Practice of Intellectual Untouchability In India

Anil Yadavrao Gaikwad www.jaibheem.com

In Year 2012, when the law against the untouchability (viz. The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955) is in existence for over five decades, we still read the news on atrocities against Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes. It is matter of great concern for all the Indians. Although the practice of untouchability was abolished vide Article 17 of the Indian Constitution in 1950 and its practice in any form is forbidden and punishable by the law, it is very much existing in India. The caste system in India is prevailing over last few thousand years and it is integral part of Hindu religion. Since Hindus are in majority in India it is not expected to vanish in near future. Over sixth of the population of India are depressed class who are facing discrimination, segregation and social ostracization. Today violations of these Civil Rights result in punishments as prescribed in the Indian Penal Code. Numerous policies and laws have been made over the years to tackle the issue of untouchability. The basic difficulties of studying and improving the use of law as a tool of directed social change results from the fact that law by itself is the only component of a large set of policy instruments and usually cannot and is not used by itself. This fact caveat should be kept in mind while dealing with the problem of untouchability. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are the two most disadvantaged segments of the weaker sections of Indian society. Atrocities are committed on them on account of their economic dependence on non-SC/ST land-owners, educational backwardness and social discrimination. The Scheduled Castes suffer from the stigma of untouchability. Age-old caste prejudices and practice of untouchability against them lead to commission of atrocities. If you look at few news appeared in India over a period of last one year you will be shocked to read some of the disturbing news items such as .

Grass Root democracy still eludes Dalits Dalit youth killed for loving upper caste girl Dalit set on fire in Etah Caste bias on the rise in Andhra Pradesh colleges Judge rubbed his shoes against me, says Justice Karnan Dalits prohibited from using public well Dalit girl raped at gunpoint in UP SCs, STs do not have much access to public infrastructure Caste-based inequity hampers access to rural infrastructure.

It is well know fact that the Indian media is owned and managed by the dominant caste people and majority of the atrocities are never published. It is not only the people from villages suffer from the untouchability practiced by dominant caste in India but it is also faced by many depressed classes residing in big cities. The primitive form of untouchability can always be challenged since law protect the people but is that the only discrimination faced by members of depressed class in India? Just take the example of the news appeared recently in November 2011 regarding discrimination faced by of Justice Karnan. The honorable Justice Karnan has said it publicly that his fellow judges are targeting him and other such backward class judges. They are facing humility in public. He said that some of the judges from dominant caste are very narrow minded and they seek to dominate judges from depressed castes. The harassment of Justice Karnan went to the extent that he filled a petitioned with the National Commission

of Scheduled Castes and sought an inquiry. If this is the case for a person who is occupying the highest post in judiciary one can only imagine what must be the condition of people working in various capacities in various Govt. departments. That means although the untouchability in the physical form has been banned in India but the dominant caste are still practicing untouchability in intellectual form. Many of the employees working in Public Sector Units (PSU) and with Central / State Government are facing the similar discrimination and atrocities in India. Fact remains that most of the PSU and Government employees from depressed classes are hard working and many of them maintain submissiveness in order to avoid any kind of clashes in the day today work. However, they still face the intellectual untouchability from their peers and seniors. Most of the time they do not react to such intellectual untouchability in order to avoid damages to their CRs and promotion prospects. What is the solution for these kindly of intellectual untouchability? Perhaps none. The fast until death by Gandhi against the communal award for separate electorate for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donold in August 1932 is the highest form of Intellectual Untouchability in Indian History. Mr. Gandhi wanted to prevent the members of depressed classes from ever becoming a part of the mainstream of Indian life at any cost. Many a times the dominant castes are arguing against the reservation to the depressed classes on account of merit. The political parties and their outfits predominately belongs to the dominant caste indirectly working towards removal of reservation for depressed class in India by giving the reason that merit cannot be maintained since intake student quality is below the expected standards. What kind of merit these people are talking about? Hindu society is a society of reservation. When a Hindu Brahmins is born whole field of activities are reserved for him. A Brahmin has knowledge, teaching and learning activities reserved for him. The collection at the Hindu temples in India is bigger economy than the budget of India and all the posts of Priests / Poojari in Hindu Temples are reserved for Brahmins. The merit word has its origin from England and when English people left the country they left this word here and the dominant caste in India are pretending since then as if they only have the merit and no one else can be considered to be with merit. It is now very clear that in India the entire education system is a business. Educational system is money dominated and today if you are rich you can easily admit your child in private medicine and engineering courses without going through the normal route of merit. So where is the question of merit today? There has been rampant admission in the private medical colleges and engineering colleges where only merit is the ability to pay the donation to the management. We only observe this kind of so called Money Merit in India for last two decades since the education has been thrown open to private players. However, education industry has been operating on similar lines in various developed countries for years to-gather now. That means barring few who are going abroad on educational aid from foreign universities never had any merit and the rich people always educated their Childs abroad in order to hide the actual merit of their children. The merit has disappeared in India for last 40 to 50 years so the argument by dominant caste people against the reservation in education on account of fall in merit is baseless. In October 2011, Mr. N R Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, has while voicing his displeasure over the quality of engineers that pass out of the IITs said at one of the function at New York that the quality of students has drastically deteriorated who are passing out from the IITs. It is sure that his judgment and conclusion is based on the sample size containing the student who joins Infosys and are mostly from the dominant caste. Although our country is leading in software industry and software professional enjoys very good status in the society due to the above average pay cheque they get, we have failed to establish a company which is genius and which has developed software and products such as Windows, Google, Facebook etc. Most of the software personals from India are glorified clerks and they do not have any above normal ability

