Here is a slightly edited version of a presentation the the UN
Commission on Human Rights. - presented in July of 1992.
- supplied by DATPERS, York U. CANADA
- c/o lanfran@vm1.yorku.ca (internet)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>------<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities, Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Tenth Session
held at Geneva, Switzerland, from 20th July to 31st July 1992
Statement made by Yogesh Varhade, President, Ambedkar Centre for Justice and
Peace, Canada and the text of submission (revised)
Distinguished Chairperson, panel members and friends :
On behalf of Council of Indigenous Dalits of India, I would like to
congratulate the Chair and the panel members for their contribution to the
advancement of the rights of indigenous peoples of the world.
The word Dalit is a poetic term, meaning the oppressed and downtrodden people.
Dalits are referred to as, "The scheduled castes and the Scheduled Tribes" by
the Constitution of India. Historically, they are the descendants of the
original inhabitants of the Indian Sub-Continent who possessed distinct
cultures and territories. Invading Aryans from the West laid waste to their
lands, destroyed their culture and relegated them into a class of broken
people, literally, to slavery. 1 The religion of the invading Aryans,
Brahminism, which is widely known as Hinduism today, based on "Chaturvarna" or
a four-fold Caste System gave Dalits the designation "Out-Castes". Described
variously as Untouchables, Dasas or Dasyus (meaning slaves), the Dalits come
to be called by a token term "the Harijans" in the modern era. Harijans
meaning the children of God is a term coined by a patronising Gandhi whose
blind faith in Hinduism failed to address the real issue.
Notwithstanding the lack of written accounts, it is commonly accepted by
scholars that the Dalits and the tribals are the original people of India. 2
The tribals who escaped bondage in the occupied territories retreated into
farflung regions and were able to continue their customs, languages and
cultures. Totalling 200 million people, the Dalits and the tribals are,
indeed, the largest indigenous population in the world.
There is dishonesty in the present official position of the Government of
India that the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled
Tribes are not indigenous peoples. 3 What it gives on one hand, it seems, to
take away by its assertion that Dalits do not fall within the jurisdiction of
U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations. For an example it was the
Government of India's own Ministry of Information's book India : Early History
(1990) which states that the Aryan "after defeating the original inhabitants
... destroyed many cities of the enemies and though most of the conquered
natives were ultimately reduced to slavery, they were assigned a place in
society as a separate class". 4 This separate but unmentioned class were of
course the Untouchables.
In the second round table conference in 1931, Dr. Ambedkar, the foremost
Human Rights Campion of India, firmly told the British during the negotiations
for separate electorates for minorities that Dalits are a separate people
though they are dubbed as Hindus and they should be recognized as having a
separate culture, heritage, and customs. He proved this beyond a doubt and
the separate electorate (to elect their own representatives by their own
people) was agreed by the British government. Unfortunately Mr. Gandhi,
being afraid of losing 20% population of Dalits from Hinduism, went on a fast
unto death which forced Dr. Ambedkar to give up the separate electorate to
save the life of Mr. Gandhi. 5
Dr. Ambedkar unequivocally demanded that the 5000 year old wrongs that have
been perpetrated against the Dalits be redressed and he recommended bold and
far reaching changes in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution of which
he was the Chief Architect. But the Governments of India since independence
have shown little or no political will in this regard. This, my friends, is a
matter for grave concern to the International Community.
Though the massacres of Untouchables are sometimes reported in the Indian
press and government documents, it is extremely rare for any conviction to be
obtained. Despite literally thousands of cases being reported by the Indian
government, Amnesty International, Asia Watch, not to mention the Indian
press, little of substance is done. The complicity of government officials
and politicians in some of these massacres though reported in the press goes
uninvestigated by the government. These have now become so frequent as to
make there retelling redundant. One has only to look at the reports of
atrocities and the failure of the government to do anything of consequence to
realize the extent of human rights violations in India. By the government's
own admission there were 18,000 atrocities committed against Untouchables and
Tribals in 1988-89. 6 Here I might add that to every incident acknowledged,
about 9 are believed to go unreported. One can thus imagine how widespread
the violence against the Dalits is, despite the existence of constitutional
guarantees abolishing Untouchability.
According to the Government of India's Commission of Scheduled Castes and
Tribes of 2718 police cases in 1985, only 94 convictions were obtained for a
success rate of 3.5%. Massacres of Untouchables at Chundur in 1991, the
killing of hundreds of Untouchables by the Communist government of West
Bengal, and countless unreported cases provide only a glimpse at the scale of
the human rights violations. While the involvement of low level government
officials allows this to continue, political connections at the highest levels
of government enable those responsible to go unpunished. Without
international pressure this state of affairs is likely to continue.
In Andhra Pradesh, at Chundur on August 6, 1991, 19 Untouchables were
massacred by local high caste Hindus who chased unarmed Untouchables, hacked
them to pieces, stuffed the parts in gunny bags, and dumped them in the ocean.
