LESSONS OF CHUNDUR
AN EYE-WITNESS REPORT FROM M. GOPINATH, GENERAL SECRETARY, KARNATAKA, SAMATA SAINIK DAL, BANGALORE
“Just two months ago, when they came begging for votes, they embraced us and said we were all children of the same mother and promised us to keep up the unity of Telega’s. We believed them and voted them to power. Now, how did we suddenly become ‘Maha-Madi gas’ to be kept separate from the same Telega’s? Should we trust them anymore?” Yohana of Chandru village, Guntur dt. of coastal AP, put this question before me. This, of course, is not the question of Yohana alone. Every Dalit of Chandru has the same question to the Reddy Govt. of AP.
Hindu Police join Hindu butchers: “Independent India” has seen countless “caste wars” on Dalits by the Hindu barbarians. But none could be compared to the Chandru carnage. It surpasses all other previous massacres (DV edit Sept. 1 1991). In an earlier mass murder, the Hindu rulers had played a behind-the-scene game. But on the Aug 6 1991, the I Chandru police wrote a new chapter in the blood-soaked Indian history that upholding the job of butchering Dalits is the part of their official duty.:
Chandru carnage has convinced us that shortly the Hindu rulers would make annihilation of the Dalits and the other natives of this land as the Princip: official program me of their Hindu govt. Some people may say that these are angry outbursts of a sic mind. But the Chandru Dalits, who had lost over 2 of their kins because of the police brutality, are very sure that Hindu rulers will use the Hindu police to thrust their Hindu raj.
WHAT CAUSED THE EXPOSION?
The Chandru explosion was said to have been caused by the “provocative” sitting posture of a Dalit youth in a cinema hall. This “enraged” a Reddy youth to attack the Dalit. But this is not the only reason. This is just a pretext. The real cause is our so-called “village republics” that cause the socio-cultural divide between Dalits and Hindus.
Aryan invasion: All over the coastal Andhra a burning hatred is raging between Dalits and Hindus — since centuries. Some 2,000 years ago, it was the Dalits who ruled the entire South India (the original name of Hyderabad, the capital of AP, was Bhagya Nagar named after a Dalit woman called Bhagya). Infiltration of Aryan hordes into the peaceloving Dalit community (who were all Buddhists) and the cultural aggressions by Adi Sankara, a Kerala Brahmin, and others made our people powerless. However, there were attempts on the part of Dalits to regain the lost power. Till the 15th century, Dalits were the rulers in parts of AP.
During the British rule, the Brahmins, who were serving the imperialists as officials and village officers (sandhog, Kulkarni etc.) manipulated land records and took possession of Dalit lands. Simultaneously, they consolidated their position through their exploitative religion, now called Hinduism.
Christian Conversion: Due to this oppression, Dalits got converted end masse into Christianity. After the “independence” (1947) Brahmins found cities more lucrative and left villages to settle in cities. The positions vacated by Brahmins were taken over by the Reddies and Khammas — Shudras belonging to the fourth varna of the Brahminical (Hindu) social order.
Today, the entire coastal Andhra is notorious for nazi activities on one side and the “communist” and Naxalite activities. Both are led by the Hindus.
The Secret of Hindu worry: The Reddies and Khammas own the entire rich paddy fields and Dalits sweat in their fields and grow food for them. It is the coastal Hindu culture which dominates the entire AP.
But our people – landless wage-earners — have a ‘strong cultural unity and an acute awareness of their lost rights and the need to regain it. That is why in every village, they remain separate, with their churches, away from the Hindus. Even the Hindu converts’ churches are different from Dalit churches. It is this strong bond of unity, awareness and separate identity of Dalits that worries Hindus and make them always restless. Their frequent attacks on Dalits are the outcome of this restlessness. And fear. All other things are the manufactured stories to hide this real truth.
HOW IT HAPPENED?
