Full Text: Religion and Culture in Dalits' Struggle for Liberation

The full text of the Religion and Culture in Dalits’ Struggle for Liberation is reproduced here verbatim from the original paper by A. M. A. Ayrookuzhiel. This article first appeared in Religion and Society, Volume 33, No. 2, June 1986.

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

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Nature of the Religio-Cultural Problems of the Dalits
  3. Dalits’ attempt to Liberate themselves from Hindu Cultural Bondage - Its Lessons
  4. The Present-day Religio-Cultural Predicament of the Dalits
  5. The Present Cultural Predicament of the Dalits
  6. Notes

Introduction

The Dalits are more than a hundred million in this country. The truth about them is that they are a mass of powerless people. It is agreed by everyone that the reality of their oppression proceeds not merely from the material deprivation they suffer in the absence of economic, educational and political power resources but also from a religious deprivation which robs them of status and self-dignity as a result of certain basic ideas and values in our traditional religion and culture.

In this paper we discuss, firstly, the nature of the religio-cultural problem the Dalits face against its historical background and its present-day modifications. Secondly, we look into the history of the Dalits to see how they tried to solve their problems in the past and the lessons they learnt. Thirdly, we attempt a critical evaluation of the present religio-cultural predicament of the Dalits in India.

1. Nature of the Religio-Cultural Problems of the Dalits

Historical Background

Writing on the life and culture of the Dalits in India, German anthropologist Stephen Fuchs describes the Dalits as the Stone, Salt and Lime workers, Earth workers and Well diggers, Fishermen, Boating and Porter castes, Basket and Mat-makers, Vagrant artisans and traders, Bards and Genealogists, Drummers, Musicians, Actors, Jugglers and Acrobats, Temple servants, Astrologers, Palmists, Exorcists and Mendicants, Domestic servants, Village watchmen and Messengers, Weavers, Leather workers, Washermen, Toddy-tappers, Liquor sellers, Scavenging castes, Field labourers, Barbers, Potters, Smiths, Carpenters, Masons and Oil pressers. Concluding his extensive survey, Fuchs writes:

This survey of the low castes and outcastes on an India-wide basis has brought out several interesting and perhaps so far unnoticed features and peculiarities. It shows, first of all, that the low castes and Harijans of India are descendants of a people or of peoples in possession of a fairly highly developed and complex culture. It was a farming culture, no doubt, but the ancestors of the present low castes and outcastes were on the whole artisans and manual workers in this culture. They performed the task of blacksmiths, potters, weavers, leather workers, etc. They were well skilled in the arts, in singing, playing musical instruments and dancing, in the composition of songs, poetry, of legends and ballads. They were also the painters and sculptors of this culture. And most probably the wonderful architecture, the temples, palaces and monuments, the caves and temples, were conceived and produced by the descendants of these artisans and village servants.1

What then has gone wrong with the culture and religion of the Dalits?

Historians are agreed that the Dalits, who were the earliest inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, came to be economically and politically subjugated by the successive invaders like Dravidians and Aryans. The Brahmanical culture, which became the dominant force in the sub-continent, refused to integrate the Dalits religiously and culturally into itself. While the Brahmanical culture assimilated and subordinated in a hierarchical fashion the gods, priests, the myths and cult practices of the Dalit groups into their religion by its central values of purity and pollution, the dominant castes deliberately prevented the Dalits from rising to their level of culture by imposing on them by force various disabilities in worship and in mode of life, such as in matters of occupation, skills, dress, ornaments, food, etc.2

The overall outcome of this historical process was that the religion and culture of the Dalits remained by and large structurally dependent and submerged beneath the tradition of the socio-religious culture of the caste Hindus, which acted as a stranglehold rendering the Dalits culturally a powerless people. In other words, the nature of the religio-cultural problem that robs them of status and self-dignity is the traditional Brahmanical value system of the caste Hindus. For example, the Dalit eats beef and the Brahmin names it ‘low’, the Dalit offers meat and toddy to his deity and the Brahmin names it ‘impure’; the Dalit engages in manual work with leather or metal or toils in the fields, and the Brahmin names it a ‘mean occupation’; the Dalit continues to clean villages and cities, because he was made to believe by the Brahmin that one’s own dharma or duty though defective is better than another’s duty well performed. In short, as Morris E. Opler says, the main themes or organising forces of Brahmanical culture such as purity and pollution, devaluation of manual work, conceptions of svadharma, karma and ancestor worship build a low image of Dalits and their culture.3

In other words, the culture and religion that govern the Dalits are not of their own making, serving their own interests (opus proprium) but they are of the making of another people, serving another’s interests (opus alienum). It is a religion and culture which expresses their alienation not their creativity. It is the product of their enemy.