The local Hindu police collaborated in this conspiracy. On an even larger
scale hundreds of Untouchable refugees were massacred by the West Bengal
police on orders of the ruling Communist Party of India - Marxist despite the
opposition of Ministers in the Left Front cabinet, Communist cadre, and a
Calcutta High Court order prohibiting the government blockade. Then Prime
Minister Desai chose not to pursue the matter for fear of losing Communist
support, despite the incident being reported in the press. 7 All these
failures indicate that the Untouchables are seen by Hindus as separate and
exploitable people.
In July 1992, 14 Dalits from Rajasthan were killed in cold blood by high caste
Hindu landlords just because landless Dalit labourers asserted their right to
be treated as human beings and not as slaves. Police knew of the explosive
situation and possible massacre of Dalits but refused to give protection.
On July 5 1992, in the Gaya district in the state of Bihar, 3 Dalit children,
age 11 to 13, were raped by landlords. Police collaborated refusing to even
register the complaints.
The exploitation of millions of Dalit children and bonded labour has recently
come to international attention through the carpet export industry which the
owners claim is dependent on cheap labour to maintain international
competitiveness. 8 Though the labour conditions violate existing Indian and
international labour laws, the government does nothing due to the political
influence of these Hindus owned sweat shops. As 15% of high caste Hindus
dominates 85% of the people through control of money, media, bureaucracy,
police, judiciary and administration, Dalits are totally dependent for bare
survival as landless labour in 80% of rural India.
There are many instances where Dalit women are raped, paraded naked through
the village in broad daylight to their extreme degradation. The culprits
again roam free with impunity. Hindus seek to totally annihilate the Dalits
morally, physically, mentally, culturally and a key element in their strategy
of annihilation is to prevent Dalits's separate ethnic identity as indigenous
people from being known or recognised internationally.
Despite its official abolition, bonded labour of millions of Dalits including
millions of children, continues unimpeded by legal enforcement. Many if not
most of these labourers are from the Scheduled Castes and Tribes whose loan
shark debts can only be passed from generation to generation with no hope of
repayment or escaping their debt bondage. The accumulation of interest means
the imposition of a de facto slavery on uncounted sections of the lowest class
population of which the Dalits form the overwhelming majority. This high
caste Hindu society i.e. Aryans with total population of 15% are enjoying the
blood, sweat, and tears of 200 million Dalits and Tribals.
Through this submission I have attempted to give you a glimpse of the
lamentable story of our people and their pathetic plight. Intervention by the
international community is our only hope. It is, therefore, absolutely
necessary that the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations include the
vast mass of Dalits under its mandate and give them protection as an
Indigenous Group of People. To this end, we strongly recommend that U.N.
Working Group on Indigenous Populations would in future refer to the Dalits as
an Indigenous Group in all its official communications.
Distinguished colleagues, finally, I would like to thank you for giving me an
opportunity to represent my people. Speaking as I do, on the eve of
international year of indigenous peoples in 1993, I am delighted to extend the
best wishes of our group to the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations
and my indigenous brothers and sisters for its success.
Yours sincerely,
Yogesh Varhade, President,
Ambedkar Centre for Justice and Peace,
U.N. Representative of Council of Indigenous Dalits of India
(P.O. Box 846, Station P, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2Z2 Tel: (416) 533
6681, Fax (416) 531 2817)
THIS DOCUMENT IS SUBMITTED ON BEHALF OF THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS.
1) Ambedkar Centre for Justice and Peace, Canada
2) Vision Inc. (Volunteers in Service to India's oppressed and Neglected),
U.S.A.
3) Ambedkar International Mission, England
4) Council of Indigenous Dalits of India.
REFERENCES
1. Vincent Smith, The Oxford History of India, (Oxford Claredon Press, 1958),
P.42 Minority Rights Group, Report No. 26, The Untouchables of India (1982),
P.5
2. A.L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1963),
p.28. B.G. Gokhale, Ancient India: History and Culture, (Bombay: Asia
Publishing House, 1962), p.20 Paul Masson-Oursel et al. Ancient India and
Indian Civilization, (London, Kegan Paul, 1934),p.19. Jawaharlal Nehru,
Discovery of India, (London: Meridian Books, 1956), p.61 Stuart Piggott,
Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C., (London: Cassell, 1962), p.148-9.
3. Government of India, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting, India: Early History, September 1990, p.2.
4. Government of India, Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations
Office, Geneva, Statement made by Mr. Prabhu Dayal on behalf of the
delegation of India in the working group on indigenous populations, July 31,
1991, p.2.
5. Dr. Ambedkar, Untouchables are not Hindus but a separate element (D.S.A.
Publication, 1992)
6. Statement of Ms. Bajpai, Minister of State for Social Welfare, Government
of India, Bahujan Voice, October 1989, p.4.
7. Ranjit Kumar Sikdar, "Marichjahpi Massacre", The Oppressed Indian, July
1982, pp.21-3. K. Balagopal, "Post-Chundur and Other Chundurs", Economic and
Political Weekly, October 19, 1991 p.2399 Radhakrishnan, "Ambedkar Legacy",
Economic and Political Weekly, August 17, 1991, p.1911 8. Ben Tierney,
"Slaves of the Loom", The Ottawa Citizen, September 28, 1991