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GURU RAVIDASS

AN ADVOCATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

(Arun Kumar, Bedford , UK )

Guru Ravidass was one of the most celebrated saints of his time. In various states, he was known by different names such as Raidas, Ruhidas, Ruidas, Rohidas, Rohitas, and Ramdas etc. His following was not restricted to a particular place or caste but kings and queens; princes and princesses of various states were also his disciples. It reflects that he had his following all over India from the diverse sections of society. As he was revered by one and all in all over India, it is but natural that he must have written more than forty one hymns contained in the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib. There is a lot of material scattered here and there in various books which needs to be compiled in one book and made available to the younger generation for their studies. Unfortunately in India a person is not judged from his/her deeds but from his/her birth. Had Guru Ravidass been born in a so called high caste, he would have been worshipped in every Hindu house hold and was equated with the status of their other gods. As he came from an Untouchable family, nobody bothered to record the events in his life and preserve his writings. Now it has become very difficult to find authenticated literature on his life. Whatever the literature is found, it has been camouflaged by Brahmanism full of miracles which one finds difficult to believe.

Commenting upon the miracles attributed to Guru Nanak Dev Ji, in his book ‘Param Manukh’, Gurbaksh Singh Preetlarhi, writes that Guru Nanak is respected and adored today not because of his miracles but because of his teachings to remove miseries of mankind by working against the social evils. Same is true to Sri Guru Ravidass Ji.

Guru Ravidass was born in late 14 th century and died in the late 15 th century. The exact dates of birth and death are not agreed by all historians. In a matter of fact these dates are insignificant to ascertain the importance of his philosophy and actual work he done for the whole of humanity. The dates are only important to know the economic, political and social system of the period in which he had gone through and influenced his life.

During this period a great conflict between Hindus and Muslims were going on. With the invasion of Muslims and indifferent attitude of Hindus, the influence of Buddhism declined drastically. Buddha’s teachings of equality, liberty and toleration disappeared. Hindu society was badly divided into castes. From time immemorial, Hindus were already divided into four castes- priestly caste (Brahmins), warrior class (kshatryas), traders (Vaishya) and servants (Shudras). Theory of Varna dharma Shastra propounded by the Vedas and later on sanctioned by other Hindu scriptures took a firm foothold in the society. But by the medieval period, the fifth caste of Untouchables had already been established. These were the people considered inherently so low and inferior that their mere shadow was polluting caste Hindus. So they were not allowed to walk or sit along caste Hindus. They were not permitted to enter into a temple and prey to God. As the education was provided in the religious places, the doors for religious and any other educational activity were virtually shut for them. Profitable professions were prohibited and they were entrusted with only menial work from where they were not able to earn any profit to improve their lives. Cleaning latrines and work associated with leather were considered dirty and polluting and such professions were assigned to them. Because of this type of hatred by the caste Hindus, the Untouchables were forced to live outside the villages doing menial work and depending upon these exploiting castes.

There is a saying if you want to kill a community, kill their self respect and it will vanish. That was what exactly happened to the lower castes. Whole of the society was riddled with idle worship and false ceremonies and rituals which were further degrading and enslaving the downtrodden and worsening their economic well being. If somebody dared to cross over to the task which was not prescribed to their caste was punished severely. Even in Ramayana, a Dalit Shambuk was beheaded by Rama himself for defying the code of caste as he started worshiping God. Similarly in Mahabharata the right hand thumb of Eklavya was cut as he was indulging in archery which was the profession of warrior caste.

These were the conditions when Guru Ravidass was born. He not only witnessed the social system very closely but was also a victim of this cruel system as well. He was greatly influenced by such environment. He was touched by inhuman conditions of his people. His conscious did not allow him to flow with tide. Right from his childhood, he started to feel a craving for equality and began to rebel against the prevailing social system. He wanted to do something and didn’t want to be a silent spectator. He endeavored to bring consciousness amongst his people and encourage them to fight for equality. He also wanted to change the mind set of caste Hindus so that they start treating the unprivileged people as par with others.

