Dalits: A sick people shaped by Hinduism
A. XAVIER, ENGLISH DEPT., ST. MARYÕS HR. SEC. SCHOOL, DINDIGUL - 624 001

The history of Dalits is the history of Broken Men. Dalits have been reduced to total despair. They have been irredeemably beaten. Hence their psyche is beyond any cure. They suffer historical exclusiveness. They are shut out from the world of opportunities that will help any man to assert his person-hood. The defeated are to be outlawed. So Dalits are the outcastes. The indigenous have been made strangers in their own land by the aliens (Aryans). They are made eternal dependents. Dependents can never be rebels.

SOMEBODY VS. NOBODY
Asserting one's life makes one unfettered. Dalits are conditioned never to assert their life. Dalits remain externally forlorn as they are deprived of the psychological vital force in life. Death impulses prey on their life-principle. As they have lost their spirit-like force, they are a waste. They are a historic refuse to be trodden on and humiliated. The conquered have been made aliens in their own land. So, "They don't belong to a village society", as Dr. Ambedkar says. Every Dalit becomes a nobody. He is a nondescript as any alien has to be so. Dalit is a symbol of worthlessness. Dalit is a symbol of landlessness. Dalit identity should be according to Hinduism, a symbol of nobody. A Brahmin has to be a somebody. Somebody is a conqueror and nobody is a failure. It is the prerogative of a somebody to ill-treat the nobody. He who is born divine can ride roughshod over the feelings of a nobody who is born ungodly.

Hinduism can never absorb the Untouchables. All assimilationist and integrationist measures by Hindus are politically manoeuvring schemes by Hindu forces to swell their vote banks. This is one of the conspiratorial plots of Brahminical vultures.

HINDUISM KNOWS NO SOCIAL CEMENT
Hinduism has no social cement. No common blood. No common territory. No bond of union. No infusion of blood. It stands for consanguinity to produce imbeciles. India is a land of mediocrities and imbeciles because of close inbreeding. It can produce mentally disturbed beings. Hinduism never stands for elevating a common man. No place for ennoblement. No room for the process of evolution. Hinduism is not a philosophy that stands for the dignity of an individual. An individual in India has to sacrifice himself for the Brahminical Social Order. Untouchables as a group has to be offered up as a sacrifice for the Hindus.

VICE AS VIRTUE IN HINDUISM
Hinduism preaches every upper caste to be self-imprisoned. A Hindu is a rat. He is fated to live in his hole and the hole is the universe he knows. Being unsociable and withdrawn is the sign of mental derangement. But unsociability is a virtue, according to Brahminism. The streak of lunacy in every Hindu is to be taken for the sign of Hindu sanity. As Hinduism is against brotherhood every Hindu in "Hindu India" is totally indifferent and apathetic to the pains of others. "Have an aversion to your neighbour", is one of the divine laws of Hinduism. Any innate and instinctive urge to love another is to be killed. All humanistic impulses are to be nipped in bud. One of the divine commandments of Hinduism is, "every Hindu has to nurture all anti-humanistic values i.e. hostility, enmity, hate, ill-will, rancour, grudge, jealousy, malice, aggressiveness, unfriendliness etc.

HEREDITARY DIVISION OF LABOUR
Dalits are forced to carry out all kinds of dehumanizing labour activities as any conquered people are forced to do so by the conquerors. These occupations damage the psychological strength of Dalits. No miscegenation will take place between the conquered and the conquerors. Naturally the psyche of a Dalit is, "I am born to defeated". Hindu opinion is that every Dalit is vile and degraded and so he is born to treated as his birth merits. The filthiest of filthy occupations should be carried out by the filthiest of the filthy. According to behaviourists the nature of a labour activity determines the personality of an individual. The labour-activity of a Dalit is filthiest and so he is the filthiest creature in the world.

