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ARE NOT THE UNTOUCHABLES
A SEPARATE ELEMENT?

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SAHIB KANSHI RAM`S
INTERVIEW
GBBMRM.jpg
BABU MANGU RAM
MUGOWALIA
AND EMANCIPATION
OF THE DALITS
Ronki Ram (Dr.),
ICCR Chair Professor of Contemporary India Studies,
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies & IIAS,
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Prof. of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
For more articles of Dr. Ronki Ram, please click here:
WORKSHOP REPORT
Harnessing Counter-Culture to Construct Identity:
Mapping Dalit Cultural Heritage in Contemporary India
7-8 December, 2012, Convened by: Ronki Ram
Ronki Ram (Dr.)
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Professor of Political Science
ICCR Chair Professor of Contemporary India Studies
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS)
& International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)
Leiden, The Netherlands


1 The topic and the goal

The workshop entitled Harnessing Counter-Culture to Construct Identity: Mapping Dalit Cultural heritage in Contemporary India was organized by International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) and Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Leiden, The Netherlands at Lipsius, Cleveringaplaats 1, Leiden on December 7-8, 2012. The workshop focused on the emergence of Dalit cultural heritage as a counter-culture to the mainstream culture of upper/dominant castes social set-up and world view. If any social institution or phenomenon that can be singled out to boldly mark the centrality of the Indian society, caste qualifies to be the foremost one. Anti caste movement has a long history in India. It was further radicalized by the emergence of Dalit movement with the entry of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar into the highly contested political domain of the colonial and post colonial India. Dalit movement adopted various strategies in its tirade against social exclusion and made concerted efforts for the emancipation and empowerment of the socially excluded sections of the society. To begin with, the Dalit movement spearheaded by Dr. Ambedkar attempted to find a way out of caste discrimination and social exclusion while focusing on social reforms within Hinduism. It tried its level best to pierce through the iron-curtain world view of caste hierarchy by cultivating a sense of social interaction across caste divide through proposals of inter-caste marriages and food sharing, on the one hand, and launching Satyagrahas (non-violent mass struggles) for the entry of Dalits into Hindu temples, on the other. Finding hard to achieve its goal, the Dalit movement took a sharp turn in the 1930s to mobilize its vast constituency towards the critical direction of building a counter-culture for the sole purpose of empowering downtrodden by offering them a distinct social identity different from their tormentors based either on their forgotten cultural past or seeking a refuge in an egalitarian religion. With the adoption of the constitution (prepared under the Chairmanship of Dr. Ambedkar) in independent India, the Dalit movement also found a solid support from the state of India in its efforts to bridle caste and build an egalitarian social order through state affirmative action.

For a quite some time, Dalit social mobility based on cultural assimilation (Sanskritisation) came to command a large following among the extremely marginalized sections of the society. But with the advent of Dr. Ambedkar, a strong alternative and powerful Dalit movement emerged on the basis of conversion to Buddhism. However, another equally powerful Dalit movement that found an immediate appeal among the ex-Untouchables became popular by the name of Dalit cultural heritage. Initially, the Dalit cultural heritage movement found its tender sapling growing on the meticulously fertile field cultivated by the strenuous efforts of Jotirao Phule and the protagonists of the Adi-movements (indigenous) in different parts of India. Since then the domain of cultural heritage has fast been emerging as a politically contested site where the hitherto marginalized and socially excluded Dalit communities started learning how to deploy it as a viable agency in their identity formation processes and struggles.

The workshop spread over seven engaging sessions, during its two-day programme, focused primarily on various dimensions of the emerging Dalit cultural heritage in contemporary India and the ways it impacts the identity formation processes among the historically socially excluded sections of the society. Currently, Dalits in contemporary India are closely engaged in a herculean task of building their exclusive centers of cultural heritage at the local and national levels. Through this highly critical and challenging process of constructing Dalit cultural heritage, Dalits are, in fact, exhibiting their dormant and long cherished will to build a separate Dalit identity which could help them not only to overcome caste discriminations and social exclusion but also gain dignity and visibility in the hitherto dominated public sphere in the mainstream Indian society.

India has a credible reputation in preserving varied cultural heritage centers. Ironically, Dalits hardly figure anywhere in these most sought after popular centers of cultural heritage in India. They often attribute their conspicuous absence in the mainstream cultural heritage centers to their historic exclusion from the civil society as well as to the dominant discriminatory social structures that relegated them to the periphery in the name of their so-called low caste birth - based as it was on Varnashramdharma (four-fold Hindu social order). They also allege that their indigenous cultural heritage was deliberately destroyed as well as made oblivious with the clear purpose of denying them any space whatsoever in the corridors of power. From their pre-Aryan sovereign status, they were allegedly reduced into Dasas (slaves) and subsequently divested of all that was worth of keeping identity alive and throbbing with a sense of pride. It is often alleged by the authors of the currently circulated Dalit Gaurav Gathas (Dalit prestige stories) that Dalit were not only divested off their rich pre-Aryan cultural heritage but also forcefully put into the task of building the dominating Aryan cultural heritage where they (Dalits) would have no place to stand once the projects were completed. It is in this context that many of the Dalits who have been struggling for self respect and equal rights at different fronts often talk about the emptiness of their identity in the mainstream cultural heritage. They are of the firm views that the only pragmatic way for the historically deprived and oppressed Dalits communities to overcome their slavery and drudgery was to retrieve their lost cultural heritage by bringing forth their misplaced glory through rebuilding on their pre-Aryan sovereign existence and dignified identity.

The nascent ongoing diverse Dalit cultural heritage project seems to coalesce tradition and modernity. In the concerted efforts of retrieving Dalit cultural heritage, the tradition ceases to be a value of the past and the modernity loses its aura in the fast acclimatizing present cast in the images of yesterdays. It is in this critical context that tradition and modernity have been acquiring new meanings and nuances to the advantage of the socially excluded sections of the society. Consequently, this has also been leading to a sort of perennial social conflicts between the hitherto dominant communities and the ex-Untouchables who find the resurfacing Dalit cultural heritage quite hard to digest. Whereas, Dalits in the resurfacing of cultural heritage find a hope of reclaiming their long-overdue share in the local and national structures of power. Quite interestingly, the Indian developmental state takes keen interest in emergence of Dalit cultural heritage and its role in the enhancement of the Dalit identity and the effective participation of the ex-Untouchables in the participatory democracy of the country. Proposals are being prepared to make policy matters to declare Dalit parks and places of Dalit icons as centers of Dalit cultural heritage. The fast resurfacing of Dalit cultural heritage, in fact, has quickly drawn the attention of electoral politics in India so much so that in some sharply divided state and parliamentary constituencies it has become a popular electoral contest arena. It has taken on different facets. The most prominent among them are Dalit parks and statutes of Dalit icons (especially Gautama Buddha, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Babu Kanshi Ram), Dalit imagery in the forms of colourful calendar cultural, constructing prestige stories, dedicating Dalit shrines to ex-Untouchable Bhakti Saints (especially Guru Ravidass), raising memorable buildings in the memory of Dalit forefathers (Jatheras), compiling matching spiritual literature and even fighting virtual wars at YouTube!

2 Presenters and chairs

The workshop was designed to bring together field scholars from a variety of disciplines and spatial/cultural backgrounds to have a critical and open dialogue on the emerging trajectories and contours of nascent Dalit cultural heritage in contemporary India. The workshop had total eleven full papers chaired by equal number of known experts from the diverse social sciences background.

• Sukhadeo Thorat: Chairman-Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, India (presenter and chair)
• Paramjeet S. Judge, Department of Sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India (presenter and chair)
• Badri Narayan: G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, India (presenter and chair)
• Rajiv Lochan: Department of History, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India (presenter and chair)
• Eva-Maria Hardtmann: Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University, Sweden (presenter and chair)
• Ashutosh Kumar: Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India (presenter and chair)
• Meena Dhanda: Department of Philosophy and Cultural Politics, University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom (presenter and chair)
• Ramnarayan Rawat :Department of History, University of Delaware, United States (presenter and chair)
• Kristoffel Lieten, Prof. Em. University of Amsterdam & Director IREWOC (International Research on Working Children)
• Nira Wickramasinghe, Leiden University Institute of Area Studies, The Netherlands (Chair)
• Erik de Maaker, Leiden University Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, The Netherlands (Chair)
• Pramod Kumar, Institute of Development & Communication, Chandigarh, India (Paper read by Ronki Ram)
• Surinder Singh: Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India (presenter)
• Ronki Ram: IIAS & LIAS, Leiden University (presenter and chair)


3 Presentations

Dr. Ram Narayan Rawat in his paper Forms of Dalit Historical Narratives in the Twentieth Century North India: The Chanvar Puranic and Adi-Hindu Histories built a counter thesis to the mainstream historical narratives while critically tracing the origins of the ‘Chamars’, one of the various Dalit castes, in the lost cultural narratives of Dalit histories. He primarily talked about Chanavar Puranic and Adi-Hindu Histories. Based on ethnographic-archival study, his paper raised a major concern that the scholars of fast emerging Critical Dalit Studies discipline should be cautious to embrace a singular, meta-narrative about the explication of Dalit cultural heritage episteme. He underlined the urgency of locating ‘diversity of visions’ for a graphic understanding of scattered universe(s) of Dalits. He further pointed out that the purpose of developing a Critical Dalit Studies perspective requires a close engagement with ‘dominant methodological paradigms to formulate distinctive Dalit agendas’, which would eventually help in building a counter-culture to the entrenched structures of domination, inequity, oppression and exclusion.

He drew his insights about the alternative Dalit narratives based on Chanvar Purana (Kanpur 1910), Syryavansh Kshatriya Jaiswar Sabha (the royal lineage of Kshatriya Jaiswar (Chamar) sabha) (Lahore 1923), Pandit Sunderlal Sagar’s, Yadav Jivan (Agra 1927), and Ramnarain Yadvendu’s Yaduvansh Ka Itihas (Agra). The sources of Dalit counter-cultural histories, said the author, lies in popular Puranic (a major form of Indic historical narratives) and colonial and nationalist sources. The author emphasized on the fact that non-Dalit scholars showed no interest in the sources of Dalit history. He laid emphasis on getting engaged with Puranic history with the purpose of unraveling Dalit cultural heritage. He also laid emphasis on the point that forefathers of Chamars made a historical mistake that threw them from higher status of caste hierarchy into the lowest ebb of social scale of the Hindu social order. What the author wanted to say in his eloquent presentation was that the Chamars of North India at one point of time in the long cultural history of the region were enjoying respectable social status in the society. However, at some point of time they slipped from their privileged rank due to some mistakes and thus turned into lower castes. He tried to show through his incisive research that the rich cultural heritage and respectable social past of these equally respectable people who were turned into socially excluded sections of the society in the past can be located from the often neglected Dalit Puranic sources (Chanvar Purana) and other available rich colonial sources. While relying on such sources, the Dalit actors are no longer, the author opined, relegated to the periphery. On the contrary, they are at the forefront of mainstream knowledge production.

Another equally seminal point that the author highlighted in his engaging presentation was that Dalit struggles need not to be circumscribed within “identarian politics’’, they rather represent a consistent upsurge against the frozen structures of hegemonic narratives of hierarchical and exclusionary social practices including the most obnoxious untouchability. The author further pointed out that these divergent Dalit historical narratives should not be considered merely an armchair exercise in the intellectual domain of the expanding Dalit counter-culture; in fact, they have been providing the necessary basic strength to the various Dalit movements sprouting with visions of social equality, Dalit emancipation and empowerment.

The presentation was followed by an engaging discussion. A large number of question were raised by many of the participants. One of the moot question which emerged during the discussion hour related with the most controversial issue of Dalit social mobility and the question of annihilation of caste in India. Many a participants asked the author if the sole purpose of Dalit (in this particular case of his presentation Chamar) social mobility is to seek parity with upper caste through rewriting Dalit histories and escape from the stigmatized social identity emanating from title of Chamar, historically a socially excluded lower, then how this very approach of social mobility would help fight the discriminatory structures of caste? Would not such an approach in a way supports the very logic of the caste system?

Prof. Badri Narayan’s presentation (Crossing Borders: Bhagait Folk Ballad Tradition of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and Nepal) argues that an alternative non-Brahminical art and cultural tradition of some of the extremely marginalized Dalit communities (Mushahars, Dusadhs, Pasis, Kumhars, etc.) have been developing fast over a long stretch of Indo-Nepal border in both India and Nepal. In his field based critical study, the author built an interesting thesis which highlights the emerging trajectories of Dalit cultural heritage defying the artificial state boundaries separating people of similar cultural ethos and background who have been rising to their lost glory by inventing/constructing/ retrieving/ relocating their rich cultural symbols, stories, idioms to contest the hegemonic discourses that were deployed strategically by dominant upper castes to exclude and penned them down for centuries. The authors narrated various cases of Bhagait tradition which has become very popular among the downtrodden of the region. This local-low castes- people based cultural tradition distinguished itself from the dominant-upper caste-hegemonic cultural tradition in the sense that in this tradition ‘the songs are not sung in praise of gods like Rama an Krishna that are popular among the upper castes but are sung in praise of their folk heroes or Bir (brave) and Gosai, who are related mostly with low and subaltern castes’. The low and subaltern Birs and Gosais are the social construct around which new Dalit narratives are woven to challenge the social hegemony of Brahminical social order (BSO). The main contribution of Bhagait tradition lies in constructing a rich haul of Dalit cultural heritage in terms of alternative Dalit tradition of local Dalit deities. Bhagaits are itinerant bards across the Indo-Nepal border.

The Bhagait tradition comprises of Bhagat mandali (a team of gayan (singers), mulgayan (chief singer) and subaltern discourses created around local Dalit stories. The singers (usually 10 to 12 led by a chief singer popularly known as Bhagaits), play an important role at the local levels among the subaltern groups. The local Dalit communities’ members invite the Bhagait singers to perform on various special occasions where the latter often enact as priests who perform the role of a mediator between the Dalit people and their deities. On some of such occasions the Bhagaits also perform the role of a curative expert who relieved the people from various types of diseases and the so-called bad effects of evil spirits.

The author explained how over the year the popular Dalit Bhagait tradition has undergone some changes and has also eventually entered into the urban setting. One of the most striking differences which can be noticed in the conduct of this low caste tradition of redeeming the cultural ethos of the Dalit communities is that it has now developed into a sort of popular lower caste entertainment agency. However, the Bhagait tradition, the author emphasized, has been able to maintain its sacred sanctity alive while keeping its entertainment and sacral function quite distinct and separated. What makes this tradition an icon of popular Dalit cultural heritage, said the author, is its transmutation into a written form as a large number of literature in the form of novels, plays, modern theatre etc. are being created based on this tradition. The growing local vernacular Dalit literature based on the Bhagait tradition and its expanding popularity in the urban setting has not only politicized this indigenous Dalit tradition but also presented it as a reservoir of Dalit counter-culture.

This power-point based presentation generated a lot of discussion during the question-answer session. The central theme of the discussion revolved around the following questions: In what ways the Bhagait tradition based Dalit counter-narrative is essentially different from the already dominant hegemonic narrative of Brhaminical caste discourse based on Hindu Itihasa-Purana tradition? It seems that the Bhagait tradition in its attempt to reconstruct the Dalit counter culture in the medium of Dalit deities and heroes is replicating the similar cultural world for the Dalits which they wanted to challenge in the courtyard of their tormentors. How and in what ways the Bhagait tradition offer Dalit an alternative vision to seek equality and dignity within the Dalit counter public while borrowing massively from the style and contents of the so-called Brahminical sacred tradition?

Dr. Eva-Maria Hardtmann’s paper entitled Dalit Women in Poetry, Art and in the Global Justice Movement primarily contextualized within the universe of famous World Social Forum (WSF) held in Mumbai in January 16-21, 2004. What made this World Social Forum rather unique and historic was the way it brought into focus feminism within the agenda of Global Justice Movement (GJM). The participation of South Asian Dalit Women in this global event was worth of taking serious note so much so that neither before nor after such an enthusiasm came to be seen at similar global gatherings. The presence of a large number of South Asian Dalit Women at the WSF gets further importance based on the fact they were doubly oppressed and marginalized both my men in the Dalit movement and by the Indian feminist movement. In India the Dalit women, argued the author, began to organize at the national level way back in the mid 1980s, built feminist alliances transnationally in the 1990s, and came to shape the WSF in Mumbai in 2004.

Eva-Maria’s presentation, with a focused perspective on Dalit feminism within transnational activist networks during the last decade, was based on a point of departure of her ethnographical material collected during the WSF in Mumbai. She emphasized on the need to understand the background of Dalit feminism, and in what context it emerged. In her paper, the author made an attempt to understand Dalit feminism in India in the wider critical context of poetry and art in India and related it to the broader Dalit counter-public. During her presentation, she touched upon the role of Dalit activists joining global protest against economic crisis, cyber-exclusion, and Dalit women connections with Dalit social forums. The presentation drew some sharply pointed questions relating to the conspicuous absence of Dalit women poets and the form of arts South Asian Dalit women are involved into and their links with Dalit politics in general and the question of Dalit women empowerment in particular.

