Home

  • To Be or Not to Be

    In Hinduism, the right to spiritual equality is restricted. In glossing over the fact in his new book, Shashi Tharoor is playing into the hands of the proponents of Hindutva

    Written by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd Source

    Shashi Tharoor’s latest book, Why I am a Hindu is political rather than academic or intellectual. The title is the very opposite to my book, Why I am Not a Hindu: A Shudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy (1996). In Chapter 1 — My Hinduism — he answers, “Of course, that it is because I was born one”. This answer raises two fundamental questions: one, is one born into a religion or must be baptised into it, irrespective of one’s parents’ religion? The definition of religion rejects such a possibility. Second, with what status was he born into Hinduism? We come from the same South Indian Shudra background (Tharoor is a Nair from Kerala), but we have come to altogether different conclusions based on birth.

    I said I am not a Hindu because of the unequal birth of different communities in that religion. I also examined it’s negation of productive culture and maltreatment of productive communities. The Rig Veda that Tharoor quotes profusely starts with the divine theory that Brahmins are created from the head of Purusha, Kshatriyas from the shoulders, Vaisyas from the thighs and Shudras from the feet. This theory goes against the fundamental, universal religious principle that God created all humans equal.

    In his writings, Tharoor does not let the readers know that he comes from a Shudra (Nair) background, as if he has no caste roots. He may think so, but the religion he writes about in this book does not think so. It did not allow others to operate outside the cultural frame of caste. Since Tharoor missed the core aspect of Hinduism in this book, he missed all of India and Hinduism, in a historical sense.

    Nowhere in the book does he mention the social status of his family and the caste system of Hinduism. He writes as a politician. Having been born a Hindu, according to him, all the Hinduness he wears on his sleeve comes from the early poojas of his father, the stories told by his mother and grandmother and the received godhead. Is there no caste-centred restriction in that religious life? Is there no segregative systemic life in it?
    Instead of studying in a English medium school, if he were to study in a Sanskrit one like the elder sons of Kerala Namboodiris were supposed to, and because of this mode of imbibing Hinduism if he were to think of becoming a priest in the Guruvayoor Srikrishna temple, would he have been allowed to be one? No, because he comes from the Nair caste.

    This is exactly what the RSS also does. The structural Hinduism that Tharoor praises by quoting from the Vedas, the Upanishads, Adi Shankara, Ramanuja and so on, and the RSS-owned Hinduism, differ in very few respects. Every RSS theoretician approves of the scriptures and saints and justifies the Varnadharma system that it engendered. Tharoor is silent about it. He approves every aspect of the religion, as any Namboodiri writer from Kerala would do, and there is no attempt to suggest reforms.

    The fundamental question, in wearing Hinduism on his sleeve, is: does he have anything in common with Nehruvian secularism, leave alone Ambedkarism? Ambedkar laid a radical foundation for the reform of Hinduism and Indian society: “I had the misfortune of being born with the stigma of an Untouchable (as Tharoor was born with the stigma of a Shudra). However, it is not my fault,; but I will not die a Hindu, for this is in my power.” He embraced Buddhism, which did not accept caste and untouchability in theory or practice.

    But Pandit Nehru, who had many stakes in Hinduism, said: “By education I am an Englishman, by views an internationalist, by culture a Muslim and a Hindu only by accident of birth.” Nehru was the most celebrated PM of India for almost 17 years, and the masses liked him. Nehru was a Kashmiri Pandit, whose ancestors were said to have composed the Vedas. How could Tharoor, a Kerala Shudra, become more Hindu by birth than Nehru? Here lies the danger for the secular foundations he lays. The muscle power of Shudras is already available in the ranks of the RSS, willing to attack anybody who is not Hindu or critiques Hindutva. Shashi Tharoor has given them a theoretical weapon. Brahminism would be very happy with him.

    Neither Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv Gandhi followed the Nehruvian secular conviction. Rahul Gandhi, I thought, would follow his grandfather but seems to be slipping into Tharoor’s idea of Hinduism. Not just one Tharoor, who deliberately wrote this book at this juncture when the Congress is trying to come back by mediating between RSS/BJP Hindutva and Hinduism, my fear is that Nehru’s well-defined secularism is being put on the back burner by the whole party.

    It is clear that Tharoor has nothing to do with Nehru and Ambedkar, and certainly has something to with Savarkar, Hegdewar and Golwalkar, along with his venerable seers like Adi Shankara, Ramanuja and so on. He is only saying that they should not be politicised, and hence describes the RSS and BJP’s Hinduism as “Political Hinduism’’. His repeated reference to Mahtma Gandhi’s Hinduism does not make any difference because if only Nathuram Godse had not killed Gandhi, his idea of Hinduism would have fit into that of any other Hindu school of thought, including that of RSS. We know that Narendra Modi is owning Gandhi more legitimately than Tharoor could do. Gandhi was a Bania (Modi is an OBC Bania), Gujarati Hindu. Tharoor’s claim to his heritage is comparatively weak.If Tharoor were to join the RSS, he would not have been allowed to become the sarsanghchalak like Mohan Bhagwat because they look at caste background quite carefully. Shashi Tharoor, like Modi, can become Prime Minister because of the Constitution, not because of the Vedas or the Bhagvad Gita. But he could not be the priest of Tirupati or Guruvayur temple. In Hinduism, let alone Hindutva, the right to spiritual equality is restricted. However, since the Nair caste had been in a sambandham with Kerala Brahmins for long, claiming that the Shudras are “Hindu by birth” makes some sense. But if Tharoor were born a Pulaya in Kerala, would he have written a book with the same title? A scholar of KR Narayanan’s stature and attainments did not say, “I am a Hindu” with such facility because of the inherent contradiction in such a claim.

    I am also surprised at the praise for this book from a sensible social science scholar like Neera Chandhoke, in another review. Caste-blind scholarship which draws a quick distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva is forcing the Congress of Rahul Gandhi to own Hinduism, as a strategy to bring the Congress back to power. While Gandhi calls himself Brahmin and presents himself as a temple-going Hindu, the Shudra upper caste Tharoor tries to provide a theoretical framework to ‘Congress Hinduism’ against the BJP’s Hindutva.

    But in the long run, the nation is endangered by this competition to assign Hinduness to India, which is not a religion like Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. When Modi claimed that he was an OBC in 2002, I wrote that he was likely to become the PM of India. After reading Tharoor, I can only say that the Congress will be lucky if he does not join the BJP if it retains power after the 2019 elections. He has left enough room for a transit.

    Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is chairman, T-MASS, Telangana

  • T-MASS: A New Experiment In Ambedkarite-Marxist Alliance

    In Annihilate Caste

    by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd —January 31, 2018

     

    The newly formed organization popularly called T-MASS is a registered organization under the Telangana Government’s Registration Act with a name “Telangana Mass and Social Organizations”. Under its broad umbrella many Ambedkarist, Phuleite, communist, humanist, women organizations are working with a broad philosophical framework of Mahatma Phule, Ambedkar and Karl Marx. Its banners always carry the portraits of these thinkers and perhaps it should add Savitribai Phule’s portrait too, as the organization has spread her name and image to the nook and corner of the Telangana state, with a massive campaign on her 186th birthday on January 3 this year.

    The T-MASS was formed on July 4, 2017 with the initiative of the CPI(M) of Telangana and several Ambedkarist-Phuleites organizations and activists like Gaddar, Kaki Madhava Rao ( the first Dalit Chief Secretary of the united Andhra Pradesh) Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, Vimalkka (well known OBC revolutionary woman singer, who heads the Arunodya cultural organization) Prof. P.L.Vishweshwar Rao ( a well known OBC academician from Osmania University), U. Samabshiva Rao (An OBC social activist ), J.B Raju (a well known Ambedkarite and Dalit welfarist) and so on.

    Within six months it became a very impressive mass movement that drew hundreds of left and Phule-Ambedkarite and other welfare organizations into its fold.

    By the end of January, 2018 the organization has grown so much that out of 10, 434 villages in the state its committees came into existence in about 6 thousand villages. Out of 584 Mandals of the state its committees are formed in about 400 Mandals. All thirty districts of Telangana had the well attended district conferences and very broad based committees are formed in all the districts. It was a great pleasure to see in every meeting red, blue and green flags fluttering in the processions and public meetings. Different caste communities came into streets with their caste cultural instruments. The same castes that came into streets to achieve Telangana state are now on the streets to fight for social justice, as achieving social justice is T-MASS’ main stated goal.

    It is unfortunate that in the state where 93 percent people are OBC/ Dalit/Tribal and Minorities (as per the Telangana Governments Household survey after the bifurcation) have no say in the governance, as the feudal forces that came to power after the bifurcation did not respect any promise given to them during the movement . The Telangana state was granted based on the Srikrishna Committee Report, with a view that any Government that comes into power will have the OBC/SC/ST component will be decisive. But after the TRS Government under the leadership of K.Chandrasekhar Rao was formed these hopes of all those social forces got dashed to the ground.

    In spite of several communist/Maoist movements, including the 1948 Telangana Armed Struggle and the 1980s Naxalite movement the feudal hold on the state is so strong that immediately after the bifurcation the feudal forces asserted and the anti-OBC/Dalit tendencies began to be expressed in very sphere of life. Compared to Kerala, where the early communist struggle succeeded with communist Governments at least alternatively, that deepened democracy there. But the Telangana region retained the feudal hold till today. Telangana today is far more backward than Kerala in every respect, including in the sphere of social justice. Two OBCs (V.S.Achudanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan) have become chief ministers of the state from the CPM but not a single OBC could become CM in united Andhra Pradesh. The OBC/Dalits were dreaming of sitting on that Gaddhi once Telangana is formed. But KCR burnt that dream in the sleep itself.

    Interestingly, the CPM, which did not participate in the latest round of bifurcation movement, got better support the moment it joined hands with Ambedkarists and took up the cause of social justice. When its State Secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram started a Padayatra in late 2016 making the social justice issue as the main plank there was tremendous response from several sections of OBC/SC/STs. In a massive public meeting in March 2017 at Hyderabad, on the concluding day of the padayatra, its national Secretary Sitaram Yechuri has also said ‘Lal-Neel’ unity is our goal and our slogan would be ‘Jai-Bheem-Lal Salam’. Though Veerabhrdram came from the Kamma (Shudra upper caste background) and Yechuri came from the Brahmin background, the Telangana Dalit/OBC activists began to take them seriously and believe them.

    One of the communist convictions, from whatever caste background they come from, is that if they do not agree with some ideology they would say openly and carry on their activities. The BJP on the other hand publicly declares that they accept Ambedkarism as their ideology but do totally opposite things on the ground. This has been established in the recent past. This difference people noticed over a period of time.

    The communist struggle for poor, even though was/is meant for the improvement of the Dalit/OBC life, the leaders were not accepting Ambedkar as their icon too. Hence after the Ambedkarism became well formulated ideology after the 1990 Mandal movement every Ambedkarist was doubting their pure Marxist position as anti-Ambedkarist position. The Telanagan experiment seems to set a course of trusted relationship between Ambedkarists and Marxists.

    The T-MASS has now become a socio-cultural revolutionary movement that may pave, as Ambedkar in his book ‘The Annihilation of Caste’ said, a way for a sustainable social justice centered political revolution through vote in future. All the communist streams of India must realize that the days of armed struggles are gone.

    The communist understanding of the Indian Constitution has now radically changed. Once upon a time they considered it as the bourgeoisie-feudal constitution, therefore, needs to be torn into pieces. That was when they did not study and understand how it replaced the most barbaric Manu Constitution. Now protecting the Ambedkar’s constitution is the most revolutionary task before them. In fact, all the Ambedkarist, Marxist and Nehruvians need to do this collectively.

    The Ambedkarists, including the political formations like the BSP, must realize that without the communist support, when the Hindutva forces try to tear the Indian constitutional structure apart, they cannot protect it on their own. It should be a combined struggle of all those who believe in this constitution, as the possible best legal document that Ambedkar had worked out for a gradual abolition of caste-class oppression and exploitation.

    The unity of Ambedkarists and Marxists (communists) in the electoral domain will have to precede by forming social movement based alliances all over the country. Such unity was also seen in Maharastra in the Bhima-Koregaon struggle. But such alliance has to take an organizational shape there as happened in Telangana.

    It is true that to sustain this unity requires very sustained Ambedkarist-Marxist discourse in both writing and seminars and so on. The T-MASS took a shape after long engagement between these forces in Telangana. The present national environment, where many dangers for the democratic, socialist ( even that notional) and secular fabric of the nation, are on the horizon, these two schools of thought must make a serious effort to forge alliances.

    Unfortunately the pure Nehruvians have pushed the state apparatus into the hands of the Hindutva forces, as some of them, got into the trap of corruption. The communists, while ruled three states—West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura– for a long time, did not get into the trap of corruption or massacre type of violent situations. The only Ambedkarite party the BSP ruled one state—Uttar Pradesh—and did not get into such traps. However, Mayawati is not entering into any meaningful ideological dialogue with Marxists.

    The Ambedkarist social organizations and the communist organizations need to discuss the Telangana experiment and see that it could be extended to other states and to the whole of India in days to come.

