10.7.2014 Translation Final
"India - The Struggle of the Untouchables"
A Film by Marion Mayer-Hohdahl
Camera: Marion Mayer-Hohdahl
Editing: Sam Kamyama
AKM:
Ravi Shankar- In Celebration
East meets West
Angel Records LC 0110
7243 5 55580-2
No. 4 Morning Love
TEXT:
0:00
M.C.Raj and his wife, Jyothi, are celebrated and admired wherever they go in the Indian state of Karnataka.
0:25
They even have their feet washed. The couple wanted to abolish the practice, but for their followers - people of the lowest caste, deemed 'Untouchable' - it is an honour. So they do not discourage them.
0:53
Blue is the adoptive colour of their movement. They avoid everything associated with Hinduism - a religion that has sought to humiliate them for thousands of years.
1:10
There are currently 240 million Untouchables living lives of contempt in India - something MC Raj, as he is known here, has railed against for years. He has written more than 20 books, published hundreds of articles, and taken to court anybody who fails to observe the Indian Constitution.
1:44
Since 1949, the law has prohibited discrimination on grounds of caste. But in practice, segregation and inequity persist even today. Dalits - as they are known - are considered impure and worthless, and treated as less-than-human.
The Dalit Movement gives them a renewed sense of self-esteem, helping them resist the dominant castes. Gandhi called them 'Harijan', or 'Children of God'. For the Dalits, it is a term of abuse.
2:43
M.C. Raj
Harijan sounds very nice. Children of God, but the actual meaning is children of prostitutes. That we are bastard children. Gandhi knew this meaning very well. Gandhi knew why Narsi Mehta gave this name. In order to keep us in the Hindu fold, as the children of the Hindu god Hari - they gave us the name Harijan. Gandhi was quite vicious in giving us this identity and today the entire Dalit community has rejected this name.
3:25.
The Dalits want their own identity, not names forced upon them. The laws for which they have striven are attributed to a spokesman for their caste, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. The Maharaja of Baroda sent him to the United States to study. As early as 1930, he began demanding rights for Untouchables.
3:53
M.C.Raj
Activist
He belongs to the community of the Untouchables and we are all very proud about him. Today he has become one of the biggest icons of the Dalit liberation.
4:05
This is Jagjivan Ram. He was in first time politics in Congress and became the deputy prime minister of India. Then I like to show to you. We have on the door the Dalit symbol which has been evolved by the Dalit movement in Tumkur. This has no big history but in the last 20 years we have evolved this symbol through many levels of discussions among our leaders. The symbol represents the number 10, if you know all the dominant communities and religions - they base their religion to one god. In the Dalit community we do not believe in one god. We are actually from 10 ancestors.
5:08
Dalit religion is our religion; we are neither Hindus, nor Christians, nor Muslims, nor Buddhists. We Dalits are Dalits. Realizing that our elders are going to different religions has not liberated us. 80 % of Christians in India are Dalits converted to Christianity. 90% of Muslims are Dalits converted to Islam, but today Islam in India has 72 castes and Christian churches practice untouchability blatantly: the burial grounds, giving of communion, living areas, they are still practiced in a highly discriminated way in the Christian churches.
6:11
When his father worked at a leprosy hospital, the young M.C. Raj was an altar boy, looked after - for the most part - by nuns. He broke away from the Catholic Church when he could no longer tolerate the widespread institutional discrimination. He began pursuing an interest in Marxist ideas, before meeting his wife Jyothi at a youth group, and founding his organisation 'REDS' in 1984, to campaign for the rights of Dalits.
6:44
This is actually Booshakthi - Mother Earth. Dalit people from the ancient time have been worshipping earth as mother. But unfortunately after the Aryans came to India, they were co-opted into Hinduism. Our people have started worshipping thousands of Hindu gods. In order to liberate ourselves from untouchability and regain our dignity, it was very important that we regained our ancient culture.
7:21
Works of art, such as these, are outlandish by Indian standards. People without faces symbolize the position of Dalits in society.
7:31
M.C. Raj's 22-year-old son, Preetam, has followed in his parents' footsteps, and now paints the ancestors of the ten Dalit communities on which their original religion was founded.
8:09
Jyothi
Preetam's understanding of ancient culture has been brought out very powerfully with these paintings.
8:18
M.C. Raj
In the Dalit community, there was until now only an oral history, an oral narration. For the first time Preetam has put this into art form. Now this is for future generations multiple interpretations of our mythical history.
8:38
Set in motion by the Dalit Movement, over the decades there has been considerable constitutional change. However, in cases of transgression, the benefit of the doubt remains firmly on the side of the upper castes. Only as a result of determined campaigning has the Untouchables' right to life been recognised in law.
