| Vol 24 | June 1st - 15th, 2005 | No. 11 |
| Articles | |
I have the honour to introduce V.T. Rajshekar, Editor of Dalit Voice, who is being given an international award for his ground-breaking book, Caste — A Nation within the Nation. He is the most distinguished intellectual in India since Dr. Ambedkar. Some are distinguished by the office they hold, many by the money they make but real reverence is given to those who campaign for he causes of the marginalized and the oppressed. V.T. Rajshekar has enjoys worldwide respect, indeed reverence, for standing up for the weak and the oppressed everywhere in the world. A watershed in his life was his conversion to Budhism alongside Babasaheb Dr. Ambedkar. Voice of oppressed for 25 years: He has ever since worked tirelessly for the Dalit community and has been their voice for a quarter century as Editor of Dalit Voice. He is now the voice of all Bahujan, the native peoples of India who constitute a majority —65% of the population of India. Dalits are the bottom 20% of the Bahujan. Other Untouchable peoples in India include 35 % Backward Castes and 10% Scheduled Tribes. They have all been the victims of the most continuous and blatant racism and apartheid in the entire human history ever since the Aryan conquered and colonised their lands nearly 3,500 years ago. V.T. Rajshekar has distinguished himself by his efforts to unite all the native peoples of India including Muslims, Sikhs and Christians who converted to egalitarian faiths to escape the hold of the Brahminic caste system. Sometimes fears are expressed that the term Bahujan is also like the term Harijan that was coined by the Hindu leader, M.K. Gandhi, to deny the native people their identity and statistically integrate them in order to strengthen the Brahminic hold over power. The word Bahujan does indeed de-emphasise the faith of the people and emphasise their ethnic identity. We should acknowledge and understand that the term Bahujan Samaj could be hijacked by Hindu Samaj and used for their ends and purpose. Hinduism based on inequality: However, the leaders of the Bahujan Samaj movement have successful precedence in theory and practice to draw on to prevent that. Hindu Samaj is founded on the caste system devised by Manu and it is based on inequality of castes and inequality of gods, it is underpinned by polytheism. Bahujan Samaj is founded on equality of castes and faiths but its foundation would remain shaky as long as the underpinning of monotheism remains absent. The theology of Islam and Christianity promotes egalitarianism because their god is the god of all mankind and not of the Muslims or the Christians alone. This is quite different to the god who has the Jews as His chosen people or the gods of Hinduism where he Brahmins are superior by birthright. The religion of Islam does have terminology to define Bahujan Samaj. In Muslim statecraft, Darussalam in a country where the Muslims enjoy political as well as cultural sovereignty. Darulaman is country where they do not have political sovereignty but have cultural freedom. Darrulharb is country where they have neither. Bahujan Samaj is like Darulaman where all faiths are equal and free. Bahujan Samaj also has a very good example in the United Kingdom where under the flag of multi-culturalism, people of all faiths practise their separate faith in freedom and live in harmony. With so much successful precedence to rely on it must be possible to prevent the Bahujan Samaj movement to be hijacked. However, in the case of India, success of Bahujan Samaj would need to be underpinned by history based on truth. Dalits safe under Christian-Muslim rule: At the moment, Christianity and Islam are vilified as foreign faiths in India. The truth is that the Untouchables of India enjoyed more protection under Muslim and British (Christian) rule. My friend and brother V.T. Rajshekar has already recognised that and has started to challenge the falsehood. He has said in the Authentic Voices of South Asia that Aryan who practise a non-proselytising faith are the only people who were and still are the only people who are truly, utterly and entirely foreign. The majority of the Muslims and Christians in India are native people who converted. He says very succinctly, it is not the Muslims or the Christians
who made us Untouchables, it is not the Chinese or Germans who hold
us in contempt, it is the Hindus who do. Truth does indeed set one
free. The book has transformed the Indian political scene by urging Dalits to renounce their Hindu identity but feel proud of their ethnic identity (jati) and vote for their jatwalas in elections. The book empowered the long oppressed Bahujan and helped them gain prominence in politics and share in power. But there are limitations to gains that could be made. Already the Bahujan are not a solid voting bloc in several states of India but are split into political allies of the Congress or the BJP. V.T. Rajshekar has set a glorious tradition of breaking the barriers of insularity and has taken a stand in favour of every oppressed people everywhere in the world. Whether it is the Palestinians or Chechens, Black peoples in Africa or America, Kashmiris, Tribal peoples of Assam or the Sikhs. Dalit Voice has always taken a stand on the side of the victim of oppression. The Bahujan are well served by their exposure to and involvement with the wider world. While we honour our friend and brother V.T. Rajshekar by an award today, a resounding endorsement of the Bahujan Samaj movement should go out from here. I hope that Reverend David Haslam would join me in that. Bahujan Samaj is based on equality of faiths and of jatis, the Hindu Samaj is based on inequality. Whatever shape the Bahujan politics take, they must endeavour to remain separate from the Hindu Samaj. I now request Reverend David Haslam to present the award to V.T. Rajshekar along with a cheque for 2000 pounds and follow it with a speech. (Text of the speech delivered after presenting the award) Brother David Haslam, Brig. Usman Khalid, Dr. Choudhary, ladies and gentlemen, I am standing before this august international gathering in the historic capital of the whole world, that is London, to disclose before you a top secret. What is this secret? The secret is I have succeeded in discovering a wonder drug for India's over 3,500 year old deadly cancer. This is a home-made, cheapest and easily available indigenous medicine. Time-tested and found extremely effective. This medicine has proved to be devastatingly effective to kill the deadliest cancer of the Hindu caste system. This 3,500-year-old caste system has sapped the energies of the over 1,000 millions of Indians and made them the laughing stock of the world. NEWTON'S DISCOVERY I have described this medicine as "caste to kill casteism" (or the caste system), which is the other word for Hinduism. This "International Award" is presented to me today for this discovery. However, one clarification. I did not discover the caste – just as Newton did not discover the power of gravity. The apple was falling even before Newton discovered the gravitational pull of the earth. Similarly, caste has been already there as the much-maligned ethnic identity. I only discovered its power. That is all. I am naturally moved deeply by the shower of love and respect shown by the people of London for this "discovery" for which I am under fire inside India. I never expected that a journalist and writer from a far off southern
