Annihilation of Caste (The Annotated Critical Edition)1 PDF

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© Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2018 All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected] doi:10.1093/cdj/bsy029 Advance Access Publication 12 June 2018 Classic Text Annihilation of Caste (The Annotated Critical Edition)1 Downloaded from https...

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© Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2018 All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected] doi:10.1093/cdj/bsy029 Advance Access Publication 12 June 2018

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Manish K. Jha

On 15 May 2018, we are approaching the 82nd anniversary of the publication of the written speech Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar. Written in the summer of 1936, the Annihilation of Caste (AoC) has had a tremendous influence on the polity and society of India, but particularly on communities experiencing deprivation and discrimination. The speech symbolizes an authoritative articulation of social reality; a reality that is defined by the pervasiveness of inequality and injustice. A comprehensive text, it was prepared as a public talk that was never delivered. B.R. Ambedkar was one of the India’s foremost political thinkers and social reformers, and he was also a prolific writer and constitutional expert who relentlessly and vociferously questioned the menace of the caste system. Highlighting the irrationality of that ‘venerable’ system of hierarchy, the AoC puts forth some of the controversial and complex aspects of caste that continue to be of contemporary significance, even after 80 years. The text was intended to initiate an informed dialogue with select liberal caste Hindus who had formed an association called Jat Pat Thodak Dal (Destruction of Caste System). Responding to an invitation from the association, Ambedkar saw an opportunity to engage with foundational issues and concerns associated with the caste system, issues that continue to thwart change and transformation in Hindu society. In fact, the backdrop against which Ambedkar received the invitation to deliver the lecture and that led to the writing of the text, along with his correspondence with the organizers of the event, also provide fascinating insights into the context of the time. The text illustrates, through numerous examples, widespread practices of coercion, wage bondage, compliance and discrimination in Hindu society. Caste-based discrimination and atrocities also include the prohibition

1 The Annihilation of Caste was first published in May 1936.

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of lower caste people from wearing their own choice of clothing and their exclusion from schooling alongside upper caste children. Ambedkar questions whether upper caste Hindus are fit to exercise political power when ‘Untouchables’ cannot use public schools, public wells, wear apparel and ornaments of their liking or consume food to their taste. Bringing the discussion around to the relative importance of political reform, social reform and economic reform, AoC explicates the primacy and fundamental significance of social reform. The text explains that the caste system is a not only a division of labour; it is also a division of labourers. This gradation of labourers is not based on natural aptitudes, but on the social status of their parents. Ambedkar takes on the entrenched hierarchy within the Hindu religion that justifies the existence and continuance of caste. He systematically and scientifically analyses specific problems in a system that degrades large sections of the population who are defined as ‘lower caste’. With perceptive explanations, brilliant analysis and emotional illustrations of the repercussions of caste-based social practice, Ambedkar demolishes the logic that defends this unacceptable system. How does one understand the meaning, emergence and influence of the text amidst deep-rooted social inequality? How do individuals and communities deal with the central problematics that are explained in AoC? It is evident that the text did not intend to emphasize the victimhood or experiences of discrimination of Dalits. It avoids looking at the caste question from a position of sympathy, charity or governmental considerations. Rather, Annihilation of Caste is immersed in a debate between discursive ethics and discursive rationality. It makes authoritative statements about the eradication of the caste system; confronting social questions and moral questions squarely, it proclaims that within the caste system there is no emancipatory potential. It spells out the vulnerabilities and unfreedom that emanate from caste practices. Therefore, it should be seen as an intellectually serious but politically rebellious text that confronts received wisdom that is, in turn, premised on birth-based hierarchies and power. The concerns that are explicated in AoC have profoundly influenced and inspired Dalit politics, academic engagement and community action, and how these three elements intersect with each other. My first engagement with the text began with an element of self-doubt and defensiveness. Coming from a family with the ‘privilege’ of being born into an upper caste, I grew up with a sense of being progressive and liberal because of my family’s socio-political orientation. Deeply influenced by socialist ideals and belonging to a family of socialist political leaders, I grew up with a consciousness of caste-based discrimination in the wider society. However, my familiarity with and admiration for Ambedkar were

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largely defined by his status as an architect of the Indian Constitution. I was generally oblivious to his rebellious politics, extensive writings on caste and Indian society, and his intellectual and transformative influence on the society and polity at large. Indeed, the official curriculum prescribed in schools and colleges/universities gave only a marginal space to Ambedkar with some recognition and admiration for his contribution to the Constitution: like me, students and scholars were typically unaware of his enormous endeavour towards the socio-political emancipation of deprived castes. Although the AoC did not make a formal entry into the academic curriculum of any discipline for several decades, it gradually became a manifesto for Dalit politics, community mobilization and identity movements across the length and breadth of the country. For a long time, in post-colonial India, even the human service professions of Social Work and Community Development did not effectively get to grips with the nuances of the caste system. Therefore, profound structural problems remained largely unattended. Their heavy reliance on governmental literature and official understandings of caste meant that professionals constructed this expression of exploitation and injustice in a sanitized manner. Even the Community Development Programme, launched by the Indian Government in the 1950s, failed to give attention to the issue of redress for caste-based injustice. Whether facilitated by the government, NGOs, social activists or others, community development as a socio-political process potentially enables people to come together, to develop analyses and to plan collective action. However, unequal power relations, embedded social hierarchy, and inequality clearly complicate the processes of true participation, engagement and action by the subjects of community development (Jha, 2015: 68). The AoC affirms that only by attending to structural causes can the potential of the community as a collective actor be realized. No other text can match the AoC in making clear the vexed and tricky interlinkages between caste/religion, work/occupation, discrimination/exploitation, power/hierarchy and their implications for community, collectivization, harmony and liberation. The text lays bare the nature of hierarchy and social stratification in Indian society, arguing that it requires fundamental social change and transformation. Ambedkar posed unnerving and critical challenges that are relevant for all current and future efforts at community engagement, mobilization and organization. The text makes it abundantly clear that no genuine sangathan and cooperation is possible in such a divided society. The Community Development Programme that was launched as a flagship initiative by the Government of India in the immediate post-colonial phase was bereft of any serious engagement with the question of caste:

