[Reader-list] UNDERPRIVILEGED ACHIEVERS IN THE JUNGLE OF PREDATORS

[Asit Das]

UNDERPRIVILEGED ACHIEVERS IN THE JUNGLE OF PREDATORS

Saturday 8 August 2015, by A K Biswas
<http://mainstreamweekly.net/auteur184.html>

The sparkling success of two underprivileged brothers, Raju and Brijesh
Saroj, of village Rehua Lalganj, district Pratapgarh of Uttar Pradesh in
the highly competitive IIT entrance test have earned loud appreciations
from home and abroad. Raju secured the 167th and Brijesh the 410th rank in
the merit list. Dharamraj, a mill-hand in Surat, Gujarat, earns a monthly
sum of Rs 12,000 for a family of seven persons. Knowing their father’s
inability to finance their expensive engineering education in IITs, many,
by warm humanitarian gesture, have volunteered to support them to tide over
their financial crunch.

The day their success story appeared in a widely circulated English daily,
excited and worried, I had posted online my comment somewhat like this:
‘Government should immediately provide security, safety and protection to
the two achievers. Their achievement in the IIT entrance tests has made
them further vulnerable in the eyes of their jealous neighbours/countrymen
on caste lines.’ Within half-an-hour, my inoffensive post was deleted from
the public forum. This perhaps demonstrates the level of intense orthodoxy
and hatred a section of the people nurse against the caste of the
underprivileged achievers.

By their successes, they have created simult-aneously admirers and enemies.
While they chase their dreams they would encounter many a hazard, for
example, ragging, harassment, violence and humiliation in the school
wherever they get admission. Biases and prejudices of teachers, besides
grudging fellow students, have ruined the careers of many underprivileged
students, both girls and boys. Their grading in examinations have been
deliberately subjected to caste prism without any avenue for redress even
in institutes of national excellence. Instances of discrimination,
humiliation and hatred against Scheduled Castes and Tribes involving highly
reputed institutes from every corner of the country are on record.

The fact that Dharmaraj’s house has been subjected to vandalism by
miscreants on the third day of his sons’ results prove, sooner than
expected, my apprehensions correct. Leave aside hundreds of instances of
harassment and discrimination common in India for Scheduled Castes and
Tribes, the long road ahead is really worrisome for the two boys after they
enroll themselves in the IITs. That the district adminis-tration has rushed
up a section of the police force to Rehua Lalganj for security and safety
of the family, living in their thatched house, underlines the explosive
situation. This is, I am afraid, just the beginning of the shape of things
to come on the way. I do not, however, undermine the gesture of goodwill by
generous people towards the two heroes.

 Even after 79 years, B. R. Ambedkar continues to be relevant. In his
unfailing perception he observed in *Annihilation of Caste* (May 1936):
“The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus is simply deplorable.
Caste has killed public spirit [. ............] Caste has made public
opinion impossible. Virtue has become caste-ridden and morality has become
caste-bound. There is no appreciation of the meritorious. [........] There
is charity but it begins with the caste and ends with the caste. There is
sympathy but not for men of other caste. [...........] *The capacity to
appreciate merits in a man apart from his caste does not exist in a Hindu.
There is appreciation of virtue but only when the man is a fellow
caste-man.* (Italicised by this author)

 *In the Company of Hyenas *

Instances are aplenty. The headline in the media on March 8 , 2015
captioned, “Dalit girl set on fire for appearing in intermediate exams by
guys who’ve been failing it”, is not imaginary. The unidentified girl was
set on fire in the Diwan-Tola hamlet of Patthardewa village in Kushinagar
district in Uttar Pradesh on March 5, 2015. With 70 per cent burns, in a
recorded statement in hospital she identified her attackers as Dhiraj
Yadav, Arvind and Dinesh besides their father, Ram Pravesh Yadav. All the
four accused barged into the her hut while she was cooking, poured kerosene
on her and set her on fire. “They didn’t like I was pursuing my education
because they were failing in school every year.”*1* This angst against the
underprivileged pursuing education runs deep into the psyche of Hindus
anywhere under the sun. The victims have no redress in any
forum—administrative, police, judiciary—on Indian soil. Miscarriage of
justice in all atrocities is almost a foregone conclusion. The educational
progress of the underprivileged is grossly disliked by the upper castes.
So, they aim at frustrating their ambition and venture by any
means—murdering, raping, arson and name any crime you can.

