The newly-formed Karnataka Samata Sainik Dal gives a concrete shape to Babasaheb’s dreams. A four-page pamphlet on the subject released at Hyderabad on Sept. 16 by Ram Vilas Paswan, a former Union Welfare Minister, at the massive Dalit rally on Chandur is a direct outcome of the Dalit Voice editorial of Sept. 1 1991: “Chandur proves non-Hindu Dalits cannot live with Hindus. Separate electorate and settlement as solution”. This was followed by an eye-witness report, “Nazis in Naxalite garb play havoc at Chandur“, by M. Gopinath of the Samata Sainik Dal (DV Sept. 16, 1991).
The pamphlet, which received wide support at the Hyderabad rally and became a talking point among Dalit, says:
We, the Dalits, can no longer believe the Hindu society; we must determine our own destiny. In the present electoral system, constituencies are reserved in proportion to our population. Dalit representatives are voted to power from the reserved constituencies by Dalits and non-Dalits Jointly. Though we are the majority population, we are scattered throughout the whole country, we are reduced to a minority in every village and every constituency.
Hence, we are not able to elect the representatives of our choice. Dalit representatives, who are elected so far on different party tickets, are chosen by non-Dalit voters.
Since these representatives are not determined by Dalit voters, they will not have the loyalty and guts to fight and voice against the caste savagery, for which purpose they are elected. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the greatest genius of the country having understood he inefficacy and futility of joint electorates and reserved constituencies, demanded separate electorate for Dalits.
Under separate electorates. Dalit representatives will be elected only by the Dalit voters. Under this system, Dalit legislators are bound to remain loyal to Dalits and committed to strive for our liberation.
The Hindu caste system is intertwined with the structure of Indian villages. Every village has two different dwelling places – one for the Hindus and the other for Dalits.
As long as the present village system continues, ghettos are bound to exist. To get rid of the ghettos, the present day village system must be destroyed. As we cannot expect that the entire village structure to be reorganized by the rulers to give us physical strength, we ourselves can rearrange our population by ‘separate settlements’ or separate villages which are to be inhabited by Dalits alone. These exclusive Dalit villages will give us greatest bargaining strength, political power and create the possibilities to develop ourselves as a community of self-reliance and dignity.
People yearning to become politically strong, must have a culture of their own. They must have cultural unity. People who lose their culture and history will lose everything. Therefore, to regain our lost rights and powers, we will have to attain cultural unity. That is the reason Dr. Ambedkar embraced Buddhism along with his followers.
The pamphlet, which needs to be translated to all Indian languages, may be had from: Karnataka Samata Sainik Dal, 132, Pillared Nagar Banas wadi, Bangalore – 560 043.