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consequently, it was not able to engage with the basics of subjecthood and marginalization as experienced by ‘lower caste’ communities, and community development remained restricted to the development of some infrastructure in rural India. This brings us to reflect, how does the text influence understandings of Community Organization, taken as a political process, as opposed to the largely apolitical and governmentalised approach of Community Development? By helping people to recognise the structural inequalities and injustices that are embedded in the caste system, the text challenges received understandings of the righteousness of ‘community’ in general. The fact that elements of togetherness, participation or collegiality were inconceivable in caste-ridden communities, and that the intolerance shown towards lower caste people was all-pervasive, meant that community development processes invariably kept lower caste people away from all decision-making processes. To break through this hierarchical structure and to penetrate deeper into India’s complex reality, it thus was essential to confront the caste system by emphasizing anti-caste mobilization. Community Organization, as a movement or approach, evolved with this consciousness of societal structures and it premised all efforts at collectivization on an anti-caste platform. One rarely finds a Community Organizer who is not conscious of these realities or who is not standing up against caste. While employing a radical critique of Hindu society, AoC provides direction towards, or an itinerary for, understanding the quintessence of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Community Work in general and Community Organization, in particular, have been enriched by AoC because it helps readers to comprehend what it means to be in a struggle for equality, and what it signifies to be a part of a community that is bereft of caste. It forces us to look at how one strives to engage with communities so that caste affiliation is either undermined, discussed or debated and questioned. The criticality and relevance of Community Engagement rest with such commitments. The eventual fruition of Community Organization in India saw scholars and activists, drawing on insights from their field experiences and critical reflections, give explicit consideration towards Dalit and tribal issues. To disallow or prevent caste’s pervasive influence over community engagement processes, it is crucial to position caste questions squarely at the centre of discourse and practice. As a result, Dalit and Tribal Studies and Action have emerged within the domains of social work and development practice. Drawing heavily from the letter and spirit of AoC, this praxis has contributed towards the further enrichment of Community Organizing. With the emergence of new emancipatory ideas, critical mindsets, and

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Dean, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India; email: [email protected]

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liberatory perspectives and strategies, Community Organizing’s potential and reach can extend even further. However, there is no room for complacency. The essence of the text is still profoundly valid even in the year 2018. Instances and evidence of caste-based discrimination abound: Dalits being supplied with soap and shampoo to clean themselves prior to their meeting with an upper caste chief minister of a state; the President of a ruling political party eating food that was actually supplied by a restaurant, while visiting a Dalit home and pretending that he had taken the food the Dalit family prepared for him. These are reminders that fundamentals and mindsets remain the same or similar, even though such a sharp analysis was delivered by Ambedkar 80 years ago. Numerous instances of overt physical violence manifest and reinforce a deeper structural violence against Dalits: such violence bolsters hierarchy and subjugates entire communities. Ambedkar’s contention that castes form a graded system of sovereignties and perpetuate a graded system of inequalities can be discerned even today. The validity of the assertion that ‘caste is impregnable’ (Ambedkar, 2014, p. 303) can be observed and recognised in every sphere of life. Because ‘Caste is impregnable’, the sexual appropriation of women – through endogamous marriage, bondage and female servitude – and the habitual assaults on women of dependent castes form part of the ‘common sense’ of the caste system (Kannabiran, 2014, p. 14) and it continues to influence everyday life even in 21st century India. Through the Annihilation of Caste, the minute and complex details of exclusion, exploitation, deprivation and dehumanization become real to the reader. The kinds of physical and structural violence explicated in 1936 have been addressed constitutionally and legally, but their social causes and consequences have only seen marginal changes. A diehard critic of the Hindu religion, Ambedkar emphasized how Hindu scriptures were nothing but a mass of sacrificial, social, political and sanitary rules and regulations: ‘What is called Religion by the Hindus is nothing but a multitude of commands and prohibitions’ (Ambedkar, 2014, p. 305). Ambedkar calls for the destruction of the commands, rules and laws that are camouflaged as religion, and that are fundamentally iniquitous in how they cramp and cripple people. The text concludes with the hope that people are ready to challenge archaic values and to bring foundational changes to the Hindu religion through the annihilation of caste. With the passing of each of those 82 years, that message is reaching millions of Dalits and the text has become a source of inspiration for liberation and justice.

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References

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Ambedkar, B. R. (2014) Annihilation of Caste (The Annotated Critical Edition), Navayana, New Delhi. Jha, M. K. (2015) Community organising and political agency: changing community development subjects in India, in Meade R. R., Shaw M. and Banks S., eds, Politics, Power and Community Development, Policy Press, Bristol, pp. 65–82. Kannabiran, K. (2014) Annihilation by Caste, Economic and Political Weekly, XLIX (26 & 27/June 28): 13–15....