheid so meticulously planned and implemented by the Brahminical ruling classes since centuries. Until the time the base of the economic might of the Brahminical forces will exist, the Dalits and the tribal people will face severe repression.

Hence, it is the right time for the revolutionary forces of the country to purge the filth of Ambedkarite opportunism along with other ideologies that weaken the workers and peasants in the battle against the class enemies.

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, by Tanmoy Ibrahim

Brahminist

Brahminist fascism killed Rohith Vemula but we are equally responsible

If our deep slumber in the bed of self satisfaction is not yet over, then we must go through the minute details of how the Brahminist fascist system, which happens to be the cardinal system used by the Indian ruling classes to rule and oppress our people, has killed a talented research scholar like Rohith Vemula, then we must slap ourselves to get out of the hangover caused by the intoxicating spurious spirit pumped into us by the ruling classes.

The theory of personal depression, frustration and other such psychological factors playing the key role behind Rohith's decision to end his life are making rounds in the press that plays the role of a pawn for the ruling classes of the country. The blind supporter brigade of the saffron brigade has washed off its hand from the incident, batting for the ruling saffron brigade, the supporters of the government has claimed that the suicide was a personal decision and Rohith has not blamed anyone for this arbitrary action.

However, no one cares or rather dares to explore the reasons that may have played the catalyst role behind the death of the young research scholar. Why would a research scholar end his life after being discriminated on his caste grounds, rusticated from the central university, called names due to his caste and persecuted continuously by a powerful lobby that tried to end his career and future prospects in every way possible?

Being a scientist and a research scholar, Rohith had ample opportunities, in this country and more outside it, to make a career and live a life that he have ever wanted. Probably he could have turned into another great writer on science topics, or could have seen his favourite stars and constellations using a good telescope at a later part of his life.

However, unlike our upper caste middle class self-styled patriots who talk much about the country and its woes at one time and leaves it for a greater career opportunity at the next hour, Rohith tried to bring forth a change in the tradition of socio-economic oppression and discrimination that the Dalit, Tribals, minority communities face in this country.

Unlike Ambedkar and Mayawati he was not a self proclaimed liberator of the Dalits and other oppressed communities of the whole country. He was carrying out his just struggle against the Brahminist hegemonic fascism peddled by the ruling dispensation controlled by the Nagpur based RSS. He opposed the nefarious design of officially consolidating the thousands of year old reactionary system of caste and creed based repression as the governing system of the country.

Exhibiting his educated mindset (as per the Brahminist ruling class and their subscribers, he has none, as he managed his admission through the 'reservation' gateway. Talent and education are sole trademarks of the upper castes of Hindu society as per Manu doctrine) he only asked for a right and just social order, if not outside the campus, then at least within it.

Rohith and his comrades of the Ambedkar Students Association only advocated social reforms to ensure that the oppressed castes and communities of the country can get the minimal respect and acknowledgement that they deserve, if not the right to rule and engineer their own destiny.

Alas! Their asking was wrong. It somewhere sounded like those bloody Naxalites who had been advocating a social revolution and destruction of the semi-feudal production relations that they blame to be the root cause of all socio-economic evils of the country, including but not limited to caste apartheid.

Hence, the RSS and its half pant wearing foot soldiers like the ABVP brigade of patriots and their commander Bandaru Dattatreya wasted no time in stamping Rohith and his fellow ASA associates as 'anti-national' elements. Their favourite jargon to demean those who dare to question the atrocious system laden on the people by the saffron stooges of global monopoly and finance capital.

No, the stamp of being an 'anti-national' or a 'terrorist sympathiser' could not discourage the youth like Rohith and his associates. They are no Shahrukh Khan, as they do not have any forthcoming film with potential to earn billions. So these leftist students ignored the warning bell and continued their crusade against the caste oppression, the most barbaric remnants of feudalism that are so prominently visible in the country, which aims to be a global powerhouse.

Rohith and his comrades were throwing light on the flesh and bone of the social system of the country, which the ruling classes and their laymen followers always try to conceal with the most flashy garments and eye catching ornament. But Rohith Vemula and other students who were pursuing the truth were making the naked image of the ruling classes quite public. This did panicked the ruling dispensation, which took it as an offence from a group of Dalit who doesn't even have the right to look up at the face of an upper caste elite Hindu. Rohith and his friends definitely deserved the punishment, and it followed with a rustication order from the University Vice Chancellor.

Through the harsh experiences of their lives, Rohith and his comrades knew well that the Indian ruling classes and the affluent upper middle classes of the country are hardcore hypocrites. Rohith and students like him, who were not born with a silver spoon, experienced this hypocrisy more than anyone else as they were at the receiving end of the biases that are very much an Indian version of extreme apartheid.

The rich, super rich, and affluent urban upper middle classes of the country consists mostly the upper castes of the Hindu caste hierarchy system. The members of the above classes and castes on one hand claims themselves to be anti-casteist and denies the existence of any kind of caste or communal discrimination in India; while on the other hand, they are the harbinger of the most notorious caste and communal bias, which goes to the extent of extreme caste oppression and apartheid.

The rich and the affluent upper middle classes swears allegiance to the idea of 'One India', as would any RSS stalwart swear allegiance to the idea of an 'Akhand Bharat'. However, in practice their evangelical preaching on caste and national equality goes down the gutter as fast as the RSS brand of nationalism starts with the concept of killing Muslims and subjugating Dalits and Tribal people.

The upper caste Hindus from the rich and affluent sections of the class divided society of the country cries foul when they see few people from the broad masses of Dalit or Tribals making their way up to institutions of higher education (which are only meant for the elites), or a mere clerical government job. The veil of 'tolerance' for all castes and creeds goes off very quickly in such cases; vociferously the affluent upper castes call such little achievements of the Dalit and Tribals an act of trespassing on their reserved domain. The upper caste affluent 'nationalist' and 'patriot' forces claim that the little bit reservation that the people of the scheduled castes, tribes and backward castes enjoy has actually killed competition in the country, talent is being compromised, etc. They imply through their words and deeds that the Dalits, Tribals and religious minorities of the country are second class citizens and should live a life like the Jews in Nazi Germany.

The point blank range firing aims at the people of oppressed castes, communities and tribes. Often the biased remarks and assaults will start with colour, language, hereditary profession, religious beliefs or rituals. The attackers are the same, the upper caste rich Hindus, while the targets are either Dalits, Tribals, Muslims and Christians.

Rohith had no scope to win his battle against these dark forces of history using the reformist platform. He was stripped of the battle gears, if any, and was thrown in the arena to fight against the well armed enemies, the hungry beasts thirsty for his blood. Rohith fought as much as he could and succumbed to his injuries. He died because he had no more weapons with him, he died as the beasts kept on slicing him into pieces using their sharp edged sword and knives. Rohith died, because we never taught him to fight with the sword with the enemies who understand no written words and does not appreciate any beautifully composed symphony.

Rohith died simply because we let him die. He died as we were busy fighting for his rights on Facebook and Twitter. Rohith was killed because we never taught him to fight like a lion with those beasts who were using his blood as a mark of their triumph against the oppressed castes and communities once again. Rohith Vemula died because we never taught him to stop pleading, to stop thinking that seeing his plight and agony the emperor will change his mind. We failed Rohith as we never told him clearly that he can liberate himself and others only by dethroning the monarch and by establishing a just and fair kingdom.

It is our time to retrospect what went wrong with us that we are losing our comrades, our people, our nation, our lands, our water, our sky, and our resources to the ruling classes. Why are those people who talk highly about changing the system radically, are confined within the narrow fragments of reformism and on each instance of confrontation with the enemy they like to come out as victims rather than victorious warriors?

We need to introspect our shortcomings, we need to rectify ourselves, we must seek redemption from Rohith and those all like him whom we lost to the enemies of mankind. If you still want to get back to your comfortable shelter, if you are seeking refuge inside the warm quilt now, then you are nothing more than a secret agent of the ruling classes and you're actively assisting the ruling classes to establish the Brahminist hegemonic fascism.

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, by Tanmoy Ibrahim

Pages

Dalit liberation struggle entered a new phase with Chalo Una

Purge the filth of Ambedkarite politics from the revolutionary ranks

Understanding the peculiar caste and class conditions of India

What is wrong with the Ambedkarite pragmatism of the neo-left?

Brahminist fascism killed Rohith Vemula but we are equally responsible

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Tanmoy Ibrahim

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Dalit liberation struggle entered a new phase with Chalo Una

Purge the filth of Ambedkarite politics from the revolutionary ranks

Understanding the peculiar caste and class conditions of India

What is wrong with the Ambedkarite pragmatism of the neo-left?

Brahminist fascism killed Rohith Vemula but we are equally responsible

Popular Posts

Search This Blog

Tanmoy Ibrahim

About Author

Follow

Blog Archive

Visitors

My Bengali Blog

Popular Posts

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