DALIT OL OGY

M C Raj

Dalitology is THE BOOK of the Dalit people. The name that we have given to this
Dalit science is ‘Dalitology’. In the course of time it will develop into an
intellectual academic discipline. Dalitology is derived from a self- assertion of the
Dalit people that we have a history and culture of our own which is different from
all other dominant histories and cultures. It is not placed in opposition to any
other religion or any other discipline though all religions are analyzed without fear
or favor. Dalitology aims at establishing and consolidating an age-old culture and
tradition, proposing it to be a global (but non-universal) alternative to dominance
and hegemony. Dalitology does not believe in any form of dominance and will
positively resist all shenanigans of Objugation wherever they take place in the
world. Dalitology is a philosophy that rationalizes a value system that has guided
and sustained the Dalit people for more than three millennia against the
unrelenting attack on their dignity and rights by Brahminism through their
established Instrument called the Hindu religion. It contains multiplicity of
discourses for the establishment of equality and community living. It is a way of
life in communication. It is a project of Dalitization, which is the other name for a
world of equality and fraternity.

1. The Context of Emergence

The 20th century was a period of the firm establishment of a thesis of cultural
nationalism of the Maharashtra Brahminic forces. As against this the antithesis of
political nationalism spearheaded by the subaltern and Dalit forces of India
developed. The forces of the thesis spread their tentacles through cleverly
manipulated discourses and were out to transform this nation into Hindustan, a
Hindu Rashtra, a nation of the Hindus. The forces of the antithesis were seeking
to constantly checkmate the efforts of the proponents of the obnoxious thesis that
would render many people without a nation. A secular Constitution was the
outcome of the confrontation between thesis and antithesis.

Generally it is assumed that progress is the consequence of a dialectic

movement of thesis and antithesis leading to the emergence of a synthesis.
The synthesis is assumed to be progress. Synthesis is the synergy that emerges
out of the dialectic movement of thesis and antithesis. But what is generally not
assumed is the emergence of what I call the ‘Conthesis’. Conthesis is the
emergence of a contradictory thesis leading to a separation and break off as a
consequence of the dialectic movement of thesis and antithesis. The emergence
of Pakistan and Bangladesh is two recent examples.
Kuvempu1 Ramayana has the narration of the conflict between Rama and
Ravana. The scene is the battle between Rama and Ravana. Rama is the
incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu to kill the indigenous kings and queens of
India. Ravana who is the mythical ancestor of the Dalits is a man of great valor
and dignity. Rama makes use of all the weapons at his disposal and yet is unable
to kill Ravana. He finally decides to make use of the most lethal weapon at his
disposal, which is called the Rama Bana (The arrow of Rama). It contains the life
of Rama. It is bound the kill the person against whom it is used. However, it has
to return to Rama as it contains the life of Rama. If it does not return to Rama he
is sure to die. Rama ultimately decides to use the Rama Bana against Ravana,
as he does not have the skill to kill Ravana. As soon as the Rama Bana strikes
Ravana he falls down in great pain and holds it in his hand. Even at the moment
of death Ravana makes use of his intelligence. He tells Rama that if he holds on
to the Rama Bana Rama will also die together with him. Alarmed at this
challenge the gods and goddesses in the heavens beseech Indra (a Brahminic
God who is a cheat and a thief in the Hindu literature) to save them and the world
from the disaster that would befall them if Rama were to die. Indra comes down
and pleads with Ravana to leave the Rama Bana for the prosperity of the gods
and goddesses. Simple and generous that Ravana was he leaves the arrow to
save Rama.