    ( The author is Chairman of T-MASS)

  • ‘If You are Afraid, How Will You Build a Good Social Science? says Prof Kancha Ilaiah

    Interview

    By Hafeesha TB

    Social scientist Kancha Ilaiah talks of the row over his recent Telugu book ‘Saamajika Smugglerlu Kommatollu’ and other controversies he has faced.
    Writer and social scientist Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd has been at the heart of a major controversy for many weeks now. The publication of an excerpt from his Post Hindu India in Telugu, under the title Samaajika Smugglerlu Komatollu (Social Smugglers: Komatis) drew pitched protests from Arya Vysya organisations, who alleged that the title and the content of the book insulted them by caste. Peace was finally mediated between Ilaiah and representatives of these groups on Sunday by the CPI.

    Ilaiah, the author of a number of books like Why I am not a Hindu, Untouchable God, and Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism is no stranger to controversy. In an interview to Hafeesha TB, Ilaiah explains his stand on the current controversy and other issues affecting the Dalit Bahujan population in India.

    Members of the Vysya community were protesting against your book for many weeks. What led you to write the book Post Hindu India?

    It is a sociological book about each caste’s sociological, psychological and economic character. In this book, the Vysyas figured as one chapter. They think that nobody should write about thoem, whatever culture they have is great. Whatever the culture, Sociology has to analyse it and Anthropology has to examine.

    The book is a sociological study of many castes like Adivasis, Madigas, Malas, Chakkali, Mangali, and the unknown engineers, iron smiths, gold smiths, carpenters, and pot makers. And then the food producers –Kapus, Kammas and Marathas. These are called productive castes. Then it comes to unproductive castes – the Banyas and Brahmins. I have examined their sociological nature and some of the anthrpological data was brought into it. If they say nobody should write on us, then how does it work? The Social Sciences have to study every caste and every community.

    You have faced trouble not only from social groups, but some days ago also faced opposition from the police. How do you feel about this?

    These things are expected from conservative forces – the forces who don’t want change, the forces who don’t want equality. They are social forces, but they are also political forces. When these forces are doing such things, you have to fight.

    For everything if we are afraid, how do we build good Social Science, good Sociology, Anthropolgy or Political Science. We have to fight with our courage otherwise tomorrow they will not allow anybody to write anything.

    What do you see as the serious problems that Dalits in India are facing today?

    Dalits are facing several problems today. One is their food culture problem. After the BJP came (to power), their food culture has got into a crisis, and the cow ban (cattle slaughter rules) has reduced their food availability. And leather work has gone out of the market. So, jobs are not there for them.

    They (the Vysyas) have privatised all the money, they have shifted the money to banks and from there to industrialists.

    Then they (Dalits) don’t have jobs because there is no reservation in the private sector. So, it is a huge problem.

    You have also faced controversy over the allegation that you have called Brahmins ‘lazy’. What was your actual statement?

    I never said that. The chapter says that the Brahmins are spiritual fascists, that they don’t allow spiritualism to become democratic and that every caste in Hinduism can be equal. I am not saying ‘lazy’. They are out of production. They are not in the tilling of the land, they are not in the cattle rearing, they are not in the harvesting, they are not in the vegetable production, the meat and milk economy. So they are outside production.

    The Hindu text Manusmriti was burned by BR Ambedkar and it was a milestone in Dalit struggle. Do you think such a revolutionary movement is possible today

    Today, they may not allow it. Beacuse the right wing and those who are opposed to equality are in power. Naturally they don’t want change, they don’t want equality in the society, in the government and the system. That is the reason why I am facing these problems. Ambedkar faced different kinds of problems.But at that time British were in the power. Now it is the Indian castes which are outside production which are controlling the money and the political power. So the problems for people like me are more now because the British had some kind of positive view of change, whereas these two communities don’t like any change.

    We constantly use terms like ‘Upper caste’ and ‘Lower caste’. What are your thoughts on these terms?

    I don’t use those terms. I use Dalit-Bahujans and unproductive castes. So, they are not ‘upper’, they are unproductive. They don’t produce food or anything. Dalit-Bahujans are the productive castes. So I have tried to replace these terms.

    On the celebration of Deepavali, you have said that Ravana is a representative of Dalit-Bahujans and Dravidians. What are your thoughts on this?

    Historically, Ravana was a Dravidian and was pro-environment. Environmental maintenance, forests and so on are a part of Dravidian life. Actually, the first major environmental figure, while building a city, was Harappa. Harappa, who built the Harappa city in the Indus valley, was a man himself because similar names still exist in Karnataka and also parts of Telangana. So there are names like Birappa – a shepherd god –, Virappa, Yallappa, Mallappa. The Appas are human beings.

    So we must really see the Dravidian culture in Harappa first, more than Ravan and Narakasura. Some of them are mythological, but Harappa was a real historical figure who built a city himself. In my view a major study on Harappa has to come. I was doing that work, but meanwhile this trouble started.

    Could you explain why you changed your name to Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd?

    The Brahmins and the Baniyas were abusing by my (caste) name in November 2015. Then I thought I should add a name from my occupation historically. Because Harappa himself was a shepherd. Shepherd, in the sense, of cattle rearers – they take care of everything. For example, Sri Krishna, who is known as the Yadava god, is also a cattle rearer. Actually, now they are show him taking care of only cows, but he was taking care of buffaloes, cows, sheep and goats. But later some writers distorted his role. He has also been portrayed negatively, that he steals butter and has some relations with all kinds of people. That is not correct. So any shepherd or cattle rearer was demonized like this in history.

    What is the relevance of Dalit-minority-Left unity in the current time?

    They have to unite. We have to take up the question of abolition of untouchability and the socialisation of the means of production and the opposition of present capitalism, which has become real capitalism. In order to do that, I think a new theoretical model has to be worked out.

    You have talked in many places about your mother and her struggles. How has she influenced you?

    She was a big fighter. She put us in school when we were going along with sheep. She got us admitted in high school by literally putting us a the feet of a landlord in a nearby village. She died when I was in Class 9. But she was a great fighter. She died because of attacks by police patels of the village. She was the real philosophical and ideological motive and force behind my evolution and thought.

    What is your view on reservation policies in India?

    Reservation, at the time of Ambedkar, was only a state issue – state jobs. And there was no big private sector.So he asked for the electoral reservations and state jobs. Now state jobs are gone and electoral reservaton is there. That is the reason why Indian feudalism has shifted into Indian capitalism. So the capital, Bombay Wall Street, is fully under the control of mainly Baniya capital. In order to change that into a diversified capital, there must be reservation in the private sector. They are talking about the merit. But where is the merit in non-producers when productive castes don’t have merit? The country lives with the production and not with some book writing and all. Even if I write a book, the country will not live with that book. Anybody can write a book. So my feeling is that it is the time for fighting for reservations in private sector and English education in government schools. Then if jobs are not available here, they can go to Australia and Canada. They can become global citizens also.

