Tricoloured Debutants
- Dakkaligas, lower in the caste ladder than bigger Dalit groups, feted their first I-Day this year
- The tricolour was unfurled in the Chikkanayakanahalli graveyard amid much fanfare and colour
- There are 400 households in the community of around 1,200
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As PM Manmohan Singh addressed a celebratory nation from the Lal Qila, a nomadic people in Karnataka feted their first Independence Day in the sun-kissed periphery of the Chikkanayakanahalli township in Tumkur district. The unfurled tricolour and festoonery brought an unfamiliar cheer to the few thatched huts that comprise the Dakkaliga community's camp in the five-acre graveyard that belongs to the Madiga subsect of Dalits in the town.
It may be 64 years since Independence and constitutional guarantees for the oppressed may have been in place for over 60 years now, but the Dakkaligas are still treated as 'untouchables by untouchables'—their chief tormentors are the Madiga-Dalits, with whom they claim kinship. For centuries, the popular belief has been that they are the 'adopted children' of the Madigas and have to survive by begging (in recent years, however, youngsters have taken to selling plasticware and brooms made of palm fronds in the anonymity offered by bigger towns and cities). The Madigas themselves are 'outcastes' and the Dakkaligas are further down the ladder. Which is why they dwell in the graveyard of the outcastes. When such is their deprivation and humiliation, what cause could merit such fanfare as was witnessed on I-Day?
'Independence' came late, in 2010, when due to intense pressure on the administration from good samaritans like former chairman of the state's backward classes commission, C.S. Dwarakanath, and Dr Raghupathy, a local vet, possession certificates were allotted to 19 Dakkaliga families. A first in the southern Karnataka region and no mean achievement considering some Dalit organisations had officially resisted the alienation of their graveyard land. In muncipal records, Raghupathy says, the changeover in possession of land has still not been clearly recorded.
Another cause for cheer on I-Day was the congregation of community members, who are scattered across the state, on July 23 to deliberate issues of pertinence. Here, they decided that their historic coming-together should find joyous expression in the unfurling of the national flag on August 15. The signs of organisation and mobilisation was clear at the July meet, where a survey of Dakkaliga households in 16 districts of the state was also presented. They had a clear inventory of their numbers now: 400 households and about 1,200 people.
Saluting the flag. (Photograph by Sugata Srinivasaraju)
The amateur survey, conducted by youngsters of the community, also revealed that the socio-economic situation of the Dakkaligas in north Karnataka was relatively better compared to their clansmen in the 'progressive' south. Half-a-dozen families in the northern districts had already managed to obtain government sites and caste oppression there was far less too. "There is no point in comparing ourselves with other higher castes, but Madigas in the southern districts thrash us even if we enter their colony by mistake. They think the dust on our feet causes disasters. Even politicians here don't seek our votes because the general belief is it will bring them defeat," says Shantraj, whose enterprise saw the organisation of the July meet.
"Dakkaligas are included in the SC list of Karnataka's 101 communities, but most of the benefits are cornered by the more populous communities like the Madigas and Holeyas. The other grave disadvantage this community faces is that they are a micro-minority of a few thousand, while the others number in the tens of lakhs. When Dakkaligas seek caste certificates, government officials often do not identify their community because that would mean they will eat into the reservation pie of the larger ones. And if the official happens to be a Dalit, they face greater discrimination. Also, they are educationally backward. As far as I know, there are only two BA graduates among them and they haven't found government jobs. In a democracy like ours, the numerically small are always ignored," Dwarakanath articulates.
At the meet, the major grievance aired by most Dakkaligas pertained to caste certificates. The aggrieved said they were deliberately called either 'Adi Karnataka' (a different SC community) or 'Madigas' in the caste certificates issued by the government and this was being done to deny them their constitutional rights. Maruti, of Lingasagur in the Raichur district, who holds a BA degree, says: "Sometimes, officers bluntly tell us that there is no caste called Dakkaliga. That there is only Vokkaliga (the dominant Gowda community). Our caste is not in the government's computers."
Even more shocking was the revelation at the public hearing of how prevalent the practice of 'untouchability' against the community had become in the southern districts, especially in Tumkur, Chikkaballapur, Kolar and Davangere. Sample this incident narrated by three Dakkaliga women: "A couple of months ago, a self-help group was carrying out a membership drive in Chikkanayakanahalli and was offering identity cards. We went to get ourselves photographed, but people in the queue created a ruckus and ensured that we could not enter the hall." The venue the women were denied entry to? The Ambedkar Bhavan.
Shantraj recounts what happened to him after he accidentally entered the Madiga-Dalit colony in the town to sell his plasticware six months ago: "A woman vegetable vendor grabbed hold of me by my collar in the town square the next week and claimed that after I had entered their colony, one of her relatives had died." Raghupathy terms this "repressed anger". "How else can we interpret the violence of one oppressed community against the other?" he asks.
To create a more assertive identity, the community has now initiated a search for a powerful image to represent them. "The Dalits use the photograph of Ambedkar. We will perhaps create a picture of the ram-headed Daksha Brahma (a mythological character)," says Malakappa of Yadagir district. Until they create one, they have decided to adopt Gandhi and the new graveyard colony with nineteen sites has been christened Gandhinagar. This I-Day, perhaps, was the beginning of a small reclamation effort for the Dakkaligas.
AUTHORS: SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU
TAGS: CASTE | DALITS | INDEPENDENCE DAY
SECTION: SOCIETY
PLACES: KARNATAKA
Translate AUG 20, 2011 02:31 PM 1 | Seems to be natural behaviour to opress those deemed further down the food chain. |
AUG 21, 2011 11:58 AM 2 | How rotten Indian caste culture and claims it as a great culture!! |
AUG 21, 2011 12:41 PM 3 | Caste system in general and unaccountability in particular is biggest blunder in Indian history and civilisation. Earlier we do away with it, better it is. |
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