Dalit Politics: Is it brainchild of British?

-          Arya Shubham Verma

Dalit Politics, Is it brainchild of British? Why this question comes into my mind that I am sharing with you in this article. Since my schooling time, I always hear this argument in which people says- “Dalits are lower caste and they are very poor, because they are being oppressed by Upper Caste Hindus, like Brahmins, Kshatriya etc. and that’s why they are getting reservation in every field so that they can also improve their condition in the society.” I did not find anything wrong in that logic during my schooling but when I grown up , I found some contradictory information which questions on this particular argument, like I have found several Upper Caste poor people and I have also found some lower caste rich people than I have also seen that most of the villages are not discriminating people on the basis of so called caste but it is more like a rich v/s poor thing. One more noticeable thing was that that -In Odisa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and in bigger part of North East, the population of Tribals or so called lower caste is more than that of Upeer caste than who opressed whom in these places. Similarly, in Kashmir, Kerela or Bengal, Nagaland. The population of Muslim and Christians is more than How can someone blamed complete India for descriminating on Hindu lower caste. Yes, I have seen places where people are discriminating some other people on the basis of caste but it was not everywhere. So the doubt came into my mind that there is some problem.

I am very much interested in History and Social Sciences since my childhood, so I opened few books to know about this "caste" than I find out that the English word "caste" derives from the Spanish and Portuguese casta, which the Oxford English Dictionary quotes John Minsheu's Spanish dictionary (1599) to mean, "race, lineage, or breed". When the Spanish colonized the New World, they used the word to mean a "clan or lineage." But in India varna was never related to race. In RigVeda, Purassukhta (or  in Manusmriti),  Varna system was clearly defined which says- Every society or nation needs 4 type of people to run a society in a better way . First “Kshatriya” which includes administrators, Rulers, Bureocrates, Army, Police etc , Second is “Brahmana” which includes Teachers, Saint, Scientists, Intellectuals, Writers, Artists etc, Third, “Vaishya” which includes all business class people, Farmers, Shopkeepers etc which runs the complete economy of the society and the Fourth one is “Shudra” which is working class people who do job under these 3 classes. It was not based on birth but it was purely based on “Karma” i.e. anyone can become Kshatriya or Brahmin by his Karma. Few examples were Valmiki, Surdas, Kabirdas etc their forefathers were from different “Varna” and they adopted new “karma” of Brahmins so people started worshipping them like Brahmins. Similarly, ChandraGupt Maurya was from very poor family and Chanakya made him King of the nation. Similarly, Parshuram who was Brahmin by Karma at first, but then he fought like Kshatriya and beat several Kshatriyas. Several Kshatriyas like Mahavir swami, Gautam Buddha or Ashoka later worked as a Brahmin and people accepted them. In the whole era of Veda or Ramayana , Mahabharata, etc you will never find this word Dalit, if it is not in our ancient books that who created it ? I further investigated and found few more words like “Jaati”.

 Now, when we understand the meaning of Caste and Varna, Let us find out what is Jati? Britisher’s and all foolish colonized mindset social sciences writers confuse people by saying that Jati is Caste and Varna is also Caste. It is the most stupid argument which our new generation Social sciences writers has given, but I do not have any problem with them. I have problem with this thing that no one ever investigated these terms. So, I want to clarify this thing that Caste and Varna are two different things which I have mentioned above. Now, Jaati is a wrong pronunciation of “Gyati” , It is similar to “Gyana” which we write like “Jnana”, here Jnana is actually gyaan similarly Jaati is actually gyaati that means Knowledge or Mastery of a particular skill.

As we all know, earlier India was known as a Golden Bird and the GDP of India till 1600 was 24.3 % of the world economy. This is only because of our Jaati’s like Sutar,Lohar,Badhai,Kumhar,Chamar,Bunkar etc. Every village had more than 16 Jaati’s which manufacture products according to their skill and when it was consumed in village they all export this to the world. In that way India got Gold from whole world and because of this India became Golden Bird during that time. But, the question is – “What happened after that period?”

