A disciple of Guruchand, Mukunda Behari Mullick, fought for 'Separate Electorate' since 1921.
Guruchand Thakur Bluntly refused to Join Brahaminical Swadeshi Movement as Jyotiba Phule did.But Co Opted and Brahaminised Matua Movement has reduced into a RIDICULOUS Vote Bank Adjuster for Bengali Brahaminical Hegemony thanks to SIBLINGS Kapil Krishna and Manjul Thakur!
GURUCHAND Thakur was behind the strong Namoshudra Movement for Empowerment with ensuring Political representation.Harichand Thakur led Indian Peasantry, the Indigenous Aboriginal Non Brahaminical Black Untouchables to DISCARD Brahaminical Religion to fight for Land rights, Social and Economic Upliftment and his sonGuruchand Thakur, a Dalit messiah was born in 1846 in Bengal, who did a lot of things for the social, political, economic and educational upliftment of the downtrodden. In the year 1907, he put a representation to the then Governor of Bengal Assam Mr. David Hare for the employment of the educated Dalit and submitted a demand of charter to the BRITISH Government demanding Separate Electorate for the SC ST.
Guruchand Thakur supported Namoshudra MLAs in Bengal Assembly did demand for TEBHAGA and land reforms.Recently Santosh Kumar Rana , a prominent Naxal Leader did recognise the leading role of Guruchand Thakur and his father in Indian Peasant Movement. The article is published in Ananadabazaar Patrika. Guruchand Thakur joined the All India KRISHAK Sammelan GHATAL in Midnapur in 1933.
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time -FIVE HUNDRED EIGHTY ONE
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
http://basantipurtimes.blogspot.com/
Guruchand Thakur Bluntly refused to Join Brahaminical Swadeshi Movement as Jyotiba Phule did.But Co Opted and Brahaminised Matua Movement has reduced into a RIDICULOUS Vote Bank Adjuster for Bengali Brahaminical Hegemony thanks to SIBLINGS Kapil Krishna and Manjul Thakur!
GURUCHAND Thakur was behind the strong Namoshudra Movement for Empowerment with ensuring Political representation.Harichand Thakur led Indian Peasantry, the Indigenous Aboriginal Non Brahaminical Black Untouchables to DISCARD Brahaminical Religion to fight for Land rights, Social and Economic Upliftment and his sonGuruchand Thakur, a Dalit messiah was born in 1846 in Bengal, who did a lot of things for the social, political, economic and educational upliftment of the downtrodden. In the year 1907, he put a representation to the then Governor of Bengal Assam Mr. David Hare for the employment of the educated Dalit and submitted a demand of charter to the BRITISH Government demanding Separate Electorate for the SC ST.
Guruchand Thakur supported Namoshudra MLAs in Bengal Assembly did demand for TEBHAGA and land reforms.Recently Santosh Kumar Rana , a prominent Naxal Leader did recognise the leading role of Guruchand Thakur and his father in Indian Peasant Movement. The article is published in Ananadabazaar Patrika. Guruchand Thakur joined the All India KRISHAK Sammelan GHATAL in Midnapur in 1933.
The democratic battle of the Bengal Untouchables that was started under the leadership of Guruchand Thakur from the 1880's could send the first Indian Untouchable to the Legislature in 1921.
Guruchand Thakur sowed the seeds of 'Separate Electorate' for the Untouchables in Bengal long before the Round Table Conference or establishment of Simon Commission in (1928). Soon after 1909, the Namasudra leaders in Bengal demanded:
"We beg to add that, though our religious rites and their observances and social customs are similar to those of Brahmins, we have not the slightest connection with any of the Hindu communities. They have been continually looking down upon us with contempt and malice; have kept us under subjugation and total ignorance. We have been smarting under their yoke of bondage. It is absolutely absurd to anticipate that they would in future mix with us in social and religious performances. Thus we desire to be recognized by the Government as entirely a different community having separate claim to political privileges like Muhammadans."
A disciple of Guruchand, Mukunda Behari Mullick, fought for 'Separate Electorate' since 1921.
Orakandi is the birthplace of the renaissance movement of the down-trodden people. The beacon, pioneer, and the soul of that movement was the saintly reformer Sri Guruchand Thakur. He singlehandedly rekindled, spearheadeded, and nourished the renaissance- culminating in education, enlightenment, self-respect, and freedom from the yolk of casteism, perpetuated through milleniums. We, especially the present and future generations of the down-trodden people, owe everything to him - the modern-day saint with a divine mission.
Guruchand's father, Harichand Thakur (born 1812) declared the Chandal Untouchables of Bengal as a distinct religious group completely separate from the (Brahmin) Hindu fold and had preached a new religion called "Matua" which tangibly defied all Hindu scriptures like the Vedas and Puranas, Brahmans, gods and goddesses.
He refused to recognize the Hindu places of pilgrimages and discarded all Brahminic rituals. He remained indifferent and never showed even interest in the Untouchables' temple (Hindu) movement that occurred before his eyes and knowledge. He never supported those Untouchables who were beaten up by the Hindus while trying to enter Kali temple. Instead he built up a self-conscious, independent self-help movement under the banner of powerful Matua religion given by his father. Thus he brought a distinct identity and social consolidation of the Untouchables of Bengal. He brought tremendous socio-cultural awareness and encouraged a fighting spirit against the Brahminical exploitation and social order.
উন্নয়ন, বিভাজন ও জাতি : বাংলায় নমশূদ্র আন্দোলন, ১৮৭২-১৯৪৭
Posted by bangalnama on August 31, 2009
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জাতিবিভাগ, শ্রেণী আর ক্ষমতার সম্পর্কের মধ্যে প্রাক-ঔপনিবেশিক বাংলার সনাতন হিন্দু সমাজে যে ভারসাম্য ছিল (রায়, ১৯৮০, পৃঃ ৩২৪-২৫; সান্যাল, ১৯৮১, পৃঃ ১৯-২৬), ইংরেজ ঔপনিবেশিক সরকার নতুন নতুন সুযোগ-সুবিধা তৈরি করতে থাকলে তা ভেঙে পড়ার উপক্রম হয়। সাধারণ ধারণা এই যে ভূমি বিক্রেয় পণ্যে পরিণত হলে, প্রথাবদ্ধ উৎপাদন সম্পর্কের জায়গা নেয় চুক্তিবদ্ধতা। নতুন পেশার সৃষ্টি হল, যার ভিত্তি ব্যক্তিগত যোগ্যতা। যে সব বণিক সম্প্রদায়ের বাণিজ্যকর্ম এতদিন আঞ্চলিকতার সীমায় আটকে ছিল, তারা এবার বিভিন্ন ইউরোপীয় কোম্পানির সঙ্গে সহযোগিতার ভিত্তিতে বাণিজ্য করে অবস্থার উন্নতি ঘটানোর সুযোগ পেল। আর তা বিভিন্ন জাতির মধ্যে প্রাচুর্যের বন্টনকেও বিষমীকৃত করে। এরই পরিণতি, সামাজিক গতিশীলতার বৃদ্ধিতে সমাজে ক্ষমতার সম্পর্ক ভেঙে পড়ার উপক্রম। কিন্তু যদি আদমসুমারির পেশা-সংক্রান্ত তথ্যকে সমাজের কিছু সাধারণ পরিবর্তনের সূচক হিসেবে গ্রহণ করি, যদিও সামাজিক পরিবর্তনের নির্ভরযোগ্য ছবি এর থেকে আদৌ পাওয়া যায় না (কনলন, ১৯৮১), তাহলে আমরা দেখব যে বিংশ শতাব্দীর গোড়াতেও (১৯০১-১৯৩১) এই সামাজিক গতিশীলতা ছিল অত্যন্ত সীমিত, সমাজের একেবারে নিচের তলা থেকে কেউ ওপরে উঠে আসছে এ ঘটনাও দুর্লভ।
জনসংখ্যার এক বিশাল অংশ তখনও তাদের জাতিভিত্তিক পেশাতেই নিয়োজিত, অর্থাৎ ঔপনিবেশিক শাসনপর্বে সীমিতভাবে যে উন্নয়ন প্রক্রিয়ার শুরু তা গোষ্ঠীসাপেক্ষে স্বতন্ত্র প্রভাব বিস্তার করেছে। অন্যভাবে দেখলে অর্থনীতি সমষ্টিগত উন্নয়নের গতি কখনো অর্জন করেনি বলেই একই জাতির মধ্যে তৈরি হয়েছে অন্য শ্রেণীরেখা। অর্থনীতির এই অসম সঞ্চালন বিশেষ তাৎপর্যপূর্ণ, কারণ এই ঘটনাটিই একদিকে বিভিন্ন জাতি গোষ্ঠীর চেতনাকে নিয়ন্ত্রণ করেছে – অন্যদিকে তা উনিশ শতকের শেষ আর বিশ শতকের আরম্ভে নিম্নবর্ণের জাতিগুলির সামাজিক আন্দোলনের অন্যতম প্রধান কারণ হয়েই তার ওপর প্রভাব ফেলেছে।
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Posted in ইতিহাস, জাত, তেভাগা আন্দোলন, নমশূদ্র আন্দোলন, পরিচয়, রাজনীতি | Tagged: Ashwini Kumar Dutta, খুলনা,ঢাকা, পূর্ববঙ্গের নমশূদ্র আন্দোলন, ফরিদপুর, ময়মনসিংহ, B R Ambedkar, Bakhargunj, Baruni Mela, Bengal Namasudra Association, Calcutta Scheduled Caste League, Chandal, Fazlul Haq,Guruchand Thakur, Independent Scheduled Caste Party, Jessore, Jogendranath Mandal, Matua, Matua religious sect, Mukunda Bihari Mullick, Namasudra, Namasudra Andolon, Pratham Ranjan Thakur, Prem Hari Barma, Pulin Bihari Mullick, Saral Dutta,Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Shahlal Pir, Tebhaga Andolon, Upendra Nath Burman | Leave a Comment »
SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2011Inauguration | Govt. College Chandpur | Harichand Guruchand Thakur Mahavidyalaya Gaighata North 24-Pgs Bengal
Honorable Chief Minister of Bengal Shri Budhyadeb Bhattacharyya has inaugurated a new Government College at Chandpara – Gaighata in North 24-Parganas district of Bengal on 31st January 2011 at 2:30pm.
