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The
Question of identity
(By:
Rajinder Kumar)
 It
is an absolute pleasure to dedicate this article to
the memory of honourable Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar(14
April 1891- 6 December 1956), revivalist of Buddhism
in India, the first law minister of independent
India and the chief architect of Indian constitution
drafting committee. He has the biggest contribution
in the construction of world’s largest constitution,
of world’s largest democracy ‘Bharat’ which is my
nation India. He was awarded highest title of
‘Bharat Ratna’ means jewel of India.
His struggle for the
rights and respect of 60 million untouchables brings
me to a stage where I am addressing you through this
publication. I would have stayed as an unfortunate
untouchable without his great efforts.
Today India has more
than 160 million people who belong to untouchable
class.
As Australia is a
nation with diversity in culture, religion, language
and faith, so the question of identity becomes most
prominent after coming here.
Someone may call his/her
identity as per nationality, ethnicity or religion,
which is a macro level identity. However within
every society or community the identity acquires
micro form.
I am an Indian by
nationality and a Punjabi by ethnicity for everyone
in Australia at macro level but the acquisition of
the identity of ‘Indian Punjabi’ came into play
about 4 years ago when I moved to Australia. When I
was in India for 19 years of my life, I did not need
to say that I am an Indian Punjabi!
It would be more
important to talk about those 19 years of my human
development as a child and as a teenager in a rural
village called HERIAN of Indian Punjab. These 4
years of ‘Indian Punjabi’ nationality did not affect
my development as much as compared to those 19
years.
My philosophy, aims,
thoughts, interests, inspirations, decisions,
actions and reactions are dependent upon the life
style and society that I was exposed to for most of
my life in India.
During age transition
period from childhood to teenage the only thing was
told about my identity was that I belong to a lower
caste called ‘Chamaar’ (Cobbler) and I had been
growing up watching my grandfather making and
repairing shoes of people in our village. He has
done this for most of his life and he still does the
same. I found nothing wrong with that until I found
some people abusing me and my fellow boys by calling
us filthy Chamaars.
I was punched in face by
some rich and higher caste boys in our village
festival who came from England for a visit to India;
just because I was a Chamaar and I only wanted to
see bull races by standing beside them.
I never understood why
our caste was so disgusting for them?
My grandparents, who
came from Pakistan during partition of India in
1947, told me that they had experienced the worst
part of caste related discrimination .They told me
stories of their personal experiences of being
servants of higher caste people for all of their
life and continuously tolerating their abuses on the
name of our caste.
However when I saw it
happening with my parents, It just shocked me.
Life went through year
12 and I entered degree course in Science but my
questions were still standing in relation to my
experiences and observations. Until that I had heard
uncountable stories of caste related discrimination
on print and electronic media.
Study of science gave me
new way of observation, exploration, analysis and
conclusion and I came to Australia with above vision
as an international student.
It multiplied my
astonishment, when I found 2 young men arguing with
each other and using my caste name as an abuse in my
college in Melbourne. I again felt the same as I
used to in India. I politely told them that I belong
to the same caste and if I am so filthy then please
stop asking my help in assignments.
I saw Australian born
Indians sitting with drinks in their hands, telling
and enjoying the stories of sexual exploitation of
women of my caste. These people often use caste
names to abuse each other during any argument in 21st
century in country like Australia!
In order to find the
hidden and invisible, I started my search for
reasons behind this unwanted identity, which was not
the choice of my grandparents and parents and me. I
found that our caste is one of the 1800 untouchable
castes in India.
The identity of
untouchables has been changed many times and now
they are called Dalits. In some publications they
are referred as depressed classes, broken people or
scheduled castes as per the constitution of India
and according to Mr. Gandhi; Harijans!
Historically
untouchables are aboriginals of India and belonged
to the Indus Valley Civilisation which existed about
5000 years ago in western part of Indian
subcontinent, primarily in region of Punjab along
the banks of Indus River and it had accomplished the
status of being one of the most developed
civilisations due to its planned cities with world’s
first known sanitation system, scientific
development by having first known system of weights
and measures, agriculture and architecture.
People known as Aryans
(The Aryans were a tribe of Indo-European-speaking,
horse-riding nomads living in the arid steppes of
Eurasia) entered in India through North West side;
invaded Indus valley civilisation and destroyed its
all features which made it extraordinary just like
any other invaders.
They became rulers after
a long war with aboriginal Indians (inhabitants of
Indus Valley Civilisation/Dravidians) and devised a
system of division to make their rule easy; called
Varna System, which divided people into four
categories known as Brahmin, Kshatria, Vaishya and
Shudra.
Aryans kept themselves
in first category of Brahmin and other three classes
below them. Now every Varna had its own duties and
no one could break the limits of their caste or
otherwise would be punished by the Aryans/Brahmins.
It is only Brahmin who
can teach, rule, conduct religious practices and
write history or holy books. Kshatria has a duty to
secure Brahmin and he is the one who has sole right
to keep and use a weapon. Vaishya is the one who can
do business and pay Brahmin huge share of profit.
