We welcome the bold and imaginative step taken by the Kerala Harijan Federation in organizing a protest march from Trivandrum to the historic Krishna temple at Guruvayur, to join the Brahmin feeding of the temple on Feb. 13. This has exposed the hypocrisy of the advocates of Hindu unity.
Hindu never fail to claim the Untouchables and backward classes to be an integral part of the Hindu community. What kind of a community is it, if the Untouchables can’t be seated with them in a public meal served at the temple? Some newspapers like the Indian Express are trying to make out a case that the exclusion of Untouchables is an age-old religious ritual and not an instance of discrimination against them. We sympathize with these naive educators. They fail to see that practices such as the exclusive feeding of Brahmins in the “sacred” precincts of the temple as part of the worship, the exclusive rights of the Brahmins to act as priests – are the social instruments through which caste consciousness is maintained in the society and transmitted from generation to generation. They are in other words the “carriers” of caste consciousness, devices sacralized in the name of religion by the hierarchical feudal society, presided over by the Brahmin priest. The question is, therefore, can the constitutional vision of an egalitarian and just society tolerate such anti-constitutional practices in the name of religion? Do they realize that the total failure to eradicate caste-consciousness, the great curse of our society, even after 32 years of our Republican life is very much due to the unwillingness on the part of the higher castes to get rid of similar religion-cultural practices? As long as in our religion cultural life practices and habits, these “carriers” of caste consciousness remain, any talk of fighting caste and communalism on the part of our political and religious leaders betray the stuff they are made of. The protest march organized by the Harijan Federation led by Kallara Sukamaran will be the beginning of a religion cultural revolution in Kerala. The first Guruvayur satyagraha led by Kelappen with the support of the great Dalit leader like Ambedkar and Ayyankali etc. aroused hopes of such a revolution which was scuttled by Gandhi under the garb of Ramarajya, which turned out to be nothing but cultural subordination of Dalits to Brahmin customs and practices. You cannot build the edifice of social equality with the cultural bricks and religious mortars of the feudal hierarchical society. The religion of today has to take appropriate cultural forms and practices if it has to meaningfully coexist and not to act as a counterforce against the aspirations of the oppressed and marginalised people. Some people have advocated abolition of the public exclusive feeding of Brahmins and suggested in its place private feeding of one Brahmin as part of the ritual since the codes laid down by Adi Sankara stipulates that the naivedyam be offered to God Krishna only after a share of it is given to a Brahmin. The practice, they say, is based on the supposition that the Brahmin is a representative of the god. Is it not more in tune with the times to consider a poor Untouchable as representative of the God? In any case how can he be positively excluded to the benefit of well-fed Brahmins by the same people who condescendingly called him Harijan – son of god? The basic question is whether the high caste Hindus, their Mathadipatis, and priests are prepared to cleanse their religion of feudal, hierarchical and superstitious practices and conform to the constitutional vision of man and society. They Cannot any more hood wink the Dalits. If they claim us as part of the Hindu society let them from Feb. 13th feed a Dalit in the place of a Brahmin in reparation for the sins committed against them in the past. The other solution would be to disown us and (we are not Hindus) leave us free to follow our own traditions and counsels. Perhaps it would help us to unite among ourselves as we are freed from the institutional and cultural chains of Hinduism. What one fails to understand is that the very Mathadhipatis, swamis and their followers who are eager to avail themselves of the benefit of modern civilization in their work-life, homes and religious practices are averse to change discriminatory and humiliating social practices in the name of religion.
