DECCAN INQUIRER
Bi-Weekly e news paper
Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. .. Vol.19....Issue. 93…..….23 / 11 / 2023
Editorial : Caste Hatred & Independence
All human beings in our country are equals nobody is superior not inferior. All human beings must be equally respected.
Our politicians and society are propagating following myths to appease dalits.
Ambedkar’ constitution
Fact : Constitution draft is a team work of seven members including ambedkar all of them are legal scholars. Not by ambedkar alone.
Ambedkar was a freedom fighter.
Fact : Ambedkar was a great civil rights activist who struggled for dalit rights. Other freedom fighters were struggling for Independence to all indians encompassing all religions & castes. While other freedom fighters were fighting for independence , suffering police torture in jails , ambedkar was working as a minister in british viceroy's privy council.
Rights are given by ambedkar.
Fact : every human being automatically has human rights by virtue of his birth. Our constitution has reaffirmed those human rights by the name of fundamental rights.
Only dalits have rights and must be protected.
Fact : all indian citizens have equal rights and all must be protected.
Reservation benefit is only for dalits.
Fact : Any indian citizen who is struggling to get educated , employed due financial status , social status must get government support. Reservation benefit is given from tax payer's money - dalit tax payer , vokkaliga tax payer , muslim tax payer , christian , lingayath , brahmin , other tax payers. One enjoys reservation benefit from other caste tax payer's money but hate the same caste people. It is wrong.
Only atrocities against dalits are crimes.
Fact : police , government take suo motto action at lightning speed when dalit atrocities, atrocities against muslims are reported. No action when other hindu people suffer atrocities at the hands of muslims and dalits. See social media how dalits and muslims scold hindus , brahmins. No action by police & government against such guilty dalits & muslims. It is failure of duties by police & government. It is a shame and proves the culture of such criminals.
Reservation is perfect solution for correcting social inequality.
Fact : it is a crime , it is violation of human rights of equality , equitable justice , equal opportunity. Caste identities of all indians must be eradicated from government transactions , societal transactions. Society must evolve , mature. However beneficiaries are addicted to Reservation benefits such that even after conversion to other religions , they hang on to their old caste identities. Present reservation policy is creating caste divisions , caste conflicts , violence in india.
All dalit atrocities are by brahmins.
Fact: more than 95% of dalit atrocities are committed by non brahmins as per government crime records. In turn dalit groups are also involved in atrocities , violence against other caste people.
Reservation paves the way for social justice , equitable fair society.
Fact : it has failed. Since Independence reservation is in force for 77 years. From group D to Group A posts are filled as per reservation policy. See corruption in police stations , government hospitals , RTO offices , sub registrar offices , officials selected on the basis of social justice don't respect social justice don't provide justice to public , don't do their duties properly. In the matter of corruption officials belonging all castes and religions are hand in gloves with each other. Only honest few are left in government service. See India's ranking in corruption index. It is worse.
Since 3000 years brahmins solely persecuted dalits.
Fact : since 3000 years till date population of brahmins is less than 5% of total population. Remaining 95% of population, non brahmins were land owners , rich , physically strong , they were village chieftains , temple management heads , kings , military chieftains - they were running society , kingdoms , temples as per their own rules in all aspects. Do such 95% strong people bow their heads before weak 5% brahmins ? In fact brahmins took orders from kings , village chieftains , temple management heads and carried out the instructions of those kings , village heads. Now brahmins are made scape goats for crimes committed by others.
Partly brahmins are also guilty , as they were accomplices of perpetrators , master minds of atrocities. Society is flagging accomplice leaving aside master minds , main accused. Hatred for Brahmins was started by Christian missionaries and carried forward today for political gains.
All forward caste people , brahmins are rich and doesn't need government support.
Fact : there are many poor people in forward castes including brahmins, who cannot afford a single meal a day , cannot afford their children's education, cannot afford medical treatment in hospitals. Many brahmins are working as sweepers in sulabh shouchalayas , public toilets. Whereas in reserved community families one or two members are in government service earning more than a lakh rupees per month , still they enjoy government support.
All reserved communities , dalits are innocents and suffer violence , torture.
Fact : dalits themselves mete out atrocities on other sub castes of dalits. Right hand dalits treat left hand dalits , sweepers as inferiors. They don't make matrimonial relationships with them. They cannot live as their neighbours. There are separate colonies for left hand dalits and right hand dalits. Few years back dalit leader mantelingaiah was sentenced to jail for murdering an old dalit woman. Dalit atrocities against dalits see following video :
View following video and articles.
https://fb.watch/nXtRoajXCF/?mibextid=dSAeCa ,
Dalits are innocents and suffer alround aatrocities.
Fact : more than 50 % of dalit atrocity cases are fake and accordingly disposed off by courts of law.
Note : there are good , honest people as well as bad people , criminals in all castes and communities. There are rich as well as poor people in all castes and communities. You cannot generalise. We must respect all and government must support poor from all castes & communities.
Persecution of Brahmins in India is similar to Persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.
We truly need INDEPENDENCE from our caste identities , we need independence from identification of an individual by caste , religion. We as a society need change of mindset.
We Common people have not got INDEPENDENCE. It is a shame even after 76 years of independence from britishers , we are still following repressive colonial era rules. Many colonial era rules were copied into Constitution of India. Flawed Reservation policy is also a copied version of colonial era law. Britishers practiced APARTHEID by the name of reservation.
Till date ACCOUNTABILITY OF POLICE , MINISTERS AND JUDGES is absent in rule book.
Many Indians have misunderstood indian history by looking through prism of British historians. As per those historians for all evils which happened upto British rule brahmins were solely responsible. How is it possible for 5% population to rule over 95% strong populace ? Does that mean rulers, kings , village heads who belonged to others castes were weak & meek ? No those rulers were mighty , their kingdoms were wealthy. They have enforced many welfare measures. But nobody credits good deeds of these rulers to brahmins , only gives credits of bad deeds of rulers to brahmins. Double standards.
Brahmins were made as scape goats for all the crimes , misdeeds committed by non brahmin rulers against dalits , others. True brahmins were accomplices in the crime , but the main criminals were non brahmin rulers.
In these 76 years of independent india 95% of government service posts and 95% of MPs , MLAs are non brahmins. Ideally GOLDEN AGE should have descended in India but opposite has happened. Corruption is everywhere in government hospitals , offices , police stations , illegal detentions , 3rd degree tortures in police stations is wide spread. Murders of journalists , RTI activists , false fix ups in cases is rampant. Is this INDEPENDENCE ?
Caste hatred murders are frequent , tribals are illegally evicted from forests for industrial projects without appropriate rehabilitation. Atrocities on dalits are frequent. Just take examples a dalit lady district magistrate was threatened by accomplice of a state chief minister. Dalit girls were raped by a religious pontiff. Drinking water tank in a dalit locality was mixed with human excreta and all dalits in the locality were made to drink that water for weeks. A dalit judge was dismissed from service for upholding tribal rights. A high court judge made threats to a dalit munsiff judge. There is more. Perpetrators in all these cases are non brahmins.
Dalit organizations and brahmin haters who frequently abuse brahmins , where are your voices against these atrocities ? Dalits , non brahmins make slur , casteist remarks against brahmins but no action is taken. When a brahmin does the mistake of casteist remarks police action , protest March is taken at lightning speed. Take recent case of kannada movie star Upendra. Why this double standard ? Shameful.
Casteist remarks made by dalit is wrong , if made by brahmin it is also wrong , if made by non dalit / non brahmin that too is wrong. However there should not be double standards.
Brahmins are suppressed by apartheid policy called reservation. College admissions denied , scholarships denied , jobs denied , self employment loans denied. Food , livelihood snatched away in the name of land reforms act , Temple priest jobs snatched and those still serving priests are not paid equal wages , statutory minimum wages. In 1948 thousands of brahmins were murdered , massacred. Is this true independence we struggled for ?
SHAME.
Whenever a non brahmin makes derogatory comments against brahmins , massacre of brahmins no action is taken. If a brahmin is accused of making derogatory remark law swings into action at lightning speed , protests March taken.
Is this equitable fair justice ?
Basically we are all human beings and must respect each other. Nobody is superior or inferior. All are Equals.
We respect every human being as a human irrespective of his caste or religious background. But this respect must be reciprocated by all.
Hereby we demand government of india and supreme court of india :
To legally prosecute public , MPs , MLAs who make derogatory remarks against Brahmin community.
To provide government support to poor brahmins on par with poor dalits in education, self employment , government service.
To make public the details about Massacre of Brahmins in Maharashtra & other states in 1948 and afterwards.
To make public action taken against the perpetrators of massacre.
To declare late Tamil politician Periyar as insane and remove all his casteist remarks , rantings from public domain , government records.
Let us truly build our motherland BHARATH as per following spirit :
Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by Thee
into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom,
my Father, let my country awake.
Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.
Your's
Nagaraja M R
Read :
India's Failed Independence
https://e-dalit.blogspot.com/2023/08/indias-failed-independence.html?m=1
Reservation for neo dalits
https://e-dalit.blogspot.com/2023/07/pil-reservation-for-neo-dalits.html?m=1
Maharashtran Brahmin Genocide – 8000 Killed
Perpetrator: Indian National Congress & their supporters
Year: 1948
Number: 8000 Brahmins murdered
Following the assassination of M. K. Gandhi by Nathuram Godse, with Narayan Apte, who were Maharashtrian Brahmins, Brahmin localities of Pune and Satara saw a Hindu Genocide of Maharashtrian Brahmins, orchestrated by Indian National Congress, along with other Brahmin-hating groups. This Brahmin genocide remains, to date, one of the most suppressed atrocities on Brahmin Hindus.
Brahmins were killed, Brahmin women were raped, shops and houses were set on fire, livelihoods destroyed, and many Brahmins forced to flee, to save their lives and future generations.
‘It’s written in “City, countryside and society in Maharashtra states” that in Aundh state alone the barbarity spanned across 300 districts in all thirteen thalukas. Maureen Patterson concluded that destruction was more cataclysmic in Satara, Kohalpur. The properties of Veer Savarkar were also swindled and torched by the perpetrators. Dr. Narayana Rao Savarkar was stoned to death.’
R. Sooraj Kumar
Narayana Rao Savarkar and his family were pelted with stones, as they tried to escape from their residence. He was gravely injured and eventually succumbed to his injuries on 19 Oct, 1949.
Estimates were that 8000 Brahmins were killed, with no record or estimate of how many were forced to flee.
From the account of Sooraj Kumar Bhargav
“Angry mobs pillaged, burnt and looted the homes of hundreds of innocent Brahmin families, and many people were killed. All on the baseless assumption that all Brahmins were complicit in the assassination of the Father of the Nation.”
Arvind Kolhatkar, eyewitness.