Shudra is the one who is there for to serve other
three upper classes by various means such as
cleaning, leather work, agriculture, carpentry or
steel work.
Shudra were not given
any human right at all.
The founder of
Buddhism, Siddharth Gautam Buddh, today known as
'Buddha' played a revolutionary role against the
Varna system. He preached his philosophy for most of
his life in India and due to his work of social
revolution; India became Buddhist nation for about
500 years. The Mauryan Empire was result of Buddhist
faith. Buddhist philosophy did huge damage to the
discriminatory system of Varna by accepting people
from all varna particularly Shudras in Buddhist
organisation called Sangha.
After the end of Maurian
Empire; In order to suppress struggle of Buddhists
against Varna system, Aryans killed them on a
massive scale and treated the rest in inhuman way.
Again Aryans repeated
their historical trend and as per their ‘divide and
rule’ principle they divided Shudra in thousands of
castes so that they can never get together and rise
against them. This was time when caste system came
into play, which was different to Varna System as it
contained thousands of further categories of Shudra
namely, touchable and untouchable. According to this
new system all the Buddhists were stamped as
untouchables.
Touchable shurdas also
had no human right but still they were able to be
touched as they compromised with Aryans to some
extent.
Untouchables were
treated worse than any other slaves in the rest part
of the world. Their value was much less than a value
of a dog or a donkey. They were not allowed to go to
school/temple, they were not allowed to hear and
pronounce texts of Hinduism which were written in
Sanskrit language. Nobody was allowed to learn this
language and it is important to mention that all the
religious texts of Hinduism are written in this
language.
If an untouchable hears
any holy word of Sanskrit, he will be turned deaf by
putting molten lead into his ears and if anybody
speaks against caste system his tongue will be
chopped. Their footprints on the road are considered
unfortunate and to erase them a broom will be hanged
behind the neck of an untouchable which will clean
the road while he walks. A pond of water where a
donkey or a dog can drink water but an untouchable
cannot even touch the water. If it happens the pond
is subjected to purification by enchanting holy
texts and adding urine of cow in the pond!
untouchable will not
wear ornaments, use only shrouds as their clothes,
eat left over’s of higher caste people or will be
forced to eat dead bodies, live in filthy areas,
never earn wealth by any means, participate in
administration and never allowed to cross ocean.
Well women had to go
through additional torture than men irrespective of
their touchable or untouchable status, they could be
raped anytime by person of higher caste whenever
they are found alone, they will forced to have sex
with other men if they cannot give birth, they will
have to burn themselves alive with the dead body of
their husbands to reach in heaven as a religious
custom. If they revolt they will be tortured and
forcefully burnt alive and this tradition was known
as 'Sati Pratha'. A newly born baby girl will be
immersed to death in a tub of milk with an
expectation of male child next time.
As you can feel that the
cobra of caste system hinders the overall
development of an untouchable as a human being with
venom that kills their identity, human rights, self
respect and self esteem. It snatches the mind
development opportunity from a common man and pushes
people to living hell.
The venom which is
thousands of years old still flows in Indian society
and rich class of people have never ever tried to
expose it to world. They have indulged themselves in
making and running sporting, cultural and religious
organisations but never looked at majority of Indian
people’s tragedy.
My grandfather still
does leather work as a cobbler. According to caste
system he is an untouchable ‘Chamaar’ because he
works with leather. However my father is a welder in
production unit of Indian railways, he does not work
with lather but still people recognize him as a
Chamaar. I have no surprise that even if I become a
prime minister, I will get the same regard!
According to Buddha
everything is bound to change and nothing is
permanent. I believe above situation will change
some day.
I will always confront
with this ideology, which regards a man lower in the
society on the basis of lower caste irrespective of
personal character. Character decides who you are;
not a caste.
During the entrance of
Islamic faith in India, many people from lower
castes embraced Islam to escape leprosy of caste as
Islam contained no caste discrimination. Religious
scripture of Sikhism (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) also
witnesses the history of that time and speaks
against Varna /Caste system.
After a period of
thousands of years we can still find dust of caste
in Indian society. Many people have sacrificed their
lives to eradicate it.
Caste is the disease of
mind and the only cure is mind reform. Which is hard
and slow task but still I am doing my part as much
as I can.
I know it seems
theoretical but personally I have come to a
conclusion after frustration of 24 years that real
identity of a human being is individual character
and to me; Caste, religion, nationality or ethnicity
are not actual factors of human identity.
I would like readers to
rise above from any system which divides us and
creates friction between our relationships. The
caste system was one example which was my own
experience but there are many other forms of racism
and discrimination still alive. Let us evaporate
them with heat of our unity!
References:
1. http://archaeology.about.com/od/indusrivercivilizations/a/aryans.htm
10/8/09
2. Bharti Lok Neech Kive
Bane (Professor Gurnam Singh Mukatsar)
3. Shudras ‘The Lost
Glory’ Indus Valley Civilisation (A.R. Darshi)
4. Slavery Vs
Untouchability (Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar)
5. Who were untouchables
and why they became untouchables (Dr. Bhim Rao
Ambedkar)
This
article has published on August 30, 2011
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