ALL RULING CLASSES HARP ON UNITY
Islam never united Muslims:koran recognises ethnic identities
Religion basically is an institution dealing with god (whatever may be its perception about god), his worship and a set of beliefs. Going further, it may give a code of conduct to follow individually and collectively as a religious social group. It unites its followers in matters of belief, worship and moral conduct but does not unite for worldly purposes.
The book of Genesis of the Bible speaks of two humans, Abel and Caine, the first two persons born on earth. Their avocations were different. Abel was a shepherd and Cain, a farmer. A religious act of offering to the Lord by Abel was accepted and Cain was rejected, Cain became jealous and he killed his brother. The product of a worldly matter, avocation for livelihood, upon being rejected in a religious act of offerings to the Lord resulted in murder.
MARTIN LUTHER’S CHALLENGE
This one incident itself is sufficient to prove the point that religion and wordly matters are different.
Without understanding this vital lesson from the Bible, the papacy in Rome, brought about religious unity for 1,500 years in Europe. Con-sequently Europe remained in darkness, plague, pestilence and poverty until Martin Luther (1483-1546) came and brought about disunity in Christianity by shattering the authority of the Pope, after which the course of history changed. The unity of Christians which had become an institution of exploitation not only of the masses but also of the kings. ended and the people got disunited.
HINDU UNITY FAILS
Krishna as a religious person, calling himself as god also, united the Pandavas and brought the greatest disaster both to the Pandavas and Kauravas. If the Pandavas had not united under the religious authority of Krishna, the disaster could have been avoided.
The Hindus, though never a united people from the very beginning, thought of “uniting all the Hindus against Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews, but the unity could not be achieved because great authorities like Babasaheb and Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy realised the disasters that even a temporary unity would bring to Indians and opposed these unity efforts. The Hindu efforts to unite Hindus failed.
But this disastrous failure is not yet realised by the Hindu leaders and attempts are still going on to unite them. At the same time, there is a thinking among some Ambedkarites and Dalit activists that the over 1,600 Castes and over 1,200 Tribes known as Scheduled Castes and Tribes scattered throughout India should be brought under a single unit of Dalits by converting them wholesale to some religion under a wishful thinking that religion would unite them all. Some think of following Babasaheb Budhism. Some others think of embracing Islam and some to Christianity. Some refer to Babasaheb’s attempt at temple entry and prefer to remain under Hinduism.
All these thoughts are based upon a fundamental misconception that religion unites a community.
These misconceptions can be removed if they know that:
(i) Budhism itself is considered a form of Hinduism, Budha an avatar and Budhists brought within the definition of Hindu under Article 25. of the Constitution, Budhism today is no longer as propounded by Budha but a very much distorted, diluted and disfigured. On the most important item of meat eating, there are divergent views.
(ii) Christianity also is not as it is elsewhere. Indian Christianity is a house divided. The church itself discriminates against Dalit Christians on caste basis.
BANGLADESH MUSLIMS
(iii) Conversion to Islam also will not bring that unity which the Dalits favouring Islam hope to get. It may give them the moral courage, a social and political base to organise and assert just as it gave to the Bengali Namashudras who are now an independent nation (Bangladesh).
But Dalits in other parts of India are not as much a compact block as the Bengali Namashudra converts. They had a single patch of land, and a common language. Dalits in the rest of India are divided into different language and ethnic groups and each group cannot have much in common with the other group. Kannada Dalits inspite of conversion to Islam will not have much in common with the Dalit converts to Islam in UP, Andhra, Tamil Nadu etc.
Dalits along with other castes were converted to Islam wholesale in those parts of India which are now in Pakistan. They are also part of an independent nation. But the same converts to Islam both in Pakistan and Bangladesh could not live together though both were Muslims. Bengali Muslims got separated very soon. The common Islamic bond could not bind the Bengali Muslims and Punjabi Muslims because of the differences in race, language and culture.
BREAKUP OF PAKISTAN
This was very well understood by Jinnah (1938 Resolution of the Muslim League) when the so-called Pakistan resolution was passed.
It proposed different states. The term used in the resolution referred not to a single state but to states in plural.
In the excitement and euphoria of Pakistan instead of two states, only one state of Pakistan was formed which within 25 years broke into two states of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
So, conversion to Islam for “Dalit unity” on an all-India level is also a wishful thinking.
This requires to be very well understood that the Muslims of India are definitely united on the religious level, but they are different and are closer to the regional non-Muslims in social and cultural levels. The Kerala Muslims feel more comfortable with the Kerala non-Muslims than with the Muslims of other states. So also the Tamils, Bengalis, Assamese, Kannadigas, Maharashtrians etc. So also the Muslims of Aryavarta.
The slogan of all-India Muslim unity and the attempts for it comes from the Aryavarta Muslims for the purpose of exploitation. Crores of rupees are collected by the Aryavarta Muslim leadership from the pockets of Muslims elsewhere in India in the name of All-India Muslim Unity. The Aryavarta Muslims, for whom the Aryavarta Hindus are dearer than the Muslims, else where, are one with them. So also the Aryavarta Dalits and the Backward Castes. Religion has become a means of exploitation. The Aryavarta Hindus and Aryavarta Muslims have conspired to become leaders of Hindus and Muslims respectively and create all sorts of Hindu-Muslim controversies to divert the attention of the people everywhere. Controversies such as Hindu-Muslim, Urdu-Hindi, Aligarh Muslim University Banaras Hindu University, Common Civil Code Muslim Personal Law, Babri Masjid Ram Janambhoomi etc. etc. are all created in this Aryavarta through which the Aryavarta Hindus become leaders of all the Hindus elsewhere, and Aryavarta Muslims in the rest of India. Hindus are exploited by Aryavarta Hindus and Muslims by the Aryavarta Muslims.
