Police intervention at a peaceful demonstration organised by Dalit lawmakers and rights activists on August 4 has triggered a debate on the need to include provisions that guarantee Dalits’ rights in the constitution. The activists demand proportional representation of the Dalits in the central and provincial legislative and government structures. They further argue that the draft constitution has curtails the rights of the Dalits already enshrined in the Interim Constitution. The percentage of proportional representation demanded by the Dalits is far less in comparison to the volume of Dalit population, which is 13 percent.

The alleged excessive use of force by the police last Tuesday, instead of dissuading protestors, has caused the protests to grow in size and as a result, it has been widely covered by the media. Strong protests by lawmakers at the Constituent Assembly (CA) brought the Home Minister to the dock. But he justified police brutality by saying that the police used force to prevent the situation from going out of control. This is a template that every Home Minister in every government repeats. Such reply is readily available in printed form with some lines highlighted for emphasis. This rigmarole is immaterial. And it is equally risky to shift the attention from the message of the protest to other issues and let it fade after the police action debate or investigation subsides. The main issue here is that the Dalits, who comprise a significant section of the population, have been living under very harsh discriminatory conditions for ages. I would like to briefly discuss that in the following lines.

Many problems of Dalits

The above incident is only a trigger, and not a standalone occurrence. The incident received attention because it happened on the wide streets of the Capital under the glare of media cameras and because of the participation of the lawmakers. But only a fraction of the pain and inhuman treatment suffered by the Dalit community ever makes it to the press.

One strong element of the contemporary Nepali political debates is the resurgence of geographical consciousness. Maps and boundaries remain the most important elements of such a consciousness. It is based on ethno-geographical considerations. There have also been debates on ‘pure ethnicity’ and the phenomenon of hybridity. I would like to recall the arguments made by sociologist professor Chaitanya Mishra here and of those who disagree with his views of the hybrid nature of the population. I am only alluding to this debate without going into the veracity of the either side to highlight the plight of the Dalits.

Inter-caste mixing among the Dalits within and outside their communities is almost non-existent. Few half-hearted measures by the state to encourage marriage between Dalits and non-Dalits have failed and instead resulted in the banishment of Dalit boys from their villages and homes. Among the cases I cited in my convocation address of June 2013 on ‘Academic and Intellectual Discourse on Dalit’, a certain story shattered me along with a few others when the news came out. It goes like this, for marrying woman of ‘higher’ caste’ Mahendra was banished from his village after paying Rs 50,000 in the presence of the police. Mahendra’s father Bise Tiruwa said, “My son left home weeping”(Naya Patrika, May 22, 2013). Such humiliation and pain reveals the blatant violation of civic rights. It is a brazen act which flouts human rights. Many such Dalit narratives and testimonies abound.

Pretentious dialogues

The aforementioned case shows that the Dalits cannot evoke a territory or draw a map for themselves, nor can they claim to be marrying outside their community and create a hybrid community as described by sociologists. Their position remains unchanged. Such continuation of the status quo is the creation of society’s intransigent nature that merely engages in caste debates and questions privilege as an intellectual indulgence.

The National Dalit Commission defines Dalits as “those communities who, by virtue of atrocities of caste based discrimination and untouchability, are most backward in social, economic, educational, political and religious fields, and are deprived of human dignity and social justice.” The Dalit issue, therefore, demands creative, long lasting and change-oriented actions. At this stage, when the country is debating federalism, delineating borders, drawing maps and identifying people’s unique features, the Dalit issue could again get sidelined. Some Dalit leaders caution that their issues are already getting sidelined.

The demonstration by Dalit activists and lawmakers, therefore, was a historical civil rights march, a momentous occasion. The police interference and excessive use of force has brought, what remains ignored, to light. Of course, the incident should be duly investigated and culprits should be held accountable.

No longer invisible

If the issues of the Dalits and the extent of the discrimination they have suffered are not addressed while finalising the constitution, the Nepali state is bound to suffer the consequences of such historical amnesia. The Dalits themselves have come out with solution of proportional representation. It is very important because if the constitution does not address the issues of the  Dalits or if the stakeholders do not realise that the issue of the Dalits cannot immediately be solved in of the way other issues have been solved by the decisions of the four political-party, it will be stalled for ages again as feared by Aahuti in a recent essay.

I was dismayed to the read language of some political scientists who place the Dalits with the privileged Khas Aryas. This is the invisibility syndrome as mentioned by the American black writer Ralph Elision in his novel the Invisible Man. The Dalit march of August 4, however, was a very visible incident. Do not miss the message of that march.