Scheduled Caste vis-à-vis Dalit (terminology)
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‘Dalit’ or SC?
A history of the expression ‘Dalit’
Dalit: A tortuous journey over 200 yrs, January 25, 2018: The Times of India
It has been through a journey spanning nearly two centuries that the term “Dalit” denoting “the oppressed” has ironically metamorphosed into an appellation signifying “assertion and self respect”.
Perhaps its emergence as the pan-Indian term for scheduled castes led to government functionaries inadvertently start using it in official work – leading to Madhya Pradesh HC on Tuesday ruling that only constitutional terminology, ‘SCs’, be used in official communication.
The court rightly called out the unwarranted blurring of lines between the official and the unofficial, but it only reinforced the power and appeal that “Dalit” has come to pack in contemporary society.
Says Vivek Kumar, senior sociologist in Jawaharlal Nehru University, “the term has become an assertion of identity accorded by the community upon themselves and not by the upper castes.”
The pithy summation aptly captures the symbolism of “Dalit” – a word that goes back to 1830s. According to Vivek Kumar, “Dalit” finds mention in 1831-compiled Marathi-English dictionary by JJ Molesworth — an army officer of the East India Company. Dynamic social reformer from Maharashtra Jyotiba Phule used shudras/ati-shudras and Dalit/pat-Dalit. In 1935, the greatest of emancipators B R Ambedkar used the term in a pamphlet he brought out to organise a congregation of “untouchables” who by then had begun to try to throw away the yoke of upper caste subjugation.
However, Ambedkar himself preferred to call his community “Depressed Classes”. For the community, it has been a tortuous search for the right name to call themselves. In the high caste dictated social order, they were variously referred to as “asprashya” (untouchable), “antaj” (last born), “antwaseen” (residing last).
It was a state of limbo — shunned by Hindu caste system but considered part of Hindu faith — that nudged “untouchables” towards a quest for identity. It went through experiments which intensified as the fire of independence struggle spread. Awakening to the need that they too needed freedom from caste subjugation as compatriots sought from the British, self-respect movements spawned across regions. 1920s reflected a stress on indigenous roots -- ati-Hindu, ati-Dravida, ati-Andhra, ati-Karnataka. A rebellious Manguram Walia in Punjab called the untouchables ‘ad-dharma’. There was also an adi-Hindu movement in UP . First steps, they were bound to be splintered.
But the dramatic birth of two pan-India platforms – Mahatma Gandhi and Congress – changed the course of Dalit movement beyond recognition. After Gandhi brought out “Harijan” newspaper, Congress became the vehicle to spread the name in every nook and corner of the country. The 1935 India Act settled on clubbing the “untouchables” under a Schedule – and thus was born the label, SCs. But it was officialese, bereft of the punch that a subaltern identity seeks. Into the vacuum of disappearing Dalit platforms, post-independence, stepped in the militantintellectual movement -- Dalit Panthers – in 1970. It resurrected the term from the anonymity of history.
Culluvagga Vinaya Pittaka, Molesworth’s Marathi dictionary (1831), Jyotiba Phule onwards
Term Has Been Sustained By Activism In Community
Like the muchdiscussed symbol of their martial triumph over caste Hindus — Bhima Koregaon — even the word ‘Dalit’ has a British link.
It was an army officer of the East India Company, J J Molesworth, who mentioned the word Dalit in a Marathi-English dictionary way back in 1831. It was also used by radical reformer Jyotiba Phule and recorded for contemporary use and for posterity by the British.
JNU sociologist Vivek Kumar traced the roots of the word to further back in history. “Dalit is found in Buddhist text Culluvagga Vinaya Pittaka,” he said.
To many Indians, the word Dalit is inextricably linked to Bahujan Samaj Party. Its founder Kanshi Ram travelled the length and breadth of the country using the term to mobilise the caste base and to unify the community in its struggle for self-respect. Younger observers identify the word with the volatile debates of the 1990s, when BSP burst on to the national scene in a political assertion, accompanied by harsh attacks on Mahatma Gandhi and his coinage ‘Harijan’.
What Kanshi Ram did was to pit ‘Dalit’ against ‘Harijan’ and dub the latter as patronising and humiliating. “If we are god’s children, are caste Hindus the children of the devil?” he, and his protege Mayawati would repeatedly ask. The message did the trick and Dalits rallied around the blue banner.
To greying heads, though, this was familiar trope from earlier decades when Dalit Panthers first emerged. In 1972, Namdeo Dhasal and his colleagues formed the outfit and the Maharashtra-based group consecrated Dalit in the subaltern discourse.
However, Dalit Panthers and BSP borrowed from over 200 years of history during which the ‘untouchables’ moved from accepting discrimination as fate to fighting for equality. It started with a search for identity away from the one ordained by religious tradition. The community was variously referred to as “asprashya” (untouchable), “antaj” (last born), “antwaseen” (residing last).
The 19th century revolutionary reformer Jyotiba Phule used “shudras and atishudras”, and “Dalit and pat-Dalit” to refer to backwards and ‘untouchables’.
Like Phule, it again took a radical emancipator, B R Ambedkar, to put the word Dalit in currency. In 1935, Ambedkar used the term in a pamphlet to organise a congregation of ‘untouchables’. However, Ambedkar himself preferred to call his community “Depressed Classes” — that he used regularly during his lobbying with the English for the community.
The 1920s reflected a stress on indigenous roots — ati-Hindu, ati-Dravida, ati-Andhra, ati-Karnataka. A rebellious Manguram Walia in Punjab called the untouchables ‘ad-dharma’. There was also an adi-Hindu movement in Uttar Pradesh.