ARYAVARTA DALITS
Now that the Dalits are also becoming a force, there may be efforts by Aryavarta Dalits to exploit the Dalits elsewhere in India. And this will be in the name of “unity of Dalits” just like the unity of Hindus and Muslims.
The greatest matter of pride for Aryavarta is it astounding population and high representation in Parliament. UP has 14 crore mouths to fill but its size is just 2.94 lakh square kilometers. Area-wise Andhra Pradesh and UP are nearly equal, i.e. UP has just 19,000 sq.km more area, but has a population more than twice that of Andhra. AP population is just 6.65 crore and its area is 2.75 lakh sq.kms. UP has also the largest population of Muslims, 1.76 crore.
FAVOURITE FOOD OF MUSLIMS
Without the rice from Andhra, wheat from Punjab and beef from Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, the people of UP would starve. Beef, the cheap and favourite food of UP Muslims and Dalits, is the cheapest in India.
The Hindus have no objection for beef-eating by Muslims and Dalit in UP but parade about cow protection in other states. This and the other Hindu-Muslim controversies are deliberately manufactured and nurtured by both Hindu and Muslim leaders of UP only to divert our attention from the cheaply available food commodities in Aryavarta. Rice sold at Rs.14 in Bangalore costs Rs. 7/8 in Delhi and UP. So also beef, which costs Rs.40 in Bangalore is available at Rs.15/18 in Delhi and UP.
ISLAM DISTORTED
But we have never been allowed to see this economic disparity as we are given some all-India controversy or the other raised by UP leaders. Both UP Hindu and Muslim leaders have conspired to carry on a shadow boxing everywhere but not inside the Aryavarta
The Aryavarta Muslims in their zeal to exploit the Muslims elsewhere are distorting Islamic teachings. They are misrepresenting Islamic unity as “Muslim unity”, ignoring the factors that unity under a strong, dominant group leads to slavery and subjugation of the weak. They are ignoring that human beings are differently coloured and cultured by nature itself. People from the desert are different in every respect from those in the hills and again those from the green lands, hot, cool and rocky countries.
The Koran recognises this fact when it says that men have been created into groups and tribes for identification. Distinctness and separateness is declared as a fact.
Prophet Mohamad called the Meесcans as Muhajirs and the Medinites as Ansars, and the distinction was continuously recognised. He referred to the Yemenites, Syrians and Najadis as different and distinct. So also the Quraishis, Iranians, Indians, Abyssinans as distinct people. He did not give them all the single word Muslim but called them in regional, national and tribal names.
This distinction was recognised throughout history and continues even to this day. The Iraqis consider themselves to be different from Syrians and Jordanians in spite of all being Muslims. The Kurds do not find one with the Iraqis, Turks and Iranians among whom they are split and want to get separated from them in their Kurdistan.
All these factors are recognised by the Muslims elsewhere, but the Aryavarta Muslims think, interpret and conclude differently from the rest of the Muslim world.
Therefore, the Dalit thinking that conversion to Islam or Budhism would give them a single all-India level unity is based upon improper study of facts. Unity at regional or sub-regional level is possible even without religion but not on all-India level even with a religion.
CASTE AS A NATIONALITY
Babasaheb explains nationality as “a consciousness of kind, awareness of the existence of that tie of kinship” and nationalism as “the desire for a separate national existence for those who are bound by this tie of kinship”. (Vol.8 Pakistan or the Partition of India, p.39)
Judging from this angle each caste in India is a nationality since each caste is conscious of its separate, distinct and different status (DV Edit Nov. 1, 97: Jati desclosed as a nation)
Caste wants to keep its members within its fold and remain different from others. To this are added its economic and political desires and ambitions.
It is possible to bring the different castes together under one umbrella for some time and for some purpose, but to think of keeping them together for ever through religion is neither possible nor desirable.
Already the thinking sections of Madigas are protesting against the greater share of reservation benefits taken away by the Malas Andhra. The thought is being shared by the Madigas in Karnataka. The other states may follow soon. Then, different castes under the Madiga sub-group will also follow suit. All this would lead to animosity, recrimination and exploitation.
To put an end to it why not recognise the rights of all the castes now itself and make it a programme of the Dalit movement?
This cannot be on all-India or state basis, but on district or sub-district basis where a particular caste is predominant, just as the aspirations of Nagas, Bodo, Manipuries, having all attributes of caste (nationality) have been accepted.
It should be remembered that unity means the rulership of a strong and dominant minority and the slavery of the weak, unorganised majority.
The slogan of unity is a mask of the ruler to throw the blame upon the people, to cover up his own failures saying, “I failed because you did not stand united behind me”.
(DV Aug.16, 97 p.10: “Religion does not bind people but creates only understanding”: Babasaheb)