The modern day Rama (who is M K Gandhi) and Ravana (who is Dr. B.R.
Ambedkar) represent the emergence of a Subthesis. Ambedkar put up the
demand to the British rulers that the Dalits should have a separate electorate.
Gandhi said that the Dalits would achieve it only on his dead body and went on a
fast unto death. Gandhi decided to use his Gandhi Bana (the arrow of Gandhi)
against the Dalit people’s legitimate claim. Such a right was granted to other
communities in India and Babasaheb Ambedkar did not demand anything totally
new. He knew that the Dalit people would be butchered if he were to die because
of the demand of Ambedkar. This was the most violent form of Gandhi to
subjugate the Dalit people. The modern Indra Jawaharlal Nehru and Malavia
came down to Ambedkar to plead with him that he should withdraw his demand
for the prosperity of India. Just like Ravana, Ambedkar also decided to withdraw
his demand for a separate electorate thus paving the way for the emergence of a
Subthesis. We call it Subthesis because it is a subjugated thesis. It is an
instrument of subjugation by which the weaker ones are forced to accept the
dominant conditions as the only way to survive. It is subjugation. While synthesis
and conthesis can be acknowledged as progress, Subthesis is a regression. It is
in this context that Dalitology emerges to announce the need for creating thesis
after thesis and pressurizing the dominant society to produce antithesis so that
there could be either a synthesis or a conthesis on the terms and conditions of
the objugated people.

We have already mentioned what one of the African Bishops has said that when
the Whites went to Africa they had the Bible in their hands and the Blacks had
1
. He is a Shudra Poet and a very famous writer in Kannada. He has written an interpretative Ramayana.
their land in their hands. After four centuries of Christianizing Africa the Black
people have the Bible of the White people in their hands and the White people
have the land of the Black people in their hands. Rama’s Vanavasa (sojourn in
the forest) is the same story. Today 90% of our people, the Dalit people are
landless. It is not an accident in history. It is a calculated consequence of the
objugating stratagem designed by Brahminism.

Gods in the heavens are grand illusions created by the dominant male to be
used as instruments of objugating women and indigenous people. We shall have
nothing to do with these slaves of male design. We come from the earth and go
back to the earth. There is no insecurity in us to create a heaven to perpetuate
ourselves in eternity. The earth is the beginning and the end. Earth has all the
characteristics of a woman. She provides, produces, protects. She provides
unlimited space even to those of her children who exploit her. Occasionally she
does not hesitate to strike back in anger. We shall derive our energy from this
matter. We call her Booshakthi.

We also derive energy from all the other planets in as much as we develop
a communicative interaction with them. We believe that human being is just
another part in the cosmos and has no right to claim any type of superiority over
other beings. We are different but not superior. Can every one of us imagine and
accept that we are just as good as other beings in the cosmos and never
superior to anything else. That is our Cosmosity.2 It is the equivalent of what is
conventionally understood as spirituality.

In Cosmosity the core of our existence is our body. Even thinking is based
on the matter called the cell. Therefore, no religion can any more cheat us by
showing us the soul and depriving us of all that we need for our bodily existence.
Our life ends as soon as our cell systems cease to live. Cosmosity is also the
Dalit spirituality that the community is offering to the rest of the world as an
alternative to all forms of dominance.

However, the thought waves and feeling waves that our ancestors have left
remain in the cosmos and constantly interact with us. These waves keep
transforming themselves through an interactive communication called entropy.
The waves our ancestors have left are not static. They communicate with our cell
systems and become new forms of energy in us. This is not a mechanical
process. It is based on similar experiences and the waking of similar cell
systems. It is through this process that Marx becomes the second Christ. We
need to constantly activate our cell systems through discourses and reading so
that they become the reception centers of the thought waves and feeling waves
of our ancestors. Worshipping of our ancestors become the central dynamics of
activating our cell systems to receive the waves and guidance of our own
community ancestors.

2
. The term Cosmosity was coined by the author in his previous book Dalitology.
 Dominant religions have not only deprived us of our means to live but also
of our dignity as human beings. Dalitology asserts that we are neither Hindus nor
Christians nor Muslims nor Buddhists. We Dalits are Dalits. We have our own
history and culture. Dalitology gives a clarion call to all Dalits to come back to
Dalit religion. Dalit religion is based on Booshakthi and Ancestor Worship.

