Dalit Movement in India

Introduction

• The Dalit movement began as a protest movement to bring socio-political transformation to the status of Dalits in India.

• Dalits have been ruthlessly exploited and subjugated by upper castes for centuries, isolated, fragmented, and oppressed by the hegemony of Brahmin culture.

• The post-modern administrative framework, rational judicial system, new patterns of trade, liberal education, and the spirit of liberty, equality, and social justice emphasized by the new polity benefitted Dalits.

• The Dalit movement asserts rights and privileges for the Dalits.

• Ruman Sutradhar (2014) defines the Dalit movement as a social revolution aimed at social change, based on the democratic ideals of liberty, equality, and social justice.

• The socio-cultural exclusion, economic deprivation, and political exploitation of Dalits for centuries made them break out of age-old prejudices.

• The Dalits began to protest using literature and forming organizations like the Dalit Panthers, leading to the recognition of the Dalit Movement.

• Post-modern researchers and social scientists developed interest in studying the Dalit movement as it is an important social movement in India.

• Dalit leaders, through their organizations and political parties, mobilized and motivated the Dalit mass to achieve the objective of creating an inclusive society.

• Through the stronger mobilization of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Dalits could participate in the democratic electoral process and create a separate identity for themselves.

• Dalit leaders have worked to maintain or increase reservations in political offices, government jobs, and welfare programs, which are part of the new political movements of Dalits.

• The Dalit movement transformed the caste structure of Indian society and emphasized the fight for self-dignity.

• The current reservation system is the outcome of the Dalit movement.

Who is a Dalit?

• Dalits have different names in various parts of India, such as Holaya, Panchama, Chandala, Samagara, Chammar, Adikarnataka, and Adidravida.

• The word “Dalit” is derived from the Sanskrit word Dal, meaning “ground,” “suppressed,” “crushed,” or “broken to pieces.”

• The term was first used by Jyotiba Phule, the founder of the Satya Shodak Samaj, a non-Brahmin movement in Maharashtra, to refer to the outcastes and untouchables in the 19th century.

• Victor Premasagar writes that the term reflects the Dalits’ “weakness,” “poverty,” and “humiliation” by upper castes.

• The term Dalit has evolved into a political identity, similar to how African Americans moved from the term “Negro” to “Black” or “African-American.”

• Dalits now use the term Dalit as an identity born out of struggle and assertion, rejecting its earlier connotations of being broken.

• The term “Dalit” was replaced by the British with the term “depressed class” in 1919, and Gandhiji later called them Harijan.

• The British administration defined them as Scheduled Castes in 1935, and the term Dalit was popularized by the Dalit Panther Movement in Maharashtra in the 1970s.

• In Varna Vyavastha, untouchables are placed as Panchama Varna, occupying the lowest position in Indian society.

• Dalits are considered impure and polluted and have historically faced discrimination and violence, preventing them from enjoying basic human rights and dignity.

• They were denied access to roads, temples, schools, and other resources to avoid the “pollution” of higher castes.

• Dalits were forced to accept polluting occupations such as disposing of dead bodies, working with leather, and cleaning toilets and sewage.

• Dalits constitute 16.6% of India’s population and are concentrated in states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, and Maharashtra.

• Dalits are primarily poor peasants, share-croppers, and agricultural laborers in rural areas, and form the bulk of the laboring population in urban economies.

• According to Sutrdhar (2014), Dalits began their movement against exploitation by Brahmins, but have not succeeded due to deep-rooted Brahmanism in India’s social structure.

• The Arya-Brahmins, originators of the Vedas, institutionalized discrimination through the caste system.

• The majority of people accept the caste system due to the dominant ideology imposed by hegemony through institutions like schools and temples.

• Brahmanism has systematically deprived Dalits of their land and resources, and the Dalit Movement emerged as resistance to this Brahmanical ideology.

• Gail Omvedt (1976) observes that the autonomous Dalit movement had to contend with three forces:

  1. The Brahminical Hinduism hegemony.

  2. The nationalist movement led by the Congress, which sought to co-opt the agendas of subaltern movements while limiting their democratic and egalitarian potential.

