THUMMAPUDI BHARATHI, PHD ., ENGLISH DEPT ., S.P. MAHILA UNIVERSITY, TIRUPATI – 517 502
Dr. D. Murali Manohar’s Dalits a Their Religion(s) is published Serial Publications, New Delhi, 2010. The writer deserve appreciation for the selection of th subject matter because caste is the creation of Hinduism which divide the natives of this land into cast groups. It is a topic of great importance and it is certainly a issue of enormous contemporan significance. Today the subject is o great concern against the prevalen religious violence and religious conversions. Murali Manoha deserves a special appreciation for taking up such a live issue for study The only valuable point he has contributed to this study is that the religious attacks are only on Dali Christians but not on the upper caste Christians.
GRAVE INJUSTICE
“There are no reports that in Krishna District on the Chaudaris who have converted to Christians. The Reddis of Nellore district who have embraced to Christianity are not in news. The Brahmins who have converted to Christianity who have settled in government offices are no examples of being attacked. If at all there are attacks, they are only on the Dalit Christians … After conversion the following are the events. Everyday there is news. In each village there is a story. In Markapuram 16 of Malas and Madigas have been converted to Christianity for that reason they have been imprisoned. They have been tortured. They have been asked to do Krishna Bhajans by forgetting Christ. But they sang only Christian songs. In Kanigiri Dalit, Christian has been made half naked and has been taken as a procession”
It is evident that though Christianity does not recognize caste, yet Indian Christians practice caste.
HINDUISM IS NO RELIGION
The author, however, did a grave injustice to the subject as he did not understand it. To begin with, he has neither a clear methodology nor any hypothesis. He has neither the clarity of the thesis nor the clarity of expression. The book is divided into 7 chapters. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 study the topic in literary texts by non-Dalits, Dalits and Telugu writers respectively. The 5th chapter is the questionnaire analysis and the 6th focuses on Dalit religious practices reported in newspapers and magazines. The first chapter is introduction and the 7th is conclusion.
It is strange to note that in the entire thesis there is no reference to the Sachar Committee Report of 2006. The scholar has no objective thinking and does not know that technically Hinduism is not a religion. He failed to understand what a religion is and how far Hinduism (Brahmanism) is the root cause for the predicament of Dalits. The first sentence of his acknowledgments begins with:
“I would like to first of all thank my almighty Lord Krishna for giving me the patience to complete this Project.”
In the Preface he says:
“I was born and brought up as a Hindu. I have been to Lord Krishna’s temple right from my childhood. In fact my name Dasari Murali Mahnohar (Parthasarathi) itself has its own significance … My father was a devout Hindu and a volunteer in that temple. I was taken to temple by my father at early morning. This was from the month of mid December (Dhanurmasa) to mid January (Sankranti) on the day in which the Dhanurmasa ended. I was motivated towards spirituality by my father. I believe even if father is a devotee that does not mean all his children will also be like nim. However, I was an exception …. Nothing comes in our way unless we strive towards our goal with strong belief in god. God will not help idol people. God helps those who help themselves” (IX).
“SCHOLAR” WITH NO DEPTH
Certainly a person who fails to understand the oppression and suffering imposed by Hinduism on Dalits, can never do justice to the study of Dalits and their Religions. While presenting the “Aim of Project”, he says:
“The aim of this project is to study why so many Dalits embrace different religion such as Christianity, Budhism, Islam, and Ramanujacharya to mention only a few. I believe all the Dalits of this country are born Hindus. If at all they have a religion, they have a religion of Hinduism” (p.X).
It is evident that he has to understand Hinduism that gave birth to Dalits has created an inevitable situation for them to convert into other religions that do not have caste inequalities. Hence, he should have studied the reasons for religious conversions and the religious practices of Dalits in the pre-Mughal and pre-colonial period. In the same paragraph he says:
” … later they have moved to different religions due to ill treatment, harassment, discrimination, oppression, looking down upon them are some of the reasons for converting from one religion to another” (P.X.).
