Full Text: Dalits, Religions and Inter-faith Dialogue

The full text of the Dalits, Religions and Inter-faith Dialogue is reproduced here verbatim from the original paper by A. M. A. Ayrookuzhiel. This article first appeared in Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin in 1994.

This version preserves the original wording, structure, and formatting as presented in the source document.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Dalits and the Traditional Hindu Heritage
   1. The Stand of the Dalit Liberation Movement
   2. The Stand of Traditional Academic and Religious Circles
   3. The Present-day Situation of the Dalits within Hinduism
   4. The Dalits and Other Religious Traditions
   5. The Dalit and Inter-religious Dialogue
3. Notes

Introduction

The Dalits of India who follow different religious traditions are beginning to come together these days as one people. While their main concern is to fight economic, political and cultural marginalisation, what it means to the religions to which they belong is the question raised in this paper. In order to answer this, we should first have an idea of the kind of questions and problems they raise with respect to different religions. Thereafter we can process some of its implications and proceed for inter-faith understanding and co-operation.

The Dalits and the Traditional Hindu Heritage

A. The Stand of the Dalit Liberation Movement.

In the literature of Dalit liberation and ideology, their writers and poets declare war on Hinduism.

They explain these ideas through short stories and other literary forms available to them to reach the Dalit masses. The following is an excerpt from a short story in Marathi in which the religious roots of caste consciousness in the popular Hindu mind is brought out in clear terms. The scene takes place at the threshing floor of a farmer, Bapu Patil, a caste Hindu. The author of the story is a young educated Dalit boy. His grandfather Yetalya, an elderly Dalit addresses Patil as “Anna,” a term of reverence.

Yetalya:

How could you say that Anna? This Yetalya is certainly not one of those claiming equality. How can one, in that case, account for God’s creating religion and castes?

Bapu Patil:

Come on, don’t you know that the rain-gods got enraged because you - the Mahar and Mangs - have profaned religion, and abandoned caste, have defiled Lord Vithoba of Pandharpur. How else can you account for the drying up of the Chandrabhaga river? (Bapu Patil added insult to injury).

Author:

I could take it no more. I felt my cheeks burning. But I quelled my temper and cutting Bapu Patil short in the middle of his fiery tirade, burst out, “Patil, will you kindly tell me what you meant when you accused us of forgetting religion, abandoning our caste and polluting the god? And if a religion can’t tolerate one human being treating another as a human being, what’s the use of such a inhumane religion? And if our mere touch pollutes the god, why were the Mahars and Mangs created at all? And who, may I know, who indeed, created them? And would you please tell me the name of the god whom the Mahars and Mangs can claim as their own?”²

These Dalits who follow Dr. B.R. Ambedkar are convinced that they cannot redeem their self-dignity and humanity by remaining within Hinduism. Some of them advocate conversion to Buddhism and exhort their followers to stop worshipping Hindu gods and stop observing Hindu beliefs and practises.³ Others exhort the Dalits to follow a secular rational path as all religions are instruments of social control and political manipulation in the hands of the powerful and well-to-do sections in every religion.

B. The Stand of Traditional Academic and Religious Circles

The traditional academic and religious writers both in this country and abroad consider the Dalit traditional religion as part of the Hindu heritage, though they admit that their religion still preserves certain distinctive ethnic, religious and cultural features. Historically this is justified in the sense that dominant Brahmanical religion as it evolved over the centuries subjugated and absorbed many primeval tribal groups with their gods, goddesses, religious rituals and customs along with their sacred groves. Priests of the dominant Brahmanical tradition wove new myths by identifying them with one of the chief or minor deities in their tradition, or made them wives, children or vehicles of their gods.⁴ For instance, the tribal god of Orissa became identified with Vishnu, Murugan of Adidravidians became identified with Skanda of the North Indian traditions. Ayyanar of Chattan of the tribals in the Western Ghats with its Buddhist associations became Sastha of Sabarimala, born of two male gods: Vishnu and Siva, according to Brahmanical myths in the Puranas. This religious hierarchical subordination was a complementary historical process to the concerned tribal groups’ political and economic subjugation.⁵ Some of the authors call this historical process “Hindu imperialism” or “Brahmin internal cultural colonialism,” because through this process the concerned tribal groups or a section of them not only lost their social autonomy and economic independence but also their religio-cultural self-identity as a separate group by losing control over their gods, places of worship and the right to administer to their own people’s religious needs. Furthermore, many of them internalised Brahmanical versions of myths relating to this historical process and voluntarily accepted demeaning ritual roles in village festivals, temple rituals and domestic rites corresponding to a servile class in a semi-feudal economy.