Those who are looking for Colleges near by Chandpur Gaighata area of North 24-Pgs Bengal for higher studies in Bachelor Degree courses (Under Graduate) can now easily complete their Degree education from Government College of Chandpur Gaighata 24-Pgs (N) Bengal.
The name of the new Government College of Chandpur is Sri Sri Harichand Guruchand Govt. College located at Chandpur area of Gaighata in 24-Parganas (N) in West Bengal and this college will be affiliated to Barasat State University.
Read more: Inauguration | Govt. College Chandpur | Harichand Guruchand Thakur Mahavidyalaya Gaighata North 24-Pgs Bengal
http://www.bengalkolkataonline.co.cc/2011/01/inauguration-govt-college-chandpur.html#ixzz1Cu8cxRZ0
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It is the game of divide and rule again — this time for the inauguration of a government degree college in Gaighata in North 24-Parganas, named after the founding fathers of the Motua community, a religious order consisting of about forty lakh Scheduled Caste voters.Officialy, the state government says that the inauguration of the college should not be linked to the impending Assembly elections. "Gaighata is a socio-economically backward area and the establishment of a degree college was long overdue. The idea emerged over a long period of time, and not one fine morning before the elections," said Satish Chandra Tiwari, Principal Secretary (Higher Education Department). The Backward Community Welfare Department will provide funds for the establishment of the building of the college.
While the Left-leaning Kapilkrishna Thakur, the elder son of the sect's head Boroma Binapani Devi, was invited by the state government for Monday's foundation stone-laying ceremony of the college, Manjulkrishna Thakur, Boroma's younger son who is known to be close to Trinamool Congress, was given a miss.
"I have not been invited to the event. But it's okay. A degree college was much needed in this area, and the fact that one is finally coming up, is making all of us happy," said Manjulkrishna.
With its four million strong vote bank, the Motuas are being wooed by both the ruling CPM and its archrival Trinamool for quite some time now. The inauguration of the degree college named after Harichand and Guruchand Thakur, the founders of the Matua Mahasangha, can be read as one more attempt by the Left in the same direction.
Mamata promises new metro project, stresses on infrastructure development
15 January 2011
statesman news service
BARASAT, 15 Jan: Work for the Airport-New Garia via Rajarhat Metro project will begin soon at an estimated cost of Rs 3,912 crore. The survey has been done for the project, railway minister Miss Mamata Banerjee said today after laying the foundation stone of Dum Dum-Barasat metro railway. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 2,332 crore.
Miss Banerjee said with the improvement in infrastructure and rail, road and metro connectivity, the state will reclaim its industrial glory in two years. "Within two years the state will get back its past glory and new industries will come up because of better road, rail and metro connectivity," she said.
The railway minister claimed that what she has done for the state none could do in the past 200 years. " What I have done to the state, none could do in the past 200 years and all the projects will be completed on time," she maintained. She announced a polytechnic college at Maslandapur which will be named after Guruchand Thakur, founder of the Matua sect. It may be mentioned that the chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had announced setting up of a degree college which would be named after Guruchand Thakur in Bongan a few days ago.
Miss Banerjee said no one will be evicted for the railway projects and she will talk to the people before taking up any scheme.
Articles
NAMASUDRAS, THE WORST PERSECUTED "NATION" IN THE WORLD
Hindus vivisected India to break Dalit-Muslim unity
S.K. BISWAS, PRESIDENT, DALIT-BAHUJAN INTELLECTUAL FORUM, 387-A, J&K POCKET, DILSHAD GARDEN, DELHI - 110 095
The Bengali Untouchables, especially the Chandals (Namasudras), were the pioneering in liberating themselves from the Brahmin yoke and thus became the harbinger of the self-conscious independent movement of the Untouchables, by the Untouchables and even for the Untouchables of India. The race, called Chandals, have been one of the most ancient ethnic groups of people who followed Budhism. They had been mentioned in the old Budhist literature and the Sanskrit Ramayana etc. The Chandals were enumerated in the census by the British as Namasudras for the first time in the 1911 Census Report. This was the result of a calculated conspiratory process to hinduise (enslave) this numerically very large group who from time immemorial fought the Brahminism. In a democracy, number of any conscious group matters.
PIONEER OF ANTI-HINDU MOVEMENT
The democratic battle of the Bengal Untouchables that was started under the leadership of Guruchand Thakur from the 1880's could send the first Indian Untouchable to the Legislature in 1921.
Guruchand Thakur sowed the seeds of 'Separate Electorate' for the Untouchables in Bengal long before the Round Table Conference or establishment of Simon Commission in (1928). Soon after 1909, the Namasudra leaders in Bengal demanded:
"We beg to add that, though our religious rites and their observances and social customs are similar to those of Brahmins, we have not the slightest connection with any of the Hindu communities. They have been continually looking down upon us with contempt and malice; have kept us under subjugation and total ignorance. We have been smarting under their yoke of bondage. It is absolutely absurd to anticipate that they would in future mix with us in social and religious performances. Thus we desire to be recognized by the Government as entirely a different community having separate claim to political privileges like Muhammadans."
A disciple of Guruchand, Mukunda Behari Mullick, fought for 'Separate Electorate' since 1921.
NO TEMPLE ENTRY
Guruchand's father, Harichand Thakur (born 1812) declared the Chandal Untouchables of Bengal as a distinct religious group completely separate from the (Brahmin) Hindu fold and had preached a new religion called "Matua" which tangibly defied all Hindu scriptures like the Vedas and Puranas, Brahmans, gods and goddesses.
He refused to recognize the Hindu places of pilgrimages and discarded all Brahminic rituals. He remained indifferent and never showed even interest in the Untouchables' temple (Hindu) movement that occurred before his eyes and knowledge. He never supported those Untouchables who were beaten up by the Hindus while trying to enter Kali temple. Instead he built up a self-conscious, independent self-help movement under the banner of powerful Matua religion given by his father. Thus he brought a distinct identity and social consolidation of the Untouchables of Bengal. He brought tremendous socio-cultural awareness and encouraged a fighting spirit against the Brahminical exploitation and social order.
