[Reader-list] Untouchable Ambedkar

[SUNDARA BABU]

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From: Raghavan Prakash rprakash33 at gmail.com


Mainstream Vol. XLVIII, No 17, April 17, 2010

 Untouchable Ambedkar—the Saga of his Discrimination in America
 Monday 19 April 2010, by A K Biswas
 http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1990.html


The 119th birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar has been
observed on April 14 this year. On this occasion we offer our sincere homage
to that towering personality by publishing the following article and a piece
that N.C. wrote on him in 1990 when the Bharat Ratna was posthumously
conferred on Dr Ambedkar. Paradoxically the curse of untouchability
continues to chase Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar even half-a-century
after his death and the bane is not history yet. The Dalit faces it almost
at every step within or outside India, though we love to imagine and preach
on that basis quite otherwise. And Ambedkar has been subjected to
discrimination in the Alma Mater where about a century ago he had had his
higher education. Enrolled in 1913 as a student of the prestigious Columbia
University of New York, USA, he obtained his MA and Ph.D degrees there. The
University in 2004 had initiated a proposal to create an Ambedkar Chair for
Studies, Research and Analysis of Indian Political Economics. The
University, where the brilliant and meritorious student spent his formative
years, wanted to finance the project out of its own resources, considering
the indelible imprint the social revolutionary left on the nation’s
socio-cultural and political life. Needless to note that when he went to the
University he faced no hostility based on descent. This ipso facto
underlines that the class or coterie that has taken position now, then did
not exist or lay their foothold to pollute its pristine environment. Alas!
the footprints of untouchability have now become a hallmark in the temple of
learning. Ambedkar Chair Fall to Caste Hatred In a thought-provoking article
in The New York Times, Joseph Berger had exposed a sensational but
well-guarded secrecy how the Columbia University was compelled to abort the
project for the Ambedkar Chair in the teeth of opposition by some faculty
members. It is clarified at the first opportunity that the opponents of the
Ambedkar Chair were not Americans per se. The members who offered resistance
to nip the scheme in the bud were Indians—one and all. And they were,
according the said article in the powerful daily, the “upper-caste Indians”.
We may hazard a guess without apprehension of contradiction, if not
opposition, that they were educated and intellectually equipped Hindu upper
castes to revile Ambedkar in the prestigious overseas temple of higher
leaning. Prof E. Valentine Daniel of the Anthropology Department was the
architect of the project. According to Joseph Berger, Mr Daniel, former
Director of Columbia’s South Asian Institute, told of the resistance he
faced among upper-caste Indians on an academic committee when he wanted to
name an endowed Chair in Indian Political Economics after a noted
untouchable, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, a Columbia graduate who helped draft the
Indian Constitution, which decades ago abolished the caste system.1 The man
who scripted the very Article of the Constitution of India abolishing
untouchability was himself targeted for brazen discrimination at the altar
of his own Alma Meter. It was here that he had acquired and honed his skills
for an odyssey against the social vices enshrined in the Hindu scriptures
and immortalised by their meticulous practices. Nobody could raise fingers
alleging that Ambedkar lacked merit, efficiency or competence or diligence,
a theme song usually sang against the Dalits. He, on the other hand,
outshines many of the overrated contemporary icons in erudition,
statesmanship, patriotism, or administrative abilities. He was a brilliant
researcher, writer, historian and, above all, an untiring crusader against
injustice all his life. He brought the concept of social justice in the
public domain and discourse by incorporating it in the Preamble to the
Indian Constitution. The Constitution enshrines the following Article
dismantling untouchability: Untouchability is abolished and its practice in
any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of
untouchability shall be an offence punishable according to law. The
provisions of the Indian Constitution or laws thereunder do not apply to
crimes committed by Indians in the USA. Even in India, we know the treatment
the Dalit receives and the challenges he faces in all walks of life every
day. Crimes against him are legion and insensitivity in the polity abysmal.
