I'm a Dalit Christian, this is why I feel Bhima Koregaon protest is important
Years of discrimination have thrust upon Dalits the worst imaginable status in this country. We are the unclean, amoral, lesser than all living being, we are the sons and daughters of w****s and b******s, we are the most heinous and dishonest people ever. Yet our community has time and again seized from history moments to remember, to be proud of and to celebrate. These moments have given us the strength to continue our life of protest and resistance despite all odds.
One such proud moment in the history has been the courageous fight of about 500 Mahar soldiers against thousands of Peshwas. This happened 200 years ago in 1818 in Bhima Koregaon on the banks of river Bhima. Recalling this historic victory over the caste rule of the Peshwas, I shared an article with many of my friends in November 2017 in anticipation of the 200th anniversary of the war.
I shared it in the context of many revolutionary movements - 500 years of reformation in Germany, 70 years of Indian independence, 70 years of the emergence of the Church of South India - that have reached milestones and have changed the way we think about politics. As an Indian Dalit Christian, all these were important political transitions that had to be noted and celebrated.
The response to the message I shared through WhatsApp in November on the battle of 1818 was tepid.
Such stories that glorify Dalits do not get traction. The only kind of news with regards to Dalits that seem to draw people's attention is suicides of Rohith Vemula and Anitha. It is thus quiet obvious that the news of the celebrations at Bhima Koregaon was only covered after some Dalits were attacked. The violence that followed, however, became national news within no time.
Everyone has condemned the violence but it is not clear who they are actually condemning. Dalit-leader-turned-politician, Jignesh Mevani, urged people in Maharashtra to maintain law and order but it is not clear who the people of Maharashtra being referred to are. Is Mevani asking Dalits to stop protesting? If so, why?
That upper caste groups could disrupt peaceful celebrations being held by Dalit groups with impunity showing scant regard for democracy. There is little else to expect given the current dispensation has given a free rein to the fringe Hindutva groups.
But there is an encouraging sign that has emerged from the violence. Dalits are not going to take violence lying down. Thousands from the state and the country converged in Mumbai to protest. This violence is a sign of a revolution happening in the country.
There are two important things to understand here. One, "naive nationalism" is not in our interest; rather it has never been in our interest.
Dominant caste groups of this country have mocked and undermined our resistance to oppression so far. It is in this background that the courage of our Mahar friends, who joined the British army with Muslims, Jews and Rajputs, among others, to eliminate corrupt, Brahminical Peshwa rule could not be tolerated.
The claim today by the fascist groups is that this victory resulted in foreign rule and hence celebrating it is anti-national. Yet for Dalits, British rule was better than the oppression of the feudal lords, who ran the Peshwa regime. Like Dalit leader Chandrabhan Prasad who celebrates the goddess of English, it is important to understand that for Dalits, nationalism is not the crucible in which liberation could be imagined.
Our liberation certainly does not lie in the Hindu nationalism of the current dispensation, which only sees us as subjugated people who should know and be kept in their place, as is clear from the attack on the celebration in Maharashtra.
All parties stand accused
Two, political parties are not willing to admit that all of them are responsible for the attack on the Dalits. The Congress is blaming the BJP, the BJP is blaming the Congress. The point is that political parties such as the Congress and the BJP, like most other parties, are all controlled by upper castes. To these castes, Dalit lives and Dalits' quest for dignity is merely an election agenda. There is nothing both these major political groups have done for the Dalits and Muslims and other minorities of this country. All of them have only helped worsen the situation. The sparring of the Congress-BJP combine only fuels the caste-class conflicts in the country.
As Dalits and other neglected communities in this country, we should take this fury and agitation to another level of overthrowing the powers of destruction. The violence that Maharashtra witnesses today is the beginning of another showdown between power and courage, it is reminiscent of the war and victory in the Bhima Koregaon war.