Avantika Sunderlal Week 1

Dr Ambedkar was invited by the Jat Pat Todak Mandal from Bombay to Lahore to preside over their annual conference by speaking about the caste system in India. He was aware that his speech would not be accepted well amongst many religious Hindus, and many Hindus would be against his views.

He criticises the Shastras, and Mahatma in his speech even though he is aware that they both are extremely important to Hindus and this is likely to cause a stir. There’s a sense of both sarcasm and logic, when he questions the Mandal as to why they have chosen him as his president. He makes them aware of the fact that they have dis-obeyed the holy Shatras by doing so. The Shastras permit only Brahmins to be gurus, thus Ambedkar merely puts forth the point that the Shastras only permit a person from a certain caste to carry out a job as opposed to someone who is well-versed in the matter. This makes one realise that post-independence, inspite of Acts like the Prevent of Caste Atrocities Act, caste is a reality. Jobs are still very much linked to caste! For example, In our college; most of the students are mostly savarnas and teachers too, the Sodexo helpers are divided on the basis of sub-castes and castes, the dhobi community does the laundry service, a higher caste cooks and a step “lower” does the cleaning. A caste triangle can easily be drawn in every college and household, depicting which occupations is related to which caste.

The conversations recorded in the Dasbodh, are a reality even today which is an eye-opener for us students as we understand the realities of the caste system, which is so deeply entrenched that it allows us the privilege to not know about the atrocities of caste and moreover even truly understand our privilege.