The above constitutional provision adores the statute book only as an
useless piece of ornament which does not embarrass his countrymen. It is
factually a dead letter now. A mere 2.5 per cent of the cases of atrocities
committed against the SCs and STs end in convictions. The roles of agencies
assigned with investigation, prosecution and trial are well demonstrated in
this state of affairs, involving the dignity, life and properties of the
target groups. Speaking dispassionately, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 today, designed to safeguard the
target groups from myriad atrocities, oppressions and exploitations, is of
no use to them. One may recall, in this background, how Mulayam Singh Yadav,
as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, once made a shocking public
declaration that he would not enforce the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act during his tenure. That an Act passed
by the nation’s Parliament could be shelved by a State in such a
supercilious manner on its Chief Minister’s discretion is anti-national. It
was a challenge to the highest legislature of India. And no voice of sanity
was ever raised against such an arrogant declaration from any corner! The
Dalit opinion even on core issues affecting their vital interests rarely
finds space in the media. Nobody would ever remember if and when an annual
report of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes or National
Commission for Scheduled Tribes, both constitutional watchdogs, was
discussed in Parliament. Since decades the National Commissions have
hitherto submitted their reports to the President of India year after year
but their labours of love have been gathering dust in a corner of the
labyrinthine corridors of power. The measure of parliamentary as well as
official neglect towards India’s Scheduled Castes and Tribes is starkly
reflected in its totality. The discrimination targeting Ambedkar by the
Indian members in the Academic Committee at the aforementioned prestigious
Columbia University poses a perplexing predicament. They being Indians, the
Indian Government, with the best of intentions, if at all, could not raise
an alarm or bogey of racist attack against the Ambedkar-baiters. Nor would
the Indian authorities have the inclination to take up the issue even now
with the Obama Administration urging appropriate actions against those
Indian-American academics for violation of the civil rights of the USA and
to honour Amedkar in the way the South Asian Institute had planned. The
countrymen did not know if the vast establishment maintained by the Indian
Government at taxpayers’ money in New York and Washington or elsewhere ever
cared to intervene in the matter and invite the attention of the home
authorities for guidance/advice. Since the article portraying the Indian
social mindset in the powerful New York Times has fallen on the deaf ears
and blind eyes of the authorities, both in the USA and India, we have no way
but to conclude that they are least bothered if Ambedkar is disgraced,
desecrated, discrimi-nated against or humiliated there in the USA despite
the record of his spectacular services to the nation. The issue has
implications far wider and too deeper than meets the eye. The same New York
Times underscored the depth of hatred against the Indian Dalits enveloping
the length and breadth of the USA. Joseph Berger further writes: E.
Valentine Daniel, a Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, says
some Indian executives will not hire untouchables, now usually called
Dalits, or downtrodden, no matter their qualifications. “It’s even more than
a glass ceiling, it’s a tin roof,” he said.2 The Confederation of Indian
Industries (CII), the apex body of the captains of industries in India, we
may recall, went on overdrive against a proposal of the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment that the Government of India would like to initiate
measures favouring reservation of jobs for SCs and STs in the private
sector. This is warranted by the fact that the government, both at the
Centre and in the States, have ceased to recruit manpower in any significant
manner. So the Indian executives on US soil and their country cousins are
equally contemptuous of the Dalit and the tribal. In fact they are on the
same page when the question of recruitment of the Dalit and tribal
candidates is taken up. The American Indians are alarming not so much for
the Indian Dalits or tribals as for the Americans of African origin and
descent. Sociologists do not form their opinions nor draw conclusions based
on a solitary instance. Observation of instance after instance, repetition
of similar events, besides adequate experiment and experience, lead social
scientists to believe and thereafter form an empirical opinion on any issue.
Given the circumstances, the Dalits have to contend with the same degree and
dimension of prejudice in the USA as they encounter in their motherland back
in India. The Dalit there is under a tight grip, if “tin roof” as against
“glass ceiling” conveys any meaning. Enduring intense caste hatred has gone
into the genetic code of the Dalit as also the tribal communities in India.
