The brief autobiography of Rettaimalai Srinivasan – Part 6

இந்த புத்தகத்தின் பதிப்புரை இங்கே, எழுத்தாளரின் முகவுரையும, அரசாங்கத்தார் அபிப்பிராயம் என்னும் அத்தியாயம் இங்கே. ஜீவிய சரித்திர சுருக்கம் இங்கே துவங்குகிறது. அதற்கடுத்து வரும் செய்திகள் – பறையன் பத்திரிக்கையைப் பற்றியும், லண்டன் பயணத்தைப் பற்றியும் உள்ள பகுதிகள் இங்கே, அதன் பின் வரும் பகுதியில், சாதி வேறுபாடின் துவக்கமும், காங்கிரஸ்காரர் சிவில் சர்வீஸ் பரிக்ஷை இந்தியாவில் நடத்தவேண்டும் என்ற விண்ணப்பத்திற்கு எதிரே புறப்பட்ட மனுவைப் பற்றியும்.

The publisher’s preface to the book is here, the author’s preface and the chapter titled the ‘Government’s Opinion’ is here. The brief autobiography begins here. The next part about the Paraiyan journal and the travel to London is here, which is followed by the section on the origin of caste and the birth of a petition against the Congress demand to hold the Civil Services exam in India.

கிராமங்களில் இவ்வின குடியானவர்கள் நிலைமையை திட்டமாய் குறித்ததோடு சென்னை நகரத்திலுங்கூட மயிலாப்பூரில் ஐகோர்ட்டு ஜட்ஜீயாகவிருந்த ஓர் இந்தியர் வீட்டுக்குச் சமீபமாயுள்ள பிராமணர் தெருவில் ‘பறையர் உள்ளே வரக்கூடாது’ என்ற விளம்பர பலகையொன்று இருப்பதாகவும், ஜாதி இந்துக்கள் ஸ்தாபித்திருக்கும் ‘பச்சையப்பான்’ கலாசாலையில் இவ்வினத்து பிள்ளைகளை சேர்ப்பதில்ல்லை என்றும் மனுவில் கண்டிருந்தது. அந்த பலகை எடுப்பட்டு போகவும், கலாசாலையில் பிள்ளைகளைச் சிலகாலத்திற்கு பிறகு சேர்க்கவும் இம்மனுவே காரணம்.

Besides noting the state of these people in the villages, the petition had mentioned that there was a board saying ‘Paraiyar should not enter’ in a Brahmin street in Mylapore, near the house of an Indian High Court Judge, and that the children of this clan were not admitted to the Pachaiyappan College, established by caste Hindus here in Chennai city. This petition was the reason why that board was removed and these children were admitted a little while later.

லேபர் கமிஷனர் ஸ்தாபிதம்.
மேற்கண்ட மனுவால் ஏற்பட்டது.

The appointment of the Labour Commissioner.
Was due to the above-mentioned petition.

மனு பிரதிகள் பார்லிமெண்டு மெம்பர்கள் ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் கொடுக்கப்பட்டன. இதனால் ஜாதி இந்துக்கள் குரூரமாய் பல கோடிகணக்கான உழவு தொழில் செய்யும் உழைப்பாளிகளை நடத்துவதைப் பற்றி இங்கிலாந்திலுள்ள எல்லா பத்திரிகைகளும் பிரஸ்தாபம் செய்தன. இவ்வித கொடுமை இந்தியாவில் வியாபித்திருக்க இந்தியா கவர்ன்மெண்டார் எப்படி அதை கவனியாதிருக்ககூடுமென்ற கிளர்ச்சியும் ஏற்பட்டு இந்தியா கவர்ன்மெண்டார் நடவடிக்கை எடுத்துக்கொள்ளவேண்டுமென இந்தியா செக்றேடேரியார் வற்புறுத்தியதின் பயனாக இந்தியா கவர்ன்மெண்டார் சென்னை கவர்ந்மேண்டாரோடு ஆலோசிக்க தொடங்கினார்கள். இப்படி பல வருஷங்கள் சென்றபிறகு ஒடுக்கப்பட்டாரை கல்வியிலும் பொருளாதாரத்திலும் விருத்திக்கு கொண்டுவரும்படி சிவில் சர்வீஸ் உத்தியோகஸ்தர்களில் வயதிலும் உத்தியோகத்திலும் மூத்தவரும் அனுபோகமுள்ளவருமான ஒருவரை இரக்ஷகராக (Protector) நியமித்து அவருக்கு ஒரு ஸ்தாபிதம் கொடுத்து இந்த ஒடுக்கப்பட்டாரை முன்னேற்றம்செய்ய தீர்மானித்தார்கள். அதுமுதல் பள்ளிக்கூடங்கள், குடியிருப்பு மனைகள், விவசாய நிலம் முதலியவைகளை ஒடுக்கப்பட்டார் பெற்று வருகிறார்கள். இவ்வினத்தவர் விருத்திக்காக ஏற்படுத்திய இரக்ஷகரும் அவர் ஸ்தாபிதமும் கைதொழிலாளரையும் கவனிக்கவேண்டுமென ஏற்பட்டபோது லேபர் கமிஷனர் என்று அவர் அழைக்கப்பட்டு வருகிறார்.