Brahmins were the custodians of Hindu religion and regulating the society. To demolish the hold of Brahmins, Guru Ravidass started challenging them by imitating their life styles. First thing he did was to dress like Brahmins and began worshiping God. He stated that God is not somebody’s property. He started condemning idle worship instead he worshiped his tools of work. He dressed like them not because he believed in their philosophy but to show that an untouchable has the same right of worship and dress as others. Outraged by the violation of caste duties, Hindus complained against him to the king. The king summoned him to the court and asked for his explanation about his views on idle worship. He stated that his piece of stone where he mended shoes for his family’s livelihood was more useful than their stone idles. Service of mankind irrespective of their caste is more important than indulging in rituals and ceremonies. When asked about his defiance to wear dress and sacred thread, he made a small cut to his shoulder. Pointing at the flow of blood, he advocated that if his blood was not different from others, then how come he was different. Clothes, dresses, rituals and ceremonies were all man made not by God. If God didn’t create an untouchable different from others, why he was treated differently? He told the king that he always wore the sacred thread of truthfulness, honesty, equality, liberty, fraternity and equal justice. The false philosophy of Brahmanism got exposed. Convinced by his argument, the king let him free and himself started following his path of truthfulness. Clearly Guru Ravidass advocated freedom to profess any religion, freedom of speech and freedom of choice to wear clothing of one’s choice. Freedom is everybody’s birth right and he/she should not be stopped to enjoy it.

Encouraged by the outcome of the court case, Guru Ravidass began spreading the message of love and peace more vigorously and people were following him everywhere he went. Following his popularity, Hindu priests wanted to discredit him by giving him bribe. They offered him a philosopher’s stone (Paras which turns everything to gold when touched) telling him that they didn’t want to see him a poor person. But Guru Ravidass declined their offer. Even then they left that stone with him. After sometimes they came to see if Guru Ravidass had taken that stone or not. But to their astonishment, Guru Ravidass was still mending shoes and living in that hut. Enquiring about his poverty and cause of not taking the philosopher’s stone, Guru Ravidass explained that he believed in the dignity of labour. Instead of depending upon others, he advocated self reliance by self help. No work was good or bad. It was the people who made them so. He preferred to earn his livelihood by fair and honest means rather than indulging in nefarious activities as the Brahmins were doing. Similarly when Dr. Ambedkar was offered millions of Rupees by various religious leaders and asked him to convert to their religions, he flatly refused to accept their offer and told them, “Our struggle is not for wealth or for power. Our struggle is for freedom. Our’s is a struggle for the reclamation of Human personality’.

Guru Ravidass reminded people that they should know that nobody loves a slave. He termed slavery as a sin. He tried to awaken them and make them realize about the cause of their sufferings. They were suffering not because of their past deeds but because they were forced to lead a life of slaves. Guru Ravidass knew that self realization always leads to change. That was the only way to remove the stigma of Untouchability which was another name of slavery.

Self realization comes through education. Guru Ravidass firmly believed that without education one’s faculty of rational thinking is lost. To make right decisions education is must. He advised his followers to gain education if they want to progress in their lives. That is why Dr. Ambedkar declared that education is the only key to success and progress.

Guru Ravidass was not only fighting for the rights of his people but also developed a philosophy of a welfare state. Marx propounded such theory of socialism only in the late19th century and most of the underdeveloped countries tried to establish socialism. Even the capitalist countries did not escape from this philosophy and started working towards creating welfare states by providing people with health care facilities and adequately housing the homeless. Guru Ravidass wanted to establish such society in the medieval period. In one of his hymns, he talks about Begumpura meaning a state where all people live happily without sufferings. Everybody has a house to live in and food to eat. They are not burdened with heavy taxes. In that very state, there is nobody high and low, rich and poor and everybody lives in peace and harmony with equal rights. It shows that Guru Ravidass was a philosopher with a vision to reform the society based on the socialistic pattern.