INDIA'S FIRST DALIT GRADUATE
Guruchand Thakur had given a call: "Educate, Agitate, Organise" in 1880 and launched a scheme of establishing schools in villages through an inter-linked network. He established over 1,000 schools in rural Bengal for the Untouchable children. Consequently, Bengal produced the first Untouchable graduate in India when in 1893 Panchanan Sarkar, an Untouchable Rajbansi, graduated from North Bengal Victoria College. He passed MA and LLB in 1897 and 1898 respectively. Raicharan Sardar, an Untouchable Poundra of South Bengal, became a graduate from the Calcutta University in 1901. On failing to get a govt. job, both Sarkar and Sardar remained as advocates. Shyamlal Sarkar, became the first Namasudra graduate in 1903.
DALIT-MUSLIM UNITY
It was Guruchand who was the first to raise demands for reservation in govt. services, a monopoly of the Brahmins and a few of their associates, for the Untouchables. He launched a united struggle with the Muslims of Bengal on this issue. The Dalit-Muslim united front even demanded creation of a separate state of Eastern Bengal with Dacca as its capital to avoid the domination of Calcutta-based Brahmins.
The partition of Bengal in 1905 was a crowning victory for the Dalit-Muslim struggle. A new law was passed giving reservation to the Untouchables and the Muslims of Bengal. "Proportional representation of communities in govt. jobs, the Act of 1906 of Assam-Bengal government" was passed. Shasi Bhusan Thakur, son of Guruchand, was the first Untouchable to get a reserved a job as a sub-registrar. Soon after graduation Kumub Behari Mullick became a Deputy Magistrate in 1908. The deprived people among Muslims were greatly benefitted by the Reservation Act.
GANDHI KILLS FUTURE OF DALITS
Furious Bengali Brahmins launched an agitation against the partition decision of Bengal (1905) by Lord Curzon because their domination over Eastern Bengal, where 80% population was Dalits and Muslims, would come to an end. Consequently the Partition of Bengal was nullified in 1912.
Once they secured govt. jobs, Guruchand's next target was to capture political power. The Govt. of India Act of 1919 was amended to nominate Untouchables to the legislature. Advocate Bhiswadev Das, a Matua and a disciple of Guruchand, became the first Indian Untouchable to be nominated to the Legislative Council of Bengal (1921).
Five Untouchables—Nirod Behari Mullick, Panchanan Burman (Sarkar), Rasik Lal Chamar, Hem Chandra Naskar and Prassanna Kumar Raikat —were selected to the Bengal Assembly in the 1921 general election.
However the gem of the Namas-udra community, Mukunda Behari Mullick, was defeated by a Hindu stooge from a constituency thickly populated by the Namasudras.
M.B. Mullick, a lecturer of Pali language in Calcutta University, was defeated by a Congress (Untouchable) candidate (Rasik Lal Chamar). He then demanded separate electorate for the Untouchables as such a protective benefit was being enjoyed by the Muslims and Sikhs since 1909 and 1919 respectively. However, M. B. Mullick had to wait till Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar eventually achieved the same at the national level through the Communal Award of 1932 announced by the British. But M.K. Gandhi went on his fake fast-unto-death and snatched away the golden opportunity of the Untouchables to protect and chisel out their own fate.
WHOLESALE SLAUGHTER OF DALITS
Despite being branded enemy of the Untouchables by an impartial third party, the British, Gandhi along with his Hindu conspirators shamelessly continued his intrigues against Dr. Ambedkar and to force them to surrender. There came even a threat to launch wholesale massacre of Untouchables. But alas there was no resistance —not even a counter fast-unto-death to protect the sunshine of liberty in the form of Communal Award of the age-old servile Untouchables.
BENGAL PROTESTs Dr. AMBEDKAR BLUNDER
However Bengal showed a ray of hope. The Depressed Classes Association protested to the Govt. against the "Poona Pact". They said Dr. Ambedkar should have consulted them before signing the "Pact". It hailed the "Communal Award" as a "political advantage unprecedented and unparalleled in the constitutional history of India" and condemned the "Pact" as "Dr. Ambedkar's political blunder". Both the Namasudra Association and the Depressed Classes Association said Bengal was not bound by the "Poona Pact".
Dr. Ambedkar too argued in the post-"Poona Pact" era against the mischief of joint electorate.
"The joint electorate is from the point of the Hindus, to use a familiar phrase, a rotten borough in which the Hindus get the right to nominate an Untouchable to set nominally as a representative of the Untouchables but really as a tool of the Hindus.
DR. AMBEDKAR BLOCKED FROM LOK SABHA
By declaring that Gandhi betrayed the Untouchables in the "Poona Pact", he further disclosed that
"the Poona Pact is thus fraught with mischief. It was accepted because of the coercive fast of Mr. Gandhi and because of the assurance given at the time that the Hindus will not interfere in the election of the Scheduled Castes".
As a result of the Poona Pact, history of India revealed startling facts that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was never allowed to get into parliament as an elected member after the constitution was promulgated. Consequent to the "Poona Pact", the greatest Untouchable organizer and thinker, Kanshi Ram, who founded the Bahujan Samaj Party, also miserably failed to get elected to the Lok Sabha after his initial victory from Hoshiarpur (Punjab) and Etwa (UP). All along he had to be satisfied as a Rajya Sabha member.
At a Pune meeting to condemn the "Poona Pact" in 1982, Kanshi Ram called it the destroyer of hopes of the Untouchables and the starting point of the "Chamcha age".
BENGALI DALITS ELECT DR. AMBEDKAR
Even the communist Brahmins of India did not like the separate electorate to Untouchables. M.N. Roy (Narendra Nath Bhattacharya) condemned the British "interference" in the affairs of India.
But the politically mature, numerically strong Untouchables of Bengal elected Dr. Ambedkar to the Constituent Assembly thus proving that the Bengali Dalits stood as a Himalayan road-block to the march of Brahminism.
But the cunning BSO destroyed the future of Dalits and Muslims by vivisecting India into three parts. The process of partition was indeed the beginning of disenfranchisement of the Untouchables of Bengal and the Punjab. Maximum concentration of Untouchables was in these two provinces.
Together with the Untouchables, the Muslims could have changed the very history of (undivided) India but the Brahminical jati interest prevailed over the well being of India.
MUSLIMS DID NOT VOTE FOR PARTITION
After the "Poona Pact", the struggle of the Untouchables got weakened. It was reduced to a saga of survival. And the greatest blow even for the very survival of the Untouchables in the post-Poona Pact era came out of the conspiracy to vivisect the country.
On the July 23, 1947 a decision was taken to partition India into three parts —East Pakistan, India and the West Pakistan. Entire Muslim community was to be driven out to Pakistan. However, only the mainstream Muslims left India.
It was the Hindus and not the Muslims who decided and voted for the vivisection of the country.
In the case of Bengal even "veteran communist leaders" like Jyoti Basu and Ratan Lal Brahman (from Darjeeling) under the leadership of Uda Chand Mahatab, the Maharaja of Bardwan, voted for partition (by 58 to 21) along with Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (Hindu Mahasabha), Bidhan Chandra Roy (INC), Sarat Chandra Bose (brother of Subash Ch. Bose), Kiron Shankar Roy and others. The vivisection was also sponsored by G.D. Birla who perhaps got nervous with the existence of Ispahani industrialist.
Muslim leaders under the presidentship of Md. Nurul Amin with overwhelming majority (by 106 to 35) voted against the partition of Bengal. Still partition took place as the condition of voting was to vivisect India even if only one group votes for partition. And the minority Hindus voted "yes partition".