  • The Government’s Elaborate Nationalist Charade

    By Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd | Published on: November 9, 2017

    Dr. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, a political theorist and Dalit Rights activist has been in the eye of the storm ever since the Telugu translation of his book Post Hindu India came out. In one of the chapters of the book, he alleges that the Arya-Vysya community are social smugglers and have usurped the wealth that should have actually belonged to lower caste people. In this piece Ilaiah shares how he has been courting controversy and dealing with threats to his life.

    Kancha

    The Sangh Parivar elements that worked hand in glove with Arya Vysyas, who wanted to lynch me at Parkal on September 23, after the TDP Parliament member T.G Venkatesh issued a threat on September 17, have shown their true colours. They caught hold of a 22 year old Dalit boy, sporting a big saffron tilak on his forehead. This boy said, “Kancha Ilaiah is dog! He criticized Hindu Dalits by writing Smajika Smugglerlu: Komatollu’’. They got case registered against me for atrocities against SC/STs. The media including the Business Standard felt this is a rare case of SC/ST atrocity so far registered. But this is yet another type of lynch-mob politics. They have filed several cases in several different places against me. As I have utmost respect for judiciary I am willing to go through the judicial processes.

    I have fought the RSS, ABVP network in Osmania University and outside for thirty five years and now they think, they have a chance to lynch me in one form or the other. These forces never fight for the rights of Dalits/Adivasis/OBCs but whenever the Baniyas or Brahmins are in trouble they deploy all their forces including SC/ST/OBCs. Even the OBC/SC/STs are not allowed to go to the support of their own communities, whenever they face atrocities and humiliation. But their upper caste members—mainly the Brahmin-Bania members rush to the aid of any so called spiritual force, or cow related issues or in defense of their own upper caste networks. They do every possible thing to defame any Dalit-bahujan intellectual writing on Indian history, the labour related issues, wages, atrocities and so on. But they would never speak about increasing the agrarian wages, protecting the farmers from suicides.

    They accuse all such defenders as Left and Anti-national. The defenders of rich, religious gurus (whatever could be their role in the society), they rush to their defense and proclaim that is nationalist act. So their nation constitutes the rich people, big business forces, religious gurus (whose contribution to production is zero) and cows. They never treat buffalo as Indian animal at all! I need to be lynched because I stand by the SC/ST/OBCs, buffaloes, soldiers serving on the borders and lowest rung of the police force, who again come from the lowest castes and communities. Anybody who speaks of human rights is anti-national. This is bizarre democracy they are running from Delhi now.

    After they failed at Parkal, they think this atrocity case would kill me on my own ground, as I wrote extensively about Dalitisation of the Indian society as a process of de-casting and de-classing of it. I strongly defended their beef food culture (in the recent cow centered vegetarian campaign of the Hindutva). This only shows that they stoop down to any level to protect their funding Vysya coffers. My ‘Buffalo Nationalism’ has put them in fix, as it keeps on fighting their ‘Cow Nationalism’ politics.

    The Two Dramas      
    When the Bharatiya Janta Party came to power 2014, it started enacting two dramas on the national stage. These elaborate charades, related to defense and glorification of India internationally, were aimed at ensuring the the BJP’s survival by showcasing them as the most nationalist party. Their approach was two pronged; they used cow protection — the so called Gaumata of the nation, and Yoga – the nation’s source of health and power, to further their own agenda.

    Around these two dramas, it deployed its upper caste leisure centered Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists and retired officials from cozy jobs mainly coming from non-agrarian social background. More than all these forces the whole Peethadhipathi, Sadhu Sanyasi, yogi network, which mainly comes from the non-agrarian caste cultural, and non-productive backgrounds are deployed, to attack anybody who talks about cow as economic animal.

    Even Prime Minster Narendra Modi also must have sold tea in his childhood but, never grazed cattle in the fields. Selling tea is also a business activity not a productive activity, like grazing cattle, tilling land, pottery, carpentry… manufacturing a plough to till or forging a wheel for transport. Mohan Bhagawat and Amit Shah have much less to do with grazing cows, leave alone buffaloes. Yet all of them made the cow protection, not cow grazing, as the national legal problem causing huge problem of food, employment, and law and order.

    The question of yoga is a much more serious issue. Though Ramdev, a Yadav by birth, made it a big method of health protection among the middle class. The brahmnic thinkers, who never got involved in tilling the land or grazing the cattle, and supposed to be the authors of all funny theories, projected Yoga as the most useful nation saving body exercise. The BJP owned it as if that is the most suitable exercise for armed forces that need to fight mighty powers like China in the East and not so powerful Pakistan in the West.

    The sports like running, high jump, long jump, the body exercise by working the productive fields have no TV shows. Their existence is now seen as anti-national. But the most serious question is should army recruitment adopt Yoga that is being promoted by the Prime Minister, his entire Government and the Sangh Parivar all over the nation as the measure of selection. Should police institution also adopt that sport, as a daily exercise to maintain their body?

    National Icons   
    The great Sadguru who constructs an imaginary Yoga Guru (of black Shiva image) got it inaugurated by the PM. But they never talk about the first ever Indian city builder called Harappa (which name resembles the popular cattle grazer God called Beerappa about whom there is narrative in my book Why I am Not a Hindu) as great Indian. It was during Harappa period that the division of labour took place. Different sections of the Harappa society specialized in different things of city building. Brick making, carpentry, pot making, animal grazing, canal constructing, tank bund making, road laying and so on. It is this ancient labour centred Indian that would be an iconic model. But not an imaginary Yogi, who sits like dead stone in Coimbatore that would be a iconic model for developing nation.

    The BJP does not have interest in projecting dignity of labour, peasant economic hard work, the labouring masses as the essence of Indian being. Instead they project un-productive saint as the sole symbol of nation. The worst is that they hate those who talk about production, people’s philosophy of equality. They hang around mythological texts as essence of the nation. But to me the nation lives in the labour of people, which the BJP never wants celebrate.

    The farmers and other productive mass of India have seen the two dramas—the drama of Cow and Yoga—that the BJP has been playing as just onlookers. Alongside these two dramas the more serious actions of De-monitization and GST imposition are having telling impact on their life. Let us wait and see how it unfolds in future.

    (The author is Member, T-MASS, an organization that works for social Justice, dignity of labour and English education in Government schools in Telangana)

  • A Critical Defence of Kancha Ilaiah’s Voice

    Anand Teltumbde (tanandraj@gmail.com) is a writer and civil rights activist with the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights, Mumbai. Source

    In these achhe din when the Hindutva bullet trail has killed people with impunity for speaking what it does not like, the recent threats against Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd should not be taken lightly. Of course, the Hindutva brigade is not known to warn its victims. Narendra Dabholkar, Comrade Govind Pansare, M M Kalburgi, Santanu Bhowmik, and recently Gauri Lankesh were not forewarned. In this case, both Ilaiah Shepherd as well as the representatives of the Arya–Vaisya community filed police complaints against each other. It does not mean that because the threat was publicly issued, the issuer would be marked if something untoward were to take place.

