India’s 50 Million Untouchables

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 14

India’s 50 Million Untouchables

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) i NEW DELHI. India’s 50 milion Untouchables will have to assert themselves through non - violent direct action to achieve | their place in society, according to the. Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. In his annual report fori 1969, just published in Newj Delhi, he said that, when the law and the climate of I informed public opinion inclined in their favour, “a direct non - violent assertion of their constitutional rights should not take a long time to reach a point of victory.” He went on: “The weakness in the law, or the slackness in administrative implementation, can be set right if the scheduled castes themselves straighten up their backs and are prepared, with the help of those ,who wholly identify themselves with them, to undergo 'voluntary suffering for the full enjoyment of their i rights." Untouchables, members of the lowest of five recognised castes in India, have in the past been condemned to work in the most despised occupa-tions—street-sweeping, for instance. The commissioner, Mr N. K. Bose, said there had been cases, especially in parts of West Bengal and Andhra, of landless labourers belonging to scheduled castes (Untouchables) forcibly occupying land and parcelling it out among themselves. But he said it was often the strongman, and not always the most deserving one, who secured land in this way. “Forcible dispossession of land has been leading to a kind of heightened individualism and a defiance of law from which it might be difficult to wean the peasantry, even after the ‘revolution’ has been accomplished,” he said. Mr Bose said that attempts were being made to harness genuine grievances in the i cause of radical political reforms, but it was too early to | predict whether this would | lead to the liberation of the Indian peasantry or not. Untouchability was “dying hard” in rural areas, and the custom lingered on even in hostels and colleges when students came from villages to towns for further education. In the cities, Untouchables might conceal their origins, but if it became known that a person belonged to the scheduled castes it became difficult for him to get servants, who feared they would be looked down on by their fellows for working for Untouchables. Often where caste barriers broke down between the Untouchables and the upper castes, it was found that they continued to operate—sometimes with even more rigour —among the Untouchable castes themselves. Mr Bose said: “It is perhaps harder for a member of the leather-working caste to share life on a basis of i equality with a sweeper or 1 a water-carrier than for a Savarna (upper caste) to share it with a leatherworker." He suggested that upper

I castes should take to occupations hitherto reserved for I Untouchables, such as i leather-working, and vice versa, as a means of breaking down the caste system. Looking back over the last year, the commissioner said there had been cases of sacrifice of Untouchables before I deities, and land disputes which had resulted in the burning to death of 42 Untouchables in a village in Tamilnadu. , In many villages, Untouchables were still not [allowed to use public wells, and although forced labour was banned, there was still [“bonded labour” in return for loans in more than half .the states of India. ' Mr Bose said the key to ! improving life for the backward classes lay in education —but there had been little progress over the last 17 I years. He especially urged leducation for Untouchable girls, because they would become educators of families. Mr Bose concluded that many voluntary societies were necessary to raise th* status of the Untouchables and tribal people. He commended the Bhoodon, or land gift, movement Jed by Mahatma Gandhi’s disciple, Svinoba Bhave, in 'which people gave up their i land rights for th« benefit of the community.