BENGALI DALITS MADE REFUGEES
As a consequence of the withdrawal of Muslims from India and the partition of Bengal, Dr. Ambedkar lost both his political ally as well as his membership of the Constituent Assembly. Once again he was thrown into the mercy of Hindus. He had neither the capacity nor any chance to get elected to the Constituent Assembly as his supporters in Bengal were disenfranchised after the vivisection of the country into three different sovereign countries. The powerful Untouchables of Bengal, politically conscious and socially integrated, were reduced to rootless refugees for eternity. (In Bombay, the population of Untouchables was not of much significance compared to Bengal, Punjab and Madras). At this stage his all-time enemies came to the rescue of Dr. Ambedkar who was helped by the Congress to become a member of the Constituent Assembly (which was initially constituted in 1946) once again in July 1947.
J.N. MONDAL AS PAKISTAN LAW MINISTER
Not only that. Dr. Ambedkar was unanimously elected chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution for the "free India" by its seven members on Aug.30, 1947. His strongest support base, J.N. Mandal, (the Untouchable leader of East Bengal), as a consequence of partition of India and Bengal had to resign as Law Minister from the Nehru Cabinet of the interim govt. and shifted to Karachi, capital of the new sovereign country, Pakistan, to join the Pakistan Government as its first Law Minister. In Pakistan, it was none but J.N. Mandal who got the historic privilege to inaugurate the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.
Both the national leaders of the Untouchables got irrevocably weakened and separated. The two never could come closer to build up a formidable battle against the enemy. These incidents obviously created tremendous international political pressure on India's Brahminical rulers who to save their face thought Dr. Ambedkar would be a weak and safe candidate to draft the constitution of India. When the enemy helps what remains to be protected?
DALITS LOSE VOTING RIGHTS
Dr. Ambedkar's movement for separate electorate (for 15%) was nothing but the Untouchables' freedom movement. The movement was developed into a national movement, a movement of the Bahujan Samaj (80% to 90% population) by Kanshi Ram.
This movement was again scuttled with the enactment of the India Citizenship Amendment Act of 2003 which simultaneously took away citizenship as well as the franchise right of the millions of Untouchables and sudras who came to India from East Pakistan/Bangladesh as a result of the partition in 1947.
The Act was a double-edged sword as it granted double citizenship to the Non-Resident Indians. The Untouchable Namasudra, Poundras and Rajbansis, who had any remote ancestral connection with erstwhile East Pakistan or East Bengal have been terrorized to surrender to the ruling castes or political parties as a result of this Act.
ORPHANS OF THE WORLD
In violation of the International Human Rights (clause 30) that no human being can be without citizenship right and the individual is to choose his citizenship, the millions of Untouchables of Bengal have been denied citizenship and had to go without voting right.
As long as they vote for the Brahminical ruling parties it is OK but when they choose their party they are "non-violently" tortured, strictly as per Hindu laws. There is none to stand by these "orphans of the world".
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/feb_a2008/articles.htm
Left's courtship with Matuas reaches award podium
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Express News Service
Posted: Sep 22, 2010 at 0224 hrs IST
Kolkata AS Kapilkrishna Thakur, the head of All India Matua Mahasangha, received the Thakur Harichand-Guruchand Award from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Kolkata on Tuesday for his contribution to the uplift of Dalits, the Left Front leaders were more than happy.
The state government instituted the award last year and named it after Thakur Harichand-Guruchand,the founder of the Matua community in its attempt to woo the community which in recent years have been drifting towards the rival Trinamool Congress.
The award, the ruling Communists feel, could help neutralise the growing influence of the Trinamool among the members of the politically significant Matua community which, according to political observers, plays an important role in the electoral politics of the state with about 10 million disciples spread across the country.
The praises showered to the chief minister by Binapani Devi — known as Matua Ma or Baroma who controls the activities of the community — only added to the Left leaders' glee. In her message, Binapani Devi said Chief Minister has created a historic moment by conferring the award to her son Kapilkrishna.
The community, which had a Left leaning, started developing close relations with the Trinamool as the Left Front government grappled with the Nandigram and Singur fiascos.
By December 2009, the tie between the community leaders and Trinamool grew so strong that they inducted Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee as the life member of Mahasangha. Political observers say the new-found affinity with the
Matuas helped the Trinamool to batter the Left in constituencies like Barasat, Basirhat and Bongaon during the last Lok Sabha elections. CPM leaders said that at least 18 Assembly segments under these three Lok Sabha constituencies are dominated by the backward community people, most of who are members of the Matua community.
After receiving the award, Kapilkrishna demanded that the state government should name an educational institution after Harichand-Guruchand Thakur. The Chief Minister promptly complied by saying that he will discuss it with his higher education minister. "I humbly accept all progressive proposals of Kapilkrishna Thakur," Bhattacharjee said.
"The history of the struggle of Harichand-Guruchand is our history, that has not been given due importance. The ideology is legitimate and generated by rebellion against cast divided society," he added.
| eature |
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Why the East Bengal Refugees are Discriminated and Hated
Tuesday September 19 2006 20:41:31 PM BDT
By Palash Biswas, India
More than twenty million East bengal refugees coming over to India in different dates and phases since 1947 partition and riots over there, awaiting citizenship and rehabilitation, reservation, right to learn mother language and even minimum human and civil rights in different states of India.
Meanwhile, the original citizenship Act of 1955 has been changed by a new act called Dual citizenship Act enacted last year with the objectives: preventing grant of Indian Citizenship to illegal migrants; grant of dual citizenship to foreigners of Indian origin and compulsary registration with issue of National identity card for all citizens of India.This new Act declares the government stand to deport all illegal migrants.This anti refugee Act was passed in the parliament with general consensensus. The SC/St MPs from Bengal also supported the bill bowing to respective party whip.
The new act has abolished the right of citizenship by birth. Any person who has crossed the border after 18th july 1948 without valid passport and visa is considered illegal migrants.
The East Bengal refugees, even rehabilated in fifties, have not been granted citizenship as have been the refugees coming from West Punjab. The Bengali leadership never demanded citizenship for the refugees. BJP leaders and CPIM leaders in bengal speak in the same language about the Bengali refugees. Thirteen lac names have been deleted in Bengal in the last assembly elections as the concerned persons could not prove their Indian nationality.
The situation is very grave as it is seen in the pilot project of national identity card in Murshidabad district in West Bengal. More than ninety percent of the population could not present the required documents to prove their citizenship. Elsewhere in the country, refugees and even the indian Bengali citizens in non Bengali states staying for employment are being deported. Rehabilated in fifties, the Dandakaranya refugees in Orrissa have been served the notice to leave India. In Orrissa the registration of new born babies in the refugee families are being denied birth certificates.
East Bengal refugees have been discriminated and victimised as nintey percent of them belongs to scheduled castes . In Chhattisgargh itself twenty two of total twenty six lac Bengali refugees belong to Namashudra caste. It is the same story elsewhere ,more or less. Other prominent refugee caste is the dalit Paundra, Pods, who are considered as par as the Namashudras.
We have to know the social equation of erstwhile Bengal to understand the Bengali leadership behaviour. It is well known that Indian Dalit movement is rooted in East Bengal as well well as in Maharashtra. Namoshudra leader Jogendra Nath Mandal led the Dalit movement in Bengal.
Mandal was responsible to send Ambedkar,defeated in Maharashtra, to the constitution assembly. Thus Hindu Dalit amjority areas like Jassore, Faridpur, Barishal and Khulna were included in Pkistan which destroyed the Dalit movement base in India. The Dalit refugees had been scattered all over in india with an objective to annihilate the main dalit foce like Namashudra and Paundras.
Specific lower castes, or 'Scheduled Castes' (as they were known in British Indian official parlance), who lived in the border areas between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the West Bengal state of the Union of India. They maintained since the early twentieth century their distance from high caste Hindus and their politics and, often in alliance with Muslims, opposed them actively.
The Namasudras who were earlier known as Chandals (a term derived from the Sanskrit chandala, a representative term for the untouchables) lived mainly in the Eastern districts of Bengal. According to the census of 1901, more than 75 percent of the Namasudra population lived in the districts of Bakerganj, Faridpur, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Jessore and Khulna.
