आरक्षण नहीं, आत्मरक्षण

If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven't even pulled the knife out, much less heal the wound. They won't even admit the knife is there. Malcolm X

The rising communal and anti-reservation, anti-Dalit sentiment in our country made me think about a phenomenon in the West known as ‘White Guilt’. It is the individual or collective guilt felt by some white people for harm resulting from the racist treatment of ethnic minorities such as African Americans and indigenous peoples by other white people.

An Indian counterpart to that would be a feeling of collective guilt over how we’ve treated our society’s so-called ‘lower’ caste people and the numerous atrocities committed against them in the name of caste for hundreds of years. But we don’t have that here, do we?

Are we even aware of the terrible things our ancestors did to the ‘backward’ sections of our society? We’ve been taught about the oppression of Indians by external powers, how much do we know about what we did to our own people? We’re constantly reminded of how the Mughals destroyed our temples and how the British tortured our people; we must also not forget what we Indians did to our fellow Indians.

The unimaginable hardships, abuse and discrimination Dalits were subjected to is seldom talked about. They were denied education, healthcare, employment or any other basic right. They were forced to hang a pot around their neck to spit in and tie a broom around their waist to sweep away their 'impure' footsteps. They weren’t allowed to own properties, hold religious ceremonies or even drink water from the same wells. They weren’t allowed to enter temples. Their communities were segregated. They were forced to handle excreta and rotting carcasses. Their women were raped and abused, while their children were forced into slavery.

Many of these practices are still active in modern India, by the way. For centuries, the lower castes were subjugated and dehumanized to such an extent that any kind of revolt from their side just wasn’t possible.

Why did we choose to exclude these darkest portions of our history from our textbooks? Why, as students, aren't we taught about the crimes of our past, so we don't grow up to be the bigots of our future?

As a result of this, instead of feeling any kind of guilt, we are going through something which is totally opposite and dangerous. We are living in complete denial. For us, casteism doesn’t exist and reservations - the tool to eradicate this evil, is being projected as the root of all our problems. Many are claiming to be the victims of reservations while ignoring the private, hidden reservations and privileges they’ve enjoyed since they were born. You’ll hear many voices against reservations, but a few to none against casteism. This lack of empathy, I feel, is partly because our education system decided to skip this large chunk of history from our curriculum - The History of Dalits. For a start, read about the 'Mahad Satyagraha' undertaken by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Before you blindly oppose the system of reservation, try and educate yourself about why it was brought into action in the first place and why it’s still needed. Reservation is an act of self-defence against the diabolical caste system, and the discrimination, segregation, abuse Dalits were deliberately subjected to as a direct result for thousands of years.

If you think a few decades of affirmative action can undo centuries of systematic injustice and oppression, you're wrong.

Do not confuse reservation for a poverty alleviation scheme. It's not. It's about representation. Me or you representing a certain section of society because we did not have an opportunity to do so in the past. It was brought in place to challenge the open and unopposed reservations the Savarnas enjoyed for hundreds of years. Do not let them guilt you into believing that it is not required.

Anyone denying the existence of casteism in modern India should watch this award-winning documentary called 'India Untouched - Stories of a People Apart' by Stalin K.