{"id":9477,"date":"2021-07-08T17:44:46","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T17:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/?p=9477"},"modified":"2021-07-08T17:59:02","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T17:59:02","slug":"father-stan-dalits-and-caste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/father-stan-dalits-and-caste\/","title":{"rendered":"Father Stan, Dalits and Caste"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week India lost a freedom fighter<\/strong> \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0902\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093e \u0938\u0947\u0928\u093e\u0928\u0940 Father Stan Swamy<\/a> fought for the rights of the Dalits<\/strong> \u0926\u0932\u093f\u0924\u094b\u0902. He was jailed at 83 years old with frail health. His spirit survives even though his body gave up.<\/p>\n

Who are the Dalits?<\/h2>\n

Who are the Dalits that Father Stan Swamy fought so passionately for? What do they speak? Where are they located?<\/p>\n

First we must understand<\/strong> understanding the tiers of the caste system in India. The caste<\/a> system is a social hierarchical<\/strong> \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0923\u0940\u092c\u0926\u094d\u0927 system that is as old as the Himalayan mountains that boundary India. The top tier<\/strong> \u0909\u091a\u094d\u091a \u0936\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0923\u0940 is the Brahmin who are the priestly<\/strong> \u092a\u0941\u0930\u094b\u0939\u093f\u0924 class. Then come the Kshatriyas, the warriors<\/strong> \u092f\u094b\u0926\u094d\u0927\u093e and princes<\/strong> \u0930\u093e\u091c\u0915\u0941\u092e\u093e\u0930. Vaishyas, who are the merchants<\/strong> \u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e\u092a\u093e\u0930\u0940 farmers<\/strong> \u0915\u093f\u0938\u093e\u0928 and artisans<\/strong>\u00a0 \u0915\u093e\u0930\u0940\u0917\u0930 are next, followed by the Shudras who are tenant<\/strong> \u0915\u093f\u0930\u093e\u092f\u0947\u0926\u093e\u0930 farmers and servants<\/strong> \u0928\u094c\u0915\u0930.<\/p>\n

The Dalits are the lowest of the low.\u00a0 Their name means, broken<\/strong> \u091f\u0942\u091f\u093e \u0939\u0941\u0906 or oppressed<\/strong> \u0909\u0924\u094d\u092a\u0940\u0921\u093c\u093f\u0924.\u00a0 It is a term coined by a reformer<\/strong> \u0938\u0941\u0927\u093e\u0930\u0915, Jyotirao Phule who took up their cause, in the 1930’s. Mahatma Gandhi, also took up their cause during the fight for Independence, calling them Harijans.<\/p>\n

\"Three

Photo by Titiksha Rout from Pexels<\/p><\/div>\n

Sweeping the Shadow<\/h2>\n

So where do the Dalits stand? They stand outside the caste system <\/strong>\u091c\u093e\u0924\u093f \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0925\u093e. Yes, that low. They perform the work that none of the higher castes can do, for fear of pollution<\/strong> \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0926\u0942\u0937\u0923. Yes getting polluted by work is a thing in India.<\/p>\n

So, the Dalits bury the dead<\/strong> \u092e\u0943\u0924\u0915\u094b\u0902 \u0915\u094b \u0926\u092b\u0928\u093e\u0928\u093e, clean the garbage off the streets and do stuff that no one else wants to do. If that is not bad enough, in villages they cannot draw water from the same well<\/strong> \u0915\u0941\u090f\u0902 \u0938\u0947 \u092a\u093e\u0928\u0940 \u0916\u0940\u0902\u091a\u094b, and definitely not live in the same areas as the higher castes.<\/p>\n

In fact, if they happened to cross paths with a higher caste, they have to literally throw themselves face down on the ground to prevent their shadow<\/strong> \u092a\u0930\u091b\u093e\u0908 from falling on the higher castes.<\/p>\n

And, not only that, but also sweep away their footprints<\/strong> \u092a\u0948\u0930\u094b\u0902 \u0915\u0947 \u0928\u093f\u0936\u093e\u0928 from behind them as they walk. Talk about extreme prejudice<\/strong> \u092a\u0915\u094d\u0937\u092a\u093e\u0924 at work.<\/p>\n

What makes a Dalit, a Dalit?<\/h2>\n

How did this all come to be?\u00a0 According to Hinduisim, their works in the previous life<\/strong>\u00a0 \u092a\u093f\u091b\u0932\u093e \u091c\u0940\u0935\u0928 were so bad that they came back as untouchables<\/strong> \u0905\u091b\u0942\u0924\u094b\u0902.<\/p>\n

Is it the same in modern day India. I am afraid, but it is very much so, as we see in the cases of violence<\/strong> \u0939\u093f\u0902\u0938\u093e and unrest toward them. But there is a twist. The Indian government decided to provide special<\/strong> quotas<\/strong> \u0935\u093f\u0936\u0947\u0937 \u0915\u094b\u091f\u093efor the Dalits when it came to jobs. They did this to encourage equality<\/strong> \u0938\u092e\u093e\u0928\u0924\u093e. However, you cannot change systemic prejudice.<\/p>\n

There is resentment now, with the world getting to be a tough place to live in and jobs getting scarce. Even as the Dalits are now becoming a powerful political force due to these reservation quotas there is an increase in violence toward them from the keepers of the Hindu faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Two

This week India lost a freedom fighter \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0924\u0902\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0924\u093e \u0938\u0947\u0928\u093e\u0928\u0940 Father Stan Swamy fought for the rights of the Dalits \u0926\u0932\u093f\u0924\u094b\u0902. He was jailed at 83 years old with frail health. His spirit survives even though his body gave up. Who are the Dalits? Who are the Dalits that Father Stan Swamy fought so passionately for?…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":9479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,179,122],"tags":[238589,556334,556333,556335,2213,556336,238592],"class_list":["post-9477","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news","category-politics","tag-caste-system","tag-dalits","tag-father-stan-swamy","tag-hindu","tag-india","tag-politics-of-india","tag-untouchables"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9477"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9486,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477\/revisions\/9486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/hindi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}