to develop strong products like Microsoft Windows or Oracle or SAP etc. Many of the Indians are working with such distinguished companies but no great products are of Indian origin. Discrimination in the name of merit is another way of practicing intellectual untouchability by the dominant caste people. Today medical services run by state government and central government in India are managed mainly by the doctors belonging to depressed class as most of the so called merit holders do not want to serve rural population and they want to have their practices or go abroad and settle. The medical system is running well and people are by and large are happy about it. Entire rural medical services are managed by majority of the doctors belong to depressed class so where is the question of lack of merit? The reality shows when started in India many of the titles were won by the members of the depressed class since in the initial phase there has been no Intellectual Untouchability followed and once the dominant caste realized their mistake now they are started using tactics of not to allow any candidate from depressed caste to move ahead in such shows. Many state governments, including State Government of Maharashtra, mainly dominated by the dominant caste diverts the funds budgeted for the purpose of welfare of depressed caste to other schemes meant for dominant classes and this is also a one way of intellectual discrimination practiced by the dominant caste people in India. There are main daredevil diseases existing and many of them are life threatening diseases but most of such dieses has cure and can be cured 100% if treated in time. Be it Aids, TB, or Cancer. But there is no cure for the Psychological disease called discrimination based on the caste or Intellectual untouchability. In his website www.abdulkalam.com, our Ex- President Hon. Dr Abdul Kalam, talks about developed India by year 2020. Will it be possible to achieve such development without getting rid of discrimination on the caste? Can we be united developed India with so many much discrimination amongst the citizen of India based on the caste? These questions are to be answered by all before we can dream about the developed nation status because a development can not be achieved before we achieve equality in the minds of the people.
References Grassroot democracy still eludes Dalits (Women, Dalit representatives face hardship in villages dominated by local political and social elite) http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/article2508425.ece Dalit youth killed for loving upper caste girl http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-14/lucknow/30278600_1_dalit-youth-uppercaste-family-members Dalit set on fire in Etah SUNDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2011 21:25 / PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | LUCKNOW http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/lucknow/13669-dalit-set-on-fire-in-etah.html Caste bias on the rise in Andhra Pradesh colleges http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/hyderabad/caste-bias-rise-andhra-pradeshcolleges-945 Judge rubbed his shoes against me, says Justice Karnan A Subramani, TNN Nov 4, 2011, 01.38AM IST , http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-04/india/30358924_1_high-court-full-courtmeeting-dalit

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Dalits prohibited from using public well Mohamed Imranullah S. http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/30/stories/2011063065180300.htm

Dalit girl raped at gunpoint in UP http://ibnlive.in.com/news/dalit-girl-raped-at-gunpoint-in-up/160797-3.html SCs, STs do not have much access to public infrastructure: report AARTI DHAR http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article2439776.ece Caste-based inequity hampers access to rural infrastructure http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/article2442353.ece 2. Quotas Versus Merit Does Merit Really Matter? http://india_resource.tripod.com/caste-quotas.html NR Narayana Murthy: Quality of students deteriorating @ IITs http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-03/education/30238224_1_pan-iit-indianinstitutes-entrance-examination Merit : The Aryan Bluff, Author MR S R Talukder, 2001, Published by Bluemoon Books, New Delhi Report on Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes, Author Mr. K B Sazena, IAS (Retd), Published by National Human Right Commission From Untouchable to Dalit Essays on the Ambedker Movement Author Eleanor Zelliot, 2001 Published by Manohar Publishers & Distributors __@@@__

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