Growing up untouchable in India : a dalit autobiography

219 Pages·2001·4.47 MB·English

by  Moon

GROWING UP UNTOUCHABLE
IN INDIA

GROWING UP
UNTOUCHABLE IN INDIA
A Dalit Autobiography
VASANT MOON
Translated from the Marathi
by
Gail Omvedt
With an Introduction
by
Eleanor Zelliot

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
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Copyright © 2000 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
First published by Granthali in Mumbai as Vasti (1995).
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of
Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Moon, Vasant.
[Vasti. English.]
Growing up untouchable in India : a Dalit autobiography / Vasant Moon ;
translated by Gail Omvedt ; with an introduction by Eleanor Zelliot.
p. cm. — (Asian voices)
ISBN 0-7425-0880-3 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7425-0881-1 (pbk. : alk.
paper) 1. Dalits—India. 2. India—Scheduled tribes. 3. Socially handicapped—
India.
I. Omvedt, Gail. II. Title. III. Series.
HT720.M66 2000
305.5’68—dc21 00-032874
Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication
meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
To my late mother, Purnabai,
who gave us character, self-confidence, and integrity.
She was not, after all, very educated. But at a time when education up to fourth
grade was understood to be a big thing in the Dalit community, when girls were
not at all educated, she had studied up to third grade. From that time she began
to write her name as “Purnabai.” But the life of our Mother Purna remained
unfulfilled.
During our infancy Purnabai’s father removed her permanently from the
harassment of her drunkard husband. But then she soon lost the shelter of her
father and mother. Her lot became one of wandering barefoot and feeding her
two small children through performing daily labor. The cracks in her heels
vanished only when she died.
At a time when all the children in the neighborhood around her called their
mothers “Ma,” she taught us to call her “Mother,” like children of the elite. She
took care of us, raised us, and taught us the new alphabet: the A of “aspiration,”
the B of “Babasaheb,” and the C of “confidence.”
INTRODUCTION
Vasant Moon gave the title of Vasti (neighborhood) to his autobiography,
stressing the importance of his community in Nagpur. For this translation, we
have changed the title to Growing Up Untouchable in India as more
understandable, but the word vasti and the concept of a place of belonging are
present throughout this English translation of Moon’s narrative. There is much in
his story of his childhood vasti that would probably be true of any poor urban
neighborhood: hunger and deprivation, of course, but also much help from
neighbors; a sense of “us” and “them”; easy acceptance of petty crime and
violence; the saving grace of sports; the even more important factor of an
organized group for youngsters led by caring adults; the off-again, on-again aid
from relatives; inexplicable cruelty and big-hearted generosity; the women who
work at whatever they can find to keep their families alive; and especially the
way out and up through education. But in Moon’s story there is also much that is
peculiarly Indian.
First among these Indian elements is the factor of caste, a hierarchical system
unrelated to race but based on ancient principles of hereditary pollution and
purity, with Brahmans as the most pure and Untouchables as the most polluted.
Second in importance, perhaps even first, is the presence of a hero so important
he is described as a “wave,” and surely no despised group has ever had such a
meaningful leader as Dr. B. R. (Babasaheb) Ambedkar was (and is) for India’s
awakened and ambitious Dalits. Third, in my judgment, is nature. I have never
read such a compelling description of Nagpur’s heat, even though I have
experienced it; nor has the joy of the monsoon rains been often so vividly
presented. And surely every tree, every fruit, every nook and cranny of the world
in and around the vasti plays an important part in Moon’s story.
WHAT IS UNTOUCHABILITY?
Vasant Moon’s story is about a neighborhood, a community of people who are
Mahars, “Untouchables,” at the bottom of India’s caste system. But it is about
that group at a time and place when change had taken place and more change
was in the air, when the community feeling was stronger than any sense of
inferiority, when a child could delight in the wonders of an urban slum.
Nevertheless the tale of Moon’s growing up must be seen as a statement by a
man whose caste was polluting, despised, “untouchable” by higher castes. Moon
uses the word “Dalit” for Untouchables, a fairly recent designation adopted by
politicized Untouchables and now current throughout the press. (It must be
added that the formalized practice of untouchability was made illegal in the
