Ranjona Banerji: Cast(e)ing a shadow on the nation

The last time I wrote about Dr Ambedkar and our abominable treatment of Dalits and lower castes in India I was called a ldquoderacinated nitwitrdquo by an academic and columnist appropriately from an upper caste of course So be it I would rather be deracinated mdash which perhaps I would prefer to be since so many of the labels are derogatory or discriminatory mdash and if being against discrimination is to be a lsquonitwitrsquo then count me inThe demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan in Mumbai led to the biggest uprising of Dalits here in recent times mdash more than one lakh people apparently gathered to protest on July 19 PicShadab KhanThe last few years have seen a rise in uppercaste claims of lsquovictimisationrsquo and deflection of blame for any wrongdoing The excuses for the caste system range from the historical absurdity that Islam introduced caste to India to the semantic stupidity that the word lsquocastersquo itself has its origins in the Portuguese lsquocastarsquo and therefore presumably did not exist until Vasco de Gama sailed to our shoresThere is a strange dichotomy of thought here For one we have all our lsquoTrue Nationalistsrsquo trying to prove that India or Indians invented everything first The word lsquoshudrarsquo for instance can be found in the Rig Veda which also in the Purusa Sukta or the lsquoHymn of Manrsquo tell us how in the sacrifice of the first man the Brahmin came from his mouth the Warriors from his arms the people from his thighs and the shudras from his feetThe Rig Veda certainly predates Islam and the Portuguese advent in India as does the Manu Smriti But somehow True Patriots cannot accept the fact that Indians are not anything but perfect Thus we observe this perverse need to concoct reasons why Indians could not have invented the caste system in the first place The other excuse is that the caste system was perfectly reasonable and fair until Islam the Portuguese and the British arrived in India Some people were according to this miserably prejudiced theory very happy being the feet which could never dream of reaching as high as the lsquomouth bornrsquo This is a typical nastily foolish uppercasteclass way of thinking mdash that the underprivileged and putdownupon are very happy to be treated badlyEven this newfound love of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for Dr Ambedkar in the hope of winning the UP elections is suspect because he not only rejected Hinduism he also had some scathing things to say about Hindu texts and Indiarsquos religious traditions Then there is the fact that caste is illegal in India mdash thanks to our Constitution in which Ambedkarrsquos role is paramount no matter how rightwing ideologues try to discredit that And yet the discrimination does not end The fact that we still have reservations in government jobs and some educational institutions for the lower castes is a massive sticking point for our upper castes and is used as a reason for further caste discriminationAnd now the love has fallen apart The unsavoury comments made by a BJP leader against Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Dalit icon Mayawati have opened the floodgates of a Dalit anger simmering since the suicide of the student Rohith Vemula in January The brutal thrashing of Dalits in Gujarat mdash as a result of this callous and illthoughtout lsquosave the cowrsquo campaign launched by ultraHindutva organisations since Narendra Modi came to power mdash has been another trigger The demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan in Mumbai led to the biggest uprising of Dalits in that city in recent times mdash more than one lakh people apparently gathered to protestYou would imagine that by the 21st century we would have made some serious dents in the institutionalised prejudice that is contained within the caste system Instead we seem to have perceived victimhood of the supposed lsquoupper castesrsquo gaining traction with reservations and merit being used as the stick with which to beat the truly victimisedOn the one side is the cynicism of caste politics in India On the other caste bigots who will argue that Dalit politics has driven Brahmins out of Tamil Nadu or how students of lsquomeritrsquo are denied education because of Dalit politics without even once opening their eyes to the grim reality of life for the underprivileged and dehumanised in IndiaIrsquoll happily embrace being a nitwit any day if it means that I can stand up and say that caste discrimination is an abomination The uprising is upon us and about timeRanjona Banerji is a senior journalist You can follow her on twitter ranjona