The cultural power over the Dalits exercised by the caste Hindus at the level of ideas and values, religious rituals and practices has its institutional expression in villages and towns. Let me explain. Generally speaking, the Dalits have their own little shrine in the villages and towns while all the propertied temples, mutts and other religious institutions belong to or are administered by the caste Hindus. Even where a Dalit is made a member in some institutions and temple committees, as one may find in recent years, he is in no way able to represent the genuine interests of his people. On the contrary, whenever a shrine or a god of the Dalit acquires popularity and wealth, it goes under the control of caste Hindus through a very subtle social process.4 Brahmin priests and astrologers also exercise a form of religious control over the Dalits by acting as consultants and advisers though they officially dissociate themselves from the dates and religious ceremonies of the Dalits.5

Impact of Modernity on Traditional Cultural Bondage of Dalits

The modernisation of a society involves the modernisation of its religious life.6 It is an undeniable fact of experience that India is being modernised at a rapid pace. The religious outlook of the people is increasingly being influenced by modern-scientific knowledge. The technological changes taking place in the economic life of the people breakdown the old semi-feudal village structure and pattern of occupation, and accelerate the process of urbanisation. For example, the caste Hindus were not buying milk from the Dalits in a village near Bangalore city. But when the village came under the dairy development scheme of the Karnataka Government the dairy corporation started buying milk from all families, including those whom it helped with loans and subsidy and in turn sold the milk to the villagers. In other words, the new pattern of milk production and sale does not lend itself as a medium for the continuation of the old values of purity and pollution in the religious consciousness of the people. There are a number of areas where such changes are taking place in the realm of occupation, services and life habits of the people which vary according to the level of development to which a village or region is exposed. The situation varies from village to village, in towns and cities, and no generalisation on total impact of modernity can be made about the whole country, though there are good empirical studies on particular villages.7

The government measures like the Abolition of Untouchability Act and the reservation of seats in educational institutions, in government jobs, legislatures and Parliament also have their impact on the old Dharma of the country.

We also know that there was an attempt at Hindu renaissance starting from the middle of the 19th century when a number of protest movements from among the Dalits surfaced in different parts of the country under the impact of western culture and Christian missionary activity. These movements had their spiritual affinities with earlier traditions of reform and protest against Brahminism in the form of Buddhism, Bhakti, Lingayat and other movements.

What then is the impact of the new social relations created by technological changes, government legislation and benefits, and finally Hindu renaissance as described above on the cultural stranglehold of the Brahmanical value system over the Dalits?

While it is difficult to impose any form of social disabilities with regard to civic amenities like transport, hotels, restaurants, barber shops, and so on, particularly in big cities and urban centres, in small villages and towns, disabilities of different types continue to exist in varying degrees.

As for the Government measures of protective discrimination, Lelah Dushkin, who evaluated them, writes:

Our material indicates that whether the motive is to ‘keep the weaker section weak’ as Maurya says, or simply to accommodate the conflicting claims and pressures of numerous groups and interests in a heterogeneous society, protective discrimination as a whole has become a mechanism for social control, an instrument of distributionist politics. This type of politics is a game played by both sides, recipients as well as donors. Its outcome - the inelegant but practical adjustments that are the politician’s forte-will be determined by what the various actors perceive to be the realities of power. Our evidence suggests that reserved seats do not in themselves confer an effective form of power except under the singular circumstances that prevailed as of mid 1970, in the Lok Sabha. The kind of power that will be respected in the long run will have to be generated outside the legislatures and beyond the devices of protective discrimination.8

