It was painful to read your “Fiasco of Nagpur DV Readers meet” (DV Edit May 1, 1998). I hope you will not be discouraged. In a somewhat similar situation in the U S, Blacks and whites in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (formed in 1908 as a direct result of the lynching of two Blacks) tried and failed for decades to awaken the Black people. E.B. Du Bois, the only Black in the leadership, joined specifically to oppose the previous conciliatory policy of Booker T. Washington. Du Bois and others of the NAACP were condemned as radicals and revolutionaries. It was not until the 1960s that their ideas began to take hold among Black people.
Your task is a thousand times more difficult. Racism in the West is fairly recent. (Remember, Othello was a dark-skinned Moor and yet was accepted as a general and married the daughter of an elite family). Casteism in India is the product of thousands of years and is entrenched in every aspect of its history, literature and custom.
Dr. Annamalai’s comment: You are a pioneer. Perhaps it will take a generation or more for your fighting message to be accepted by all Dalits. But no one who accepts in the essential humanity of all people can believe you will fail.
You did not start this struggle for personal honor or gain. I also know what it costs you in time, effort and frustration. You have given the most precious of all gifts, your life, to the cause. All Prophets are without honor at home. But there can be no doubt that you have earned a place in history as true successor to Dr. Ambedkar. You will be remembered as the man who gave a popular base to the struggle.
On another point, there is justification in Dr. Annamlai’s criticism of some of your approaches, especially on the issue of Islam. However, the originality of your struggle is that you do not limit yourself to the narrow field of atrocities against Dalits. What you are saying, although not directly, is that casteism is systemic to India. Thus, light must be shown on all aspects of Indian culture and even, at times, on foreign affairs. If Dalits are to be thought of as full Indian citizens, it must be accepted that they are as interested as anyone else in what happens in the rest of the world. Do not despair.
