Caste is a notion. So also, there is the race. There is no genetic basis for racial discrimination or caste-based discrimination. Brahminical superiority and Dalit inferiority is a notion. It is important for the ruler to create a notion in the minds of the subjects who consider themselves inferior. That is what the Brahmins did to the Dalits. The colonial powers did the same to the natives.
When the Dalits feel that they are inferior, the Brahmins will continue to rule.
“We are no less than the Brahmins™ or “we are equal to Brahmins”, such «8logans are not enough for the Dalits to become rulers.
BEHEAD DRONACHARYA
To become rulers Dalits will have to “behead Dronacharya intellectually”, so that when there is a talk of intellect, the Brahmins will have to hang their heads in shame and feel inferior. When Dalit literature speaks of slums and shanties, hunger and humiliation, this (beheading Dronacharya intellectually) looks far away. When Mike Tyson floors his White “Spponent in the very first blow, the Whites do realize, in the heart of their hearts that they are inferior. When our Black William sisters play their final match in all the four grand slams of the year, the White competitors do feel in the heart of their hearts, that they are inferior. The biggest challenge before the Dalit writers lies in changing the caste-based superiority and inferiority notions.
LITERATURE OF SORROW
Dalit literatures speak of pity and the plight. And the more they write about it the more awards and rewards they will get from our enemies. Dalit literature talks of lowly castes, casteism, social segregation, menial jobs, poverty, starvation, dead animals and their flesh (carrion), raw sex and so on. Is perpetual pity and the plight of the human spirit? No. The indomitable human spirit speaks of the victories and the celebrations. It talks about the misunderstandings straightened out and unhappiness replaced by happiness.
The time has come for the Dalit writers to look beyond the pity and the plight syndrome. They must make a dead Dalit body alive, put soul into it and inject spirit— the spirit of victories and celebrations.
In a casteist society such a piece of literature will never fetch an award. A movie where the natives (burden of a White man) beat their English masters in the game of cricket and wherein an English woman falls in love with a native and even remains unmarried for him will never get the Oscar. The learned critics will maintain a perverse silence when Eklavya beheads Dronacharya intellectually.
HIGHER BRAIN POWER
When a Brahmin discriminates against a Dalit what he wants to convey to the Dalit is that he (Dalit) has an inferior brain. When a White says nigger to the Black he wants to convey to the Black that he (Black) has an inferior brain. When an open-category looks down upon the reserved-category candidate he conveys that the latter has an inferior brain.
All living things — plants, animals and human beings —have two things in common, hunger (bhuk) and emotions (bhavana). Plants. exposed to good music grows faster. Cows and buffaloes looked after them well and loved to yield more milk. Man is different from the plants and the animals. In evolution, man has higher brain than that of animals, Man considers himself superior to animals only because of that higher brain. Itis finally between man and man. All men — White Black, Yellow or Red are equal. That is true. But they are equal in their civil rights and not in their intellectual property rights. When two people meet, they do not ask each other, “What have you eaten? But they ask what do you do? With that, they want to know each other’s profession and with that the associated intellectual ability. A person of some calibre, in his or her lifetime, looks at himself or herself beyond the stomach. A man tries to rise above the animal by proving his higher brain.
DALIT LITERATURE IN MARATHI
In the world of intellect where do the Dalits stand? And if they stand, have they left behind their footprints on the Dalit literature? | do not know about other regional languages. But | can talk with authority on Dalit iiterature in Marathi. Dalit literature passed through different phases. The first phase talked about the pity and the plight which had come to the writers as package of their birth — birth in a lowly caste. These include Balut by Daya Pawar, Aathwaninche Pakhshi by Pralhad Sonkamble, Taral Antaral by Shankarrao Kharat, Akkarmashiby Sharan Kumar Limbale, Upara by Laxman Mane, Uchalya by Laxman Gaikwad, Kolhyatyche Por by Kishore Kale and there are many more. These narratives put forth the sub-human life of the Dalits. Such narratives got wide publicity. And this wide publicity was well deserved for the courage, conviction and the honesty these writers showed to write the truths of their survival. One writer was sued by his own relatives. But that is the price one has to pay for honesty. The writers became famous and the publishers (most of them savarnas) reaped the harvest.
