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GUEST ARTICLE

        The claim has been made that  in the last seventy years, three 'great leaders' made dalits conscious of their rights in India's caste-ridden society, namely, Dr Bhimarao Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram and in more recent years, Kanshi Ram.

        This is a poor tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and to many others like Jyotiba Phule (1827-1890), a Mali and Vithalrao Shinde (1973-1944) a kshatriya Maratha, both caste Hindus who in their own way fought for the rights of the dalits with just as much if not more, zeal. This is not to say that Ambedkar, Jagjivan Ram and Kanshi Ram did not serve dalits as much as many of our social reformers did. In their own way they made their solid contribution. But their task was comparatively easy.

        They could fight with the full, unbending support of their fellow dalits. But for a Mahatma Gandhi or a C Rajagopalachari and a Bal Gangadhar Kher to fight for the restoration of the dignity and respect of the dalits called for a higher commitment and courage. They belonged to the upper castes and had to face the charge of being traitors. Indeed, during his Harijan tour in 1935 Gandhiji's car was stoned in Pune. To stand up to such threats was by no means a small achievement. Jagjivan Ram was not much of a fighter to begin with. He was better known as a 'sircari figurehead' which in some ways he was.

        He could even get away without paying his income tax. Ambedkar was a more dedicated fighter, but his influence, as that of the late Kanshi Ram, was limited to a particular geographic area. Ambedkar had his followers, especially the Mahars in the Marathi-speaking areas as Kashi Ram in the Hindu and Punjabi-speaking areas. True, Kanshi Ram, in some ways was more of a practical politician than Ambedkar. The latter belonged to the Mahar elite, no matter how much he suffered in humiliation at the hands of the upper classes. He enjoyed the patronage of the British rulers and was once a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. He did not live in a jopadpatti but in a house of his own in a predominantly Hindu upper caste area in Dadar, Mumbai. And while, no doubt, he opposed the Mahatma, especially in the matter of dalit reservations, he gave in following Gandhi's fast to sign the famous Poona Pact. Kanshi Ram belonged to a different category.

        He was born into a Sikh dalit family of Ropar (Punjab) and his brothers are keshadhari Sikhs. Unlike Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram was anything but sophisticated. He played for power, allying himself with whichever party seemed willing to share power with his Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). So, in the course of his relatively short life he once joined hands with Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party only to dump it in fifteen months and made peace with the BJP for two periods one lasting a bare six months and another an equally disappointing eight months.

        Kanshi Ram's objective was to achieve power - he couldn't care less for means. To think that once his aggressive slogan was: Tilak, taraze aur talwar/inko maroo joothey chaar (roughly translated meaning: beat up Brahmins, banias and thakurs with shoes). It took him upto a certain point. But he couldn't go beyond that. The man's dreams were impeccable, his means arguable. It is not that Ambedkar did not hate casteism. M S Gore in his book on Ambedkar's political and social thought quotes the dalit leader as saying: 'I hate injustice tyranny, pompousness and humbug and my hatred embraces all those who are guilty of them. I want to tell my critics that I regard my feelings of hatred as a real force.

        They are only the reflex of the love I bear for the causes I believe in and I am in no wise ashamed of them'. He was an admirer of Mahadevo Govind Ranade (b. 1842) even when he was an ardent advocate of Pakistan, not a virtue to be admired. But the main issue remains: How can Indian - mainly Hindu - society be changed? One thing stands clear: It can't be changed through violence. That would be self-defeating. It can't be changed by dalits converting to some other religion other than Hinduism.

        The dalit tag sticks on to them no matter whether they are Christians, Muslims or even Sikhs. It is saner on the part of the dalits to stay as part of Hinduism which itself has been undergoing vast and significant changes over the years, in part because of economic reasons and urbanisation, in part because of social reform as a side-effect of modernisation, and also in part because of the realisation among Hindus that untouchability is a blot on their otherwise all-embracing culture.

        It is important to remember that putting an idea or ideology or approach to shame is more effective than fighting it with weapons. What will ultimately help the dalits is education, not agitation. What will help them more is greater access to knowledge innovative technology and the inevitable social revolution that follows - and not the setting up of Ambedkar busts in gardens and public places as Mayavati has sought to do. Yes, social change is a time-consuming process but more of it has taken place in India in the last two decades than in the last two millennia - a fact seldom realised. True, dalits have still to fight in rural areas and that is a fact one must squarely face. But why name dalits alone? Caste-ism is very much in practice in villages and smaller towns and this, may it is remembered, among the so-called upper castes.

        Read the matrimonial columns in Hindustan Times or The Hindu or The Tribune, among other newspapers to witness how deeply casteism is embedded even among the middle and upper castes and classes. Casteism cannot be erased overnight. Patience is the name of the game, even when we recognise the shame and humiliation heaped upon dalits deep in the villages. But to think that a way of life that has been in existence for some 10,000 years can be changed overnight or through legislation is to live in a fools' paradise. To similarly think that change won't take place is not to face reality. It is not the constitution, or the enactment of laws or even the efforts of holy men alone that counts. What counts is the spread of technology that subliminally hits casteism and makes it irrelevant. And that is not being optimistic. It is in the nature of change.

        The mobile, the DTH and the satellite TV will do what our social reformers could not do. One can only say: Wait and Watch. Indian society will change despite itself. It is open to dalits to catch every opportunity that comes their way to move up. The floodgates of change are opening. As the English poet Arthur Hugh Clugh wrote: 'In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, but westward look, the land is brightly'.