Last July, after the alleged altercation in the cinema hall, the Dalit youth was seriously beaten up by a group of Reddies as their “caste pride” was hurt. The Dalit victims lodged a complaint with the police. A police contingent descended on Chandru village for inquiry. This further sharpened the conflict and the Reddies resorted io total social boycott of the Dalits. I any Reddy were to engage a Dalit; he would be fined Rs.1,000. They thought such a drastic punishment would force the Dalits to come to them crawling — “repenting for their mistake” and seeking an apology. But the things went exactly the other way. Dalits also retaliated and started going too far off places to earn their bread instead of surrounding to that Reddies. Please note that the Reddies were never accustomed to work in their fields. The attitude of Dalits further irritated the Reddies but the fear of losing the standing crops added fuel to their anger. Their caste pride and arrogance, however, did not allow them to reconcile with the Dalits peacefully. Hinduism does not believe in human rights. Many attempts were made to trouble Dalits on false allegations resulting in minor scuffles.
Conspiracy: Ultimately, a grand conspiracy was hatched in collusion with the police to “leach a lesson to Dalits”.
On Aug.6, at about 11 am when most of the working men and students had left their houses, a sub-: – Inspector with a few constables rushed towards Dalit huts. In the pretext of helping them, he asked the Dalits to run away from their houses as the Reddies were rushing to attack them. Till they confronted an armed group from Montagu on the way, Dalits did not realize that it was a false alarm and a well-planned trap. The armed Reddies and Telegas hacked the unarmed Dalits into pieces, after trapping them between Chandru and Momager villages. When such a mass murder was going on, the police did not remain silent. They assisted the Hindus and dumped the bodies (cut into pieces) into gunny bags, stitched them and threw them into the flooded canals and drains of Tungabhadra River. The screaming women and children were also beaten up and their huts burnt. All the Dalits of Chandru deserted the village and took shelter in a church near Itanagar. Within hours the whole Dalit village turned into an ominous graveyard.
Non-violence & tolerance: And such actions are described in Hindu scriptures and by their spokesman, M.K. Gandhi, as Hindu tolerance and non-violence.
The same day at Tenali around 3 pm, the Dy. S.P. Ravulayya was misguiding the whole world holding a press conference and giving a totally false picture that the Chandru village was “completely peaceful and no untoward incident had taken place”. The news of the killings did not reach either the District Collector or the DIG of police till the next evening. When the leaders of the Andhra Dalit Mahasabha (DMS), Bahujan Samaj Party, Kranti Sangram Parishad, SC/ ST/BC federation and other Dalit organizations reached the village, the police were sincerely guarding the completely burnt Dalit village. They were so brutally inhuman that they neither answered the queries nor helped the people to fish out the dead bodies from the canals “and drains.
Is there any need for better proof that the whole social system is getting handguides? Should we still believe that this Hindu govt. will honor the Constitution of India and protect our human rights assured in it?
Members of the DMS said that 21 Dalits were missing but they could – fish out only eight bodies. When the bodies were taken to Tenali, a Dalit doctor, who performed the postmortem, committed suicide unable to bear the pain and sufferings of his people. When the bodies were brought to the village in a procession, a Dalit youth, M. Ramesh, simply collapsed and did not wake up.
BOOT-LICKING PRESS
To add insult to injury the Telugu press played havoc by exploiting this issue. Though everybody knew that it was the arrogance of the Reddy rowdies that caused the blood and burning, some of the Telugu toilet papers said it was the “arrogance of the Dalits” which caused the holocaust. An English daily in an editorial bullshit wrote:
The behavior of the Harijan youth who allegedly rested his foot on the head of a forward class youth in a cinema hall was condemnable. (Decan Chronicle, Aug. 12).
The Hindu press is proving more dangerous than the Hindu nazis in spreading falsehood. The toilet papers published articles and photos “to prove” that Dalits retaliated against Reddies on the night of Aug. 10. They also manufactured a white lie that Dalits had killed a 70-year-old Malla Reddy, burnt the houses and hay-stacks of Reddies. They were about to set on fire two Reddy women, and that upper caste women were fleeing the village etc. All sorts of falsehoods were spread to inflame Hindu passions.
We only wish such a retaliation was true. We want our people to stand up and find their own solution.
Self-defense is noble. Even the laws of the land sanction murder in self-defense. We want our people to retaliate doubly for any loss or injury they suffer. But our problem is they are not doing it. They are still not able to hit back. All those cock and bull stories in the Hindu press are false and they are meant to cover the Hindu aggression and nip any possibility of our people turning militant. These false stories are also meant to instigate the Reddies of other villages to “finish Dalits”.