EVERYTHING IS FIXED IN HINDUISM
Hinduism stands against any cycle of participation. Hence, the inner longing of an Untouchable to be a man of worth remains a day dream. All the desperate aping attempts to be Brahmins by elite Dalits bear no fruit. A Brahmin can never become an Untouchable and an Untouchable can never become a Brahmin. Everything is fixed under Hinduism. The assignment of a lowly place to an Untouchable makes him suffer permanently from inferiority complex. The conquered don't have any right to ask the conquerors, "Who are you to assign us to a lowly place?" Beggars can never be choosers.

Every Untouchable feels that he is a born excommunicate. The pangs of self-pity torture every Dalit and it is so because he has a psychological conviction that he is an excommunicate. As an Untouchable believes that he is ceremonially unclean, he believes that there is neither divinity nor humanity in him. No doubt he is convinced that he is born to be disliked and shunted away into the historic dirty dustbin. He is trained to suffer from the torture of self-rejection. He believes that his birth defiles all pure things. So, he is fit to be kept at arm's length. This inferiority complex infects all his children and others. He lives in a defeatist atmosphere. The sharp mental pains of self-pity plunge a Dalit family into frustration. Instead of taking the law to their own hands for all atrocities by the upper castes, Dalits prefer to take their own precious life.

AN ANTI-SOCIAL ELEMENT
Dalits are trained to be helpless before the authority of Hindu tradition and customs. All intellectual faculties characteristic of a human being can be cultivated and fostered only by reasoning. But Hindu traditions and customs stunt the development of these wonderful traits of man. Hindu traditions and customs make every Dalit a victim of mental slavery. Hindu culture is a culture of passiveness. It is a culture of death. The social teachings of Hinduism make every Hindu an anti-social element. A non-social element can be tolerated. But an anti-social element can never be tolerated. But a man who has an x-ray vision of a social scientist will penetrate into the iron-curtains of Hindu culture and see that every Hindu is psychologically and sociologically an anti-social element.

ABERRANT BEHAVIOUR OF HINDU
Why do upper castes kick, kill, rape and burn Dalits? Why do they commit all atrocities on Dalits without slightest compunction? The Hindu psyche is a psyche of a sadist. Hindu behaviour is an aberrant behavior. Hindu way of life is the way of life of a lunatic. But every abnormal activity of a disturbed man has become a matter of course under Hinduism and it has become a habit for every Hindu. How is that no one bothers to reflect that there is a streak of lunacy in his thinking and behaviour? It is because the Brahminical Social Order "approves of" all these aberrant things. Thus Hindu shastras and Manu are the root of all evils. They mould the psyche of every Hindu into the psyche of a sadist or of a masochist. That is why Dr. Ambedkar says "to annihilate caste, deny the authority of shastras and of Manu". Hindu psyche never feels guilty of raping, killing and burning the huts of Dalits and it is because Hindu shastras and Manu approve of these activities. Dalit's psyche is systematically trained not to fight against them. He believes that he is born to be an object of Hindu derision and ridicule.

THE HINDU PSYCHE
As Hinduism stands for social inequality, the behaviour of Hindus speaks of arrogance and of Dalits speaks of timidity. A Hindu believes that he is higher in his person-hood while a Dalit believes that he is lower in his person-hood. So Hindus are respectable, while the Dalits are ignoble. The Hindu believes, Untouchables don't have any spirit and person-hood. They are worse than worms and animals as they were not born from any part of the body of Brahma. They can be killed as worms can be killed. This is the clear expression of the workings of the psyche of a Hindu. Every Hindu believes that lawlessness is the law unto him and this psyche is framed by his belief in his assumed godly person-hood. The Hindu psyche prides on the accident of his birth. The very belief, I am the Bhoodevata, god of earth makes his psyche a psyche of a bully as a Hindu god is a bully. This Hindu psyche claims that everything is for it. It believes that every Dalit is born to serve and die for it.

