Skip to main content

Dalits rights meet planned on how citizenship law 'negates' Ambedkar's equality focus

Martin Macwan
By Our Representative
A Dalit rights meet has been planned at the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), Sanand, Ahmedabad district, to discuss implications of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), passed by Parliament on December 10-11, for Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalized sections. Announcing the decision, DSK director Martin Macwan said, the meet would take place on December 25, 2019, at 11.00 am, to commemorate the anniversary of burning of copies of Manusmriti by Dr BR Ambedkar.
An explanatory note on what CAA should mean to Dalits, who have in actual fact not been acknowledged as equal citizens of India even 73 years after they became the country’s citizens, says, at a time when BJP is talking of providing shelter to all religious minorities, except Muslims, persecuted in the three neighbouring countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, India’s own Dalits “continue to be victims of untouchability and manual scavenging.”
Pointing out that are yet to be treated as ‘equal’ citizens, Martin Macwan, who has authored the note, says, “Despite being Hindu, they are refused permission to enter into temples or cremate bodies on common cremation grounds. If this is not religious intolerance then what is it? Dalits among Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs face a similar predicament.”
Wondering if there is any way to ensure that India’s 21.5 crore or 16.5% Dalits do not become victims of religious abuse, Macwan, who is recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award, says, “The 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw BJP and its supporters gain majority in the Lok Sabha because of the reserved seats of Adivasis-Dalits, yet government figures show that atrocities against under their rule against Adivasis-Dalits have gone up.”
Despite being India's equal citizens on paper, India’s 21.5 crore or 16.5% Dalits, continue to be victims of religious abuse
“How can one expect the Central government, which has failed to stop atrocities against its own citizens, to provide solace to those living in other countries?”, wonders Macwan, suggesting, what CAA is doing is to negate what top Dalit icon, Dr BR Ambedkar, did on December 25, 1927, to put on fire Manusmriti, the ancient treatise which gave religious sanctity to unequal status to Dalits.
Pointing out that Dr Ambedkar’s campaign was for equal status to Dalits who faced religious persecution at the hands of those who were wedded to the thoughts and views Manusmriti, Macwan says, Dr Ambedkar’s campaign was not against any particular religion, but against injustice.
Anti-CAA protest: Historian Ram Chandra Guha with Ambedkar poster
“Hindu leaders also participated in the programme and put on fire Manusmriti. Dr Ambedkar’s was not against any particular religion but was against those who are taking shelter of religion for irreligious acts”, he says.The Constitution was unanimously adopted by all the elected members of Parliament, irrespective of their religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, in 1950”, says Macwan, citing how CAA, even as seeking to provide citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains, has refused to provide a similar status to Muslims, which is contrary to the Constitutional values.
“Seventy years on, BJP and its allies want to remove the provision of equality before law, guaranteed by the Constitution”, he says.
Also noting how, over the years, Adivasis of India have been progressively deprived of their equal rights, guarantees by the Constitution’s Articles 14 and 15, Macwan regrets, refugees seeking to resettle in India were invariably dumped on tribal land. Thus, “the 1931 census figures show that Tripura had 56.37% Adivasi population, which went down to 28.44% in 2011. Even as the proportion of the local people went down, their landownership, employment and political power also went down. The same thing happened in Assam.”
According to Macwan, “Coming under the sixth schedule of the Constitution, all the north-eastern states have seen Adivasis losing their control over land, property, jobs. According to a Planning Commission report, though the Adivasi population in the country is 8.08%, the refugees are sought to be settled in those areas where the Adivasi population is 40% or more.”

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.