2. The Context of Community

Dalitology contests the project of Individualization that started vigorously from the
period of enlightenment. However, this is not to say that Individualism originated
only four centuries ago. It is as old as the establishment of dominant religions.
One of the path-breaking ventures of Dalitology is the new and innovative theory
of DALIT COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTION, which lays the foundation for a
communitarian living. Communitarianism as visualized by Dalitology is not a
regression into the past. It is a scientific attempt to bring the past into the present
in order to make a qualitative leap into the future. According to this theory any
communication in this world requires a material base. Communication among
living beings and in living beings takes place on the foundation of the cell
systems even in the tiniest living being. Cosmo energy, Cosmosity and
Entropy are all explained in the context of the Dalit communicative interaction.
All living beings exist in communication. Death is the complete termination of
communication. The whole theory of thought existing by itself is not acceptable to
Dalitology. Thought needs a material base to originate in the first place. However,
thoughts that originate from the material base of the cell systems are spread into
the cosmos as thought waves just like sound waves and light waves. Similarly
there are also feeling waves in the cosmos and they are constantly in
communication with the cell systems that are receptive to these waves. The
receptivity develops through one’s experience in life. Communication leads to
relationships. Transcendental, Transactional and Translucent relationships
are explained in order that the Dalit community develops its capacity in
transcendental and transactional relationship while totally avoiding translucent
relationship. Many controversial and debatable theories are laid out in this portion
of the Book.

Dalitology also develops a normative standard and a normative order in

this book for the Dalit community. Turning back to history Dalitology asserts that it
is because the Dalit community lacks a written normative order it was possible for
all other dominant powers either to subjugate it or submerge it or co-opt it.

Such normative order is developed from the submerged history and culture
of the Dalit people. Our ancestors and elders have orally left community
principles of living, community values and worldview. All these are revived in
order to equip the Dalit communities to face the onslaught of globalization and
Brahminism with renewed energy and strategy.

Dalitology has attempted a cultural liberation from Brahminism and all other
forms of dominance by evolving Booshakthi (Mother Earth) and Ancestors as two
referral points of worship. However, there is no personification of these as
abstract deities. God is an illusion. The cosmos is the reality. Brahminism asserts
that God is reality and the cosmos is an illusion. Five Dalit festivals with the
normative of celebrating them are evolved. Community events are classified with
norms for their observance and celebrations. This will pave way for the
emergence of a rational Dalit religion. The five Dalit festivals give a new sense of
identity to the Dalit people. These festivals have been very enthusiastically
welcomed by the Dalit communities in pockets of Karnataka, besides Tumkur
District.

3. The Context of Internal Governance

When ultimately the British found that it was not any more economically viable to
govern India they decided to give up governance in the hands of Indians. M K
Gandhi fought the proxy battle on behalf of the Indian traders. He was financed
and supported by the mercantile class of India. While this mercantile class
refused to accept India as a colony of the British they were vigorously
maintaining the Dalit settlements as the colonies of the dominant caste villages.
Even today the Dalit settlements are called colonies. Gandhi gave us the name
Harijan much well knowing that it was a derogative term given to us by Narsi
Mehta of Gujarat. Gandhi shed crocodile tears about the plight of the
untouchable people yet would do nothing to reform the caste system. Babasaheb
Ambedkar had to wage a lone battle against this modern Rama who went on a
fast unto death to deny the political right of the Dalit people. The Christians
Christianized the Dalits; the Muslims Islamized the Dalits and now Gandhi
Hinduized the Dalits. Through consistent efforts at Brahminization the Dalit forms
of internal governance got submerged. Dalit history, Dalit culture, Dalit normative
standard and normative order were buried under the communicative
incompetence of the Brahminic order. Added to this woe is the fact that the Dalit
communities have been colonized. If further Brahminization of the Dalit
communities has to be arrested a Dalit form of internal governance, a Dalit
normative order and a Dalit normative standard should be evolved based on the
history and culture of the Dalit people. However, this should not lead to a
regression into the past. It should equip the Dalit communities to face the
challenges of modern times. Based on the conventional form of governance
Dalitology has evolved Dalit Panchayat as a significant Instrument of the people
for Internal governance. We shall give a go-bye to all types of organizational and
movement labels but shall establish Dalit Panchayat in all Dalit villages. It will
have a binding authority on the Dalit communities. A Dalit Panchayat will govern
each Dalit community. Dalit Panchayat Council will administer each Dalit
Panchayat. The DPC will comprise of the Katte Mane leader (traditional
community leader) and a five-member team to support. Gender balance and
group representations will be taken care of.

