Towards an Equal Society: Social Justice in the Past and Present

“Social justice is a myth”

         · “Not a place within public view, calling caste names in staffroom not an offence under SC/ ST Act: Madhya Pradesh High Court.”

 

         ·         “Two Dalit Students’ Suicides in Two Months Highlight ‘Institutionalised Discrimination’ at IITs.”

 

         ·         “At Ambedkar’s birthplace in MP, Dalit Groom Beaten for Riding Horse, Burning Crackers.”

 

         ·         “India: Dalit sisters ordered to be raped in India.”

 

They aren’t mere headlines. They are corroborations of atrocities, ‘social injustice’ and tormentations against a persecuted community. The community declared as ‘subhuman’, ‘untouchable’ and treated worse than an animal. Even if one goes by the bookish definition of Social Justice then also India never had social justice

From our National Freedom Struggle to 2024 things have been more or less the same. ‘Brahminical hegemony’ is the deciding factor of things in India. We are dealing with a country which believes that ‘caste is a personal belief’. A country like this can never and ever have social justice let alone social equality. If there is a petty amount of social justice which at least brigs such heinous crimes to surface then it’s only because of the ‘Father of Indian Constitution- BR Ambedkar.’

During our national freedom struggle when Dr. BR Ambedkar was trying to fight tooth and nail against the social evil of varna system, when he was trying to extricate his community from the trap of Hinduism then leaders like Mohandas K. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Baal Gangadhar Tilak, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, all of them belonging to oppressor caste sidelined BR Ambedkar’s approach and asked to focus only on independence of India.

The father of the nation Mohandas K. Gandhi was a staunch advocate of varna system and casteism. He believed that caste represented the genius of Indian society. At a speech at a missionary conference in Madras in 1916 he said:

The vast organisation of caste answered not only the religious wants of the community, but it answered too its political needs. The villagers managed their internal affairs through the caste system, and through it they dealt with any oppression from the ruling power or powers. It is not possible to deny the organising capability of a nation that was capable of producing the caste system its wonderful power of organisation. – The collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, 1999.

There was a lot of debate and opposition against BR Ambedkar’s ‘The Hindu Code Bill’ by leaders like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Hindu code bill has empowered the women of all caste and creeds however our Brahmin leaders were not ready to give rights to women.

According to a UN report ‘In India, 5 out of 6 multidimensionally poor are from lower tribes or castes.’

SC and ST communities have neither social nor economic equality and justice. Seems like Britishers went but they left Brahmins.

Talking about the present scenario nothing has changed much. SC and ST are still on the radar of Brahminical hegemony.

Demolition, bulldozer, rapes, incarceration, UAPA, vandalism, religious pogrom, forcing to chant religious slogans have become a new normal. 

‘Crime in India 2021’ reveals crimes against SC and St increased by 1.2 and 6.4% in 2021 with UP and MP leading the tally.’- NCRB data

“Social justice and equality are a myth”