Dalits and English : Prof. Kancha Ilaiah

Kancha Ilaiah

The democratic nation proved that the fears of lower castes were wrong. They enrolled into regional language education in a big way.

One bright morning in 1960, when I was about eight, a newly appointed single teacher came to my house. My mother had already cleaned our courtyard called ‘vaakili’ and was sprinkling the dung water all around the courtyard. I was about to assist my elder brother in untying the cattle and go along with them for grazing. The teacher asked my mother to send me and my elder brother, who was about 10, to school. What she told him shocks every one of us in retrospect: “Ayyaa — if we send our children to school to read and write devil Saraswathi will kill them. That devil wants only brahmins and baniyas to be in that business.”     For centuries the so called goddess of education was against the dalit learning, reading and writing in any language. She was the goddess of education of only the high castes — mainly of the brahmins and baniayas. But the lower castes, who were denied of education treated her as a devil that would kill their children if they go to school. The notion that she kills us was so deep that my grandmother fought with my mother for she was terrified of our imminent death, after I and my brother — not my sisters in any case — were sent to school. She used to pray Pochamma — our village goddess — that she should protect us from Saraswathi. Within a few months after we were sent to school my grandmother died of a future shock that we would not survive at all. The democratic nation proved that those fears of lower castes were wrong. They got into regional language education in a big way. The goddess of Sanskrit education was adopted by lower castes as their goddess of regional language education too. Several school teachers across the country — many of them were OBC teachers — installed Saraswathi photo even in government schools, ignoring the fact there could be a muslim or a christian or any other minority students in the schools. It is a known fact that there were several hindu teachers who made humiliating remarks about muslims and christians that they do not have goddess of education like Saraswathi and hence inferior in educational values. Saraswathi Shishumandirs have cropped up all over the country. In the ’70s and ’80s the aggressive ownership of ‘matru bhasha’ (mother tongue) theory and adoption of Saraswathi as goddess of Indian education had acquired a nationalist overtone. So militant was that nationalism that any opposition to installing Saraswathi’s portrait in the schools and colleges would only invite fist blows. The right wing student organisations started installing her portrait in the university departments. The regional language departments made Saraswathi an educational-cultural symbol. Unmindful of the secular constitution of the nation even the university teachers — mainly of regional language departments sporting a visible saffron tilak on the forehead, began to treat others who operate outside that cultural norm as inferior. A walking goddess With the increase of women teachers in schools, colleges and universities Saraswathi was made almost a walking goddess in the nation. Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Guru Nanak whose life though revolved around education to all humans never appeared on the nationalist map of education. While the majority OBCs, some dalits and tribals began to worship Saraswathi in regional educational centres — of course on the real pooja day the priest talked to her only in Sankrit, in spite of the fact, that under her sharp and well decorated nose that language died to a point no return, except that soliloquous priest nobody understands the slokas, she has become goddess of all Indian languages. While the historical backwards were enjoying their new status of proximity to mythical Saraswathi, the living Saraswathi in the company of her cousin Laxmi shifted her real operative base to the other world, called colonial English world. The backward class people of India, as of now, have no entry so far. The recent decision of the Central government to introduce English teaching from class one in all government schools will enable all the lower castes of India are going to enter into a new phase of English education. Though this method of English teaching does not take the dalit-bahujan and minority community children to the level of convent educated upper castes, it makes a new beginning of dreaming for egalitarian education in future. English education is the key for adopting the modernist approach suitable to the globalised India. The upper castes have handled the contradiction between English and their native culture quite carefully. But when it comes to teaching English to the lower castes they have been proposing a theory that English will destroy the ‘culture of the soil’. Having realised the importance of English the Central government has taken a right decision. However, the next stage should be moving towards total abolition of the gap between the private English medium schools and the government schools in terms of both infrastructure and teaching methods. Even about the language both the public and private schools must be brought under two language formula of teaching 50 per cent syllabus in English and the other half of the syllabus in the regional language across the country. (The writer is D.Director, CSSEIP,  Maulana Azad National University, Hyderabad) http://www.deccanherald.com/content/137777/dalits-english.html

OBC-Why Marathas want reservation?

While Dalits take to the streets to demand the pulling down of an anti-Ambedkar page on Facebook, a far more serious threat to the community is on the rise as the dominant political caste, the Marathas, has reiterated its demand for reservation.

Though the Marathas (including the economically weaker Kunbi sub-caste) comprise only about 30% of Maharashtra’s population, their representation in the state assembly averages about 43%. The community also has a stranglehold on local political institutions like the panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads, which is further consolidated by its control over credit and sugar cooperatives and educational institutions.

Why then is the Maratha Arakshan Sangharsha Samiti (Mass), an umbrella organisation of 15 Maratha bodies, demanding reservation for Marathas? A closer look reveals that though the community is seeking quotas in education and employment, its main aim is to gain political reservation in due course.
Maratha leaders have sought 25% reservation in schools, colleges and jobs in the first phase, and later intend to demand political reservation and promotions in government service on caste basis.

Though a section of the community, mainly the one which depends on agriculture for sustenance, has been economically backward for many years, and its condition is deteriorating, socially and in terms of political clout, the caste is has been ascendant. Before the implementation of the panchayati raj system, and even afterwards, Marathas have been the only rulers in villages. It might be true that power is in the hands of a few community elite, but it is also true that all the power centres in the state are controlled by the Marathas.

Not only gram panchayats, but the entire co-operative movement in the state, from cooperative sugar factories to weaving mills, is dominated by the Marathas.