These narratives did not challenge the Brahmins, although it exposed their Hindu religion with all its inhumanity. These narratives talked about hunger (bhuk) and emotions (bhavana). They talked of survival. However, they were far away from intellect — the thing which separates man from the animal. These narratives told to the world: Look, we Dalits are human beings. And we too have the stomach and the heart. The head of the Dalit was singularly missing in the first phase of Dalit narratives. The Brahmins who claim to be the custodians of the intellect felt safe. They thought Dalits would never be able to match their intellectual abilities. However, their myth was shattered.
NARENDRA JADHAV’S WORK
The second phase of Dalit literature starts here. Aamcha Baap Aani Aamhi by Dr. Narendra Jadhav (Granthali, 1993) proved that among the crows (Dalits), there can be swans too. In this narrative, the father asks his children to live by excellence. One son becomes a JAS officer and another son — the author himself —becomes an economist of great repute. The message of this narrative was,
“Look, we Dalits have the stomach and the heart. That is all right. But we have heads too. And that head is no less”.
Even though the author lives by excellence, nowhere is the intellectual ability of the Brahmins questioned and the ugly face of Hinduism/casteism exposed. And that is why, probably, this book got unprecedented popularity among Dalits and savarnas alike. With the arrival of the swans from the Dalits, the Brahmins certainly didn’t get threatened. As far as intellect was concerned, they were still in love with each other. Whereas the first phase of Dalit literature talked of social equality, rather inequality, the second phase of Dalit literature talked of intellectual equality.
A Brahmin takes pride in being Brahmin because he thinks he has the best brain in India, if not in the world. A hit at his intellectual ability hurts the Brahmin most.
BRAHMINS HUMBLED
In a decisive battle, a Brahmin chief cardiologist (modern Dronacharya) is made to accept that he has, in fact, inferior brain. With the arrival of My Encounter with Dronacharya (Sugawa Prakashan, 2001) by me the third phase of Dalit literature has started. This book is a true story. It is an intellectual war drawn out between a lone, helpless Dalit cardiac surgeon on one side, and on the other side, the powerful and the mighty Brahmin chief cardiologist. In Awar, there is a victor and there is a vanquished. In this war, Dr. Milind Kamble, a Dalit cardiac surgeon comes out victorious. He enters the den and holds the lion with its mane. He makes the Brahmin chief cardiologist (the modern Dronacharya who swears by merit) intellectually naked, parades him naked in the full public view, beats him black and blue and finally beheads him intellectually.
The enemy should be demoralized, his pride shattered, and he should be made to accept that he is inferior. This is a pure and simple intellectual exercise.
My Encounter with Dronacharya has just done that. It declared:
Look, we Dalits have stomach and heart like any other human being. That is all right. We have heads too. And that head is no less. But this is not all right. Actually, that head is superior.
And that is not all. It went further. It beheaded Dronacharya intellectually, hanged that head to the nearest lamppost and declared:
Brahmins, o Brahmins look, this is the head of Dronacharya, your father and the father of your forefathers. He is not only casteist and mean he is moron too.
The first phase of Dalit literature talked of social equality, the second phase talked of intellectual equality and the third phase talked of intellectual superiority.
When you walk with your head ~ high, your enemy should hang his head in shame, when you stand up, he should sit down, when you talk, he should keep his mouth shut, when you look straight in his eyes, he should lock down. When your enemy takes pride in his best brain, he should be made to shy away from talking about intellect. And this is the only way known to a civilized man to overcome the discrimination.
BLACKLITERATURE
I heard a lecture on Dalit literature and Black literature. The speakers were supposed to be experts. That was in August 2002. The speaker on Dalit literature talked about the narratives which described the Dalit Untouchable colony life and the speaker on the Black literature talked about the American ghetto life. He talked of “body poetics”. He * limited his talk to body — physical structure of a Negro and its effect on his social standing. The man has _, the animal needs and the human needs. Even after 140 years of emancipation, hasn’t the American Negro elevated himself above the animal needs? And even after 50 years of reservation hasn’t a Dalit.&levanted himself above the animal needs — and thus above the animal? If the higher brainy activities differentiate between man and animal, and between man and man, then has Dalit proved his manhood by proving his higher brainy activities? Has he proved his intellect? If he has proved his intellect, has it found place in literature? And if it has found place in the literature, is it being talked about?