Every aspect of this genocide points to it being a premeditated crime, targeting a religious community, namely, Maharashtrian Brahmins, who were known for being staunch Hindu nationalists. For mobs of hundreds to suddenly attack Brahmins within such a short period of time would require great ingenuity and extraordinary means of communication, technologically not available at that period. These were not “riots” as often labelled, but a planned genocide, because it was spread over the entire geography of Maharashtra, not just one mohalla or city, using arson, which is not lying around in everyone’s backyard every day. The “mobs” attacking Brahmins knew who they were, where they lived, and had the means to attack them.
“My family stands as a proof.
My grandfather was among the richest merchant in Pune and was having 3 cloth stores then which were gutted in selective killing and property burning incidence.
The family was instantaneously reduced to poverty and we had to sell-off all the properties to reduce the trading-credits. The family recovered out of the losses only by late 70’s.”
Anand Khatavkar
This is one of the genocides for which little information exists, once again, by design. It is otherwise impossible that a targeted massacre of a religious community is neither known, nor documented anywhere properly, except for first hand accounts of those who suffered, and individuals who documented the massacre at the time of its occurrence. There is every reason to believe that all evidence of this genocide was destroyed, along with images and news clips.
__________________________
Are Brahmins today’s Dalits in India?
May 11 2007
French Journalist Francois Gautier, having spent nearly two decades in India, finds reservations for SC/ST and OBCs a prejudiced trend based on misconceptions.
At a time when nearly all political parties are vying with each other to please Dalits or other backward classes advocating reservations for them, ignoring the Brahmins, French Journalist Francois Gautier, having spent nearly two decades in India, finds it a prejudiced trend based on misconceptions.
In a write up “Are Brahmins the Dalits of today?” (May 26, 2006 ) posted on Rediffmail.com, Gautier has pointed out how much ill-found are the facts about the ‘prosperity’ of Hindus, especially, the Brahmins in today’s India.
He lashes out at the UPA Government for following an appeasement policy, which appears to be based on obsolete data about the actual state of Dalits in India.
“At a time when the Congress Government wants to raise the quota for Other Backward Classes to 49.5 per cent in private and public sectors, nobody talks about the plight of the upper castes,” says Gautier in his write up.
According to Gautier, today’s Brahmins can be easily found cleaning public toilets, a menial job that the government projects as if it is being done only by Dalits since ages.
“There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin).
There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages,” Gautier states.
Fifty per cent of rickshaw-pullers in Delhi’s Patel Nagar are Brahmins. Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?,” Gautier asks.
He questions: “Do our institutes connect with the real India?” while pointing out the reverse discrimination existing in bureaucracy and politics of the country.
Talking about Kashmiri Pandits, Gautier mentions they are living as refugees in their own country.
“400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir Valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi, in appalling conditions. Their vote bank is negligible,” says Gautier.
In South India, the state of Brahmins as stated by various agencies speaks for itself.
Seventy five per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins.
“A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that today all Purohits live below the poverty line,” quotes Gautier.
Gautier questions: “Who are the real Dalits of India?”
“In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level,” Gautier quotes.
“The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month,” adding there is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different.
Gautier quotes the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the State assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537.
But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins in government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.
Gautier suggests that caste shouldn't overwrite merit while quoting an Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples (Department of Endowments statistics).
Gautier says : “There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.”
“At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month,” Gautier states.
Gautier observes and lashes out at the Congress-led government observing “the tragedy of modern India is that the combined votes of Dalits/OBC and Muslims are enough for any government to be elected. The Congress quickly cashed in on it after Independence, but probably no other government than Sonia Gandhi's has gone so far in shamelessly dividing Indian society for garnering votes.”
Gautier also quotes from The Indian Express newspaper’s report: 'These measures will not achieve social justice'
“The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes.”
Writing about how reservations fracture Hindu society, Gautier observed that Anti-Brahminism originated in, and still prospers in anti-Hindu circles. It is particularly welcome among Marxists, missionaries, Muslims, separatists and Christian-backed Dalit movements of different hues. When they attack Brahmins, their target is unmistakably Hinduism.
_______________
Caste Reservation or Discrimination Vengeance ?
- An appeal to Honourable Supreme Court of India
The “Caste based Reservation Acts “ by government of india and state governments are reverse discrimination , gross violation of human rights , acts of vengeance.
Our freedom fighters struggled, sacrificed to build an ideal country free from any biases. Freedom fighters belonging to all castes, religions including brahmins, dalits , muslims , others have sacrificed a lot in freedom struggle. After independence people belonging to all castes and religions are paying taxes to the government. In spite of all this numerically dominant castes are usurping public resources , opportunities by suppressing , discriminating numerically minor castes like brahmins , vyshyas. Where is equality , equal opportunity?
Every human being including brahmins have human rights of equal rights , equal opportunity and equitable justice even if Constitution cheats them of the same.
The Caste based reservation acts are passed by majority in parliament fine. In the same way inhuman acts of suppression of Jews were passed by majority in Nazi Germany parliament. Brute numerical majority doesn't make an inhuman act as human or injustice as justice.
From time immemorial numerically dominant castes were ruling village panchayaths to big kingdoms. People of dominant castes were village panchayath heads to kings, they ruled enforced discriminatory rules , untouchability in their jurisdictions.
Today's parliament and state legislature s since independence are occupied by dominant caste members. They have made brahmins as scape goats for all the ills , untouchability. Does it mean kings & village panchayath heads of yester years were foolish and acted as per brahmin's advices only ? Then why don't you credit brahmins for good things done in yester years ?
Every caste and religion including brahmins are guilty of practicing untouchability against dalits but not brahmins alone.
Only dalits need caste based affirmative actions to remove caste based social stigma.
All other castes , religions doesn't need OBC , GROUP A , GROUP B , etc tags and reservation. They must get affirmative actions based on their economic status rather than their caste. Numerically , politically dominant castes have usurped public resources by classifying their own castes as backward.
There are rich as well as poor people in all castes and religions. Poor in all castes and religions need support by government and society. But rich people in so called reserved category doesn't need government support instead it must be given to the poor among the same reserved category. Affirmative actions must be based on latest transparent people census including details of caste , religion , education , property , income , etc not on decades old census. There is a huge change from 1947 to 2023.
Children should not be punished for the crimes committed by their grand father.
Also punishing a criminal ( of minor caste) for his crimes is right but letting his accomplices, crime partners ( belonging to dominant castes ) free is not right.
Now many state governments have unscientifically declared people of dominant castes as backward castes and granted them reservation benefits even crossing 50% reservation cap by SCI. There are many families of reserved category where both parents are government employees and getting more than one lakh rupees monthly salary , still government declares them backward and their son gets fee waiver , scholarships , etc in college. Whereas a brahmin worker earning three hundred rupees in daily wages is declared as forward caste by government and his son studying in college is denied fee waiver scholarships , etc like his backward class classmate. Unable to pay fees he drops out of college.
Is this the India our freedom fighters struggled sacrificed for ?
__________________________
Editorial : BAN Caste based Reservation to rich dalits
- Rich must not enjoy at the expense of poor
Basic tenet of our democratic governance and of our constitution is EQUALITY & EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to all Indian citizens.
Reservation policy was intended as a short term measure to correct historical injustice to dalits.
Basic principle of criminal justice stipulates you cann't hold a grandson liable for a murder committed by his grandfather a century ago and punish the grandson now.
In the name of correcting historical injustice to dalits , even after extending reservation benefits for 75 years , goverment is practicing apartheid policy. Government is forcefully suppressing a class of citizens so called forward caste people. This is against basic tenet of constitution of india.
These suppressed forward caste people are truly “ NEO-DALITS".
In a running race boys who have practiced hard for years are running in the race sincerely , meanwhile organisers of racers tweak the rules of the game to few participants, gives them motor bikes. Naturally boys on bikes will cross finishing line first than boys on legs. Finally organisers declare boys on bike who crossed finishing line first as the winner. This is exactly what government is doing since 75 years by reservation policy. Is it fair ? Is it not illegal, against constitution? Right way is instead of giving bikes to those boys running training must be given to them. Finally race must be on a level playing ground.
Do remember we are also citizens of india and we are also tax payers. With our money ( public money ) Since 75 years government is suppressing us in the name of forward caste. It is illegal , unconstitutional, violations of constitutional rights , violations of human rights. Now 50% of jobs , seats in educational institutions are divided between SC , ST , OBC, MUSLIMS & minorities totally neglecting poor of all castes & religions. Some of the OBC groups were part of ruling dynasties never faced any social persecution and now with political clout got themselves as backward and enjoying reservation benefits.
Whereas Muslims are in majority in Jammu Kashmir , Kerala and Christians are in majority in Kerala / North Eastern States still they are enjoying reservation benefits wrongly as minorities whereas real minorities hindus in those states are getting none of the benefits.
We citizens of india as tax payers has right to decide how our tax money is spent by government. We don't want our hard earned money to be wasted on unfit rich people rather we want it to be rightly spent on poor dalits poor hindus poor muslims poor minorities poor OBCs. Within 50% reservation quota 10% must be reserved for poor irrespective of caste, religion.
Within a definite time frame caste based reservation must be replaced with poverty based affirmative action. Our Constitution framers Dr.Baba saheb B R AMBEDKAR themselves have fixed 10 years timeline for reservation but our short sighted power hungry politicians have extended it beyond 75 years.
Laws should be dependent on present facts not history alone. As the time changes, social scenario changes in sync with time laws must also change must be amended. Then alone country , it's people can prosper.
- Hereby, we request Honourable supreme court of india:
1. To identify all citizens suppressed by government in the name of forward caste as “ NEO-DALITS”.
2. To legally punish the public servants who extended reservation policy for 75 years much against the wishes of constitution framers.
3. As a first step fix economic cut off point to separate creamy layers of dalits , OBCs , minorities from reservation benefits.
4. Second step keeping the same economic cut off point identify poor , needy in other castes also and extend the reservation benefits to them also on an equal footing.
5. Finally down the line scrap all caste based reservations instead income based affirmation policy must be brought in. Instead of declaring a person with low marks as passed, selected against many other talented , struggling persons, that low scoring person should be given free coaching facilities, free hostel, fee waiver, etc. But exam rules , selection rules must be same for all.
6. Still if goverment continues with it's crimes of suppressing neo dalits and if apex court also aids the goverment, both of them become criminals.
7. 10% reservation must be accommodated within 50% reservation pie of jobs, seats in educational institutions.
8. Give minority reservation benefits to hindus in jammu kasmir, kerala, north eastern states where actually hindus are in minority whereas muslims Christians are in majority.
9. Fix a definite time line for removal of caste based reservation and it's replacement with poverty based affirmative action.
10. To stop persecution , human rights violations, fundamental rights violations of sections of society falsely declaring all of them as forward.