  3. A difficult relationship with the communist movement.

Dalit Mobilisation/Dalit Consciousness

• Mobilization refers to the process of preparing actors for collective action, where people act together in pursuit of shared interests, such as demonstrating for a cause.

• Neil Smelser (1962) in his Theory of Collective Behaviour and Charles Tilly in From Mobilization to Revolution (1978) highlighted mobilization as a key component of collective action, where action begins with mobilization.

• Ghurye in ‘Caste and Race in India’ (1969) explains the discrimination faced by untouchables in traditional Indian society, such as banning women from covering their upper body, wearing gold ornaments, and engaging in occupations beyond their caste.

• Untouchables were expected to carry a thorny branch to remove their footsteps and hang an earthen pot around their neck to spit in, avoiding polluting higher castes.

• S.C. Dube (1958) argued that the emergence of class consciousness in Dalits requires an ideology of Dalit empowerment, emphasizing that Dalit consciousness has evolved from a challenge to orthodox Brahmanism to a search for modernization and rights in contemporary India.

• Dalit mobilization should be understood through different time perspectives, focusing on ideologies supporting Dalit movements at various stages, from the 1920s-1950s, which focused on forcible entry into temples, burning Manusmriti, and the production of caste literature.

• In contemporary India, Dalit identity is increasingly about searching for rights, justice, and equality rather than just opposing Hinduism.

• Andre Betielle (1969, 1991) writes that Dalit mobilization today is driven more by political interests than the historical cultural discrimination, with the decline of untouchability due to the rise of caste-free occupations.

• The Constitution of India guarantees protection against untouchability in public institutions, and transportation and communication have facilitated the spread of ideologies, reducing discrimination and exploitation of Dalits.

• Gail Omvedt (1999) advocates for a multidimensional perspective on Dalit mobilization, noting its stages: initiation, consolidation, crystallization, maturity, and disintegration.

• Factors like economic discrimination, lack of social dignity, and cultural isolation contributed to the initiation of Dalit mobilization before India’s Independence.

• The Republican Justice Party and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s leadership, emphasizing that Dalits need an Ambedkar rather than Gandhi for liberation, led to the consolidation of Dalit movements in India.

• M.S.A. Rao in ‘Social Movements in India’ (1979) compares the Dalit movement to the Black movement in America, suggesting that Dalit ideology was influenced by Western ideas.

• Yogendra Singh argues that Dalit mobilization in India exemplifies how modernization has undermined the caste system, aligning Dalit consciousness with class consciousness, promoting equality over hierarchy.

• Sociologists disagree on the exact nature of Dalit mobilization, but all agree that it is an empirical fact. The movement emphasizes Dalits’ search for self-identity, dignity, and rights, but also results in the glorification of caste or class identity, conflicting with the goals of a casteless and classless society as envisioned by the Indian Constitution.

• The Dalit movement has been focused on untouchability in both the pre and post-Independence periods, supporting reservations in political offices, government jobs, and welfare programmes.

• Ghanshyam Shah (2004) classifies Dalit movements into reformative and alternative movements.

  • Reformative movements aim to reform the caste system to address untouchability, including Bhakti movements, neo-Vedantik movements, and Sanskritization.

  • Alternative movements attempt to create a new socio-cultural structure through conversion to other religions or acquiring education, economic status, and political power.

• Both reformative and alternative movements use political means to achieve their goals.

• Shah categorizes Dalit movements into movements within cultural consensus, competing ideologies, non-Hindu identity, Buddhist Dalits, counter ideologies, and Dalit identity.

• Reformative movements include:

  1. Bhakti Movement

  2. Neo-Vedantik Movements

  3. Sanskritization movements

• Alternative movements include:

  1. Conversion movements

  2. Religious or secular movements, including those focused on economic issues.

• Shah divides Dalit movements based on ideologies:

  1. Movements within cultural consensus

  2. Competing ideologies and non-Hindu identity

  3. Buddhist Dalits

  4. Counter ideologies and Dalit identity.