hindu hit (हिन्दु हित)

''hindu hit ki baat karega vahi desh pe raj karega'.' (हिन्दु हित की बात करेगा) listen these words carefully. they say, ''baat karega'' (बात करेगा)  hindu hit ki sirf baat karega. hindu hit me kam karega aisa nahi kaha!

Break the silence - we have tolerated these old hatreds for far too long

I am a non-convent educated, ordinary Gujarati. My teachers too, were mediocre, middle class people, who never thought of saffronising the curricula they had so meticulously adhered to for decades. They never taught me to wear a murderous weapon like the trishul.

           

My forefathers settled in Ahmedabad city nearly five hundred years ago. It is said Ahmedshah Badshah wanted to build Ahmedabad fort on the model of the Patan fort. He invited artisans from Patan and its surrounding villages. My ancestors, who came from Patan, built the fort and the Badshah rewarded them by granting them land to settle in the heart of city. With this background, I humbly claim that nobody in the Vishva Hindu Parishad can match my knowledge about the history and geography of Ahmedabad.

Let me narrate my firsthand experiences with fascism, another name for Hindu revivalism in my state. The year was 1981 when I was preparing for my Third B.Sc. examination. It was a chilly winter day and I was trying to concentrate on my books. All of a sudden, I heard some noise at a distance. A mob of around 500 people gathered near our Dalit ghetto. They were shouting “Come on, fight with us” (They were abusing us with a derogatory word used for Scheduled Castes in Gujarat). The mob was carrying a two-wheeler lorry, which in ordinary times is used by sweepers. They showed us the lorry and said: “This is for you. Come on. Sweep.” Then, they pelted stones, acid bulbs, petrol bombs and whatever they had. This was but one of the ugly scenes of the anti-reservation movement in Gujarat, when a particular section of society was systematically isolated. Press, police and politicians joined hands to add fuel to the fire.

Much has been written on it, but the point is that for the first time in the history of Gujarat and the entire country, the Dalits, in retaliation, boycotted a holy festival. It was a gesture, a warning signal to Hindu society. After 1981, Hindu revivalism gained ground in Gujarat. After 1981, most of the religious processions, which passed through the road adjoining my area, shouted viciously anti-Muslim slogans. It was the same mob which participated in the 1981 anti-reservation agitation. The same hatred, but the target was different.

In 1985, another anti-reservation movement ravaged Gujarat. But, this time the ruling party had taken care to turn the anti-reservation movement into communal rioting. A senior leader of the Congress party declared in a meeting of party workers, “We have succeeded in turning this agitation into a riot. Hence, our government is saved.” The same year witnessed a 70-day long, historical strike of Gujarat secretariat’s upper caste employees. After some years, Advani was welcomed in the secretariat’s premises by the same upper caste leaders. The then Chiman Patel’s government did nothing to prevent the politicisation of government employees.

The vital blow to the secular ethos came in the form of shameless selection of Keka Shastri, the chief architect of Hindu revivalism, as president of the Gujarat Sahitya Parishad in 1985. Prominent Gujarati writers and Gandhians whole heartedly supported Keka’s selection as head of the most respected body of literature. The recent attack by BJP activists on peace meetings at Gandhi ashram was nothing but the result of criminal silence of the Gujarati intelligentsia, who have buried their conscience under the heap of Hindutva.

Raju Solanki, Indian Express, 24th April 2002

(when I was in financial Express, I used to write in Indian Express. This particular write up was published in 2002. Thanks to Pamela Philipose, the resident editor of IE, New Delhi. A kind lady, who I have never met, painstakingly edited and refined my articles)

From pen of an activist

At 75, Valjibhai Patel is still active in his not so attractive office of Council for Social Justice. From this office he has filed some historical writ petitions in Gujarat High Court. Some people, quite innocently, call him ‘advocate.’ This man with LLB degree and without any 'sanad' has done something extra-ordinary even a person with black robe might not achieve. 