11. To clearly specify the parameters for declaring a person as backward or forward or minority or oppressed.
12. To remove the forwards among so called backwards, minorities from reservation benefits.
__________________________
PIL – Ban Caste based Reservation to Rich Dalits Muslims OBCs
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2021
IN THE MATTER OF
NAGARAJA . M.R
editor , DALIT ONLINE ,
# LIG 2 , No 761 ,, HUDCO First Stage , Laxmikantanagar ,
Hebbal , Mysore – 570017 , Karnataka State
…...Petitioner
Versus
Honourable Chief Secretary , Government of Karnataka ,
Honourable Pricipal Cabinet Secretary , GOI & Others
....Respondents
PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 12 to ARTICLE 35 & ARTICLE 51A OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF A WRIT IN THE NATURE OF MANDAMUS UNDER ARTICLE 32 & ARTICLE 226 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.
To ,
Hon'ble The Chief Justice of India and His Lordship's Companion
Justices of the Supreme Court of India. The Humble petition of the
Petitioner above named.
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH :
1. Facts of the case:
Dalits & backward caste people have suffered innumerably for centuries at the hands of forward caste people. It was nothing but APARTHEID policy.
Muslims and other people whoes numbers were minor also suffered persecution.
Our constitutional framers to provide equal opportunity to all indian citizens gave certain transient measures like reservation in schools , college , jobs , etc to these persecuted people.
Now even after 75 years of independence & reservation , affirmative policies of government still many dalits , minorities are suffering. Creamy layers of dalits , muslims with political connections have over used , reservation benefits to the maximum denying their own dalit , muslim brothers , sisters of reservation benefits. Few well connected dalit families have over used reservation benefits multiple times , while many poor dalit families have not used reservation even once. Few Scheduled Tribe communities & other backward caste communities didn’t face any social boycott at all in the past. Some of those communities were actually rulers / royals. Still due to political connections now those few ST & few OBC communities are enjoying reservation . As a result few dalits , muslims have become well educated , rich while their poor brothers suffer in ghettos , slums.
In few dalit families both father & mother are in government service based on reservation , has taken fast promotion on reservation , both sons got education on reservation and even got government jobs on reservation. Still that family wants residential site under reservation quota , school seat for grandson under reservation and get it from government. how is it justified ?
Reservation benefits are provided by public coffers – ie hard earned tax payer’s money belonging to all castes & religions. That money must be properly used to correct historical wrong. Reservation benefit must be given only once to a family , the family member who uses that benefit to get education & appointment reaches a stage of financial independence. In turn that family member must personally spend towards uplifting his other family members instead of relying on government support.
The castes & tribes which didn’t face any social ostracism but enjoying ST & OBC benefits by political connections must be removed from those categories. The poor among those castes & communities must be given financial support for education , self employment , etc based on economic criteria. In this way reservation fund will be preserved & that saved money can be used for other poor SC / ST / OBC / Minority families. So that all SC / ST / OBC / Minority family will come up fast in society.
Private sector which enjoys loans , subsidies , other benefits from government , public banks are not bound by reservation policy , are not bound by social obligation to provide reservation to dalits & muslims.
Successive governments are indirectly segregating people with new names & using them as vote banks. Affirmative actions of government are creating inequalities in society, while constitution of india mandates to treat all citizens as equals.
Basic tenet of our democratic governance and of our constitution is EQUALITY & EQUAL OPPORTUNITY to all Indian citizens.
Reservation policy was intended as a short term measure to correct historical injustice to dalits.
Basic principle of criminal justice stipulates you cann't hold a grandson liable for a murder committed by his grandfather a century ago and punish the grandson now.
In the name of correcting historical injustice to dalits , even after extending reservation benefits for 75 years , government is practicing apartheid policy. Government is forcefully suppressing a class of citizens so called forward caste people. This is against basic tenet of constitution of india.
These suppressed forward caste people are truly “ NEO-DALITS".
In a running race boys who have practiced hard for years are running in the race sincerely , meanwhile organisers of racers tweak the rules of the game to few participants, gives them motor bikes. Naturally boys on bikes will cross finishing line first than boys on legs. Finally organisers declare boys on bike who crossed finishing line first as the winner. This is exactly what government is doing since 75 years by reservation policy. Is it fair ? Is it not illegal, against constitution? Right way is instead of giving bikes to those boys running training must be given to them. Finally race must be on a level playing ground.
Do remember we are also citizens of india and we are also tax payers. With our money ( public money ) Since 75 years government is suppressing us in the name of forward caste. It is illegal , unconstitutional, violations of constitutional rights , violations of human rights.
We as citizens of india as tax payers has right to decide how our tax money is spent by government.
- Do remember we are also citizens of india and we are also tax payers. With our money ( public money ) Since 75 years government is suppressing us in the name of forward caste. It is illegal , unconstitutional, violations of constitutional rights , violations of human rights. Now 50% of jobs , seats in educational institutions are divided between SC , ST , OBC, MUSLIMS & minorities totally neglecting poor of all castes & religions. Some of the OBC groups were part of ruling dynasties never faced any social persecution and now with political clout got themselves as backward and enjoying reservation benefits. Whereas Muslims are in majority in Jammu Kashmir , Kerala and Christians are in majority in Kerala / North Eastern States still they are enjoying reservation benefits wrongly as minorities whereas real minorities hindus in those states are getting none of the benefits. We citizens of india as tax payers has right to decide how our tax money is spent by government. We don't want our hard earned money to be wasted on unfit rich people rather we want it to be rightly spent on poor dalits poor hindus poor muslims poor minorities poor OBCs. Within 50% reservation quota 10% must be reserved for poor irrespective of caste, religion. Within a definite time frame caste based reservation must be replaced with poverty based affirmative action. Our Constitution framers Dr.Baba saheb B R AMBEDKAR themselves have fixed 10 years timeline for reservation but our short sighted power hungry politicians have extended it beyond 75 years. Laws should be dependent on present facts not history alone. As the time changes, social scenario changes in sync with time laws must also change must be amended. Then alone country , it's people can prosper.
2. Question(s) of Law:
Why not LIMIT reservation only once to a family that too only one family member ? Why NOT limit reservation to only poor among SC / ST / OBC / Minorities ?
3. Grounds:
Request for proper use of reservation funds to needy.
4. Averment:
a . Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants in the following cases to limit reservation benefit only to needy among SC / ST / OBC / Minorities.
b. to give reservation benefits like job reservation , subsidized loan , preferrential industrial / residential site allotment , etc only once , only one benefit that too to only one family member. This avoids a single dalit with political connections using multiple reservation benefits and same family members using reservation benefits. Once a dalit gets reservation benefit he must come up on his own and must strive to bring up his other family members. This way reservation benefit will reach other poor dalit families who have not received a single reservation policy benefit.
c. to order government to stop appeasing one minority community by subsidized pilgrimage , marriage support , etc while denying the same to other community.
d. The intent of our constitutional framers was to bring oppressed on par with forward caste people towards a dignified life but never to put them above others crushing , oppressing poor forward caste people. This goes against constitution & creates new way of APARTHEID & new outcasts.
e. to order government to enforce reservation policy in job , school seats , to private sector also.
f. To extend financial aid , educational aid benefits on par with SC / ST / OBC / Minorities to all economically weak weak people irrespective of their castes , religions.
PRAYER:
In the above premises, it is prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased:
a . Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants in the following cases to perform their duties & to legally enforce Uniform Civil Code.
b. to give reservation benefits like job reservation , subsidized loan , preferrential industrial / residential site allotment , etc only once , only one benefit that too to only one family member. This avoids a single dalit with political connections using multiple reservation benefits and same family members using reservation benefits. Once a dalit gets reservation benefit he must come up on his own and must strive to bring up his other family members. This way reservation benefit will reach other poor dalit families who have not received a single reservation policy benefit.
c. to order government to stop appeasing one minority community by subsidized pilgrimage , marriage support , etc while denying the same to other community.
d. The intent of our constitutional framers was to bring oppressed on par with forward caste people towards a dignified life but never to put them above others crushing , oppressing poor forward caste people. This goes against constitution & creates new way of APARTHEID & new outcasts.
e. to order government to enforce reservation policy in job , school seats , to private sector also.
f. To extend financial aid , educational aid benefits on par with SC / ST / OBC / Minorities to all economically weak people irrespective of their castes , religions.
g. to pass such other orders and further orders as may be deemed necessary on the facts and in the circumstances of the case.
Hereby, we request Honourable supreme court of india:
1. To identify all citizens suppressed by government in the name of forward caste as “ NEO-DALITS”.
2. To legally punish the public servants who extended reservation policy for 75 years much against the wishes of constitution framers.
3. As a first step fix economic cut off point to separate creamy layers of dalits , OBCs , minorities from reservation benefits.
4. Second step keeping the same economic cut off point identify poor , needy in other castes also and extend the reservation benefits to them also on an equal footing.
5. Finally down the line scrap all caste based reservations instead income based affirmation policy must be brought in. Instead of declaring a person with low marks as passed, selected against many other talented , struggling persons, that low scoring person should be given free coaching facilities, free hostel, fee waiver, etc. But exam rules , selection rules must be same for all.
6. Still if goverment continues with it's crimes of suppressing neo dalits and if apex court also aids the goverment, both of them become criminals.
7. 10% reservation must be accommodated within 50% reservation pie of jobs, seats in educational institutions.
8. Give minority reservation benefits to hindus in jammu kasmir, kerala, north eastern states where actually hindus are in minority whereas muslims Christians are in majority.
9. Fix a definite time line for removal of caste based reservation and it's replacement with poverty based affirmative action.
10. To stop persecution , human rights violations, fundamental rights violations of sections of society falsely declaring all of them as forward.
11. To clearly specify the parameters for declaring a person as backward or forward or minority or oppressed.
12. To remove the forwards among so called backwards, minorities from reservation benefits.
FOR WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER SHALL BE DUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.
Dated : 05.12.2021. ………………..FILED BY: NAGARAJA.M.R.
Place : Mysuru , India…………………….PETITIONER-IN-PERSON
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Right to equality , equal opportunity and equitable justice is a birth right , human right of every human being. Nobody , no minister , no constitutional body can violate it. When it is violated , it is a crime against humanity , the people who perpetrate those violations are CRIMINALS. Even when public servants perpetrate those human rights violations in the name of parliamentary acts like Reservation policy , the people who drafted such inhuman laws and people who passed and enacted such inhuman laws are all CRIMINALS.
Do remember Inhuman persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany was approved by majority in German parliament. Mere supporting numbers doesn't make an inhuman act justified or an illegal act as legal.
Government is practically protecting rights of dalits , obc and minorities only. Good. Is it not the duty of government to protect rights all other citizens including forward castes , brahmins ? Didn't forward caste people , brahmins struggle and sacrifice for India's independence ? Are not they electing government by their votes ? Are not they paying taxes ?
Reservations should be seen as temporary and exceptional “or else they would eat up the rule of equality”. It is continuing for 76 years.
Hereby we appeal to Honourable Supreme Court of India :
1. To order government of india and state governments to conduct time bound transparent scientific people census and to make those data public to disprove manipulations by government, political parties and vested interests.
2. To annul all discriminatory reservation acts by government.
3. To order government to base it's affirmative policies on actual conditions of people irrespective of caste or religion on the basis of latest public census.
