[Reader-list] The pundit just lost his job in Uttar Pradesh

[Navayana Publishing]

 *In Gandhi kingdom, Mayawati on the cards*

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?sectionName=IndiaSectionPage&id=27365d0b-fb72-4e3f-a853-2aa3bfef7aa1MyIndiamyvote2009_Special&Headline=In+Gandhi+kingdom%2c+Mayawati+on+the+cards

Sunita Aron
Hindustan Times, March 21, 2009*
*
The pundit just lost his job in an Uttar Pradesh village.

When Rangnath (33) and Ranjana (31), both Dalits, tied the knot in December,
there was no Hindu priest at the ceremony. No sacred fire. No chanting of
mantras.

It was a Buddhist wedding, and it was over in half-an-hour.

The couple took their vows before portraits of Buddha and Dalit champion
Bhimrao Ambedkar.

Thirty kilometres north of the state capital of Lucknow, even those without
invites thronged Rangnath’s house in Janki Khera Ambedkar village in Rae
Bareli to gape at the unusual proceedings.

It was the first wedding of its kind in the village — but not the first in
Uttar Pradesh.

As their Dalit chief minister gives them a new confidence and renewed
identity, the lowest caste in the Hindu hierarchy is going a step further.

Ganesha, the elephant-headed God of luck, and the Om symbol are being
replaced on weddings cards with the Dalit idols — Ambedkar, Buddha and, in
many cases, even Mayawati.

The Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh may not have improved the lives of
her people very much — and she may even be wooing the Brahmins once more
ahead of the general election — but her very existence is changing the way
Dalits see themselves.

After generations of yearning to draw water from the same well, Uttar
Pradesh’s 3.51 crore Dalits are revelling in their own identity.

“We don’t follow Vedic culture,” says Guru Prasad Madan, an advocate and
social activist in Allahabad.

Three months after the Rangnath-Ranjana wedding, a number of other young
couples plan to follow suit.

In a state where Dalits make up 21 per cent of the population, Pandits are
fast losing jobs in the countryside as couples enter into wedlock, name
their children, bless new homes and even conduct last rites according to
Buddhist traditions.

According to a study by the Dalit Resource Centre in Allahabad, at least 60
per cent of Jatavs — a Dalit sub-caste — now conduct all religious
ceremonies without a pandit.

“The momentum has picked up in the last five years,” the study says.

Jayant Gautam, president of the UP chapter of the Buddhist Society of India,
founded by Ambedkar in 1954, says 5,000 Buddhist weddings are held every
year in the state.

“The practice is now spreading to states like Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh, where there are also sizeable Dalit communities.”

Rangnath’s elder brother Jagannath admits Mayawati's influence.

“She did send out a message by conducting the last rites of [political
mentor] Kanshi Ram according to Buddhist traditions,” he says. “She is
spreading the message without hurting the sentiments of other castes.”

The absence of a Bhenti or Buddhist priest to officiate is not a problem.
“Anyone who has taken Bodh deeksha (converted to Buddhism) can play the
role,” says Jagannath.


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