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Nepalma Varna Vyavasthaa ra Varga Sangharsha by Aahuti |
A number of buzzwords surround the Dalit discourse in Nepal:
untouchability, detachment, marginalisation, minority, empowerment, etc.
While I come across these buzzwords, I am reminded of the Post’s
columnist Deepak Thapa’s article Bullshit Bingo. With a tongue-in-cheek
approach, Thapa tells us how NGO-people and politicians “throw trite
nothings at us all the time” deriding the essence of these words into
“bullshit.” Borrowing from Thapa’s idea, I also feel like compiling all
these words to create a Dalit Bingo. This is to say that very little
tangible achievement has been made on Dalit issues despite the many
volumes that have been written on it. Though Nepali political leaders
and intellectuals reiterate these buzzwords often, what stands out for
them is “untouchability.” They cannot or simply do not want to go beyond
the problem of untouchability whenever they deal with the Dalit-issue,
limiting its gravity and sidelining it to the arena of culture.
The book Nepalma Varna Vyavasthaa ra Varga Sangharsha by Aahuti throws
light on this limitation of existing discourse and moves further to
trace the real problem, its history, and also explores ways to push the
Dalit movement forward. This book deals with the Dalit problem in its
entirety—exploring its socio-economic, structural and political
dimensions. Aahuti, himself a Dalit activist and a Constituent Assembly
member, starts with the etymology of the term Dalit. And explaining a
long history of Dalit problems, he informs his readers how dense
political connotations have come to be attached with the term. In doing
so, he draws attention to the scope and gravity of the issue from the
very beginning of his book.
“When we speak of Dalits, we speak of more than 4 million individuals
(according to the 2001 census),” says Chaitanya Mishra in an
introduction to this book. Understanding this issue only culturally is
to reduce the economic, structural, and political problems of each
individual who belongs to more than 800,000 Dalit families. A Dalit is a
Dalit because from the day he is born, he is economically and
politically alienated. Economically, many of these individuals are
landless and jobless and some still bound to be the dependant labourers
(Baalighare). Politically, they have scant representation in the local
and central level government bodies. As they are rendered economically
and politically powerless, they are devoid of education, and are also
victimised by excruciating untouchability and social alienation.
Although the current constitution making process is fraught with
pitfalls, it is high time that the issue of proportionate representation
of Dalits at the decision-making level is ensured. Thus, political
parties and the Dalit CA members, who represent their community in the
CA, should work together. But as Aahuti explains in the book, 50 Dalit
CA members, hailing from different political backgrounds, are unable to
come together for a common cause. The political questions always loom
large and the real issue remains elusive. The conspicuous political
factionalism among CA members and also among Dalit activists undercuts
the likelihood of the Dalits being compensated for centuries of
discrimination and of ensuring adequate political representation in the
days to come. In the context of federalism, he clearly states that as
Dalits do not have any fixed geographic region, every federal state
should allocate Dalits in the decision making bodies on a proportional
basis. This cannot be achieved through the existing status of the Dalit
movement.
The movement against untouchability started in 1946 under the
leadership of people like Sarbajeet Bishwokarma and Saharsha Nath
Kapaali. After passing through different phases since, the movement has
lifted itself up to a position where it can demand special prerogatives
and compensation. However, the movement cannot gain momentum unless the
non-Dalits, who head almost all the political parties, realise that the
movement is not only necessary for the Dalit community as such; it is a
movement to liberate over 20 percent of the Nepali population.
How can non-Dalits realise that the emancipation of Dalits and their
economic empowerment also help accelerate the entire economy of the
country, ultimately benefiting the entire population? Says Mishra, “We
can include the simplified version of Aahuti’s book in the school and
college curriculum.” This way we can make people aware and bring changes
in the perception of individuals towards the Dalit community and the
movement. Translating the book into other languages like Hindi and
Maithili could help the Madheshi community which acutely needs this
awareness as the Dalit issue is one of the most pressing in the
community.
But Nepalma Varna Vyavasthaa is also a serious theoretical and academic
work that offers scholars of Nepali society an in-depth discourse on
this issue. The first robust academic work on Dalits, with a 50-page
long critical introduction by arguably the most-renowned sociologist in
the country, is a must read for all Nepalis.
Source:ekantipur
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