4. To limit reservation benefits only once to a family. Father gets job on reservation quota again his son should not get job on reservation instead a person of same reserved category who has not got reservation benefits earlier should get it.
5. To provide equal opportunity for every person irrespective of caste or religion in all spheres.
Your's sincerely
Nagaraja M R
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The Plight of Brahmins
The Mandal Commission report marks the culmination of the attempt at social engineering that began with the Christian missionary (followed by British governmental) campaigns against the Brahmin community in the early part of the 19th century. It was not accidental that Brahmins emerged as the principal target of British attacks. Britishers of all pursuits, missionaries, administrators and orientalists, were quick to grasp; their pivotal role in the Indian social arrangement. They were all agreed that religious ideas and practices underlay the entire social structure and that, as custodians of the sacred tradition, Brahmins were the principal integrating force. This made them the natural target of those seeking to fragment, indeed atomise, Indian Society. This was as true of the British conquerors as it was of Muslim rulers in the preceding centuries. Mandal takes off from where the British left.
The British were not wrong in their distrust of educated Brahmins in whom they saw a potential threat to their supremacy in India. For instance, in 1879 the Collector of Tanjore in a communication to Sir James Caird, member of the Famine Commission, stated that “there was no class (except Brahmins ) which was so hostile to the English.” The predominance of the Brahmins in the freedom movement confirmed the worst British suspicions of the community. Innumerable CID reports of the period commented on Brahmin participation at all levels of the nationalist movement. In the words of an observer, “If any community could claim credit for driving the British out of the country, it was the Brahmin community. Seventy per cent of those who were felled by British bullets were Brahmins”.
Role slighted
To counter what they perceived, a Brahminical challenge, the British launched on the one hand a major ideological attack on the Brahmins and, on the other incited non-Brahmin caste Hindus to press for preferential treatment, a ploy that was to prove equally successful vis-à-vis the Muslims.
In the attempt to rewrite Indian history, Brahmins began to be portrayed as oppressors and tyrants who wilfully kept down the rest of the populace. Their role in the development of Indian society was deliberately slighted. In ancient times, for example, Brahmins played a major part in the spread of new methods of cultivation (especially the use of the plough and manure) in backward and aboriginal areas. The Krsi-parasara, compiled during this period, is testimony to their contribution in this field.
But far more important was the Brahmin contribution to the integration of society. So influenced are we by the British view of our past that we completely ignore the fact that the principle by which the Brahmins achieved the integration of various tribes and communities was unique in world history. This was perhaps the only case where all incoming groups were accommodated on their own terms. All aspects of their beliefs and behaviour patterns were accepted as legitimate and no attempt was made to compel them to surrender or change their distinctive lifestyles. Each group was left to evolve and change according to its internal rhythm. What a contrast to the Christian method of conversion by the sword and their efforts to obliterate all traces of the previous history of all converts.
Apart from misrepresenting the Indian past, the British actively encouraged anti-Brahmin sentiments. A number of scholars have commented on their involvement in the anti-Brahmin movement in South India. As a result of their machinations non-Brahmins turned on the Brahmins with a ferocity that has few parallels in Indian history. This was all the more surprising in that for centuries Brahmins and non-Brahmins had been active partners and collaborators in the task of political and social management.
Overdrawn
Some British observers themselves conceded that the picture of the Brahmin as oppressor was overdrawn and that in reality there was little difference in the condition of the Brahmin and the rest of the native population. H. T. Colebrooke, one of the early Sanskrit scholars wrote, “ Daily observation shows even the Brahmin exercising the menial profession of a Sudra… it may be received as a general maxim, that the occupation, appointed for each tribe, is entitled merely to a preference. Every profession, with few exceptions, is open to every description of persons; and the discouragement, arising from religious prejudices, is not greater than what exists in Great Britain from the effects of Municipal and Corporation laws”.
The British census operations that began in the latter part of the 19th century produced further distortions in the Indian system. The British sought to interpret the caste system in the light of their own pet theories. H. H. Risley who directed the 1901 census operations was, for example, determined to demonstrate that “race sentiment” formed the basis of the caste system and that social precedence was based on the scale of racial purity. The same race theory played havoc in Europe in the form of Nazism and has now been fully repudiated.
The British, unmindful of the complexities and intricacies of the social arrangement, sought to achieve standardisation by placing all jatis in the four varnas or in the categories of outcastes and aborigines. As a result they destroyed the flexibility that was so vital for the proper functioning of the system. The census operations raised caste consciousness to a feverish pitch, incited caste animosities and led to an all-round hardening of the system. They led to frantic efforts at Sanskritisation and upward mobility, so very different from the flexibility of earlier times. When the system was made rigid everyone wanted to be a member of a higher varna. Caste consequently became a tool in the political, religious and cultural battles that the Hindus fought amongst themselves.
Downward mobility
It is significant that the census operations coincided with the attempt to reorganise the army on the basis of the martial race theory. At about that time the British were also beginning to raise questions about the relative balance of Hindus and Muslims in the public services and about the “monopoly” of certain castes in the new education. There was also talk of the conspiracy of certain castes to overthrow their rule.
The forces unleashed by the British continued to gather momentum. Them myth of the omnipotent Brahmin had been so successfully sold that most Indians missed the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In recent years, however, a number of studies have appeared that detail the downward mobility that has been the chief characteristic of he Brahmin community particularly since independence.
Financially, the Brahmins have been very hard hit. State laws combined with fragmentation of land have had the effect of substantially reducing the size of family holdings so much so that most Brahmins today find it difficult to eke out a living from land. Traditional occupations like family and temple priesthood, recitation of the Vedas and practice of Ayurvedic medicine no longer prove remunerative nor command respect.
A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J.Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that all purohits today live below the poverty line. Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the “backward classes” prevented them from providing secular education to their children.
In fact according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. The average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level.
In the 5-18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level. The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line that is below a per capita income of Rs.65 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure. There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different.
Appalling poverty
In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka Finance Minister in the State Assembly on July 1, 1978: Christian Rs.1562, Vokkaligas Rs.914, Muslims Rs.794, Scheduled caste Rs.680, Scheduled Tribes Rs.577 and Brahmins Rs.537.
Appalling poverty compelled many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced the Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well. According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent.
Clearly it is time to sit up and see reality as it is before we complete the task the British began- the atomisation of Indian society and annihilation of Indian civilisation.
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Will the targeting of Brahmins ever end?
By Hindu Post
One of the first lessons which was taught to us as children was “Two wrongs do not make a right”. This a rejection of lex talionis or the law of retaliation – that a punishment inflicted should correspond in degree and kind to the offense of the wrongdoer; in layman’s terms, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Lex talionis is the law of tribal societies based on balanced opposition among groups, potential retribution being the main form of deterrence against attack. But what worked in tribal societies does not necessarily work in complex civil societies, particularly in liberal democracies. Civil societies require civility; replying to injury by injuring back is a violation of civility, lowering all parties to savage behaviour.
Yet, these elementary principles have been thrown to the wind for decades by the very persons who claim to be champions of social justice – politicians, activists, academicians, etc. and what is being seen today is a form of retributive justice against Brahmins.
Be it supporters of E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar), who is known to have once said, “If you see a snake and a Brahmin on the road, kill the Brahmin first”, or more recently the former Chief Minister of Bihar, Jitan Ram Manjhi, who used the word “haraami” to describe pandits, there is no gainsaying that there has been and still is an insidious, simmering resentment against the community.
Reports have surfaced of their tufts and sacred threads being cut, them being compared with pigs, threatened with rape, and even subjected to physical violence, all in the name of anti-Brahminism. Even Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, venerated though he is by parties across the political spectrum, was known to speak of Brahmins in unflattering terms, such as:
“Historically they (Brahmins) have been the most inveterate enemy of the servile classes (Shudras and the Untouchables) who together constitute about 80 per cent of the total Hindu population. If the common man belonging to the servile classes in India is today so fallen, so degraded, so devoid of hope and ambition, it is entirely due to the Brahmins and their philosophy… There is no social evil and no social wrong to which the Brahmin does not give his support. Man’s inhumanity to man, such as the feeling of caste, untouchability, unapproachability and unseeability is a religion to him.”
Fashionable among anti-Hindu, Marxist, radical religious and separatist outfits, this is an ideology which is premised upon two faulty assumptions – that Brahmins were responsible for atrocities inflicted upon the lower castes, particularly Dalits; and secondly, that they, on account of their superior position in the caste – based hierarchical social order, have had more access to education and consequently, are not only more propserous but have a disproportionately higher representation in the echelons of the bureaucracy, judiciary, media, corporate organisations, and so on.
However, it is not very difficult to deconstruct narratives. It may be that brutalities were perpetrated against the marginalized sections of society, but is there any evidence to suggest that Brahmins alone behind it? As Dr. Prakash Shah puts it, “virtually all the violence in Tamil Nadu against Scheduled Castes was by other lower castes, not Brahmins who have in any case left the villages.”
That apart, even in other parts of Bharat, caste related violence has been attributed to non-Brahmin communities, both upper and lower caste. Take the case of the 2006 Khairlanji massacre where a group of villagers, mostly Kunbis, sexually assaulted and murdered members of the family of Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, who belonged to the Mahar community. While the Mahars are Dalit, the Kunbi are classified as an Other Backward Class by the Bharatiya government. Yet, there was no backlash against the Kunbi community as a whole.
Moreover, it would be factually incorrect to say that it is the lower castes alone who have been the victims of all caste – related violence. To cite just one instance, in 1948, following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, thousands of Chitpavan Brahmins, the community to which Nathuram Godse belonged, were massacred by Congress workers, a pogrom which soon took a casteist turn with the Marathas joining the killer’s bandwagon, the social tension between the two dating back to the days of the Peshwa-Shivaji hostility.
And coming to the second argument, there is not an iota of empirical caste-wise data to suggest Brahminical hegemony in the echelons of any field. On the contrary, regarding the appointment of judges in the Madras High Court, Dr. Abhinav Chandrachud writes in his book, ‘Supreme Whispers’:
“In June 1983, Justice Rajagopala Ayyangar told Gadbois that the backward community got all the advantages, that there were only a handful of Brahmins at the Madras High Court at that time. Likewise, TV Balakrishnan, son of the 1950s Supreme Court judge TLV Ayyar, said that since 1960, appointments to the Madras High Court were made on the basis of community and caste, that members of the forward community were discriminated against at that court and appointed late, and that there were just two Brahmins at the high court by June 1983.”
Even otherwise, it is absurd to think of Brahmins as an affluent, pampered class as a whole. Such perceptions belongs to the realm of myth or stereotype as is evident from the fact when the Kanpur Municipal Corporation invited applications in 2016 to fill in 3,275 vacancies for the post of a safai-karmachari, a job usually considered as menial, no less than one lakh Brahmins applied for the post.
The situation is not too different in the rest of Bharat. As Francois Gautier’s states in his 2006 article, ‘Are Brahmins the Dalits of today?’:
There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins. The institution itself was founded by Bindeshwar Pathak, a Brahmin.