When, I researched more from Professor Dharampal books and Dada Bhai Nairojis book “Drain of wealth” then I found that Mughals invaded India, Convert people, kill people but they never looted it. They started living in India so India’s wealth did not went outside during Mughal period but when Britishers came they looted Indian wealth from everywhere from temples to villages. We can understand this loot with a small example of Robert Clive who alone sends 30 Ships filled with gold and jewelry from Bengal to Britain. It is well documented in British documents. Not only this, the britishers started train because they want to steal the wealth from every part of India. So, they started Indian railways so that they can fill these trains with Gold and send this gold to Britain through Ships. In that way British looted India for more than 150 years. During that time they destroyed our Gurukul system of education and started Mcauley English education, they destroyed our agriculture by imposing taxes on farmers. Similarly, they impose several taxes on our small scale industries of villages. Because of this our whole Jati based industries had destroyed and Britishers started their own companies and start manufacturing their own goods and products by keeping these skilled people as their labour. This type of exploitation destroyed all business and industries of India and very few people had survived after this and the gap between rich and poor had increased during that time. This was the main cause of 1857 revolution and that revolution was failed because of some traitor kings of India who supported Britishers for their benefit.

After that revolution Britishers understand that Indians are getting united and if they do not do something than British Empire cannot survive in India. So, they started working on their “Divide and Rule” policy. According to that policy they decided to divide Indian Citizens on the basis of:-

·         Arya-Dravid ( Demographic division)

·         Hindu-Muslim(Religion wise division)

·         Upper Caste - Lower Caste (Inter Hindu Division) etc

I will not mention the names but you can easily find out from History Books that all the major leaders of these communities who raise these issues of Caste or Pakistan etc had studied abroad either in Britain or USA and u can easily find out that How they are being trained as a rebellion.

Let us come back to our topic Caste. Now we know How Britishers increased poverty in India by destroying Jati based industries. Now, when poor people started revolting against Britishers, these Britishers had started saying that – “Those who are rich are upper caste and those who are poor are lower caste and Lower caste is poor because of Upper caste.” It is also one of the most stupid arguments which were not digestible at that time. So, they did census and used these terms called SC, ST, General and divide the society on the basis of it. Not, only this, Britishers hire people like Wilberforce, Maxmuller etc to change the Sanskrit text books and  religious books and they had wrote worst things about SC people and some of the Brahmin people help them in this because they Britishers wrote good things about them but they did not knew that Britishers went to Sc people and told them that because of these Brahmins you are poor and this is How this Politics of Caste had started.

Later Gandhi ji try to change the name to Harijan than someone it was further changed to Dalit. According to Wikipedia –“The word "dalit" is derived from the Sanskrit past participle adjective दलित (dalita), and means divided or split”. After independence communist and other politicians used it for their political gains. “Divide and Rule” Policy still dividing the society with the same name. What a Shame?

One more fact about Lower Caste is that- “No one is Lower Caste in India”.

I have interviewed one Bhangi(Manual scavenger) Family and asked about their ancestors than they told me that we are also kshatriyas. At the time of Mughals, we lost the battle and at that time Mughals put this condition in front of us that – “Either follow Islam or do manual scavenging”. We did not change our religion so they gave us this punishment of Scavenging job. Our ancestors thought that we will win our kingdom one day but we did not win and meanwhile our generations becomes untouchable for whole society. We are actually Kshatriyas.

Similarly, “Lohar”( Who make things with Iron), they told me that we are Rajputs. We are from Mevad and at the time of Akbar. We promised to Maharana Pratap that we will enter in Mevad only when you win’s the battle against Akbar. It never happened and we are still roaming all around India.

One “Chamar” family told me Chamar in Sanskrit means “Chamda” worker, that means a person who makes things with leather. He also asked me a question- “ Can you call Rebook or Adidas CEO a shudra or lower caste, NO, than why are you calling us lower caste we are not lower caste we all Jatis are “Vaishya” third Varna i.e. Business class.

I have heard lot of stories of all SC and ST and they all are from king family or Business class. It is Britishers who taught us they are lower. They not only destroyed the self respect of these “gyatis” but also started reservation system which again increased hatred amongst two communities of Hindu religion.

Now, it is the right time to understand this division of our society and we should declare everyone to be General Category. It will increase self respect in all communities and motivate everyone to work for the nation. The reservation should be given to all poor people irrespective of caste, creed, colour or religion.

Jai Hind Jai Bharat

Arya Shubham Verma

Researcher

theshubhamhindi@gmail.com