A DALIT REVOLUTION

The Uprising of Dalits began in the 1970s were a time of political unrest in India. The country went to war with Pakistan (leading to the birth of Bangladesh), Political instability and New landlord atrocities after the green revolution was mired in rebellions and turmoil. The Dalit Panthers was formed on July 9, 1972 in Mumbai and created a vibrant uprising for not only the dalit community but across all working people.

It was the first organisation to fuse Ambedkar’s thoughts with Marxism as political ideology. After a year for radical activism, For the first time in Indian History, a constructive manifesto was constructed for the political liberation of the Dalit community. Many young Dalits quit the Shiv Sena fold and other religious outfits, which discriminated them and joined the reolutionary movement.

The Dalit Panthers’ Manifesto defines Dalits as “all those who are exploited politically, economically and in the name of religion.” They classified “American imperialism” in the same category as “Hindu feudalism”; with both being examples of caste hierarchy. The Panthers’ Manifesto claimed that while Hindu feudalism may have spawned caste inequality, its extension by the modern Indian state had created oppression “a hundred times more ruthless.Their radical stance and activism made their members frequent targets of State Violence, surveillance and brutality.

The document provided below is an extract taken from
“ The Dalit Panthers Manifesto” of 1973.

The Republican Party and Dalit Panthers

The problems of the dalits today, be they social, political or ethical, cannot be solved within the framework of religion and caste. This is what Dr. Babasaheb realized after his defeat in the 1952 general elections. A scientific outlook, class consciousness and a completely atheistic approach and fighting for humanism alone could add an edge to the struggles of the dalits. For this purpose, Dr. Ambedkar wanted to transfer the then-existing Scheduled Caste Federation (SCF) into a broad-based party. This could not happen during his life time. After his death, his ‘followers’ simply renamed SCF as the Republican Party started to pursue casteist politics. They never united all the dalits and all the oppressed. Above all, they conducted the politics of a revolutionary community like the dalits in a legalistic manner. The party got enmeshed in the web of votes, demands, select places for a handful of the dalits and concessions. So the dalit population scattered over the country, in many villages, remained politically where they were. The leadership of the party went into the hands of the middle class in the community. Intrigue, selfishness and division became rife. Destroying the revolutionary voice of Dr. Ambedkar, these contemptible leaders made capital out of his name and set up their beggars’ bowls. This is Dr. Ambedkar’s party, they said. This is Dr. Ambedkar’s flag, they said, and filled their coffers. And thus, except the satyagraha of the landless conducted under the Dadasaheb Gaekwad’s leadership, the party did not take up any programme worth its name. the atrocities against dalits grew endemic. In a period of one and a half years, 1117 dalits were murdered. The land grew barren, not a drop of water was available. Honour was violated, houses gutted, people killed. Along with the very question of living, physical indignities grew sharper. What did the Republican Party do? The party got caught in the net cast by a cunning ruling-class leader like Yashwantrao Chavan. Its life perished. Unity vanished, impotents filled the party. If we put our future in the hands of such impotent leaders, we will forgo our very lives, and that is why today we have to announce with deep pain that we are no blood relatives of the Republican Party.

The Dalits of the world and Panthers

Due to the hideous plot of American imperialism, the Third Dalit World, that is, oppressed nations, and dalit people are suffering. Even in America, a handful of reactionary whites are exploiting blacks. To meet the force of reaction and remove this exploitation, the Black Panther movement grew. From the Black Panthers, Black Power emerged. The fire of the struggles has thrown out sparks into the country. We claim a close relationship with this struggle. We have before our eyes the examples of Vietnam, Cambodia, Africa and the like.

FOR A DALIT REVOLUTION……

Who is a Dalit?

Members of scheduled castes and tribes, Neo-Buddhists, the working people, the landless and poor peasants, women and all those who are being exploited politically, economically and in the name of religion.

Who are our friends?

I) Revolutionary parties set to break down the caste system and class rule. Left parties that are left in a true sense.

2) All other sections of society that are suffering due to the economic and political oppression.

Who are our enemies?

I) Power, wealth, price.

2) Landlords, capitalists, money-lenders and their lackeys.

3) Those parties who indulge in religious or casteist politics, and the government which depends on them.