The Maratha demand took root after the lower castes were granted reservation in politics. Some say the community could not digest that a person from a lower caste can wield the power which has been its sole prerogative for generations.

Given the size of the Maratha vote bank, no political party can afford to ignore its demand, but due to its overbearing nature, none can publicly support it either. The parties, however, did try to lend implicit support in the hope that it would bring them extra votes, but the move backfired by creating a real threat of polarisation of non-Maratha communities. The political parties are now thus a proxy in the issue, preferring instead to work behind the facade of organisations like the Maratha Mahasangh and others.

The Dalit leaders, though wary, are not openly objecting to the demand. Their key contention is that the reservation should be given from a separate quota without affecting the reservation offered to the other backward classes (OBCs).

Senior Dalit leader and Dalit litterateur Arjun Dangale agrees that a section of the Maratha community is poor and doesn’t have land to cultivate. “The demand may be sound, but the existing reservation of other castes should not be curtailed,” he says.

“Since the chairmanships of local self-government arms, from the gram panchayat to zilla parishad, are reserved for each caste on rotation basis, the Maratha community will be able to wrest power for longer periods if it is denoted an OBC. Political reservation may be their hidden agenda,” Dangale says.

Another Dalit activist, professor Avinash Mahatekar, said that if the Marathas want reservation, it should be on the basis of economic backwardness. “The reservation allotted to OBCs is based on the Census of 1930, and is only 27%. However, the Mandal Commission’s finding is that 52% of the state’s population belongs to OBCs. If we consider the commission’s findings, the reservation for OBCs is not sufficient,” Mahatekar said. “But we still support the reservation for Marathas as many among them are backward,” he added.

On their part, Maratha leaders refute they are ultimately angling for political reservation. “The Marathas have been economically backward for many years and there are just a handful of families, about 150 to 200, who have all the power,” said Purushottam Khedekar, chief of Maratha Seva Sangh.

“The situation has changed in the last few years and the Marathas are not the rulers anymore. In fact, the community is not even interested in that role and wants to educate itself and get better jobs instead,” Khedekar said. “We don’t want reservation in politics. But our demand for reservation in education and government jobs stands,” he reiterated.

However, Vinayak Mete, MLC of the Nationalist Congress Party and a prominent Maratha leader, said, “The Marathas are backward in education which resulted in them having no face in the administration. There is opposition from various sections, but we are not for curtailing anyone else’s reservation. We want to be treated as a separate community in the reservation category,” said Mete.

Ultimately, Maratha leaders concede they have let their community down. “Though most of the educational institutions are controlled by Marathas, the leaders haven’t bothered about the community,” Mete says, and adds, “They never tried to think for the upliftment of the community, and that is why we are pushing for reservation.”
Though there is little to refute that this admission lies at the heart of the problem, what makes the plot more sinister is that these very leaders are now exploiting the backwardness of their community to tighten their grip on power.

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_why-marathas-want-reservation_1510331

 

Obc Reservation:Chiranjeevi-Congress tango makes OBCs happy

NEW DELHI: The prospect of Chiranjeevi embracing Congress has stirred party’s backward lobby which has been chaffing at the overwhelming Reddy dominance in recent years.

Ahead of the Praja Rajyam Party founder’s meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday, Congress was abuzz that Jaganmohan Reddy’s rebellion has forced the party to recalibrate its strategy of staking all on one social group.

It has stoked the ‘Reddy vs others’ debate in Congress with backward groups the most enthused. They feel readjustment of Reddy clout would inevitably drive up the OBC influence.

The actor’s appeal across caste groups in Coastal region and his grip over the Kapu caste gives him the muscle to emerge a satrap in AP Congress, many say at the cost of Reddys.

The OBC lobby sees it as a legup for itself. The optimism is unmistakable as Kapus across the party are identifying with Chiru as if it was a monolith. The fact is that Kapus in the Coastal are forward castes as against their brethern in Telangana.

In a Congress-PRP merger, the megastar’s symbolism would be of non-Reddy muscle in the party. Chiru’s undenied appeal, backed by a strong caste spread across the Coastal region and, in a broad sense outside, shores up his political significance.

The Congress attempt at balancing Reddys with others follows the rebellion by YSR’s son. Congress feels that after installing a Reddy as CM, it can afford to consolidate support outside. A similar bid earlier would have been a red rag to the Reddys.

It has even forced a rethink in the OBC-heavy Telangana lobby which viewed party’s warming up to Chiru as a vote against statehood. Apart from Venkataswamy who attacked Sonia Gandhi, the region gave a silent welcome to the party’s partnership with PRP.

The Chiru-Congress tango has provoked Jaganmohan. The Reddy rebel slammed Congress MP V Arun Kumar as a traitor for making public a post-Lok Sabha letter in which his father YSR asked Sonia Gandhi to make Chiru a minister at the Centre.

Kumar on Saturday retaliated telling Jaganmohan, “I never imagined there would develop a deep distrust between us just because you plan to float a new party leaving Congress and I continue in the same.”

Congress too dismissed suggestions that exploring ties with PRP betrayed nerves over Jagan. AICC spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said, “The state government stands strong and talking to allies is not a sign of weakness but a mark of maturity of government.”

Read more: Chiranjeevi-Congress tango makes OBCs happy – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Chiranjeevi-Congress-tango-makes-OBCs-happy/articleshow/7433061.cms#ixzz1FaqFZlmE