In actual fact, Guru Ravidass’ whole life is a manifestation of struggle to gain the basic human rights of equality, liberty and fraternity and equal justice. He lived and suffered at the hands of high castes to set up a fare society and also died for the suppressed people so that they were able to live with dignity. Now we will have to see whether the dream of Guru Ravidass is fulfilled. In spite of many centuries have passed by, the Dalits are facing the same fate. Though many laws and regulations have been enacted to remove the caste discriminations, the conditions of Dalits have remained same. A recent study conducted by Dr. Sukhdeo Thorat, Chairman, University Grants Commission, government of India, on the status of Dalits especially on the prevalence of Untouchability practices in the rural India, covering 565 villages in 11 States, found that

Public health workers refused to visit Dalit homes in 33% of villages, Dalits were prevented from entering police stations in 27.6% of villages, Dalit children had to sit separately while eating in 37.8% of government schools, Dalits did not get mail delivered to their homes in 23.5% of villages, Dalits were denied access to water sources in 48.4% of villages because of Segregation and untouchability practices. Police statistics averaged over the past 5 years show that 13 Dalits are murdered, 5 Dalits' homes or possessions are burnt and 6 Dalits are kidnapped or abducted every week, 3 Dalit women are raped every day, 11 Dalits are beaten every day A crime is committed against a Dalit every 18 minutes. 70% of the Rural Dalits are Land less Dalits are in majority in migrating for want of Job Displacement affects Dalits mostly than other caste groups. (Bheem Patrika Dated March 2007)

Today there are millions of Guru Ravidass’ followers who are engaged in propagating his teachings and philosophy. They are competing with each other to build big temples and other monuments on his name but hardly give any thought for the empowerment of these people. In spite of big bank balances, they do not consider appropriate to spare some amount on the campaign against the atrocities committed on these unfortunate people. These religious places could have been used as a platform to raise the voice again injustice. To put Guru Ravidass Ji on a pedestal and worship could be a beneficial for mental satisfaction but no way to improve the conditions of the downtrodden people. Longer this situation goes on harder it is becoming to succeed and have our self respect, dignity and restored.

Posted onwww.ambedkartimes.com ( February 20, 2008 )

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PRIVATISATION AND DALIT

For the last 50 years, Indian economy has swung like a pendulum back and forth between liberalization and socialism due to numerous politico-economic and social pressures. Under enormous pressure of debts, deficits, IMF and globalization, India has embraced market economy. Hence in the last decade multinationals corporations have invested in India and thereby Indiahas gradually come under global influence. The means of production, corporate governance, labour and corporate practices are changing as more organizations are delivering to their stakeholders a good healthy dividend.

With the collapse of communism, the western countries projected globalization as an alternative to centralized bureaucratic control and state dominated economies. Globalisation is supposedly to bring greater prosperity, peace, ecological balance and reduction in poverty. Instead of gaining public trust and democratic accountability, globalization has led to widening the gap between rich and poor. The minorities like Dalits have become more marginalized. Globalisation has enriched the upper castes that have taken advantage due to relevant skills and access to education whilst Dalits have become impoverished. Globalisation has led to disillusionment and discontentment. SC/STs have found their livelihood destroyed. Whilst corporate sector has created jobs in India

With the introduction of privatisation, liberalisation, globalisation and disinvestments, many government industries and public sector undertakings have already been sold off. As a result, thousands of jobs in the public sector have been lost. It is reported that in the Central Secretariat in Delhi, 60,000 posts particularly at lower levels have been abolished during the year 2003-4 and about 200,000 jobs all around country have been erased (1). Even the cleaning jobs in the local municipal committees have been contracted out to the contractors. The permanent jobs have been converted into temporary and the workers are left on the mercy of contractors. but the main beneficiaries have been the upper castes. 'Globalisation has clearly made wealthy elite wealthier. It has increased greed of the elite and strong desire to hang on to power. Time has come to devise a new strategy to make Dalits partners in the corporate sector. Failure will only result in further widening of gap between rich and poor.

According to the Economic Survey 1999-2000, employment in public sector by industry is 1941 crores (19410 millions), which means that by a rough estimate, there are more than 40 lakhs (4 millions) SC/ST employees. In the government and public sector, especially banks, SC/ST employees are actually less than the prescribed 15% reservation. The percentage of SCs in group A and B services stands at 10.15 and 12.57 percent respectively. In public sector banks in the officers’ cadre, the representation of SCs was 11.11% (2). Freed from their obligation to fulfil mandated quotas, privatised Public Sector Undertakings and banks are bound to register fall in the relative strength of Dalits. And even if their jobs are as secure or insecure as any other employee in a privatise firm is, the company can selectively lay of SC/ST staff without fear of violating any reservation policy. Again the promotion prospects of these employees will be diminished. Privatisation will lead to erosion and ultimately the end of reservation in the public sector. There is no clause for reservation being added into the disinvestment deals struck between the government and the private sector. Not to insert such clause into these deals is to subvert caste-based reservation and keep the Dalits away from jobs and also transfer the national assets in the hands of high castes.

