War against ignorance

Professor Kancha Ilaiah, author of "Post-Hindu India", in New Delhi. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt | Photo Credit: Rajeev Bhatt

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Author-activist Kancha Ilaiah talks of ways to rid India of the

curse of casteism
Reading Kancha Ilaiah's statements, you might expect to meet an angry
revolutionary. The eminent human rights activist and Dalit crusader, who
teaches Political Science at Osmania University in Hyderabad, is known for
his stance that India is on course for a civil war that will signal the end of
Hinduism.

But the author of books like Why I am not a Hindu: A Critique of Sudra
Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy, Buffalo Nationalism: A
Critique of Spiritual Fascism and, most recently, Post-Hindu India: A
Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution,
speaks with gentleness. Even when he seems to defend U.P. Chief Minister
Mayawati's proposal to allocate Rs.53 crore for a security force to protect the
monuments she has set up across the State as symbols of Dalit-Bahujan pride.
Can spending taxpayers' money on self-glorification projects be condoned,
even if upper caste Hindus have done the same in the past?

While Ilaiah would definitely want her to spend on education of Dalit

children, he finds another angle pertaining to the symbolic, historical value
of the statues. He feels they are basically seen as Dalit-Bahujan shrines and
anti-Hindu, pro-Buddhist, making up for the Dalit-Bahujan icons that were
demolished through history by the dominating cultures.

If Mayawati was pulling down some masjid or some temple I would stand
up and say no, he states, but she is trying to build her own historical
agenda, which will have positive consequences for the community's self-
esteem.

Granted, but is there no movement among intellectuals like himself, either

Dalit or pro-Dalit, to nurture an approach other than political and symbolic, to
take India out of the caste quagmire? Yes, if we didn't nurture a different
kind of view why would I write Post-Hindu India'?

The book, recently released by Sage Publications, traces the history of

cultures that have remained below the radar, so to speak, simply because they
were non-Brahmin. Not accepting these cultures in the mainstream due to the
nexus between the Kshatriyas and the Brahmins, Ilaiah explains, resulted
in anti-production, which resulted in anti-science. That stultified our growth
of science.

When Ilaiah, who was in the Capital some time ago for the launch of the
book, describes how some people wept at the event, it hits home how little
we have progressed in caste relations. For the first time there was a Dalit
book being released at India Habitat Centre, he points out.

His use of the word war' is scary, and his predicting the end of Hinduism
sounds improbable, but, says Ilaiah, the largely unopposed spiritual fascism
of the upper castes has led to a situation where the three evangelical
religions Christianity, Islam and neo-Buddhism are competing.
Because these offer equality, the increasingly aware Dalit and other
downtrodden communities will convert, leaving Hinduism a minority creed.

Here is a huge landmass of millions of people who don't have the right to
spiritual equality and education, says Ilaiah. Mahatma Gandhi was a
mediator, feels Ilaiah. Because of him the civil war didn't become severe
all these years. He feels the war of nerves may eventually reach weapons. I
am looking at the symptoms of the anger.

But he talks of solutions too. Reform your texts, reform your history. Say
leather is not untouchable to God, the barber's knife is not untouchable to
God. Take a Dalit priest and a Brahmin priest to celebrations. Do these
symbolic things. Let them (high-caste Hindus) come and sit with Dalits in
their huts and eat with them.

Distinguishing between political Hindus (bodies like the RSS, VHP, etc.), the
secular Hindus (Congress, the Communist parties, etc.) and religious Hindus
of whom the Sankaracharyas are considered leaders, he says, Let the
Sankaracharyas declare that killing someone for an inter-caste marriage is a
crime against God. It is not the legal thing which works.

As for legal recourse, he notes, Reservation is not a solution for this

problem. We also don't want reservation. We want equal education from the
age of three to 18, availability of teachers and good infrastructure.

Eventually, we should go for abolition of caste, he says. But this goal can
be reached gradually. All of us should go towards dignity of labour. Let us
put our hands in the soil. Let there be women Sankaracharyas.

He suggests we stop gloating over past glory We made pushpaka vimana

without comparable competence today. I'm proud of Amartya Sen, he
declares, but I'm not proud of Radhakrishnan.
KANCHA'S CAVEAT

Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual

and Scientific Revolution
Sage Publications

The book talks of the high level of scientific and cultural development of the
tribals and other communities of Andhra Pradesh, with chapters like Unpaid
Teachers, Subaltern Scientists, Social Doctors and, Meat and Milk
Economists among othersetc.

While the tribal communities taught human beings essential skills, from
distinguishing between edible and poisonous roots to designing hunting
instruments, the barbers are the earliest protectors of health, and the leather
workers the first scientists whose work the author says is a fascinating
process of converting something into something.

Talking about researching for the book, he says he found each community
produced innumerable instruments of production. But production and tilling
were seen as pollution, and the priestly caste was not supposed to touch
any productive work.

He asks, Why were the communities that were cleaning the village,
protecting the village (from disease), treated as soiled? The concept of
professional pollution doesn't exist in any religion other than Hinduism, he
points out.

With the idea of pollution by touch entrenched, this whole thing entered the
food culture also. Emphasising he is not against vegetarianism, he states,
But they didn't leave it to choice. It entered the realm of God. Thus, he
contends, protein levels of the masses have gone down.

Similarly, with business restricted to the Bania community, the economy

suffered. Once the business was confined to Banias, the European mode of
mercantile capital could not come, says Ilaiah. Instead of encouraging other
castes to invest their money, the system ensured it became gupt dhana (secret
hoards). He cites an example: The highest taxpayers in ancient India were
the ganikas (courtesans), not the Banias.

If the spiritual fascism of the upper castes is not corrected, the author
predicts civil war and the death of Hinduism