    The Sanatan Prabhat, the mouthpiece of the Sanatan Sanstha, has issued a standing threat to all rationalists whom it wants to have killed as demons to establish the kingdom of god. When Dabholkar was gunned down, it had the temerity to justify the act in a celebratory tone, with no legal consequence. Contrast it with thousands of Dalits and Adivasis incarcerated for years just under the suspicion of being connected with Maoists!

    In the case of Ilaiah Shepherd, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Member of Parliament (MP) T G Venkatesh has said that people like him should be “publicly hanged.” Following him, Arya–Vaisya organisations have been holding protests in parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and burning his effigies, seeking a ban on his book, Samaajika Smugglurlu Komatollu (Social Smugglers: Komotis). He has been receiving abusive and threatening phone calls. There was an alleged attempt to attack his car at Parkal town in Telangana, where some people hurled footwear and stones at him; he had to run into the police station for protection. Ilaiah Shepherd has not taken it lightly and has been living in self-imposed house arrest since the controversy broke out.

    What Is Behind the Uproar?

    The booklet in question is a Telugu translation of one chapter from his 2009 book, Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit–Bahujan, Socio-spiritual and Scientific Revolution. As such, there is no reason that the controversy be raised after almost a decade except that it is now available to a Telugu-language audience. Maybe the references to Modi–Shah and Adani–Ambani that existed in the book and are now available to the common masses to read are being resented. Maybe the Arya–Vaisya organisations, which are aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or TDP, are being used as proxies to create the ruckus. The book is replete with caustic remarks about Banias like this:

    Vysyas have always hated Shudras, Dalits and OBCs [Other Backward Castes] who are involved in the production of goods. They never take up the job of protecting the country—there is no baniya regiment in the Army. They are part of the ruling class—Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are baniyas—and they are backed by business tycoons like the Ambanis and Adanis. They are culturally vegetarians, so how can they fight mighty enemies like Pakistan and China if they don’t eat meat or beef?

    Is there anything other than poor knowledge in this that should anger anyone? Are there no castes in India? Do the dwija castes, which he calls parasitic, not treat the Shudras and Dalits with graded disdain? Are they not a part of the ruling class? I would not care for their vegetarianism or not eating beef, or not being in the army or not being able to fight the armies of Pakistan and China, but if Ilaiah Shepherd wants to care for it, is that untrue? I am not sure though whether by this logic he wants to uphold the Kshatriyas.

    It is not the first time Ilaiah Shepherd is writing or speaking like this, nor is he singling out only Vaisyas for such uncharitable references as “social smugglers.” In the same book, he has called Brahmins spiritual fascists; others he calls intellectual goondas, etc. This style of writing has an element of making people sit up and take note, like a marketing strategy. Incidentally, I reviewed this book for Tehelka magazine (Teltumbde 2009). I wrote:

    Reading this book, it gives you a feel of travelling in a Maglev train—an illusion of running on rails but in fact levitating over a thin layer of air. While traversing through its arguments, the book creates an illusion of being based on truth but is distanced from it by a thin layer of prejudice. There is an overdose of culture and spirituality which could intoxicate readers without them ­realizing it.

    Ilaiah Shepherd’s intellectual content may be severally problematised, but none has the right to deny his right to express it, and certainly no right to threaten him.

    Condemnation and Beyond

    Do the Arya–Vaisya organisations have the right to express their disagreement as they did? They do have a right to approach the courts as advocate K L N V Veeranjaneyulu did, to ban another book by Ilaiah Shepherd titled Hindutva-Mukt Bharat and a chapter in his Post-Hindu India too. But to issue death threats is surely a crime, and that too by a people’s representative. The Supreme Court rightly ruled that banning the book is in contravention of Article 32 of the Constitution. “When an author writes a book, it is his or her right of expression … every author or writer has a fundamental right to speak out ideas freely and express thoughts adequately,” the Court said in its order. However, several MPs, members of legislative assembly (MLAs) and even Telangana ministers do not agree. It is fairly clear, unless the Court takes suo motu cognisance of the death threats in the particular context of the recent spate of killings, the government is unlikely to act.

    The issue has, as expected, created waves of condemnation all over the world, including in the United States Congress. Harold Trent Franks, representing Arizona’s eighth congressional district in the US House of Representatives, raised it on 12 October, the day the Hyderabad police registered a case against Ilaiah Shepherd for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Franks, in his speech lasting over four minutes, had described Ilaiah Shepherd as modern-day B R Ambedkar. Indeed, following in the footsteps of Ambedkar, Ilaiah Shepherd has built up a strong cultural critique of the dwija caste culture, imparting it a materialistic hue from his early rendezvous with left politics. He would distinguish the lot as unproductive parasites as against his category of Dalit–Bahujan, the productive category. One need not smell Marx’s labour theory of value in this phraseology simply because it is just not that.

    His explanation of social smuggling is even weirder. Writing in the Wire on 15 September Ilaiah Shepherd (2017) said he coined this concept to describe the Vaisya model of accumulation. He explained, “The process of social smuggling started from the post-Gupta period of 5th century AD and continues to operate even today.” This social smuggling, he explains, is the flow of “heavily exploited wealth” taken across “caste ‘social borders’” “to control the accumulated wealth within that border.” If you are still confused, he clarifies,

    It [heavily exploited wealth] was used by the traders for their good life and gave enough to the temples for better survival of priests. The remaining surplus was hidden under ground, over ground and also in the temples. This process did not allow the cash economy to come back in the form of investment either for agrarian development or for promotion of mercantile capital. This whole process is nothing but social smuggling. The wealth did not go outside India but did get arrested and used only within the caste borders.

    But this is simply a feudal mode that existed everywhere before capitalism entered. When capitalism came, this mercantile community of ­Vaisyas did become industrial capitalists, albeit preserving castes, following the capitalist schema of money–commodity–more money (SPAN STYLE=”font-weight: normal”>M–C–M’).

    It is not necessary to agree with Ilaiah Shepherd’s theorisation, but there is no denying the fact that he has powerfully articulated his spiritual–cultural critique with fantastic details so as to reinforce caste identities of the Dalits, although his own coinage of “Dalit–Bahujan” still eludes him.