Dalit Panchayat will exercise direct democracy based on communitarian

values. Communitarianism is not a regression as explicated by contemporary
writers. It is bringing the past into the present in order to make a qualitative jump
into the future by an oppressed community.

Dalit Panchayat will resolve the problems of its people by itself without
necessarily going to the village Panchayat, which is a symbol of the slavery of
the Dalit people.

Dalit Panchayat that will be established all over the country at village, taluk,
district, state and national levels will evolve its own internal taxation system.

Its major responsibility will be restoration of land to the Dalit people and the
education of all Dalit children in the country.

It will take the responsibility for the promotion to community education,
revival of Dalit musical instruments and conventional food systems.

It will keep a strict vigil for the banning of:

Free Caste Labor

Removing of dead animals
Announcing of death
Removal of leaves and leftovers
Preparing of firewood for marriages
Holding of Lamps at festivals
Digging graves free of cost

And it will not tolerate any form of abuse of our women by dominant caste
men as well as any form of domestic violence on our women. It will promote
widow remarriage.

It will be the Dalit Panchayat that will field a candidate in elections, that will
decide the beneficiaries of Government development programs and that will
form, train and support the Black Army.

4. The Context of National Governance

The emergence of the Dalit Panchayat is based on a new political theoretical

framework. Dalitology has proposed a tri-polarity of power as participation in
addition to the bipolarity of power as dominance and power as resistance. Dalit
participation is not the World Bank type of participation. This participation is
consolidating and expanding the space for Dalits in the Governance of the
country. Governance is the distribution of material and spiritual values. This can
be done in a just way only when a Dalit woman governs this country. When the
Dalit communities really and fully participate in the governance of this country
Hindustan will be transformed into Dalitstan.3

Dalitstan is not a cry for a separate country for the Dalits. It is just that this
country will be governed by the egalitarian inclusive principles of the Dalit
worldview.

Dalitstan will be governed by egalitarian principles of Liberty,

Communitarianism, fraternity and primacy of woman. Dalitology will acknowledge
the arrival of Dalit liberation on the day a Dalit woman governs Dalitstan.

The Brahmin community and all those who have oppressed the Dalits by
subscribing to Brahminism will be made to tender a public apology.

They will have to surrender all the resources that they have misappropriated
from the indigenous people to the Supreme Council of Dalitstan, which will
redistribute these resources to communities.

Dalitology will be the principle of governance in Dalitstan.

Each community in Dalitstan will have the freedom to govern itself internally
without interference from the Supreme Council of Dalitstan provided they
eschew all mechanisms and instruments of dominance on other communities.

Dalitstan will be governed by communitarian democracy. There will be no

elections in Dalitstan. Each community will have to send its representative to the
Supreme Council of Dalitstan.

Dalitstan will restructure the villages in India in order to abolish the

colonization of the Dalit people by dominant caste groups. Restructuring of
villages will essentially imply redistribution of values.

Dalitstan will declare Dalit labor as a national resource and take appropriate
protective and promotional measures.

Dalitstan will declare all monumental places of worship as national

monuments converting them into universities, hospitals or monuments. Places of
worship should be only of the size that the community needs to assemble and
worship. They should not become symbols of pride and arrogance.

3
. In the present book the equivalent of Dalitstan is Janasthana.
 Dalitstan will have only two national holidays in a year. On all other days of
festivals and ceremonies people will be free to apply for leave. The ethos of
Dalitstan will be a work culture.

