'Dalit' and SC commission - Ravikumar

2008 ஆம் ஆண்டில் 'தலித்' என்ற சொல்லை அரசாங்க அலுவல் சார்ந்த பதிவுகளில் பயன்படுத்தக்கூடாது என தேசிய எஸ்.சி./ எஸ்.டி கமிஷன் கடிதம் ஒன்றை அனுப்பியபோது ஆங்கில நாளேடு ஒன்றின் ஆசிரியர் ஒருவர் அதுபற்றி என்னிடம் விளக்கம் கேட்டிருந்தார். அவருக்கு நான் அனுப்பிய விளக்கம் இது. 


16.06.2008

           It is true that the National SC/ST commission has suggested that the word  Dalit not be used in official communication and a few state governments have acted on this. The commission's view is that the term is 'unconstitutional'. What we must realize is that the Constitution is not a lexicon. It cannot delimit social and cultural usage. In the US, the term negro was used for a long time to refer to blacks. Today, African American is used by every one. In India, the bureaucracy and administration have to keep pace with the times. The use of the official term Scheduled Castes does not in any way clash with the social/ academic/ literary/ media use of the term Dalit. The two are independent. Some observations in this context.

1. Statutes are enacted to maintain law and order not to interfere in the affairs of language. So looking at the statutes to decide the fate of a word is incorrect.
2. The SC/ST commission's directive is only meant for 'the official documents' not for the media or literature or rest of society.
3. Dalit leaders have used many words to call themselves. Pandit  Iyothee Thass(1845-1914) a leader of Tamil dalits had used "casteless Dravidians" and "Original Buddhists". He criticized the usage of the word 'Depressed Class' in his writings.
4. Ambedkar used several words -- Depressed Class, Untouchables and Minorities, and also on a few occasions the term 'Dalit'.
5. A well known scholar of the Dalit movement and literature Eleanor Zelliot has stated in her introduction to Vasant Moon's autobiography 'Growing up Untouchable in India': "The most recent nomenclature for ex-untouchables is 'dalit'; a term meaning downtrodden or broken down but used with pride as self-chosen name that reflects no idea of pollution and can include all who identify themselves as oppressed by the caste system.' Dalit' came into currency in the 1970s in movements that took names such as Dalit Panthers and Dalit literature and now is the preferred name for those (such as Vasant Moon) who want to free themselves from the concept of pollution and from the patronage of Gandhian ideology". So the etymological meaning of the word 'Dalit' is not important here as much as its functional meaning.
6. It is a 'subjectivity' chosen by those who want to annihilate caste system; it is not an 'identity'. Choosing subjectivity is a conscious act. But the Hindu caste system wants to reduce the subjectivity into an identity by making the word as a mere replacement for Scheduled Caste or Untouchable.
7. So we have to restrict the instruction of the SC commission to official documents of the central/state governments.
8. We must oppose any attempt to ban the word 'Dalit'.
9. At a time when the Australian prime minister apologized to the nation for the atrocities perpetrated on the aborigines, and at a time when in Canada the state has apologized for the oppressive policies Native Americans (First Nation people) were subjected to till as late as the 1970s, we in India seem to be involved to be quibbling over non-substantive issues.