WESTERN EXPLOITER VS. HINDU EXPLOITER
The psyche of the Western exploiter is diametrically opposite to the psyche of a Hindu in India. The psyche of a Western exploiter is the psyche of a benevolent exploiter. He feels that it is his responsibility to take care of the children and wives of his labourers. He feels that he has to pay just wages to his workers. But the psyche of a Hindu exploiter is the psyche of a malevolent monster. Hinduism teaches him not to have any sense of responsibility for Dalits and their families. They are born to serve him without any wages. Dalits don't have rights to claim any living wage. It is after all a service to the gods of earth. A Hindu should not display any act of mercy and love to Dalits. That will go against the very teachings of Hinduism. Western workers can have an implicit faith in the sense of the social responsibility of his exploiters. They can have faith in the legal protection of their fair-minded exploiter. But a Dalit can never dream of having this faith in Hindus. A Hindu knows no social responsibility, charity and love. His love is a Hindu love. His charity is a Hindu charity. His public spirit is a Hindu public spirit. His righteousness is a Hindu righteousness. Hindu psyche is warped and perverted mainly because of this Hindu narrowness and Hindu rigidity. Every Hindu can be pigeonholed as a certified lunatic and a certified monster in human shape.

The Western exploiter believes that his worker possesses all the essential human characteristics in him, though he is under him and depends on him. He feels that it is his moral duty to respect his person-hood and he should not disturb the human essence of his worker. But on the contrary, the Hindu believes that a Dalit possesses no human characteristics at all. So, he can be owned as any object is owned by him. The Western exploiter believes that his worker is a person in the eye of the law. So his human rights have to be respected. He allows himself to be submitted to legal discipline and social discipline. But a Hindu believes that a Dalit is not a person in the eye of the law of Hinduism. So no human rights for him.

CONVERSION AS REVOLUTION
Dalits live in Hindu India on sufferance of Hindus. Dalit psyche is trained to be grateful for this mercy. Dalits are tolerated but not wanted in Hindu India. Dalit psyche is systematically trained by the slave morals and values like submissiveness, self-pity, self-hate, obsequiousness, gratefulness, surrender, cowardice, non-violence, obedience, non-resistance, unassertiveness, resignation etc. "The Hindu mind" is systematically trained by "Hindu master moral values" like violence, dominance, hate, sadism, unforgiveness, indifference, selfishness, ill-will, power, supremacy, tyranny, oppression, dictatorship etc. Dalit psyche is systematically trained to disparage and belittle himself. With his self-despair and self-disgust he fails to affirm his selfhood and life. He is trained to suffer from death principle. He is deprived of life-principle. He is trained to enjoy slavery. He enjoys his pains and sufferings. He enjoys his humiliation. A Hindu becomes a sadist and a Dalit becomes a masochist mainly because they live in Hindu atmosphere. As long as Dalits remain conformists, they will suffer from this psychological perversion.

Perhaps, conversion is the only antidote against this perversion. Conversion is a revolution.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Why Go for Conversion?, DSA-1987

DV Jan.1, 2003 p.20: "Conversion as the best, simplest, surest & the most nonviolent way to liberate Dalits".

BOOK REVIEW
A foreign policy guide for India
BRIG, USMAN KHALID, DIRECTOR, LONDON INSTITUTE OF SOUTH ASIA,London

In his latest book, Shape of Things to Come, V.T. Rajshekar has articulated the Ambedkarite view of the world and filled a void in Bahujan policy and helped develop their distinct political personality. The "national" political parties Ð the Congress, the BJP and the Communists ÑÊhave their distinct view of the world that is founded on the perception of their constituents. But the political parties of India's Black Untouchables defined themselves merely by distance from their oppressors and tormentors. They joined coalitions led by the national parties but had little input in the design of the foreign policy of the coalition.