50 per cent of rickshaw pullers in Delhi’s Patel Nagar are Brahmins who like their brethren have moved to the city looking for jobs on account of lack of employment opportunities and poor education in their villages. These men make about Rs 100 to Rs 150 on an average every day from which they pay a daily rent of Rs 25 for their rickshaws and Rs 500 to Rs 600 towards the rent of their rooms which is shared by 3 to 4 people or their families.
Most rickshaw pullers in Banaras too are Brahmins.
400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi in appalling conditions.
In the Southern Bharat too, the condition is not very different. The following extract from Meenakshi Jain’s article, ‘The plight of Brahmins’, published in the Indian Express in 1990, paints a similar picture:
“Them myth of the omnipotent Brahmin had been so successfully sold that most Indians missed the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In recent years, however, a number of studies have appeared that detail the downward mobility that has been the chief characteristic of the Brahmin community particularly since independence.
Financially, the Brahmins have been very hard hit. State laws combined with fragmentation of land have had the effect of substantially reducing the size of family holdings so much so that most Brahmins today find it difficult to eke out a living from land. Traditional occupations like family and temple priesthood, recitation of the Vedas and practice of Ayurvedic medicine no longer prove remunerative nor command respect.
A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J.Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that all purohits today live below the poverty line. Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and tuft had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the “backward classes” prevented them from providing secular education to their children.
In fact according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. The average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level.
In the 5-18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level. The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line that is below a per capita income of Rs.65 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure. There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different.
In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka Finance Minister in the State Assembly on July 1, 1978: Christian Rs 1562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled caste Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537.
Appalling poverty compelled many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced the Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well. According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent.”
So what does it mean when Jack Dorsey, the then CEO of Twitter, surrounded by female journalists, holds a poster entitled, “Smash Brahminical patriarchy” or when volunteers of a pro-Dravidian group hold a thread ceremony for pigs on a Chennai road as a form of protest against Brahminism?
The truth is that Brahmins have become the perfect scapegoats for just about everything and everybody. The country is not progressing – blame it on the irrationality and superstitutions propagated by the Brahmins. There is too much unemployment – it is because the Brahmins have taken up all the jobs. Inequality is widening – thanks to the birth based privileges and entitlement of the Brahmins. Dalits are being attacked – the attackers cannot be anyone else but Brahmins.
After all, why bother actually addressing the real issues such as development, job creation, providing opportunities to the needy, and maintaining law and order, when you have a one-size-fits-all solution for every malady in the country?
In fact, this inexplicable animosity towards an entire community bares striking similarities to the institutuionalised hatred towards Jews in Nazi Germany, the only difference being that in the Indian setup, State support is more tacit, unlike Hitler who made no bones about his anti-Semitic policies. Drawing parallels between the prevailing stereotypes about Brahmins in Europe and the Jews in Europe and the treatment meted out to them, Professor Jakob de Roover writes in his 2008 Outlook article, ‘The Indian Jews’:
‘Jews have been described as devious connivers, who would do anything for personal gain. They were said to be secretive and untrustworthy, manipulating politics and the economy. In India, Brahmins are all too often characterised in the same way.
Second, the stereotypes about the Jews were part of a larger story about a historical conspiracy in which they had supposedly exploited European societies. To this day, the stories about a Jewish conspiracy against humanity prevail. The anti-Brahminical stories sound much the same, but have the Brahmins plotting against the oppressed classes in Indian society.
In both cases, historians have claimed to produce “evidence” that cannot be considered so by any standard. Typical of the ideologues of anti-Brahminism is the addition of ad hoc ploys whenever their stories are challenged by facts. When it is pointed out that the Brahmins have not been all that powerful in most parts of the country, or that they were poor in many regions, one reverts to the image of the Brahmin manipulating kings and politicians behind the scene. We cannot find empirical evidence, it is said, because of the secretive way in which Brahminism works.
Third, both in anti-Semitic Europe and anti-Brahminical India, this goes together with the interpretation of contemporary events in terms of these stories. One does not really analyse social tragedies and injustices, but approaches them as confirmations of the ideological stories. All that goes wrong in society is blamed on the minority in question. Violence against Muslims? It must be the “Brahmins” of the Sangh Parivar. Opposition against Christian missionaries and the approval of anti-conversion laws?
“Ah, the Brahmins fear that Christianity will empower the lower castes.” Members of a scheduled caste are killed? “The Brahmin wants to show the Dalit his true place in the caste hierarchy.” An OBC member loses his job; a lower caste girl is raped? “The upper castes must be behind it.” So the story goes.
This leads to a fourth parallel: in both cases, resentment against the minority in question is systematically created and reinforced among the majority. The Jews were accused of sucking all riches out of European societies. In the decades before the second World War, more and more people began to believe that it was time “to take back what was rightfully theirs.” In India also, movements have come into being that want to set right “the historical injustices of Brahminical oppression.” Some have even begun to call upon their followers to “exterminate the Brahmins.”
In Europe, state policies were implemented that expressed the discrimination against Jews. For a very long time, they could not hold certain jobs and participate in many social and economic activities. In India, one seems to be going this way with policies that claim to correct “the historical exploitation by the upper castes.” It is becoming increasingly difficult for Brahmins to get access to certain jobs. In both cases, these policies have been justified in terms of a flawed ideological story that passes for social science.
Perhaps the most tragic similarity is that some members of the minority community have internalised these stories about themselves. Some Jews began to believe that they were to blame for what happened during the Holocaust; many educated Brahmins now feel that they are guilty of historical atrocities against other groups. In some cases, this has led to a kind of identity crisis in which they vilify “Brahminism” in English-language academic debate, but continue their traditions. In other cases, the desire to “defend” these same traditions has inspired Brahmins to aggressively support Hindutva.
However, if today someone were to say that the present Germans must be made to suffer for the crimes committed by the their forefathers against the Jews, it would be considered as laughable. But on the other hand, when Brahmins in India are targeted in the name of retributive justice, hardly anyone bats an eyelid.
Nevertheless, leaders of various outfits are slowly beginning to realized that this cannot go on forever. Unlike Hitler’s Germany, every vote matters in an Indian election and while bashing Brahmins may have been politically safe once, it is not the case today. While Mamta Banerjee has announced a monthly allowance of a thousand rupees and free housing for priests, politicians from the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have both promised to build statues of Bhagwan Parshuram in an attempt to woo the Brahmin community in the run up to the 2022 U.P. Elections.
But while the sensible amongst us will treat such doles and promises with an appropriate amount of salt, one cannot help but wonder if the Brahmins themselves are responsible for their lot. Had the community, though numerically small, collectively asserted itself when the seeds of anti-Brahminism were being sown, the movement could have been nipped in the bud. Even in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Kamsa’s ministers while advising him of the need to take immediate action against the enemies, say in verse 10.4.38:
“Yathaamayo ‘nge samupekshito nrbhir,
na shakyate rudha padash cikitsitum,
yathendriya graama upekshitas tathaa,
ripur mahaan baddha balo na caalyate.”
“Just as a disease, if initially neglected, becomes acute and impossible to cure; or as the senses, if not controlled at first, are impossible to control later; an enemy, if neglected in the beginning, later becomes insurmountable.”
But alas, the problem has reached such magnitudes that destroying it seems nigh impossible. And as the Brahmins continue to toil in a so-called “egalitarian” India with barely any socio-economic privileges and a setup that systematically discriminates against them, it would appear that only Bhagwan Parshuram can save them, given that anti-Brahminism has today become a force more powerful than the corrupt Kshatriyas he was forced to exterminate.
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Reservation or Oppression or Vengeance ?
A GO issued by the Madras Presidency in 1921 allocated 44% of reservations to non-Brahmins, 16% to Muslims, 16% to Anglo-Indian Christians, and 8% to Scheduled Castes. 100% fully reserved. No jobs , no college seats, no government support for Brahmins. Are not brahmins citizens of india ? Are not brahmins tax payers to the government ? There are many Brahmins who struggled and sacrificed for our freedom struggle like other communities.
Britishers sowed the seeds of division between religions , castes to keep all bharatiyas disunited. To ensure continued hostilities between people and thereby bharath doesn't progress.
You cannot give vision to one by snatching away vision of the other , you cannot uplift one by pushing down the other.
Objective of the democracy is to treat all equally. Nobody is superior nor inferior, all are EQUALS.
More than democracy, Constitution of india HUMANITY is superior. Everyone gets human rights of equality and equal opportunity by birth. Government sponsored reservation policy is inhuman and violates human rights of poor and numerically weak people. Now in practice downtrodden identified by government are GOVERNMENT BRAHMINS and get all benefits from tax payer's money from cradle to coffin. Whereas poor among forward castes identified by government are suffering as DALITS.
Just an example a couple both of them got college seats , government jobs on reservation. Their gross monthly income is more than one lakh rupees. They get priority house, site allotment from government on caste basis. Still they apply for reservation , monetary support from government for their son's college admission. They get it.
Whereas a poor forward caste person who earns Rs.300 daily wages is unable to provide for his son's education and his son also becomes a daily wage labourer.
Is this the objective our government of india ? Government is sowing , watering the plants of division ( sowed by britishers ) in the name of reservation policy.
Nobody should be discriminated on the basis of caste or religion. It has happened in history which is INHUMAN and must be corrected. Brahmins are also one of the culprits but not the only one. There were other major culprits, castes but nobody raises voice against those numerically strong people. Brahmins are mere 4 % of Indian population. More than 90% of village chieftains , kings were of dominant castes, numerically strong castes. Temple management committees were full of dominant caste members and headed by them. Acts of Untouchability were enforced by these rulers. Brahmins didn't had the position , authority , power to enforce those inhuman acts. True they were accomplices of the crime and ideally in the charge sheet they would be second or third accused. First accused were of dominant castes. Nobody dares to question them the first accused. Brahmins are made scape goats for the real culprits to escape.
Now after 76 years of independence due to Reservation policy from peons to chief secretary posts are 90% occupied by SC , ST , OBC , Minorities , dominant castes and 90% of MPs , MLAs , Panchayath members belong to same castes. Complete decision making is done by them. Brahmins are fully sidelined. Ideally there should be a just , equitable society. However still atrocities happen , corruption is rampant. Inefficiency in government departments is very high ? Why ?
A religious head of dominant caste is accused of atrocities against dalit girl in karnataka.
A lady dalit district collector was abused in karnataka.
A high court judge of dominant caste threatens dalit subordinate judge in Andhra Pradesh.
Just take the recent case of a village in Tamilnadu where dominant castes refused entry of dalits into temple and excreta was mixed in drinking water tank and all dalit villagers were made to drink that excreta water for weeks.
Where are the voices of Mr.stalin and other brahmin haters ?
A crime cannot be corrected by another crime. Hate , Vengeance doesn't bring happiness. Equality cannot be achieved by british seeds of caste division like reservation policy. It can be achieved by change of mindset by mutual respect , love , empathy between people which brings peace , prosperity and happiness. We respect all religions and castes. There are rich as well as poor in all castes and religions. Poor in all castes and communities deserve government support but rich does not deserve it.