backwater of India (Bangalore) will be recognised and honoured by
the people of London which is the capital of the whole world and
where its every pillar, every stone, every building, every street,
every piece of land is steeped in history. A Dalit colleague who studied in Oxford University said after reading this book, that if only I had submitted the thesis to Oxford University I would have got the Ph.D degree. But I am sorry, rather pained to tell you, that India's ruling class refused to recognise the book and a section of the upper caste rulers resorted to malign me saying that I am advocating strengthening of caste while Dr. Ambedkar, our guru, had advocated annihilation of caste. This is a false propaganda against me while what is repeatedly stressed in this book is that the caste system has to die if India has to live. And that the caste system can be destroyed only if the different ethnic identities are consolidated and strengthened. NATIONAL PARTIES DYING As a result, caste, regional and ethnic parties are gaining and defeating "national" parties. Ever since India became "independent" in 1947, this country of over 1,000 million people is being ruled by a mere 15% upper castes or Aryans. Every Prime Minister of India has been a Brahmin, Kshatriya or shudra. The Dalits (20%), BCs (35%), Tribals (10%) or Muslims 15%, Christians 2.5% or Sikhs never had a chance to be the Prime Minister. Over 85% of Indians remained as slaves and a mere 15% Aryans governed. However, for the first time in the history of India, we do not have a single Brahmin chief minister barring Tamil Nadu where Jayalalita, though a Brahmin, is a mere figurehead. What is the secret of this shift of power? The secret is the rise
of caste. Caste is killing the casteists. Both the BJP-led govt. headed by Vajpayee earlier and the Congress-led govt. headed by Manmohan Singh today were coalitions of castes and regional political parties. No single party can rule India or even a state. This is the power of caste. The future of India will be decided by caste (ethnic identity). A leader in India is made by his or her caste. So, powerful castes have started throwing up powerful caste leaders and I will name some of them. And you will then realise the importance of caste, emerging as a big political force in India. (1) Sharad Pawar is a Maratha leader, (2) Mulayam and Lalu Prasad as Yadava leaders, (3) Mayawati as Chamar leader, (4) Deve Gowda as Vokkaliga. These are some of the national leaders but hundreds of other leaders are emerging representing their jatis. RULERS WORRIED This is a fantastic development of great historical significance because it has brought sleepless nights to India's upper caste rulers who have no strength of caste. All the four upper caste Aryan varnas — namely Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra —have no population strength. That means all the four will sink and disappear. Bahujans are coming up. As the time is limited, I cannot go into details but we can tackle
them if questions are allowed later. The micro-minority of upper castes are crumbling under the blow
of caste. This will take a violent turn. Thanks to parliamentary democracy as recommended by Dr. Ambedkar in the Constitution of India, every caste is becoming conscious of its strength and mobilising itself. Even here in England caste associations are strong. That means within five years all our "national" parties will be dead without any effort. The future belongs to caste-based and regional parties. Democracy is taking deeper roots and the casteist older leaders and their parties are dying. This is the quintessence of my thesis. The ruling upper castes are naturally worried over the emergence of Dalits, Backward Castes, Tribals, Dalit Christians, Dalit Muslims and even the poor among the shudras. My "caste identity" thesis is not only killing the "national" parties but also the Hindu nazi parties like the RSS, BJP etc. HOW TO KILL CASTE SYSTEM I have found an effective native medicine to cure the centuries-old deadly cancer of caste system. Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, the three minority communities, belonging to liberating religions, have welcomed my thesis. Even the fair-minded people among the upper castes liked my thesis. The opposition is mainly from the Hindu nazi hate-mongers who are just a handful in India. We need your support. I have not brought my book to sell it here. Those interested may book the copy through email. The book has already gone into two reprints and many language editions are planned. You can take it from me that the Dalits and other persecuted nationalities of India can capture power within 10 years if we go at the present speed in taking to caste-based parties. From caste-based parties, the next step is caste-based economic development. But that is a separate subject. If you invite me again I will come and expand on the second part of my thesis. You can now make out how much I am hated by the ruling class of India. They have punished me as much as they can. PASSPORT IMPOUNDED Thank you for your love and respect and specially Brig. Khalid. [Speech delivered replying to the felicitation on conferring the "International
Award" for the book, Caste — A Nation Within Nation, by
LISA. The Award was presented by David Haslam in London on April
30, 2005]. The print media appears to be playing into the hands of anti-Lalu
forces, mainly Sangh Parivar. Unfortunately the Lalu bashing as usual
ends in Bihari's vilification. Otherside, why does the writers on
Bihar forget to mention remarkable developments of Bihar in the fields
like agriculture and dairy despite floods in some parts of Bihar?
