Recasting Hinduism for the 21st century

It is important that Hindus take the lead in acknowledging the damage that caste discrimination does and resolving to tackle it

• • Ramesh Rao
  • guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 December 2010 16.00 GMT

Dalits at the National Conference of Dalits in New Delhi. Photograph: Manish Swarup/APCaste has become the convenient “hook” to hang the Hinduism portrait since Hinduism, that “rolling caravan of conceptual spaces”, is too complex a religion/way of life for the “people of the book” who have reigned supreme the past two millennia. Unfortunately, caste being the complex conundrum that it is, Hinduism almost always is seen through the prism of caste. 

In a newly published report, the Hindu American Foundation tackles the issue of caste discrimination, and of the immediate and urgent need for Hindus to acknowledge that caste is not an intrinsic part of Hinduism; that continuing caste-based discrimination is a major human rights problem; and only Hindus, through reform movements, through an activist agenda, and through education can rid Hindu society of the scourge of caste-based discrimination.

While there will be naysayers in the Hindu community, who wish to get into their bunkers and fight a rearguard battle to “defend” Hinduism from what they see as a concerted campaign of vilification by Christian missionaries, Muslim fundamentalists, Marxist Hindu haters, and a global-capitalist-western hegemony, it is important that Hindus bell the casteist cat themselves. In this regard, the HAF report points out that caste-based discrimination is a serious human rights issue in the Indian subcontinent, and that over 160 million people, whom the Indian government categorises as “scheduled castes” (SCs), suffer from discrimination by not only a variety of Hindu caste groups but even by “upper caste” Christians and Muslims after they have converted to Christianity or Islam.

The Indian constitution, whose chief architect, BR Ambedkar, was himself a member of the scheduled castes, outlaws “untouchability” – the act of segregating and ostracising a social group by literally prohibiting physical contact with members of the SCs. Alas, India is hobbled by a weak and sometimes dysfunctional judicial system, and therefore acts of discrimination against the SCs (or Dalits, as many of them prefer to call themselves) either go unpunished or ignored.

Other lawlessness in India goes unpunished but the challenge of dealing with caste-based discrimination has been the most disheartening. This is especially so in rural areas where caste dynamics continues to play havoc. In 2008, for example, according to the Indian government, there were 33,615 human rights violations of various types – from the denial of entry into temples to denial of service in wayside restaurants, and from bonded labour to the exploitation of women.

HAF’s report therefore begins with an important point: that Hindus must acknowledge that caste arose in Hindu society, that some Hindu texts and traditions justify a birth-based hierarchy and caste bias, and that it has survived despite considerable attempts by Hindus to curtail it. It notes that caste-based discrimination represents a failure of Hindu society “to live up to its essential spiritual teachings,” that divinity is inherent in all beings, and that caste is not an intrinsic part of Hinduism.

Sure, untouchability is practiced not just by Hindus in India and Nepal but by non-Hindus in Yemen, Japan, Korea, France, Somalia, and Tibet. But the sheer number of people who are discriminated against in India makes this a uniquely Indian and Hindu problem. Fishing in India’s troubled waters are therefore missionaries who for long have sought to make India Christian, and the left/Marxist forces in India who see only Hinduism as a problem but not religion per se. In recent decades, and especially after George W Bush became president, there was a surge in monies funneled into India for planting churches and converting Hindus. Organisations like the Dalit Freedom Network, led by and catering to mostly Christians, have gone on overdrive and sought to categorise SCs as non-Hindus and therefore arguing that they are not converting Hindus to Christianity.

HAF’s report, a first of its kind by a modern Hindu advocacy group, provides readers a handy but grand sweep of the problem of caste – from its origins to its role in the past and at present, its use and abuse, and reform movements from the earliest by the likes of Basaveshwara to the great 19th- and 20th-century reform movements like the Arya Samajmovement, and reformers like Jyotiba Phule, Narayana Guru, Mahatma Gandhi, and others.

Noting that there are defenders of the caste system, not just the curmudgeon and cruel among Hindus, but the likes of Voltaire and Diderot who fought against the monotheistic intolerance of Christians and Muslims, to sociologists like Louis Dumont who argued that the “distribution of functions leads to exchanges”, to the great Indophile,Alain Daniélou who argued that caste does not equate to “racist inequality but … a natural ordering of diversity,” the HAF report argues that a birth-based hierarchy is unacceptable, that inequities against and the abuse of the Dalits/SCs is a human rights issue, and that the solution to this social ill is available within Hindu sacred texts themselves, and that Hindus should be at the forefront of putting an end to the system of birth-based hierarchy as well as taking the lead in energising the Dalit community to fight discrimination.

