It's Not Impossible To Smash The Caste System
Listen to excerpts from Outlook's Independence Day special issue, by Pragya Vats.
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00:00 On August 14, 1931, B.R. Ambedkar said to Gandhi in a meeting at Manibhawan in Bombay,
00:06 "Gandhiji, I have no homeland.
00:09 How can I call this land my own homeland and this religion my own, wherein we are treated
00:13 worse than cats and dogs, wherein we cannot get water to drink?"
00:18 The Independence Day issue of Outlook looks at Dalit movements across the country.
00:22 In that, the issue analyses what freedom means for Dalits in our country.
00:27 Gandhi collaborated with scholar Suraj Yengde to put together the issue.
00:31 It is not impossible to smash the caste system, says Anand Tel Tumte in an interview to the
00:36 Outlook.
00:37 Anand is a scholar and civil rights activist known for his extensive work on B.R. Ambedkar's
00:41 life and work, as well as the caste issue.
00:44 He was arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad case in 2020 and released on bail
00:49 in November 2022 after spending 31 months in jail.
00:53 When asked what new aspects of caste did he learn about during his days in jail, he says,
00:57 "There is nothing I learnt about the caste issue in jail which I did not know before.
01:02 As a civil rights activist for the last four decades, I knew about the preponderance of
01:06 the Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis in jails, both as under-trials and convicts.
01:10 Taloja was no different.
01:12 As per the latest NCRB data, it is almost 51 per cent in the population.
01:17 It is not entirely attributable to the present regime that has made these communities its
01:21 main target to consolidate its constituency.
01:24 This feature has continued from the previous regime.
01:27 It is our civilizational feature in terms of Dostoevsky's dictum.
01:31 The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
01:36 The communal poison being spewed these days is not the cause but the effect of this civilizational
01:41 feature.
01:42 Whether one looks at it from the prism of caste, community or class, the picture approximately
01:47 remains the same.
01:49 This fact poses an important question, which among these categories should be a viable
01:53 category to build a lasting people's movement to better their future?
01:58 Prisons tend to bring forth the innate proclivities of people, both good and bad.
02:03 The first encounter I had there with an inmate was with a question, whether I was a Maratha.
02:08 I was taken aback but took a shortcut by saying, "Hmm."
02:12 I expected further probing about my sub-caste but fortunately it stopped.
02:16 It merely affirmed my observation that India is more casteist today than ever before.
02:22 Another thing I heard in the context of caste was the struggle of some Ambedkarite youths
02:26 against the discrimination.
02:28 It manifested in the form of identity assertion but the vehemence with which it was crushed
02:33 by the administration was reflective of Brahminic arrogance.
02:37 All involved in it were reportedly beaten by the guards.
02:40 Suresh Gaikwad, who led it, was so mercilessly thrashed in Kalyan prison that he had to be
02:45 brought on a stretcher.
02:47 He continued his struggle and was again beaten and thrashed to Thane jail.
02:51 This happened when the IG Prisons himself was a Dalit.
02:54 It once again proved my hypothesis that reservations do not serve the purpose of Ambedkar and Vaisaj.