In the religious sphere, temple festivals, rituals as well as domestic rites continue to symbolise the old purity/pollution values among the Hindu masses. In a structural analysis of the religion of a Tamil village, L. Dumont says that Aiyanar and Karuppu Sami as vegetarian and meat-eating gods respectively represent the caste Hindu and Dalits in the village. As such they are theological categories of pure and impure, not just the proper names of gods. The dichotomy between Aiyanar and Karuppu Sami is expressed in temple space. Aiyanar is placed at the north of the temple (Brahminism came from the north), while Karuppu Sami sits in the south. There are also two types of priests, a great priest and a little priest. Cult implements reflect the same dichotomy. Different kinds of food are to be served from two separate kitchens. The opposition is also marked in legends. The local god Karuppu Sami opposes with extreme violence the attempt of Aiyanar to establish himself in the neighbourhood, but is finally forced to give in.

Aiyanar and Karuppu are like master and servant. They are opposed to each other but participate in the worship. When the offering of terracotta horses, the befitting gift for Aiyanar, is made, one terracotta horse is offered to Karuppu Sami who is believed to accompany Aiyanar, indicating his dependency. When blood sacrifice is offered to Karuppan, a curtain is drawn before Aiyanar to screen off the scene of sacrifice. Dumont concludes that Aiyanar is the Lord of caste Hindus ruling over low caste gods. The temple reflects the society in a simplified form.9

David F. Pocock in his study of a village in Gujarat also comes to the same conclusion when he writes: The pantheon composed of pure and impure gods accords with a world in which pure and impure castes have a symbolic interdependence not only for necessary services but also for mutual definition. A caste defines its relative purity by the relative impurity of another.10

In a study of the power dimensions of Hindu village religion in twenty villages in Anekal taluk in Karnataka where the Dalits form more than 35 per cent of the population, the writer himself has come across a number of similar facts, such as two types of gods, priests and offerings, caste order of precedence in religious processions, special roles and functions in death and funeral ceremonies for the Dalits which suggest that the primaeval religion of the Dalits (Holeyas and Madigas in the area) had been brought under the control of a hierarchical religious system provided by the Brahmanical religions to support the semi-feudal villages’ economy and the status and the power of the dominant castes.11

This goes to suggest that in spite of the reforms advocated by Swami Vivekananda, Gandhiji and others, the temple traditions and the every-day religion of the masses continue with little change, upholding the values of purity and pollution and the sacred hierarchy in religion, which strengthens the hierarchical social order and consciousness among the people.

The Government’s Abolition of Untouchability Act only means that the imposition of an external disability on Dalits will be punishable according to law. The Government Act does not abolish the principle of purity and pollution which governs much of Hindu religious life. The truth is that the government is not a competent authority to deal with this aspect of Hindu religious life. Further, reformers like Vivekananda and Gandhiji also failed to bring about any change in the ritualistic, everyday religion of the masses.

All the same we should admit that the changing economic and social relations do however get reflected in the mode of the celebration of the religious festivals and the rites of passage in some villages though in a very small measure. The refusal of the Dalits to play their traditional religious roles,12 their joining the Bhakti sects13 where there is no caste discrimination, efforts to integrate them on the part of some caste Hindus, speak of the emergence of a New Dharma in the traditional religio-cultural world of the caste Hindus.

2. Dalits’ attempt to Liberate themselves from Hindu Cultural Bondage - Its Lessons

Our knowledge of Dalit history is far from satisfactory. The religio-cultural history we have is that of the dominant castes. All the same we have sufficient evidence to make a general statement that the Dalits never fully accepted the Brahmanical value system.

Firstly, there is a vast amount of folk songs, stories and myths that speak of Dalit protest, conflict and persecution by caste Hindus. While some of it is being collected and published much remains as oral traditions in the worship and cult practices of the Dalits. The song of Pottan Teyyam, a Dalit god in Malabar is a classic example of a moral religious challenge against Brahmanical value system. The story underlying the songs is found with slight variations in different parts of the country. The Dalit god Pottan even argues with the caste Hindus.14

Secondly, it is a historically established fact that the most important factor responsible for the Dalits embracing in large numbers, other religions like Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Buddhism was their desire to escape from the Hindu cultural tyranny and their hope to improve their social and ritual status in the new religions.