Dalitstan will lay a great emphasis on the education of all people and on
community education and will ban the following:

Caste Division of Labor

Identification by caste name
Conversion of Dalits into any religion
Untouchability in all its forms and practices
Violence in all forms
Capital Punishment
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Legitimization of Prostitution
Derogative use of Black Color

5. Context of Globalization and Dalit Human Rights

This discourse is placed in the context of Governance in the nation-state. An

analysis of the mechanisms of the nation state exposes the Brahminic state as
an active collaborator with the Brahminic society to deny and violate the rights of
the Dalit people. While promotion of the political and civil rights of the Dalit
people is very important the question of Economic, Social and Cultural rights are
equally if not more significant because of the history of their denial to the Dalit
people. The Discourse of individual rights in the UN context is further
jeopardizing the realization of the rights of the marginalized people. The gap
between the evolution of Instruments and Mechanisms and their implementation
are analyzed through statistical details. People’s Instruments and Mechanisms
are also equally important in realizing the rights of the objugated Dalit people.

·Dalitology contains ten Books symbolically representing the Ten Groups that
were in existence in Kol Bhil Koibhajan (India) when the Aryans arrived. The
following are the ten books (chapters) of Dalitology:

Book One is about the Beginnings of the Dalit people. We are a

people who have come from the earth and will go back to the earth.
No one knows when the earth originated and when it will end. Earth
is the crucible of Cosmo energy that has sustained all people of the
earth. The entire cosmos is sustained by its own energy. All beings
living in any part of this cosmos draw energy from the matter and
waves that constitute the lifeline of the cosmos. All living beings are
sustained by the energy and life of the earth. We name it
BOOSHAKTHI. It will be one of the strongest foundations of the
Dalit community living.

Book Two is about the Brahminic Social Order. It is an analysis of

the way caste system has been established on the face of the earth
to subjugate an unsuspecting, all welcoming simple and highly
civilized Dalit people. It analyses the history of indignity perpetrated
on the Dalit people through the pernicious system of untouchability
till today. It seeks to establish a world order based on the natural
identities and an egalitarian order of the eco people.

Book Three is a new and path-breaking Theory of Communicative

Interaction. It is establishing that living beings in the cosmos
communicate with one another even when they do not take a
conscious decision to communicate. It asserts that communicative
interaction is limited to cosmic beings and not beyond the reach of
this cosmos. It exposes the possibility of deriving energy and life
from the thought waves and feeling waves left in the universe by
ancestors. Ancestor worship and community living become key
ingredients of the liberated life of the indigenous people.

Book Four is establishing Communitarianism as an essential

ingredient of Dalit history and culture. However, Communitarianism
is not a regression, as western mindset would assert.
Communitarianism, as asserted in Dalitology is bringing the past
into the present to make an assertive leap into the future. It asserts
the need for the Dalit communities to internally liberate themselves
from the projects of individualization by Brahminism and Capitalism.
The potentials of the individual will have a full blossoming in the
context of the community. The highlight of the Book is the normative
order that is laid out in detail for every occasion in Dalit Community
life.

Book Five is dealing with Dalit Identity and identity politics of the
Dalit people. It analyses how the dominant religions and their
agents have subverted the innate identity of the Dalits and Tribal
people by ascribing characteristics that are conveniently invented
by them for purposes of subjugating the people of the earth. It
asserts the need for evolving and re-asserting historical identities of
the Dalit people. For example, Dalits are not any more Untouchable
people but we are a ‘Don’t Touchable’ people.

Book Six traces the Dalit history of protest. Starting from our
ancient and noble king Ravana it highlights the methods of protests
by many of our ancestors and modern leaders to bring dignity to
our communities. It explicates the cultural and historical dimensions
 of protests evolved by our ancestors so as to derive lessons for the
future. It highlights the liberative path that has liberated some
communities from the thralldom of untouchability. Our great
ancestors such as Mangoo Ram, Shri Naryana Guru, Muthukutty
Swamy etc. find a predominant place in this history of liberation.

Book Seven traces the history of the denial of education to the

Dalit people through normative prescription of Brahminism. As
alternatives it focuses on accessing aggressively formal education
in this country, creating a conducive environment of learning in the
Dalit living areas and syllabus for non-formal education on the
history and culture of the Dalit Communities.