Constitution of India, ratified in 1950, just as the practice of discrimination is
illegal here in the United States—more about this later.) The concept of
untouchability is one of the most difficult for non-Indians to understand. That
there are groups of people who are by birth permanently impure, not to be
touched, given the work that is polluting, relegated to the margins of society and
yet necessary for the maintenance of that society—this concept bears some
relation to racial or ethnic divisions elsewhere, but is far more systematized in
the culture of India. The caste system as it exists today in groups of “graded
inequality,” with Brahmans as most ritually pure and some four hundred specific
castes permanently at the bottom, has probably been firmly established for over
a thousand years. It continues today, although usually in less blatant form and
with much effort on the part of government to make up for past injustice through
“reservations,” India’s version of affirmative action.
In spite of this hierarchical system, India also has a tradition of equality and
has seen numerous reform efforts. The best known is Mohandas K. Gandhi’s
attempt to give Untouchables some respect with the name “Harijan,” people of
God, a name rejected as patronizing by politically aware Untouchables. Moon’s
discussion of the refusal to be named “Harijan” even at the cost of being denied
a scholarship and his vivid description of the boycotting of Gandhi will shock
those who think of Gandhi as the friend of Untouchables. This rejection must be
seen in the context of Gandhi’s denying Untouchables the right to the political
power that Dr. Ambedkar felt was essential for progress. (See Pune Pact in the
glossary for the source of the Gandhi-Ambedkar conflict.) Ideologically,
“change of heart” on the part of caste Hindus, which was the Gandhian way,
versus legal rights and political power for the group on the bottom, which was
Ambedkar’s plea, is a dichotomy that has relevance in American culture.
However, Moon clearly brings out the kindness of several Gandhian teachers.
And the strong strain of reform may be seen in all the high-caste teachers who
teach without prejudice and all the famous writers who respond to Moon’s
invitation to come to the vasti.
Other terms are also of historic importance. The practice of untouchability
was abolished in the Constitution of India and made punishable by law in 1955,
so “ex-Untouchable” is a term used by many. Untouchable castes in 1935 were
put on a list, or “schedule,” to receive benefits, so “Scheduled Castes” is also a
term that must be understood. “Compensatory discrimination” has given
Scheduled Castes representation in parliamentary bodies and reservations in
government-sponsored educational institutions and government administration.
The extraordinary progress shown in Moon’s narrative of the high places of
many of Nagpur’s Mahar children—judges and lawyers and doctors and such—
indicates the success of India’s policy. The dark side of progress is that there is
more violence than ever before, but usually in villages when Untouchables claim
rights that threaten the caste Hindu status quo. A hint of the violence appears in
Moon’s story of the ritual killing of a Brahman—Mahar couple, and in the
boycott of Mahars who ended the degrading untouchable custom of dragging out
dead cattle from the village. And in the “wars” in the streets in 1946 when
Ambedkar’s followers fought for political rights denied them in the plans for
Independent India.
The most recent nomenclature for ex-Untouchables is “Dalit,” a term
meaning downtrodden or broken down but used with pride as a self-chosen name
that reflects no idea of pollution and can include all who identify themselves as
oppressed by the caste system. “Dalit” came into currency in the 1970s in
movements that took names such as “Dalit Panthers” and “Dalit literature,” and
now is the preferred name for those such as Vasant Moon who want to free
themselves from the concept of pollution and from the patronage of Gandhian
ideology.
WHO ARE THE MAHARS?
Vasant Moon’s story of growing up in a vasti, an urban neighborhood, adds a
new dimension to our understanding of India’s Dalits, her Untouchables. In
Moon’s world, Dalits are not all unhappy victims, not marginalized peoples to be
pitied, not a people without hope. Prejudice, violence, crime are not absent from
the story of his early life, but they do not dominate, do not destroy his spirit.
Poverty is very widespread, but even hunger cannot triumph over the childhood
joys of life. Vasti is a Marathi word; in Hindi it is bustee, usually translated
“urban slum,” and anyone visiting the Maharpurs of Nagpur, the localities of the
Untouchable Mahar caste, with middle-class eyes would call them slums. But
Moon’s story reveals a richly complex slum culture, much in the way that some