It doesn’t matter how much we oppose globalisation and privatisation, it is going to stay in future and we will have to live with it. We have to change our strategy and adapt ourselves accordingly. We must find ways and means to absorb our Dalit brothers and sisters into these MNCs (multinational Corporations). Business is facing challenging time worldwide. It is no longer enough to simply employ people make profit and pay taxes. Companies are now expected to act responsibly, be accountable and benefit society as a whole. Corporate social responsibility may sound new to the underdeveloped countries but it is an old concept in Western World. The business has responsibility to itself, to its customers, workers, shareholders and community as whole.

The growth of the global economy has seen benefits across the World but also increasing public concern about business activities and decline in trust. At the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in September 2002, there was as much focus on business as on poverty and the environment. As WSSD recognised, partnership between business, government and civil society, there is a need to tackle inequalities and deprivation across the country. The business must be encouraged to tackle social exclusion and racism based on descent and build stronger society (3).

The multinational Companies (MNCs) have also started realising that how a company’s response to local needs results into a tremendous impact on its business and public perception of the company. Due to rapid expansion of consumerism, consumer is also becoming increasingly aware and is constantly evaluating company’s products and performance through human rights context. The companies are beginning to listen to the people for their local needs to maintain their reputation. Realising their corporate responsibility and integrity, the multinationals have started promoting diversity through education, training and minority advancement programmes.

In the UK, food supply provides some good example of corporate social responsibility. The Fair Trade group aims to give better deal to Third World producers. More than 300 retail products, ranging from coffee to fresh fruits, carry the fair trade mark in the UK. Leading super markets such as the Coop and Tesco, either stock Fairtrade brands or ensure their own brands are sourced from Fairtrade producers. Equal opportunity policy is enforced very strictly (4). To win the confidence of black and ethnic minorities, British police have started recruiting their staff from these groups and from the last few years a number of police officers are seen on the streets. Similarly BBC and other broadcasting companies started recruiting newsreaders, presenters and actors from black and ethnic minorities. Any company, which doesn’t employ people from blacks and ethnic minorities, is considered as a racist and no company whether big or small wants this sort of stigma attached to it.

In USA, American Society of Newspaper Editors took a decision in 1978 to raise the minorities’ representations from a pathetic 3.95% to the same level as their share in the population. The papers started special programmes such as scholarships, ethnic and racial censuses, training schemes and job fairs to recruit historically disadvantage minority groups. Today two thirds of all newspapers with circulation 100,000 plus draw 15-20% of their journalists from racial linguistics minorities like blacks and Hispanics. Thus, 16.2% of the New York Times, 19.5% of Washington Post, 18.7% of Los Angeles Times and 17.1% of Wall Street Journal’s staff belong to such minorities (5). Similarly Ford Motor Company largely focuses on recruiting the best of minorities, training and teaching them the best of techniques through exhaustive dealer education programmes in order to ensure the best of minorities have the capability to compete nationally as well globally. The company also grants scholarships to the students to get involved with the company. In 1999, Ford Motor Company prides itself for purchasing record $3.3 billions in goods and services from business that are run by the minorities. IBM has 15% of its staff drawn from the minorities. Over third of the faculty of Harvard Medical School belongs to such group. Microsoft and McDonald’s have made diversity an essential part of their business identity (6).