Thirdly, there have been a number of autonomous religious protest movements formed from among the Dalits in the last 150 years, mostly led by their own leaders such as the Messianic Movement among the Pankas of Raipur District, the Satnami uprising of the Chamars in Chattisgarh District, Swami Narayan Movement in Gujarat, Yogi Pothuluri Vira-Brahman Movement among the Madigas in Andhra, Ayya Vazhi in Tamilnadu, Narayana Guru’s Movement, Pratyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha and Subhananda Movement in Kerala and the Adi Dharm Movement in Punjab.

The common features of all these movements were the criticism of Brahmanical religion and internal religious reform within them, such as abolition of polytheism, magical rituals, animal sacrifice, etc.

Empirical studies of particular movements suggest that the new religious and protest movement to which Dalits turned, played, on the whole, a very positive role in the lives of the Dalits. Lawrence A. Babb who studied the Satnami Movement writes:

“A key feature in the process was that the Satnami sect provided a framework within which the members of widely dispersed castes attained group identity and the status of a regional community. This community initially provided a medium through which external political interests could marshal votes. Ultimately it provided a basis for the political power which the Satnamis have collectively enjoyed.”15

Another social ethnographer writing on the Jataus of Agra says: The Jataus easily accepted the Buddhist myth (religion) because it redefined their social situation in a manner more in accord with the new powers given to them, in independent India, and more in tune with the new definition of the social situation outlined in the Constitution of post-Independent India. This myth provided a charter of legitimacy and a religious sanction for their goals and tactics, as well as a motive and strategy for pursuing them.16

Adele Fiske, who studied the Dalit Buddhist organisations, talks of ‘a dynamic vitality’ and ‘power’17 in the movement in spite of the fact there is as yet no central organisation, and the movement functions in small local groups.

A distinguished historian calls the Christian missionary activity among the Dalits and the Sri Narayana Guru Movement ‘the fountainhead’ and ‘the dawn’ of cultural renaissance in Kerala.18 Some of the lessons from Dalit history drawn are:

(1) The liberation of Dalits demands a religio-cultural struggle against Brahmanical Hinduism.

(2) The liberation movements among the Dalits led to a religious renaissance of Hinduism. Therefore the future of the religious renaissance of this country lies with the liberation of Dalits.

(3) Religio-cultural factors are capable of bringing about status and independence to the Dalits only when they are supported by economic and political power.

(4) Religio-cultural factors act as a medium for economic and political power. In other words, economic and political liberation needs to be preceded by a religious and cultural transformation.

3. The Present-day Religio-Cultural Predicament of the Dalits

The present religio-cultural predicament of Dalits came from the government policy which is a combination of two contradictory ideologies namely that of M. K. Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar. I shall first indicate the general nature of these two ideologies and then proceed to show how the government attempts to combine these two contradictory views that have resulted in a cultural predicament which is a major obstacle to their liberation.

Gandhian Perception of The Dalit Problem

Gandhi and other liberal reformers believed that untouchability was not an essential part of Hindu religion and social structure. The practice of untouchability was a violation of the basic spirit of Hinduism. In his writings, Gandhi called it ‘an excrescence’, ‘an appendix’, ‘a perversion’, ‘an aberration’ in the body of Hinduism.19

Gandhi sought to change the heart of the caste Hindus by moral pressure. He exhorted the caste Hindus to give up sinning against untouchables. He wanted to solve the problem within the framework of Hindu tradition. ‘An untouchable’, wrote Gandhi ‘should be regarded as a Shudra because there is no warrant for belief in a fifth caste’.20 Gandhi believed that varanashrama dharma was the divinely ordained division of society. But he disapproved the hierarchy in the caste system. He talked of an ideal Banghi who would continue to do the sanitation work even though his status would be equal to that of the Brahmin.21 ‘The law of Varna’, he wrote, ‘prescribes that a person should, for his living, follow the lawful occupation of his forefathers; but with the understanding that all occupations are equally honourable. A scavenger has the same status as a Brahmin.’22 On the other hand, he condemned the evil of untouchability from the beginning; but his views on caste-based practices grew less orthodox over the years. In 1920, he was not for interdining and intermarrying; but by 1946 he advocated inter-marrying. He fought against the ‘communal award’ with a fast unto death because he feared that separate political representation for the Dalits would divide them from the Hindus.23

In short, Gandhi’s solution to the problem of untouchability was a religious one: a change of heart on the part of the caste Hindus. He wanted to integrate the Dalits within the Hindu community.