Moreover, it has also been pointed out in several studies that a contiguous region comprising northeastern Bakerganj, southern Faridpur and the adjoining Narail, Magura, Khulna and Bagerhat districts contained more than half of this caste population. It was the Matuya leader Harichand Thakur who led the movement to abolish the foul noun for the dalits and the British Governmet prohibited calling anyone Chandal. The Chandals became Namashudra.
But the independence with partition of Bengal which ultimately came in the midnight of 14-15 August 1947 did not help the Scheduled Caste masses, as they feared. The caste hindu ruling class captured the statepower replacing Brtish. Many prominent groups like the Namasudras and the Rajbansis lost their territorial anchorage and, contrary to their hopes and in spite of their pleas, most of the Namasudra-inhabited areas in Bakarganj, Faridpur, Jessore and Khulna, like the Rajbansi areas of Dinajpur and Rangpur, went to East Pakistan, instead of West Bengal.
The post-partition violence, as F.C. Bourne, the last British Governor of East Bengal reported in 1950, left many of them with "nothing beyond their lives and the clothes they stand up in".
This compelled many of them to migrate as refugees to India, where being uprooted from their traditional homeland they had to begin once again their struggle for existence. The national leaders like Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad , Sardar Patel and others assured the partition victims everypossible assitance and rehabilatition.
The two most important communities which dominated Scheduled Caste politics in colonial Bengal were the Namasudras and the Rajbansis. The Namasudras, earlier known as the Chandals of Bengal, lived mainly in the eastern districts of Dacca, Bakarganj, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Jessore and Khulna. When these districts were ceded to East Pakistan, the inhabitants were forced to migrate across the new international boundary to the state of West Bengal in India.
At the same time, a section of the Kochs of northern Bengal, living in the districts of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and the Princely state of Cooch Behar, came to be known as the Rajbansis from the late nineteenth century. Of those districts, Rangpur and parts of Dinajpur went to East Pakistan, while the rest remained in West Bengal.
In other words, so far as the Namasudras and the Rajbansis were concerned, the international political boundary that came into existence in 1947 did not correspond by any means to ethnic boundaries, and resulted in the uprooting of these two groups of people from their territorial anchorage.
Incidentally, according to the 1901 Census, the Rajbansis and the Namasudras were the second and third largest Hindu castes respectively in the colonial province of Bengal.Both of these two groups were considered untouchables among the Hindus of Bengal. Although untouchability per se was not as limiting a problem in this as in other parts of India, the Namasudras and the Rajbansis suffered from a number of disabilities, which created a considerable social distance between them and the high caste Bengalis who dominated Hindu society.
Hence, when as a result of land reclamations in eastern and northern Bengal in the late nineteenth century, these two groups of people both experienced some amount of vertical social mobility, they proposed creating their own distinctive community identities.
As the Hindu nationalists began to invoke a glorious Hindu past as an inspiration for nation building, these people at the bottom of the social hierarchy began to look at the present as an improvement over the darker past. They regarded British rule as a good thing, seeing it as having overthrown the codes of Manu and establishing equality in an otherwise hierarchical society. The nationalist movement, therefore, appeared to them to be an attempt to put the clock back - an endeavour by the higher castes to restore their slipping grip over society.
In 1906, a Namasudra resolution stated very clearly that "simply owing to the dislike and hatred of the Brahmins, the Vaidyas and the Kayasthas, this vast Namasudra community has remained backward; this community has, therefore, not the least sympathy with them and their agitation ...".
In 1918 the Namasudras and the Rajbansis in a joint meeting demanded unequivocally the principle of "communal representation" to prevent "the oligarchy of a handful of limited castes". And when this was finally granted in the Communal Award of 1932, the leaders of both these communities greeted it as "a political advantage unprecedented and unparalleled in the constitutional history of India".
But Gandhi, anxious to maintain the political homogeneity of the Hindu community, stood in their way. When Ambedkar finally succumbed to his moral pressure to sign the Poona Pact, the Rajbansi and Namasudra leaders condemned it as "Dr Ambedkar's political blunder"; for, by taking away the privilege of a separate electorate, it "ultimately led ... to the political death of millions of people at the hands of the so-called caste Hindus".
Sometimes this alienation took the form of violent confrontation, particularly as the Namasudra peasants got involved in bazaar looting, house breaking and, in alliance with the Muslims, socially boycotting the high caste Hindus. In the case of the Rajbansis, passivity was the more dominant form of expression of their alienation, although from time to time they too participated in shop looting and no-rent campaigns against their high caste zamindars.
It should be noted that in undivided Bengal, the Zamidars belonged to Brahmin and kayasth communities whereas the peasants were muslims and dalits. Thus the dalit muslim allaince was a normal and scientific result of economic political tention in Bengal. It further resulted in the rise of Muslim League politics in Bengal as it was considerd as the best expression of revolt by Muslim peasants against caste hindu Zamindars. The dalit peasnt communities like Namashudra, Rajbanshi and Paundras saw nothing wrong in it.
Since the early years of the twentieth century both the Namasudras and the Rajbangshis sent requests to the colonial bureaucracy to bring them under the orbit of preferential treatment. Apart from extending preferential treatment to them in matters of education and employment, sympathies were also sought from the colonial bureaucracy over matters related to political participation.
While the position of the Namasudra and Rajbangshi elite in the local bodies showed signs of improvement, their representation in the provincial legislature was still negligible. But more importantly, in order to gain special political privileges, the lower caste elite consciously advocated an anti-Congress and pro-British stance.
At the same time, the lower caste elite, particularly the Namasudras who had actively opposed the swadeshi movement of the Congress, favoured a blatantly separatist line in the wake of the constitutional proposals of the 1910s and 1920s seeking greater devolution of power among various Indian groups. Almost immediately after the Mont-Ford proposals, the Rajbangshi and Namasudra elite pressed for greater representation for depressed communities in Bengal. As a result of these demands, the Reform Act of 1919 provided for the nomination of one representative of the depressed classes to the Bengal Legislature.
The peasants of these Bengali Dalit castes refrained from participating in Congress-led mass political agitations like the Non-Co-operation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements, led by Gandhi, because they were under the hegemony of the caste Hindu leaders. And then, finally, in the election of 1937 both Namasudra and Rajbansi voters rejected the Congress and the Hindu Sabha candidates and elected their own caste leaders in all the Scheduled Caste reserved constituencies.
The process of alienation seemingly came to a conclusion with Dr B.R. Ambedkar forming the All India Scheduled Caste Federation in 1942 and declaring that "the Scheduled Castes are distinct and separate from the Hindus ...". The following year, its Bengal branch was started by a few enthusiastic Namasudra and Rajbansi leaders, their avowed political goal being to establish "the separate political identity" of the Scheduled Castes.
After the election of 1937, when the leaders of the Namasudra and Muslim communities were coming to a political adjustment and the first coalition ministry under Fazlul Huq had started functioning smoothly, their followers in the eastern Bengal countryside got involved in a series of violent riots in Faridpur, Mymensingh and Jessore between February and April 1938.
Though rioting had been entirely due to local initiative of the peasants of the two communities over such issues as disputes over cattle or demarcation of land, the Hindu Sabha decided to take up the issues and make them items for a propaganda campaign. In an organised way rumours were spread, particularly in Jessore, that temples had been desecrated and images broken and an Assistant Secretary of the organisation was sent to the troubled area to conduct an enquiry on the spot. Religious emotions were thus fermented in a conflict which initially had nothing to do with religion
At a meeting at Agra in March 1946, Ambedkar had announced his support for the League demand, "Muslims are fighting for their legitimate rights and they are bound to achieve Pakistan". About a month later, in a press interview, he justified his demand for separate villages for the Scheduled Castes. This would not amount, he thought, to an encroachment on the rights of any other party.
There were large areas of cultivable waste land lying untenanted in the country which could be set aside for the settlement of the Scheduled Castes. The echoes of this demand could be heard from distant places. In the Central Provinces some of the Scheduled Castes started talking vaguely about a 'Dalistan'; and in northern Bengal a few Rajbansis, supported by the Scheduled Caste Federation leader Jogendranath Mandal, raised the demand for 'Rajasthan' or a separate Rajbansi Kshatriya homeland.