But, before scrolling legal mouse, Valjibhai was an ardent journalist with irrevocable commitment and discreet insight. He narrated, sometimes as an impartial historian or sometimes as a concerned citizen, everything from anti-reservation riots of 1981 to state-sponsored genocide of 2002. In his magazine, ‘Dalit-Mitra’, he gave bit by bit account on how Sangh Parivar spread its poisonous tentacles in Gujarat, how Gujarati news papers started its vicious propaganda first, against Dalits and then against Muslims and how the so-called intelligentsia became, first, silent and then vocal supporter of Hindu communalism. All these articles have been published in a book ‘Karmashilni Kalame’ (from the pen of an activist) edited by Chandu Maheriya.

Today, when secularism has become a commodity for secularists and a punching bag for fundamentalist, Valjibhai’s book gives penetrating analysis and useful insight in the real Gujarat.

Tikesh Makwana - the unsung hero of secularism

Tikesh Makwana was one of those few daring dudes who dared to challenge Hindu fanatics in Gujarat and particularly in Ahmedbabd city. It is very easy to talk on secularism while living in upper caste dominated area and not having a single Muslim as neighbour within one kilometre distance of your home. For Dalits of Gujarat, secularism is not a subject of a symposium, because they have been living with Muslims since centuries and Dalits are the people who have been protecting and nurturing and advocating secularism.

I compiled collection of articles written by Tikesh Makwana in a book "Ek patthar to tabiyat se uchhalo yaro" (एक पथ्थर तो तबियत से उछालो यारो). If you want to get real picture of secular Gujarat, you must read this book, published by Dalit Youth circle of Rajpur-Gomtipur, Ahmedabad. In one of the articles, Tikesh narrated the venomous frenzy of fanaticism which engulfed entire city in post-Godhara riots. Some Dalits misguided by VHP targeted Tikesh as he was exposing their communal character. They threw stones on his home, abused him and threatened him. But, Tikesh did not budge. He carried his fight till his last breath.

Inaugeration of book - Manu's India and Shudra

Year 2004. Gujarati translation of a book on Manusmruti written by Prof. Shamsul Islam (Delhi University) was published by Banaskantha Jilla Dalit Sangathan. Father Vinayak Jadav translated the book. 

Jati Nirmulan Samiti took the initiative to inaugurate the book and a grand function was organized in Mahendi Nawaz Jang Hall, Ahmedbad

Prominent activists, trade union leaders, Ambedkarites, Gandhians, NGO workers, Dalits, Muslims attended the function which was first of its kind after the state-sponsored genocide.

Kanu Sumara, who was one of the actors of our street play 'Bamanvad ni Barakhadi', sang the song, ''ye gaon hamara, ye gali hamari''

2004 Babuben, a Dalit woman recounted her story of 2002. Her son jumped off balcony of her house and broke his leg, when military javans knocked their doors.

Purushottam Vaghela, activist narrates horrible story of man-hole workers

Valjibhai Patel, Dalit leader is quoting from Manusmruti

J K Chauhan, the fighter of save reservation movement of 1985

Jayanti Makwana, Leader of Banaskatha Jilla Dalit Sangathan

Mukul Sinha, Ambrish Patel, Naginbhai Parmar, Jayvardhan Harsh, Suman Bharti along with people from villages of Banaskatha district came to watch inauguration.

Dinesh Parmar, director of Behavioral Science Centre

Hiren Gandhi, Cultural Activist

Vinayak Jadav, the translator

.... and the inaugeration

the audience

Arun Chauhan, who was one of the leader of Ruppur battle, where powerful Karsan Patel's relatives grabbed graveyard and charmkund of Dalits

 Dr. Nitin Gurjar, the leader and fighter of Dalit movement

Shankar painter sings his poem

Crime against Dalits

Not a single Dalit has been convicted in the Naroda-Patiya case, in which 93 Muslims were massacred. And in earlier judgments of Sardarpura, Ode and Dipada Darwaja, too, not a single Dalit was convicted and sentenced. All these judgments have exposed combined strategy of RSS, VHP, Bajrang Dal, BJP to make Dalits scapegoat in 2002 genocide. After sprinkling blood of innocent, Mr. K K Shastri, president of Vishva Hindu Parishad in an interview with rediff.com intentionally appreciated role of Dalits in the riots. As if to substantiate Mr. Shastri’s claim, more than 700 Dalits were arrested in Ahmedabad city only. As the later events unfolded, none of them was involved in gruesome massacres. I gave detailed account of these arrests in my book ‘Blood Under saffron.’ (See the link: http://bloodundersaffron.blogspot.in/)