Pradeep Kumar, a Khatik, Scheduled Caste in Haryana, topped in all
semesters of the mechanical engineering branch in Kalpana Chawla College of
Engineering and Technology, Hissar. This enraged Rajkumar and Kalyan, both
Jats, who were his classmates. They felt humiliated by the brilliance of
the meritorious Khatik. On the fateful day, the two Jats stopped him at the
college gate and, without any provocation whatsoever, pumped four bullets
into Pradeep resulting in his spot death. According to media reports, “The
two accused, who belong to affluent Jat families, did not like that a
backward caste boy was dominating studies and topping in all the
semesters.” Insurmountable like the Himalayas, their hatred against the
talented Scheduled Caste or Tribe, is the common thread that runs through
all Hindus—be they Yadavas, Jats in the north or Vaniyyars in Tamilnadu of
the south or else! A private TV channel reported on June 26, 2015 that a
Dalit engineer was found dead for talking to an upper-caste friend, a girl.
*2*

*Nation’s Pride AIIMS, a National Shame too*

On September 12, 2006 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government
of India constituted a three-member committee comp-rising Prof S.K. Thorat,
Chairman, University Grants Commission, Dr K.M. Shyam Prasad,
Vice-President, National Board of Examinations, and Dr R.K. Srivastava,
Director General of Health Services, the first of its kind, to investigate
allegations of discrimination and prejudice against Scheduled Caste and
Tribe students in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),
considered the pride of the national Capital*.* The report of this
Committee unfolds gory tales of discrimination, dehumani-sation, violence
and prejudice against students belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Tribe
communities pursuing medical education in this prestigious institute.
Upper-caste teachers as well as students were equally blinded by prejudice.
Referring to the suicide of a student, the Thorat Committee observed:*“What
surprises us is the guts and perseverance shown by the rest of Dalit and
Adivasi students who have to endure utmost humiliation, dehumanisation and
violence and yet survive in a campus that is supposed to train them to
become doctors to serve the humanity.”*3

A bright student from Madhya Pradesh, Bal Mukund Bharti, was driven to
commit suicide in the AIIMS hostel. The authorities dismissed the tragedy
with a remorseless statement that he “went into depression as he was not
able to cope up with the rigorous academic environment of AIIMS”. Bharti
was a Chamar by caste.

The Thorat Committee report is simply shocking. A few citations may help us
appreciate the tragedy of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students.
It observed that *“the SC/ST students do not receive the kind of support
that the other students received from their teachers. Non-cooperation is
experienced by students in various ways. Given the dependence of students
on teachers for learning and skill, the lack of adequate support to the
SC/ST reflect in performance and psychological problems, which further
leads to lower performance and frequent failure.” *(Report, p. 20)

Probing deeper into the attitudinal hostility of the faculty, the committee
further noted that *“The students belonging to reserve category are failed
always. Last year no Scheduled Caste students were allowed to clear in
first year final professional examination. For instance, Sujo had got 70
per cent in 1st professional and 55 per cent in 2ndprofessional
examination, but was not cleared in last professional examination. Due to
this he suffered from mental depression and received psychological
treatment.”*(Report, pp. 23-24) *This is nothing but crime against STs and
STs and the wrong-doers have got away with total impunity. *

Citing a specific case, the Committee noted that a professor in presence of
a colleague stigmatised a student from Ghazaibad as ‘a *badmash*’ or bad
character and declared his ulterior motive in presence of him to stop him
from “clearing the examination”. He was made to fail repeatedly till he
developed psychological disorder. (p. 23) This country speaks loudly about
universal brotherhood—*vasudhaiva*-*kutumbakam,* human dignity, and
solidarity, which are nothing but shameful pretension if we view the
conditions of SC/ST students in the AIIMS. Mind it, the perpetrators of
crimes against them are not illiterate men or women.