Should a Bihari like me not be proud of absence of starvation deaths
or for not even a single farmer during Lalu's rule committed suicide
in Bihar. Is making Bihar a riot-free state during Laloo's rule not
appreciable? Compare this with so-called developed states like Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka. What is the rate of dowry deaths and bride
burning in Bihar vis-a-vis to Punjab or Delhi — again two very
developed states. (ruby.naushad@rediffmail.com). The micro-minority upper castes are deeply worried that their rulership is slipping out of their hands. Even the Supreme Court judges and the Election Commission, country's biggest constitutional authorities, are not above casteism. But Lalu is using "caste to kill casteism" (Hinduism) by following our time-tested DV formula. Of the three members in the Election Commission, two are Brahmins and the other an upper caste Kayasth. Today they stand exposed. The same upper castes jointly conspired to defeat Lalu in the last Assembly election but to this day they failed to form a govt. Bihar continues to be under the President's rule. The upper caste agent Ram Vilas Paswan stands exposed. It is high time we have caste-wise reservation in Supreme Court,
Election Commission and all other offices which draw their salaries
from the Consolidated Fund of India — EDITOR. No leader has met with so much of hostility in history as Adolf Hitler. Hundreds of myths and mayhem stories of his "atrocities" are manufactured and we are made to buy it paying heavy charges. Such a horrible picture of Hitler is given that nobody wants to know more about him. In spite of being a voracious reader, I had refused to touch his auto-biography, Mein Kampf. But after reading a recent press report that this book has received wide appreciation in Turkey and Turkish Jews protested against this, I concluded that there is something fishy. Great book of philosophy: Why the Jews should bother about a dead man? I immediately borrowed the book from our Editor and found it to be a great work of philosophy. The means and methods that he programmed to follow made him the most powerful man of the 20th century. His means and methods have been followed by many others fighting for freedom, consolidation and defence of their nations. Their fight is actually against the international Jewry which programmed to dominate and control the earth planet. Not directly but through stooges. And their wonderful strategies converted America itself as its biggest stooge. The book, Zionist Arthashastra (Protocols, for copies write to DV office, Rs.50) lays down the whole conspiracy. How it was being executed up to 1924 was exposed by Hitler in the Mein Kampf. If one reads both these books, one can clearly see the implementation of the whole zionist conspiracy as on this day. Their future plans can be very well understood. Some of these facts and the reactions of Hitler will be published in my article to appear in the next issue of DV. The article fully defends Hitler's actions which were in fact reactions to zionist actions. Hitler's actions were reactions to the Jewish exploitation in which almost all German leaders including church institutions had fallen. Hitler requires to be understood afresh and revalued from the surrounding political, economic situations of his times and the history of the causes for the same. A small effort has been made in a research article by me. If encouraged,
I may come out with a book on the positive side of Hitler. A great news for our Dalit Voice family members about the Himalayan heights reached by the Father of India, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. During our 17-day stay in London (from April 20 to May 5), we visited the world famous British Museum (built in 1753) and were overjoyed to see his portrait and 13 volumes of his Writings & Speeches at the very entrance to the Library. British Museum is an important landmark of London. Karl Marx wrote all his volumes sitting in its library. Babasaheb during his study in London used to be the first to get into the library and the last to get out. Many a time he was reminded twice or thrice by the librarian. Such was his appetite for books. We went through the printed list of "Notable Holders of Readers Tickets" displayed at the entrance but found not a single Indian name except that of M.A. Jinnah. Babasaheb's name was not there because the books in the British Museum were shifted to the nearby British Library before Babasaheb arrived in London. Karl Marx was a member of the library for 30 years. The British Museum has hardly any books now. British Museum is the world's most famous Museum. The Library section of the Museum was opened in 1857. Babasaheb's portrait and books are kept on the right hand side as we enter the circular library. They are kept along with the works of such luminaries like Karl Marx, Lenin, Bernard Shaw and other greatest intellectual giants of the world. We asked for M.K. Gandhi's books and the librarian said they had none. Gandhi wrote no book except his own autobiography. Dr. Ambedkar, his intellectual and political achievements are well known to all the intellectuals we met at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, London School of Economics and other places. India has not produced an intellectual giant of his stature after "independence".
|