SCOPE OF THE SUBJECT
There is a sentence “It is not out of self-interest” that requires clarification. Under the head “Scope”, he writes:
“The scope of this project is inter- disciplinary. It has entered into many subjects. In every subject we have something or the other related to religion. The Dalits are in almost all fields these days. The term Dalit has emerged out of religion. Some of the Dalits do not want to identity with Harijan (Gandhian term); some do not want Dalit (Dr. Ambedkar ) identity; some hate the identification of Untouchable (caste Hindus); some use for political motivations” (p.XI).
This clearly indicate that the scholar does not understand the scope of the subject. And again under “Methodology,” he says:
“The Project Investigator has read many books, articles, newspaper cuttings, listened to television interviews, used questionnaires for gathering information and has hired project fellows as well as optional course students to go for field work. As far as the survey is concerned I have used Snowball Random method in order to analyze the respondents” (p. XI).
LACK OF CLARITY
The study is based on three sources i.e ., literary texts, questionnaire given to informants/respondents, and newspapers and magazines. But nowhere has he mentioned the rationale for collecting the resource material from three different sources. He lacks clarity in thinking and clarity in expression. The evidences are given hereunder: “Religion for Dalits is one of the problems among others. It is the religion that has made them call untouchables in Hindu religion. The Hindu scriptures and epics depict Dalits as untouchables, chandalas, panchamas, impure, miechas etc. to mention only a few” (p.1).
This is the beginning of the first chapter – Introduction.
HYPOCRISY ON HINDUISM
Then he says that untouchability is imposed on Dalits and “One can see this imposition from Vedas, Upanishads, the Manusmriti, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita have been passed on generations to generations. It has to come to that level that it is hard to believe that they are not untouchables, impure and miechas.” (p.1)
“Gauthama Budha was born in 536 B.C. At the age of 19, he went out of house leaving the family in order to find a solution to remove problems/ hurdles for human kind. After wandering for 6 years across the country, at the age of 35, he sat under a Bodhi tree and attained knowledge. Rest of his life was dedicated to teach knowledge.
During those days the rulers were shattering with the regions and making people slaves. Man can establish himself without any body’s help and there is no need to have a mediator. This was a question raised against Brahminical Hinduism. Only the one who is unquestionable “disciple” had a hope of salvation. (p.4) “I have observed that the discrimination may not be physical but the discrimination goes on mentally. In other words a lot of hypocrisy takes place. If you take two individuals one the Dalit and the other non-Dalit you would find the conversation is so hypocritical that there is no true and hearty conversation.” (p.12)
“The lands are held by the upper castes in the name of religion.” (p.15) “As it is, there is no land for the Dalits in the name of religion.” (p.15)
TOTAL CONFUSION
“When the Dalits cannot afford to get groceries in shop due to their economic condition, they eat the flesh of dead animals which is available occasionally at free of cost. How do we look at the western countries which eat non-vegetarian food such as beef, chicken and mutton? We never question them. Why?” (p.15) “So the Dalit women are not safe even if they practice Hindu religion.” (p.42)
CONFUSION ON “DALIT”
“In the same year there was another autobiography that was translated from Kannada into English entitled Sidda Lingaiah’s Ooru Keri (2003). Siddalingaiah is a follower of Hindu religion. However his religion has to do with little tradition. In the little tradition there are several myths, stories and rituals of Dalits.” (p.42)
“The Dalits have Dalitized the deities in the name of Lord Krishna. They have their own gods for the festivals such as Janmashtami and Deepawali.” (p.42)
There are many more sentences and expressions like the above which do not present any reasonable argument and statement.
First of all, Murali Manohar fails to understand the etymology of the word “Dalit” and the circumstance that brought the word “Dalit” into usage. He writes “Who are the Dalits?
The Dalits are those who are leading their lives as Scheduled Castes recognized under the Indian constitution from all over India. Formerly they were called or addressed as untouchables. If any body is addressed as untouchable the addressee can be booked under SC/ST Atrocities Act (1987). In other words, the
Dalits are Scheduled Castes only unlike the Dalit Panthers who bring in several others under this term. I beg to differ with them. To me Dalits would mean only the Scheduled Castes. The other community people have no problem with this Hindu religion except the Scheduled Castes. In fact, I would like to argue that the Dalits have a significant role in Hinduism than keeping them away from the entry of temples and other issues. The Brahmins, Vaishyas and Kshatriyas have been misguided that the Dalits have to be kept away from the mainstream society (p.5).