Prof. Rajiv Lochan’s paper (Finding a Voice, Instituting Memories – Rhetoric and Ideas in Creating and Sustaining ‘Bahujan-Mulniwasi’) dealt with one of the most critical themes of current Dalit identity politics i.e. creating a shared memory of repression and suppression through the agency of the non-political All-India Backward (SC/St/OBC) and Minority Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF). While caricaturing the discourse of Dalit identity politics, the author explicate its central episteme ‘bahujan’ (literally ‘the majority’) and the ways it transformed over two decades into an equally powerful episteme popularly known as ‘Mulniwasi’ (literally ‘the indigenous people’) in the 1990s. The term Mulniwasi, said the author, carries within its ambit a vast notion of historical imaginations about the oppressive operations led by the marauding Aryans rendering the indigenous people homeless and relegating them into periphery, the nature of their current plight, strategies adopted by their tormentors to divest them off their sovereignty and to keep them disadvantaged throughout since then, the inadequacy of the state affirmative action to uplift them and much more. The entire presentation revolved around the processes and dynamics of indigenous historical imagination as taken up and developed within the vast organizational network of Dalit and minority communities employees federation in India. The author presumed that by looking at the efforts of the BAMCEF based as it is on the idea of ‘bahujan-mulniwasi’ could help understand the nature of the new ideological moorings that are being sought for the emancipatory struggle of the socially disadvantaged.

In his presentation, the author has cogently articulated how the BAMCEF has shaped over the years ‘an inchoate group of people into a meaningful body that has emancipatory capacity’. The author further highlighted that such an inquiry was based on three core questions: emancipation from whom, from what and for what purpose. This study is based on author’s close interaction with BAMCEF for over twenty years both as participants and observers and the vast body of literature that this organization has produced over all these years.

This presentation raised some sharply pointed question like that the mainstream social construction paints the indigenous people as homogenous category/group whereas they themselves are a divided house as BAMCEF too consider them a motley of different social background. What measures, if any, BAMCEF takes to bring them under single roof in the real sense of the term? Is it not true that the Bahujan Samaj Party (a political offshoot of BAMCEF) in itself has emerged as a political party of Chamars only?

Dr. Meena Dhanda in her power-point presentation (Adh Dharm Samaj: the Social Vision of Darshan Rattan Ravan) articulated about the emerging leadership of Valmiki community in Punjab based on her ethnographic study of its locales, personal interviews with its activists and leadership, and readings of the literature produced within. She also has had access to some of the large public gatherings of the community in question during one of her field visits to Amritsar. During her presentation, the author primarily focused on the personality, leadership style, organizational framework, and literally and political ambience of the AADHAS (Aadi Dharam Samaj) led by Darshan Rattan Raavan. She presented AADHAS as a new social forum which distinctly represents one of the extremely marginalized Dalit communities in Punjab (Valmikis).

Darshan Rattan Raavan, the president of AADHAS was presented as a social reformer who wants to consolidate political power by creating an upstanding leadership amongst the youth, especially by improving the state of existence of his community by making efforts to gain for them genuine advantages of the state affirmative action, focusing on women’s education, superstition free alternate anti- Hindu religious culture, a drugs-free environment etc. She took serious note of addressing him by a known social scientist of the region as “a kind of Parcharak” who uses “the idiom of religion to gain dignity... religious identity then becomes a parallel identity to other identities”. The author termed such remarks about Darshan Rattan Raavan as a “projection of an academic mentality of opportunism where career aspirations determine the trajectory of one’s research and any thought of selfless dedication and genuine solidarity with the oppressed is dismissed out of hand?”

The author projected the social vision of Darshan Rattan Raavan as a potent agency that could eventually help the Valmiki community to attain social emancipation and empowerment. The social vision of Darshan Rattan Raavan, according to the author, includes consciously avoiding references to Hindu God and Goddesses, eschewing Sanskritised Hindi, promoting the cause of sewer-man’s human rights, gender justice and paying respects to the promoters of the just human cause like that of Ambedkar, Martin Luther King, Jagjivan Ram, Shabana Azmi and Arundhati Roy. The most striking aspect of his social vision that the author underlined boldly is the characterization of young Dalit men as the culture of 4Ms, i.e. motorcycle, mobile, muscle and mustunda (hooligan).

The presentation was followed by an interesting discussion focusing on Chamar vs Valmiki politics at the state level, and personality and identity based Dalit politics. Some of the questions were related with the most burning and current issue of caste and identity based Dalit politics in contemporary Punjab and the ways it gears the Valmiki community towards the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Mr. Surinder Singh’s presentation (Dalit Cultural Heritage in Punjab: A study of Jathera Shrines of the Ad Dharmi Community) based on ethnographic field study touched one of least discussed aspects of fast emerging Dalit identity formation processes in the current Punjab. The phenomenon of reverence of Jathera shrines among the Dalit of Punjab has been gaining wide currency as explained by the author in this presentation. Dalits in Punjab have been constructing and reconstructing multi-stories shrine in the memory of their reverend forefathers as an endeavor to create memorial cultural heritage reflecting on their sense of pride. The author is of the opinion that the process of remembering the jathera and construction of shrines also creates, mediates and invents relationship between the Dalits in Punjab and the widely scattered Dalit diasporas. Jathera shrines, said the author, are not only used as religious/cultural sites to worship Dalit ancestors but the construction of such sacred monument buildings is a witting search for the lost Dalit identity and cultural heritage roots. In the presentation, the author has coherently built linkages among local economy, Dalit cultural heritage and the rising Dalit consciousness in the region. Through the medium of his field based collected information, Mr. Singh underlined the fact that more the prosperous a Dalit community is the more fabulous would be its jathera shrine. The role of the diaspora Dalit community members in constructing the multi-story jathera shrine buildings is also highlighted in the presentation. The author further stated clearly how the construction of the jathera shrines are linked with the pride of Dalit gotra (clan lineage) and caste identities. The process of depicting caste identity through the construction of jathera shrines is exemplified, said the author, through putting the symbols, pictures of symbolic figures, slogan and spiritual poetry of the lower castes Sants (spiritual figures) at the places and walls of the jathera shrine buildings.

Another important aspect of the presentation is its emphasis on the links between political patronage and the promotion of Dalit cultural heritage in Punjab. The author cites various example reflecting on the thick involvement of the political personalities in the promotion of the jathera shrine culture among the Dalits of the region. He talked about the economic grants released by the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and Members of Parliament (MPs), Presidents of the Municipal Corporations (MCs) and the village Sarpanches for the construction of such shrines.

The presentation was followed by the question hour session. Most of the questions were related to the political economy of the emerging Dalit jatehra shrines and the impact of this distinct Dalit identity formation on the politics and the empowerment of the downtrodden.

Prof. Ronki Ram in his presentation (The other Modernity and forgotten Tradition: The Resurfacing of Dalit Cultural Heritage in Contemporary India) talked about the concerted efforts of the historically socially excluded sections of the Indian society, popularly known as Dalits, who have been engaged with a herculean task of reviving/inventing their lost cultural heritage at the grass-roots and national levels. It highlighted the dialectics and logistics of various techniques and strategies as adopted by them to rebuild/invent their lost/imagined cultural heritage and the ways it help them in acquiring distinct and separate social identity in a highly stratified social set up. The process of Dalit cultural heritage, said the author, have passed through different stages at different intervals in the country. As far as Punjab is concerned, it was the Ad Dahram movement that provided the initial spur to the nascent phenomenon of Dalit cultural heritage.


The most obvious agency of Dalit cultural heritage in contemporary East Punjab is the mushrooming growth of Ravidass Deras. The other equally important agencies of Dalit cultural heritage in the state are Dalit folk songs, poetry, music, Dalit autobiographies, statues of Dalit icons, monumental buildings dedicated to the memory of ancestors (jatheras), and large scale production and circulation of small size booklets sharply depicting Dalit past, heroes, and counter narratives. Ravidass Deras, articulated the author, are the only Dalit religious centers where religious and political figures (Guru Ravidass and Dr. Ambedkar) are blended together and projected publicly as the messiahs and redeemers of Dalits. Architecture of Ravidass Deras is distinguished from that of the mainstream religions in the state. Ravidass Deras have carved out their own distinct architecture which is a mixture of Hindu, Sikh and Islamic contents. In addition, these Deras have also developed their own dress code, sacred scriptures, religious symbols, sacred slogans, salutations, ceremonies, rituals, ardas (prayer), Kathas (scared stories), Kirtan (musical rendering of social hymns), and religious festivals and auspicious days/dates. The presentation, however, focused mainly on Ravidass Deras, particularly Dera Sant Sarwan Dass, Ballan (DSSB).

DSSB enriched Dalit cultural heritage in the region by establishing various Ravidass shrines, bhawans (memorial halls), hospitals, libraries, schools, news papers (weekly), and vocational training centers in the state. The sants of DSSB convened regular sant-sammelans (spiritual congregations), another noble way of disseminating the message of evolving Dalit cultural heritage among the followers of Ravidass Deras. To promote Dalit cultural heritage Sants of DSSB prepared a number of cassettes, compact discs (CDs) and video compact discs (VCDs) of the spiritual teachings of Guru Ravidass, the patron Sant of Ad Dharm movement and the rallying centre of Ravidass Deras including DSSB. However, of all the major contributions made by DSSB towards retrieving the lost Dalit cultural heritage, the construction of a mammoth ‘Shri Guru Ravidass Janam Asthan Mandir’(Temple of Shri Guru Ravidass’s Birthplace) at Seer Goverdhanpur, a locality in the suburb of Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) is the most significant. Dalits from India and abroad contributed enormously towards the constriction of the temple. Within a short span of time it has become a main pilgrimage center of the Dalits. Every year during the birth anniversary of Guru Ravidass, this temple attracts millions of devotees from India and abroad. Another major intervention by the Sants of DSSB in the emerging domain of Dalit cultural heritage in Punjab is the declaration of Ravidassia Dharm as a distinct religion of its followers.

The presentation received a number of question relating to the different dimensions of the separate Ravidassia Dalit identity and the relevance/irrelevance of such a religion based identity for the empowerment of the formerly socially excluded sections of the society. What could be the possible social and political consequences of such a distinct religion based Dalit identity for the over-all caste question in the already highly segmented Punjabi agrarian society?

Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat’s paper (Rise of Dalit Arts and Imagery: Instrument of Protest and Hope) touched the unexplored but rich domain of Dalit visual arts and imagery (painting, prints, sculpture, architecture, and other forms such as wall posters and photographs) and the ways it has been rather meticulously deployed as a non-violent method of social protest and viable instrument of hope for the ex-Untouchables in India. During his eloquent presentation perforated with slides of Dalit visual arts, Prof. Thorat highlighted the hidden meanings and connotations of such art so far neglected almost absolutely in the realm of mainstream social science. The author traced the history of Dalit arts and imagery to Ambedkar anti-caste civil right movement between early 1920s to mid 1950s in various forms. However, the author continued, it took more visible and recognizable expression since the early 1990s and finally caught the critical eye of the experts in the field only in 2000s.

Dalit visual arts, said the author, represented various dimensions of excluded Dalit life. He quoted a number of Dalit artists whose works have been documented in the seminal works of scholars working on caste and Dalit questions in India. In the expert opinion of the author, Gary Tartkov is the first writer who captured and conceptualized Dalit arts. Other writers who have done a considerable work in this emerging sub-field of critical Dalit studies, according to the author, are: David Santon and Saurabh Dube, Nicolas Jaoul, Owen Lynch. The seminal works brought out by these scholar writers provided a rich haul of literature on Dalit visual arts and imagery which is both, as the author quoted Tartkov, ‘a register of social reality and an instrument to change it’.

Dalit visual arts and imagery, said the author, served as a two-pronged instrument in the direction of Dalit emancipation and empowerment. The first signified a ‘switch over from Hindu religion and cultural symbols to those associated with Ambedkar and Buddhism and similar traditions. The other is an ideological change that this new arts and imagery carries with it, signifying the changes in principles that govern the ways in which Dalits now define identities and the ways in which they relate to others’. As far as the shift is concerned, it rejected symbols of social hierarchy and encouraged a shift to the alternate symbols that underline social equality and struggle for equal rights and dignity. The author further said that, “[i]n making this shift Dalit art provides us an insight into the social transformation that is underway, that involves not only rejection of the caste system and excluded life, but an embrace of efforts to create a new social order and social relations based on the principles of equality and social justice’. The author concluded his presentation while emphasizing that ‘Dalit art and visual imagery in contemporary India from a Dalit oriented perspective open up a new arena for considering our shared social development.’

The presentation was followed by an engaging discussion reflecting on varied dimensions of the possibility of the development of the Dalit visual arts and imagery into a sort of didactic counter-culture which would eventually usher into Dalit counter-public. Some of questions were also raised to identify the basic parameters for the recognition of the genre of the Dalit art and imagery. How Dalit art as an art differs from the mainstream art and imagery? Is it that the Dalit art and imagery always expressed itself in exclusionary terms only? What could be the other positive dimensions of Dalit art and imagery independent of the negative Dalit cultural heritage?

Prof. Ashutosh Kumar began his presentation (Dalit Deras as Critical Sites of Counter Culture: Explaining Why Political Parties Do Flock to the Deras) raising two sets of question relating to the lack of ‘presence’ and ‘empowerment’ of the Dalit community in the corridors of political power. It is in this context that he proposed to focus on the role of the Deras as a potential space for the emergence of Dalit counter-culture as a potent agency of Dalit assertion. This in turn, as the author emphasized, based on the fact that ‘the mushrooming of the deras and their ever increasing role in influencing the political choices of their followers, most of whom belong to the socially and economically marginal indigenous groups as well as the migrant low castes farm/industrial labourers, is being recognized by the political parties as evident in the leaders cutting across party divides flocking to the deras in elections after elections’. Another equally focused observation that the author made in the beginning of his presentation was that ‘the contestation and representation of the dalits and backward castes has remained confined to mere ‘presence’ in the party forums or in the legislative bodies. It is obvious that there has hardly been a sincere attempt on the part of any ‘effective/relevant’ party in the state to mobilize the dalits, constituting one third of the state’s population for democratic purposes’. Instead, averred the author, the contending political parties dominated by upper castes leadership prefer to chose the ‘softer’ option of flocking to all sorts of Deras during elections to influence their top management to give verdict in their favour for en- block voting.

For an in-depth understating of the transmutation of the Deras from primarily a blend of sacred social, cultural and political arenas into critical domains for the invention of Dalit cultural heritage, the author raised the following question: How to make a sense of the mushrooming growth of deras in the state and how and why are they different from the earlier deras in this context? To what extent, the growing clout of the deras especially the Sikh deras as alternative socio-religious spaces across the state can be attributed to the decline of the autonomy of the two highest religious bodies of the community namely Akal Takht and Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC)/ Why in terms of sociological origins, most of the deras followers are dalits and backwards castes even as many of these deras are not lower-caste based and are even headed by the Sants/Gurus/Babas belonging to the dominant community?

The author is of the view that the current hobnobbing between the political parties and the Deras has emerged ‘at a juncture when politics of the state has undergone a paradigmatic shift in the sense that ethnicity as determinant factor seems to be receding into the background with communal peace and development taking the centre stage in the electoral arena as one reads the election manifestos or follows the campaign’. While critically exploring the politicization of Dalits and the Dera factor in the much contested electoral arena of the state politics in Punjab, the author minced no words in refuting the growing political assertion ignited by the fast expanding constituency of Dalit Deras and their seminal role in the spread of Dalit cultural heritage within the region and beyond. Why despite the growing constituency and the influence of the Dera factor, questioned the author, Dalits in Punjab assembly and parliamentary elections failed to carve a niche for themselves in the state?

The presentation led to an interesting discussion. One of most common query that figured in all most all the questions was concerned with pros and cons of the linkages between the Dalit assertion and the political victory in the periodic assembly and parliamentary elections. In order to measure the temperature of the rising Dalit assertion in Punjab, many a questions raised, is it essential to compare it with that of the political mileage in terms of electoral gains? If the role of Dalit Deras in building Dalit assertion in the region is minuscule then why it is so that the political leadership across the parties make bee lines at their entrances on one or the other alibi?

Prof. Paramjit S. Judge’s presentation (Dalit Culture and Identity: Valorisation and Reconstruction of Tradition among the Chamars in Punjab) was a fresh and significant intervention in the sense that in the whopping build up of the Dalit literature over the last few years, one hardly finds a piece on the ‘virtual wars’ being fought on the You-tube signifying the ever widening canvas of Dalit assertion and the resistance it faced from the protagonists of the forces of the status-quo. His eloquent presentation revolved around the main issue of how virtual wars between the Chamars (one of the most outwardly mobile Dalit community) and Jats (the dominant peasant caste) are fought on the internet and how the former have been engaged in this very process in constructing a counter-culture. The learned author had also discussed how such wars made the distinction between the diaspora and non-diaspora Punjabi fuzzy.

The author categorized virtual wars into two segments. At the first level, the virtual wars are carried out as a mode of enactment in the visuals presented in the form of songs as well as the themes of those songs. At the second level, the two warring communities (Jats and Chamars) exchange arguments, often vituperative, in the form of comments they make on the contents of the songs. In a fit of rage, said the author, the comments often transcended the boundaries of the contents and entered ignominiously into the filthy domain of defacing the body and character of the very singer of the song as a symbolic of the community in question. In such virtual wars, the author continued, body of the singer degraded into a site of aggression (particularly sexual) and the newly earned wealth of the Dalit diaspora became a critical site of prosperity. Body of the macho Dalit male is also depicted as solid face of emerging Dalit assertion. The actors on both the sides of virtual wars are shown as the consumers of modernity and perpetrators of tradition. The actual and the existential domain of ethnic cleavages and caste divides are metamorphosed into ‘symbolic universe’ depicting the deep-rooted sinews of the dominant structures of social forces often oppressive and exclusionary. It is at the stance of these oppressive and exclusionary social structures that the virtual wars are fought as the savior of their respective camps. Chamars took it a big pride in their newly earned wealth and hard earned social position, explained the author, which still needed to get due recognition in the rival camps; they proudly exhibit their so-called low caste status through the medium of the catchy contents of the songs sung on the You-tube that portrayed them as the rising sons of Chamars. On the other hand, the rival warring camp represented by Jats leave no stone unturned from the way of smashing such hyper-glamorous social prestige and position of the erstwhile ex-untouchable boys who now dared to challenge their so-called bread guarantors.