Burning Questions before Dalits today

I) Food, clothing, shelter

2) Employment, land, untouchability

3) Social and physical injustice

The struggle for the emancipation of the dalits needs a complete revolution. Partial change is impossible. We do not want it either. We want a complete and total revolutionary change. Even if we want to move out of the present state of social degradation alone, we will have to exercise our power in economic, political, cultural fields as well. We will not be satisfied easily now. We do not want a little place in the brahmin alley. We want to rule the whole country. We are not looking at persons but at a system. Change of heart, liberal education, etc. will not end our state of exploitation. When we gather a revolutionary mass, rouse the people, out of the struggle of this giant mass will come the tidal wave of revolutions. Legalistic appeals, requests, demands for concessions, elections, satyagraha — out of these, society will never change. Our ideas of social revolution and rebellion will be too strong for such paper-made vehicles of protest. They will sprout in the soil flower in the mind and then will come forward with full force with the help of steel-strong means.

Dalit Panther is not a mere slogan

The way we look at our questions is the first step to solving them. Panthers will paralyzingly attack untouchability, casteism and economic exploitation. This social system and state have taken maya cruel path to convert us into slaves. Turned us long back into ‘shudras’. In the present modem forms of slavery there are mental chains of slavishness. We will try to break them. In our struggle we will become free.

Our Programme:

1) More than 80 per cent of India’s population lives in the villages. Of those, landless peasants are 35 per cent, and 33 per cent of all landless agricultural labourers belong to scheduled castes. (Those Dalit poor peasants who do own pieces ofland, own a negligible amount). The question of landlessness of the dalit peasants must be resolved.

2) Landless peasants must immediately get excess land through the application of the Land Ceiling Act. Waste and jungle land must likewise be distributed.

3) Feudal survivals are still to be found in the villages. Due to this, dalits are cruelly oppressed and exploited. Landlords and rich peasants get social prestige along with wealth. Due to this, the atrocities on dalits have grown endemic. This system has clamped itself on the dalit’s chest, affecting every part of his life, from day to day living to the deeper economic questions. This system must be destroyed.

4) The wages of landless labourers must be increased.

5) Dalits must be allowed to draw water from public wells.

6) Dalits must live, not outside the village in a separate settlement, but in the village itself.

7) All means of production must belong to the dalits.

8) Exploitation by private capital must cease.

9) Social, cultural and economic exploitation must be removed and socialism must be built in India. Misleading nationalization must give away to a true introduction of socialism.

10) All dalits must be assured of daily wages.

11) Unemployed dalits must be given unemployment benefits.

12) All dalits must be given free education, medical facilities, housing and good quality cheap grains.

13) When giving employment in educational institutions, the requirements to declare one’s caste and religion must be immediately removed.

14) The government must stop giving grants to religious institutions immediately and the wealth of religious places must be used for the benefit of dalits.

15) Religious and casteist literature must be banned.

16) The division in the army along caste lines must be ended.

17) Black marketeers; hoarders, money-lenders and all those exploiting the people economically must be destroyed.

18) The prices of essential commodities must be refunded. We will build the organization of workers, dalits, landless, poor peasants through all city factories, in all villages. We will hit back against all injustice perpetrated on Dalits. We will well and truly destroy the caste and varna system that thrives on the people’s misery, which exploits the people, and liberate the dalits. The present legal system and state have turned all our dreams to dust. To eradicate all the injustice against the dalits, they must themselves become rulers. This is the people’s democracy. Sympathizers and members of the Dalit Panthers be ready for the fmal struggle of the dalits.

Within a short period of time , the Dalit panther inspired millions across to the globe to fight against casteism and untouchability integrating it with a Revolutionary Class struggle. It functioned as Working Class — Anti caste movement which displayed vigilant activism and Radical spirit. The Dalit Panthers were disbanded in 1977, but the work they did in the short span of five years feels just as relevant today, in a country that still struggles with caste-based violence and rampant discrimination. The Dalit Panthers, with their activism and their literature, raised fundamental and critical questions about the meaning of freedom, liberty, and justice for the marginalized. Today, more than fifty years after the Dalit Panthers first huddled together in a room and launched their movement, what remains is their invincible spirit, along with some precious, dog-eared magazines brimming with legacy. The seeds for a Revolution sowed by the Dalit Panthers and its Burnings questions to the ruling class and needs for a revolutionary change still has significance but the answers to such a Revolution is yet be given.