A Shiv Sena type movement by the African Americans against the Indian
Americans of the kind noted by the Professor of Anthropology may not be
altogether a ridiculous idea. Only time will say. ¨ Indians can scarcely
grasp the dimension of contributions the Columbia University has made to
human knowledge and civilisation. The oldest educational institution of the
New York State, founded in 1754 as King’s College by the royal charter of
King George II of England, the Columbia University is the sixth oldest in
the United States of America. The University most justifiably prides itself
with more winners of Nobel Prizes than any other university across the
globe. It administers and annually grants the Pulitzer Prizes. Notable
alumni and affiliates of the university include four Presidents of the
United States of America, nine Justices of the Supreme Court of the United
States, 79 Nobel Prize winners and 96 Pulitzer Prize winners. US President
and a Nobel Laureate for Peace [2009], Obama is one of the shining alumni of
the Columbia University. A look at the American record of Nobel Prizes since
its inception (in 1901) may be revealing in this context. Till 2004 AD, some
179 Americans have won the Nobel Prizes, of which 79 were grabbed by the
alumni and associates of Columbia. In other words, 44 per cent of the
American record of Nobel Prizes were achieved by the alumni and affiliates
of Columbia. Ambedkar had made an observation based on his galling personal
experience that merit is not appreciated in India. He was, however, very
quick to add that Brahmans appreciate the merit of a Brahman, Kayasths of a
Kayasth and so on. On the same analogy we can as well say that in India,
honour is not an universal cause célèbre if bestowed on a Dalit. The honour
to Ambedkar in the Columbia University, his unidentified detractors felt,
did not glorify India or Indians. Their senses and faculties for
appreciation are jaundiced by morbidity: They saw Ambedkar’s caste; they did
not see, much less acknowledge, his towering achievements and
accomplishments coupled with crowning scholarship. The tragedy is that this
happened in the USA, the land that saw the rise of Barak Obama, a
half-African-half-American. The inaugural speech by Obama on January 20,
2009 as the President of the United States of America, loaded with
significance, implication and potential, reverberated from one end of the
world to the other. The transcendental rise of this humble man on the global
horizon in so short a span of political life, is without any parallel and
has made him a cynosure of all eyes and ears across the continents. The
enunciation of his inclusive policy was strikingly different and distinctive
from that of his predecessors. To the troubled world, vitiated by mindless
terrorism and visited by despicable horrors of deaths and destruction, his
unambiguous and bold declaration sends out a powerful message of hope and
confidence: We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and
nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture drawn from every
end of this Earth. The voice of sanity has the potential for breaking the
barriers of borders, faiths and ideological hues. The catholicity of his
vision touched chords in every heart of the global village. Indians in
general, and Hindus across the globe in particular, were deeply stirred up
to an ecstasy. No American President hitherto opened up the heart of that
proud, nay, insensitive —and often perceived as arrogant—nation exposing its
depth and eagerness for adoption and assimilation of all in the style and
fashion Obama did on the day of his inauguration. His words for the Hindus
of America were translated into action soon by organising the first ever
Deepawali celebrations (2009), a festival of lights, in the White House. By
this solitary action, President Obama has endeared himself to the world of
millions of Hindus and practically converted them into his fans, friends and
admirers. He has ingratiated himself to them without exception. But the
President should be aware of the dark side of the Hindus. The worrying,
though conclusive, evidences of their venom are already on record. If they
enjoy free and unrestrained hand with claws and nails to deal with the way
they have been doing with the Indian Dalits on US soil, even people who are
stone-blind could see and would be convinced that the same calamitous fate
or misfortunes would befall the African Americans too, if not others. In any
case, we know the Indians generally refer to them pejoratively as the kalua,
bloody niggers! This is no longer a secret. We may recall here the
impressions and attitudinal hostility the Bengali Americans nurse against
Obama. When his candidature for the presidency was announced in 2008 after
his victory in the primaries, an American despatch for a Bengali weekly
reported it.3 Loosely translated, the Bengali weekly says that the second
generation of Bengali immigrants in America might be enamoured of Obama’s
education in the Harvard University, his record of unblemished community
services since student days, his erudition and oratory as the presiden-tial
candidate, programme of action etc., but their parents or elders do not
share the same degree of sentiment, enthusiasm or infatuation about Barak
Obama. They are, on the contrary, clearly unhappy at the thought of a Black
guy at all entering the White House as the US President. The Brown people,
in fact, are no less resentful than the Whites against a Black occupying the
highest office in the US. Once Obama got elected, many Bengalis genuinely
apprehended that the Blacks would have a field day. Out and out lazy and
thoroughly shirker, the kaluas are a dead-weight on the American people and
society. They are like the working classes wedded to rabid trade unionism
under the indulgent Communist Party of India ruling the roost in West Bengal
since 1977. Those people are fully responsible for derailing the State into
chaos, conflict, confusion and stagnation. For America too, if Obama got
elected as the President, the writing of the wall is quite clear. Many
Bengalis were deeply worried that he would be under acute community
influence and/or pressure despite his brilliance. One Bengali American went
to the extent of exclaiming: Thirtyfive years ago, I had left India for the
USA with a fond dream of working with White-skinned people [sahibs]. Lo and
behold! now I am destined to serve under a bloody nigger. The outburst is a
clear and unambiguous reflection of the mindset of the educated Bengalis who
had adopted America as their home several decades ago but have not changed a
bit from their retrograde moorings. Paeans for President Obama by Indians
are Opportunistic The Indians have already joined the global village in
singing paeans sonorously for the 44th President of Kenyan-American origin.