As far the visual presentation of virtual wars is concerned, Guru Ravidass, Dr. B, R. Ambedkar and DSSB emerged as the main iconic figures on the You-tube representing the socially excluded sections of the society. However, it is at this level, said the author, that a phenomenon of duality surfaced configuratively among the Chamars of Punjab, ‘that is, politically they support Dr. Ambedkar and, at the same time, they have not responded to his call for conversion to Buddhism”. Another duality that the author talked about underlined the fact that ‘both Dr. Ambedkar and Guru Ravidass do not subscribe to violence in their writings and preaching. However, most of the visual presentations of this genre of songs carry powerful symbols of violence. These songs show hockey sticks, baseball bats, swords and guns’.

The author concluded his presentation with three implications. First, the virtual wars have shattered the myth of possibility of casteless society. Instead of taking back seat, the caste identities, emphasized the author, became strong and have been deployed to capture power. They have also become exclusive. The second, social equality needs to be understood and achieved without achieving casteless society. And third, the bludgeoning phenomenon of exclusive caste identities hinders the process of social inclusion in a democratic system, particularly in the private sphere.

The presentation was followed by an engaging discussion revolving around the central issue of strengthening of caste identities in contemporary India. Some of the comments and questions raised the issue of public vs. the private in understanding the complexities of the emerging phenomenon of exclusive caste identities in cyber-age in border state of Punjab.

Dr. Pramod Kumar’s paper (Dalit Identity Architecture: From Selective Adaptation of Cultural Symbols to Nurturing of Exclusive Sites) was read by Ronki Ram. Dr. Pramod Kumar could not attend the workshop on health grounds. The central thrust of his paper is on selective cultural adaptation by the lower castes of dominant cultural standards and at the same time to construct parallelism in terms of cultural forms and nurturing of exclusive sites to bargain for equitable representation in the domain of both public and private. There is sufficient evidence available, claimed in the paper on the basis of intensive field study, to show how Dalits were selectively appropriating certain traits of dominant castes. While further complicating the phenomenon of specific cultural practices, the author cautioned against possible misunderstanding of the dubbing the entire process as ‘sanskritisation of Dalits in Punjab’. Against the established notion of the ‘sanskritisation of Dalits’, the author in this critical study established the notion of ‘competitive parallelism’ which aimed at to form a common Dalit identity and at the same time wanted to lose that same identity. ‘This parallelism’, said the author ‘is in convergence with the exclusive spatial sites being established’. It aimed at ‘nurturing a exclusive Dalit identity in comparison with Jat Sikh identity’. The formation of Mahila Mandals, Deras and Gurdwaras are some of the most obvious cases of such emerging exclusive and parallel cultural domain as cited in the paper. Within the expanding domain of exclusive and parallel Dalit cultural heritage, Dalit Deras figured most prominently. They have ‘put the Sikh ethnic claims in a weak and crumbling position by challenging the monolithic claims of Sikhism. Herein lies one of the potential strengths of these Deras as they have not only represented the marginalised sections of Punjabi society (primarily in terms of caste and class) but at the same time they have put into question the monolithic projection of Sikhism and thus putting the state into a tight spot whereby it has to simultaneously balance the contesting claims of the people voiced through Deras due to electoral compulsions with close connections it historically has with the Sikh clergy in politics, whereby state and religious – political institutions of Sikhs are highly intermeshed’. It is in this context that the politics in Punjab, emphasized the author, has been providing a bargaining space to Dalits in the state.

The final session of the Workshop was marked as concluding remarks. In this session, Ronki Ram, convener of the Workshop, provided a synoptic view and a conclusion of the engaging discussions held during the two days technical sessions of this international academic event. He emphasized that Dalit identity formation and its representation emerged as the central view point during the Workshop. The emerging Dalit identity formation processes tended to be characterized as multiple in its contents and deeds as against the usual singular-monolithic. In fact, the multiple Dalit identity formation processes in contemporary India were reminiscent of the diverse social domain of the ex-untouchables sections of the Indian society who were as sharply divided along castes lines as the other four Varnas of the Hindu social order.

As far as representation of such a highly differentiated and contested domain of lower castes identity formation processes are concerned, it is quite obvious that there emerged several distinct cultural heritage centers signifying the multidimensionality of such on going processes. Some of the papers presented during the Workshop highlighted the multidimensionality of the Dalit cultural heritage processes while concentrating on different cultural ethos and their representation in the form of emerging divergent centers of Dalit religion(s) and culture(s), prestige stories, historical narratives, virtual wars sites, Dalit visual arts, imagery and poetry etc. etc. Thus the contemporary India has been witness to the growth of several distinct Dalit cultural heritage domains and counter-cultures as against a single unified Dalit cultural heritage domain. The emerging domains of Dalit cultural heritage are being looked at as new vistas of Dalit emancipation and empowerment. They are presented as centers of counter-culture which facilitate the former socially excluded sections of the society in getting them re-jointed with their forgotten histories and rich cultural traditions of sovereignty.
Posted on www.ambedkartimes.com (January 30, 2013)

MAKING SENSE OF DALIT IDENTITY
IN CONTEMPORARY PUNJAB:

REVIEW ARTICLE OF A RECENT STUDY IN PUNJABI


[Ronki Ram, Dalit Pachhan Mukti Ate Shaktikarn
(Dalit Identity, Emancipation and Empowerment),
Patiala: Punjabi University Publication Bureau, 2012,
pp. xlviii +372, Rs 300, in Punjabi].

Surinder Singh
Junior Research Fellow
Department of Political Science
Panjab University, Chandigarh
singhsurinder333@gmail.com

Punjab has the highest proportion of Dalits (29 percent, Census of India 2001) in India and this whopping numerical presence has further increased with the inclusion of Mochi and Rai Sikh/Mahatam castes into Scheduled Castes category in the state. Despite having the highest proportion of Dalit percentage in the country, Dalits in Punjab, however, are extensively deprived of agricultural land. Among them less than 5 percent (Census of India) are cultivators. They shared only 4.82 percent of the number of operational holdings and 2.34 percent of the total area under cultivation (1991 Census). Consequently, their landlessness rendered a large number of them into agricultural labourers and made them subservient to the landowners. However, a significant change has taken place over the last few decades. Dalits in Punjab have improved their economic position through hard work, job diversification and emigration abroad. They have entered into a number of professions, which were traditionally considered to be the mainstay of the business and artisan castes. This has led to a sharp decline in the number of Dalit landless agricultural workers in Punjab whose strength has come down from 24 percent in 1991 to 16 percent in 2001. However, the dissociation of Dalits from the menial and agricultural work in Punjab and their relatively better economic conditions have probably failed to get them entry into the local structure of power, almost totally `monopolized by the so-called dominant/upper castes. This is what forced them to look for alternative ways of social mobility and empowerment.

The story of Dalit identity, emancipation, empowerment and mobility is quite different in Punjab from that of the rest of India. There happened to be two main models of social mobility available to the socially excluded sections of the Indian society. These two models are: Conversion and Sanskritisation. Conversion and Sanskritisation aim at seeking Dalit emancipation by crossing over to something new/external that would facilitate them to quit their centuries-old entrenched subordination [Ram 2012: 639]. But as far as Punjab is concerned, Dalits seem to have avoided this two fold way of social mobility for the reasons best known to them. They prefer to improve their social status through highlighting their caste identity.

What distinguished caste in Punjab from the rest of the country is the primacy of the material (land) and political factors over the principle of purity and pollution dichotomy. Punjab is primarily an agrarian state. Social status in Punjab is basically measured in terms of possession of land. In Punjab, land is basically under the absolute control of the dominant caste i.e. Jat Sikh [ibid: 656]. Therefore, Jat Sikh considered themselves at the top of caste hierarchy in Punjab, particularly in Sikhism. Since Purity-Pollution is not the criterion of social exclusion in Punjab, it does not make much difference whether you follow the cultural norms of priestly class or not. Even if someone embraces some other religion in Punjab to get rid of caste-based discrimination rampant in Hinduism, it still does not make much difference so far, as long as he fails to acquire some land in agriculture-dominated state of Punjab. So Dalits conversion into another religion becomes meaningless and they prefer to improve their social position through reconstructing their identity on the basis of caste and reinventing their cultural heritage.

Dalit Pachhan Mukti Ate Shaktikarn (Dalit Identity, Emancipation and Empowerment) is the second book written by the author in the Punjabi language. This ethnographic work, under review, is based on historical and analytical methods. The main argument of the book is that Dalits in Punjab are consciously and systematically constructing their caste/religion based identity. Caste based identity helps them in emancipation from the inferiority complex and gaining empowerment in the otherwise oppressive mainstream Punjabi society. It also discusses the sources and stages of Dalit identity formation in Punjab by focusing on various Dalit movements like Ad Dharm, Ambedkarite, Bahujan Samaj and the mushrooming growth of Ravidass Deras. Relying on archival and ethnographic sources, the study meticulously explores the causes behind the rise of Dalit identity in Punjab and the ways it exhibits the same. Before exploring the various themes which the book analytically discusses, there is a need to highlight the prologue of the book.

In the prologue, the author has described the importance of vernacular/mother language. In the views of the author mother tongue is not only used as a tool of conversation but in reality it also helps in understanding the complexities of social existence, culture, identity, nationality, economy and psychology. Language and culture are the two intricate determinant factors of the existence and development of a community. There is a common impression that one can write about the complex aspects of life and society rather more comfortably in ones mother tongue. Till date, the most renowned literary works, opinioned the author, were written by authors in local languages. The writers who achieved this reputation through mother/local language are: Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, Derrida among many others. Similarly, Punjabi i.e. the local language of Punjab, was popularized by Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikh faith, in gurumukhi script. Punjabi language, culture and literature eventually developed through the gurumukhi script. Today, the domain of Punjabi language is shrinking while relying more on ditto vocabulary of other languages than making use of original Punjabi vocabulary. The author alarms that by doing so we would not only weaken our mother tongue vocabulary but also dwarf our culture. The book is arranged into eight chapters in addition to a detailed prologue, foreword, introduction, epilogue (Dalit suppression and emancipation: synthesis and reaction) and a detailed bibliography based on scattered but rich Punjabi sources.

The first chapter explores the long journey of Dalit identity, emancipation and empowerment in Punjab. The chapter opens with the ubiquity of Dalit question in Indian society which remained inflamed during the period of Buddhism, Bhakti movement, the mission of social equality and justice run by Sikh Gurus, Adi movements and also during the movements run by Phule- Periyar- Ambedkar- Kanshi Ram. The protest against the silence of upper castes on Dalit question is raised from time to time. However, the big silence on Dalit question at the time of Indian national movement has not only revealed its narrow canvas but also separated it sharply from its wider social domain deeply drowned in social inequalities and social evils. Dalit identity, emancipation and empowerment are discussed in two perspectives: first, Marxist/Leftist and second, caste prestige. Marxists/Leftists study Dalit question from economic/class perspective. They observe Dalit identity in terms of class. They argue that the Dalit oppression is based on their economic subjugation. They consider caste to be the superstructure on class. They criticize the newly emerged middle class among Dalits who follow the bourgeoisie and casteist parties. Particularly, they criticize the Bahujan Samaj Party leaders who limit themselves to ‘caste politics’. They argued that bourgeoisie Dalit class wants to maintain its position in present political system. They never participate in Marxist struggle and always oppose it. Therefore, Marxists adopt similar planning for bourgeoisie, religious and Dalit political parties. They also argue that Dalit consciousness is a hurdle in revolutionary thinking. Although, Dalit consciousness recognises the revolutionary spirit but in the end it goes in favor of capitalism and makes it strong. Second, the author argues that in Punjab, Dalit identity is emerging on the basis of caste. The caste inferiority is challenged through the proverb of caste prestige. The caste based Dalit identity is giving birth to Dalitism. And Dalitism has become victim of one-sidedness which looks at the Dalit emancipation only through the prestige of caste. The author questioned caste based Dalit emancipation while asking a pertinent question that is it a positive way of Dalit emancipation? He described that Dalit question is not a question of Dalits only. This question, in his views, is related to the change of social, economic and political structure of the entire Indian society. Quoting Dr. Ambedkar, the author says that Dalit question is facing two main rivals: Brahmanism and Capitalism. If Dalit movement failed to abolish Brahmanism and in the presence of capitalism somehow able to gain slightly through reservation, then this type of change will be far away from Dalit identity, emancipation and empowerment as defined by the author. Dalit emancipation, emphasized the author, is related with the freedom of individuals from individuals who are encircled within oppressive structures of social dominations based of hoary caste system. The struggle for Dalit emancipation is waged by Dalit middle class. The Dalit middle class is the product of constitutional affirmative actions and the teachings of Ambedkarite ideology. This Dalit middle class firmly observes that Marxist parties are their opponent. The basic reason of their opposition to the Communist parties is that such left parties are themselves votary of capitalism and therefore are unable to understand the everlasting caste based division of Indian society.

The instances of caste based Dalit identity are normally observed in Doaba region of Punjab. Couplets of caste prestige such as “putt Chamaran de” (the babes of Chamars), Guru Ravidass di foj kardi a moj” (the children of Guru Ravidass are relishing) etc. are often found written on cars, jeeps and bikes in the Doaba region of Punjab. The religious places popularly known as Deras/Ravidass Deras are mushrooming on caste line. Such caste based religious places are providing most sought after socio-religious space to Dalits which differentiates them from other communities. Ravidass Deras, as argued by the author, are providing a new and different identity to Dalits by combining spirituality with politics. Dr. Ambedkar and Guru Ravidass have become the center of Dalit identity. It was first highlighted by Ad Dharm movement. The question of Dalit emancipation and empowerment has been continuously raised by different persons through different ways for instance Buddha, Sants of Bhakti movement, Sikh Gurus, Jotirao Phule, Adi/Ad Dharm movements, Ambedkarite movement, and Kanshi Ram. Dalit empowerment critically analysed through different ideologies. Gandhian philosophy emphasises on Dalit emancipation and empowerment within Varna Vyastha through eliminating the caste hierarchy from the minds of people. It represents Varna Vyastha with moral principles. In other words, it emphasises on Dalit emancipation without elimination of the caste system. Ambedkar-Gandhi Poona Pact is the outcome of such philosophy. Efforts of British government (divide and rule policy) had also empowered the Dalits in a limited way. On one hand, Britishers empowered Dalits through communal award and, on the other hand, they kept away Dalits from land ownership. The reservation provided by the Colonial government in electoral system, recognition of Ad Dharm as a new religion of Dalits, victory of Dalits on the reserved seats of Punjab provincial Assembly election in 1937 and 1946 etc are known as examples of Dalit empowerment. In the views of the author, it shows that such a process of Dalit empowerment is ultimately went in favour of further strengthening the already entrenched institution of caste system. The educated and middle generation Dalits have been trying to seek emancipation and empowerment through constructing separate religious/caste identities. The educated class has ligitimised their act by using the idea of caste based identity as popularized by Kanshi Ram. From the last few decades, religion/caste based Dalit identities have emerged as hub of Dalit emancipation and empowerment. However, the emergence of caste based Dalit identities are fast becoming the cause of routine caste conflicts in Punjab.

Second chapter is a detailed account of the changing basis of Punjabi Dalit identity. Dalit identity is related to resourceful, prosperous and respectable life. It is a demonstration of positive efforts of Dalits who consciously put emphasis on projecting themselves as an altogether a separate different social group/community. It also helps them in flouting their distinct political value in the arithmetic of electoral politics. Earning respectable space in society through political power, seems to be the sole purpose of emerging Dalit identity. It also looked at as if providing freedom from Brahminical structures. Historically, the idea of distinct Dalit identity started from the Buddhism. Buddha was the first to raise voice against the symbols and behaviors of Upper Castes which were responsible for oppression of Dalits. Due to the efforts of Buddhist prophets Dalits attained opportunities to capture the political power. After a long period, in medieval time, in north India Sants of Bhakti movement and Sikh Gurus’ mission of social equality provided a new meaning to Dalit identity. However, during Ad Dharm movement, Dalits for the first time took initiative to construct their identity on their own. The leaders of Adi Dharm movement created religion based Dalit identity i.e. Ad Dharmi. The religious paradigm of Dalit identity was a process of regenerating the hitherto eclipsed Dalit history, culture and heritage. ‘Ad Dharmi’ as a religious identity separates Dalits from the mainstream religions such as Hindu, Sikh and Muslims. In edition of religion, the leaders of the movement also constructed the different Dalit identity through religious texts, Gurus (Guru Ravidass, Bhagat Kabir, Balmik, Namdev), shrines, slogans (Jo Bole So Nirbhye – Sri Guru Ravidass Maharaj Ki Jai” and Jo Bole So Nirbhye – Ad Dharm Ki Jai”), symbols (Sohung), prayers, dress codes, construction of religious places, and salutations. Ad Dharm movement also encouraged the Dalits to attain political power and to become resourceful to further strengthen Dalit identity. Subsequently to the Ad Dharm, Ambedkarite movement played a significant role in construction of Dalit identity. It is notable that Ad Dharm movement constructed Dalit identity on religion. However, Ambedkarite movement focused on the rational Buddhist identity. Dr. Ambedkar argued if Dalits want to live like human beings than they should construct their distinct political identity.
Dr. Ambedkar was highly respected among the Dalits in Punjab. Dalits of Punjab not only respect Guru Ravidass but also adhere to neo-Buddhism that concentrated on rational thinking in respect of devotion. Dr. Ambedkar’s understanding toward caste and its solution through democratic way presents him as the most effective leader of downtrodden. After the Ambedkarite movement, Bahujan Samaj movement played a vital role in formation of Dalit identity. Babu Kanshi Ram emphasized on caste based Dalit identity and its importance for gaining political power. He organized middle class of Dalits Bahujan Samaj at a platform i.e. Backward and Minority Communities Employees' Federation (BAMCEF). Systematic organizational structure of BAMCEF provides a new Dalit identity that organised Dalits around political programmes. The sole purpose of this identity is to make Dalits as the holders of political power. The next two stages of Bahujan Samaj’s political programmes which play a vital role in construction of Dalit identity are: Dalit Soshit Sangarsh Samiti (DS4) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). This was for the first time when Dalits realized to capture political power through caste line. BSP through its caste card is providing different meaning to Dalit identity. It is also providing a new alternative to young Dalits of rural and urban Punjab. The roots of Dalit identity are based on political alternative or capture of political power. In Punjab, the distinction of Dalit identity did not gain appreciation in political field but it has become fashionable in cultural field. In the earlier stage of BAMCEF, caste symbols were used in derogatory sense but now they are deployed to gain recognition as Dalit identity, emancipation and empowerment.

