The first setback to Dalit aspirations in the post-1956 Kerala came when their great expectations around the Left legislations on land relations and education collapsed at their feet, drawing a capability threshold difficult to cross. Both legislations, through their inherent weakness of caste-blind conception and insincere implementation, let them down by denying them access to adequate amount of economic and cultural resources necessary for a dignified life. The Kerala land reforms denied farming land to Dalits; and in-migration of peasants deprived adivasis of their land. Inter-generational fragmentation has splintered the small house sites they received into tinier chips of uninhabitable earth. Dispossessed and uprooted, Dalits and adivasis have been consistently marginalised and pushed out into 1.5-3 cent plots in squalid and overcrowded colonies, a condition which amounts to social segregation. While Keralam is developing, Dalits and adivasis are declining.
Matter of pride
We seem to be proud of our high literacy and the spread of universal education. But growing privatization and self-financing have turned education into an expensive commodity less accessible to Dalits. The idea of merit, measured only in terms of and in the context of capitalist development, serves as a line of control preventing Dalits from crossing.
Science and technology have a similar impact on Dalits making Smart City and similar projects into exclusionary spaces and upper caste enclaves. There are instances of Dalit students being harassed and ill-treated by upper caste students and teachers. A corollary to this is that caste does not allow Dalits to come to intellectual labour reducing their role in knowledge production to virtually nil.
Neoliberal economy
The decline of welfare economy and the ascendancy of neoliberal economy have intensified the disconnection and marginalisation of Dalits from the mainstream economy bent on creating islands of wealth rather than bringing about distributive justice. Land and capital continue to be distributed through caste channels and access to labour market is very limited for the vulnerable and marginalised sections. Dalits are nowhere in wealth creation. They cannot become capitalists. There is not even a consistent self-generating middle-class among them.
Elections are fought on the question of development which has consistently made the dominant groups stronger and the marginalised groups more oppressed and weaker. Prestigious programmes and projects such as Janakeeyaasoothranam and Kudumbasree have failed to effectively filter down to Dalits and adivasis.
How can a people develop without adequate amount of resources? A related question is that of power, which is understood as the capacity to influence the course of events in one’s favour; and this capacity depends on the resources at one’s disposal. There is a direct relation between the denial of resources and the powerlessness of Dalits and adivasis.
This is the reason why they continue to be outliers in relation to Kerala Model development. How to transfer adequate amount of resources to the disadvantaged?
Question of religion
The question of religion is a central, but an ignored one regarding Dalits. A large section of Dalits who are Christians is ignored by governments. By embracing Christianity, the slaves were taking a political position for expanding human freedom and democracy. By keeping them out of SC privileges they have been subjected to a long experience of ‘discipline and punish’. Political parties and governments have a responsibility to address this issue. The contemporary land struggles led by new Dalit social movements — Muthanga (2003), Chengara (2007), Arippa (2013) —deserve serious attention. Most of them demand farming land for Dalits and adivasis. These movements frame their struggles in the human rights framework. The DHRM is focusing on education and culture.
Keralam should seriously address the outstanding dalit issues taken up by autonomous dalit social movements. Social movements are social movements and not rival political parties. The great divide between Dalit public intellectuals and the politico-bureaucratic establishment should be done away with. Activists and academics also should be brought in and allow Dalits and Adivasis to dream their dreams because ‘the most terrible is the death of dreams’.
The author is a leading thinker on Dalit politics and culture
