Background :: The battle of Bhima-Koregaon was fought between East India Company and Peshwa Bajirao II (Prime Minister of Chhatrapati of Satara) on 1st January 1818. The battle ended in a decisive victory of the British (East India Co.). However, this victory of British over an Indian ruler is often dubbed as a victory of Dalits over Brahmins. Why? The army of East India Co. had a Mahar (Dalit) regiment and Peshwa Bajirao II was a ‘Chitpavan’ Brahmin by caste. So, for some Indians this was not a defeat of an Indian ruler by the British but a victory of Dalits (oppressed classes) over Brahmins (ruling classes). Lot of water has flown under the bridge since the last bullet was fired in Bhima-Koregaon battle. However, even today there is a class of politicians, who instigate people in the name of caste-based political events like Bhima-Koregaon Battle. What emanates from this political provocation is destruction and obstruction, which the cities of Mumbai and Pune witnessed last week.
Uncomfortable Truth :: Anyways, in midst of this ‘historic’ cum political chaos, as tech savvy citizen with a scientific temper, I want to ask a question: HOW AM I CONCERNED (in the political fight of ‘Dalit vs Brahmins’)? I am pretty confident that this question must have hit the minds of many urbanites of Mumbai-Pune, when they were stopped by the ‘protesters’ from commuting to their place of work. This blog is an attempt to find an answer to this question of urban India.
First thing is first, we must accept the uncomfortable truth that prevails in our society. India is a country that is united politically but is divided socially. It has been the situation for over a thousand years now. The fathers of modern India (India after 1947) introduced the concept of ‘unity in diversity’. It was a beautiful concept that united us culturally. However, it could not unite us socially and these social divisions were time and again exploited by certains mischievous elements. The problem that is bigger than this social-divide is: the common voter of India expects his political masters to provide a time-tested solution to this problem. The political masters, on the other hand aren’t leaving any stone unturned to ensure that these caste bifurcations stay in India’s social structure. For them, the division of caste furnishes a golden opportunity to create vote-banks. The politicians and their stooges in medias have even replaced the concept of ‘Indian-voters’ by Dalit-voters, Muslim-voters, Yadav-voters, Patidar-voters, Maratha-voters, Lingayat-voters… the list is endless.
It has become evident that the vote-bank turmoil of Indian polity has failed the common man. Consequently, it is equally important for the common man, not to expect any political solution for his social problem. He cannot expect the political wolves to become herbivores and stop tormenting him in the name of caste. That being so, the common man is left to fight his own battle.
Urban India :: Back to the incident of last week. The Bhima-Koregaon violence, in my opinion, served a harsh reminder to the citizens of urban India, in particular. Halting important cities likes Mumbai and Pune reminded the people that ‘THE MONSTER OF CASTEISM IS VERY MUCH ALIVE AND HAS BECOME A PUPPET IN THE HANDS OF POLITICIANS.’ It was a harsh wakeup call for the urban youth, in specific.
The social fabric of urban-India largely promotes and provides equal opportunity of growth to its citizens. There may be stray instances of caste-based issues in cities but it can be safely concluded that the urban-India has shed the ancient baggage of casteism. Caste play minimal role in the lives of urbanites as compared to their rural counterparts. Therefore, I feel that last week’s casteism-violence poked fun (if I can use that word) at urbanites. It reminded them they too live in the same shadow of casteism-violence as the rest of India.
Dear readers, the monster of casteism is destroying the India, especially rural-India and the political class is making a feast of it. I sincerely feel that the onus of stopping this monster is on the educated and rational citizens of the India and the urban youth forms a large part of the lot. Therefore, the question, “How am I concerned?” does not hold any ground. Anybody, who believes in the idea of ‘ONE INDIA – STRONG INDIA’ should be concerned with Bhima-Koregaon violence. As an educated citizen, it hurts to see the caste divisions taking precedence over national security. It is a matter of immense pain to see my country’s history getting misused to fuel political unrest. The mayhem of few unemployed men stopped professionals from attending their workplaces and certainly this is an unsolicited sight in the era of globalisation.
Dalit-Oppression :: Now, let us focus on what some believes as ‘the root cause’ of Bhima-Koregaon issue – the Dalit Oppression. India is known for its religious tolerance and at various points of time, we have sheltered the homeless. The Parsi and Jew communities of India stand testimony to this fact. Nonetheless, the timelines of ancient and medieval Indian history have documented the oppression of Dalits or the so called lower castes. The inhumane treatment of fellow Indians by the so called higher caste Indians, in the name of caste, has stigmatized our social structure. It evidences the failure of ‘Chaturvarna‘ (the four caste order) of ancient India. To the outside world, the Dalit Oppression is a desi version of America’s Black-Exploitation. The citizens of the United States of America paid a heavy price for their misdeeds. Their country witnessed a civil war as a consequence of their slavery-policy. Nonetheless, America has come out of the out of the dark age of Black-Exploitation and is a super power in geopolitics.
So, are we waiting for our civil war? Some would say – YES! The fact is: a section of politicians, busy exploiting the caste-difference wants civil unrest, if not a war. During the recent Bhima-Koregaon menace, a politician even mentioned it in a public forum. Nevertheless, a law abiding citizen of India will never support this kind of anarchy because he represents the saner voice of India. It is he, who spends long hours at their workplace so that he can provide a better quality of life to his family. It is he, who is the nation-builder, who diligently pays taxes and expects the money to be used for the well being of his countrymen.
As mentioned earlier, the key to stop this casteist nonsense is in the hands of the educated professionals of India. The casteist political ‘Messiahs’ of people very well knows that this educated class of India is a formidable section of society, who can drive away the caste difference of Indian societies. Hence, they want this section of citizens to remain busy in their own world of ‘office-home-weekend parties’. It is upto the educated section of the society to decide now.
If this rational class of professionals decides to take a plunge to end casteism then there will be a bona fide attempt to correct the wrongdoings of the past of Indian feudal anatomy; a robust social structure will be the result. I am sure, Mother India is eagerly awaiting the day when the educated citizen of India stops insinuating himself from the very real problem of casteism and its exploitation by a section our political class. She is waiting for the day when her sons and daughters sheds the tags likes Brahmin, Kshatriya or Dalit and identify themselves only and only as INDIANS. When such day would come then the question: ‘How am I concerned?’ would never cross an Indian mind because it would be day when the monster of casteism would have been finally cremated in the backyard of every Indian family.
———-JAI HIND———-
Rohan Bendre 