Dalit Visions: the Anti-caste Movement

by Gail Omvedt

Dalit Visions explores and critiques the sensibility which equates Indian tradition with Hinduism, and Hinduism with Brahmanism; which considers the Vedas as the foundational texts of Indian culture and discovers within the Aryan heritage the essence of Indian civilisation. It shows that even secular minds remain imprisoned within this Brahmanical vision, and the language of secular discourse is often steeped in a Hindu ethos. The tract looks at alternative traditions, nurtured within dalit movements, which have questioned this way of looking at Indian society and its history. While seeking to understand the varied dalit visions that have sought to alter the terms of the dominant order, this tract persuades us to reconsider our ideas, listen to those voices which we often refuse to hear and understand the visions which seek to change the world in which dalits live.

Genres: Nonfiction, India, Religion, Politics

121 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 1995

About the author

Dr. Gail Omvedt is an American-born Indian scholar, sociologist and human rights activist. Omvedt has been involved in Dalit and anti-caste movements, environmental, farmers' and women's movements.

She was born in Minneapolis, and studied at Carleton College, and at UC Berkeley where she earned her PhD in sociology in 1973. She has been an Indian citizen since 1983.

In recent years she has been working as a consulting sociologist on gender, environment and rural development, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxfam Novib (NOVIB) and other institutions.

Wikipedia

Reviews

[qamar⋆｡°✩ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5☆ — a concise text — including chapters that link to such topics as socialism, the aryan race theory, dalit panthers, the logic of dalit politics, as well as icons such as ambedkar, phule, tarabai shinde, and pandita ramabai — that could provide a broadly comprehensive perspective into the anti-caste movement in india.

[aneez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise survey of the attempts at imagination and construction of Dalit & adi-Shudra identity in contrast to (Brahminical) Hinduism. The book explains the failure of these attempts till now and the success of Congress(and later Parivar) in countering this. Names and provides reference to number of personalities neglected by mainline media/historiography.

[Hariprasad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gail Omvedt started the book on expected lines, i.e., by denouncing vedic tradition as the central focus of Hinduism.

She highlights the dangers of Hindu nationalism and outlines the Gandhian (reformist) and Nehruvian (secular) methods adopted by different sections to counter this danger. She argues that the attempt is flawed because it validates the general identification of the Hinduism with the tradition of India or "Hindu" with "Bharatiya".

Then she goes on to introduce the dalit approach which "proclaim a politics of identity" and which "define 'Hinduism' itself as an oppressive class/caste/patriarchal force."

The introduction gives a snapshot of the trajectory of dalit politics in India especially from the 1970s with the founding of the Dalit Panthers.

I have always felt a discomfort listening to or reading dalit discourse because of its outright denouncement of all that is valued by Hindu tradition. I think I was expecting something different from this book. However that matter was laid to rest when I read in the introduction that "the impetus to challenge the hegemony and validity of Hinduism is part of the very logic of Dalit politics."

Along with popular faces of the movement like Ambedkar, Phule and Periyar the book introduces some lesser known dalit activists like Tarabai Shinde, Pandita Ramabai and Mangoo Ram. It also critically analyses the challenges faced by the movement at different stages and how the dalit consciousness spread wider over a period of time ultimately leading to their political empowerment.

However, the book admits the failure of the dalit movement to achieve the task of demolishing the Hindu religion and establishing a distinct dalit identity. Given the current state of dalit movement it seems obvious that the movement has lost its militant nature and political empowerment has come without a corresponding economic empowerment.

This, I think, is the reason why politicians are engaged in tokenism that appease the impoverished dalit voters. Raising of Ambedkar's and Kanshi Ram's statues in UP by BSP is part of this exercise to create an iconography that sustains the hope for Dalits in India. But the reality remains that neither a new park nor a statue can offer a solution to the crisis that dalits find themselves in. Gail Omvedt also fails to offer any potential solution to the predicament faced by the dalit movement.

Also, while Omvedt believes that evocation of people's past will continue to have a role in the formulation of a new society, in which the major dalit theme remains that of confidence and aspiration, she is able to acknowledge only those reinterpretations of puranas and history that denounce the upper castes and highlight the exploitation of the sub-altern like in the case of Eklavya or Shambuk. However, I believe there is also ample scope for dalit empowerment in those reinterpretations of scriptural literature that view dalit characters in a positive light. An example would be the reinterpretation oft criticised 'Purushasookta' in which shudras are supposed to have originated from the toes of the purusha. A positive reinterpretation of this focus on the fact that toes are the symbol of reverence in Hindu customs (lotus feet of Lord Vishnu, etc.).