This book could be a watershed, it outlines how the Bahujan should influence the design of the foreign policy of India. The Communists have only shared power in Delhi and never led a coalition. The other two national parties have almost become identical. After decades of leading the Non-Aligned Movement, India has reduced itself to hangers on of imperialists ÑÊAmerica and Israel. In this book, V.T. Rajshekar rejects that role and opts for anti-imperialism at home and abroad. Like the parties led by Hindus this view is founded on the perception of the constituency of Ambedkarites.

This is potentially a momentous development. In a world where India had no role except to await and enforce American diktat, this review could give India a new role and proud place in the comity of nations.
Elements in the Indian intelligentsia have always been able to carve out a progressive role and image for India but the country has been stymied by its imperial policies towards its neighbours. It has sought to take moral high ground on the international scene while betraying its own people and reneging on agreements with its neighoburs.

For decades India supported the Palestinian struggle for liberation while suppressing that of Kashmiris reneging on agreements with Pakistan and the UN to allow them to decide their future in a plebiscite. The BJP ended the duplicity and openly embraced Israel and turned its face away from the Muslim world. It started to rely on blessing of America and Israel for its place in the world.

The Congress-led coalition has made no change in the BJP foreign policy. In such an environment the articulation of the Ambedkarite view of the world is a revolutionary event. Rajshekar recognises in the book that the policies of America and Israel with Hindus of India as their tail is world domination and their principal targets are the Muslims, the Chinese and the Black Africa. The Untouchables of India having been the victims of the longest and most vicious repression ever have to be on the side of the victims particularly when their local tormentors (Hindus) are the strategic partners of America and Israel.
The logic of his argument is simple and convincing but the attractiveness of an imperial role in the region is also obvious. It is unlikely that India would spurn the role being offered by America and Israel. But V.T. Rajshekar warns that the result of accepting an imperial role may provide some economic gains but it would also cause socio-political atrophy of India. But he wonders if that would be bad thing. After all, India is a country of many "nations", its people would enjoy real freedom for the first time if all the jatis (nations) of India got to exercise their right of national self-determination.

SHAPE OF THE THINGS TO COME
V.T. Rajshekar
2005 pp.70 Rs. 50, US $ 5
Dalit Sahitya Akademy
Write to Dalit Voice office.

Dalit literary meet in English
Dr. JAMANADAS, "SHALIMAR", MAIN ROAD, CHANDRAPUR - 442 402

There is an urgent need for Dalits to have an all-India literary meet in English. Mahatma Phule declined to accept Justice Ranade's invitation to attend the Brahminic literary meet. (Granthkar Sabhes Patra, Mahatma Phule Samagra Wangmay, Y.D. Phadke, Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Aani Sanskruti Mandal, Mumbai, 5th edition, Nov.1991, p.344).

Mahatma Phule said he was rejecting the invitation because the Brahmins were refusing to treat our people as equals.

" This is because their forefathers with the revengeful intention have put it in their fraudulent scriptures false stories of making us slaves. Their old religious books give the ample evidence of it. We, the shudras and ati-shudras, have to suffer untold agonies and calamities because of this. Those writers who are away from ground realities and who go on making vain speeches in big public meetings would never realize our pangs of distress", he said in his letter.

We shudras, he said, will not be deceived by the soft-talking plunderers. In short, there is not going to be any advantage for us shudra and ati-shudras to mix with you. We have to think of our own progress ourselves". Phule's letter is dated June 11, 1885.

The situation has not changed even today after 120 years. So we should organize our own literary meet. We are doing that in many forms as Dalit, Bahujan, rural (gramin), non-Brahmin, folk and many more forms etc. This is taking place among all the languages.

I suggest we should have a single, all-language Dalit literary meet which should be conducted in English. All Dalit literature in regional languages must be translated to English till such time we continue to use regional languages. If we do that all regional languages would shortly be converted to mere dialects. Let the manuvadis continue with their languages but we Dalits need one language alone Ñ that is English. Let the prominent Dalit literary dignitaries think about this. Let us remember that if our writers join manuvadi meets, they do get money, profit, posts and prestige but have to tow the line of the Hindu nazis.