Towards Building a Pan-Indian and Global Coalition for Dalit Emancipation | Main | What is the

DALIT-BAHUJAN Emancipation Movement all About?

October 19, 2005

The Globalization of the Dalit Problem
The cruel caste system has been a huge, never-ending problem for us as Indians. Our inability to
eradicate caste completely even after the rise of prophets like Mahatma Phule and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
reveals our own blindness to one of the most dehumanizing systems the world has ever known. There is
no point in saying that the Indian Constitution has abolished untouchability because we all know that the
law has not taken care of the root system that gave rise to the practice of untouchability. There is no
point in saying that we have reservations for the Dalits, because if there were no reservation system, we
would have effectively consigned all Dalits to their inhuman existence. We would not then have the few
Dalit-Bahujan leaders who have risen to speak out on behalf of their people. To our utter shame, no
significant campaign or movement has risen up after Indias independence among the upper caste
leadership in the nation, nor overseas, to end the caste system in Indian society.
If we are honest, we must admit that caste prejudice runs very deep in the Indian psyche.
So today, when Dalits agitate for some kind of quota system in the private sector, Indias upper-castedominated industrialists shut the door in their faces! Dalit-Bahujan leaders are forced to appeal to the
overseas multinational companies to voluntarily provide for affirmative action just as they have provided
such benefits for African-Americans and other minorities in their own nations. In order to make their
case, the Dalit-Bahujan leaders have no option but to describe their lives as they know it in modern
India. Let us be clear about this one thing: Caste is alive and well on planet India. Let us have the
honesty and courage to deal with this problem and avoid the spin of the last several decades which says
there is no caste system, nor the ensuing discrimination that has resulted in our cities, villages and
towns.
Politics has not delivered on the issues of Dalit discrimination or the abolishment of caste, Dr.
Ambedkars main dream and desire. What is required is the development of a national and global social
conscience on the issue of caste discrimination and its atrocities. This new social conscience must be
both national and global because the caste problem is not only limited to India. It is present in all South
Asian nations and in other parts of the world where Indians congregate. The case of the foreign-based
Indian woman who had her daughter and son-in-law murdered because of their inter-caste marriage is
well known. The rise of the extremist Hindutva movement also has meant the rise of the caste-based
structure in society. How can we ignore the blatant distribution of the Manusmriti by the Sangh Parivar
elements in Western India when their government was in power? The Sangh Parivar has not been shy of
spreading this divisive and soul-destroying ideology even in the West and especially in America. When
after the lynching of the five Dalits in Jhajjar, Haryana, the Vice President of the VHP (Vishwa Hindu
Parishad the world Hindu federation) can say that the life of the cow is more precious than the life of
the Dalit we are brought face to face with colossal social blindness.
This social blindness can be cured only when there is the realization that all men and women are created
equal and have equal intrinsic value and worth. True change can come only when everyone knows and

agrees that Dalits and upper caste alike they are equally created in Gods likeness and there is no such
thing as a God-given hierarchy of human beings.
There is now a growing national and global alliance of people irrespective of caste, creed and religion
who believe that both the caste system and its consequences the practice of untouchability and
discrimination must be abolished. It is this alliance which must educate, inform, campaign and be
engaged in activism resulting in the growth and development of the social conscience which will revolt
against any caste-based discrimination or prejudice. It is this conscience that will eventually abolish the
caste system and that will realize Indias greatness and true potential the potential of its huge and
utterly deprived masses.
Nevertheless, this is going to be a long, difficult struggle and campaign. Those who have profited
economically and politically from the caste system will not yield easily. As we have noticed recently in
the Gohana episode where 50 Dalit houses were burned, these forces will attack any assertion of Dalit
rights.
The vast majority of our own people do not know the meaning of India Shining a slogan of the
upper-caste-dominated Indian elite. India does not shine for the masses not simply because they are
poor, but because of the social system that denies them equal opportunities, empowerment, capital and
freedom. Globalization has resulted in India Shining for the privileged minority, but now let
globalization also result in India Shining for the majority Dalits and other oppressed castes/tribes.