Copies of the petition were given to all members of Parliament. All the newspapers of England published how cruelly caste Hindus treated many crores of agricultural labourers. There was a stir about how the Indian government could have not noticed the practice of such cruelties. As the Indian Secretary compelled the Indian Government to take action, Indian government officials began to hold discussions with the Chennai government officials. Many years later, they decided to encourage the advancement of these oppressed people by appointing the most senior by virtue of age and posting from among the Civil Service officers, one who was also compassionate, as Protector. Henceforth, these oppressed people have received schools, houses and agricultural land. When it came to pass that the Protector who was instituted for the welfare of these people also had to look after the artisans, he began to be called the Labour Commissioner.

செங்கல்பட்டு ஜில்லாவில் தற்காஸ்து நிலம் இவ்வினத்தவருக்கு கொடுக்கபடவேண்டுமென கவர்ந்மேண்டாரைக் கோரியிருந்தேன். அந்த ஜில்லாவில் இவர்களுக்கு கொடுக்க ஒரு ஏக்கரா நிலமும் கிடையாதென்று தெரிவித்தார்கள். 1894 ஏப்ரல் 28 கிருஷ்ணா ஜில்லாவில் வேண்டிய நிலமிருப்பதாக கலெக்டர் அட்கின்சந்துரை தெரிவித்தார். பண உதவியில்லாமல் அவ்வளவு தூரம்போய் ஏழைகள் விவசாயம் செய்யக்கூடாமல் போயிற்று. இப்போது ஆயிரக்கணக்கான ஏக்கரா நிலம் கொடுத்துவருவதுமின்றி ஆதி திராவிட ஏழை விவசாயிகள் நேராய் கலெக்டருக்கு தற்காஸ்து கொடுத்து நிலம் பெறுவதை காண்கிறோம். கல்வி விஷயத்திலும் லேபர் கமிஷனர் செய்துவரும் உதவிகள் பல. தற்போது கவர்ன்மெண்டார் இவர்களுக்கு செய்துவரும் அநுக்கிரகங் களானது  சிவில் சர்வீஸ் பரிக்ஷையை பறையர் மகாஜன சபையார் மறுத்ததினால் தீண்டாதார் என்போர் படுங் கடுங்கொடுமை வெளிப்பட்டதனாலன்றோ? நான் இந்தியாவில் இல்லா காலத்திலும் பறையர் மகாஜன சபையார் ஏகொபித்தும் தனிதனி அங்கத்தினர்களாகவும் அரும் பிரயாசம் செய்து வந்திருக்கின்றார்கள். இப்போதும் இனஞ்சேரா  சிலரைக் காண்கிறேன்.

I had petitioned the government to give land that was available on tender for these people in the Chengalpet Zilla. They said that there was not even one acre of land to give in that Zilla. On April 28, 1894, Collector Atkinson announced that there was enough land in the Krishna Zilla. The poor were unable to cultivate that land or travel that distance without monetary assistance. Now, we see poor Adi Dravida farmers taking lands on tender straight from the Collector, besides the many thousands of acres of land that he gives. In the matter of education, too, the Labour Commissioner is helping us in many ways. The assistance that the government is now providing to these people was the result of the opposition of the Paraiyar Mahajana Sabha to the Civil Services exam. Was this not how the terrible cruelty of untouchability was made public? Even in the time when I was not in India, the Paraiyar Mahajana Sabha was, together and as individual members, working very hard. Yet I still see a few people who do not join the clan.

From Malaria Eradication to Bonded Child Labour: A Counter-Intuitive Relationship

- Corey Black

Excerpt from a blog post published as part of the Advocacy Project on July 13, 2011. Read the full post here.

