Worshipping of Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god, on Aug. 31 last was stopped at the high school here as the Dalit students were not allowed to distribute the prasad. Ladugaon is in the interior of the State’s most backward Kalahandi dt ., 70 kms. away from its dt. headquarters, Bhawanipatna. The birth centenary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was celebrated here with great enthusiasm on April 12 last and a statue of Babasaheb was installed here and perhaps the first statue of its kind in Orissa. Bhakta Ch. Das, Ex. Minister in Chandrashekar Govt ., addressed 7,000 Dalits. Just after four months of this event the Hindus who cheered the speakers then denied the Dalit students an opportunity to worship Ganesh. That is why we say every Dalit must Know the Hindu Mind (which is also the title of the DSA book by V.T. Rajshekar). This barbaric behaviour has opened the eyes of our Dalits. We wish the upper castes commit more such “mistakes” so that our people, “slaves enjoying their slavery”, will realise the truth that they are not Hindus.
“Unclean” Dalits: The dispute took place on Aug.29 while distributing work connected with the Ganesh Puja among students of the High School. Dalit students were completely ignored. Raghunath Naik a Dalit student, asked Prasadu Acharya, a teacher in charge of the Puja, to entrust some work to the Dalits. This Backward caste teacher said Dalit could clean the grass near the urinal since they were Untouchables. This enraged all the Dalit students and they protested. Another teacher, Tulsiram Sahu, told the students as many upper castes were coming to the Puja they would not accept the prasad given by the Untouchables. “In my case, I will not even touch the prasad if given by the Untouchables”. Kirtan Singh, another teacher, tried to convince the Dalits saying that though he was a Sanskrit scholar and could recite all the slokas, still he would not take the place of a pandit (brahmin priest) and thus break the Hindu traditional law.
Hindus above law: Manu’s law is dearer to the Hindus than the constitutional provisions. The Hindu jati rules are above law, above parliament, above the Constitution, above the people, above god and above every thing (Read DV editorial, Sept.1, 92.) He advised Dalit students not to insist on distributing the prasad.
Such unconstitutional, if not anti-national, advise of the teachers opened the eyes of our teenaged Dalit students and they unanimously threatened to stop the puja. The sports teacher, Hemanta Sahu, tried to frighten them with transfer but it failed to cut ice. The Dalit students stopped the puja and won the battle.
Aryans/upper castes believe that Ganesh is very fond of ladu (sweet) but we are sorry he could not get the ladu at the Ladugaon High School this year.
Dalit students locked up: When the Dalit students won their historic battle, the Hindu nazis took revenge at the upper primary school of Majhipara in the same village. Just at the time of the puja, the Dalit students were locked up in the class room and released only after distribution of prasad to the Hindu students.
(Read the Manusmriti in Oriya version published by a nazi publisher, Dharmagrantha Store, Alisa Bazar, Cuttack- 2, Rs.60). The upper caste teachers instead of doing their work are creating hatred and dividing the society and thereby compelling the Dalits to demand separate settlement. The Hindus are responsible for Khalistan struggle, Bodo agitation, Naxalite movement and will be now responsible for Dalitastan.