    The Identity Appeal

    In a caste society, to conceive Bahujan is theoretically problematic. But we should know what Buddha thought of Bahujans; in modern times, Kanshi Ram uses the category with much clearer meaning than Ilaiah Shepherd does. I cannot resist temptation to recall my review:

    If one is not so “spiritually” intoxicated, one suffers from mundane doubts nibbling at his intellect: is this conjoint term “Dalit–Bahujan” sociologically viable, given the huge load of material contradictions between these two population groups that have been precipitating into most heinous caste atrocities? How and why did these worthy “spiritual democrats” or “spiritual revolutionaries” come to emulate the caste hierarchy of Brahmins, the spiritual fascists, within themselves and zealously preserve it? If the Dalit-Bahujans were so accomplished in terms of their scientific and technological prowess, how could they be enslaved by a handful of scheming and spiritually degenerate Brahmins for millennia? The book succeeds in establishing the superiority of Dalit-Bahujans, but doesn’t it essentially follow the very same Brahmanic ethos of superiority-inferiority? (Teltumbde 2009)

    If one wears caste spectacles, Indian capital may appear as Vaisya capital, as they still dominate the world of business. But is that not an evolutionary pheno­menon of mercantile capital transforming into industrial and financial capital? It is the fact that capital did rely on caste networks but with a pure business logic to depress transaction costs. It is not confined to only Vaisyas. There are a plethora of other castes. Dalits are the only exception (stray examples and spurious phenomenon of Dalit capitalism notwithstanding). Gounders (who built the biggest knitwear manufacturing hub in the world), Nadars (the lords of the match industry in Sivakasi), and Ezhavas, Patels, Jats, Marathas, etc (in various industries) covering the entire spectrum from Brahmin to Shudra, have made their mark in business, their supply chains cutting across castes, communities, and extending to global regions.

    Ilaiah Shepherd’s writings remind us of the religio–cultural critique of Ambedkar, and hence the Ambedkarite Dalits nostalgically love them. They realise neither the difference in times nor circumstances. Ambedkar was struggling to locate the source of castes and simultaneously provoke the Hindus to rethink their traditions and customs with a hope that they might undertake reforms. His diagnosis was that castes came through the dharmashastra part of the Hindu religion and unless it was destroyed, castes would not be annihilated. He ended with embr­acing Buddhism. The issue before the intellectuals who wish to take up cudgels for the Dalits is to assess the past and move forward in the changed world. If at all they wish to follow Ambedkar, his vision of annihilation of caste or the society based on “liberty, equality, fraternity” should beckon them. He was against Brahminism, not Brahmins. Pand­ering to caste identities tickles one like intoxicants; it is certainly antithetical to this vision and damaging to the Dalits’ emancipation project.

    References

    Ilaiah Shepherd, Kancha (2017): “Explaining the ‘Social Smuggling’ That Has Angered Arya Vysyas in Two States,” Wire, https://thewire.in/177385/explaining-social-smuggling-angered-arya-vysyas-two-states/.

    Teltumbde, Anand (2009): “Our Levitating Prejudice,” Tehelka, Vol 6, No 50, 19 December, http://www.tehelka.com/2009/12/our-levitating-prejudice/.

    Social Media Image Courtesy: Screengrab from Youtube/ISEVideos

  • Kancha Ilaiah: For lives lived in labour

    Kalpana Kannabiran, The Hindu

    Childhood, marriage, markets, goddesses, worship, food, work — for Ilaiah, the lived village has always been the best textbook

    I call Professor Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd and we talk about meeting and having a leisurely chat about his life, work and troubles in recent times. The past month has been particularly stormy. Ilaiah, a dear friend of three generations of my family, has been a trenchant and unrelenting critic of Brahmanical Hinduism and the insidious proliferation of dominant caste injustice for decades.

    However, the recent publication in Telugu of the chapter from his 2009 book Post Hindu India, titled ‘Vysyas: Social Smugglers’, triggered protest from members of the Vysya caste, with a sitting Telugu Desam Party MP declaring that he should be hanged and Arya Vysya Sangham petitioning the Supreme Court to ban his book (dismissed by the Supreme Court last week).

    Our phone conversations these past weeks have been short and hurried, moments snatched from meetings, during a commute, or in the middle of other work. Most of these calls have been to check that he is in good cheer and spirits, since I can never be sure when the strain of belligerent attacks can begin to weigh a person down — even someone like Ilaiah.

    Looking back

    As I think about the conversation we are about to have, my mind goes back to 1989 or thereabouts, when as a doctoral student interested in questions of caste, I presented what I thought was a cogent and painstakingly argued critique of caste. A minute after I was done, Ilaiah proceeded to take my paper apart most meticulously, chiding me for hanging on to Brahmanical anthropology that will always obstruct an understanding of caste.

    His insistence that day that I must look at a different corpus if I am to make any sense of the structures of caste has stayed with me till today. This is a methodological point he elaborates on in our conversation.

    We first agree to meet at his home but that does not seem possible because his family has other plans for the eve of Diwali, and he offers to come over to mine so that we can chat without interruption.

    His date of birth according to school records, Ilaiah tells me, is October 5, 1952 — he is the fifth of seven siblings. In July 1960, his mother sent him and his brother (older by two years) to the newly established single-teacher school in his village, Papaiahpet, the first two children to be admitted in his village. When they had passed Class V, his mother took them to the landlord in Guduru and begged him to admit them to school. After passing Class VIII there, they moved to the taluka headquarters, Narsampet.

    Early memories

    When his mother died in 1967, his brother discontinued his education, was married to a 12-year-old girl, and took charge of the home, while Ilaiah continued with college and studied political science in Osmania University. In the early 1980s, his brother developed a serious heart problem, so Ilaiah moved the brother’s family to his home in Hyderabad. They have been together since.

    His first memories of college in Warangal are of Haragopal, a young and dynamic teacher of public administration, with admirable communication skills, who told him at the end of an English debate where he “closed his eyes and spoke,” that his ideas were good but he needed to work on his English. This was the beginning of a long and trying journey to conquer English. He recalls reading The Communist Manifesto, not just for its content, but paying close attention to the English, the flow, and the expression.

    In the Dalitwada, ‘labour is tomorrow’s survival’, and has been for centuries. Lives are only lived in labour, not in leisure, and there is no notion of property

    Not having ever had a convent education, he listened to English news on radio every night, and practised reading and pronunciation in front of a mirror. He also speaks with admiration about seeing Kaki Madhava Rao, then Collector of Warangal — a Dalit officer whose doors were always open to those who had suffered any manner of injustice or deprivation — and of going to Musheerabad Jail in the middle of the night when Kista Gowd and Bhoomiah were to be hanged during Emergency, and of his long association with civil liberties advocate K.G. Kannabiran.

    Bilingual is best

    It is from his own struggles with breaking into mainstream academia that he has pursued the idea of English education in the villages with missionary zeal — facilitating the setting up of 107 English-medium schools from 2002, mostly for OBC, Dalit and Adivasi students. He beams with pride over the fact that children from rural Warangal are able to speak fluent English by the time they reach Class VI, easily substituting rote learning of the alphabet with active association with animals, plants and artefacts in their immediate surroundings. “How do these children change if English doesn’t go to rural areas,” he asks.

