Bringing India's castes to book

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Bringing India's castes to book

June 30, 2007

Amrit Dhillon, for The Age [Australia]

 

A Delhi publisher is challenging the way people accept a

racist caste system, Amrit Dhillon reports.

 

AS A child growing up in south India, S. Anand knew only

the rigidly orthodox world of Tamil Brahmins (known as

" Tam Bams " ).

 

His grandmother imposed strict caste rules: non-Brahmins

were not allowed in the kitchen or at the dining table and they

could not to use the same dishes as the family.

 

" I was like a frog in a well. I knew nothing outside my

community. I did not mix with other castes. My grandmother

wanted me to take my own plate to the dining hall at

university because non-Brahmin meat eaters might have eaten

off the same plate! " he says, in his office in Saket, a Delhi

suburb.

 

Later, as a journalist, Mr Anand, 33, was struck by media

indifference towards the massacres of low caste Indians -

known as " dalits " , formerly called " untouchables " .

 

His fellow journalists, on hearing about dalit women being

paraded naked through villages before being raped and burnt

- would merely shrug as though to say " what's new? " If

reported at all, the killings usually ended up as news in brief.

 

Now, Mr Anand is India's only publisher devoted exclusively

to books on caste. His company, Navayana, won the British

Council's international young publisher of the year award in

April for his pioneering work.

 

Mr Anand works with his friend and co-publisher Ravi

Kumar on filling the gap they detected in the the market. One

in six Indians is dalit but books by dalits or on dalit issues are

few.

 

" Mainstream publishers either published nothing on caste or

stuck to only one genre - autobiographies by dalits of their

terrible experiences, " says Mr Anand. " We wanted to change

the way people think about caste and create a certain

atmosphere of debate where caste issues are given due

importance. "

 

Navayana publishes provocative titles such as Dalit Diary:

Reflections on Apartheid in India by the country's only dalit

columnist, Chandra Bhan Prasad. Other publications are India

Stinking, about dalits who remove excrement from people's

homes, and Brahmins and Cricket (by Mr Anand himself) on

why Brahmins dominate Indian cricket.

 

A forthcoming title is an illustrated book for schoolchildren,

aimed at catching them young, before their prejudices

crystallise.

 

The book, Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land, conveys the

dignity of manual labour in a country where it is despised due

to the caste system's division between physical

 

and mental labour. Hindus have traditionally looked down on

manual workers such as barbers, weavers, cobblers,

carpenters, gardeners and potters - all dalits.

 

The upper castes do not get their hands dirty. They perform

mental work as priests, scholars or traders.

 

The book tries to show children that weaving cotton or

tanning leather are important skills and should not be

disrespected. Mr Anand is pleased that some schools have

shown an interest in buying the book.

 

Dalit groups are trying to persuade the UN to recognise the

caste system as a form of racism or apartheid. " It would

shame India on the world stage, " Mr Anand says. " The

Government insists that caste is an internal matter. But if the

global community recognised it as racism, India could be

asked to account for its treatment of dalits. "

 

The dalit argument equating caste with racism rests on the

segregation that is a feature of village life. Dalits are forced to

live in separate areas, banned from drawing water from the

well, and forbidden to enter temples.

 

" If that isn't segregation, what is? " Mr Anand asks.

 

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bringing-indias-castes-to-

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