New York, Dec 20 : If some of the elite academics in the US have their say, Dalit (low caste Hindus in India) studies will soon become part of mainstream academic syllabus of American Ivy League colleges. At a first of its kind conference to be held in an academic institution in the United States, the Center for Advanced Study of India with the Department of South Asia Studies, the South Asia Center and the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania held a major conference on critical issues relating to Dalit Studies Dec 3-5 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Several Indian and American academics and intellectuals from both within and outside of formal academic institutions participated in the conference to evaluate strategies for ensuring that Dalit agendas are recognized by and incorporated into mainstream academic dialogue and to assess the various political and social agendas to improve the lives of Dalits.
Prof. Chinnaiah Jangam, Asst. Professor of History at Wagner College, New York, one of the panelists at the conference - an illustrious product of State-supported Dalit empowerment system - has a Ph.D from University of London, is the recipient of the Felix Scholarship for doctoral studies, Guggenheim Dissertation Fellowship and has been a post-doctoral fellow at the International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University. He talked to India Post about the persisting discrimination of Dalits in India, the hard-to-change mindsets of upper-caste Hindus, internationalizing the Dalit issue and the future of Dalits in a globalized world.
Q. Why is it that decades since India gained Independence, Dalits still need such high levels of advocacy?
Jangam: At one level, Dalits are rising in terms of seeking place in public space in India - we have a K.R. Narayanan who became President -- but at a core level, caste becomes an important issue in India and also outside. An example of that is the case we saw earlier this year in Chicago City where a 33-year old man was burnt alive along with his wife and 3-year old son by his upper caste father-in-law who objected to his daughter marrying a lower caste boy.
That's the irony. At one level Dalits are coming up but at another level, they face very strong prejudices from Upper caste Hindus. India is unable to resolve this big caste quotient. So as long as this discrimination continues, scholarships and academics will always be interested, particularly because of the growing world attention on Indian society. Whether we like it or not, everyone wants to know what is happening in India. In this context, what happens is the government tries to underplay this sort of discrimination against Dalits, violence on women or on minorities. But because people like me are able to talk, write and publish on these issues the government is forced to take serious measures especially in rural areas.
Q. Haven't the caste-based reservations imposed by the Indian government helped at all in empowering Dalits?
Jangam: Reservations did help. The one great thing about Indian democracy is the reservation system, though there are a lot of problems in implementation. The beauty of this reservations and whatever the government of India has done in 50 years is that people like me are able to reach this level and we are proud of it.
This was one of the points discussed at the conference. But for the State support and reservation system, people like me would not have been able to reach such high level. What you see in India - a lot of the IAS, IPS and IFS officers, even academics, are products of State-based reservation system. Two-three generations have come up really well. The success of Indian democracy lies in the way it has been able to integrate Dalits and tribals into the mainstream society. The problem is after 1990 the State is gradually trying to withdraw support for the lower caste people.
Q. How deep are the discrimination levels against Dalits in India?
Jangam: The discrimination levels in India still run very deep. The mindsets have not changed at all. In India we still see upper caste Hindus assume that they have inherent merit and anyone coming from below their caste is looked upon with contempt, how much ever they perform. They are brought up in this caste psychosis. So the caste discrimination persists with people nurturing an inherent caste consciousness. An important challenge Indian society has is how it can come out of this mindset.
Q. How pronounced are the parallels between caste discrimination in India and race discrimination in America?
Jangam: In America race problem exists, but the acceptability levels of Blacks in the mainstream are high as compared to that of Dalits in mainstream Indian society. There are lot of parallels particularly the way discrimination works in terms of systematic deprivation. It's not that Blacks are completely integrated here, but one of the successes of American society is that even private colleges make it a point to bring minorities into their institutions by offering special scholarships. As a member of the Diversity Action Council in my college, I know that every two weeks we meet and discuss on the efforts we can make to get minorities into the institutions.
But in India, there is a lot of protest if there are reservations being made in the elite institutions like the IITs or IIMs. Institutions don't undertake any sort of initiatives to integrate the lower caste students. The Indian government is having to force these institutions to implement reservations. Whereas in the US, though private colleges with private funding don't need to do it, they believe that diversity is essential for the cognitive abilities of the students. They think diversity is one of the ways in which the students enrich their experience; in India they don't believe that. They still don't want to sit together with a lower caste person and study in a class room. In America they have the honesty to face the issue of discrimination of Blacks and discuss it in public and that's how they are able to overcome it. We in India hide caste discrimination, we don't solve the issue.
Q. How important is internationalizing the Dalit issue?
Jangam: In trying to make the Dalit agenda a part of mainstream agenda of US education system, we aim to make the companies and multinationals who are investing in India or any other third world country to address the issue of discrimination when they plan their investments. It's important because it is kids coming out of Ivy League colleges who are going to enter into corporate sector; when they sit on decision making they will ask these questions before investing in India; questions on who are the people they are going to serve, whom they are recruiting and what is the basis for recruitment and so on.
It might not yield results immediately, but in ten years to come it will definitely make a person aware of the issue to be able to address it. Also, it will influence the US attitude towards India, which is why they these Dalit organizations are trying to lobby with US to bring this issue to the forefront. But again, academics are much more interesting because we influence the people who are really going to be involved in actual field รข€¦ that's why these Ivy League colleges taking up this issue is very important for the future.
Q. How do you respond to the pedestrian view that being critical of Indian society in the West is harmful to the country's image?
Jangam: How can discrimination and violation of rights be sustained for the hypocrisy preserving some image? On the one hand you have people dying of hunger and poverty; half the population of the country has no dignity of life, what kind of image is that? Anyone who lands in Bombay, the moment the taxi moves out of the airport they know what India is when they see the slums. Moreover, with Internet and global network of television you cannot hide reality. You will find so many hits on an Internet search for manual scavenging in India -- it's an issue in South India where Dalits are still forced to clean the shit of upper caste Hindus with hand. Emancipation of a manual scavenger is a challenge to a politician's own domination, so they won't do anything about it.
Q. What was the outcome of the Dalit Studies conference?
Jangam: One of the things that has come out is we are trying to establish a Dalit Studies series similar to suborder studies in colleges. If that comes out it will make inroads into mainstream academia both in North America and Europe. That will be the beginning of starting special centers on Dalits. Also, if institutions and funders come forward there might be Chairs exclusively for Dalit studies in these colleges.
There is already talk going on in Columbia University to establish a Chair on Ambedkar Studies. If those things come up then it would be the beginning of Dalit Studies becoming a major area of focus worldwide. It's significant because, if an academic goes with a petition to the US Congress or writes to Indian parliament it has much more weight than if an individual like me doing it. Conferences such as this one have a global reach; they have ability to mobilize public opinion. More importantly, we have a lot of Indians coming to these universities to study, especially upper caste Hindus coming from privileged backgrounds. If they read from their university syllabus about this issue their attitude towards Dalits will definitely change. So it is an important agenda as to how we make the younger generation much more sensitive to the issue than their fathers and grandfathers had been.
Q. How optimistic are you that the plight of the poor discriminated communities in India will change for the better?
Jangam: I am very optimistic about it. When the Dalit movement started in India Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was a lone crusader, but today there are thousands of Ambedkars; we have various people from academics to business to various walks of corporate sectors working for them. There are a lot of Dalits working in the United Nations. There is a conscious effort going on at various levels and it will definitely have a very positive outlook. Given the way Indian politics focuses on Dalits as a vote bank, this heightened academic advocacy will transform the agenda of Indian politics.
SRIREKHA N. CHAKRVARTY