Book Eight establishes the rationale for conducting ourselves

according to the guidelines of our ancestors and not bow down to
the normative order of Brahminism and Capitalism. It also gives
short descriptions of our elders who have fought for our liberation in
manifold ways. Many of our modern time elders are brought into
life.

Book Nine is about the politics of Dalits as participation in

governance. In contemporary political theory the bipolarity of Power
as Dominance and Power as Resistance has been explicated
adequately. However, the future of Dalit communities lies in Power
as participation in the context of the present Nation-State Politics.
In order to grab, consolidate and sustain the space for participation
‘Dalit Panchayat’ is advocated as an internal governance system.
Dalitology goes beyond the present Nation-State politics and
visualizes the transformation of Hindustan into Dalitstan and is
already enumerating the principles of governance of Dalitstan.

Book Ten is stressing on the need for capacitating the Dalit people
to negotiate and fight for dignity and rights in the International arena
and governance. It has many demands to the Government of India,
to the UN and an Appeal to Humanity. It is spreading out the
Political and civil rights as well as the economic, social and cultural
rights of the people from the people’s perspective. This is a big
chapter.

The Actual Emergence

There was no plan to write such a big book. The emergence of Dalitology has
something to do with the way we work. We do not plan our strategies in office
rooms not do we plan our programs for a long time. We are dealing with an
oppressed people. The situation of our people is filled with unpredictable events.
Most of our strategies and action plans emerge with the people. As we started
putting down the contents of Dalitology in black and white there were continuous
reflections with them on what was written. Sometimes, after the completion of a
particular chapter the entire leadership in our movement came together for a few
days of reflection. Sometime elders from the community were brought together to
share their knowledge on particular dimensions of history and culture. This was
accompanied by personal reading of literature. The pace of writing was very slow
in the first year. Since we had our intensive engagement with the people as well
as with the dominant caste society there were all sorts of unpredictable problems
for which we had to be constantly responding. On top of this was the new cultural
resurgence of the Dalit people. Many of them used to come just to see and go
away. In the name of work we could not send them away. We had to stop our
writing, sit with them and send them happy. When we came back to write the flow
of thinking was disrupted. It naturally forced us to write more at night. In the
second phase of writing the pace gathered momentum. There was intensive
writing activity at night, say till about 2 a.m. The day used to be full activity on
different issues. This phase was about three months. It was in the final phase of
three months that the entire time was devoted to writing. Of course there was no
let down in the stream of people visiting us. After knowing that such a book was
being written many ordinary, simple and innocent people started feeling
extremely proud and the stream of visitors started increasing.

At this stage something took place that took us by surprise. The assertion that,
“We are neither Hindus, nor Christians, nor Muslims, nor Buddhists. We Dalits
are Dalits. We have our history and culture. Dalit religion is our religion” had
already emerged from the Movement. As the intensity of discussion on Dalitology
increased the DJS leaders who are all from the community in Tumkur District
started spreading among the people that it was the Dalit Scripture that was being
written. This was their spontaneous response. They firmly believe this. We had
never even dreamt of such a possibility when we set out to write Dalitology. If the
DJS leaders were people from outside of the Dalit communities in Tumkur District
we would have probably resisted this. Since they were leaders who emerged
from the poorest and the simplest Dalit parents we just allowed things to take
place in a way they desired. They are an essential part of the emergence of
Dalitology and they have all the right to name it the way they want.

Not all the content was pre-planned. As we started discussing and writing
Dalitology many insights emerged very spontaneously. Probably the inexplicable
experience of writing things that naturally do not belong to one, many ancient
writers attributed them to divine inspiration. However, we are convinced that
there is nothing divine in Dalitology. We never looked up while writing Dalitology.
We consciously looked down. Dalitology is very human. Yet many of the insights
that are naturally beyond us must be explained. We attribute them to all the
feeling and thinking waves of our ancestors. We have also drawn inspiration from
the living waves of our contemporary Dalit elders. These waves have entered our
bodies and through an entropy process have become possible ways for future.
Our ancestors live amongst us through Dalitology.