There is a story in the Valmiki Ramayana. One day the Brahmins brought the body of a child from their community to Lord Ram’s court. They wailed that there must be a dharma happening somewhere in his kingdom. Perhaps a Shudra was doing tapasya. Why else would a Brahmin boy drop dead suddenly? They urged Ram to uphold dharma. The king went looking and in a dense forest found a boy chanting Sanskrit mantras. Ram asked him who he was and what he was doing. The boy answered, his name was Shambuka, he was a tribal and he was doing tapasya. Immediately afterwards, an arrow from Ram’s bow pierced Shambuka’s heart. As the tribal boy hit the ground, the Brahmin boy woke up.
This story in the Valmiki Ramayana comes true every few years, when a Shudra, Dalit or tribal student, who dares to seek education, pays with his life. Several cases are reported on newspapers about the harassments and humiliations Dalit and other students from backward classes suffer in the schools and colleges all over India. Dalit students P Senthil Kumar in 2008, Rohith Vemula in 2016 and Payal Tadvi in 2019 took their lives as they were victimised by the persons of upper castes. The most recent case was of a nine-year-old Dalit boy from Surana village of Jalore district in Rajasthan, Indra Meghwal, studying in Class III at Saraswati Vidya Mandir, who allegedly drank water from a pot reserved for his upper-caste teacher. His teacher Chail Singh who saw him drinking the water from this casteist earthen pot thrashed him mercilessly on July 20 which led to his death on August 13 just before India’s 75th year of Independence. The Constitution of India solemnly declares India as a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic and the people of India resolve to secure to all its citizens equality of status and opportunity; and to promote among them all. So how can a school in ‘Independent’ India have a pot of drinking water reserved for upper castes only and from which students of lower castes cannot drink or even touch it?
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The Chief Architect of Indian Constitution Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar who was extremely concerned with the plight of the Scheduled Castes himself was a victim of caste discrimination. His family belonged to the untouchable caste of Mahars in Maharashtra. Bhimrao and his elder brother started schooling at Satara. There they suffered untold humiliations due to the stigma attached to their caste. When thirsty they could not just go to the tap to drink water as they were not allowed to touch it. The school peon would pour water into their upturned mouths from atop; making sure that the water pot would not touch their unholy bodies. No other person would pour water for them.
Once when Bhimrao was found drinking water from a public tap he was thrashed badly. Later he described the agony of his school days in his essay “No Peon, no water.” India has made much progress in the scientific, economic and technological field but has failed in the social and human relationships. Dr Ambedkar said: “Political democracy has been achieved by the freedom struggle and take over from the British, but social democracy is far away.”