C. The Present-day Situation of the Dalits within Hinduism

The definition of the Scheduled Castes (Dalits) as Hindus by the Government, its policy of extending the benefits of reservation to Hindu Dalits, the inclusion of popular Dalit shrines under the State Devaswom Board in which Hindu Dalits have nominal representation, the renovation of Dalit places of worship by the Hindu Mutts and organisations, the deep psychological attachment of the Dalits to Hinduised gods of their early tribal days, the similarity of some of their customs and rituals with those of the rest of the Hindu population make a large section of the Dalits believe that they are in fact Hindus; and they participate in Hindu festivals and rituals in varying degrees.

Hindu political and cultural organisations like the Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, Bharat Sadhu Samaj and so on are also very keen to keep the Dalit population within the Hindu fold because of the political weight it will add to the Hindu community. Given the Government’s political and economic patronage and traditional religio-cultural practises of the Dalit masses and their low level of awareness, it is difficult for them to understand the stand of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar that unless substantial changes take place within the Hindu theology, worship practises and nature of priesthood, it is impossible for the Dalits to redeem their human dignity within Hinduism.

D. The Dalits and Other Religious Traditions

In the course of history, Dalits embraced other religions like Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Buddhism in their search for freedom and human dignity. Much of these conversions took place when these religions offered political patronage to the helpless Dalits. Even in the case of their conversion to Buddhism, it was part of the political mobilisation of the Dalits under the leadership of B.R. Ambedkar which made them accept his ideology of conversion as a necessary part of acquiring self-healing and getting rid of the stigma as untouchables.

There was another type of religious movement among the Dalits in history, which were centred around untouchable and lower caste saints who condemned caste practises and preached a religion of interiority and common humanity. Ravidass, Kabir, Panthis, Dadu Panthis, Satnamis, Valmikis and scores of groups following the teaching of less well-known saints in different regions of the country belong to this type. While the Dalit Liberation Movement recognises the fact that the problems of the Dalits cannot be solved without their sharing political, economic and cultural power in the wider society, none of these religions by themselves offer an avenue in that direction. On the contrary, caste-cultural differences coupled with class factors mark out the Dalit communities in all the major religious traditions. Generally speaking, both political and religious leadership in all the major non-Hindu religious traditions lies with the non-Dalit section of the respective community. Even when a particular religious community - such as a sect within Christianity - is made up of 100 percent Dalits, the class and educational differences of the leadership make it impossible for it to align itself completely with the interests of the Dalit masses.

This, in general outline, is the socio-political background of the Dalit Liberation Movement’s attempt to bring about Dalit national solidarity irrespective of the religious traditions they belong to. At the same time they recognise that the Dalit masses may continue to profess different religions. Therefore it is necessary in the context of their common struggle for liberation that those who belong to different religious traditions understand each other’s religion as well as the problems they face within it to build a national solidarity of the Dalits as members of one oppressed group. The question is what this approach means to the concern of Inter-faith Dialogue.

E. The Dalit and Inter-religious Dialogue

1. First of all, the Dalits are very critical of much of what goes on in the name of Inter-religious Dialogue. I quote here just one example of such a criticism made by a very distinguished Dalit Supreme Court lawyer.

When a paper was circulated in the World Conference on Religion and Peace (IV Assembly) held at Nairobi, Kenya, in 1984, Hindu and Jain delegates from India threatened to walk out if the word Untouchability was not deleted. One member went so far as to threaten to go on hunger strike if the issue was raised in the conference. Indian members of the W.C.R.P. issued a statement which was published in all the national papers published from Delhi stating that there is no untouchability in India. ‘Untouchability was a thing of the past’, the spokesman asserted.

In the Fifth Assembly held at Melbourne, Australia, in January 1989 through the clever manipulation of Hindu and Jain members of W.C.R.P. (India), the word “untouchable” was substituted by “marginalised people” in the declaration issued at the end of the conference. They wanted to give an impression to the world that the disability or difficulty that the deprived and disadvantaged people in India suffer from is poverty, which in fact is a gross misrepresentation of facts. Poverty of a Brahmin, or for that matter, any upper caste man arouses sympathy but the poverty of an untouchable arouses hatred and hostility owing to the deep-rooted prejudice inculcated by religion.⁶

1. The Dalits’ approach to dialogue centres around their liberation and humanisation. The Dalit Movements’ approach to religious dialogue is that ‘the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’, a stand advocated by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar who had set the direction of Dalit liberation. In dialogue circles in India it is Dr. M.M. Thomas who has consistently argued for a similar approach in the praxis of inter-religious dialogue. According to him the most fruitful area of inter-faith communication and cooperation will be in the area of humanisation of our society. One hopes that such an approach might lead to a self-renewal of all our religions as the followers will look at their religious beliefs and practises from the point of view of justice, social equality and freedom. As Dalits belong to different religious traditions, these questions have to be raised in all the religions in the context of dialogue. It gives to the followers of these religions an opportunity to develop a new hermeneutic of their respective scriptures, ritual practises and social ethics.