Ravidass Deras are the major socio-religious institutions that hold the command of the Dalit identity in the state. Ravidass Deras are dedicated to the Guru Ravidass mission. The Deras demonstrate distinct Dalit identity through different religious traditions, customs, slogans, prayer, festivals, hymns, dress etc. It revolved around the Bani and teachings of Guru Ravidass. In the rural Punjab, particularly among Chamar community, new socio-cultural movements are silently growing its influence. The numbers of Dera followers are increasing day by day due to their adoption of the blended philosophy of Guru Ravidass and that of Dr. Ambedkar. The credit of blending the philosophies of Dr. Ambedkar and Guru Ravidass goes to Dera Sachkhand Ballan. Ravidass Deras do not only exist in Punjab but also in abroad. The growing numbers of Ravidass Deras are taking the shape of new socio-cultural Dalit movement. The Sants of Deras Sachkhand Ballan are leading the movement of Ravidass Deras. Dera Ballan, also known as Dera Sant Sarwan Dass, is playing a vital role in construction of Dalit identity. Since, Sant Sarwan Dass Dera is providing multifarious facilities (schools, hospitals etc.), religious places, symbols, salute, slogans, and respectable social space to Dalits for led a descent life. Recently, Dera was in news to provide new religious identity to Dalits i.e. Ravidassia and holy book “Amrit Bani of Guru Ravidass”.

In the third chapter, author describes the role of Punjabi qaum in Dalit emancipation and empowerment. He has criticized those people who defined Punjabi qaum narrowly. He defines Punjabi qaum in broader and positive sense that includes common language, area, economy and mind-set. In other words Punjabi qaum constituted all the people who reside in and outside of Punjab and have common language, culture and worldview. Due to influence of different religions, the Punjabi quam is believed to become synonymous with the welfare of all, brotherhood and commonhood, serve freely, and secure the interest of poor and humble. It demonstrates that Punjabi qaum represents devotion of love, equality, sharing-ness and democratic values. It neither opposed anyone nor oppressed anyone. Because of these characteristic of Punjabi qaum castism never become much rigid as in the other parts of India. In Punjab castism has been based on materialistic things i.e. land. Therefore, Dalits are free from the notion of Purity and Pollution. It becomes the major cause of their emancipation from Brahminical ideology and elastic attitude toward castism that can help for their empowerment. Author argued that not only the question of Dalit emancipation and empowerment but the problem like communalism also can be solved through the philosophy of Punjabi qaum. The lager qaumi identity (Punjabi) will liberate Punjabis from all other small identities. It will teach the lesson of love and social equality not only to Punjabis but to the whole world.

The fourth chapter describes the issues related to caste and class and Dalit emancipation in Indian Punjab. It is generally perceived that Punjabi society is free from Brahminical Varna system. However, the criticism of caste system by Sants of Bhakti movement, Sufis and Gurus, argued the author, highlights the fact of caste system in Punjabi society. According to the author the existence of caste system in Sikh panth can be judged from two questions: first why Dr. Ambedkar, who once wanted, changed his decision to convert into Sikhism? Second, what was the reason that Sikh leadership started a campaign to seek the constitutional provisions of affirmative action for Scheduled Castes for the lower castes among Sikhs? Sikh Gurus vehemently criticized the evil of caste system both theoretically and practically. The author further discussed that the period from Sikh Gurus to the missals was known as ‘golden period of Sikhism’. During this period Sikh panth was free from caste system at all. This was the period when Shudras joined the Sikhism and played an important role in the emerging egalitarian Sikh identity. Not even a single example of caste based discrimination can be found during that period. Subsequently, caste system emerged into Sikh panth: first, due to its close relationship with Hinduism. Second, it entered into Sikh panth with the adoption of the cultural patron of Jat community. During the second half of 19th century Singh Sabha movement was launched to reform the Sikh panth. Though the movement offered some relief from castism but it failed to eliminate caste system from Sikh panth. Caste hierarchy in Sikh panth, however, is different from that of Hindu religion. Among the Sikh, Jat Sikhs are recognized as superior. The lower castes in Sikh panth are largely categorized into two groups; Chamars and Chhuras. The Chamar Sikhs also known as Ramdassia Sikh and Khalsa Brader. The Chhuras Sikhs are known as Mazhabis and Rangretta Sikhs. They are kept in the lowest rung of caste hierarchy in Sikh panth as well as in Hinduism. Caste hierarchy in Sikh panth is based on materialistic things not on purity and pollution. Priestly activities in Sikh shrines are not only limited to upper/dominant castes in Sikh panth.

The fifth chapter deals with Guru Ravidass, Ad Dharm and Dalit emancipation. According to the author, Bani (spiritual poetry) of Guru Ravidass is a major source of Dalit consciousness in Punjab. Guru Ravidass did not only write in spiritualistic sense. In fact, his poetry also challenged insidious caste system and oppression of the lower castes. In his Bani Guru Ravidass also talked at length about Beghampura (an ideal state) where no one would be found sad and each one would live a happy life. The author wrote in detail about how the leaders of Ad Dharm movement highlighted Guru Ravidass and his bani which was already a great source of Dalit consciousness. Ad Dharm leaders meticulously spreaded this consciousness among Dalits. The movement made every attempt which ideologically and philosophically was necessary for the establishment of a new religion including religious book, symbol, prayer, salute, slogans, etc. But in the post independent period, the movement did not sustain. However, the seed of Dalit consciousness that were sown by Ad Dharm movement are now nurtured by Ravidass Deras. Recently, the Ravidass Dera of Sachkhand Ballan announced a new religion i.e. Ravidassia. And Dera also appealed to Dalit communities to register their religion ‘Ravidassia’. The author ends this chapter with a critical note that time will tell whether Dalit will accept Ravidassia as their religion or it will end up like Ad Dharmi as a new caste category among Dalits.

The sixth chapter is a detailed description of the ideas and efforts made by Dr. Ambedkar for Dalit emancipation. Dr. Ambedkar’s vision about Dalit emancipation and empowerment are discussed by the author broadly in the following three aspects: first, the problem of Untouchability should be resolved through reforms in Hindu religion and society. Secondly, by constitutional provisions of reservation and social inequality should be reduced and anti-Dalit elements should be dealt strictly by law. Thirdly, emancipate the Dalits from caste system by converting into Buddhism. For Dr. Ambedkar issues like social equality, self-esteem and respectable life are more significant than poverty and resource-less for Dalits. Therefore, Dr. Ambedkar suggested the necessity of social democracy for Dalits’ emancipation. Social democracy, for him, is based on the three principles; freedom, equality and fraternity. These three principles are necessary to live a dignified life and establish political democracy. That’s why he set up three political parties (Independent Labour Party, Scheduled Caste Federation and Republican Party of India) for Dalits’ emancipation. However, he failed to organise Dalits to attain political power. Beside the political and legal methods to resolved the problems of Dalits. He also emphasised the peacefully social protest against the discrimination. He lunched many movements for emancipation of Dalits for instance temple entry movements and to get water from restricted pounds.

In the seventh chapter the author discussed in details the views of Shaheed Bhagat Singh towards the question of Untouchability. The two waves of non-Dalit movement that raised voice for Dalits’ emancipation along the national independence were Gadhar movement and Hindustan Socialist Republic Party (an organisation established by Bhagat Singh). Due to the influence of Arya Samaj, Bhagat Singh and his family were against the caste and Untouchability. Bhagat Singh discussed deeply the problem of religious fundamentalism and Untouchability in his three writings; Firkhu fasadh ate uhana da ellaaj (communal violence and their solutions), Dharm ate sadhi azadi di jang (religion and war of our independence), and Achhut da swal (question of Untouchable). In his essay Achhut da swal, he argued that religion is the foundation of Untouchability and caste system in India. Religion morally confesses the lower castes to serve the upper castes for salvation. Therefore, he called himself atheist. As contrary to Congress, he did not prefer only political independence but also wanted to resolve the social and economic problems of Dalits, labourers, artisans and farmers. He criticized the disgust of Upper Castes towards Dalits. He argued that Dalits are hatred because of their bad economic condition. Therefore, we should remove their poverty rather than hate them. He asked Dalits to organised and struggle for their emancipation. He argued “you are real labourers, labourers be organised. You will not lose except the chains of your slavery. Awake and revolt against the ruler. Nothing will happen with these slow reforms.” He also warned Dalits about bureaucrats and feudals which he said were also responsible of their slavery. He argued that it is through awareness that Dalits could achieve their emancipation from caste.

The eighth chapter deals with the question of Dalit emancipation in Punjabi Dalit poetry. Dalit poetry, as pointed by the author is not only related to life of Dalits but also criticized the perpetrators of Dalit atrocities. It challenges, writes the author, the political and religious authority which supports Dalit oppression. The oppression of Dalits was first time challenged in the radical poetry of the Bhakti movement of medieval period. Subsequently, the leaders of Adi movements of 1920s also used poetry as a medium to criticize Dalit subjugation, documents the author with a number of examples. It is an excellent achievement of the book that it elaborates minutely how the poetry of Babu Mangu Ram, Gurdass Ram Alam, Charn Dass Nidhark and Chanan Lal Manak clearly draw the pictures of Dalit life, oppression and empowerment. This chapter also talked in detail about the Dalit poetry that was written during the Ambedkarite movement in Punjab. In the opinion of the author, Dalit thinkers observe the Dalit identity and emancipation in Dalit poetry from two perspectives: small stories and social criticism. Dalit poetry criticizes all types of socio-cultural, religious and political conditions which preserve the social hierarchy based on oppressive four-fold Varna categories. Dalit poetry, said the author, represents the labourers, farmers, poorer, untouchables, cobblers, wavers as its hero who were earlier ignored. The author further states that at present, Dalit poetry addresses the Dalit struggle from both caste and class perspectives. But to receive relief from caste system it lays stress on Ambedkarite and medieval Sants’ philosophy than Marxist. Dalit poetry, writes the author, has been in the process of inventing counter culture as against the mainstream culture of social domination and all pervasive hegemony.

The epilogue includes various interviews of the author which were published at different intervals in various local/vernacular newspapers and magazines. These interviews help in understanding the complex issues of Dalit identity, emancipation and empowerment. It provides us deep understanding of the author on the issues like Dalit identity, education, literature, their social, economic and political position in the pre and post liberalization, privatization and globalization period.

On the whole, this book is another good attempt by the author to analytically explore in Punjabi language the complex theme of Dalit identity, emancipation and empowerment. The book provides a compact and rich account of the rise of Dalit consciousness, identity and assertion in Punjab. Based on ethnographic and archival methods, this analytical volume in Punjabi is a welcome addition to the growing critical Dalit literature on Punjab in vernacular. The publisher too deserves commendation for bringing out the book in an impressive form and wrapped up in an artistic cover with a reasonable price tag. It is a must read for lay, academic, political and media persons.

References:
Mochi and Rai Sikh/Mahatam were added in the list of Scheduled Castes by the Constitution Scheduled Castes Amendment Act 2002 (Act No. 25) and 2007 (Act No. 31 of 2007) respectively. With the inclusion of these two castes the numbers of SCs have reached up to 39 castes
For more detail see Ronki Ram (2012), Beyond Conversion and Sanskritisation: Articulating an Alternative Dalit Agenda in East Punjab, Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 639-702.

Posted on www.ambedkartimes.com (January 12, 2013)

PROF. RONKI RAM NOMINATED
TO THE SENATE OF PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH (INDIA)
www.ambedkartimes.com congrats Prof. Ronki Ram on his being nominated to the Senate of Panjab University, Chandigarh (India) for the term 2012-2016 by the Chancellor of the university (Vice President of India). The PU Senate has 91 members. Of the 91 senate members, 36 are nominated, 6 are ex-officio members, whereas the remaining 49 members are elected from different constituencies, including graduate, faculty, affiliated colleges principals etc. The Senate is the highest governing body of the university. Prof. Ronki Ram has the honor of serving this august academic body thrice already: twice as an ex-officio member (being President of PUTA (Panjab University Teachers Association for the terms - 2004-2005 & 2008-2009)) and once as elected member (2010-2012). Posted on www.ambedkartimes.com dated October 31, 20121
GLOBALISATION, DALITS
AND SOCIALDEMOCRACY
Ronki Ram ronkiram@yahoo.co.in
ICCR Chair Prof. of Contemporary India Studies,
LIAS & IIAS, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Globalisation is based on the principle of unrestrained functioning of the free market-economy. The globalisation paradigm reduces the institution of state into a sort of security mechanism to guard citizens from internal disruption and external threats. The developmental state thus metamorphoses into a security state. The paradigm stipulates that the social and material interests of the citizens could be better served provided they are surrendered to the market. Thus globalisation robs citizens of the welfare functions of the state. The institution of social democracy, on the contrary, calls upon the state to play a positive role for the protection as well as promotion of the interests of its citizens. It expects that state should play the role of a harbinger of social and economic justice as well. It is in this context that the extended contractarian tradition of the welfare state comes into head-on-collision with the forces of neo-liberal market-economy in the contemporary domain of globalisation.

Globalisation, thus, poses a serious challenge to the nascent institution of social democracy in India. Though, it is often paraded as a custodian of enormous ‘opportunities’, but what such ‘opportunities’ are and whom they benefit is a question that directly concerns the Dalits. In an existential asymmetrical world, where we actually live, such opportunities open many doors to the haves. But the interests of the have-nots, a large majority of whom happens to belong to low castes, socially excluded, tribal, women, and other vulnerable sections of the society, are often neglected. The socially excluded sections of the society are the worst victims of much-hyped Special Economic Zones [SEZs] and its resultant consequent process of forced displacement. This has led to further perpetuation and deepening of the social and economic discriminations, which in turn seriously diminish the values and principle of social justice in the society. In other words, it deepens the perennial evil of social exclusion through its much advertised project of new economic reforms, which in effect is less about ‘reforms, and more about ‘exclusion’. It has led to the closure of various industrial units in the public sector. This, in turn, has increased unemployment and poverty on the one hand, and widened the hiatus between the rich/upper castes and the poor/lower castes on the other.

Since Dalits constitute the bulk of the poor and unemployed, they have suffered the most. Their chances of acquiring jobs in the high-tech industry at home as well as in the multinational corporations have been getting curtailed since the beginning of the process of globalisation in India. The system of primary and elementary education in the rural and urban settings has been subverted almost totally. Since, majority of the rich upper castes send their wards to the private/convent/public schools; government schools have been reduced into dysfunctional centres of learning for the poor Dalits. It is simply out of the reach of the matriculates of such neglected government schools, where hardly any infrastructure and teachers are available, to be able to compete for admission in the prestigious Information Technology (IT) or management schools. Moreover, since the background of a majority of Dalit undergraduates is in Arts and Humanities, it becomes difficult for them to meet the job requirements of the multinational corporations. Even if some of the Dalits aspire to compete in the technology driven new job market, it would be, perhaps, out of their reach to acquire the requisite qualifications at exorbitant rates from various engineering and management institutes. It is precisely due to these reasons that Dalits are rarely to be found in the prestigious management schools all over the country.

Dalits happened to be the beneficiaries of state’s affirmative action before India entered into the realm of neo-liberal free market-economy. The developmental welfare state in India had brought some improvements in the lives of Dalits by making special provisions to provide them education, employment, respectable wages, access to land, water, health, housing and other resources. But the welfarist stance of the Indian state gave way to a new system of free market-economy in 1990s. One of the main tasks of this new paradigm is to force the roll back process of the welfare state and to allow the market forces to operate in an unrestrained manner. The pro-market stance of globalisation has led to widening of the gap between the privileged few and the large mass of the marginalized sections of the society. It further led to marginalisation of the already marginalized people, thus widening the gulf of inequity in the society. Dalit labourers, daily wage workers and workers in the informal sector among them suffer the most. In other words, globalisation process severely affects some categories of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who are deprived of jobs, and face great difficulties in accessing housing, drinking water, food, healthcare, education, and employment. Thus the way globalisation affects the life of a Scheduled Caste worker differs significantly from that of the non-Scheduled Caste one.

In a caste-based hierarchical and graded social setup where lower social status and economic backwardness seems to be coterminous, social rank plays an important role in determining one's economic status. Globalisation further aggravates this vicious interrelationship between social and economic backwardness. The logic of economic globalisation favours the rich, who can invest and multiply capital. The favoured rich are mostly found among the so-called traditional ‘upper castes’ that have monopolised land and other economic resources in the country. It has made them prominent in the newly carved out vast private space of the open market. In other words, capital and caste have joined hands against labour and the principle of state social welfare it has led to an alliance between the forces of the market and the upper castes – much to the disadvantage of the marginalised and the lower castes.