Your's
Nagaraja.M.R
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Why Ambedkar Didn’t Like India’s Constitution
“I am quite prepared to say that I shall be the first person to burn it out. I do not want it,” Ambedkar had said.
by BHANU DHAMIJA
Only three years after our Constitution was adopted, its chief architect, BR Ambedkar, publicly disowned it in Parliament. In an astonishing admission in 1953, he blurted out in the Rajya Sabha:
Sir, my friends tell me that I have made the Constitution. But I am quite prepared to say that I shall be the first person to burn it out. I do not want it. It does not suit anybody.
BR Ambedkar
Ambedkar was advocating that the Constitution be changed to give governors the power of oversight over state governments.
Four years earlier, in May 1949, he had argued the opposite inside the Constituent Assembly that “the coexistence of a governor elected by the people and a chief minister responsible to the legislature might lead to friction.”
But now, he was telling the Rajya Sabha:
We have inherited the idea that the governor must have no power at all, that he must be a rubber stamp. If a minister, however scoundrelly he may be… puts up a proposal before the governor, he has to approve it. That is the kind of conception about democracy which we have developed in this country.
BR Ambedkar
“But you defended it,” said a member.
Ambedkar snapped back, “We lawyers defend many things. People always keep on saying to me, ‘Oh! you are the maker of the Constitution.’ My answer is I was a hack. What I was asked to do, I did much against my will.”
Members were on their feet. One asked, “Why did you serve your masters like that?”
Ambedkar replied angrily, “You want to accuse me for your blemishes? — typically, I might add.” As the House was brought to order, Ambedkar’s proposal to give governors a power of veto was denied.
The truth was Ambedkar was past his heydays, and all that bothered him about the Constitution never came out in the open.
The truth was Ambedkar was past his heydays, and all that bothered him about the Constitution never came out in the open. He had already resigned from the Cabinet over disagreements about the Hindu Code Bill, and was then defeated twice, in 1952 and 1954, in his bid to become a Lok Sabha MP. Although, outside Parliament Ambedkar persisted in his criticism.
In a 1953 interview, he told the BBC: “Democracy will not work (in India), for the simple reason we have got a social structure which is totally incompatible with parliamentary democracy.”
He passed away in 1956.
What troubled Ambedkar about the Constitution India had adopted was its inherent majoritarianism. For a permanent Hindu majority nation, he didn’t think a system of majority-only government was well suited. In fact, he had proposed to the Constituent Assembly an entirely different set up for India’s Constitution than the one it adopted based on the parliamentary system.
Ambedkar’s United States of India
Ambedkar labeled his scheme the “United States of India (USI).” It was submitted to the Assembly’s subcommittee on Fundamental Rights only seven months before he began work as chairman of the Drafting Committee.
Ambedkar’s USI proposal was similar in many ways to the US’ system of government. It was a genuine federation, giving states a much higher degree of independence. This is why Ambedkar wished governors had discretionary powers. The USI’s executive power was to be elected by the entire legislature, not just by the majority party, and for a fixed term in office. The judicial power was vested in a totally independent Supreme Court. And the list of fundamental rights was similar to America’s Bill of Rights. Even Ambedkar’s language was reminiscent of America’s Declaration of Independence: “the British type of executive will be full of menace to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of the minorities,” he wrote.
The executive power — a Cabinet run by a majority party leader as prime minister or chief minister — was Ambedkar’s chief concern. Its structure was crucial, he argued, for not just safeguarding minorities but also for providing stability in governments.
“It was clear,” he noted, “that if the British system was copied it would result in permanently vesting executive power in a communal majority.” And as for stability, he feared that “in view of the clashes of castes and creeds there is bound to be a plethora of parties. If this happens it is possible, nay certain, that under the system of parliamentary executive India may suffer from instability.”
This is not the first time Ambedkar had proposed these ideas for India’s Constitution. In a 1945 speech on India’s fundamental problems, he had declared: “Majority rule is untenable in theory and unjustifiable in practice.”
He outlined the principles on which India’s government should be based: a) “Executive power assumes far greater importance than legislative power”; b) “Executive should cease to be a committee of the majority party”; and c) “Executive should be non-parliamentary in the sense that it shall not be removable.”
Dr BR Ambedkar went to the extraordinary extent of preferring British rule over Independence, if all freedom was to bring was majority-only governments.
Ambedkar even took these suggestions to the British. He went to the extraordinary extent of preferring British rule over Independence, if all freedom was to bring was majority-only governments.
In a secret meeting with the British Viceroy, Ambedkar declared categorically that “the parliamentary system would not do in India.” The Viceroy asked him whether he would say that in public, to which he replied he would be ready to do so “with the utmost emphasis.”
Given all this, the puzzling question is why inside the Constituent Assembly Ambedkar supported a parliamentary type system of majority-only governments. After all, he sat with Nehru on the most important committees of the Constitution making body, and it was his draft that was finally adopted.
It’s all conjecture, but people have alluded to three reasons why Ambedkar switched from his long-standing opposition to parliamentary governments and became its chief proponent.
One, he was admitted to the Assembly only due to the support of the Congress party. He felt duty bound to push Congress’ proposals inside the house. Two, he was offered by Nehru the Cabinet position of Law Minister. He figured this would allow him to continue to serve his nation and his causes.
And three, Ambedkar wished to keep his arch-rival Gandhi’s influence away from the Constitution. Gandhi’s ideas about keeping villages at the foundation of India’s government were half-baked and too experimental.
After 70 years of poor governance and rising caste and communal tensions, it is safe to say that Ambedkar’s criticisms of our current Constitution were valid. Now, us Indians, have to decide whether we continue to pretend to be his followers to gain votes, or do we truly follow his advice.
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Why BR Ambedkar's three warnings in his last speech to the Constituent Assembly resonate even today
On November 25, 1949, he spoke of the need to give up the grammar of anarchy, to avoid hero-worship, and to work towards a social – not just a political – democracy.
Excerpts from the speech to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949
On 26th January 1950, India will be an independent country. What would happen to her independence? Will she maintain her independence or will she lose it again? This is the first thought that comes to my mind. It is not that India was never an independent country. The point is that she once lost the independence she had. Will she lose it a second time? It is this thought which makes me most anxious for the future.
What perturbs me greatly is the fact that not only India has once before lost her independence, but she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people.
In the invasion of Sindh by Mahommed-Bin-Kasim, the military commanders of King Dahar accepted bribes from the agents of Mahommed-Bin-Kasim and refused to fight on the side of their King. It was Jaichand who invited Mahommed Gohri to invade India and fight against Prithvi Raj and promised him the help of himself and the Solanki Kings. When Shivaji was fighting for the liberation of Hindus, the other Maratha noblemen and the Rajput Kings were fighting the battle on the side of Moghul Emperors. When the British were trying to destroy the Sikh Rulers, Gulab Singh, their principal commander sat silent and did not help to save the Sikh Kingdom. In 1857, when a large part of India had declared a war of independence against the British, the Sikhs stood and watched the event as silent spectators.
Will history repeat itself? It is this thought which fills me with anxiety. This anxiety is deepened by the realisation of the fact that in addition to our old enemies in the form of castes and creeds we are going to have many political parties with diverse and opposing political creeds. Will Indians place the country above their creed or will they place creed above country? I do not know. But this much is certain that if the parties place creed above country, our independence will be put in jeopardy a second time and probably be lost for ever. This eventuality we must all resolutely guard against. We must be determined to defend our independence with the last drop of our blood.
On the 26th of January 1950, India would be a democratic country in the sense that India from that day would have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The same thought comes to my mind. What would happen to her democratic Constitution? Will she be able to maintain it or will she lose it again? This is the second thought that comes to my mind and makes me as anxious as the first.
Democratic system
It is not that India did not know what is Democracy. There was a time when India was studded with republics, and even where there were monarchies, they were either elected or limited. They were never absolute. It is not that India did not know Parliaments or parliamentary procedure.
A study of the Buddhist Bhikshu Sanghas discloses that not only there were Parliaments – for the Sanghas were nothing but Parliaments – but the Sanghas knew and observed all the rules of parliamentary procedure known to modern times. They had rules regarding seating arrangements, rules regarding Motions, Resolutions, Quorum, Whip, Counting of Votes, Voting by Ballot, Censure Motion, Regularisation, Res Judicata, etc. Although these rules of parliamentary procedure were applied by the Buddha to the meetings of the Sanghas, he must have borrowed them from the rules of the Political Assemblies functioning in the country in his time.
This democratic system India lost. Will she lose it a second time? I do not know. But it is quite possible in a country like India – where democracy from its long disuse must be regarded as something quite new – there is danger of democracy giving place to dictatorship. It is quite possible for this new born democracy to retain its form but give place to dictatorship in fact. If there is a landslide, the danger of the second possibility becoming actuality is much greater.
Three warnings
If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do?
The first thing in my judgement we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us.
The second thing we must do is to observe the caution which John Stuart Mill has given to all who are interested in the maintenance of democracy, namely, not “to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or to trust him with power which enable him to subvert their institutions”. There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the country. But there are limits to gratefulness. As has been well said by the Irish Patriot Daniel O’Connel, no man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty. This caution is far more necessary in the case of India than in the case of any other country. For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship.
The third thing we must do is not to be content with mere political democracy. We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy.
Social democracy
What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity 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.
Liberty cannot be divorced from equality, equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things. It would require a constable to enforce them.
We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty.
On the 26th of 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 recognising 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 moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up.
The second thing we are wanting in is recognition of the principle of fraternity. What does fraternity mean? Fraternity means a sense of common brotherhood of all Indians – of Indians being one people. It is the principle which gives unity and solidarity to social life. It is a difficult thing to achieve. How difficult it is, can be realised from the story related by James Bryce in his volume on American Commonwealth about the United States of America.
The story is – I propose to recount it in the words of Bryce himself:
“Some years ago the American Protestant Episcopal Church was occupied at its triennial Convention in revising its liturgy. It was thought desirable to introduce among the short sentence prayers a prayer for the whole people, and an eminent New England divine proposed the words `O Lord, bless our nation’. Accepted one afternoon, on the spur of the moment, the sentence was brought up next day for reconsideration, when so many objections were raised by the laity to the word nation’ as importing too definite a recognition of national unity, that it was dropped, and instead there were adopted the words `O Lord, bless these United States.”
There was so little solidarity in the USA at the time when this incident occurred that the people of America did not think that they were a nation. If the people of the United States could not feel that they were a nation, how difficult it is for Indians to think that they are a nation?
A great delusion
I remember the days when politically minded Indians, resented the expression “the people of India”. They preferred the expression “the Indian nation.” I am of opinion that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? The sooner we realise that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense of the world, the better for us. For then only we shall realise the necessity of becoming a nation and seriously think of ways and means of realising the goal. The realisation of this goal is going to be very difficult – far more difficult than it has been in the United States. The United States has no caste problem. In India there are castes. The castes are anti-national. In the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation. Without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.