The dramatic emergence of two national platforms — Mahatma Gandhi and Congress — ensured the Dalit movement changed course. After Gandhi brought out ‘Harijan’ newspaper, Congress became the vehicle to spread the term. At the same time, the 1935 India Act clubbed ‘untouchables’ under a Schedule — and thus was born the label, “Scheduled Castes”.
The term SCs stuck, and spread. But it was officialese, impersonal, bereft of the punch a subaltern identity seeks. But it proved a long wait as Congress went about co-opting Dalit platforms and blunting the radical edge of the movement. Till the militant-intellectual Dalit Panthers movement arrived in 1970.
As the Panthers splintered, Dalit movements disappeared. But the irreversible activism in the community sustained the word itself. And then came the BSP and its militant tone.
In 1972, Namdeo Dhasal and his colleagues formed the Dalit Panthers and the group consecrated ‘Dalit’ in the subaltern discourse. Kashi Ram later pitted ‘Dalit’ against Gandhi’s ‘Harijan’ and dubbed the latter patronising and humiliating
HC bans use of word ‘Dalit’ by MP
January 23, 2018: The Times of India
The MP high court has banned the use of the word ‘Dalit’, especially in official government communication. The HC’s Gwalior bench issued the order while hearing a PIL pointing out that the word ‘Dalit’ was not mentioned in the Constitution. People belonging to different categories have been termed either ‘Scheduled Caste’ or ‘Scheduled Tribe’ in the Constitution. The HC has ordered that only the terms mentioned in the Constitution be used. The petitioner’s lawyer said the order would currently only be implemented in MP.
CB Prasad: On the evolution of the term Dalit
A term tied to assertion and pride of community, September 5, 2018: The Times of India
Dalit ideologue Chandra Bhan Prasad explains what the term Dalit means to the community
The term Dalit, as a selfidentification nomenclature or a political expression, first arrived in May 1972. Coined by iconic Dalit minds of Maharashtra such as Namdeo Dhasal and JV Pawar, the organisation Dalit Panther emerged as an aspirational body to confront the repressive caste order. The Panthers were inspired by the Black Panther of the US, formed a decade earlier. In less than a decade, the term Dalit acquired pan-India recognition. It soon got associated with Dalit pride and used to defend and express the community’s dignity.
Not that the term, Dalit, didn’t exist before. But thought-leaders of the time chose it to exhibit Dalit assertion. The term Dalit was also to confront and counter Harijan, a term given by Gandhiji that the community resented. The term, Harijan, pictured a mass of people that are oppressed, weak, and docile, requiring sympathy of the right-minded Indians. Similarly, the term, Scheduled Castes, used by the government was considered too passively neutral to capture the community’s spirit.
In the year 1981, Kanshi Ram founded DS4, Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti. Within years, DS4 had become a major social force. Hundreds of publications sprung with the term Dalit. Publications in Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi and Tamil began lapping up the
term Dalit as a combative, aspirational identity. ‘Untouchable’ writers would now pre-fix Dalit to their name.
The media, the academia and the mainstream society gradually recognised the term Dalit. In Maharashtra, Marathi Dalit Sahitya questioned mainstream literature. Dalit Sahitya in the Hindi heartland turned into a major headache for traditional voices as many established notions in literature were now challenged. By late 1990s, truckloads of Dalit literature, including magazines, were being printed in most Indian languages.
In the 21st century, the new breed of panthers surfed the wave of globalisation to crisscross continents, and accord a new social identity to the community. The Dalit Diaspora celebrates this socially emancipative identity, and communicates with their roots back home. Like Black Capitalism, a section of the panthers are now votaries of Dalit Capitalism. Like the famous magazine Black Enterprise, Dalit entrepreneurship is now celebrated in a new magazine called Dalit Enterprise.
Not that the term, Dalit, didn’t exist before. But thought-leaders of the time chose it to exhibit Dalit assertion. The term Dalit was also to confront and counter Harijan, a term given by Gandhiji that the community resented
Scheduled Castes who opposed the term ‘Dalit’
Meshram’s 13-year struggle to erase the term
Abhishek Choudhari, A 13-year struggle to erase a word, September 6, 2018: The Times of India
Life came full circle for Nagpur’s Pankaj Meshram last month when the I&B ministry issued a notification to media houses asking them to refrain from using the word ‘Dalit’. His struggle to get the word removed from every official communication started in 2006 when a Dalit family was lynched at Khairlanji, 80km from Nagpur, after a caste-related tussle.
Meshram came close to the only surviving member of the Bhotmange family which was massacred, and understood how caste dynamics worked in that rural belt. “The SC community faces a lot of discrimination in villages and ‘Dalit’ has become a symbol of oppression. When someone calls you a Dalit, it is only in a derogatory sense,” he said.
“I wrote to many departments asking them to stop using the word as it’s not mentioned in the Constitution. We are identified legally as ‘SC’ and that should be the official nomenclature. When all options were exhausted, in 2016 I filed a petition in the HC bench at Nagpur,” said Meshram.
Meshram’s lawyer Shailesh Narnaware’s main argument was that the word Dalit has no legal standing.
To the argument that ‘Dalit’ could be seen as empowering when used for, say, Dalit literature or movements like Dalit Panther, well-known theatre actor and director Virendra Ganvir disagreed. “Dalit is a condition, not an identity,” he said. “It’s a pathetic condition.”
But there are those who don’t subscribe to this point of view. One of them, former state minister Nitin Raut, said, “Dalit, as a word, is universally accepted as the name for the community. Don’t we use ‘Bahujan’ for OBC and ‘Adivasi’ for STs? What’s wrong with Dalit?”