Ambedkar’s Perception of The Dalit Problem

Ambedkar argued that the heart of the problem of untouchability was the caste system itself. ‘There will be outcastes as long as there are castes.’ ‘Nothing can emancipate the outcastes except the destruction of the caste system’, which he believed cannot be brought about without destroying Hinduism. ‘If you wish to bring about a breach in the (caste) system, then you have got to apply dynamite to the Vedas and the Sastras, which deny any part to reason, to Vedas and Sastras which deny any part of morality. You must destroy the religion of the Smritis.’24

Ambedkar did not think that a religious approach as propounded by Gandhi could solve the problem. He declared: “There have been Mahatmas in India whose sole object was to remove untouchability and to elevate and absorb the depressed classes, but everyone of them failed in his mission. Mahatmas came and Mahatmas have gone. But the untouchables have remained untouchables.” Hence, Ambedkar sought political guarantees and political power to ensure that they (untouchables) would be honoured. He fought for separate electorates which Gandhi opposed on political and religious grounds.

Ambedkar believed that the value of purity and pollution has deep roots in Hinduism. Inequality in India is a question not merely of unequal distribution of resources (a class character), but of basic ideas and values (of religio-cultural character).25 The notion of inherited inequality is so deeply embedded in the Hindu mind, that he felt that untouchables have to leave Hinduism to redeem their religious and human self-dignity.

While Gandhi worked within a Hindu framework of ideas, Ambedkar thought in a modern framework of ideas and fought for legal and political solutions. This is the background which led him to found a political party, labour unions, newspapers, educational society to promote the interests of untouchables. He also wanted his people to abandon customs and practices associated with the stereotype of the untouchables such as consumption of carrion, alcoholic beverages, drum-beating in village festivals, etc.26

In short, the solution envisaged by Ambedkar to the problem of the Dalits had two components, namely, change of religion and acquisition of economic and political power.

The Present Cultural Predicament of the Dalits

The battle led by Gandhi and the Congress to keep the Dalits within the Hindu fold to ensure a Hindu-majority political situation succeeded when Ambedkar was made to sign the Poona Pact. In return, Gandhi agreed to the demand of economic and political power for the Dalits in the form of a compromised formula of special reservation.

The ideological position of the Government of India in its policy with regard to the Dalits follows from this historic pact. On the one hand it tries to improve the material conditions of the Dalits with economic, educational and political benefits. On the other hand it prevents the Dalits from acquiring status and self-dignity by forcing them to remain within the Hindu fold to be entitled to claim those benefits. In other words, the Dalits are paid for their continued religio-cultural slavery. Even an educated and rich Dalit continues to remain an untouchable Mala or Madiga, etc., if he is prevented from redefining his self-image as Ambedkar believed to be necessary by embracing another religious system. The fear of losing reservation benefits keeps them within the Hindu cultural system. On the other hand, experience has shown them that religious change by itself is not a solution to their problem if they continue to depend economically on caste Hindus. Religious change to succeed has to be led by economically independent groups or individuals. Otherwise it can even be harmful to their interests as some neo-Christians have discovered in these days. Reservations do not solve the Dalit problem. In the absence of a new cultural medium to redefine their self-image they have no option but to imitate the caste Hindus and hide their real self-identity. The result is, as we saw above, those who benefit from the reservations are absorbed into the dominant system and are lost to their community.

Notes

  1. Stephen Fuchs, At the Bottom of Indian Society, Munshiram Manoharlal Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, p.305. ↩
  2. B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste, Published by L. Balley, Beempatrika Publications, Jalandhar, 1982, p.36.

    D.D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India, Vikas Publishing House (P) Ltd., New Delhi 1976; Harijan Problem, A Report of the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh.

