FIT/CASE FOR UN INTERVENTION
YOGESH VARHADE, PRESIDENT, DR. AMBEDKAR CENTRE FOR JUSTICE & PEACE INC., PO. BOX 846, STATION P. TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA M5S-2Z2
The following is the text of my testimony before the Working Group on “Indigenous Peoples”, United Nations Human Rights Sub-Commission, Geneva, Switzerland, on July 30 1991.
Distinguished Madam Chairperson, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
I am Yogesh Varhade, one of India’s 200 million indigenous peoples who are referred to by my country’s Constitution as “people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes” (SC/ST).
By choice, we have come to call ourselves by the appellation, “Dalits”, a poetic term which means the oppressed or the downtrodden”. Today, I stand here before you, my distinguished colleagues, representing my people, the Dalits of India, who are both literally oppressed and downtrodden. To impress upon you the urgent need to recognize the 200 million Dalits (Untouchables and Tribal Peoples) of India as “Indigenous Peoples” within the meaning and designation given to the term by the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission.
Historical evidence points to the fact that Dalits were the original inhabitants of the land which is known as India, today.
They were a distinct people or a nation, possessing distinct cultures, laws and customs – very much similar to the indigenous peoples of North America. Like them, the Dalits too were overrun by foreign invaders – in this case the Aryans from the west.
Imposed religion: These Aryan invaders imposed upon our people not only their political rule, but also a certain religion-social hierarchical system which is part and parcel of the Hindu civilization of India – which is also known as casteism. Our homesteads were plundered and confiscated by these invaders and we were relegated to the outskirts of our towns and villages – where for thousands of years we have lived huddled up, as outcastes and in abject poverty, bonded for life to our alien masters. Today, we are still a conquered nation with distinct cultures, which India calls Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
In this pernicious and degrading system which persists to this
Yogesh Varhade, our esteemed “Dalit Voice” life-member from Canada, has done a big job by taking our problem before the UN Human Rights Commission. But the Govt. of India has been taking the country’s ruling class stand that India has nothing like an indigenous population. Hence the need for a well-prepared historical document to establish our case before the world body – EDITOR.
moment, our nations are considered inherently inferior, sub human, polluting … unworthy of body or even eye contact …. (hence the term, “Untouchables”).
It is this same hierarchical casteism which is responsible for the total neglect of the basic human rights of our nations. This Hindu system hides our separate national identity by forcibly assimilating us into the Hindu identity, where the conquering Aryan nations are considered the upper castes, and we the lower castes. This permits them to speak of the Hindu as one nation made up of many castes. Human rights violations: The continuing enslavement of the Dalits by the Aryans, now called upper caste Hindus, and the apathy and indifference of the state and federal ruling classes to gross human rights violations against them have only served to strengthen the resolve of the awakened Dalit populations to organize themselves and fight for their rights until casteism is eradicated from the face of the earth.
India’s infamous institutions such as “bonded labour”, “child labour”, and “the devadasi (‘handmaiden of God’) service” or prostitution draw their victims from among the Untouchables – Dalits – who are forced into such inhuman conditions by reason of their birth and poverty. By far, the worst aspect of the plight of our peoples is the common and everyday violence they are subject to at the hands of the Aryan nations now called “upper caste Hindus.” Atrocities against them involve burning of homes, rape of their women, murder, torture and beating of men. For example, in the year 1983 – that’s not very long ago – 14,834 incidents of violence had been documented by the Indian law enforcement authorities, while the numbers dramatically rose to 22,672 in 1988. The same year also saw 852 Dalits or Untouchables murdered in cold blood.
Role of Dr. Ambedkar: Here I might add that to every single incident reported, nine go unreported. One can thus imagine how widespread the violence against the Dalits is, despite the existence of constitutional guarantees abolishing untouchability. Though the 1950 Constitution of newly independent India framed by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the foremost champion of human rights, officially abolished untouchability, in reality the situation remains much the same for 80% of India.
The Castes and Tribes are scheduled in the Indian Constitution as eligible for affirmative action programs, yet in practice they remain the last segregated population in the world today.
As a population of over 200 million or 3% of humanity, it is by far the largest aboriginal group in the world. As referred to earlier, their oppression finds a religious justification, religious cover making their upliftment by internal awareness or outside invention doubly difficult.
India’s secret Apartheid: It is imperative that the international community with the UN and the world body of Aboriginal people monitor progress regarding the desegregation, collective and individual human rights and socio-economic improvement of these aboriginal peoples as they are among the poorest people in the world. Their general destitution has prevented the mobilization of resources for drawing world attention to their plight. This Committee can assist in this process on behalf of people who lack the means of overcoming their oppression. As they are by far the largest aboriginal population in the world, it is incumbent on the UN to include them on the list of indigenous peoples.
Their plight is not widely known outside India due to their lack of media influence. The ruling class of the “nation” who publicizes all the so-called “justice causes” (i.e. Apartheid in South Africa) denies the basic human rights and bare survival conditions for such a vast mass of aboriginal people and attempts to control media coverage within the “nation” and internationally.
This makes it all the more necessary for the UN to include them under its mandate for aboriginal peoples.
