Each caste takes its pride and its consolation in the fact that in the scale of castes it is above some other caste. As an out ward mark of this-gradation, there is also a gradation of social and religious rights technically spoken of an Ashtadhikaras and Sanskaras. The higher the grade of a caste, the greater the number of these rights and the lower the grade, the lesser their number.
Now this gradation, this scaling of castes, makes it impossible to organise a common front against the Caste System. If a caste claims the right to inter-dine and inter-marry with another caste, placed above it, it is frozen, instantly it is told by mischief-mongers, and there are many Brahmins amongst such mischief—mongers, that it will have to concede inter-dining and inter-marriage with castes below it! All are slaves of the Caste System.
But all the slaves are not equal in status. A comprehensive text, it was prepared as a public talk that was never delivered.
The text was intended to initiate an informed dialogue with select liberal caste Hindus who had formed an association called Jat Pat Thodak Dal Destruction of Caste System. Responding to an invitation from the associ- ation, Ambedkar saw an opportunity to engage with foundational issues and concerns associated with the caste system, issues that continue to thwart change and transformation in Hindu society. In fact, the backdrop against which Ambedkar received the invitation to deliver the lecture and that led to the writing of the text, along with his correspondence with the organizers of the event, also provide fascinating insights into the context of the time.
The text illustrates, through numerous examples, widespread practices of coercion, wage bondage, compliance and discrimination in Hindu soci- ety. Caste-based discrimination and atrocities also include the prohibition 1 The Annihilation of Caste was first published in May The text explains that the caste system is a not only a division of labour; it is also a division of labourers.
This gradation of labourers is not based on natural aptitudes, but on the social status of their parents. Ambedkar takes on the entrenched hierarchy within the Hindu religion that justifies the existence and continuance of caste. With per- ceptive explanations, brilliant analysis and emotional illustrations of the repercussions of caste-based social practice, Ambedkar demolishes the logic that defends this unacceptable system. How does one understand the meaning, emergence and influence of the text amidst deep-rooted social inequality?
How do individuals and com- munities deal with the central problematics that are explained in AoC? It is evident that the text did not intend to emphasize the victimhood or experi- ences of discrimination of Dalits. It avoids looking at the caste question from a position of sympathy, charity or governmental considerations. Rather, Annihilation of Caste is immersed in a debate between discursive ethics and discursive rationality.
It makes authoritative statements about the eradication of the caste system; confronting social questions and moral questions squarely, it proclaims that within the caste system there is no emancipatory potential. It spells out the vulnerabilities and unfreedom that emanate from caste practices.
Therefore, it should be seen as an intellec- tually serious but politically rebellious text that confronts received wisdom that is, in turn, premised on birth-based hierarchies and power. The con- cerns that are explicated in AoC have profoundly influenced and inspired Dalit politics, academic engagement and community action, and how these three elements intersect with each other.
My first engagement with the text began with an element of self-doubt and defensiveness. Deeply influenced by socialist ideals and belonging to a family of socialist political leaders, I grew up with a consciousness of caste-based discrimination in the wider society. I was generally oblivious to his rebellious politics, extensive writings on caste and Indian society, and his intellectual and transformative influence on the society and polity at large. Although the AoC did not make a formal entry into the academic curric- ulum of any discipline for several decades, it gradually became a manifesto for Dalit politics, community mobilization and identity movements across the length and breadth of the country.
For a long time, in post-colonial India, even the human service professions of Social Work and Community Development did not effectively get to grips with the nuances of the caste system.
Therefore, profound structural problems remained largely unattended. Their heavy reliance on governmental literature and official understandings of caste meant that professionals constructed this expression of exploitation and injustice in a sanitized manner. Even the Community Development Programme, launched by the Indian Government in the s, failed to give attention to the issue of redress for caste-based injustice. Whether facilitated by the government, NGOs, social activists or others, com- munity development as a socio-political process potentially enables people to come together, to develop analyses and to plan collective action.
However, unequal power relations, embedded social hierarchy, and inequality clearly complicate the processes of true participation, engagement and action by the subjects of community development Jha, The AoC affirms that only by attending to structural causes can the potential of the community as a collective actor be realized.
The text lays bare the nature of hierarchy and social stratification in Indian society, arguing that it requires fundamental social change and transformation. Ambedkar posed unnerving and critical challenges that are relevant for all current and future efforts at community engagement, mobilization and organization.
The text makes it abundantly clear that no genuine sangathan and cooperation is possible in such a divided society. This brings us to reflect, how does the text influence understandings of Community Organization, taken as a political process, as opposed to the largely apolitical and governmentalised approach of Community Development?
The fact that elements of togetherness, participation or collegiality were inconceivable in caste-ridden communities, and that the intolerance shown towards lower caste people was all-pervasive, meant that community development processes invariably kept lower caste people away from all decision-making processes.
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