But the majority of the Scheduled Castes in Bengal, the Rajbansis included, seemed to be on the exactly opposite pole. Their responses to the partition issue clearly show that they had completely identified themselves with Hindu sentiments and apprehensions on this matter.
In Bengal Eaton shows that those from whom. Muslim converts were largely drawn—Rajbansis, Pods, Chandals, Kuchs, etc .Significantly, there was hardly any major social movement in Bengal between the tenth and the fifteenth century aimed at the elevation of the Antyaja jatis in the Hindu social scale. Only in 19th century, Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur of Orakandi changed the scenerio with Matuya Dharama denying Brahminical Hindu religion.Matuya Hindu religious community, founded by Sri Sri harichand thakur of Gopalganj.
The word 'matuya' means to be absorbed or remain absorbed in meditation, specifically to be absorbed in the meditation of the divine.The Matuya sect is monotheist. It is not committed to Vedic rituals, and singing hymns in praise of the deity is their way of prayer and meditation. They believe that salvation lies in faith and devotion. Their ultimate objective is to attain truth through this kind of meditation and worship. They believe that love is the only way to God.
Under the influence of certain liberal religious sects, a sense of self-respect developed among the Namasudras. In fact, these liberal as well as radical sects under the leadership of charismatic gurus like Keshab Pagal or Sahalal Pir challenged the hierarchic Hindu caste system and preached a simple gospel based on devotion (bhakti) and spiritual emotionalism (bhava). In 1872-73, the Namasudras under the leadership of Dwarkanath Mandal, tried to bolster their self-esteem by undertaking a social and economic boycott of the upper castes. The failure of this movement led to the establishment of the Matua sect - an organised religious sect under the influence of Sri Harichand Thakur and his son Sri Guru Chand Thakur.
The namashudras joined the Matuya Dharam. Which Was a social reform movement altogether. Harichand and Guruchand Thakur emphasised on education. Guruchand Thakur established thousands of eductional institutions. The Matuya have no distinctions of caste, creed, or class. They believe that everyone is a child of God.
The Matuya believe that male and female are equal. They discourage early marriage. Widow remarriage is allowed. They refer to their religious teachers as 'gonsai;' both men and women can be gonsai. The community observes Wednesday as the day of communal worship. The gathering, which is called 'Hari Sabha' (the meeting of Hari), is an occasion for the Matuya to sing kirtan in praise of Hari till they almost fall senseless. musical instruments such as jaydanka, kansa, conch, shinga, accompany the kirtan. The gonsai, garlanded with karanga (coconut shell) and carrying chhota, sticks about twenty inches long, and red flags with white patches, lead the singing.
In fact, there was hardly any case of social mobility among them, and for the great majority of the population comprising essentially the lower castes, the major sources of social mobility remained inaccessible. Prolonged pursuit of a particular occupation for generations in the absence of alternative job opportunities naturally gave rise to strict social conventions, which in the traditional context were overlaid with rituals. Some details relating to the lower castes in Bengal can be highlighted. Lower Caste Movements efforts to obliterate the social backwardness of some groups or communities in the society.
Bengali society throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries remained broadly divided into the Hindu and Muslim communities. In that sense, the inner divisions of the Hindu society tended to be perfunctory. Thus, the social scenario in Bengal betrayed features quite different from those in Central India and some parts of the Deccan, where the Muslim population was relatively small as a result of which the anti-Brahmin movements thrived there.
The forms of discrimination against the untouchables in Bengal differed from that in Maharastra or South India. In Bengal, caste rigidities were never strong enough to keep the untouchable population in a state of perpetual servitude. In this context, the types of discrimination faced by depressed or scheduled caste leaders like jogendranath mandal were not the same as those experienced by Ambedkar in Maharastra.
In Bengal the list of scheduled castes included not only the 'untouchables' but also several Ajalchal castes ritually ranked a step above them. The colonial bureaucracy enlisted communities under the Scheduled Caste grouping not much in accordance to their ritual status, but more in terms of their economic status.
Therefore, it has been argued that since the intensity of untouchability was relatively weak in Bengal, compared to some other regions of India, movements such as those demanding right of entry to temples could never become a major plank in the movement for the removal of untouchability. Therefore lower caste protest did not always demand the complete removal of untouchability. Scholars like Masayuki Usuda have argued that these movements took the form of joint efforts in which socially backward castes too participated.
The problems of untouchability and those of social ostracism were reflected in the antagonisms that prevailed between the indigent Chhotoloks (low born) and the rich Bhadraloks (men enjoying a higher status by virtue of their ritual ranking, education and other virtues) in the society. At times movements among the Bengali untouchables assumed class connotations.
However, such movements need to be analysed in two different ways. In the first place, such movements are sometimes considered as manifestations of protest against a dominant system of social organisation that sanctioned disabilities and inflicted deprivation on certain subordinate groups. On the other hand such movements, it has been argued, could be interpreted as expressions of ambitions or aspirations that sought accommodation and positional readjustments within the existing system of distribution of power and prestige. It would be worthwhile to argue that within such 'untouchable' social groups, different levels of social consciousness and different forms of political action emerged, which inevitably were incorporated within a single movement.
In Bengal, due to their socio-economic backwardness, some of the lower or 'untouchable' castes developed worldviews that were fundamentally different from that of the nationalists and this led to their alienation from mainstream politics. However within the same social movement of such ritually 'inferior' castes, there could be a convergence of different tendencies - some protestant and some accommodating. In fact, as a result of such tendencies, lower caste social protest in spite of the immense possibilities of initiating some fundamental changes in society or polity, fell far short of the cherished goals.
The Pala documents also provide some information about the untouchable castes, which were outside the frontiers of Hindu society. In the list containing the names of the beneficiaries of landgrants in the Pala copperplates, high governments officials were immediately followed by Brahmans, who in turn were followed by various peasant communities. In fact, there was no reference either to the Ksatriyas or the Vaishyas. But, beyond such social groupings there were several other groups who were referred to as Medh, Andhra and Chandalas.
The Chandalas were considered to be the lowest of all the social groupings. Social commentators like Bhabadeva Bhatta have referred to them as an AntyajaJati. In several charya songs information about several other low castes such as Doms or Dombs, Chandalas, Shabaras and Kapalikas have also been found. In some medieval texts it has been pointed out that contact of Brahmans with such lower castes was forbidden.
*****************************************************************************************
Palash Biswas, writes from Kolkata, India. E Mail : palashbiswas_kl@rediffmail.com
Meanwhile, the original citizenship Act of 1955 has been changed by a new act called Dual citizenship Act enacted last year with the objectives: preventing grant of Indian Citizenship to illegal migrants; grant of dual citizenship to foreigners of Indian origin and compulsary registration with issue of National identity card for all citizens of India.This new Act declares the government stand to deport all illegal migrants.This anti refugee Act was passed in the parliament with general consensensus. The SC/St MPs from Bengal also supported the bill bowing to respective party whip.
The new act has abolished the right of citizenship by birth. Any person who has crossed the border after 18th july 1948 without valid passport and visa is considered illegal migrants.
The East Bengal refugees, even rehabilated in fifties, have not been granted citizenship as have been the refugees coming from West Punjab. The Bengali leadership never demanded citizenship for the refugees. BJP leaders and CPIM leaders in bengal speak in the same language about the Bengali refugees. Thirteen lac names have been deleted in Bengal in the last assembly elections as the concerned persons could not prove their Indian nationality.
The situation is very grave as it is seen in the pilot project of national identity card in Murshidabad district in West Bengal. More than ninety percent of the population could not present the required documents to prove their citizenship. Elsewhere in the country, refugees and even the indian Bengali citizens in non Bengali states staying for employment are being deported. Rehabilated in fifties, the Dandakaranya refugees in Orrissa have been served the notice to leave India. In Orrissa the registration of new born babies in the refugee families are being denied birth certificates.
East Bengal refugees have been discriminated and victimised as nintey percent of them belongs to scheduled castes . In Chhattisgargh itself twenty two of total twenty six lac Bengali refugees belong to Namashudra caste. It is the same story elsewhere ,more or less. Other prominent refugee caste is the dalit Paundra, Pods, who are considered as par as the Namashudras.
We have to know the social equation of erstwhile Bengal to understand the Bengali leadership behaviour. It is well known that Indian Dalit movement is rooted in East Bengal as well well as in Maharashtra. Namoshudra leader Jogendra Nath Mandal led the Dalit movement in Bengal.
Mandal was responsible to send Ambedkar,defeated in Maharashtra, to the constitution assembly. Thus Hindu Dalit amjority areas like Jassore, Faridpur, Barishal and Khulna were included in Pkistan which destroyed the Dalit movement base in India. The Dalit refugees had been scattered all over in india with an objective to annihilate the main dalit foce like Namashudra and Paundras.
Specific lower castes, or 'Scheduled Castes' (as they were known in British Indian official parlance), who lived in the border areas between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the West Bengal state of the Union of India. They maintained since the early twentieth century their distance from high caste Hindus and their politics and, often in alliance with Muslims, opposed them actively.
The Namasudras who were earlier known as Chandals (a term derived from the Sanskrit chandala, a representative term for the untouchables) lived mainly in the Eastern districts of Bengal. According to the census of 1901, more than 75 percent of the Namasudra population lived in the districts of Bakerganj, Faridpur, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Jessore and Khulna.
Moreover, it has also been pointed out in several studies that a contiguous region comprising northeastern Bakerganj, southern Faridpur and the adjoining Narail, Magura, Khulna and Bagerhat districts contained more than half of this caste population. It was the Matuya leader Harichand Thakur who led the movement to abolish the foul noun for the dalits and the British Governmet prohibited calling anyone Chandal. The Chandals became Namashudra.
But the independence with partition of Bengal which ultimately came in the midnight of 14-15 August 1947 did not help the Scheduled Caste masses, as they feared. The caste hindu ruling class captured the statepower replacing Brtish. Many prominent groups like the Namasudras and the Rajbansis lost their territorial anchorage and, contrary to their hopes and in spite of their pleas, most of the Namasudra-inhabited areas in Bakarganj, Faridpur, Jessore and Khulna, like the Rajbansi areas of Dinajpur and Rangpur, went to East Pakistan, instead of West Bengal.
The post-partition violence, as F.C. Bourne, the last British Governor of East Bengal reported in 1950, left many of them with "nothing beyond their lives and the clothes they stand up in".
This compelled many of them to migrate as refugees to India, where being uprooted from their traditional homeland they had to begin once again their struggle for existence. The national leaders like Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad , Sardar Patel and others assured the partition victims everypossible assitance and rehabilatition.
The two most important communities which dominated Scheduled Caste politics in colonial Bengal were the Namasudras and the Rajbansis. The Namasudras, earlier known as the Chandals of Bengal, lived mainly in the eastern districts of Dacca, Bakarganj, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Jessore and Khulna. When these districts were ceded to East Pakistan, the inhabitants were forced to migrate across the new international boundary to the state of West Bengal in India.
At the same time, a section of the Kochs of northern Bengal, living in the districts of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and the Princely state of Cooch Behar, came to be known as the Rajbansis from the late nineteenth century. Of those districts, Rangpur and parts of Dinajpur went to East Pakistan, while the rest remained in West Bengal.
In other words, so far as the Namasudras and the Rajbansis were concerned, the international political boundary that came into existence in 1947 did not correspond by any means to ethnic boundaries, and resulted in the uprooting of these two groups of people from their territorial anchorage.
Incidentally, according to the 1901 Census, the Rajbansis and the Namasudras were the second and third largest Hindu castes respectively in the colonial province of Bengal.Both of these two groups were considered untouchables among the Hindus of Bengal. Although untouchability per se was not as limiting a problem in this as in other parts of India, the Namasudras and the Rajbansis suffered from a number of disabilities, which created a considerable social distance between them and the high caste Bengalis who dominated Hindu society.
Hence, when as a result of land reclamations in eastern and northern Bengal in the late nineteenth century, these two groups of people both experienced some amount of vertical social mobility, they proposed creating their own distinctive community identities.
As the Hindu nationalists began to invoke a glorious Hindu past as an inspiration for nation building, these people at the bottom of the social hierarchy began to look at the present as an improvement over the darker past. They regarded British rule as a good thing, seeing it as having overthrown the codes of Manu and establishing equality in an otherwise hierarchical society. The nationalist movement, therefore, appeared to them to be an attempt to put the clock back - an endeavour by the higher castes to restore their slipping grip over society.
In 1906, a Namasudra resolution stated very clearly that "simply owing to the dislike and hatred of the Brahmins, the Vaidyas and the Kayasthas, this vast Namasudra community has remained backward; this community has, therefore, not the least sympathy with them and their agitation ...".
In 1918 the Namasudras and the Rajbansis in a joint meeting demanded unequivocally the principle of "communal representation" to prevent "the oligarchy of a handful of limited castes". And when this was finally granted in the Communal Award of 1932, the leaders of both these communities greeted it as "a political advantage unprecedented and unparalleled in the constitutional history of India".
But Gandhi, anxious to maintain the political homogeneity of the Hindu community, stood in their way. When Ambedkar finally succumbed to his moral pressure to sign the Poona Pact, the Rajbansi and Namasudra leaders condemned it as "Dr Ambedkar's political blunder"; for, by taking away the privilege of a separate electorate, it "ultimately led ... to the political death of millions of people at the hands of the so-called caste Hindus".
Sometimes this alienation took the form of violent confrontation, particularly as the Namasudra peasants got involved in bazaar looting, house breaking and, in alliance with the Muslims, socially boycotting the high caste Hindus. In the case of the Rajbansis, passivity was the more dominant form of expression of their alienation, although from time to time they too participated in shop looting and no-rent campaigns against their high caste zamindars.
It should be noted that in undivided Bengal, the Zamidars belonged to Brahmin and kayasth communities whereas the peasants were muslims and dalits. Thus the dalit muslim allaince was a normal and scientific result of economic political tention in Bengal. It further resulted in the rise of Muslim League politics in Bengal as it was considerd as the best expression of revolt by Muslim peasants against caste hindu Zamindars. The dalit peasnt communities like Namashudra, Rajbanshi and Paundras saw nothing wrong in it.
Since the early years of the twentieth century both the Namasudras and the Rajbangshis sent requests to the colonial bureaucracy to bring them under the orbit of preferential treatment. Apart from extending preferential treatment to them in matters of education and employment, sympathies were also sought from the colonial bureaucracy over matters related to political participation.
While the position of the Namasudra and Rajbangshi elite in the local bodies showed signs of improvement, their representation in the provincial legislature was still negligible. But more importantly, in order to gain special political privileges, the lower caste elite consciously advocated an anti-Congress and pro-British stance.
At the same time, the lower caste elite, particularly the Namasudras who had actively opposed the swadeshi movement of the Congress, favoured a blatantly separatist line in the wake of the constitutional proposals of the 1910s and 1920s seeking greater devolution of power among various Indian groups. Almost immediately after the Mont-Ford proposals, the Rajbangshi and Namasudra elite pressed for greater representation for depressed communities in Bengal. As a result of these demands, the Reform Act of 1919 provided for the nomination of one representative of the depressed classes to the Bengal Legislature.
The peasants of these Bengali Dalit castes refrained from participating in Congress-led mass political agitations like the Non-Co-operation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements, led by Gandhi, because they were under the hegemony of the caste Hindu leaders. And then, finally, in the election of 1937 both Namasudra and Rajbansi voters rejected the Congress and the Hindu Sabha candidates and elected their own caste leaders in all the Scheduled Caste reserved constituencies.
The process of alienation seemingly came to a conclusion with Dr B.R. Ambedkar forming the All India Scheduled Caste Federation in 1942 and declaring that "the Scheduled Castes are distinct and separate from the Hindus ...". The following year, its Bengal branch was started by a few enthusiastic Namasudra and Rajbansi leaders, their avowed political goal being to establish "the separate political identity" of the Scheduled Castes.
After the election of 1937, when the leaders of the Namasudra and Muslim communities were coming to a political adjustment and the first coalition ministry under Fazlul Huq had started functioning smoothly, their followers in the eastern Bengal countryside got involved in a series of violent riots in Faridpur, Mymensingh and Jessore between February and April 1938.
Though rioting had been entirely due to local initiative of the peasants of the two communities over such issues as disputes over cattle or demarcation of land, the Hindu Sabha decided to take up the issues and make them items for a propaganda campaign. In an organised way rumours were spread, particularly in Jessore, that temples had been desecrated and images broken and an Assistant Secretary of the organisation was sent to the troubled area to conduct an enquiry on the spot. Religious emotions were thus fermented in a conflict which initially had nothing to do with religion
At a meeting at Agra in March 1946, Ambedkar had announced his support for the League demand, "Muslims are fighting for their legitimate rights and they are bound to achieve Pakistan". About a month later, in a press interview, he justified his demand for separate villages for the Scheduled Castes. This would not amount, he thought, to an encroachment on the rights of any other party.
There were large areas of cultivable waste land lying untenanted in the country which could be set aside for the settlement of the Scheduled Castes. The echoes of this demand could be heard from distant places. In the Central Provinces some of the Scheduled Castes started talking vaguely about a 'Dalistan'; and in northern Bengal a few Rajbansis, supported by the Scheduled Caste Federation leader Jogendranath Mandal, raised the demand for 'Rajasthan' or a separate Rajbansi Kshatriya homeland.
But the majority of the Scheduled Castes in Bengal, the Rajbansis included, seemed to be on the exactly opposite pole. Their responses to the partition issue clearly show that they had completely identified themselves with Hindu sentiments and apprehensions on this matter.
In Bengal Eaton shows that those from whom. Muslim converts were largely drawn—Rajbansis, Pods, Chandals, Kuchs, etc .Significantly, there was hardly any major social movement in Bengal between the tenth and the fifteenth century aimed at the elevation of the Antyaja jatis in the Hindu social scale. Only in 19th century, Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur of Orakandi changed the scenerio with Matuya Dharama denying Brahminical Hindu religion.Matuya Hindu religious community, founded by Sri Sri harichand thakur of Gopalganj.
The word 'matuya' means to be absorbed or remain absorbed in meditation, specifically to be absorbed in the meditation of the divine.The Matuya sect is monotheist. It is not committed to Vedic rituals, and singing hymns in praise of the deity is their way of prayer and meditation. They believe that salvation lies in faith and devotion. Their ultimate objective is to attain truth through this kind of meditation and worship. They believe that love is the only way to God.
Under the influence of certain liberal religious sects, a sense of self-respect developed among the Namasudras. In fact, these liberal as well as radical sects under the leadership of charismatic gurus like Keshab Pagal or Sahalal Pir challenged the hierarchic Hindu caste system and preached a simple gospel based on devotion (bhakti) and spiritual emotionalism (bhava). In 1872-73, the Namasudras under the leadership of Dwarkanath Mandal, tried to bolster their self-esteem by undertaking a social and economic boycott of the upper castes. The failure of this movement led to the establishment of the Matua sect - an organised religious sect under the influence of Sri Harichand Thakur and his son Sri Guru Chand Thakur.
The namashudras joined the Matuya Dharam. Which Was a social reform movement altogether. Harichand and Guruchand Thakur emphasised on education. Guruchand Thakur established thousands of eductional institutions. The Matuya have no distinctions of caste, creed, or class. They believe that everyone is a child of God.
The Matuya believe that male and female are equal. They discourage early marriage. Widow remarriage is allowed. They refer to their religious teachers as 'gonsai;' both men and women can be gonsai. The community observes Wednesday as the day of communal worship. The gathering, which is called 'Hari Sabha' (the meeting of Hari), is an occasion for the Matuya to sing kirtan in praise of Hari till they almost fall senseless. musical instruments such as jaydanka, kansa, conch, shinga, accompany the kirtan. The gonsai, garlanded with karanga (coconut shell) and carrying chhota, sticks about twenty inches long, and red flags with white patches, lead the singing.
In fact, there was hardly any case of social mobility among them, and for the great majority of the population comprising essentially the lower castes, the major sources of social mobility remained inaccessible. Prolonged pursuit of a particular occupation for generations in the absence of alternative job opportunities naturally gave rise to strict social conventions, which in the traditional context were overlaid with rituals. Some details relating to the lower castes in Bengal can be highlighted. Lower Caste Movements efforts to obliterate the social backwardness of some groups or communities in the society.
Bengali society throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries remained broadly divided into the Hindu and Muslim communities. In that sense, the inner divisions of the Hindu society tended to be perfunctory. Thus, the social scenario in Bengal betrayed features quite different from those in Central India and some parts of the Deccan, where the Muslim population was relatively small as a result of which the anti-Brahmin movements thrived there.
The forms of discrimination against the untouchables in Bengal differed from that in Maharastra or South India. In Bengal, caste rigidities were never strong enough to keep the untouchable population in a state of perpetual servitude. In this context, the types of discrimination faced by depressed or scheduled caste leaders like jogendranath mandal were not the same as those experienced by Ambedkar in Maharastra.
In Bengal the list of scheduled castes included not only the 'untouchables' but also several Ajalchal castes ritually ranked a step above them. The colonial bureaucracy enlisted communities under the Scheduled Caste grouping not much in accordance to their ritual status, but more in terms of their economic status.
Therefore, it has been argued that since the intensity of untouchability was relatively weak in Bengal, compared to some other regions of India, movements such as those demanding right of entry to temples could never become a major plank in the movement for the removal of untouchability. Therefore lower caste protest did not always demand the complete removal of untouchability. Scholars like Masayuki Usuda have argued that these movements took the form of joint efforts in which socially backward castes too participated.
The problems of untouchability and those of social ostracism were reflected in the antagonisms that prevailed between the indigent Chhotoloks (low born) and the rich Bhadraloks (men enjoying a higher status by virtue of their ritual ranking, education and other virtues) in the society. At times movements among the Bengali untouchables assumed class connotations.
However, such movements need to be analysed in two different ways. In the first place, such movements are sometimes considered as manifestations of protest against a dominant system of social organisation that sanctioned disabilities and inflicted deprivation on certain subordinate groups. On the other hand such movements, it has been argued, could be interpreted as expressions of ambitions or aspirations that sought accommodation and positional readjustments within the existing system of distribution of power and prestige. It would be worthwhile to argue that within such 'untouchable' social groups, different levels of social consciousness and different forms of political action emerged, which inevitably were incorporated within a single movement.
In Bengal, due to their socio-economic backwardness, some of the lower or 'untouchable' castes developed worldviews that were fundamentally different from that of the nationalists and this led to their alienation from mainstream politics. However within the same social movement of such ritually 'inferior' castes, there could be a convergence of different tendencies - some protestant and some accommodating. In fact, as a result of such tendencies, lower caste social protest in spite of the immense possibilities of initiating some fundamental changes in society or polity, fell far short of the cherished goals.
The Pala documents also provide some information about the untouchable castes, which were outside the frontiers of Hindu society. In the list containing the names of the beneficiaries of landgrants in the Pala copperplates, high governments officials were immediately followed by Brahmans, who in turn were followed by various peasant communities. In fact, there was no reference either to the Ksatriyas or the Vaishyas. But, beyond such social groupings there were several other groups who were referred to as Medh, Andhra and Chandalas.
The Chandalas were considered to be the lowest of all the social groupings. Social commentators like Bhabadeva Bhatta have referred to them as an AntyajaJati. In several charya songs information about several other low castes such as Doms or Dombs, Chandalas, Shabaras and Kapalikas have also been found. In some medieval texts it has been pointed out that contact of Brahmans with such lower castes was forbidden.
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Palash Biswas, writes from Kolkata, India. E Mail : palashbiswas_kl@rediffmail.com
উন্নয়ন, বিভাজন ও জাতি : বাংলায় নমশূদ্র আন্দোলন, ১৮৭২-১৯৪৭
Posted by bangalnama on August 31, 2009
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