By contrast, Dalits and Adivasis (23% 0f the population) have abysmally low representation: just 7.1% in factories, 3.1% in construction, 4.1% in trade, 3% in transport and 3.4% in domestic industry(7). It is clear that the Indian business doesn’t give any importance to corporate responsibility and lack the spirit of diversity. Here Dalit is presumed useless, unworthy, incompetent, unintelligent, unmeritorious and unsuitable, until proven otherwise. That is why he doesn’t find any place in the business, educational institutions and media. In his article, ‘In Search of a Dalit Journalist’, Mr. B.N. Unigal states that there is not a single Dalit journalist in the English language press from the population of well over 250 million Dalits (8). Mr. Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit writer is right when he says “In the US you have black billionaires, industrialists, black film stars, black professors. In India, university professorships are closed to us. We don’t have one millionaire. There is neither one Dalit newspaper editor nor a newscaster.”(9). The caste intelligentsia, which controls media and public institutions, doesn’t find it necessary to examine the reasons for not given due representations to these people. Perhaps they think that the law of ‘Karma’ governs them. They are in privileged positions because of their past deeds (Karmas). So they cannot do anything to change the lives of Dalits as they are suffering because of their past deeds as well.

Dalit educated elite is beginning to feel the heat of privatisation. They know that with this new phenomenon, the Dalits will have no place in the market economy. To find a new strategy to overcome this situation, in January 2002, a Dalit conference was held in Bhopal. Over 300 Dalit intellectuals unanimously accepted the Bhopal Declaration containing 21 points identifying the area of intervention for uplifment of Scheduled Castes/Tribes and their participation in the public and private sector. On 26th January 2002, in his Republic Day address to the nation, the then President of India, Mr. K.R. Narayanan endorsed this declaration, which generated a serious debate throughout the country. The concept of diversity came into forefront for the first time. The main theme of the Bhopal Declaration is that there must be an equal participation of all sections of the society in the activities of all key institutions be it governance, education, institutions and trade. Every government and private organisation must implement Supplier Diversity from socially disadvantaged businesses and Dealership Diversity in all goods and services. The reservation must be compulsory in the private and corporate sector in the same proportion as in the public sector and in the government institutions and develop the capacities and skills of Dalits to help them cope up with the demands of these different sectors.

To further these objectives, another International Dalit Conference took place in Vancouver, Canada on 16-18 May 2003. Endorsing the Bhopal Declaration, the Conference asked for rightful and proportionate share of Dalits in India’s national institutions, wealth and capital. The community should have equitable access to means of production and economic empowerment.

Though the Congress Party accepted the Bhopal Declaration and the reservations to Dalits in the private sector was given prominence in the minimum common programme of United Progressive Alliance (UPA), but so far they haven’t done anything to fulfil their promise. It appears that the Congress Party has deliberately diverted people’s attention from Bhopal and Vancouver Declarations. They are talking of labour market reservations and employment in certain sector of the private economy. There is no discussion over capital market, land market and government contracts to the Dalits. They have taken up just a one issue for reservations but what about contract/suppliers/dealership diversity? What about giving surplus land to landless labourers? What about diversity into educational institutions?

Even reservation in the private sector hasn’t received a positive response from businesses. The UPA government’s common minimum programme talks about evolving a consensus on the issue. The Prime Minister had meeting with industrialists on 4th December 2004 in which this issue was raised. All of them were opposed to this idea and only agreed to contribute toward education. Recently Rahul Bajaj threatened to shift business out of Maharashtra if the state government did not rescind its orders on reservations in the private sector (Times of India, 8/9/04). Confederation of Indian Industry chief Mr. Anand Mahindra welcomes a dialogue but says that reservation without merit may have distorting effects on the industry. In another word, he is parroting again about the age-old excuse of merit. Everybody knows that in private sector, jobs are hardly advertised. The people are recruited on the basis of birth not worth, family lineage, contacts, recommendations, loyalty and political influence. The Indian industry is run and controlled by the upper caste feudals who have no compassion for the poor.

The issue of providing reservation to the Dalits in the private sector seems to have taken a backseat. During Maharashtra elections, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh raised the issue. This matter was widely responded and discussed. The Government formed a Group of Ministers on the subject under the chairmanship of Sharad Pawar with Ramvilas Paswan and Lalu Prasad Yadav its members. Now the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh constituted a committee of ministers on Dalit affairs to supervise programmes being run by various ministries and departments for welfare of Dalits. The committee would consolidate the funding and implementation of schemes to improve effectiveness and identify areas needing attention. The committee has been set up because despite a large amounts being allocated to a number of programmes, the outcome has not been fruitful (10).