After 2002 a great debate was manufactured on the role of Dalits in anti-minority violence. Everybody was in search of a culprit, bali ka bakra (in Gujarati we say ‘holi nu nalier’) And they found poor Dalits who themselves were helpless victims of Hindu varn-vyavastha. It was really tragic that ‘Crime against humanity’, the monumental account of the genocide failed to draw a line between the perpetrators and the victims and wrongfully identified Dalits with upper caste-backward marauders. 

Crime against humanity (an inquiry into the carnage in Gujarat – findings and recommendations) writes, “Dalits and members of the de-notified tribes like Waghris and Chharas were active in the violence in urban areas, especially in the more gruesome instances of rape, killing and bestiality. The tragedy behind this pattern lies in the fact that influential and dominant sections of caste Hindu society have driven wedge among the oppressed sections, pitting Dalits, Waghris and Charas against the Muslim minority. In urban Gujarat, especially Ahmedabad, Dalits and Muslims live in close proximity. The lower castes were cynically trained to indulge in violence of a kind that dehumanizes the perpetrators themselves. The Tribunal has recorded evidences to show that, especially in the past two years, in Gujarat, the Bajrang Dal paid salaries of Rs. 3-5,000 to lure unemployed Dalit youths to camps where indoctrination against the Muslims were the main activities.” (Page 35, volume 2, patterns of violence, Crime Against Humanity). 

 In 2002, when I translated 492 pages of two volumes of this document after a request from Teesta Setalwad through her aide Raiskhan, I found that role of Dalits in the riots was blown out of proportion, I asked her about this anomaly when she came to office of Council for Social Justice (CSJ) to get some important documents and in the presence of Valjibhai Patel, secretary CSJ and Raiskhan, she confessed that it was a mistake. Sometimes even a work with most bona fide intentions results in undesirable consequences. Nobody can doubt integrity of concerned citizens’ tribunal’s role in 2002 genocide. But, tribunal had not included a single testimony from any of the prominent Dalit leaders and activists. The voluminous report gave biased version on role of Dalits and it damaged interests of Dalits nationally and internationally. Actually, tribunal should have criticized role of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, the most prestigious literary body of Gujarati writers, who unanimously elected wretched, intellectual rascal Mr. K K Shastri as president of Sahitya Parishad and directly legitimized the sins of VHP. In 1985 we, Dalit writers, protested against selection of Mr. K K Shastri in front of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad in Ahmadabad. Even today, Gujarati writers are not ready to repent and apologize for their past sins. 

The reality was different. During 1981 to 1991 all Dalit mahollas surrounded by Muslim majority simply disappeared from the map of Ahmedabad city. Shahpur Vankarvas (birth place of famous Urdu poet Jayant Parmar), Maheshania vas, Jamalpur Khand ni sheri, Nadia vad, Tajpur vas, Jamalpur Pagathiavalo mahollo (birthplace of Manu Parmar, MLA and minister of Congress, who was known as Mia Manu) were deserted. The rise of Hindu Fascism in Gujarat worsened Dalit-Muslim relationship and both were victims of the fascism. (refer ‘blood under saffron’).   

Dalits of Gujarat are not puppets of RSS. We have fought our battles in our own way. The retaliation of Dalits in 1981 anti-reservation movement and subsequent boycott of Holy festival, the great rally of o.4 million people in the capital city Gandhinagar in 1985, boycott of Gujarat Samachar, the fierce response of Ramabai colony massacre in 1995 – these are few examples of Dalit power. The fighting spirit of Dalits had been dampened by combined assault of NGOs and Sangh Parivar after 1990. But, Dalits (and with them all marginalized sections of Gujarat) promise. Sooner the sky will change the color.