As the British seek to draft a new bill of rights, and from what one hears,equate caste with racism, similar to what was sought at the United Nations Durban conference on racism and racial discrimination, as western Europe and US-based missionary groups ratchet up the calls for actions and sanctions against India, and as we move into a new era of global interaction, it is time for Hindus to act.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/dec/21/india-hindu-dalit

NEPAL: Discrimination continues against Dalits

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Dalits are still regarded as “untouchables”

KATHMANDU, 24 December 2010 (IRIN) – Dalit communities, the lowest of the 100 caste groups in Nepal, continue to be marginalized, despite the fact that caste-based discrimination was abolished in 1963, activists say.

“Untouchability and discrimination were legitimized by the state over a century ago,” said Bhakta Biswakarma, national head of the advocacy group, Nepal National Dalit Social Welfare Organization (NNDSWO).

“Today we see the state doing little to change the situation. Discrimination against the Dalit as the untouchable caste is still practised so rigidly – especially in the remote areas.”

The 1854 Civil Code, introduced by the Rana regime, explicitly declared the Dalits untouchable, the lowest status within the Hindu social hierarchical structure.

This imposed strict regulations on where the Dalit were allowed to live (they could not enter temples or use the same tap water as higher castes), forbad them from education and from participating in community festivals.

Those who defied the law of untouchability were punished; the state imposed the practice of discrimination on society, said Suman Poudel, an official with the Dalit NGO Federation (DNF).

Little has changed for the estimated 23 Dalit communities in the country’s hill and Terai regions, despite the propagation of legal rights.

Impoverished and neglected

Dalit communities have the lowest human development rankings in the country: 49.2 percent live below the poverty line compared with a national average of 31 percent, according to the World Bank.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) says discriminatory labour practices persist in the Terai, where the majority of Dalit live. During annual harvest seasons (March-May and September-November), high-caste landlords reportedly continue to use debt bondage to secure unpaid labour from Dalit labourers.

In the Terai, many Dalits are landless and live on less than US$1 a day, Poudel said, while UNDP assessments reveal that their annual per capita income is less than half that of higher castes ($764 to $1,848) across the rest of the country.

With a literacy rate of less than 33.5 percent above grade six (against 67.5 percent among higher-caste Brahmins), and high rates of school dropout, improving the social condition of Dalit communities is a challenge.

Weak implementation

And while caste discrimination was officially abolished in 1963, experts say the government has been weak in enforcing the ban.

“There are a plethora of policies and laws that have been drafted to protect the Dalit,” said Oxfam’s Robert Sila, a social inclusion and civil society expert. “But there is no seriousness on the government side when it comes to implementing these policies.”

One of the pillars of the government’s poverty reduction strategy for a long time has been social inclusion, but there is little evidence of that, Sila says.

However, Sudha Neupane, under-secretary for the gender equality and social section of Nepal’s Ministry of Local Development, says the government is focusing heavily on combating discrimination.

“The government is very sensitive to the issue of discrimination against the Dalit,” Neupane said.

A starting point would be addressing the controversy over population size. Government statistics show that the Dalit make up nearly 13 percent of the 29 million population, although the Dalit put that figure at more than 20 percent.

“A government cannot effectively address the needs of a population if it doesn’t have their exact numbers. It should do a fresh census to determine the real numbers,” said Sila.

Nepal’s last national census was done in 2001 and a new one is expected in 2011.

nn/cm/mw

Theme (s): Human Rights,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91437

Upper caste students refuse meal prepared by Dalit cook

Upper caste students refuse meal prepared by Dalit cook

Sanjay Pandey, Lucknow, July 9, DHNS:

Students belonging to the upper castes have refused to eat the food cooked by a Dalit woman at a primary school in Uttar Pradesh’s newly created Ramabai Nagar district, about 200 kilometres from here.

The incident came to light on Thursday, when it was found during a routine inspection of the school that the upper caste students were not eating the mid-day meal as it was prepared by a dalit woman. “There are 137 upper caste students in the school and all of them had refused to eat the food prepared by a dalit woman,” education department officials said. The officials were shocked and surprised to know that the students were asked by their parents to refuse the food. “My parents have asked me not to eat the mid-day meal as it is prepared by a lower caste woman,” said Shivam, a second standard student at the school. “The parents have made it clear that they will prefer to withdraw their wards from the school than allowing them to have meals prepared by a dalit woman,” the officials said. The dalit cook Shanti Devi is deeply hurt. “I repeatedly requested the upper caste children to eat the mid-day meal but they refused,” she said. District basic education officer Sanjai Shukla said that the officials were trying to persuade the parents to allow their wards to eat the meal. Principal of the school Maan Singh has been suspended for trying to cover up the issue. “It has been like that for many days but the principal, instead of contacting the senior officials and trying to resolve the matter, tried to cover it up,” the officials said. The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, also known as Mid-Day Meal Programme, is a centrally-sponsored scheme and was launched on August 15, 1995.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/80467/upper-caste-students-refuse-meal.html