Now the government has itself admitted that the welfare programmes have not been very affective and successful. If the Prime Minister is really sincere, instead of this ministerial committee, he should form a Diversity Cell in the Prime Minister’s office and start implementing diversity programme immediately. All the contracts to various companies should go through the Prime Minister making sure that Dalits get their fare share in contracts. Rather than spending money on welfare schemes, involve them in businesses so that they are able to look after themselves. The Government should also set up a separate ministry for Diversification independent from the Ministry of Welfare and Empowerment. The Digvijay Singh government in Madhya Pardesh initiated a scheme to award one third of all purchases/contracts to the Dalits. The central government should also start such programmes at least in central government departments. All the governmental and private sector enterprises must provide data to the ministry to make sure that Dalits are given an equal opportunity in the hiring process. It also means that governmental and private business contracts should be cleared through the Ministry of Diversification to make sure that Dalits have shares equal to others (11). It is said that charity begins from home. The government should show the way to the private businesses. Rather than giving them reservation, give them power to run their own businesses. It will benefit not only a few educated people also semi literate people as well resulting more employment amongst the weaker section of society. This new ministry must set targets to achieve diversity agenda. This includes employment of Dalits in government and private sector and all educational institutions.

The ministry should also bear responsibility of training and teaching Dalits the best of techniques

Through exhaustive dealer/supplier-educational programmes in order to ensure that Dalits have the capability to compete nationally and globally. Dalit students should also be encouraged and financed to get involved in the business. All the private businesses, which are refusing to implement diversity programme, should be liable to be barred from government concessions such as subsidies, grants, loans and other income tax benefits. The companies, which implement this programme, should be benefited with tax rebates and other incentives.

To implement the diversity programme, it is essential that we have some data of the Dalit professionals, suppliers, dealers etc., otherwise these companies can easily say that they are unable to find the suitable persons. To eradicate this problem, there must be some sort of Dalit Recruitment Agency with branches in every state, which will collect the data of Dalit professionals i.e. scientists, computer engineers, lawyers, doctors, suppliers, dealers etc. The recruiting public/ private company or government departments would write to the Dalit Agency for providing the potential job seeker, supplier or dealer with relevant business and qualifications. If we have data, the agency can write to eligible persons. The person who gets job or contract for supply or dealership through the Dalit agency will have to pay a small amount to agency so that its running costs are met. Initially it will be difficult to collect data but when the agency start working, the potential job seekers or contractors will be registering their names themselves with the Dalit Agency. That way the companies can’t make excuse that they can’t find suitable persons for the jobs and also we will be able to have network of Dalit professionals and businessmen. This Agency can be run easily with no profit and no loss basis. The government can also take an initiative to open such agency under the Ministry of Diversification. But it must be ensured that this agency be run and operated by Dalit officials only. This agency must publish its annual report to show how many people registered with the company and how many people got jobs through this agency. Dalit Beopar mandal is a positive sign to implement this programme. We don’t need talks and dialogues with any business tycoons but we need action. Now let us see how far the government goes to empower Dalits.

References:

(1) P. Vishnumurti, Janamitra, 4/01/04
(2) Disinvestment will end reservations An article by Rajesh Ramachandran and Akshaya Mukul, the Times of India News Desk, published in the souvenir on Dr. Ambedkar’s birth anniversary in 2002 from Jallandhar.
(3) Corporate Social Responsibility A British Government update published by the Department of Trade & Industry in May 2004
(4) Corporate Social Responsibility Friends, (a magazine for the members of the Communications Workers Friendly Society) Autumn 2004 issue.
(5) The Praful Bidwai Column, dated 21/8/2004

HYPERLINK http://countercurrents.org/dalit-bidwai210804.htm
(6) The Vancouver Vision on Diversity International Dalit Conference, Vancouver, 2003
(7) Mr. P. Vishnumurti, Janmitra, 4/01/2004
(8) The Pioneer, Dalit Diary (Vol-1) by Chandra Bhan Prasad
(9) The Observer, 3 October 2004).
(10) The Indian Express, 8 March 2005
(11) Dr. K. P. Singh,
What Dalits Expect from the congress led Government? Dalit International Newsletter, October 2004

Note: This article on Privatisation & Dalits was written by Mr. Arun Kumar a year ago.

POSTED ON JUNE 11, 2007