8:58
Question MMH: What about the wastewater in the Dalit neighbourhood?
9:01
Jyothi
What you see is the reality, but it was worse than what you see now. This is actually the construction done by the village community. But usually the Dalit people's residential area is where the drainage is being brought together. From the dominant caste people's drainage invariably the water will come and stagnate in the Dalit area. You have all sorts of diseases coming in and living very close to the drainage, there were situations where the Dalit children would fall into the drainage. Even some death would happen.
9:55
It was at the mercy of the caste people that the Dalit people would get water. When we were thirsty, when we asked for water even at the bore well, they would not allow us to take water from there. They used to pour it into our hand and we would have to drink like that.
Technically, caste-based discrimination is illegal. But many simply ignore this.
10:17
Question MMH: Why have you closed the shop now?
10:20
M.C.Raj
They are horribly scared seeing your camera. Because this was the place where they were using the double glass system. They were serving tea for the Dalits in a separate glass. And for the dominant caste people in a good glass. So we took up a struggle and all the Dalit leaders joined together and filed a case against the owner of the restaurant.
10:54
The government supports the lower castes through exemption from school fees, provision of social housing, and a quota for jobs in the civil service. But only with the help of human rights organisations like REDS, who donate LCD projectors so that children can discover different worlds, is it possible to achieve lasting change.
11:29
The Untouchables call themselves Dalit. The word "dal" comes from Hebrew and Sanskrit and means 'broken' - oppressed on the basis of colour. M.C. Raj and the Dalit Panchayat Movement have put forward a new name for themselves: 'ADIJAN'. It means, simply, 'native people'. They want to be considered human beings - equals, with equal rights.
12:04
T.H. Venkatesh
Teacher
In this school, there is no discrimination. Every child is treated equally. But in the school books, not much is written about the social situation or social tension between Dalits and other castes. They generally talk about human rights.
12:25
Now 62, M.C. Raj was a good student, but he was made to suffer much. Due to his dark skin he was called 'crow's shit' - a nickname that stuck until he left for high school in another city, though he complained to his teachers. To them, however, he was only a Dalit.
13:00
M.C. Raj
Some years ago we had (in Tamil Nadu) a school where girl child's eyes are goggled out because she belonged to a Dalit community and drank water from the common pot. Even in Tumkur district we have taken up many struggles in the schools where midday meals were given separately for the Dalits. And separately for the caste people. We took up many of such cases.
13:34
Originally, there were four major groups within Hindu society: the labourers and service providers, the farmers and merchants, the warriors, and the priests and scholars. Out of these, some six thousand castes have evolved, along with a myriad of consequences that an outside observer could hardly understand.
14:00
24 % of people in Karnataka are Untouchables. Just 15 years ago, a mere 35 % of the population could read. Today, there are more than twice as many literate children. Malnutrition is high among the underprivileged, but free school meals guarantee at least one balanced meal per day. But even here, caste barriers had to be overcome.
14:40
M.C. Raj
Often whenever the government recruited Dalits as cooks, then the caste people would not allow their children to eat in the school. Most of the schools are by law expected to make the children sit together and eat. But there are certain teachers who make the Dalit children eat and sit separately. The caste children sit separately and eat. But because of a lot of struggles by the Dalit Panchayat Movement in Karnataka these discriminated practices are reducing drastically in the recent past.
15:24
Ostracism of Dalits in public life may soon be at an end. But in rural areas, they still live separately from the dominant castes. Inter-caste weddings are frowned upon, and many parents do not permit them at all.
15:44
The Indian Government points with pride to its ringfenced allocation of seats for Dalits, and to the country's booming economy. But India also has a hidden shame: the staggering gap between the rich and the poor. 400 million people live on less than one Euro a day, most of them Untouchables. But in spite of their poverty, they still share what little they have with the distinguished couple. M.C. Raj used to be invited to the home of every family - a tour that would last the whole day. To keep proceedings short, the village now nominate one host to honour him. Every household contributes one or two kilograms of rice, according to what they can afford.
16:52
Today, there is another visitor. The President of the Andheri Hilfe Bonn has supported the REDS organisation for many years. She brings sponsorship from Austria and Germany.
17:14
Elvira Greiner
President Andheri Hilfe
Strictly speaking this is not just a 'project' that we are supporting; it's a movement of Dalits. Indeed, it's a matter of land rights, improving education and health. And for Jyothi and Raj it's about much more still: namely, strengthening the new Dalit culture so that they can find something positive, something that has been buried beneath injuries thousands of years old, and something they can be proud of again.
17:41
One of the movement's main focuses is the struggle against patriarchal structures within the caste system that penalise women. Every 22 minutes, a rape is registered in India. Often, a single woman will be taken advantage of by a whole gang.