Historically the religion preached by the Dalits and the lower-caste saints does provide the necessary critique of the existing caste consciousness among the followers of different religions in India. Though much of these utterances and songs were originally made against the Brahmanical priestly tradition, they apply with equal force to other religions as well. I shall give some examples of such religious teachings as these questions will be uppermost in the mind of the Dalits in any form of inter-religious gatherings.

a. The essential unity of humankind and the oneness of God:

Patira Kiriyar laments:

God, according to these saints, takes no account of caste or family, of high or low born. He welcomes women, Sudras and Chandalas. He craves for their love.⁹ He who calls another “Sudra” or “paraya” is the real Sudra. He is the one worse than a Paraya. Eating flesh does not make one Paraya.

Vemana says:

b. They condemned caste in unequivocal terms:

c. They rejected the authority of the Vedas and other Brahmanical books:

d. Some of the saints compared the Brahmin priests to the dogs of the street howling out the Vedas, and to whores.¹³ Here are the words of Chokhamela, an Untouchable saint from Maharashtra.¹⁴

AGAINST PILGRIMAGES

A dog that has gone to Tirupati does not become a lion. A pig that goes to Kasi is no elephant. A whore that goes on pilgrimages to Srisailam is no modest woman. They will journey on pilgrimages to Kasi and to the bridge of Rameswaram. They can hereby behold piles of stones but not heaven, not even one of them. If thou give food to Brahmins, they say it will be profitable to thee; if you were to give to dogs where would be the harm (inferiority)? They say that one soul resides (both here and there) in each.¹⁵

AGAINST RITUALISM

f. They denounced the idea of purity and pollution:

- If the pollutions caused by a birth or a death be real, and if the qualities communicated by that touch be destroyed, to what end is it for a soul to become a hermit.

- Defilement appears nowhere in the least but exists in our ideas; whoever considers it will see that the beauty of the world is in truth extreme. If thy ignorance depart, wisdom shall shine with thee.¹⁹

Notes

1. "White Paper" by Sharankumar Limbale, translated by Priya Adarkar, in Poisoned Bread edited by Arjun Dangle, Bombay: Orient Longman, 1992: p.64. ↩
2. "The Poisoned Bread" by Bindhumadhav, translated by Ramesh Dnyate, in Poisoned Bread, op.cit., p.148. ↩
3. Cf. the additional vows Dr B.R. Ambedkar had recited at the time of his conversion to Buddhism, a practice continued by Dalit Buddhists. For a detailed information cf. Bechert Heinz: Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft, vol. 3, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1973. ↩
4. D.D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline. Vikas Publishing House, 1987, pp.45-50, pp.168-71. ↩
5. Cf. D.D. Kosambi, op.cit., pp.171-2; An Introduction to the Study of Indian History, Popular Prakashan, reprint 1988, p.100; R.S. Sharma, Indian Feudalism, Macmillan (2nd edn.), pp. 1-4; K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India, Oxford University Press, pp.101-2. ↩
6. "Epilogue" by Bhagwandas, Advocate in the Supreme Court, in B.R. Ambedkar, Slavery and Untouchability, which is worse? (Bhagwandas, ed.), 1989, pp.52-3. ↩
7. "The Brotherhood of Man," Kapila, from The Folk-Songs of Southern India, translated and commented upon by Charles E. Gover, Madras: Higginbothams and Co., 1971: pp. 168-9. ↩
8. Ibid., p.159. ↩
9. See fn. 17. ↩
10. Quoted by C.P. Brown, Verses of Vemana, Asian Educational Services, 1986 (1829): pp.210-5. ↩
11. Telugu Folk Song on "Caste," Gover, op. cit., p.275. ↩
12. Pambatti Cittar, quoted by K. Kailaspathy in his "The Writings of the Tamil Siddhas" in Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod (eds.), The Santa - Studies in Devotional Tradition of India, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987: p.390. ↩
13. Quoted by Brown, op. cit. ↩
14. "Chokhamela, an Untouchable Saint of Maharashtra," by Charlotte Vaudeville, in Gunther D. Sontheimer (ed.), Bhakti in South Asian Regional Literatures, Heidelberg: South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg: 1981. p.86. ↩
15. Quoted by Brown, op. cit., pp.200-1. ↩
16. Gover, op. cit., p.31. ↩
17. Civavakkiyar, as cited by Kailaspathy, op. cit., pp.390-1. ↩
18. Gover, op. cit., p.272. ↩
19. Vemana, op. cit., Verses 861, 870, pp.208-10. ↩
20. "Chokhamela...", op. cit., p.67. ↩

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