These are my reflections about the tasks that lie ahead of us. They may not be very pleasant to some. But there can be no gainsaying that political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of a few and the many are 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-realisation in the down-trodden classes must no be allowed to devolve into a class struggle or class war. It would lead to a division of the House. That would indeed be a day of disaster. For, as has been well said by Abraham Lincoln, a House divided against itself cannot stand very long. Therefore the sooner room is made for the realisation of their aspiration, the better for the few, the better for the country, the better for the maintenance for its independence and the better for the continuance of its democratic structure. This can only be done by the establishment of equality and fraternity in all spheres of life. That is why I have laid so much stresses on them.
I do not wish to weary the House any further. Independence is no doubt a matter of joy. But let us not forget that this independence has thrown on us great responsibilities. By independence, we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong. If hereafter things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame except ourselves. There is great danger of things going wrong. Times are fast changing. People including our own are being moved by new ideologies. They are getting tired of Government by the people. They are prepared to have Governments for the people and are indifferent whether it is Government of the people and by the people. If we wish to preserve the Constitution in which we have sought to enshrine the principle of Government of the people, for the people and by the people, let us resolve not to be tardy in the recognition of the evils that lie across our path and which induce people to prefer Government for the people to Government by the people, nor to be weak in our initiative to remove them. That is the only way to serve the country. I know of no better.
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Whatever his motives, Periyar helped the British
By Markandey Katju
The 139th birth anniversary of E.V. Ramasamy (Periyar) was celebrated in many parts of Tamil Nadu, on September 17, with great fanfare. However, some acts of vandalism on his statues were reported in Chennai and Dharapuram in Tiruppur district. Periyar (1879-1973) is regarded as a great fighter against the caste system, superstitions and empty rituals. He was considered a proponent of rationalism, women emancipation and upliftment of the downtrodden. Both the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu—the DMK and the AIADMK—claim their ancestry through him, and no politician in Tamil Nadu can dare criticise him. He started the self-respect movement and created the Justice Party, which later became the DK (Dravida Kazhagam). DMK was an offshoot of the same. However, in my opinion, the time has come for a fresh, objective and unemotional assessment of Periyar, and I am here presenting my own view. I do not dispute that Periyar fought against injustices in the society. But, this has to be coupled with the following considerations:
1. As is well known, the British policy in India was of divide and rule. Their efforts were directed towards sparking enmity between Hindus and Muslims (see, in this connection, B.N. Pande's speech in the Rajya Sabha, ‘History in the service of Imperialism', and my article 'The truth about Pakistan'). They also strived for division along the lines of caste. Periyar constantly spouted venom against Brahmins and brahminism. "If you see a snake and a Brahmin, kill the Brahmin first": this was a statement famously attributed to him. Some have denied its authenticity, but there is no doubt that his hatred towards Brahmins was unparalleled, and it was not long before violence followed words. There were many incidents of attacks on Brahmins in Tamil Nadu—their tufts and sacred threads were cut off—leading to a partial exodus of 'Tambrahms' from the state. I submit that, by dividing society along caste lines, Periyar was helping the British, whatever his motives may have been. There can be no denial that dalits were (and still are) treated disgracefully in our society. But the remedy is not to instigate hatred against Brahmins or other upper castes, but for dalits to join hands with the enlightened sections of the upper castes and jointly wage a struggle to put an end to this infamy. As I explained in a blog post 'The Caste System in India' (see on my blog Satyam Bruyat), the caste system, whatever be its origin, had evolved into a feudal occupational division of labour in the society, and every vocation became a caste. There was a small section of the society involved in intellectual work. They were the Brahmins, and their language was Sanskrit. There was no system of universal education in the feudal system, and the educated class in India was almost exclusively the Brahmins (just as in Europe, the educated people were mostly the priests, using the Latin language).So, the Brahmins, being the educated class, had a head start over the rest. When the British came to India, the Brahmins learnt English, gaining disproportionate representation in the bureaucracy, the judiciary, academia and other professions. So, it was not because Brahmins were intellectually superior to non-Brahmins, or because Brahmins were, by nature, tyrants, that dalits and others remained oppressed, and had far less job opportunities. There were historical reasons for it.
2. Periyar claimed to be a rationalist. That is true as far as his polemics on superstitions and empty rituals go. But, in his attacks on Hindu gods like Rama, whose picture he burnt at a Marina beach procession in 1956, he betrays a lack of scientific temper. What Periyar did not understand was that religion cannot be destroyed unless the social foundation upon which it rests is destroyed (see my blog post 'Taslima Nasreen is brave but stupid').
3. Periyar wanted British rule in India to continue, and did not want India to become independent. He announced that August 15, 1947, would be observed as a day of mourning, since Dravidians would thenceforth be ruled by northerners and the Aryans who dominated the Congress party.
4. He wanted an independent Dravidistan, separate from north India, which he called Aryanstan. Had this happened, it would have been disastrous for the economy of Tamil Nadu. Presently, industries in Coimbatore, Karur and Erode sell their products in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. What would have happened to such industries and their employees if this market had been cut off?
I think the time has surely come for a fresh, unemotional and realistic assessment of Periyar.
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Ambedkar: A loyal sepoy of Britishers and his anti-India face
Read :
https://neopolitico.com/opinion/ambedkar-a-loyal-sepoy-of-britishers-and-his-anti-india-face/
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is a historical personality, whose mere mentioning of the name evokes strong sentiments from people across the sociopolitical spectrum in modern Indian. Ambedkar has been glorified as a messianic character to whom a variety of accomplishments have been ascribed, viz., being the father of the Indian Constitution, a supporter of Indian freedom struggle from the British colonial rule, a proponent of social justice and equality, a champion of women empowerment, an advocate of the integration of Kashmir in the Indian union, and above all as being an Indian patriot who wanted a strong and united India.
However, Ambedkar was far from being the ideal hero he has been projected to be in the present times. Historical facts from primary sources allude to a different direction, which has however been sidelined to create an artificial make-believe tale of Ambedkar, thereby painting a perverted and negative impression of the Hindu society.
This series of articles aims to put out facts from primary historical sources to clarify this imaginary picture of Ambedkar which has been pushed down the throat of the Indian masses. The intention is to shed light on the actions and statements made by Ambedkar himself, which have been brushed aside from the public sphere, and to help people know the reality for what it is, instead of how it has been made out to be by the political establishment due to their vested interests. This first part of this series will focus on the role he played during the Indian freedom movement, being a loyal minister of the British government, and his contribution in widening and aggravating the fault lines within the Hindu society.
1. A Loyal Sepoy of the British
Throughout Ambedkar’s public life we will be hard-pressed to find even a single instance where he supported the freedom movement against the British. On the contrary, at every available opportunity, he was persuading the British to stay back in India and made every attempt possible to derail the freedom movement. For instance, it was Ambedkar’s firm opinion that “If India became independent, it would be one of the greatest disasters that could happen” (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Note of Meeting between Cabinet Delegation, Field Marshal Viscount Wavell and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on Friday, 5 April 1946 at 12 noon [Nicholas Mansergh (1977), The Transfer of Power, 1942-47, Vol. 7, pp. 144-147].
Ambedkar’s language was always framed in a way to be favorable to the continuation of British rule over India. While today he is considered as a nationalist unifying figure, he made every attempt possible to prove to the British that the supposed ‘Untouchables’ was the greatest allies of the British along with the other minorities (Fig. 2).
Dr. Baba Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Volume X, pp. 496].
In addition to flaming caste-based hatred in the Hindu society, Ambedkar was also a sympathizer of the Muslim League. With British refusal to make any progress regarding India’s freedom, Congress ministers resigned in protest during November 1939. While Jinnah decided to celebrate the exit of Congress as a “Day of Deliverance”, Ambedkar declared he would join in for the celebration (Fig. 3). This strategic alignment of Ambedkar with the Muslims in opposing the Congress was always useful for the British to justify their colonial subjugation of India.
Figure 3. Ambedkar’s alignment with Jinnah in celebrating the resignation of Congress leaders from the British government [Dhananjay Keer (2005), Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, Popular Prakashan, p. 330].
All the positions taken by Ambedkar were in line with the interests of the British. During 1939, when the second world war was about to break out, Congress was pushing for self-governance and this was putting the British in a tight position, which intended to gain assistance from India to fight a war. In such a critical stage as well, Ambedkar stood firmly with the British. On 7 October 1939, as the crisis was reaching its peak, in a discussion with the Secretary of State, Ambedkar resolutely declared that self-governance by Indians should be completely opposed (Fig. 4).
Through his efforts of supporting the British cause, Ambedkar was garnering appreciation from high-ranking British officials, which comes up time and again in their correspondences. As a result, they wanted to reward him with a position of influence in the government. Particularly, they wanted to give Ambedkar a position in the Viceroy’s council (Fig. 5).
Figure 5. British express their appreciation for Ambedkar’s usefulness for them [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 66].
Finally, Ambedkar’s efforts paid off when Ambedkar was inducted into the Viceroy’s Executive Council on 20 July 1942. And he made the most of his opportunity to be of best use to the British. However, Ambedkar was not just introduced into the Viceroy’s Council for rewarding him. It was part of a larger scheme to wrest the SCs from the Hindu society to make it easier for the missionaries to target them and convert them from their native religion (Fig. 6).
Figure 6. Ambedkar being the instrument of choice for the British to separate the SCs from the Hindu society [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 85].
Ambedkar was a quintessential loyal minister for the British government. Soon after he joined the Viceroy’s Council, on 8 August 1942, the “Quit India” resolution was passed by the Congress which started widespread protests, demonstrations, and violence across the country. Ambedkar did everything in his hands to protect the British government from any criticism. While the brutal measures taken by the British government were raising questions in the Assembly, Ambedkar stood steadfastly behind the government. He plainly said that there could not be a better form of government for the Indians than what they had at that moment, which was the British government. Being the Labour Minister, Ambedkar was also involved in carrying out pro-government propaganda through radio broadcasting, slandering the freedom movement using pejorative words such as, “a fetish of nationalism” and “the worship of the ancient past” (Fig. 7).
Figure 7. Ambedkar defending the measures of the British government during the Quit India Movement in the Assembly as well through radio broadcasting [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 102].
To understand the extent of blatant whitewashing of facts and propagation of falsehood which Ambedkar was indulging in, we just need to look at some of the facts and figures on the brutalities and persecution which the Indians were subjected to by the British during the Quit India movement. Even going by the official statistics, around 10,000 – 25,000 people were shot dead by police or military firings (Fig. 8(a)), countless young men including college students were brutally flogged, and according to some reports in some cases whole villages were flogged to death (Fig. 8(b)).
(a)
(b)
Figure 8. (a) and (b) Brutal persecution of Indians by the British during the Quit India movement, during which Ambedkar was the labor minister in the Viceroy’s Executive Council during 1942-1946, an active collaborator, and a vocal supporter of British policies [Jawaharlal Nehru (1946), The Discovery of India, The Signet Press, pp. 500-502].
