16-05-2022 The Asian Independent

18 16-05-2022 to 31-05-2022 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Eradication of Caste or Caste-Renaissance?
(Summary of the Speech delivered by Prof. Shrawan Deore in Social Justice Conference held on 1st May, 2022 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu),
Test of Kanshi Ramji’s Jati Jodo (Caste Unification) Pattern, Lohia’s Socialist Pattern and Periyar’s Phuleist Non-Brahmin Pattern,
Against the Brahmin-Non-Brahmin Ideology, Hon. President of conference, Participant Speakers, Brothers and sisters …..
Friends…….
The present times demand
answer to a question, ‘Eradication
of caste or revival of the caste system
of a higher level?’ The responsibility
for answering this question
lies with the left, communistsocialist,
progressive and Phule-
Ambedkarites of this country. The
Left (Communist) parties never
accepted the challenge of caste
system, they always kept themselves
away from the caste annihilation
camp. Therefore, they would
never be able to shoulder the
responsibility of answering the
above question. Among the socialists,
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia had
made great strides in the anti-caste
camp.
Dr. Lohia, in alliance with erstwhile
veteran OBC leader and sacrificial
idol Chandapuri, had successfully
formulated a theoretical
framework for the unification of
class struggle and caste struggle.
His slogan “Pichda Pave Sau Mein
Saath”, which means the
“Backwards would have 60% out
of 100%”, was the bugle of the
fight towards eradication of caste.
It was from this battle in 1967, that
the first political battle was successful.
Then, under the leadership
of Samajwadi Party, Ram Naresh
Yadav became the first OBC Chief
Minister in Uttar Pradesh. Karpuri
Thakur became the second OBC
Chief Minister in Bihar in 1970.
Jawaharlal Nehru had wrapped up
the Kalelkar Commission in 1955
and tried to suppress the possible
anti-caste struggle led by OBCs.
However, Lohia, in alliance with
Chandapuri, gave impetus to the
fight against caste under the leadership
of OBC. This struggle led to
the formation of OBC leaders like
Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam
Singh Yadav, who brought the
Mandal era to reality and led OBCcentric
politics in the country.
However, as the era of Mandal
Commission was approaching, the
Brahmin counter-revolutionary
camp opposing Mandal
Commission brought up a cultural
conflict of the Ram Temple. The
Socialist OBC leaders could not
counter this cultural conflict, as
Lohia himself was a devotee of
Ram-Krishna. The Mandala yug,
which emerged only from social
and political struggle, stood on a
fragile ground without a cultural
struggle. The Brahmin camp took
full advantage of this situation and
counter-revolution took place in
2014. We have seen that the sooner
social and political
struggles succeed, the
sooner it fails. The cultural
struggle lengthy
route but it strengthens
anti-caste camp from the
ground up and paves the
way for socio-political
struggle.
Hon’ble Kanshi Ram
Saheb had the historic
responsibility of creating
such a counter-cultural
struggle in North India,
as he was calling himself
a Phule Ambedkarite.
Phule and Ambedkar
gave great symbols like
Baliraja, Shambuk,
Karna, Eklavya to fight
against the Brahmin symbols
like Ram-Krishna.
Kanshi Ram Saheb could
take out processions of
such ‘non-Brahmin symbols’
through Delhi to
Lucknow in North India.
Through this, the one-sided
Brahminization of Bahujans in the
name of Rama could have been
stopped to some extent, but Kanshi
Ram Saheb was neither a Phuleite
nor an Ambedkarite! His aim was
to gain political power by forming
an alliance of only two or three
castes. For this, he sometimes
made one-sided alliance with the
Congress, sometimes with the BJP
and sometimes straightway with
Brahmin caste. We are already witnessing
the after effects of that
today. However, during that period,
we had attempted to build cultural
struggle in Dhule-Nandurbar
district of Maharashtra to the best
of our capabilities. Under the leadership
of well-known intellectual
of Oriental Studies, the great
Indologist Comrade Sharad Patil’s
Satyashodhak Communist Party,
processions of Sita, Shambuk and
Eklavya symbols were taken out in
Dhule city and slogans were
announced in their honor.
Mahatma Joytirao Phule was the
first one to propose the theory of
cultural struggle for the annihilation
of caste! Using the theory of
historical materialism, he proved
that, after the fall of Baliraja, the
history of this country is a history
of Brahmin and non-Brahmin
struggles. He made a scientific
analysis of Dashavatara for this,
and promulgated the cultural struggle
of Shambuk-Ravan against
Rama and Karna-Eklavya against
Krishna. The Brahmin camp has
been consistently victorious for the
last 5,000 years, in this one-sided
cultural struggle, but in absence of
this cultural struggle the non-
Brahmin camp has been living a
life of defeat/humiliation.
However, Tamil Nadu is an
exception in this. The cultural
movement started in 1924
under the leadership of Sami
Periyar was successfully
realized in the political revolution
of 1967. As a result
of this, in 1967, Anna Durai
became the first OBC Chief
Minister in Tamil Nadu.
From there, the reservation
limit was increased and
taken up to 69 per cent.
The first revolutionary
Constitutional Amendment
was brought in 1951, to preserve
reservation and second
amendment for putting
the reservation obtained in
the ninth schedule. These
two revolutionary provisions
were possible only
because of Tamil Nadu.
Because Tamil Nadu had
been brought to be a ‘non-
Brahmin nation state’
through a long cultural
struggle. It is unknown
whether Sami Periyar had
read Mahatma Phule, but he tied
atheism to Phule’s ideology and
put forth a distinct ‘Brahmin-non-
Brahmin ideology’.
Mahatma Phule’s followers fell
short in making Maharashtra a
‘non-Brahmin nation state’,
because at a very crucial moment
they fell for Gandhi-ism, and surrendered
to Congress’
Brahminism. But around the very
same time, in 1925, Sami Periyar
kicked Brahmin Congress and
declared war on Brahmin culture.
As a result, the (Madras) province
of Tamil Nadu became a ‘non-
Brahmin nation state’. The first
and last abode of Brahmin is a temple.
Tamil Nadu is the only state to
legally expel Brahmins from
places of worship. One such piece
of evidence proves that Tamil
Nadu is a ‘non-Brahmin nation
state’. However, this does not
mean that the caste system in
Tamil Nadu has been destroyed. It
is not possible to eradicate the
caste system from Tamil Nadu
alone by keeping it intact in the
rest of India. For that, the OBC
leadership of Tamil Nadu will have
to come forward and lead the fight
against caste at the national level.
The OBC leadership from Tamil
Nadu will have to take immediate
further action at the national level.
Although Brahminism has completely
taken over in North India,
‘non-Brahminism’ is still alive to
some extent, in the southern states.
To make it stand firm and gain
ground the “Sita, Shambuk,
Ravana and Baliraja Pride
Marches” should be started in
southern states under the leadership
of OBC leadership of Tamil
Nadu.
Books and other materials based
on the thoughts and works of Sami
Periyar must be translated into all
the other Indian languages ?and
sent to the respective states at the
earliest. In Maharashtra we have
established ‘Phule Ambedkar
University’, and been conducting
state level examinations on progressive
writings from
Maharashtra. On the similar
grounds, by establishing “Sami
Periyar Phule Ambedkar
University”, if such state level
examinations are conducted in different
languages across the country
the younger generation would
come to know the thoughts and
works of Sami Periyar.
In every state there are some
honest OBC workers who are
working hard. But the OBC leaders
from various political parties are
obstructing their work. To encourage
such activists, the Tamil Nadu
government should honor them
and stand with them in solidarity.
A new ‘non-Brahmin Party’ can
be formed at the national level
under the leadership of OBCs by
bringing together such sincere
OBC activists from each state.
Due to language barrier the rest
of the country was cut off from
Tamil Nadu. Now, by making good
use of Hindi language, Tamil Nadu
should be connected with the rest
of the country and lead the anticaste
non-Brahmin revolution.
The above action plan/program
should be taken up immediately to
lead the anti-caste movement at the
national level to establish a truly
egalitarian ‘Bali Rashtra’ in the
country.
Thanks!