Can our seemingly altruistic actions, conversations, policies affect the progression of history in unintended ways, altering relations and behaviours of individuals, networks, or systems? Is equilibrium forever on the precipice, only needing a nudge to tip its fine balance, one way or another? Reference here is to the butterfly effect and chaos theory, where actions in one non-linear system can lead to larger changes down the road.

In Nepal’s terai (plains) southern region, the Tharu people have braved its tough climate and geography for some 600 years. Arriving from India, they had to clear its dense jungle to grow crops and defy its fearsome wildlife and virulent malarial mosquitoes. The few Tharu that survived and prospered had natural anti-malarial immunities, and were the only Nepalese that could survive in the terai year round – Darwinian evolution, epitomized. Other upper-caste Nepalese from the hills would come in the mosquito-free winter months for agriculture and hunting, but had to depart once the mosquitoes appeared in the hot springs and summers.

Researcher Thomas Cox notes that in the 1950s and ‘60s, USAID and other aid agencies implemented anti-malarial programs in the terai, mostly eradicating the disease from the region. As malaria vanquished, the upper and educated castes of Nepal’s hills moved in permanently, clearing and claiming most of the jungle’s remaining land. Once settled and organized in the region, the upper castes (including Brahmans, Chetri and Thakuri) forced most Tharus off their land, or took advantage of their illiteracy and tricked them into legally signing away their land, or using their land as debt collateral at inflated prices. All told, close to 80 percent of the Tharu had lost their land by 1980.

Without land and its means of production, the Tharu were helpless and took loans from the upper castes to pay for basics like food, medicine, clothes, etc. As a way of paying back the loans, Tharu were used as bonded or tenant labourers for meager wages of 10 to 20 rupees per day (15 to 25 cents). Tenant labourers were paid a small percentage of the crop towards the debt, while bonded labourers worked under similar conditions, but paying back debt incurred generations ago (reinforced by Nepal’s old legal code). As these labourers’ wages are so low, they’re forced to go further into debt with landlords and masters. And through this system of bondage, Tharu families send their children to work in the fields (kamaiya) or as domestic servants (kamalari) – robbing them of a childhood, friends, education, and chance of a brighter future.

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So, foreign aid flaps its altruistic wings on one side of the ocean, and causes a hurricane on the other, with the wreckage only beginning to be cleared. The innocence of eradicating one deadly disease leads to the robbery and enslavement of an indigenous people on their own land. Our grand actions from afar, schooled in our detached and isolated institutions, can often have disastrous unintended local consequences in foreign lands.

…

 

Read the full post here.

Corey Black is a recent master’s graduate in international politics from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests lie in structural forces and power and political mobilization, along with environmental politics and policies. While at the Kathmandu-based Jagaran Media Center as an Advocacy Project Peace Fellow, Corey’s mandate is to help report, research, and expose the human rights abuses against the minority Dalit caste. 

Read more about Corey here

The Shaping of an Author – I

- MC Raj

Think of me as an author? No one including me could ever imagine this. I was born of totally illiterate parents. The genes were different. But today I have defied the rules of gene games with more than 15 published books. I had never dreamt to become a writer. But I wanted to establish myself as someone in society. That was a challenge as all the caste students in my village school joined together and nicknamed me as KAKAPEE, the shit of a crow. I grew up with this ascribed identity for eight long years till I left the village school to join a big school in the town. It has made an indelible scar on my psyche.

For many years working in the villages in the company of my wife occupied my entire life. Poverty and drudgery of my people were just a continuous experience of the poverty I suffered in my family. The ‘I’ and the ‘other’ soon began to synchronize into an unconventional music. The ‘personal’ and the ‘societal’ began to choreograph a dance of life. The pain and rebellion began to shape itself into a philosophy of revolution. It stretched out far back into history. The collective churning of all these came out in cultural manifestations. Amidst all the struggles of our people with sweat flowing from their foreheads, with mud covering their hands and legs and blood oozing through  body parts, books had to blend themselves into a high level of rationalization. There was no other go. There was no more strength in the body to face emotions. The humiliations, the rejections, the insults, the hostility to your achievements only because you are a Dalit had closed all the pores in the body. If we allowed emotions to get into our body we might have had to commit suicide. But a Dalit is born to live and dance on the streets in gay abandon. They were not isolated. They were coming in waves, sometimes as torrents opening the floodgates of caste mindset. Rationalizing and philosophizing were easy ways out.