    ↩
  3. Morris E. Opler, "North Indian Thomes - Caste and Untouchability" in Untouchables in Contemporary India, ed. M Mahar, University of Arizona, Arizona, pp. 3-12. ↩
  4. A.M.A. Ayrookuzhiel, "Religio Cultural Factors and the struggle of the Dalits for Social Equality", Samata, 1985, CISRS, Bangalore. ↩
  5. A.M.A. Ayrookuzhiel, "Religion: A Way of Salvation or an Ideology of Oppression", Religion and Society, Vol. XXXII, No. 1, March 1985. ↩
  6. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Modernisation of a Traditional Society, Issued under the auspices of the Indian Council of World Affairs, Asia Publishing House, Bombay 1965. ↩
  7. D.F. Pocock, Mind, Body and Wealth, A Study of Belief and Practice in an Indian Village, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1973. ↩
  8. "Scheduled Caste Politics" by Lelah Dushkin in The Untouchables in Contemporary India, ed. J. Michael Mahar, University of Arizona Press, Arizona, p.226. ↩
  9. Louis Dumont, Religion, Politics and History in India, "A structural definition of a folk deity of Tamilnad", "Aiyanar, that Lord", Mouton Publishers, Paris-The Hague, 1970, pp.27-32. ↩
  10. D.F. Pocock, Mind, Body and Wealth, A Study of Belief and Practice in an Indian village, 1973, ch. III, Goddess cults-status and change', Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1973. ↩
  11. A.M.A. Ayrookuzhiel "Religion: A way of Salvation or an Ideology of Oppression". Religion and Society, Vol. XXXII, March 1985. ↩
  12. A.M.A. Ayrookuzhiel, The Sacred in Popular Hinduism, CISRS-CLS, Bangalore, 1983.

    "Religion, A Way of Salvation or An Ideology of Oppression", Religion and Society, Vol. XXXII, March 1985.

    ↩
  13. D.P. Pocock, op.cit. ↩
  14. "Thottam on Pottan" translated by K.M. Tharakan, Appendix II in The Sacred in Popular Hinduism, A.M.A. Ayrookuzhiel. ↩
  15. Lawrence A. Babb, "The Satnamis-A Political Involvement of a Religious Movement" in The Untouchables in Contemporary India, ed. J. Michael Mahar, University of Arizona Press, Arizona, p.150 ↩
  16. Owen Lynch, "Dr.B.R. Ambedkar, Myth and Charisma" in The Untouchables in Contemporary India, ed. J. Michael Mahar, University of Arizona Press, Arizona, p.110. ↩
  17. Adele Fiske, "Scheduled Caste Buddhist Organisations", in The Untouchables in Contemporary India, ed. J. Michael Mahar, University of Arizona Press, Arizona, pp. 113-14. ↩
  18. P.K. Gopala Krishnan, A Cultural History of Kerala, The State Institute of Languages, Trivandrum, 1974, p.503- ↩
  19. Eleanor Zelliot, "Gandhi and Ambedkar, A Study in Leadership", in The Untouchables in Contemporary India, ed. J. Michael Mahar, University of Arizona Press, Arizona, p.73

    See also Andre Beteille, "Pollution and Poverty," Ibid., p. 413

    ↩
  20. Young India, April 23, 1925. ↩
  21. Harijan, Nov.28, 1936. ↩
  22. Young India, Nov. 17, 1927. ↩
  23. Political motive of Gandhi is clear from his talks with Sardar Patel recorded by Mahadev Desai, his secretary: "They (Harijans) do not realise that the separate electorate will create a division among Hindus so much that it will lead to bloodshed. Untouchable hooligans will make common cause with Muslim hooligans and kill caste Hindus". Desai 1953 L 310 quoted by Eleanor Zelliot, op. cit., p.85. ↩
  24. B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste, with a reply to Mahatma Gandhi, published by L.R. Balley, Bheempatrika Publications, Jalandhar, p.123. ↩
  25. Andre Beteille, op.cit., p.413. ↩
  26. Eleanor Zelliot, op.cit., pp. 69-95. ↩
  27. Eleanor Zelliot, op.cit., p.78. ↩

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