Dalit Consciousness
By The Editor
Dalits constitute almost one fifth of India’s total population and they include all oppressed people outside the Varna system in contract to the Sudra group belonging to lowest rung of the Varna system. There is much difference between terms Dalit and either a Harijan or a Scheduled Caste (SC), the first being used by people belonging to the community itself whereas the other two are coined by others.
Current popular word Dalit were first used by two Marathi leaders Mahatma Jyotirao Phule (1827-1890) and Bhimrao Ramji (BR) Ambedkar (1891-1956), prominent members of the Dalit community, to describe their conditions of poverty, broken and oppressed victims at the hands of high-caste Hindus. To right the wrong of many past centuries, framers of the Constitution of India under leadership of B.R. Ambedkar had provided reservation for SCs under Article 41 of the Constitution which did not have religious restriction. Unfortunately, presidential order in 1950 provision was exclusive for Hindus only, excluding Christians, Muslims and other religious minorities, and amendments were made in 1956 and 1990 to include Sikhs and Buddhists respectively. But Muslims and Christian Dalits are still left out and this happened during Congress regimes.
During parliamentary elections of 2014, Chief Minister Narendra Modi of Gujarat emerged victorious with support of 31 per cent of Hindus and became Prime Minister under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – led government at the Centre. He improved his tally after five years in 2019 by securing 40 per cent of Hindu votes. All along the BJP did not care much for minority votes including Muslims. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have change of heart and tries to reach out to Muslims and Dalits with little more than a year before all- India elections in 2024. Making doubly sure that he attains hat-trick and expecting landslide victory, Modi has asked BJP workers in all parliamentary constituencies across the country to reach out to the Muslims, especially Pasmanda among them and to extend all possible help.
Pasmanda is the Urdu-Persian word which roughly translates as ‘left behind’ or ‘oppressed’ and Pasmanda Muslims form roughly 75 to 85 per cent of total Muslim population. According to Sachar Committee report which was constituted during the Congress regime, Muslims have been classified into three categories, namely, Ashrafs (forwards), Ajlafs (Other Backward Classes or OBC) and Arzals (Dalits), Dalit Muslims forming 47 per cent of community. Both Ajlafs and Arzals deprive benefits under OBC reservation, though Dalits prefer for inclusion in SC list. According to them, Pasmanda is misleading terminology invented to deflect focus from Dalit Muslims. Possibly, BJP seems to, however, take advantage of these differences but Muslims are not gullible since they have seen enough of Sangh Parivar’s activities.
Courtesy : The meghalayan
Note: This news piece was originally published in themeghalayan.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights