V.T. Rajshekar
(Dalit Voice)
In the past 68 years that India has been independent, we have spent all our time quarreling. Something is seriously going wrong with country’s uppercaste rulers. They are in terrible confusion. They are afraid of their own shadows. This ruling class or caste may be small in numbers (less than 15 percent of Indian population) but they are no ordinary people. They not only control the country’s entire, property and privileges but they also control the brains of the rest of 85% of the population. They own & run the mass media, write books, produce films & serials, manage educational institutions, hospitals, industries etc. They only are the most educated. In sum, they set values.
With gods in their pocket & sacred scriptures on the tip of their tongue they can make & unmake things. Inspite of enjoying such a privileged position, why are this people are in such a terrible confusion?
Because the confusion is reservation.
Uppercaste rulers who are in charge of implementing the constitutional provisions of reservation to SC/STs have sabotaged the whole thing.
In every government office, government educational institutions, a varitable war is going on today between the ‘non-reserved category’ employees & ‘reserved employees’ who are nick named ‘government brahmins’. Though the public services form a small part & the private sector doesn’t have any reservations for SC/STs, the upper caste rulers have converted the reservation issue into a ” national crisis “.
In many states, particularly south indian states, backward castes also enjoying reservation facilities in state government services are further swelling the reserved category.
While we fully uphold the right of the backward castes for reservations, we say with so much pain in heart that in many places it is the OBC’s who are used by the the upper caste to wage the anti-reservation war.
The one argument of the anti-reservation racists is that SC/STs & OBCs have no brains & the government services have suffered because of reservations.
However, we want to warn SC/ST/OBCs & minorities accused of meritlessness & inefficiency that the upper caste merit mongers are not going to be convinced by learned arguments & scientific reasons.
They have their own logic which says that what they say is right & what others say is wrong. Even the most educated pundit speaks this way. The upper caste hindu’s believe what they want to believe.
That means questions like ‘reservations’ have no solutions through arguments. It has to be settled on the streets.
That is how the anti reservation agitations in Gujarat turned into caste wars in 1981 & 1985. This is natural because in India ‘caste’ is a nation.
Caste war means war against a war between nations.
Anti-reservation agitation is the upper caste dominant nation’s aggression against the oppressed nation’s.
In Gujarat, anti-reservation agitation turned into a wholesale attack on all Dalits, including those Dalits who are not educated & hence not eligible for government services.
Anti-reservation agitation, therefore shows the upper caste aggression against Dalits. That means it is a caste war between the upper caste haves and SC/ST/OBC & minority have-nots. We welcome this war. Because it is only through caste war, caste can be destroyed.
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[Via Shiv Rajkumar]