    What is remarkable about the way the children learn the English alphabet is the fact that experience forms the basis of learning. Ant, not apple. Buffalo, not bat. This resonates with Ilaiah’s early thesis that one can only understand caste if experience provides the framework for debate — an argument he proposed in 1990 in an essay published in Economic and Political Weekly.

    Far from arguing for English as a substitute for Telugu, Ilaiah argues forcefully for a robust bilingualism which, in his view, can only be achieved if an English-medium education complements socialisation in the mother tongue.

    His own academic and political tracts have been in both English and Telugu. His tryst with English writing started with contributions to Mainstream and Frontier after the Emergency in 1977.

    Early on, he, along with a few friends, started a progressive Telugu journal, Nalupu. By this time, he was active in the Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights, and had been closely associated with the CPI (ML-Nagi Reddy) and had not yet begun to study Ambedkar seriously.

    He was part of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee where he raised discomfiting questions about caste in organisational leadership. His involvement with civil liberties and left groups opened up a new world of suffering — journeys to Kashmir, the Northeast, Parvathipuram, setting up drought relief centres in Andhra Pradesh and addressing hunger on the ground.

    However, it was the Karamchedu massacre in 1985 that was the tipping point in his articulation of caste in politics of all hues.

    This was also the time when Ilaiah began to engage with Ambedkar’s writings and chose to work on Buddha’s political thought for his PhD.

    Ilaiah believes experience forms the basis of all learning. Thus, Ant, not apple. Buffalo, not bat

    Through these engagements, Ilaiah returned to his explorations of the experiential basis of understanding structures of thought, feeling and sociality. With no context of rigorous academic research, and a very ordinary education, constant comparisons between textual narratives and a structural approach to the village built on personal knowledge, opened out the field to an ethnography of a different kind.

    Textbook of life

    Childhood, marriage, markets, goddesses, ritual, worship, food, work, and the clear dichotomy between productive lives and lives outside production — the lived village was the best textbook. His celebrated work, Why I Am Not a Hindu, grew out of this ethnographic project. His later work, Post-Hindu India, takes this further through an exposition of the political economy of caste.

    Importantly, Ilaiah does not see a dichotomy or separation between productive and reproductive labour — he draws intricate connections between the arguments on sexual division of labour by feminist philosopher Maria Mies and his mother’s understanding of productive and reproductive labour, or even the Dalit-Bahujan worship of goddesses like Pochamma bestowed with healing and regenerative powers.

    ‘The personal is the political’ is a slogan of the feminist movement. Ilaiah looks at this alongside ‘experience as a framework,’ in order to grasp the full contours of the Dalit-Bahujan experience of caste. For, in the Dalitwada, ‘labour is tomorrow’s survival’, and has been for centuries.

    Lives are only lived in labour, not in leisure, and there is no notion of property. But there is an immense wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and ethics. The barber’s knife is an illustration — ‘a tool that cleanses, not a weapon that kills’. How does this compare with lives lived in leisure and accumulation of material wealth? This is the question in the eye of the storm today.

    Having effectively subverted meritocratic arguments in mainstream academia, and having immersed himself in progressive politics, Ilaiah, now retired from Maulana Azad National Urdu University, has begun to chart a new course with the Telangana Mass and Social Organisations Forum, a broad-based political forum that will bring OBCs, Dalits and Adivasis together to fight for social justice and cultural transformation.

    The author is a feminist sociologist and Professor & Director, Council for Social Development, Hyderabad.

  • Vishal Mangalwadi’s Hindutva Agendra

    Mr. Vishal Mandgalwadi

    A Muslim friend of mine, who seems to have written to you also told me about your facebook post. When I saw that I was shocked.

    I never knew that you are such a liar. When did I tell you in 2001 that I am writing Post Hindu India? I did not even have an idea of publishing this book with that title. At that time I was working on my Ph.D theses to be published and that year only it was published. Then I worked on my Buffalo Nationalism book which was published in 2004.

    I did not even know you by then except that one of your friends requested that I should write an introduction to one of your very bad books. With great dislike I did that. You talk as if you are my great fried. This is totally human receptivity.

    You do not even understand the fundamental ideas that developed in my first book Why I Am Not Hindu. When I wrote that book do you know in 1994-6? At that time I did not even have single Christian contact. I met Joseph Desouza in 1999 that too after I became a columnist in well known English daily The Hindu. It was an accidental meeting. I told him about my English education agenda. He responded for that positively. But you, for that few hours I was with you after I released your book you talked only about conversion stuff. I was a left liberal working with civil rights movement for several years. I was never into your sin business and heaven politics of making money.

    I realized how low your standard and academic stature is now. Did you read and understand my Post Hindu India. Do you think that that book could be written with $10, 000 from somebody. I never wrote books like you with money for money. The data that the book contains and philosophical arguments that it developed cannot be mobilized or collected by spending Crores of rupees. An OBC thinker like me cannot be enslaved by your foolish ideas of conversion. My struggle is to liberate my people, with an agenda of carrying the vision of Gautham Buddha, Mahatma Phule, Ambedkar and Periyar. I know cannot understand them at all.

    My agenda for teaching English to the SC/ST/OBC children is not bound by your personal agenda of going to heaven. All your life seems to be nothing but sins and sins. If Joseph DeSouza was childish like you, I would not have made friendship with him even for a day. He is a great visionary therefore our friendship remained and that has a cause of English education of the poorest of the poor.

    I understood that you are out to destroy the life of thousands of poorest of the poor children’s future. After this facebook you posted I realized you have never understood even an inch of Jesus’s liberative agenda of the slaves and the wretched of the earth. Stop this kind of nonsensical campaign against an historical cause. You seem to be worse than Paripurnanada Sway who said that Mother Theresa was women’s trafficking person. Do not expose yourself in future like this.

    Prof. Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd
    —

  • Interview by Bar and Bench – “I will continue writing, nobody can stop me from doing that”, Prof. Kancha Ilaiah

    By Varun Chirumamilla

    Professor Kancha Ilaiah has never been one to mince words. But when he termed Baniasas “social smugglers”, he started receiving death threats and abusive phone calls.

    His book Samajika Smugglurlu Komatolludrew flak from sections of society, leading to the filing of a petition calling for its ban. However, the Supreme Court would dismiss the petition while upholding his freedom of speech and expression.

    Bar & Bench caught up with Ilaiah to discuss his writings, criminal proceedings pending against him, and more.

    You don many hats. You are a Professor, an author, a Dalit rights activist and more. Can you describe the evolution of Kancha Ilaiah, the personality?

    The evolution has been gradual. I was born into a poor family of shepherds, and started off attending the local primary school in my village, where, for some time, I was the only student. Thereafter, I studied in a village of landlords, where I witnessed atrocious behavior.