THE NAZALITE NATAK
The Naxalites, who are claiming to I be the sole contractors of Indian revolution, played a Lag drama at Chandru. The Karamchand carnage of 1985 gave birth to the powerful Sabha, the biggest Dalit organization in the-State. Chandru Andhra. Dalit Maha proved a much more serious affair and created much bigger waves. Chandru had all the possibilities of giving birth to a much more militant Dalit movement, existing ones and consolidating the splintered Dalits. It could have patched up the differences between the top leadership of the AP Dalit Mahasabha – particularly Katti Padma Rao and Bojja Tarak am. Such possibilities unnerved the Hindu refining the shocking leaders and forced the Hindu Nazis in the garb of Naxalites to intervene and pour cold water on the burning volcano.
Adventurist stunts: Such alert upper caste outfits parading as Naxalites quickly created a number of letter pad organizations to curb Under these fore Barnes our boys were made are involve themselves in totally useless, romantic programmers such as boycotting of classes, burning of the effigies, “take to guns” slogans and many other adventurist stunts to mislead our youth irrelevant and bring them under Hindu leadership. Hindu stunts, which get good publicity in the Hindu press, were called impressive. But all these were meant to curb the sustained growth of Dalit movement and divert our people from the path shown by Babasaheb Ambedkar.
These Naxalite groups were all led by Brahmins, Reddies, Khammas or Kapus. They openly criticized the leadership of Katti Padma Rao, General Secretary of AP Dalit Maha Sabha, who emerged as the hero of Chandru. These Hindu Naxalites were dead against Ambedkar’s taking roots among Dalits and gave a call to their people to push him out of the scene and finally they succeeded in getting him arrested.
Naxalites more dangerous than nazis: Chandru has taught us that Hindu Marxists and Naxalites are more dangerous and deadly than Hindu nazis. It is the Dalits who brought militancy to these: Naxalite organizations. Though the leadership is with the Reddies and Caddies, the entire cadres are Dalits and BCs. Gadar, the legendary singer, is a Dalit. They are afraid of, losing their base and Dalits deserting the Peoples War Group and such Naxalite outfits.
Despite all the efforts of Naxalites to curb Dalit – movement, we found lots of welcome development. Dalit students of Osmania University saw through the Naxalite game and started rescuing the innocent Dalit students from Naxalite traps. For the first time in the history of Osmania University, Dalit students were able to put up an independent banner.
Sathyamurthy liberation from PWG: Another important development was that K.G. Sathyamurthy, a prominent Dalit who recently liberated himself from the Naxalite trap after serving the People’s War Group sincerely for 30 years, has formed a Dalit Volunteer. Force in Andhra on Aug.15 (DV Sept.1, 6). This is a I very important development.
LESSONS OF CHUNDUR
Unlike many other incidents, Chandru has once again convinced us that there is no other salvation for Dalits ‘except to follow the path shown by our Savior, Dr. Ambedkar. Dalits of Chandru are already culturally separated. But to secure total liberation, they must be geographically separated. That means they must have their own safe and secure villages, meaning separate settlement.
Hindus want us to remain as lambs so that they can make biriyani out of us. We are not lambs but born tigers – but in shackles. Only if we get ourselves educated in Ambedkar’s we can get rid of these – shackles. Chandru has once for all proved that Dalits are not Hindus and never Hindus. We are a separate and distinct entity.
The Constitution of India has several provisions and legislations to protect our human rights. But the Hindu rulers are not enforcing it. Because it will upset their own society.
Separate electorate: Why should we ask our oppressors to protect us? Will the wolf ever protect a lamb? We should protect ourselves. Those who cannot protect themselves will never get protection from anyone or anywhere. We do not need anybody’s sympathy or pity.
We must assert our power independently. Our (Dalit) political leaders have failed to represent us. Because under the existing “reserved constituency”, they are elected by others’ mercy. We should elect our own leaders through a separate electorate. The Indian Govt., courts, police, press and the whole establishment will continue to remain Hindu which will not protect our human rights. So, we must shape… our own destiny.