Because Dalit literature must play, among its many roles, the role of image building too. The speaker on Dalit literature did not make a -« mention of Aamcha Baap Aani Aamhiby Dr. Narendra Jadhav. And ~ she was not aware of My Encounter with Dronacharya.
ANIMAL LIFE OF DALIT
The face of Dalit literature continues to be that of animal life of a Dalit, the pity and the plight. There are Dalits and there are sufferings because of their Dalitness. But that is not certainly the total picture of Dalit society today. Changes have occurred over the last 50 years — both among the Dalits and their milieu. But have these changes been brought out in “~ the contemporary Dalit literature? And if they have been brought out, how many have understood them? This seminar of Dalit literature and Black literature was presided over by Prof. Ranjit Meshram. It was only he who talked of Aamcha Baap Aani Aamhiand My Encounter with Drenacharya. Not many Dalits have really understood the importance of beheading Dronacharya intellectually on the way to becoming. a ruling class.
Phase-1 Dalit literature (it talked about social inequality. And thus, at the same time, it was a cry for social equality too) played a great role to attract the attention towards the sufferings and the subhuman life of the Dalits and the downtrodden. But, today, it lost its importance due to repetition and nauseam. It lost its relevance too. Not that there are no Dalits and not that there is no casteism. There are Dalits and there is casteism. But the brutalities of casteism in its most naked form are not there. And even if they are there today, their number is definitely small. The present generation of Dalits does not share the experience of casteism with the experience of their father’s generation. Nor do they want to be associated with their shameful past.
The present generation of Dalits cannot disown phase-1 Dalit literature simply because it is the part and parcel of their own flesh and blood. However, they do not want to cling to it… to their shameful past.
What is the present generation of Dalits up to? Today’s Dalits know that they are Dalits. They also know that, because they are Dalits, they have reservation benefits. For the present generation of Dalits their caste is in their backyard. On the front yard, they are socially equal. They have proved themselves in every field of human endevour. In Maharashtra, at the entrance level, there is hardly any difference between the open category students and the Dalit students.
DALIT INTELLECTUAL’S RESPONSIBILITY
The intellectual gulf between the open-category students and the Dalit students as of today has almost vanished. This social change has reflected in the phase- 2 Dalit literature i.e. intellectual equality. Its prototype is singular Aamacha Baap Aani Aamhi by Dr. Narendra Jadhav. This narrative was published in 1993. After that, there is a big void.
It is the moral responsibility of the custodians of the Ambedkar Thoughts to talk and write about the things which will make Dalit community proud. “‘Dalit – intellectual®, carries the burden of his community on his shoulders. He becomes a spokesman for the community and even sings songs like a bard for his community. But this is not all. If possible, he becomes a prophet to lead his people to the promised land. What is this promised land? What road leads to the people to the promised land? Do the Dalit intellectuals know this? | think they know. But their fault is — they move with time. They do not want to be controversial, else their interests will be marred. They talk about what people expect them to talk about. They do not say what they think, if at all they think. Severe the Brahmin- bashing, bigger the Dalit intellectual.
BRAHMIN BASHING
Brahmin-bashing is needed. But the time has come for Dalit intellectuals to lay the path which will lead to coming generations of Dalits to become a ruling class.
My Encounter with Dronacharya is not a mere book. It is a document – which challenges the Supreme Court judgment (August 1999) which prohibits reservation in the medical and engineering super specialties. The book has exposed the homicidal ignorance of the many a few open-category medical super specialists who swear by “merit”.;
This book has 40 chapters. The first chapter is Eklavya, and the last chapter is about ruling class. It is not a mere book; it is a path. If traded, the Eklavyas can become a ruling class. This book gives the mantra’ to save the thumb. And at the same time, to behead Dronacharya — intellectually.