Another way through which the process of globalisation has been affecting the lives of the Dalits rather more severely is the transformation of their traditional hereditary occupations into lucrative profit seeking competitive avenues where they find themselves incapable of competing with the so called upper castes who until very recently used to consider such professions as polluting. In other words, when the occupations of sewage disposal, scavenging and raw hides were performed under the Jajmani (hereditary system of asymmetrical reciprocity and patronage between landlords and occupational experts) system, with no profit incentive, Dalits were forced to take them up. But now when these so-called polluting occupations became profit-generating businesses, Dalits find themselves at odd in their own tested fields to compete with the better equipped new forces of the market economy. It is in this context that the process of globalisation perpetuates the system of caste and inequality albeit in a new form. Instead of liberating the ex-untouchables, it further pins them down. Earlier they were excluded and were condemned as Ati-shudras because of their closeness to the muck of the dirty drainage system, now it excludes them by way of defeating them in the newly turned profit oriented business of hygiene and cleanliness of the neo-liberal economy. In fact, this market is open only for those who have the capital to play the profit game on the chessboard of its unrestrained competition. In this new profit driven game of the process of globalisation, Dalits – normally starved of capital – stand disqualified.

Yet another way through which the process of globalisation severely affects the lives of the Dalits is the accentuation of the phenomenon of their exclusion from land. Significant parts of the vast majority of Dalits who live in villages are landless labourers. Only a small number of them are cultivators with marginal holdings. The large-scale landlessness on the part of the Dalits led to their dependence on the upper castes land owning communities, which in turn deepened the caste based inequalities with the additional burden of asymmetrical class structures. The neo-liberal economic policies adopted under the regimes of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation widen already existing caste and class divisions between the Dalits and the dominant castes, and further minimises the chances of the emergence of a sense of solidarity among different communities.

II
Dalits constitute a significant proportion of the total population of India. How can India surge upward if it fails to care for the interest of the total 16.23 per cent Scheduled Castes population (Census of India 2001), which can promptly swell further if clubbed with the population of different categories of Backward and Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Tribes? No doubt the Indian constitution contains many provisions, thanks to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, but how much the Indian state has actually done for the uplift of those on the socio-political margins is open to debate. To quote Dr Ambedkar: …that political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of a few and the many are not only beasts of burden, but also beasts of prey. This monopoly has not merely deprived them of their chance of betterment, it has sapped them of what may be called the significance of life. These down-trodden classes are tired of being governed, they are impatient to govern themselves. This urge for self-realization in the down-trodden classes must not be allowed to develop into a class of struggle or class war. It would lead to a division of the house. That would indeed be a day of disaster.

Even after 60 years when Dr Ambedkar echoed these words, majority of the Scheduled Castes are still landless. No systematic efforts have been made for the implementation of land reforms. A large majority of Dalit population remains landless. Even the provisions of minimum wages were never adhered to in many cases.

Globalisation has further sharpened the already existing contradictions between political equality on the one hand and social and economic inequality on the other. It has deprived Dalits of whatever little they have in the name of so-called fast development under the model of free market-economy. There exists no space for them at all in the glamorous showrooms of no-liberal market-economy –-Special Economic Zones (SEZs). These fabulous zones are yet to be tamed to accommodate the ever-increasing vast multitudes of downtrodden section of the society who could no longer be denied any more of their due share in the varied structures of power.

Downtrodden, in fact, are tired of being ‘governed’ for centuries, and are impatient to take control of their own destinies. However, whatever little space was available to them to dream the possibility of their betterment seems to have been grabbed by the forces of neo-liberal market-economy in the name of quick development. Their patience and ‘urge for self-realization’ can no longer be tested. Articulating the urge of the downtrodden for self-realization during his famous address on the completion of the Draft Constitution on 25 November 1949, Dr. Ambedkar cautioned that:
… the sooner room is made for the realization of their aspiration, the better for the few, the better for the country, the better for the maintenance of its independence and better for the continuance of its democratic structure. This can be done by the establishment of equality and fraternity in all spheres of life ….

Similar views were expressed after 50 years by K. R. Narayanan, the President of India, in his address to the nation on January 25, 2000: “Beware of the fury of the patient and long suffering people”.

The benefits of globalisation are yet to reach these ‘patient and long suffering people’ who never shirk from hard work and toiling labour. But the free market economy driven forces advocate the concerns of the rich and resourceful only. This widens the gap between the rich and the poor. The widening gap coupled with the rolling back of the state lead to further resentment and alienation among the downtrodden that in turn put pressure on the practice of democracy in the country. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was well aware, much in advance, about the serious implications of the lopsided development for the growth of social democracy in a caste ridden country like India. He therefore underlined the inclusion of the downtrodden into the governmental set-up of the country. For that he emphasised that the safe route goes via total annihilation of caste and in that the role of the state is of utmost importance. If globalisation implies pushing the state out, then the future of the project of social democracy seems to be very bleak. It is in this context that the responsibility and the task of safeguarding the developmental character of the Indian state becomes very crucial more so for the empowerment of Dalits in particular and strengthening the forces of social democracy in India in general.

Though a lot has already been said about the desired human and humane face of globalisation based on global governance, such claims sound rather hollow for the marginalised sections of the society. The free market-economy has not only failed to liberate them, it has rather further pinned them down. Downtrodden are not welcomed in the sphere of market as equal partners of profit. In other words, the market too practices ‘untouchability’, albeit in a different form. They feel alienated in the very world that promises to empower them. Howsoever strong and robust the free market-economy might appear to be, in long run it will not survive until and unless the question of the marginalised sections is addressed sincerely. In fact, the question of equitable distribution of resources is closely related with the issue of the immediate and amicable redressal of the causes of marginalization and exclusion of the Dalits from the mainstream. The marginalized are to be provided not only with low price wheat, rice and pulses as has been popularly done in some Indian states. What is equally essential is to empower them, to enhance their buying capacity in the real sense of the term by dismantling the structures of economic and social dominations. As warned by George Tong-Boon Yeo, Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister, at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit in Bangalore:

If we are not concerned of the stresses of globalisation, ideological counter-currents will emerge. Globalisation is not a bed of roses. There is a need to be watchful, always, (The Hindu, March 19, 2007).

In other words, a balance needs to be created between the forces of market and the principles of social justice.

Economic liberalisation regimes in India can no longer ignore the stark realities of unequal and discriminatory patterns of its social life and chronic poverty. Any attempt to work out the economy in isolation of the hard-core social realities would have serious and far-reaching implication not only for Indian polity and society but also for its economy in the long run. It is in this context that the project of economic liberalisation needs to be understood, in consonance with the complex ‘social’ and ‘political’ of the Indian economy. To get rid of centuries-old caste-based social discriminations, exclusion and chronic poverty of millions of downtrodden in India, the ambitious project of economic liberalisation, perhaps, needs to be clubbed together with another equally ambitious project aiming at total transformation of the entire gamut of Hindu social order; thoroughly cleaning its long accumulated muck of hereditary occupation and repulsion. Can economic liberalisation alone help generate new avenues for rapid economic growth and equal opportunities (‘growth with redistribution’ or ‘capitalism with a human face’) for all in a society like India marked by rampant social hierarchies and inequalities? This is an urgent and critical issue that needs serious attention. That is what Dr. Ambedkar strongly pleaded for in his capacity as a Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution for Independent India and also as an organic leader of millions of downtrodden. Can economic liberalisation alone help generate new avenues for rapid economic growth and equal opportunities (‘growth with redistribution’ or ‘capitalism with a human face’) for all in a society like India doted with rampant social hierarchies and inequalities? This is an urgent and uphill task that needs serious attention. And it is in this context that social democratic vision of Dr Ambedkar assumes critical importance. Failure to engage with this vision is likely to result in further perpetuation of chronic poverty and inequalities leading to social unrest and political violence, with the downtrodden and the marginalized becoming the worst victims.
Posted on www.ambedkartimes.com dated October 23, 2012

REMEMBERING FATHER
REV. DR. SUN MYUNG MOON

(1920-2012)
Ronki Ram (Dr.),
ICCR Chair Professor of Contemporary India Studies
Leiden University Institute for Area studies (LIAS) &
International Institute for Asian studies (IIAS), Leiden,
The Netherlands

ronkiram@yahoo.co.in
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon

Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon will be remembered passionately by the coming generations for his concerted efforts towards building a viable peace and harmony in the world. He was, in fact, an angel of peace, family unity, and inter-faith dialogue who invented new traditions and ways to organize universal gatherings of diverse religions/faiths in the contemporary world within the forums of UNO and without for the sole purpose of learning the basic lessons of living together harmoniously and with compassion for one and all. Father Moon was not an armchair philosopher who philosophized idyllically in the realm of mere dreams and thoughts, but a karmayogi (a man of action) who firmly believed in practical actions now and here in the real world of our day-to-day existence.

Rev. Dr. Moon himself said once, “I did not spend all my time roaming the hills and meadows and playing. I also worked hard helping my old brother run the farm. On a farm there are many tasks that must be done during a particular season. The rice paddies and fields need to be plowed. Rice seedlings need to be transplanted, and weeds need to be pulled. … After the seeds are planted, the furrows need to be weeded at least three times, and this is background work. When we were finished, we couldn’t straighten our backs for awhile”. Father Moon combined hard labor with his mission of world peace in such a manner that it became a new principle of peace to bring harmony through work and family unity. The roots of peace, according to Rev. Dr. Moon, are to be searched at the family level. For him, the parents represent the present, the children the future and the grandparents the past. So it is only when the grandparents, parents, and children live together, said Father Moon that the children can inherit all the fortunes of the past and present. To love and respect ones grandfather is to inherit the history of the past and to learn from the rich experience of the past. Peace can not be built in a day. It requires continuous efforts on our part. For a peace to become reality, Father Moon founded various non-profit international organizations (the Universal Peace Foundation, and the Family Federation for World Peace), interfaith service group (the International Relief Friendship Foundation, Religious Youth Service and Service for Peace), and various print, electronic and digital media outlets publications.

The Universal Peace Federation (UPF) is a world peace forum that brings together all eminent persons of all the faiths in the world to find a harmonious way to resolve differences and to learn the lessons of living in family and world peace. It is a global network of individuals and organizations dedicated to building a world of peace centered on universal spiritual and moral values. It looks at world peace in a much broader manner and considers peace as positive, holistic and indivisible. It believes that “we are one human family created by God. The highest achievements of men and women are rooted in spiritual and moral developments. The family is the ‘school of love and peace’. Peace comes through dialogue and cooperation. Service to others is the foundation of reconciliation”. UPF believes that interfaith dialogue and cooperation through conferences and forums allow participants to share diverse aspects of their rich sacred scriptures and traditions that benefit the entire mankind. Father Moon sponsored thousands of conferences on world peace, family and interfaith dialogues in different parts of the world. The UPF participates each year in the UN’s World Interfaith Harmony Week, International Day of Families, International Day of Peace and Women’s day. For the UPF marriage, parenting, and the family are the foundations of human development and they function as building blocks of universal peace. Peace begins in the hearts of individuals and it gets nurtured by loving and stable families at home before it spreads on the entire globe.

For times to come, the institution of UPF and the principle of ‘one human family under God’ will remain the finest legacies of Rev. Dr. Moon. The world will remember him for ever for his life long dedication to peace and human unity. I have had the honour and privilege to sit in his august company during his 93rd birthday celebration at Peace Palace (Cheon Jeong Goong) up in the mountains east of Seoul in the forenoon of January 24, 2012. Ambassador Krishna V. Rajan of India in his congratulatory message on the auspicious occasion said that “Father Moon’s simple but powerful message of boundless love and unconditional compassion, of service and sacrifice, of family values and spiritual leadership, is like a lighthouse which beckons the world”. The Ambassador continued, “His answer to conflict is the realization that we are one human family created by God. Living for the sake of others is the only road to real happiness”.

Father Moon’s birthday celebrations in January 2012, coincided with the Chinese New year holidays celebrations, brought together over 200 participants from 72 countries of the world. It was during the last international Leadership Conference at Seoul (January 21-25, 2012) that I got the rare opportunity to meet various Ambassadors for Peace of Father Moon, almost from all parts of the world, discussing the ways to bring peace and harmony in the world. The central themes during all such discussions were the vibrant ideas and teachings of Father Moon and his various ongoing peace projects in the world. Father moon was indeed a Messiah of world peace who sincerely wanted this world become the most conducive place for everyone to realize his/her potentials to the maximum with an ultimate objective in mind to grow peace around. In his own words: “I have lived my life with just one thought: I wanted to bring about a world of peace, a world where there are no wars and where all humankind lives in love”. It would really be impossible to replace soon Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, the messiah of peace, who had left for his heavenly abode on September 3, 2012. Let’s pray for his holy soul which will keep guiding the whole world towards his pious mission of peace and one human family under God.
Posted on www.ambedkartimes.com dated October 14, 2012

A BRIEF REPORT ON
THE NORDCORP WORKSHOP
– SIKH IDENTITY FORMATION,
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

(AUGUST 31 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2012)

Ronki Ram
(ronkiram@yahoo.co.in )
ICCR Chair Professor of Contemporary India Studies
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies &
International Institute for Asian Studies,
Leiden, The Netherlands

A Brief Report on the Nordcorp Workshop

The Nordic Institute of Asian studies (NIAS), Copenhagen, Denmark, organized a two day workshop on “Sikh Identity Formation” in Copenhagen on August 31 & September 1, 2012. The workshop was a part of the annual meeting of the Nordcorp research project entitled “Sikh Identity Formation: Generational Transfer of Traditions in the Nordic Countries”. This research project is funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS). The workshop also organized two open lectures. The first lecture was delivered by Dr. Brian Keith Axel, University of California, Santa Cruz in the forenoon technical session of the workshop. The title of his well-perceived lecture was: “Traumatic Citizenship: Racial Conflict in Sikh-American Life since September 11, 2001”. The second lecture was delivered by me. I spoke on “Confronting Caste in Distant Lands: The Emerging Contours of Diasporic Dalit Identity” in the afternoon technical session of the workshop on August 31, 2012. Apart from these two invited open lectures, there were four interesting research presentations from the four researchers of the Nordcorp research project on “Sikh Identity Formation: Generational Transfer of Traditions in the Nordic Countries”. These research presentations were made by Prof. Knut Jakobsen of the University of Bergen, Norway, Dr. Kristina Myrvold of the Lund University, Sweden, Laura Hirvi of the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, and Dr. Ravinder Kaur of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark .

During the second day technical sessions of the workshop, Laura Hirvi, doctoral candidate of the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, presented her dissertation draft to seek the feedback from the participants in the workshop. The other important highlights of the second day workshop were the publication plans and the planning for the 2013 forthcoming conference of the Nordcorp research project.

ABOUT THE NORDCORP RESEARCH PROJECT

This research project investigates generational transfer of traditions and identity formation processes among Sikhs, one of the visible minority groups in the Nordic countries. How Sikhs transmit their religious, cultural and linguistic traditions and how the second generation Sikh youth with transnational life-styles negotiates between contradictory perspectives confronting them and gravitates towards religious identification in attempts to carve out a place for themselves in multicultural domains abroad are the two major themes of the Nordcorp research project. The project headed by Dr. Kristina Myrvold, Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, Sweden, brings together five scholars from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden to critically examine the how the ‘second generation shapes understanding of individual and collective identities in relation to many different “cultural others” in the social fields of home, school, religious community and on the Internet’.

Abstract of the invited open lecture Prof. Ronki Ram:
Confronting Caste in Distant Lands: The Emerging Contours of Diasporic Punjabi Dalit Identity

Among the Non Resident Indian (NRI), Punjabi Dalits are a sizeable diasporic community. Way back home they are compelled to grapple with caste in their daily routine life. As usually thought about, that was primarily because of the highly segmented and hierarchical character of the Indian society. But what is there in their much sought after diasporic locations that forced them to organize for similar struggles against caste discriminations that used to be their daily routine affair way back home. Is it that caste is not only specific to a particular location but tied rather inextricably with certain communities so much so that where ever such communities travel they carry the virus of caste with them? Or what is there in caste that helps it survive even in altogether different and to large extent socially egalitarian foreign lands? This study aims at critically unraveling the dilemmas of caste abroad and the trajectories of the emerging diasporic Punjabi Dalit identity. How the Punjabi diasporic Dalit identity affects Dalit movement back home and in what way it draws sustenance from it would be yet another major concern of this study.
Posted on www.ambedkartimes.com (September 15, 2012)

PROF RONKI RAM DELIVERS PUBLIC LECTURE AT NORDCORP
WORKSHOP, THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

Prof (dr.) Ronki Ram, ICCR Chair Professor of Contemporary India Studies, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) & International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden University, The Netherlands has been invited by the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) to deliver an invited open lecture in its Nordcorp workshop on “Sikh Identity Formation” in Copenhagen on August 31- September 1, 2012. The Nordcorp workshop is part of the annual meeting of the Nordcorp research project Sikh Identity Formation: Generational Transfer of Traditions in the Nordic Countries funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) – hosted by the University of Copenhagen. The workshop organizes two invited open lectures. The first, Traumatic Citizenship: Racial Conflict in Sikh-American Life since September 11, 2001, is to be delivered by Dr. Brian Keith Axel, University of California, Santa Cruz. Prof. Ronki Ram will speak on the second one entitled Confronting Caste in Distant Lands: The Emerging Contours of Diasporic Dalit Identity.