The cardinal principle of the AIIMS authorities is caste-based segregation.
The blight afflicting the authorities in the AIIMS has been noted *in (a)
allocation of rooms in the hostels, (b) in sharing dining facilities, (c)
associated living, (d) participation in cultural events, and (e) games. *

*Bihar Police Caste Kitchens AIIMS’ Model?*

On June 22, 2015, a private TV channel declared gleefully, “Even in the era
of twentyfirst century, Bihar Police is engulfed in the casteism of
eighteenth century.” The Gaya Police line boasts of “eleven kitchens for
Brahmins, Rajputs, Bhumhihars and Harijans”. The authorities, however,
feigned ignorance of its existence.*4*

The Bihar Police does not perhaps know their model of caste kitchen has
been replicated for hostels in the AIIMS, New Delhi. We now learn that t*here
are two categories of messes for the dining of students — general messes
and the private messes. The private messes offer greater variety of food
and are also more expensive. While the general messes are open to the
reserved categories, the SC/ST students faced restrictions in becoming a
member and to have access to the private messes. *(p. 33) *Identical issues
of caste discrimination faced by students of Namasudra and other
untouchable castes were, let us recall, agitated before the Simon
Commission in Calcutta in 1928. Udayan, a hostel exclusively for Scheduled
Caste students of college and university studying in Calcutta is a striking
reality even in present-day Calcutta. *

The AIIMS being elite medical institution for teaching and research, it
does things in style which the Bihar Police perhaps lacks. The sports
grounds in the Capital’s pride are also not left untouched by the caste
virus. In one of the recorded interviews, a Dalit student underlined this
aspect. “*They (upper castes/general category students) have formed a
group. They play Basketball.........we play Volleyball *(laughs)”. Cricket
too is an upper-caste game in the AIIMS while Dalits trying to play
Basketball received humiliating treatment from the upper castes. (p. 36)
So, the Thorat Committee concluded that *“Basketball is the game
exclusively for the general category students. Volleyball and Football were
earmarked there for reserved category students. The students were asked
whether they faced discrimination in various games. About 88 per cent of
them mentioned that they do face discrimination in access to the Basketball
game followed by 60 per cent in cricket. *(p. 36) *Isn’t the so-called
national pride the holy bastion of shame too? India’s elite motormouths
have no courage to talk about, much less touch, the protagonists and
practitioners of caste exclusion in the AIIMS.*”

*Ossification of Orthodoxy perfected in Hindu Homes*

Needless to say, ossification of orthodoxy for the Hindu faculty members as
well as students has been perfected in the homes where they were born, in
the culture they were nurtured and in the environment they were brought up,
giving birth to an abnormal psychology in them. The toxicity level there
has been very high for social harmony and solidarity. Every Hindu under the
sun possesses a licence to harm, humiliate, outrage, rape, or even murder
any Dalit with perfect impunity and equanimity which is inbuilt in the
mechanism called caste. The law rarely catches up with the murderers,
rapists, arsonists, violators.

The suicide note recovered from Jaspreet Singh, a Dalit student of
Government Medical College, Chandigarh, pointedly “charged his Head of the
Department (HOD) with deliberately failing him and threatening to fail him
over and over. Seven months later, a three-member group of senior
professors re-evaluated Jaspreet’s “answer-sheet and found that he had in
fact passed the test”. Jaspreet, a brilliant student though died with his
dream. A year later, his young sister, a student of Bachelor of Computer
Application, heartbroken at the injustice done to her brother, also
committed suicide. According to the report, “His HOD told him (Jaspret)
that he might have entered medical college using his Scheduled Caste
certificate but he would not go out with a degree. The professor failed him
in Community Medicine, a crucial subject, and told him, according to the
suicide note, that he will not let him pass. Jaspreet had set his heart on
an MD degree from the presti-gious Post Graduate Institute of Medical
Education and Research in Chandigarh. The threat cut short that dream. Hid
distraught father Charan Singh exclaimed: “I have no reason to live
any-more.” The doctors—Rajesh Kumar, Amarjeet Singh and Arun Kumar
Aggrawal—specialised in Community Medicine, the subject in which Jaspreet
was failed, are at large yet.*5* No civilised country would perhaps spare
criminals responsible for driving young students to desperation so that he
ultimately commits suicide. But India is a caste nation, the position of
everyone is predetermined by birth, with which Hindus do not interfere.

