Dalits' Harlem moment

Early in the book under review, the writer recollects an incident from his childhood when his grandmother, who used to work as a domestic help, took him to the house of her employers. “One day, a curious 10-year-old, I… followed her to see where she worked. She was mortified… [that] I was there, watching her clean a toilet. I suddenly got the urge to pee.” Initially hesitant to let him use the toilet she had cleaned, Mr Yengde’s grandmother did finally allow him. But, caught in the act both he and his grandmother were subjected to generous abuse by the woman of the house. “This incident brought home to me my beingness as a Dalit,” writes Mr Yengde. 

A little later, he espouses the central question of the book: “What does it mean to be a living Dalit in today’s caste-capitalistic India?” For Mr Yengde, India is not yet a nation, but an improvisation, somewhat like a jazz band, held together by nothing more than its Constitution. He quotes Ambedkar to argue that each caste is a nation in itself and the purpose of each individual’s caste-consciousness is to reinforce the difference between their fellow citizens rather than a “fellowship of national feeling”. Mr Yengde proceeds to reveal the deep-rooted and intricate nature of casteism prevalent in society through a mixture of personal recollections and erudite academic work.

Mr Yengde writes that the Dalit community is having a Harlem moment. The correlation between Dalit movements and anti-race movements of the US are of course as old as the 1970s, when Namdeo Dhasal and J V Pawar started the Dalit Panthers and were recognised by the Black Panthers. But what Mr Yengde claims is that Dalit movements — in India and abroad — are able to be louder and command more space in the media and public debates than they were ever before. 

This might sound a little counter-intuitive: If Dalits have found greater access to privileges then how can they still claim to be oppressed? (This is often the bedrock of the Savarna argument against reservations.) Mr Yengde is a fine example of a Dalit man who has been able to overcome the handicap of poverty and discrimination to get the best education in the world. But, as with race, matters of caste was more complicated than they seem. “The Dalit lives in no-time,” writes Mr Yengde, quoting the philosopher Martin Heidegger.

He is also critical of those Dalit, who, having emerged from their conditions of deprivation, start imitating the lives and rituals of the dominant castes. “The mimicry of the affluent castes is reproduced at every level. Thus, just as Brahmins find an incentive in discriminating amongst themselves based on sub-caste affiliations, every other caste entangled in the adamant cobweb of the caste system does the same.” A little later he focusses his attention on such Dalits: “Dalit middle-class dreams are yet to mature; for now, they exist in the mimicry of the oppressor Other… The Dalit middle-class, by the virtue of its purchasing power, gets seen and heard more than the struggling working-class Dalit.” Mr Yengde is aware that caste exerts its hegemony like syllogism, perpetuating itself though the even unconscious actions of the oppressor and the oppressed.

The final chapter of the book is called “Brahmins and Brahminism”; in it, the writer looks at those Brahmins, such as Jyotirao Phule and Swami Chakradhar, who gave up their caste privileges to align with the Dalit cause. Having recognised them, however, Mr Yengde writes: “Of these Brahmins, however, very few qualify as revolutionary radicals.” He also takes on Brahmin scholars who have built their careers by writing on Dalit issues. “... they have not actively invested in producing another generation of Dalit scholars.” He detects that most are suffering from a saviour syndrome. In such an analysis for even the so-called liberal Brahmins: The real work of abolishing caste is not through lip service, but active investment in such issues. 

This was an important lesson at least for this reader.  

Caste Matters

Suraj Yengde

Penguin Viking

Pages: 325; Price: Rs 377