However, such a change of attitude is utterly opportunistic and prudence
dictates that it should be viewed with the suspicion it merits. Beneath
their skin lies deep layers of hatred for the people of African descent.4
The Hindu perception and attitude, marked by age-old precepts and rituals,
concepts of privileges, prejudices and graded inequality, inflexible sense
of exclusiveness and gnawing discrimination, have become a veritable
graveyard for a vast humanity on its own home—India. Wherever the Hindus
migrated under the sun, they did not leave their old baggage behind. They
have carted old baggage with their culture and heritage, which are like
round pegs in square holes. They fail to appreciate how their ancient
baggage is stinking beyond tolerance and has been causing nausea for
humanity. America would better take note of the prospect of unbridled growth
of a Hindu America because its dimension would be horrifying. A struggle to
curb the menace of caste and resultant evils, leading to poisoning the
nerves and arteries in the UK with huge Hindu and Dalit immigrants, has
already begun. An Equality Bill is on the anvil there. Atrocities in
hundreds and thousands of cases on Dalits and tribals across the country
evoke no interest of the media or even to the intelligentsia at large in
India. They scarcely turn their eyes to them for redress and/or creating
public knowledge. The American Congress as well as the European Parliament
has noted the nature of atrocities and exploitation Dalits and tribals are
destined to suffer. The US Congress’ long and elaborate resolution of 1st
session (H. Con. Res 139 of July 24, 2007) states inter alia:
‘Untouchables’, now known as the Dalits, and the people of the forest tribes
of India, called Tribals, who together number approximately 200,000,000
people, are the primary victims of caste discrimination in India; [.......]
discrimination against the Dalits and Tribals has existed for more than 2000
years and has included educational discrimination, economic
disenfranchisement, physical abuse, discrimination in medical care,
religious discrimination, and violence targeting Dalit and Tribal women;
[........] despite the fact that many Dalits do not report crimes for fear
of reprisals by the dominant castes, national police statistics, averaged
over the past five years by the National Commission on Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, show that 13 Dalits are murdered every week, five Dalits’
homes or possessions are burnt every week, six Dalits are kidnapped or
abducted every week, three Dalit women are raped every day, 11 Dalits are
beaten every day and a crime is committed against a Dalit every 18 minutes;
[........] many Dalit girls are forced to become temple prostitutes who are
then unable to marry and may be auctioned to urban brothels, and many women
trafficked in India are Dalit women..... low-caste unborn females are
targeted for abortions.... A British member of Indian origin in the European
Parliament had condemned its resolution drawn on US lines, though the
incidence of atrocities against Dalits and tribals is common knowledge all
over the globe. Few Indians know these resolutions and fewer in authority
and influence have shown interest in addressing the issues cited therein.
So, it is certain, the Dalits and tribals have to wait yet for long for an
era free of atrocities and contempt their forefathers endured. References 1.
Joseph Berger, The New York Times, October 24, 2004 in an article, “Family
Ties and Entanglements of Caste”. 2. Ibid. 3. Alolika Mukherjee, American
despatch in Weekly Bartaman (Bengali), Kolkata, July 29, 2008, p. 29. 4. The
Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela, who, after serving sentence for decades in
jail, fought elections successfully. His African National Congress (ANC),
however, did not get support of the people of Indian origin residing there.
The latter preferred, by and large, the continuation of a regime under the
White supremacists globally accused of apartheid. This fact, however, has
not been highlighted by the Indian media. The author is a former
Vice-Chancellor, B.R. Ambedkar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar. He can be
contacted at e-mail: atul.biswas at gmail.com