CHILDREN OF GOD
While analyzing the Children of God (1976) by Shanta Ramaeshwar Rao, Manohar writes:
“Apart from showing discrimination on the Dalits Rama Rao also brings in conversion of Dalits into Christianity. The benefits of converting to Christianity are also highlighted. The Dalits are not shown any discrimination, accept them as equals, lose their caste identity as Dalit, education is provided with free of cost unlike in Hinduism. In addition to all this they are also provided food to the students who are with the boarding school. All in all, this novel is written in the imitation of Kanthapura. One can find so many parallels.” (p.17)
BELITTLING BABASAHEB
It is shocking to note that Manohar very conveniently restricted the mighty Babasaheb Ambedkar as a fighter for the right to draw water from public wells. On p. 19, he says:
“Ambedkar did fight against the right to draw water from the public well as the Dalits are also part of the society. They too have as equal rights as any other citizen would have in this country. However, in many villages Dalits are excluded from this right” (p.19).
And again, he commits a severe crime by the wrong analysis that
“To Gandhi and Rajagopalachari and other national leaders are concerned, they are worried about Indian freedom from the British, whereas for Ambedkar it was not national freedom but the freedom from the Hindu religious aspect. Ambedkar would not have thought of converting to Budhism if the Hindu religion accommodated the Dalits without the concepts like impure and untouchables. He did try to suggest and reform the Hindu religious scriptures in the Shastras in his undelivered speech entitled Annihilation of Caste where the Dalits have proper place so that the Dalits could be part of Hindu religion.” (p.18).
Again he misrepresents the facts by stating:
“In the process of caste hierarchy, the chaturvarna has been transformed into Pachama. However, Manu is against this. He never advocated. But there is a twist of caste hierarchy. Each caste has tried to create an inferior caste, including Dalit castes, in order to have supremacy over the other.” (p.63)
DALITS TOLD TO BE HINDU
Manohar is perhaps confused of the relation between Dalits and Hinduism. While discussing Valmiki’s Joothan: A Dalit Life, the reason for the attacks on Dalits he says:
“The reason is that they can not show their superiority on the same caste people. In order to establish their supremacy they have to use religion.” (p.18).
And elsewhere he argues that Dalits must be within the Hindu- fold.
In analyzing his own translation “Antarani” Manohar suggests that ” … the Dalits are harassed and killed whether they are in Hinduism or in Christianity. That is why I suggest to Dalits to fight within Hindu religion. This is my personal opinion and I leave to the Dalits. I feel that there is no point in conversion to any religion.” (p.55).
KATHI PADMARAO CRITICISED
He is not aware that Brahmanism in the guise of Hinduism victimized Dalits.
“In fact, most of the newspaper reports say that the Dalits practice Hindu religion and become victims of Hindu religion. This is where the study is painful and an eye opener (p.146).
He also expressed:
“When I wanted to invite a Dalit ideologist named Katthi Padma Rao to the seminar I had conducted, to writer a paper on Dalit Religion, he had said that there was no religion for Dalits but only “culture”. I don’t agree with him on that count. The Dalit culture depends on its own strength of “labour power”. I would call it as working power.” (p.6).
In the 5th chapter he analysed the data collected from 100 Dalit respondents from University of Hyderabad. It appears that he never cared to mention the rationale behind the administration of the questionnaire and the methodology adopted. The scholar has not stated the parameters used in the selection of informants/respondents such as age, sex, education, occupation etc. There is no mention of how many domains were selected and how many respondents from each domain?
COMMENTS ON JEWS
The present study should have selected the respondents representing a fairly wide range of social status. This being a socio- religious study, it should have included such factors, as sub — caste, age, economic factors, sex, education, mobility and urban vs. rural setting, social variable etc.