 The Thorat Committee faced total disregard, all-out resistance and
complete non-cooperation in their investigation from the AIIMS authorities.
This was calibrated action on its part. The Committee sought cooperation of
the AIIMS administration, particularly Director P. Venugopal, for
interaction with the faculty and students. They met the Director and
requested for display of notices informing the students about investigation
by the committee and the place of meeting for interaction on notice boards.
However, to its utter surprise, the Committee did not receive any response
from the students and faculties on the stipulated date and time. The level
of arrogance of Dr Venugopal is reflected from the fact that he had refused
to even respond to the written notice sent by the Secretary, Higher
Education Department, Government of India “asking for a status report on
the cases of caste-discrimination”. The government could not touch him,
much less issue a public reprimand.

The AIIMS, Delhi alone is not the graveyard for Scheduled Caste and Tribe
students pursuing higher education. Many institutes of national importance
all over India have similar dark and disgraceful records of discrimination
and violence against underprivileged students.

The anti-reservation association in the AIIMS claimed in high decibel that
there was no caste discrimination in the premier institute. The Government
of India did not take any action on the Thorat Committee report for reform
in the AIIMS and arrest the incidence of unbridled discrimination and abuse
of human dignity. This emboldens the caste lords. The government’s
culpability is no less heinous.

*Tailpiece *

I have a word of caution, if not advice, for the two young achievers from
Rehua Lalganj. Total dedication, determination and will-power must be their
sole guide in the days ahead in their college. They must guard themselves
against any flippant ideas making inroad in their minds for distracting
them from their mission and dreams. Instances may not be rare when many
talented students, after initial sparks, have faded because they fell in
bad company that led them into dark tunnels. People from far-off places
across the globe have volunteered to help them in fructifying their
cherished dreams. Like their parents they too wish them well. Let the
countrymen shun their prejudice and attitudinal hostility and stand by the
side of every under-privileged child to ensure what poet Rabindra-nath
Tagore had dreamed long, long ago:

*“Let the buds do not fall down before it bloom on the branches of the
tree; *

*Let the river does not dry in the sands of the desert before it empties
itself into the sea.”*6

*Footnotes*

1. Mail Today, Lucknow, March 6, 2015, news captioned “Dalit girl set on
fire for pursuing education in UP.”

2. NDTV news caption “Murdered for Talking to Upper Caste Friend? Engineer
Found Dead on Railway Track”, June 26, 2015. The channel also told viewers
of another case: “

“In 2013, a Dalit man, Ilavarasan, was found dead on the railway tracks in
Dharmapuri district in the State a day after his wife refused to return to
him citing continuing clashes between both communities and memories of her
father. Ilavarasan had married a woman from the higher Vanniyar community
which led to her father committing suicide. This had triggered riots
against Dalits—around 250 Dalit homes were set on fire. The police said
Ilavarasan’s death was a case of suicide and not murder.”

 In this case the girl belonged to the dominant upper caste with close
political links in the State.

3. *https://thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/who-killed-dr-balmukund-bharti-in-aiims/
<https://thedeathofmeritinindia.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/who-killed-dr-balmukund-bharti-in-aiims/>*

4. India TV, “The casteist face of Bihar Police”, June 22, 2015.

Harijan denotes untouchable in Gandhian parlance. Use of this word to refer
to Scheduled Castes has been banned by Government of India. Girijan to
refer to Tribal communities too has been similarly banned.

5. A. K. Biswas, “Merit a curse for Dalits?”, *Mainstream,* Vol L, No 17,
April 14, 2012.*http://www.mainstream
<http://www.mainstream/>weekly.net/article3390.html
<http://weekly.net/article3390.html>*