Ask the young Dalits about their experience of untouchability. “No sir. We have never suffered untouchability.” Utter shock was inevitable. Send the shock into a grinding mill. Out came the discovery that even before rationality developed in Dalit children they learned the art of pulling down shutters on their emotions. A natural defense mechanism! They had to guard themselves against uninterrupted assaults from the caste children. Rceiving them at the emotional level would spell a doom in the young psyche. From suffering emerged great philosophers.

Dalit community had a well designed philosophy known as Cosmic-Shamanism. History-writing buried it from history. It became anti history for the Dalits. Caste people wrote Indian history and buried Dalit history. Now I took on myself the onus of bringing back to life our history, our culture, our philosophy and surprisingly also our religion. I wrote them as books. Dalit people hailed them as their scriptures. When Dalitology was released in Bangalore more than 6000 people assembled from all over the country. About a thousand people, most of them Dalit women travelled one full night from northern Karnataka without tickets in the train. The authorities decided to allow them to travel without tickets after seeing the pamphlet of the releasing function. Dalitology with 820 pages became a well acclaimed book even in many other countries. It was officially released in Birmingham by MP Clare Short. I had only attempted to do a philosophical analysis of Dalit situation in the country. After writing every chapter I used to call together Dalit elders and young people from the community and share my writing with them in sheer excitement. They would approve or disapprove a few things and subsequent discussions would provide substance for my next chapter. Those were my ‘whisky’ days. Now I don’t drink much whisky. Suddenly I would burst forth with a new insight and would share it aloud with my wife and children. There would be a discussion and they would go to sleep. My writings are mostly done at night. Days are for the people and for the villages. Nights are for writing. The rhythm continues till today. When Dalitology was about to be completed the Dalit people called it ‘our scriptures’. That was a blow. It was mind blowing. I have asserted in the book ‘non-existence’ of god and heaven. The people were asserting that this was their scriptures knowing fully well the content of the book. Dalit history and Dalit culture began to find new assertions. People became more and more successful in their struggles. Today our Movement has regained 9500 acres of land. Mind boggling.

There is an association of the Dalit IAS, IPS and IFS officers in Karnataka. Actually it is managed by the wives of these officers. When I wrote a book on Dalit spirituality known as Cosmsoity, we spoke to them and checked if they would like to be part of the releasing function in Bangalore. Incidentally I am originally from Tamilandu and not a Kannadiga but completely domiciled in Karnataka. Their response was amazing. All of them decided to take over the entire responsibility for organizing the releasing function. The big banner on the stage said, “We Dalits are Dalits.” It was a remarkable courage on their part and an outrage of the hiding identity of their husbands. The crowd was more than one thousand people in the releasing function. A similar function was organized for the release of my book on Dalit philosophy. Sivagami IAS from Tamilnadu gave a stunning review of the book.

For the release of my book on Dalit psyche, which is a volume of 1100 pages professors from Delhi and Mumbai had come to review the book. We make it a point to honor one eminent Dalit in each of our releasing function. Winnie Mandela had agreed to release the book DYCHE. But when there was only one day left for her to start, her grand daughter died in a swimming pool in the school and Winnie had to cancel her trip.

Many people ask me why the Dalit community in the country, especially Dalit intellectuals are hesitating to acknowledge my books. My answer is very simple. First of all our community does not even believe that we can be philosophers, psychologists, spiritualists, scientists and writers. Secondly our intellectuals often feel that their personal space gets constricted when someone else’s books are given publicity. I take consolation in the fact that after I die all of them will make use of my books as their resource to gain more intellectual space for themselves. Already now I see quite a few people making use of my books to write their books without even acknowledging the source. Perhaps it is because of our culture that everything in the community belongs to all. Ideas are to spread. Who spreads them is not the most important thing.

But a very big Dalit movement has been built with such intellectual resource building in Karnataka. It is not that all Dalits are reading my books in order to build the movement. But we write books before initiating any innovative enterprise among our people. We do not initiate any historic endeavor without first writing a book on the subject. This has been a consistent base for our success. My wife joins me in the writing of some books.

Of late I have turned my writing trajectory to fiction writing. Three of my novels have already been published. One of them is published in the United States.

…

‘Do you write in English?’ MC Raj writes about facing this and other responses to his writing in Part II

Manickam Casimir Raj was born in Tuticorin and lives in Karnataka. He has a B.Ph. (Philosophy), B .D. (Theology), M.A Sociology. He has studied Tamil, English, Kannada, Malayalam, Latin, Greek and French. He has extensive work, travel, study, research, writing and consulting experience.  He works with the Rural Education for Development Society.