18:05
Elvira Greiner
For example, when people talk about rapes in India today, nobody mentions the fact that every day Dalit women get raped - that Hindus, Caste-Hindus, still retain the notion that it's their right to treat women like objects. In the western world, such a situation is unheard of. But here, in India, it's routine.
18:26
In outlying villages, Dalit girls are taught from a young age to accept such brutal treatment as an unavoidable part of being female. It is an attitude deeply engrained in Indian culture. Until as recently as 1920, the most absurd tax was levied on Dalit men:
18:56
M.C. Raj
The caste people wanted to see the breasts of our women. But much worse was the law that there was a breast tax on the women of our community. Our men had to pay a tax of the breasts of our women. I am from the unseeable community and that is the contradiction of the Hindu society, that we are untouchables but our women are the most touchable ones and we are unseeables, but our women are the most seeable ones.
19:33
Dalits historically worked as manual labourers for the dominant castes, and still do so today. But now, at least, they receive a minimum wage. The community councils have also joined forces to fight for better working hours. Before, they were sent to the fields early in the morning and were not allowed to stop until after sunset. They had no way to support themselves. Now, they are pushing for 5 acres of land for each Dalit family. And with 240 million Untouchables all laying claim to their slice, there is outcry among the dominant castes. Public officers are frequently bribed with money.
20:32
M.C. Raj
So if Dalits have to survive they have to have land and this is what this country has resistantly refused to give to the Dalit people. Because when Dalit people have land they will become independent which means eradication of dependence on the caste forces.
20:55
Question MMH: Are you threatened because you take on the higher castes?
21:01
Of course we always live under threat to our lives, but that is immaterial for us. We are ready anytime to go but our people should have land.
21:12
The Dalits must even fight for burial grounds for their dead. The organisation works in over 1000 villages, and nearly all of them have the same problem:
21:44
M.C. Raj
In each village there is a struggle for burial grounds because the caste people do not want Dalits to be buried anywhere near them.
21:53
MMH : Why?
21:55
M.C.Raj
Dalits are Untouchables. Even after their death the caste people feel that they will be polluted by the presence of Dalits there. We are untouchables while living and we are untouchables even after our death.
22:11
Untouchables strive for their rights through so-called 'Dalit-Panchayats', or, 'community councils'. They consist of 10 elected representatives: 5 men and 5 women. Mallanna is one of them. As a child he suffered so grievously from the caste system that he removed all Hindu symbols from his house.
22:41
Mallanna
As a child I had to work for 9 years for a family of a dominant caste as bonded labourer like a slave. I had to carry the cow dung in a basket on my head to the field. If some of it fell down they beat me. Here are still the scars.
23:03
We lived in absolute poverty.
23:10
M.C.Raj
Mallanna is one of the very proud persons who took the bold step. It is not easy because the Dalits fear the Hindu gods. If they give up the Hindu religion, they fear that the Hindu gods may punish them or strike them. It requires a lot of courage to give up 3000 years of practice and take up something new, even though it is not really new in their history.
23:36
Many of the casteless hear for the first time about their history, their culture, their ancestors and that there could be a religion for them outside Hinduism.
23:53
But daily survival is the most important thing. In rural areas, around 60 % of houses do not have electricity. And even if they do, there is no guarantee that the supply will last. Power cuts are commonplace. And the energy companies demand fees that few can afford. The majority of villagers use kerosene lamps. But even that causes problems, because the fuel is not readily available.
24:25
For this reason, the Dalit Movement has started a project called 'Solar Lamps for the Poorest of the Poor'. 50,000 lamps will be installed by the end of 2014. More than 35,000 families already benefit from it, like Gowramma and her husband Nagaraj.
24:56
Gowramma
Housewife
Kerosene lamps do not give enough light. With the solar lamps we can sit together after sunset. And I can also see snakes and spiders that are hidden in dark corners.
25:13
By the light of kerosene lamps, the children could not see enough to do their homework. There also used to be a constant risk of fire.
25:24
The movement offers families solar panels with batteries and lamps at a fraction of the actual cost.
25:41
M.C. Raj
Already in 1986 we found that many people in the villages were homeless or were living in poor huts like this which used to leak heavily during the monsoon season and then we removed these types of huts and restored fallen houses and put up new houses which were similar to the ones you see there and behind the hut. And we found that children, especially Dalit children, were not able to excel in their studies because they did not have lights in their homes. They were clever children but were not able to study better than the others because they did not have lights.
26:35
Not only in India, but wherever there are human rights violations, the work of activists like M.C. Raj is invaluable. This year, his organisation celebrates its 30th anniversary: 30 years of struggle for the rights of the Dalits and against the inhumane caste system in India.
END 27:04