DR. AMBEDKAR, NEO-LIBERAL MARKET-ECONOMY AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN INDIA

The ambedkartimes.com congratulates Prof. Ronki Ram (ICCR Chair Professor of Contemporary India Studies, Leiden University Institute for Area studies & International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University, The Netherlands) for his recent research article entitled “Dr. Ambedkar, Neo-liberal Market-Economy and Social Democracy in India” published in the current (late) issue of Human Rights Global Focus (HRGF) Vol. 05, No. 03 & 04, July-December 2010, pp. 12-38. Prof Ronki Ram’s research on Punjab Dalit Politics, Identity and Assertion has been widely carried in various reputed peer reviewed international Journals like Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge) Journal of Asian Studies (Cambridge) Asian Survey (University of California Press), Contributions to Indian Sociology (Sage), Journal of Punjab Studies (UCSB) among many others. He has also extensively published in Punjabi language. His latest book on Dalit Identity, Emancipation and Empowerment (Punjabi) is recently released by the Punjabi University, Patiala.

The ambedkartimes.com also put on record its sincere appreciations for Human Rights Global Focus (published by the international human rights foundation) for its concerted efforts towards bringing critical awareness about the often negated but complex question of Dalit emancipation and empowerment. Dr. R. Sreekantan Nair is the current Editor-in-Chief of this prestigious Research Journal based at: TC-28/1487 East, Sreekandeswaram, Fort P.O., Trivandrum-23, T #914064878, E-mail: info@humanrightsfocus.com www.humanrightsfocus.com

Prem K. Chumber
Editor-in-Chief www.ambedkartimes.com
Posted on June 22, 2012

DR. AMBEDKAR, NEO-LIBERAL MARKET-
ECONOMY AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN INDIA
(This article is published in Human Rights Global Focus (HRGF), Vo. 5, Nos. 03 & 04, July-December 2010 (late issue), pp. 12-38).
Ronki Ram, ICCR Chair Professor of
Contemporary India Studies, Leiden University
Institute for Area Studies & IIAS, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Abstract
Social democracy, as a philosophy, occupies a pivotal role in determining the social life of millions of oppressed and downtrodden communities all over the world. In the case of India, it occupies the central theme in the philosophy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, where he identified caste and social exclusion as the main blocks to the real attainment of the social democracy. This paper looks at the ways in which neo-liberal market-economy impacts social democracy as conceived by Dr. Ambedkar and examines its implications for the millions of ex-untouchables. It argues that the institution of social democracy, which flourished in India during the era of mixed economy and state welfares, seems to be fast approaching its demise under the ongoing process of neo-liberalisation. The paper further argues that the fast expanding domain of corporate sector and free flow of global capital, in conjunction with the gradual withdrawal of the welfare state, will not only widen inequalities, but also stifle the growth of social democracy in India.

Introduction
Social democracy occupies centre stage in the philosophy of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the constitution of Independent India and the messiah of millions of downtrodden, reverently called Baba Sahib. The dominant and oppressive social structures like caste and the resultant social exclusion are what he considered as the main stumbling blocks on the way to social democracy in India. For democracy to survive in a country like India, it must be rooted in social democracy. To help emerge genuine and true democracy in India, Dr. Ambedkar gives a clarion call for the ‘annihilation of caste’ through constitutional and democratic way. His emphasis on the total transformation of ‘public sphere’ in colonial and Independent India distinguishes him from his contemporaries who were more concerned with the political freedom of the country from the British rule and its consolidation afterwards. As far as Indian freedom struggle is concerned, the contributions of Dr. Ambedkar were second to none. Furthermore, he reiterated that the struggle for political freedom should be thoroughly embedded in the social democracy, which in turn is primarily based on social emancipation and empowerment of ex-untouchables while making their participation in the local structures of power active and significant. Thus, for Dr. Ambedkar the struggle for political freedom would not cease to exist with the historic mid-night celebrations at the Red Fort, it will continue rather uninterrupted until independent India achieves equality and fraternity, the two equally important components of the trinity mantra (liberty, equality and fraternity) to liberate the people from the thraldom of ignorance, slavery and poverty. It is in this context, that the social democratic vision of Dr. Ambedkar becomes central to his post independent political discourse and praxis in the country. To strengthen liberty with equality and fraternity at its base, and to imbibe the true spirit of democracy in the country, Dr. Ambedkar devoted his entire life to the cumbersome task of annihilating caste from the Indian society.
His vision of social democracy assumes added importance in the wake of neo-liberal reforms in India, particularly since 1991.The neo-liberal market-economy with singular focus on economic growth and profit, suffocates the delicate nurturing milieu of social democracy in India. Given its exclusive agenda of economic growth and profit, and insensitivities towards the rabid discriminatory social structures, will it be feasible for economic liberalization to plough through the arid land of caste hierarchies and rampant social exclusion – the main enemies of social democracy? Or would the neo-liberal free-market economy further deepen inequalities, caste hierarchies and social exclusion by tightening caste-rope around the neck of the incipient institutions of social democracy? Would it not delay, if not preclude, the often talked about trickle-down impact of the economic liberalization on the lives of the multitudes of the Indian poor with majority of them historically relegated to the periphery?

This paper looks at the ways in which neo-liberal market-economy impacts social democracy as conceived by Dr. Ambedkar and examines its implications for the millions of ex-untouchables. It argues that the institution of social democracy, which flourished in India during the era of mixed economy and state welfares, seems to be fast approaching its demise under the ongoing process of neoliberalisation. The paper further argues that the fast expanding domain of corporate sector and free flow of global capital, in conjunction with the gradual withdrawal of the welfare state, will not only widen inequalities, but also stifle the growth of social democracy, which Dr. Ambedkar thought to be the most pragmatic and viable way of putting an end to the oppressive social structures in India.
The paper is divided into three parts. The first, deals with the phenomenon of social democracy as articulated by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and the ways it helps downtrodden to improve their living conditions. How the institution of free market economy scuttles the essence of incipient institution of social democracy in India and the challenges it throws to the socially excluded sections of the society are also looked into. In the second, complex but intricate relationships between caste, poverty and neo-liberal market-economy are discussed. This part is based on a premise that neo-liberal market- economy not only deepens poverty but also strengthen the asymmetrical structures of caste, which in turn entrench the already existing social exclusion in the society. The third part draws heavily on the implications of the neo-liberal economic reforms for the emancipatory project of social democracy in India and the birth of new contradictions that it gave rise to the disadvantage of Dalits .

I
Ambedkar and the Dilemma of Social Democracy
Social democracy occupies centre stage in the philosophy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. It constitutes the core of his struggle against the historic social malady of graded inequality in India. This is what distinguished Dr. Ambedkar from the rest of the mainstream Indian freedom thinkers and fighters who were struggling primarily for the liberation of the country (political freedom) from the yoke of British Empire. Dr. Ambedkar expanded the meaning of political freedom by incorporating in its fold the less talked about issue of freedom from internal colonialism – caste based social exclusion. He assigned special importance to the principles of social democracy by championing the cause of the socially excluded sections of the Indian society. He wanted to strengthen the emerging sphere of political democracy in India by substantiating it with the institutionalisation of the less talked about phenomenon of social democracy. Dr. Ambedkar defines social democracy as: a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles … are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy (Three Historical Addresses 1999:53).

Frozen in the centuries old stratified structure of the Hindu social order, the principles of equality and fraternity are yet to find a clear expression and a significant space in the political democracy of independent India. Social life in India is still governed by the principle of birth-based graded inequality that tends to elevate some (upper castes) and degrades many (lower castes). Even after more than sixty four years of India’s independence and wide spread anti-untouchability laws, the so-called outcastes continue to be subjected to repulsion and all sorts of humiliations. They have continuously been deprived of education, human rights, social status, and equal opportunities in the field of art, culture, science and technology .

It is repulsion rather than fraternity that underlined the social structure of the Indian society. Repulsion promotes social exclusion. Repulsion is one of the three main agencies (the other two are hierarchy and hereditary occupation) of caste that determine the exclusionary boundaries of Indian social structures (Bougle 1971). In the views of Dr. Ambedkar:

In fact, it makes isolation of one caste from another a virtue. There is isolation in the class system. But it does not make isolation virtue nor does it prohibit social intercourse. The class system, it is true produces groups, but they are not akin to caste groups. The groups in the class system are only non-social while the castes in the caste systems are in their relations definitely and positively anti-social <http://www.ambedkar.org/Babasaheb/Commandments_of_Baba_Saheb.htm>

The caste based principle of repulsion, thus, generated mutual antagonism within the society that ultimately squeezed the required space for the deepening of social democracy in the country. The roots of democracy are to be searched in the fabric of social relationship/associated living (Chand 2005). Since caste thrives on mutual repulsion and complete rejection of fraternity, it goes against the norms of associated living that affects the machinery of the state by making public opinion impossible (Mungekar 2006:1). It introduces separation in the society, and generates jealousy and antipathy among the socially segregated inmates of the society. On the completion of the Draft Constitution (25 November 1949), Dr. Ambedkar sounded a grave warning in his famous address in the Constituent assembly: On the 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so labouriously built up (Three Historical Addresses 1999:53-54).

It seems that the Indian state has accorded some heed to the prophetic warning of Dr. Ambedkar. Independent India opted for a mixed economy model of development and introduced the system of reservation for the downtrodden in government jobs, education institutions and legislature. Legal provisions for reducing the enormous gap between the rich/upper and the poor/lower castes have been incorporated in the law book of the land. The preamble of the constitution clearly spells out the objectives of securing “to all its citizens JUSTICE, social, economic and political” as well as “EQUALITY of status and of opportunity”.
The social Democratic vision as nurtured during the freedom struggle as well as drafting of the constitution under the stewardship of Dr. Ambedkar got further reflected in the Resolution of the Government of India for the creation of the Planning Commission in March 1950. The Resolution clearly defined the scope of the work of the Planning Commission in the following terms: The Constitution of India has guaranteed certain Fundamental Rights to the citizens of India and enunciated certain Directive Principles of State Policy, in particular, that the State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life, and shall direct its policy towards securing, among other things –

(a) That the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood;
(b) That the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to sub serve the common good; and
(c) That the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment
(The First Five Year Plan: 1)

Thus an all inclusive vision of development and an egalitarian social order underlined the basic spirit of the constitution as well as the ambitious Five Year Planning projects of the Planning Commission of India. To translate the ideals of the founding fathers, a number of special provisions are incorporated in the constitution and the Resolution for the creation of the Planning Commission. State affirmative action is the most prominent among them. It aimed at overcoming historic caste-based social exclusion and oppression. Along with reservations in education, employment and legislature, rural development programme, public distribution system, public health programmes, cooperatives, the Right to Education Act, mid-day meals programme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Food Security Act, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana are a few more significant state initiatives taken over the last six decades since independence to help emerge social democracy in India. Yet another important measure towards the formation of social democracy has been a series of attempts, under the Directive Principles of state policy, to democratize and decentralize governance and the devolution of authority from the centre to the grass-roots (panchayati raj institutions). Thus the constitution of India, as aptly argued by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, is “a unique social charter – the boldest statement ever of social democracy” (Singh 2010:1). Whether these varied measures have been able to facilitate the growth of social democracy in India or not, is a matter of contention (Desai 2010:10). Nevertheless, the incorporation of such measures in the constitution is a vindication enough that the founding fathers of Independent India wanted to deepen the roots of liberal democracy while placing it on firm foundation of social democracy. However, the adoption of the neo-liberal market-economy model by India in 1991 dilutes the social welfare concerns of the Indian state. It is in this context that the institution of social democracy has come under dark clouds of the free market economy model in the country.

Neo-liberal market-economy is primarily based on delicensing, removal of import quotas, cutting down tariff levels, liberalisation of the inflow of foreign capital, capital goods, imported inputs, capital markets, industrial liberalisation, removal of MRTP constraints, opening of yet newer areas hitherto reserved for the public sector, tax concessions, voluntary retirement scheme, hidden closing of non-viable units, widespread use of contracted/casual labour, sub-contacting work to the small scale sector, taming labour etc (McCartney 2009: 212-13; Kohli 2006: 1361 & 1363) . Before Indian economy could actually open its gates to the surging tides of world market-economy, the study of economic liberalisation had already deepened its roots in the domain of social sciences in the country. However, in terms of content and scope, neoliberalism is yet to enter mainstream political sociology with vast body of pertinent literature remains confined to the discipline of economics (cf. Bardhan 2007: 397; Nayyar 2007:361-2). It rarely focuses on the intricate but often neglected relationship between caste and economy as well as contradictions between the emerging structures of neo-liberal market-economy and the incipient institutions of social democracy (see also Basu 2010: xvi; Thorat and Newman 2010:7). In other words, economic liberalisation, caste, social democracy and intersections among them constitute the core challenges that India face today.

Among the core challenges that contemporary India face, the issue of economic liberalisation seems to be the latest, while caste certainly remains the oldest. Caste, at the same time, also enjoys the dubious distinction of being the most perennial and complex phenomenon. As an exclusionary social phenomenon, it has eclipsed the Indian (read Hindu) society for ages and continues to affect its economy and polity even today so much so that it proves to be a stumbling block in the way of substantive democratisation from within. During the long spell of Muslim rule and the subsequent British Raj, the scourge of caste has expanded beyond imagination (Barrier 1968). In the postcolonial India, it assumed a new potent identity against its traditional hierarchised stance (Still 2009). The constitution-based state affirmative action has further aided the institutionalisation of caste as identity .

Social democracy figures somewhere in between these two above mentioned challenges. It, however, remains peripheral to the critical thinking of the builders of modern India. Although a sharp division between the moderates and the extremists within the Indian freedom struggle brought into focus social of the colonial India, the political, however, took precedence over the social in independent India. Ultimately, the form of democracy that India has come to acquire is a parliamentary democracy that in fact was implanted on Indian soil during the British rule. It did not evolve from within under natural conditions. Thus, despite the widespread belief about its ancient roots, it is considered to be of recent origin . But once it was transplanted, efforts were being made for its survival . It is in this context that social democracy becomes prerequisite for the survival of the parliamentary democracy in India.

The story of the emergence of social democracy in India is different from that of Europe. Unlike Europe and Latin America, Social democracy in India did not emerge as a response to rabid capitalism and economic depression. Instead, it started taking shape in colonial India, as aptly argued by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, “ to liberate ourselves from centuries of misrule, from the scourge of poverty, ignorance and disease, from tyranny and bigotry, from caste prejudice and communal divisions’’ (Singh 2010:1). Social democracy in India, thus, emerged as a response to deep rooted caste-based social disabilities as against the fiscal crisis of 1929 and the upheaval generated by the World War II in Europe. The central focus of social democracy in Europe was on economic equality (Desai 2010:9). Whereas, in India the main focus of social democracy has been on deepening democracy while empowering the downtrodden to come forward to democratically struggle for their long denied human rights as enshrined in the constitution. In other words, it is the ‘social’ as against the ‘economic’ that provided impetus to the rise of social democracy in India. It is in this regard that the role of state affirmative action becomes noteworthy, which aims at distributive justice that helps downtrodden to make equal contribution towards strengthening the base of liberal democracy. It intends to empower them in such a way that they reap the fruits of hard earned freedom, at par with the privileged twice born. In other words, state affirmative action aims at rescuing the Indian society from the clutches of centuries old institution of caste and the all pervasive social exclusion and discrimination embedded in it (Jacob 2009). It is in this context that the neo-liberal market-economy and the institution of social democracy come face to face in a mutually antagonistic posture with serious implication for the sustainability of the growing sapling of liberal democracy in India.

My key argument here is that social democracy in India is different from its counterpart in Europe. In India, it aims at building an indigenous base for the restoration of an egalitarian social order that in turn facilitate in internalisation of democratic values of equality, freedom and fraternity as incorporated in the constitution. It underscores the need of demolition of discriminatory social structures. Since democracy thrives on numbers in a closely contested sphere of electoral politics, the burden of tradition becomes too difficult to be avoided. Given the typical communal character of the electoral constituencies in India, caste has come to acquire a leading role in the arithmetic of electoral number game; thus blocking the ongoing process of deepening democracy in the country. There is a general impression that instead of blunting the fangs of caste, the institution of liberal democracy has further sharpened them (for communalisation of electoral process see: Juergensmeyer 1988: 22-32). How to overcome caste and similar other socially stagnating forces, is really an uphill task for the policy makers in India? It is in this context that social democracy aims at deepening the roots of liberal democracy in India – established on the pattern of British parliamentary setup – while facilitating ethnically divergent and socially fragmented vast majority of rural poor to become active participant in the political process at the grass-roots. In fact, the inherent contradiction between the indigenous institution of caste and the transplanted institution of democracy are what acted as stumbling blocks in the way of deepening the roots of democracy in India. This contradiction subsequently assumed the form of a tug-of-war between tradition and modernity (Gurumurthy 2009).

My another key argument is that the entry of neo-liberal market-economy in India in 1990s has further compounded the ongoing tug-of-war between tradition and modernity to the disadvantage of the latter by entrenching, albeit indirectly, the oppressive caste structures in the country (discussed in details below). In the tug-of-war between tradition and modernity, the institution of social democracy stands with modernity and openly confronts the forces of neo-liberal market-economy which quite interestingly seem to toe the line of the primordial and ascriptive institution of caste. Free market discriminates against the poor. Majority of the India Poor belong to lower castes. Thus, the free markets discriminate against the Dalits. Taking side with the lower caste victims of the ‘economics of market’, which are mercilessly excluded from the business domain, social democracy compensates them in ensuring a respectable space in the ‘politics of democracy’ . In other words, social democracy aims at overcoming the primordial and ascriptive hurdles in the way of arduous but steady march of liberal democracy in India.