    I went on to complete my higher secondary education in Narsampet Taluk, and ultimately received an PhD from Osmania University. In the process, I started fighting against oppression and became associated with the radical Left in my student days.

    My shift towards caste began in 1985, after the Karamchedu massacre, where Dalits were murdered by the Shudra upper castes. Then came the Mandal commission, and the opposition of the upper castes to reservation. It was during the fight to secure reservation that I started conceptualising and finally wrote Why I am not a Hindu.

    It was around the same time that I became involved in Civil Rights and Human Rights movements, and observed the absolutely wretched conditions people were living in. It was then that I realised that it wasn’t just general poverty, but caste that had a big role to play in the larger scheme of things.

    My intellectual journey took a turn after the publication of Why I am not a Hindu. I was invited to write for publications such as the Hindu, Economic and Political Weekly, Asian Age and also appeared in television debates.

    I focused on issues such as Brahminism, the symbols of both the Brahmins andDailtbahujans and the conflict between them. I then went on to write books such as Buffalo Nationalism. All of this brought me a certain degree of recognition.

    A recent book published in English in which you refer to the Bania community as “social smugglers” has led to your receiving death threats. Police complaints were also lodged against you. Would you do things differently had you known that such consequences would arise?

    I was warned by a close friend even before the book was published that there would be grave consequences, and he asked me to remove his name from the acknowledgements. I have also removed the names of several other people, including those of my family members.

    Yes, I knew there would be consequences, but my endeavor is and always has been to better understand the socio-dynamics of caste among other things. It was only after meticulous research that I wrote what I did, in the manner in which I did. Whatever the consequences are, facts remain facts.

    Freedom of expression comes with reasonable restrictions. Do you think your work comes within the framework of the Constitution?

    My publishers, Sage and I had a long series of meetings and negotiations regarding the book, from which this excerpt with reference to the Banias has been published. It was only after a long consultation process with lawyers that the book was cleared for publishing.

    I was assured that no legal cause of action could arise from publishing it. I was also told that some Brahmin editors refused to work on the book, and some even resigned. But the publishing house stood their ground and appointed new people. That’s how the book came to be edited.

    As far as the question of disrupting communal harmony goes, the book, which is based on fact and research, merely distinguishes between productive and unproductive castes. Even in my previous works and lectures I have said that if theBrahmins, Banias and Jains were to form their own country, it would not survive, as they are unproductive. Their survival is dependent on the exploitation of the productive castes

    Is it fair to paint a whole community with the same brush?

    It is impossible to theorise without some degree of generalisation. There are certain common characteristics which are widespread through the community. Why do you call all Madigas (a scheduled caste)Madigas when some of them may not have the physical or social characteristics associated with the caste? I agree that a caste is made up of individuals, but like I said before, some degree of generalisation is inevitable in an academic pursuit.

    The Constitution has afforded the Dalit community several privileges and safeguards. There is also the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act. None of these have worked, according to you. Where does the solution lie?

    These measures are like having a constable on duty at your door. He may prevent people from the outside from coming into your house and harming you, but if you step out of the house then he cannot guarantee your safety.

    The solution lies in empowering the youth from these communities with English education, which will allow them to hold their own with those coming from more privileged backgrounds even at the highest levels of government and industry.

    If they continue to be discriminated against despite this, at least they will have the opportunity to emigrate and become global citizens.

    Do you think the impact of the Act has been diluted due to alleged widespread misuse?

    The Act has been misused in certain instances. Implementation has also been a problem. In any case, seeing your enemy in prison is not the solution. The constable outside your door parallel I drew earlier applies to this Act as well.

    The Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed Police in the Prakasam District to furnish information on why criminal cases have not been lodged against you, despite complaints being filed. Are you considering filing an anticipatory bail application?

    They have asked for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe and also filed criminal complaints. I am meeting with my lawyer later today to discuss my legal strategy. We will file an anticipatory bail application if required. In any case, the Court must serve me notice before taking any action.

    Do you fear for your life? Should the government be doing more to protect you?

    An attack on me was pre-emptively thwarted by the police last night. I am meeting with the Commissioner of Police today to seek protection. If they give me this protection, I can continue with my speaking engagements and attend social gatherings. If they don’t, I will continue writing. Nobody can stop me from doing that.

    Bar & Bench would like to thank Jangili Darshan, a research scholar at Osmania University, for his assistance in arranging this interview.

  • CLARIFICATION ABOUT MY ASSOCIATION WITH CHRISTIANS

    One of the recurring accusations of the recent Arya Vysya agitators and their associate Paripurnanada Swamy, a hater of St. Mother Theresa and Christian human service, against me is that I have a Christian agenda behind my writing. This is absolutely false. I have some academic association with an organization called the Good Shepherd Society that established an English medium school in my village Papaiahpet, Chennaraopet Mandal, Waragal (rural dist) in 2002.  This school provides English medium education from LKG to 10th class in that remote village. All most all it its students are SC/ST/OBCs.

    I requested this organization to establish such schools in late the 1990s where, the poor can study English medium within in the village across the nation. I interact with my village students, parents  and see that they are taught reasonably good English, mathematics and also Dignity of Labour. For this purpose I wrote “Dignity of Labour in Our Times’’ book  around their own parental tasks. This academic year 376 kids are studying. This organization runs 107 such schools with an intake about 27,000 kids from SC/ST/OBC and minority background in very remote villages in the country.

    From my village school four kids got into medicine, few got into NITs, and many are in good engineering colleges. But for that school they would not have dreamt of such course and study with a confidence. The society charges a fee ranging from Rs 3,220 per year for LKG and Rs 5,260 for class 10th per year. The SC students of the village pay only Rs 1000 per year. Hence they need help from outside. They mobilize such financial help. I have nothing to do with it or its management. I only give academic advice.

    One Mr.Albert Lael, who worked with this organization got established one such schools in his own village, Kaukuntla, Devarkandra Mandal Mahabub Nagar (dist) and managed to put his own mother as principle. It appears that he wanted take over the school for himself and  developed problems within the organization. Anyone can compare both Papaiahpet and Kaukuntla schools. Lael and Jerusalem Mattiah who mediated the vote for note (Revanth Reddy case) started a campaign in association with Paripurnanada,  who attacked St. Mother Theresa as a person of women’s trafficking character, and who is also anti-Dalitbahujan and anti-English education for the SC/ST/OBCs in the villages. This is a dangerous trend.  The English education for the SC/ST/OBCs is my long term commitment.

    These forces which educate their children in urban Christian schools in English medium have no right to accuse me. Any harm for these village children’s English medium education is nothing but crime against humanity.

    Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd  (signed)                                                    Hyderabad, India

    Member T-MASS

  • The Order of Supreme Court – Demising the Writ Petition to Ban Prof Kanch’a Books