The only justification he states for selection of the respondents is:
“I had this feeling that the University of Hyderabad is one of the best places where we have the Dalit students and scholars who are in better position than in any other university and colleges. They are considered to be creamy layer students from all over India. The fact that they have got admission in the university reveals they are better students. Thus I thought the university students are best in knowing the religious perception and practices of the Dalits. There are around 500 students and scholars in this university who are pursuing the courses here. They are the target students to obtain the opinions on the Dalit religion(s)” (p.9)
How far the results are valid when the respondents are PG students and research scholars in a university? How far the findings are valid with these respondents?
SELF-CONTRADICTIONS
The writer does not know the semantics of religions and he does not pay attention to syntax. For example:
“Those who involve in preaching about Jesus they do it only qualities like loving, kind, gentle, patient, tender, humble, obedient and he also forgives sinners, but at the same time nobody teaches how God is just and righteous. Apart from that, He is also angered on the people who do injustice, instead of removing falsehood and supports falsehood, never tolerated showing inequality among the devotees.” (p.37). “She is celebrating her new clothes during festivals time” (p.32).
In the middle of text (Chapter 5), he acknowledges the assistance of the students.
“I would like to thank all my students who had taken these questionnaires to the Dalit students, the Project Assistants who had readily agreed to fill the questionnaire although there were 31 questions still with lot of patience they had helped me in completing this project.” (p.66).
Again in the same paragraph he also writes about the problem of identification of Dalit students in the University.
In the conclusion he gives contradictory statements. He says that
“It has been established that the Dalits are no inferior in his country” (p. 146). ” As a result they are made to believe that they are inferiors in fact they are not.” (p.147)
His conclusion is:
“Each of the Dalit has his own or her own religion” (p.145). And “Some of them practice Hindu religion because they are uneducated and not rational” (p.145).
Then he says that he ” … is a devotee of Lord Krishna … ” (p.X). So does it mean that he is uneducated, irrational and has no self-respect?
In his findings he says “As far as Dalits converting from one religion to another is not alarming” (p. 146). Then he has to justify the religious attacks in Orissa and Karnataka, which is still a burning issue.
LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
Another finding reveals the scholar’s lack of knowledge in the subject. He says:
“It is strange but most of the Dalits were in Hinduism and by and by it has been dominated by Christianity followed by Buddhism” (p.147).
He concludes the book by giving a meaningless suggestion:
“Every caste has its own significance and every caste has its own deity. Do respect your own deity and revive the traditions. However, one has to make objective study of the traditions and alter them according to times and changes (p.147).
“MALA DASARI” AS TOP CASTE?
It appears that Manohar devoted all his efforts through this book to prove that “Mala Dasari”, a subcaste of SC, is on the top in the social ladder. He says:
“They were eventually called Mala Dasaris. In Ramanuja religion if any body dies, Mala Dasaris are invited so that they cremate the body by singing hymns according to Ramanuja Religion. For their elders they offer death rituals. In this connection I would contest that the Indian Brahmins were not the real Brahmins. It was the Mala Dasaris who were real Brahmins not the present Brahmins” (p.60).
CREATING HIERARCHY
Elsewhere he says that Hinduism is creating hierarchy even within the sub-castes and he hates it.
“The Malas are higher rank within the Dalits compared to Madigas. Although the Malas and Mahars are one and the same but the Mahars are lower than the Chamars likewise the Madigas are lower compared with Malas. I would definitely condemn this kind of hierarchy propagated by the Hindu religion similarly the Dalits following it blindly” (p.39).
He made mention about his next project:
“Dasari is one who worships Vishnu and devotes his life for Vaishnavism. There is a long history of Mala Dasari. There are so many Mala Dasaris who have been worshipped by all castes. I will deal these things in my next project. After having taken up this project, I have come to know what Mala Dasari is and what his status in Hindu religion is. He has a lot of history in Hindu Vaishnavism.” (p.X)
It is unfortunate that instead of debrahminising the society he brahminised Dalits. He should have devoted some more time to understand the subject as well as writing the thesis. He failed to spare time for proof reading; for example, “Food Friday Service” (p.35, line 28), ” …… these villages” (p.45, last line), “immortalized” (p.52, line1). If not in British English Murali Manohar could have written the book in literary Indian English but not in conversational Indian (regional) English.