Social democracy is thus aims at building an indigenous base for the restoration of an egalitarian social order and internalisation of democratic values of equality, freedom and fraternity. It aims at imbibing the spirit of constitutionalism among its people. It underscores annihilation of caste and caste-based social exclusion. There is a general impression that given the presence of caste in the social structure in the country and the typical communal character of its electoral constituencies, the former has been able acquire a leading role in the arithmetic of electoral number game in post-colonial India, thus blocking the way of social democracy.

It is in this context that the induction of neo-liberal economic reforms in India further complicates the existing contradictions between caste and democracy. Neo-liberal economic reforms were adopted to bridle the ever-increasing menace of fiscal crisis and to help India get rid of its chronic poverty. The problem of chronic poverty in India, however, seems to be not merely an economic issue. It has equally been rooted rather more deeply in the asymmetrical social structures of its Brahminical social order, which finds its natural ally in the fast expanding operations of new-liberal market economy in the country. It is against this backdrop that the project of economic liberalisation seems to block the way of nascent institution of social democracy in India.

Neo-liberal Economy v/s Social Democracy
The neo-liberal market-economy model runs in the opposite direction of the well conceived social democracy model of Dr. Ambedkar. The profit driven paradigm of free market economy accords no importance whatsoever to the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. The only value that it considered worth of honouring is the value of unrestrained and free flow of capital without least interference by the institution of the state. This new paradigm of neo-liberal market economy did not confront at all with the pre-modern institution of caste in India. On the contrary, caste and market nurture close relationship within the paradigm of neo-liberal market-economy. They reinforce each other. Market thrives on capital and profit. Since capital has traditionally been accumulated by the upper castes who have been able to establish their monopoly over the economy of the country, the free market economy, based as it is on the unrestrained flow of capital, tends to promote the interests of the upper castes rather more confidently. It welcomes them with enormous opportunities and hefty profits. But at the same time, it ignores the ex-untouchables who lack the requisite capital.

In the traditional Hindu social system, the ex-untouchables were kept at distance from the capital through the mechanism of purity-pollution principle. They were not allowed to own land, possess precious metals and keep certain kind of animal. Whereas in the present system of the free market economy, they were forced to be fence sitter precisely because they did not possess the desired amount of capital or capacity, which are passports to enter into business in the market economy. Earlier, the ex-untouchables were denied all sort of access to capital in the name of sacred scriptures. Now, they were kept at a distance because free market economy does not entertain them because they do not show capital. It is in this context that the dialectics of inverse relationship between democracy and untouchability and the complimentarity between market and caste assumes an added importance for the understanding of the impact of globalisation on the life of the Dalits in India in general and the structures of social democracy in the country in particular.

II

Caste, Democracy and Market: The Boiling Cauldron
The question of the survival of democracy in India is linked with the rooting of social democracy in the country. Social democracy, in turn, is strongly confronted by the well-entrenched institution of caste in India. What further strengthens caste, ironically, is the inherited institution of parliamentary democracy. Caste and democracy are locked in a peculiar relationship. Traditionally, caste assigns rights to some and excludes many from the public domain merely on the basis of birth. As a pristine discriminatory social system, it permeated and continues to permeate almost all fields of the Indian society even today Every thing is organised around it, as Thorat notes, ‘in unequal measures of social, religious, economic relations and rights’(2002). Opposed to the exclusionary nature of the institution of caste, democracy, on the other hand, is based on liberal legacy of “equal dignity and worth of all persons” (Meyer & Hinchman 2007:10). It promotes popular participation and freedom of action and speech. Caste as mentioned earlier shelved all such liberal principles that in turn render democracy into a farce. Though caste and democracy are antithetical to each other, but in certain respects politicisation of caste is flagged as having a positive impact on the deepening of democracy in post-colonial India. Scholars, of late, have started recognizing the fact that once caste structures get politicized they help in deepening democracy which in turn empowers the marginalised sections of the society (Yadav 1999; Palshikar 2004). Delivering a lecture on “Democracy and its Critics” organized by the United Nations Foundation, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen notes, ‘here is a need for caution, however, for those who believe that invocation of caste in any form in democracy is an evil force. As long as caste is invoked in speaking for a lower caste or uniting it, it is good’ (Hindu: 16 December 2005). Such a pragmatic view of caste eclipses the common conjecture predicated on the idea that the onset of the modernity project would inevitably render the institution of caste invalid as a power index in the long run. Politicisation of caste, however, does not go well with the grammar of fast economic growth model of the neo-liberal market-economy, which sharply underlines the phenomenon of the rollback of the state as a stumbling block in the way of economic growth and democracy.

What further complicates the process of deepening of democracy in India is the intermeshing of caste and poverty. The problem of poverty in India is not merely an economic issue as discussed above (cf. Sunil Khilnani, The Hindu, September 24, 2009). It is equally well entrenched in the asymmetrical caste structures of the Brahminical social order, which in turn, as Alam (2004: xvii) argues, ‘defy every norm of democratic justice, even of decency’. It is against this backdrop that the status of Dalits who have been pushed to the bottom of the social hierarchy in the Indian society needs to be examined rather critically in the wake of the implementation of neo-liberal economic reforms in the country.

The bulk of Dalit population in India falls in the category of below poverty line. Majority of Dalit population continue to live in: extreme poverty without land or opportunities for better employment or education. With the exception of a minority who have benefited from India’s policy of quotas in education and government jobs, Dalits are relegated to the most menial of tasks, as manual scavengers, removers of human waste and dead animals, leather workers, street sweepers, and cobblers. Dalit children make up the majority of those sold into bondage to pay off debts to upper caste creditors. Dalit men, women, and children numbering in the tens of millions work as agricultural labourers for a few kilograms of rice or Rs. 15 to Rs. 35 (US $0.38 to $0.88) a day (Human Rights Watch 1999:2).

Another factor that distinguishes poverty stricken Dalits from the poor of the upper caste in the country is their social exclusion. Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and the other poor of the upper castes are generally clubbed in the category of economically deprived (economic exclusion) sections of the society. Historically, Dalits have been deprived of social, economic and political rights including the right to education and employment. In the rural areas, most of Dalits earn their livelihood as landless agricultural labourers and in towns as labourers and menial workers. In both the rural and urban sectors, Dalits live in segregated colonies and slums respectively.

The relationship between caste and poverty seems to be of symbiotic nature. They reinforce each other and often club together in posing a serious challenge to the nascent institution of social democracy in India. The inextricably intertwined phenomena of caste and poverty is so well entrenched that it has failed to recede back even after the adoption of economic reform measures in India in 1991. On the contrary, the latter has further been strengthening the anti-democracy nexus between caste and poverty in the country.

The capital intensive and profit driven model of neo-liberal market-economy has, in fact, not only flared up the dormant caste contradictions in India, but has also brought into light some fresh ones between Dalits and various ‘Backward and Other Backward Classes’ that have mushroomed in the post-Mandal era. Though the neo-liberal market- economy has been promised to provide an ample space to the socially excluded sections of the society by opening new and unrestrained opportunities for them in the fast emerging domain of free market economy in India, but the reality is the other way round. The neo-liberal market-economy has failed to ward off the contagious effect of the hoary and exclusionary institution of caste in India. Untouchability and democracy are antithetical. Democracy is totally negated in the scheme of untouchability. Democracy is premised on the liberal principles of freedom, equality and fraternity. On the contrary, untouchability thrives amidst inequality and denial of human rights. It promotes social segregation and denies freedom to the socially excluded sections of the society. It rests on asymmetrical social structures of difference and domination that preclude democracy to emerge in its natural stance. It is at this crucial juncture of vendetta between democracy and untouchability, the institution of free market economy enters into the whirlpool of caste contradictions in the social set up of the country.

In the tug-of-war between democracy and constitutionally rendered illegal institution of untouchability, the forces of the free market economy sided with the latter. They strengthen the hands of the capital rich upper castes by making it almost impossible for the capital starved ex-untouchables to participate in the glamorous domain of finance capital. Since capital lies mostly with the upper castes, it is only they who matter the most in the multiplexes/malls of the new market economy. It is only they to whom the market has been pushing into billionaires (Damodaran 2008). There is hardly anyone from the ex-untouchables communities in India who have joined the elite club of the billionaires. Thus market does not only favour the upper castes, it also accentuates the gulf between the rich and the poor. Since poor and lower castes are co-terminus, market further marginalizes the lower castes by preventing them from entering into business operations.

If untouchability debarred the ex-untouchables from the public sphere, the free market economy discourages them from entering into the domain of business. If the former had squeezed the ‘public’ or the ‘social’ into ‘public’ or the ‘social’ of the privileged few (the savarnas/dvijas [upper castes]) only; the later seems to have mortgaged the entire economic domain of the country to the upper castes only. Market elevated a few upper castes and degraded many socially excluded lower castes. Quite interestingly, untouchability and free market economy join together in favouring the upper castes with immense wealth/privileges as against the lower castes who in spite of working hard have to live a life of abject poverty and severe deprivations. This in turn deprives them (lower castes) substantially of the periodic opportunities to compete for power berth in the electoral bogies of the political democracy in the country. Elections over the years, in fact, have become very costly affairs. They are beyond the reach of the poor and socially excluded sections of the society. Thus social exclusion and poverty deprive the lower castes of the opportunity to compete on equal footings with their rich and upper castes rivals in the limited electoral arena of the political democracy in India.

Thus it is in the above discussed context that untouchability used to preclude deepening of democracy in India by supporting the oppressive social structures of power in the country. It is in this very context that free market economy and social democracy become incompatible. Thus the neo-liberal free market economy model by virtue of its being anti poor and anti lower caste has ultimately led to squeezing the already skimpy space hard earned by the nascent institution of social democracy in India. Since social equality and freedom are inseparable, political democracy without social democracy is farce. In the absence of social democracy, the socially excluded sections of the society would find it difficult to participate effectively in the process of the political democracy. It raises the most obvious and perennial question of freedom: political v/s social and economic.

Freedom: Social v/s Political
Though political liberation from the British rule was the central theme of the Indian freedom movement, the question of freedom had never been merely a ‘political’ issue in colonial India. It had always been intertwined with the ‘social’ of the country. In other words, the question of freedom from the external/British rule was closely tied with the much larger as well as complex internal question of freedom from the oppressive Hindu caste system in the country. But the mainstream anti-imperial stance of the Indian freedom movement failed to address the later larger question of social exclusion of the vast number of downtrodden/ex-Untouchables of India who were sandwiched between the oppressive systems of internal colonialism of Hinduism on the one hand, and British colonialism, on the other. The ex-Untouchables were, thus, doubly oppressed. They had no hope for any relief whatsoever from the Hindu social order as it was based on the doctrine of permanent inequality in every sphere of life . Their social conditions too remained almost unchanged even during the long spell of the so-called liberal minded British rulers who probably did not like to touch the institution of caste lest it unleash revolt from within the upper caste hegemonized Hindu society (Ambedkar speech at Roundtable). On the contrary, the British rulers rather reinforced caste as it helped them in some ways in maintaining their hold over colonial India (Thekaekara 2005). Though the constitution of independent India has provided ample space to the inherited institution of democracy, it has yet to overcome the subtle legacies of centuries old caste structures in the country.

Since Hindu society is intensely rooted in the pre-modern system of caste-based social hierarchies, it openly clashed with the liberal principles of equality and liberty. It is basically indifferent to the liberal principles of individual worth and justice, which blocked the way for the natural growth of the social democracy in the country. Caste inculcates a sense of complete alienation among those who have been condemned to live separately as ‘outcastes’ away from the mainland habitations of the upper castes. The goal of Political freedom of the people of India can never be accomplished in the real sense of the term until and unless the deprivations and sufferings of the large numbers of the ex-Untouchables are removed by completely annihilating the oppressive caste system of the Hindu society (Ambedkar 1995[1936]). In the words of Dr. Ambedkar, “Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy” (Three Historical Addresses 1999:53). Social democracy, in fact, is the ‘cornerstone’ of the edifice of political democracy in India. Saheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, one of most prominent of the few forerunners of the institution of social democracy in India, also expressed the similar views, of course much earlier, in his less quoted article published in the June issue of Kirti 1929. He was of the firm opinion that Political freedom gained from the British colonialism could not last long if failed to be accompanied by a massive social and economic reforms measures for the transformation of the rotten undertaken in the internal social set up of the country.

The next section attempts to explore, how free market economy operations under the phenomenon of globalisation have affected the lives of the marginalised sections of the Indian society, which had, hitherto, been looking towards the state for some support to stand on their own feet. Since the very logic of globalisation is based on the notion that welfare state is a hindrance in the way of the global free market economy, it contained no space for the welfare of the socially excluded and marginalized sections of the society. This has further deepened the marginalisation and exclusion of the downtrodden and has severely limited the possibilities of their emancipation in the neo-liberal free market economy system of globalisation. It is against this backdrop that the processes of globalisation and the principles of social democracy come into an open clash.

III

Globalisation, Dalits and Social Democracy
Globalisation is based on the principle of unrestrained functioning of the free market-economy. In the paradigm of globalisation, state is reduced into a sort of security mechanism to protect its citizens from internal disruption and external threats. State is not supposed to care for the social and economic interests of its citizens. It is argued that the social and material interests of the citizens would be better served if they were left free to flourish in the market ‘prompted by the profit motive to supply essential services’. The Neo-liberal argument goes further by highlighting the point that the interests of the individuals are best served by maximum market freedom and minimum intervention by the state. Thus globalisation robs the state of its welfare functions. On the contrary, the principle of social democracy calls upon state to play a positive role for the protection as well as promotion of the interests of the downtrodden. It expects that state need not be confined solely to law and order system; it is expected to function as a harbinger of social and economic justice as well. It is in this context that the extended contractarian tradition of the welfare state comes into head-on-collision with the forces of neo-liberal market-economy in the contemporary domain of globalisation.

Globalisation, thus, poses a serious challenge to the formation of social democracy in India. It is often paraded as a custodian of enormous ‘opportunities’. But such ‘opportunities’ are and whom they benefit is a question that directly concerns the Dalits. In an existential asymmetrical world, where we actually live, such opportunities open many doors to the haves. But the interests of the have-nots, a large majority of whom happen to be low castes, socially excluded, tribal, women, and other vulnerable sections of the society, are often neglected. The socially excluded sections of the society are the worst victims of much-hyped Special Economic Zones [SEZs] and the resultant consequent process of forced displacement (Ahlawat 2008; Palit 2008; Partha 2008; Kumar 2007; Gill 2007; Shankar 2007; Shankar 2008; Sampat 2008; Sharma 2009; and Sarma 2007). This has led to further perpetuation and deepening of the social and economic inequities, which in turn seriously diminish the values and principle of social justice in the society. In other words, it deepens the perennial evil of social exclusion through its much advertised project of new economic reforms, which in effect is less about ‘reforms, and more about ‘exclusion’. It has led to the closure of various industrial units in the public sector that “played havoc with the employment scenario of the populace as a whole and of the Dalits in particular” (Puniyani 2002) This, in turn, has increased unemployment and poverty on the one hand, and widened the hiatus between the rich/upper castes and the poor/lower castes on the other. In the first decade of the new economic reforms in India, the ratio of both unemployment and poverty increased from 28 per cent in 1989 to 48 per cent in 1992.

Marginalisation of the Marginalised
Since Dalits constitute the bulk of the poor and unemployed, they have suffered the most. Their chances of acquiring jobs in the high-tech industry at home as well as in the multinational corporations have been getting curtailed since the beginning of the process of globalisation in India. The system of primary and elementary education in the rural and urban settings has been subverted almost totally. Since, majority of the rich upper caste send their wards to the private/convent/public schools, government schools have been reduced into dysfunctional centres of learning for the poor Dalits. It is simply out of the reach of the matriculates of such neglected government schools, where hardly any infrastructure and teachers are available, to be able to compete for admission in the prestigious Information Technology (IT) or management schools. Moreover, since the background of a majority of Dalit undergraduates is in Arts and Humanities, it becomes difficult for them to meet the job requirements of the multinational corporations. Even if some of the Dalits aspire to compete in the technology driven new job market, it would be, perhaps, out of their reach to acquire the requisite qualifications at exorbitant rates from various engineering and management institutes. It is precisely due to these reasons that Dalits are rarely to be found in the prestigious management schools all over the country.

Dalits happened to be the beneficiaries of state’s affirmative action before India entered into the realm of neo-liberal free market-economy. The Indian state had brought some improvements in the lives of Dalits by making special provisions to provide them education, employment, respectable wages, access to land, water, health, housing and other resources. But the welfarist stance of the Indian state gave way to a new system of free market-economy in 1990s. One of the main tasks of this new paradigm is to force the roll back process of the welfare state and to allow the market forces to operate in an unrestrained manner. The pro-market stance of globalisation has led to the widening of the gap between the privileged few and the large mass of the marginalized sections of the society. It further led to marginalisation of the already marginalized people, thus widening the gulf of inequity in the society (Kumar 2007). Dalit labourers, daily wage workers and workers in the informal sector among them suffer the most. In other words, globalisation process severely affects some categories of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who are deprived of jobs, and face great difficulties in accessing housing, drinking water, food, healthcare, education, and employment. Thus the way globalisation affects the life of a Scheduled Caste worker differs significantly from that of the non-Scheduled Caste one.

In a caste-based hierarchical and graded social setup where lower social status and economic backwardness seems to be coterminous, social rank plays an important role in determining one's economic status. Globalisation further aggravates this vicious interrelationship between social and economic backwardness. The logic of economic globalisation favours the rich, who can invest and multiply capital. The favoured rich are mostly found among the so-called traditional ‘upper castes’ that have monopolised land and other economic resources in the country. It has made them prominent in the newly carved out vast private space of the open market. In other words, capital and caste have joined hands against labour and the principle of state social welfare it has led to an alliance between the forces of the market and the upper castes – much to the disadvantage of the marginalised and the lower castes.

