[Reader-list] Statement on casteist verdicts on Bathani Tola, Laxmanpur Bathe and other Dalit massacres December 25, 2013

[Asit Das]

Statement on casteist verdicts on Bathani Tola, Laxmanpur Bathe and other
Dalit massacres <http://sanhati.com/articles/8768/>

*December 25, 2013*

*Burn the New Manusmritis*

statement by Republican Panthers

“There can be no doubt that the greater responsibility to bring about this
social revolution in a non-violent manner lies with the opponent. Whether
this revolution is peaceful or not is totally dependent on the response of
the upper caste. Those who accuse the French National Assembly of brutality
during the revolution of 1789 forget the despotism of the French monarch
that forced the people’s rebellion. They also forget his brutal repression
with the aid of foreign military forces that forced the rebellion to be
violent. The social revolution need not have been vicious. We appeal to our
opponents – do not oppose us, set aside the scriptures, abide by the law,
and we promise you we will perform the program peacefully.” – Excerpts from
the speech by Babasaheb Ambedkar at Mahad

Every struggle waged by the oppressed and humiliated dalit masses to
establish a just and equal ethical society has been repressed violently and
brutally by the casteist brahminical system. The history of society is the
history of caste struggles. Struggles reflected in mythical stories of
Shambuk, Ekalavya and other Asuras; the struggles of common people and
philosophers like Charvak, Lokayat and Buddha and the battles of Babasaheb
Ambedkar and Dalits in modern history for caste emancipation. Every battle
fought by Dalits to assert their humanity – the Mahad struggle over access
to public water, the temple entry struggle at the Kalaram temple, and the
conversion to Buddhism were all met with violence.

The foundations of the new Indian nation were laid on the promises of
universal principles such as liberty, equality and fraternity. This new
beginning has proved to be mythical. Which promise of liberty, equality and
fraternity was realised? Oppression and injustice is our collective
reality. Anti-caste struggles for land redistribution like the contests
over ‘gayraan’ and ‘panchnami’ lands; for establishing new symbols and
histories of Dalit dignity like the Namanatar battle for renaming the
Marathwada University have been countered with Chundurus, Karamchedus and
Khairlanjis. There is no public outcry, no movement for justice against
such visible violence and caste hatred.

If Manusmriti was the customary law that served to protect the interests of
the political elite and privileged castes; then the contemporary laws have
been created to establish and continue the dividends of caste. Every time
we have demanded justice we have experienced insistent violence justified
by the Law. The privileges of the unequal and undignified modern forms of
caste oppression must be sustained at all human costs!
Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti to publicly reject the unjust
brahminical system and laid the foundations of a new beginning for Dalits
where they live as dignified human beings. The brahminical capitalist
system is actively eroding these foundations. This new phase of upper
caste-class politics is organised and mediated through law. This law and
legal system is the new Manusmriti of our time.

*Why did Babasaheb Ambedkar burn the Manusmriti?*

Manusmriti codified and allowed for the systematic oppression of Dalits.
Babasaheb rejected this reasoning and practice openly and loudly by burning
the Manusmriti. He said, “By burning the Manusmriti we express our
rejection of the hierarchical principles of the Brahminism and Hindu
society. We hope the brahminised people will register our protest and
rejection and accordingly change their behavior and attitudes. Our friends
are skeptical that brahminism will end by burning
Manusmriti. If this turns out to be the unfortunate reality then we will
have only two paths available to us- one to burn those who are invested in
the brahminical ideas and practices or the second to renounce the Hindu
fold. We will have to choose one of the two paths.”

*What are the new Manusmritis?*

The law that denies justice by condoning caste based oppression,
exploitation and violence while making the struggles for justice themselves
‘illegal’ is the new Manusmriti. The law that repudiates the bestial rape
of Bhanwari Devi and claims that “upper caste men will not rape an
untouchable woman” is the new Manusmriti. The government resolution that
dismissed all cases of violence against Dalits during the Namantar movement
of Marathwada University is the new Manusmriti. The law that declared that
Khairlanji was not a caste crime is the new Manusmriti. The courts that
pardon the premeditated cold blooded murders of Dalits by an upper caste
mob in Bathani Tola and Laxmanpur Bathe are new Manusmritis. These are all
new forms of the old Manusmriti.

In Bathani Tola 21 poor Dalits and Muslims were murdered; in Laxmanpur
Bathe private militia of upper caste landlords murdered 58 poor people
including women and children. Of all the private caste militias of upper
caste landlords, Ranvir sena alone executed 29 massacres killing 287 Dalits
and poor peasants in 5 years. The former President K R Narayanan has
acknowledged that the incidents are a national shame. Despite this the
recent judgments assure complete impunity to those who repress and murder
Dalits. Dalit protests and reactions to massacres, on the other hand, are
swiftly punished as we saw in the case of death sentences against four
landless Dalit peasants in the Bara case and to eight landless poor
peasants in the Dalelchak Baghoura case.

The recent adjudications and cases such as Laxmanpur Bathe, Bathani Tola,
Kilavenmani, Belachchi, Karamchedu have explicitly and implicitly sought to
create new Manusmruti which compels the downtrodden and most exploited
people to distrust the judicial and political system of this country.
Though the Manusmruti has been symbolically burnt year after year, the
forces propelled by the new Manusmruti continue ‘Manav Dahan’ year after
year. They are public pronouncements that Dalits will be excluded from the
republic and even the human race. These courts, this law, this judiciary,
indeed the morality embedded in this system are all the new forms of the
old Manusmriti.

We should burn these new Manusmritis. Once again we demand to be recognized
as humans. Friends, it is time to reignite the struggle for Dalit
emancipation that will give birth to a new society whose basis will be
equality.

Recall the words of Shaheed Chander Kamble, the legatee of the Phule,
Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh’s ideology and the militancy of Dalit Panthers,
“without countering violence atrocities will not end”. Time and again Dalit
masses have shown that they have not forsaken their radical dreams of
self-respect. The responsibility to keep this revolutionary quest alive is
ours.


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