If these figures sound disturbing enough, we are yet to consider the supposedly man-made famine crisis in India during the second world war, particularly in Bengal in the year 1943-44. According to the official Famine Inquiry Commission, presided over by Sir John Woodhead (The Famine Enquiry Commission, 1945, p. 1), during the Bengal Famine of 1943, “Between one to two million people died as a result of the famine and the outbreaks of epidemic diseases associated with it” (Fig. 9). And these numbers are limited to Bengal alone. If we consider the situation throughout the country, we can very well imagine the kind of calamitous and dreadful time it was for Indians. But here was Ambedkar during such tumultuous times of suffering, emphatically stating with utter confidence that the British government was the best form of government for the Indians, and even indulging in blatantly false propaganda to whitewash their dreadful crimes from the public eyes!
Figure 9. The approximate number of deaths during the calamitous Bengal Famine in 1943-1944, during which Ambedkar was the labor minister in the Viceroy’s Executive Council during 1942-1946, who was putting all his defending the British government [Sir John Woodhead et al. (1945), The Famine Enquiry Commission – Final Report, Superintendent Government of India Press, p. 1].
2. An Aggravator of The Fault Lines Within the Hindu Society
While today’s Hindutva leaders glorify Ambedkar as an ally and sympathizer of Hindus, Ambedkar’s attempts were constantly in the direction of permanently severing the Hindu society. During the Round Table Conference in 1931, Ambedkar was adamant in insisting that Scheduled Castes (SCs) were different from Hindus, and even went on to the extent that their interests were not just different but eternally opposed to that of the Hindus. Even after opposition from Gandhi and other Congress leaders, Ambedkar held on to his position that SCs should be given separate electorates (Fig. 10).
Figure 10. Ambedkar’s obduracy in demanding separate electorates for the SCs [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 64].
During the colonial times, it was a standard practice of the Europeans to cite incidents of atrocities or evil practices among a native population, to justify their colonial rule over them. In this regard, Ambedkar proved to be a useful asset for the British to perpetuate their control over Indians with the excuse that Indians were incapable of taking care of their own people. In his attempt to paint a perverse and horrific image of the Indians, particularly the Hindu society, Ambedkar even went to the extent of equating Hinduism to Nazism! (Fig. 11). In any sensible society, spreading such dangerous falsehoods and sowing seeds of hatred and enmity between communities would amount to incitement of violence in the society. But we live in a society that has been subjected to relentless propaganda on one side which has resulted in a total inversion of the truth.
Figure 11. Excerpts of a Paper by Ambedkar on the Problem of the Untouchables of India for the Session of the Conference at Mont’ Tremblant in Quebec, Canada on December 1942 [Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings, and Speeches, Volume IX, pp. 97-98].
It would be a shock for many people today if they were told that, Ambedkar was in fact against even the formation of a Constituent Assembly. But this was the fact; in reality, Ambedkar wanted a constitutional lawyer from the UK or the USA to preside over a commission to make a constitution (Fig. 12). Moreover, according to Ambedkar the Commission’s role of this commission would be limited to suggesting modifications to the already Government of India Act of 1935, which was promulgated by the British. Essentially, Ambedkar preferred a continuation of the British system of governance instead of a constitution framed by fellow Indians.
Figure 12. Ambedkar’s opposition to the formation of a Constituent Assembly [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 19].
Ambedkar was ever ready to produce atrocity literature against the Hindu society as per the requirements of the British whenever it was needed to discredit the Congress party and stop any progress towards independence. Around the brink of the beginning of the second world war (around October 1939), when Congress was pressurizing the British to yield for self-governance of India, Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League raised concerns regarding issues of rights of minorities. Here again, Ambedkar was together with the Muslim League, in projecting the Hindu society in a negative light. Ambedkar says that he is ready to place multiple times greater number of cases of oppression than the Muslims could (Fig. 12). It is worth noting that, this strategy of using atrocity literature created through one-sided documentation of the incidents and repeating well-packaged lies, is used even today to malign the Hindu society and disregard its valid concerns.
Figure 13. Alignment of Muslim League and Ambedkar in maligning the Hindu society by the means of built-up atrocity literature [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 40].
Ambedkar not only gave all his efforts towards the continuation of the British rule of India, but he also had planned to restrict the newly formed independent government to make way for a backdoor neo-colonial intervention of India. He wanted the newly formed government to make a treaty with Great Britain to allow them to intervene in our internal affairs even after independence. Not only this, but he also had an even more disruptive agenda of creating autonomous tracts of territory for SCs all over the country (Fig. 14).
Figure 14. Ambedkar’s proposals to tie down the soon-to-be-created independent Indian state under the mercy of Great Britain [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 44].
This was not a one-time proposal from Ambedkar. As late as 1946, Ambedkar continued to propagate his attempts to severe the Hindu society and the to be formed Indian state with separate electorates to SCs, separate settlements for the SCs, and so on, which would essentially mean the creation of sub-nations within a nation (Fig. 15). It would seem unbelievable today, but he had demanded “separate villages” for the SCs. Resolution No IV titled ‘Separate Settlements’, passed at the All India Scheduled Castes Conference in Nagpur in July 1942 (Writings and Speeches, Vol 9, p. 393), states: “The Constitution should provide for the transfer of the SCs from their present habitation and form separate SC villages away from and independent of Hindu villages”. It is noteworthy that the Constitution makers rejected this dangerous idea of separate electorates and saved the Hindu society from a potentially toxic and perilous idea. Also, Ambedkar’s idea is not much different from the demand for ‘Dalitstan’ or ‘Harijanistan’ by modern Ambedkarites.
Figure 15. Demand by Ambedkar’s All-India Scheduled Castes Federation for separate electorates and separate settlements for the SCs [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 49].
3. Independence on the Horizon and After: A Disgruntled and Ungrateful Man
Nevertheless, despite all his efforts to mollycoddle the British, Ambedkar never could gain acceptance from the pan-Indian SC community. This was proved conclusively in the provincial general assembly elections of 1946. In this election, Ambedkar’s Scheduled Castes Federation was dealt a devastating blow. Even in regions where his community, i.e., the Mahar community had a considerable population, his party was decisively defeated by the Congress (Fig. 16).
Figure 16. The sound defeat of Ambedkar’s party in the 1946 general assembly elections [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 50]
Since it was becoming clear that India’s freedom could not be stopped now, Ambedkar quickly started pleading with the British government to somehow give his party some positions of power in the newly formed interim government (Fig. 17). This behavior reveals Ambedkar’s tendency to go to any extent possible to curry favor with the colonialists to gain the seats of power.
Figure 17. Ambedkar pleads with the British government to ensure him some position in the interim government [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 51].
But, in the end, it was the same Hindu leaders of the Congress party, whom Ambedkar had abused and dissed throughout his public life, who ensured a seat for him in the Constituent Assembly, with their rather misplaced sense of generosity. It was based on Sardar Patel’s phrase of, “forget and forgive”, that Ambedkar got a chance to continue in the Constituent Assembly and become the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution (Fig. 18).
Figure 18. Ambedkar was given a seat in the Constituent Assembly due to the sheer large-heartedness of the Hindu leaders of the Congress party [Arun Shourie (1997), Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, p. 55].
Unfortunately, even after receiving such generosity and wholehearted acceptance from the Hindu leaders of the time, Ambedkar continued to spew venom against them. According to Ambedkar, fundamental rights were not needed during the British rule because, their administration was fair and just, and “there was a sense of security” among the people. But, with independence, it became necessary to include fundamental rights in the Constitution to allay the concerns of the minorities (Fig. 19). This small illustration itself shows his sophisticated usage of words to club the minorities and the SCs together and pitting them against the rest of the Hindu society, while carefully injecting a victim mentality in them, which continued even after the independence.
Figure 19. Ambedkar’s arguments exalting the British rule after independence, being part of the Parliament in Congress government [The Constitution (Fourth Amendment) Bill, Rajya Sabha Debates, 19 March 1955, Columns 2449-50, https://rsdebate.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/583570/1/PD_09_19031955_19_p2437_p2520_2.pdf].
Ambedkar did not limit his argument of separate electorates and separate nationhood for SCs only; extending his logic, he in fact believed that, even Sikhs, Kashmiris, North Easterners, Muslims, Christians, etc., also deserved a right to self-determination. According to him, “India is not a nation and was never a nation” (Fig. 20). It is one of the paradoxes our times that a person who had such caustic views about the very existence of this nation is today celebrated as a freedom fighter, a historical figure worth emulating, and hailed as the principal architect of the Indian constitution.
Figure 20. Ambedkar’s views of having separate electorates and a right to self-determination [Dipak Basu and Victoria Miroshnik (2017), India as an Organization: Volume One: A Strategic Risk Analysis of Ideals, Heritage and Vision, Springer, p. 185].
Overall, Ambedkar remained a disgruntled, ungrateful man for the rest of his life, attributing all the failures he faced to inequality in the society and blaming others for discriminating and oppressing him while disregarding all the goodwill, respect, and magnanimity that were shown to him even by his political and ideological adversaries.
Conclusion
Throughout his public life, before the British left India, Ambedkar took positions that were perfectly aligned with the needs of the British Empire. All his attempts were either towards stopping or subverting the Indian freedom movement. Even in dire situations such as the brutal persecution of fellow Indians during the Quit India movement and the Bengal Famines, he stood with the British without any hesitation. His venomous views on Hinduism and his relentless attempts to fracture the Hindu society by flaming inter-caste hatred make him unworthy of the title of a national hero. Further, his quick overtures and adjustments to gain political power reveal some of the possible motivations for his actions. In summary, with the facts in hand, Ambedkar’s dangerous proposals such as arrangements for the convenient neo-colonial intervention of India, and the creation of separate settlements and electorates for the scheduled caste communities which could have led to sub-national and separatist tendencies, provides ample evidence to show that Ambedkar was quite the opposite of a national hero, and could be better described as a proponent of colonial subjugation and fragmentation of the Hindu society, and thereby India.
Reference Books
Nicholas Mansergh, E. W. R. Lumby, Penderel Moon, The Transfer of power 1942-7, London: H.M.S.O., 1977.
Arun Shourie, Worshipping False Gods; Ambedkar, and the facts which have been erased, Harper Collins, 1997.
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar; Writings and Speeches, Volume IX, Govt. of Maharashtra.
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar; Writings and Speeches, Volume X, Govt. of Maharashtra.
Dhananjay Keer, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, Popular Prakashan, 2005.
Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India, The Signet Press, 1946.
Sir John Woodhead, S. V. Ramamurty, M. A. Afzal Hussain, R. A. Gopalaswami, M. M. Junaid, The Famine Enquiry Commission – Final Report, Superintendent Government of India Press, 1945.
Rajya Sabha Debates, https://rsdebate.nic.in/
Dipak Basu, Victoria Miroshnik, India as an Organization: Volume One: A Strategic Risk Analysis of Ideals, Heritage and Vision, Springer, 2017.
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