Another way through which the process of globalisation has been affecting the lives of the Dalits rather more severely is the transformation of their traditional hereditary occupations into lucrative profit seeking competitive avenues where they find themselves incapable of competing with the so called upper castes who until very recently used to consider such professions as polluting. In other words, when the occupations of sewage disposal, scavenging and raw hides were performed in the Jajmani (hereditary system of asymmetrical reciprocity and patronage between landlords and occupational experts) set up, bereft of profit incentive, Dalits were forced to take them up. But when these same occupations became profit-generating businesses, Dalits find themselves at odd in their own tested fields. It is in this context that the process of globalisation perpetuates the system of caste and inequality albeit in a new form. Instead of liberating them, it further pins them down. Earlier they were excluded and were condemned as shudras because of their closeness to the sewages, now it excludes them by way of defeating them in the profit oriented open market system of the neo-liberal economy. In fact, this market is open only for those who have the capital to play the profit game on the chessboard of its unrestrained competition. In this new profit driven game of the process of globalisation, Dalits – normally starved of capital – stand disqualified.

Yet another way through which the process of globalisation severely affects the lives of the Dalits is the accentuation of the phenomenon of their exclusion from land. Significant parts of the vast majority of them who live in villages are landless labourers. Only a small number of them are cultivators with marginal holdings. The large-scale landlessness on the part of the Dalits led to their dependence on the upper caste land owning communities, which in turn deepened the caste based inequalities with the additional burden of asymmetrical class structures. The neo-liberal economic policies adopted under the regimes of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation widen already existing caste and class divisions between the Dalits and the dominant castes, and further minimises the chances of the emergence of a sense of solidarity among different communities.

Moreover, atrocities against Dalits (social boycott, kidnapping, murder, abduction, bonded labour, intimidation, rape, honour killings and residential segregation) have also increased many folds during the economic reforms measures. Tapan Basu in his engaging review of Anand Teltumbde’s latest book on Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop writes, “[t]he paradox of Indian modernity is that it instigates Dalits to fight for social justice, even as more and more social injustices are heaped upon them everyday” (Hindu, December 7, 2008). It is this heightened amount of Dalit atrocities wrapped in a double foil of chronic poverty and emerging Dalit assertion that has in fact come to challenge the much hyped neo-liberal market-economy model and the promise that it flags for the deepening of democracy in India. There has been about a three-fold rise in cases of crime against Dalits such as murders, grievous hurt, rape, social boycott etc during the last decade and half (Puniyani 2002). Late Suraj Bhan, the then Chairman of the National Sc and ST Commission, while speaking in a seminar on Reservation In Privatisation organised by the Ambedkar Trust (Jalandhar), commented that more than 45,000 cases of atrocities against Dalits and downtrodden have been registered in India during the past one year alone. However, if the numbers of those cases, which were either suppressed or went unnoticed, are included, the total figure could easily go up to one hundred thousand (The Tribune September 5, 2005). During 2003-05 the number of such atrocities against Dalits was 69,216 (Mungekar 2006).

Talhan, Meham, Dulina, Gohana, Saalwan, Chakwada, Khairlanji, Khandamal and Mirchpur are some of the recent instances of atrocities against Dalits in India. Atrocities against Dalits thus continue to exist even today, despite constitutional safeguards, and various legislative measures. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its report on the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes released in 2002 pointed out that there was “virtually no monitoring of the implementation of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act at any level” (Narrain 2006). This clearly shows how vulnerable Dalits are in the wake of globalisation. In the opinion of Christine Moliner, a French anthropologist who visited the 4th World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai in January 2004, “[t]he Indian state has in recent years often proved itself unable or unwilling to protect Dalit; indeed, state representatives – police especially – are frequently accused of active participation in anti-Dalit violence” (Moliner 2004: 2; see also Mungekar 2006:2). How can the Indian state save the socially excluded if its own security agencies remain immersed in the pre-modern institution of caste?


Sharpening the Contradictions

Dalits constitute a significant proportion of the total population of India. How can India surge upward if it fails to care for the interest of the total 16.23 per cent Scheduled Castes population (Census of India 2001), which can promptly swell further if clubbed with the population of different categories of Backward and Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Tribes? No doubt the Indian constitution contains many provisions, thanks to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, but how much the Indian state has actually done for the uplift of those on the socio-political margins is open to debate. To quote Dr Ambedkar:

…that political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of a few and the many are not only beasts of burden, but also beasts of prey. This monopoly has not merely deprived them of their chance of betterment, it has sapped them of what may be called the significance of life. These down-trodden classes are tired of being governed, they are impatient to govern themselves. This urge for self-realization in the down-trodden classes must not be allowed to develop into a class of struggle or class war. It would lead to a division of the house. That would indeed be a day of disaster (Three Historical Addresses 1999: 55).

Even after 60 years when Dr Ambedkar echoed these words, majority of the Scheduled Castes are still landless. No systematic efforts have been made for the implementation of land reforms. A large majority of Dalit population remains landless. Even the provisions of minimum wages were never adhered to (Chopra 2008b: 2).
Globalisation has further sharpened the already existing contradictions between political equality on the one hand and social and economic inequality on the other. It has deprived Dalits of whatever little they have in the name of so-called fast development under the model of free market-economy. There exists no space for them at all in the glamorous showrooms of no-liberal market-economy –-Special Economic Zones (SEZs). These fabulous zones are yet to be tamed to accommodate the ever-increasing vast multitudes of downtrodden section of the society who could no longer be denied any more of their due share in the varied structures of power.

Downtrodden, in fact, are tired of being ‘governed’ for centuries, and are impatient to take control of their own destinies. However, whatever little space was available to them to dream the possibility of their betterment seems to have been grabbed by the forces of neo-liberal market-economy in the name of quick development. Their patience and ‘urge for self-realization’ can no longer be tested. Articulating the urge of the downtrodden for self-realization during his famous address on the completion of the Draft Constitution on 25 November 1949, Dr. Ambedkar cautioned that:
… the sooner room is made for the realization of their aspiration, the better for the few, the better for the country, the better for the maintenance of its independence and better for the continuance of its democratic structure. This can be done by the establishment of equality and fraternity in all spheres of life … (Three Historical Addresses 1999:55).

Similar views were expressed after 50 years by K. R. Narayanan, the President of India, in his address to the nation on January 25, 2000: “Beware of the fury of the patient and long suffering people” (as quoted in Puri 2006: 7). In a similar vein, Pratibha Patil, President of India, in her Republic Day-eve address reiterated that the disadvantaged: too should find a place to enjoy the sunshine of the country’s growth and development… Our efforts and our commitment, while pursuing the goal of high growth rates, should be to ensure that all people of our country benefit from it. Our pledge will remain unfulfilled until, as Gandhi had said, ‘we have wiped every tear in every eye’ ” (as cited in Iyer 2008).

The benefits of globalisation are yet to reach these ‘patient and long suffering people’ who never shirk from toiling labour. But the free market-economy driven forces advocate the concerns of the rich and resourceful only. This widens the gap between the rich and the poor. The widening gap coupled with the rolling back of the state has lead to further resentment and alienation among the downtrodden, thus jeopardising the democratic set up in the country. It is in this overarching context of social democracy that the responsibility and the task of safeguarding the developmental character of the Indian state, especially with regard to the empowerment of Dalits, become very crucial.

The benefits of globalisation are yet to reach these ‘patient and long suffering people’ who never shirk from hard work and toiling labour. But the free market economy driven forces advocate the concerns of the rich and resourceful only. This widens the gap between the rich and the poor. The widening gap coupled with the rolling back of the state lead to further resentment and alienation among the downtrodden that in turn put pressure on the practice of democracy in the country (Singh 2006). Baba Sahib Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was very well aware, much in advance, about the serious implications of the lopsided development for the growth of social democracy in a caste ridden country like India. He therefore underlined the inclusion of the downtrodden into the governmental set-up of the country. For that he emphasised that the safe route goes via total annihilation of caste and in that the role of the state is of utmost importance. If globalisation implies pushing the state out, then the future of the project of social democracy seems to be very bleak. It is in this context that the responsibility and the task of safeguarding the developmental character of the Indian state becomes very crucial more so for the empowerment of Dalits in particular and strengthening the forces of social democracy in India in general.

Though a lot has already been said about the desired human and humane face of globalisation based on global governance, such claims sound rather hollow for the marginalised sections of the society. The free market-economy has not only failed to liberate them, it has rather further pinned them down. Downtrodden are not welcomed in the sphere of market as equal partners of profit. In other words, the market too practices ‘untouchability’, albeit in a different form. They feel alienated in the very world that promises to empower them. Howsoever strong and robust the free market-economy might appear to be, in long run it will not survive until and unless the question of the marginalised sections is addressed sincerely. In fact, the question of equitable distribution of resources is closely related with the issue of the immediate and amicable redressal of the causes of marginalization and exclusion of the Dalits from the mainstream. The marginalized are to be provided not only with low price wheat, rice and pulses as has been popularly done in some Indian states. What is equally essential is to empower them, to enhance their buying capacity in the real sense of the term by dismantling the structures of economic and social dominations. As warned by George Tong-Boon Yeo, Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister, at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Partnership Summit in Bangalore: If we are not concerned of the stresses of globalisation, ideological counter-currents will emerge. Globalisation is not a bed of roses. There is a need to be watchful, always, (The Hindu, March 19, 2007).

In other words, a balance needs to be created between the forces of market and the principles of social justice. It is in this context that Baba Sahib Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s warning, as referred to in the beginning of the paper, assumed critical importance. The globalisation process has been compelling India to bind up as early as possible its most sought after projects of social and economic justice aiming at empowering the Dalits. In other words, before social democracy could take firm roots in India, the state started rolling back from its commitment to facilitate the process of emancipation and empowerment of the downtrodden classes.

Dalits are now no longer confined within the rural settings and patron-client relationship. Some of them have been able to move into mainstream sectors of non-polluting professions and a few of them ventured abroad. Now the relatively better off Dalits come forward to articulate the interests of their brethren and to some extant they have been successful in providing them with an alternative leadership. Dalits who have once tasted the fruit of political equality can no longer be denied further any more their long overdue social and economic rights. Nothing short of structural transformation including the free market based system of economic domination on the one hand and the traditional Varna system of four-fold occupational division based on graded social hierarchy on the other could provide them their long denied basic human rights. In fact, in India the problem of Dalits is not just linked to the economic forces emanating from the spheres of the free market economy. It has equally been made complex by the all pervasive caste ridden social order. It seems that market and caste have joined hands to pose a most serious challenge to the nascent institution of social democracy in India.

There is a general impression that some of the Dalits have been able to strengthen their economic position through sheer hard work and enterprise. Although the constitutional affirmative action played an important role in the uplift of the Dalits in general, their individual efforts to wriggle out of the abyss of social exclusion through the mechanism of localised social struggles armed with Dalit-Bahujan ideology, along with their ventures abroad, has turned out to be of crucial importance. Some of them have established their own small-scale servicing units such as carpentry, barber, blacksmith shops etc thus saying good bye to their low rank hereditary occupations (for details see: Ram 2010; Ram 2004a: 5-7). In addition, they have also been politicized to a large extent by the socio-political activities of the various regional Dalit movements and the consequent emergence of distinct ‘Dalit counterpublic’ in the form of an alternative religious sphere, popularly known as Dalit deras (Ram 2008; Ram 2009a; Ram 2009b). Their improved economic status has not only liberated them from the subordination of the upper castes but also encourage them to aspire for a commensurate social status. The upsurge of a consciousness among Dalits to aspire for dignity and social justice seem to bring them in direct confrontation with the new forces unleashed by the free market-economy. Since free market-economy is premised on the withdrawal of state from the economic-welfare domain, it leads, consequently, to the demise of the institution of social democracy based as it was on the social welfare pillars of the state.

Economic liberalisation regimes in India can no longer ignore the stark realities of unequal and discriminatory patterns of its social life and chronic poverty. Any attempt to work out the economy in isolation of the hard-core social realities would have serious and far-reaching implication not only for Indian polity and society but also for its economy in the long run. It is in this context that the project of economic liberalisation needs to be understood, in consonance with the complex ‘social’ and ‘political’ of the Indian economy. To get rid of centuries-old caste-based social discriminations, exclusion and chronic poverty of millions of downtrodden in India, the ambitious project of economic liberalisation, perhaps, needs to be clubbed together with another equally ambitious project aiming at total transformation of the entire gamut of Hindu social order; thoroughly cleaning its long accumulated muck of hereditary occupation and repulsion. Can economic liberalisation alone help generate new avenues for rapid economic growth and equal opportunities (‘growth with redistribution’ or ‘capitalism with a human face’) for all in a society like India marked by rampant social hierarchies and inequalities? This is an urgent and critical issue that needs serious attention. That is what Dr. Ambedkar strongly pleaded for in his capacity as a Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution for Independent India and also as an organic leader of millions of downtrodden. Can economic liberalisation alone help generate new avenues for rapid economic growth and equal opportunities (‘growth with redistribution’ or ‘capitalism with a human face’) for all in a society like India doted with rampant social hierarchies and inequalities? This is an urgent and uphill task that needs serious attention. And it is in this context that social democratic vision of Dr Ambedkar assumes critical importance. Failure to engage with this vision is likely to result in further perpetuation of chronic poverty and inequalities leading to social unrest and political violence, with the downtrodden and the marginalized becoming the worst victims.

This paper is a slightly revised draft of what I read at national seminar on Invoking Ambedkar – Contributions, Receptions, Legacies, organised by Institute of Development Studies. Kolkata (March 11-12, 2011). I am grateful to Amiya K. Bagchi, Sukhadeo Thorat, Nandu Ram, Rowena Robinson and Debi Chatterjiee for critical inputs.

Notes
The term ‘Dalit’ is used in this paper, as a social category that incorporates the Scheduled Castes (SCs), the Scheduled Tribes (STs), and the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) – constitutional categories referring to socially and/as well as economically excluded sections of the Indian society. However, in the current political discourse, the term Dalit is mainly confined to the SCs only. To be more precise, it covers only those SCs who are classified as Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists but excludes Muslim and Christian Dalits. They were subjected to forced and customary undignified labour, precisely because of their low birth. Thus, Dalit is the “politically correct” nomenclature for the ex-untouchables who traditionally have been placed at the lowest rung of the Hindu caste hierarchy and were contemptuously called by different names like Shudras, Atishudras, Achhuts, Antyajas, Chandalas, Pariahs, Dheds, Panchamas, Avarnas, Namashudras, Adi-Dravida, Ad Dharmis, Mazhabis, Depressed Classes, Harijans, and Scheduled Castes. They were forced to live on the segregated peripheries of the mainstream rural settings. In the Urban sectors they are confined to shanty colonies in slums. According to the 2001 census, 22.59 percent of the total urban population in India was living in slums. A large number of them happened to be Dalits.

Untouchability splits people into distinct and seamless geographical settings. It blocks the channels of effective communication among different castes especially between the upper and the lower castes by erecting permanent barriers of social exclusion. It is a nefarious system/mechanism of ghettoising a large number people into the periphery of a mainstream social realm. Despite its practice being declared a criminal offence in the Constitution of independent India, first under the Protection of Civil Rights [Anti-Untouchability] Act of 1955 and later on under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, it continues to exist even today in the form of separate Scheduled Castes settlements in the country, especially in the rural sector where most people still live (Rajagopal 2007). The spatial segregation of the ex-untouchables has become a formidable hurdle in the realisation of social democracy in India. Untouchability, by its very nature, negates the very possibility of the rise of an egalitarian social order. It inculcates a sense of complete alienation among those who have been condemned to live separately as ‘outcastes’ away from the mainland habitations of the upper castes.

For a detailed account of developmental planning and the setting up of the planning commission see: Kudaisya 2009:939-78.
For list of reforms see: Frankel 2005; Jenkins 1999: 16-28; and Kumar 2000.

In the constitution of Independent India caste has been accorded a distinct place in the form of state affirmative action. The lower castes, legally referred to as Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the constitution of independent India, are provided reservation in the fields of education, Government/Public Sector jobs and the legislature in order to help them in overcome their chronic social exclusion. The phenomenon of the reservation of SCs, however, has brought ‘caste’ into the centre stage of the electoral politics in independent democratic India.

For a discussion on the ancient roots of democracy in India see: Jayaswal 1978 fifth ed, [1924].
Ashutosh Varshney identified three basic conditions for the survival of democracy in the West: “universal suffrage came to most Western democracies only after the Industrial Revolution, which meant that the poor got the right to vote only after those societies had become relatively rich; a welfare state attended to the needs of low-income segments of the population; and the educated and the wealthy have tended to vote more than the poor” (Varshney 2007:93). He argued cogently that none of these three conditions exist in India. Universal adult suffrage was introduced in India long before the advent of the industrial economy. As far as welfare state is concerned, India was not a match to that of the West. And thirdly, poor citizen tend to vote more in India than the rich (Varshney 2007: 93-94).
For ‘economics of market’ and politics of democracy’ phrases, I am indebted to Deepak Nayyar (Nayyar 2007:362—69).
In the Hindu social order, rights were not granted on the basis of an individual’s personal worth. They are, in fact, granted or denied on the basis of one’s social status in the Hindu caste hierarchy (Thorat 2002). For those who had been pushed to the bottom of the hierarchy, it hardly matter whether they enjoy any human rights or not (Ramaswamy 2001).
It is in this context that Dr. Ambedkar spoke forcefully in the London Roundtable conferences against the British rule in India.

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Posted on www.ambedkartimes.com dated June 22, 2012

My final words of advice to you are Educate, Agitate and Organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can loose our battle.
The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or
for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality?
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

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