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Subject: [India Thinkers Net]Untold Story of a Bhangi Vice-Chancellor - December08, 2004

From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Date: Wed Dec 8, 2004 10:57pm
Subject: book review

Untold Story of a Bhangi Vice-Chancellor, by Prof Shyamlal; Unversity Book House (P) Ltd, Jaipur; pages 292; price: Rs 595.
---------------------------

Shining Example of Indomitable Human Spirit, by A.K. Biswas,
http://www.mainstreamweekly.com/issue13dec/content/general18.aspThe saga of Prof Shyamlal, unfolded in the volume "Untold Story of a Bhangi Vice-Chancellor" (2001) under review, is unique in many respects. It is a shining example of the indomitable human spirit and grit that defied all overpowering adversities on his way to the ultimate goal. His tale would inspire many, particularly the deprived and degraded, who find themselves placed in similar circumstances almost all over the country because of the peculiar social and cultural notions plaguing our countrymen at large.

Notwithstanding the widespread practice of untouchability and caste-based discrimination, Indian literature cannot boast of a work even remotely comparable to the fiction, Uncle Tom???Вм?Д?s Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe???Вм?Д?s (1811-96) gripping account of brutalisation of the American Negroes under the system of slavery earned universal acclaim and stirred up noblest emotions in millions of hearts across the continents ever since its publication in 1852. Stowe???Вм?Д?s powerful depiction of the unbridled exploitation and cruelty on the victims ???Вм?Уcontributed so much to popular feeling against slavery that it is cited among the causes of American Civil War???Вм??. (1994-2001 Encyclopedia of Britannica Inc.) Its far-reaching effect is without any parallel in promoting welfare of the suffering humanity. Scotland raised ?В?? 1000 by a penny offering amongst its poorest people to help the slaves there. Many Russians freed their serfs out of pity aroused by the story. A White woman, the authoress, was the daughter of a Christian preacher.

Untouchability is far more crippling in impact and implication than slavery as well as apartheid. It propagates hatred between man and man and promotes discrimination; nonetheless it has its eloquent advocates. Without any visible sign of embarrassment or qualms of conscience, the Shankaracharyya of Puri, Swami Niranjan Dev Teerth, publicly upholds untouchability in the name of infallible scriptural sanctity. The practice of the cancer is an all-India phenomenon. The constitutional provision abolishing untouchability as also the enactment of the Protection of Civil Rights Act and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act notwithstanding, the practice of untouchability and caste-based discrimination are pretty rampant in every nook and corner of this vast country affecting the life and dignity of millions and millions of low-caste men and women, irrespective of their stations. Therefore, Indian intellectuals are lukewarm in attempting anything of the dimension of Uncle Tom???Вм?Д?s Cabin. In this view of the matter, the social histo or India remains incomplete and distorted until full and faithful accounts of the untouchables, euphemistically called dalits, are incorporated therein. Transparent goodwill and sympathy for effective action, aimed at uplift with dignity of the untouchables, is rare in the subcontinent, though tall and pretentious statements emanate too often from too many corners. So the dalit remains by and large absent, nay excluded, from the literature of the mainstream. If at all, they are portrayed in the mainstream literature as murderers, rapists, rascals, robbers, pickpockets, arsonists, anti-socials, drunkards, etc. And bereft of any human qualities. Now the dalits themselves have started a new literary movement to tell their own tales in their own language and unique styles. Their area is yet unexplored and the authors are quite incisive. The mainstream is mostly ignorant about the penetrating depth and dimension of the literature of the deprived Indians. The mainstream media, both electronic and print, are too enamoured with their own works, though much has become too hackneyed.

The total lack of interest, concern and knowledge or deliberate apathy towards the deprived section, surviving precariously at the bottom of the society, marks the literary works of the mainstream. The apathy is further demonstrated in the attitude of the mainstream media. It refuses to focus on works dealing with the life and the struggles of these people if they themselves write or document. Flimsy or untenable pretexts are advanced for refusing to review or focus in the media. Omprakash Valmiki???Вм?Д?s Joothan, Daya Pawar???Вм?Д?s Achchhyut, Lakshman Gaekoad???Вм?Д?s Uchake, and Shavankumar Nimbale???Вм?Д?s Akkarmashi, all in vernacular languages, have presented a dalit worldview unknown to the mainstream readers, scholars and writers. Main Bhangi Hun of Bhagawan Das, An Untouchable in the IAS by Balwant Singh, and Ek Jan Daliter Atmakatha of Dr Manoranjan Sarkar are in the same vein. They all have portrayed the grim realities of dalit existence through mindless exploitation and arrogance that bear no parallel anywhere under the sun. Each of the aforementioned authors was representative of the dalit society in depicting the pains, sufferings and agony, which quite strangely have failed to excite universal indignation, inspiring the Hindus in particular in a crusade against the untouchability and caste-based discrimination.

Dalit literary works???Вм???fiction, poetry, history, and autobiogrhy have been increasing by the day. Their memoirs are tales of blood-cuddling and awe-inspiring life. The autobiographers might not have achieved spectacular heights unlike their elite or privileged countrymen. But once a reader is acquainted with the extreme hostilities they encountered all through their way, there would not be any doubt that even their not-so-significant achievements would look far greater than those for whom life all along was like a picnic or a beauty pageant or a cocktail party.

Prof Shyamlal???Вм?Д?s Untold Story of a Bhangi Vice-Chancellor 00(21) u wld drive home the aptness of the proverb that truth is stranger than fiction. It appears the mainstream periodicals as yet have not reviewed the ringing autobiography. The author has very carefully avoided giving vent to his inner feelings of strong resentment at the maltreatment and humiliation his people receive every day from the society. His poignant story cries for attention of the socio-political leaders for immediate intervention for radical change and all-round improvement, else things have already gone far to retrieve. He is a representative in his depiction of the life and struggles of the underdogs at large.

What makes the Vice-Chancellor???Вм?Д?s account so important from the socio-cultural point of view? Based on his personal experiences the Vice-Chancellor, without any pretension, has demonstrated the havoc that caste played. He tells in plain but moving words the treatment he and his mother Bhanki received in the same fort where the former royalty honoured the Vice-Chancellor long later.

"I was recollecting my past, when my mother and myself where ousted from Mehrangarh fort, suffered untold hardship, endured showers of abuses because we are untouchables." The same despicable untouchable Bhangi boy, as Vice-Chancellor, was honoured by the same Royal family in the same fort. [p. 172] The rise of the Bhangi boy to the Vice-Chancellor-ship of an Indian university is no less monumental an achievement reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln???Вм?Д?s journey ???Вм?Уfrom log cabin to the White House???Вм?? consider the extremity of the perverse social situation that denies dignity for the low caste.

As a construction labourer his mother slogged for the Ummed Bhawan, which is famed to be one of Rajasthan???Вм?Д?s architectural masterpieces. Laboure came from various untouchable castes for this big project.... Everybody from my caste worked there without any wages. With its splendid dome and more than 250 furnished rooms, this is the second most commodious structure in India after the Rashtrapati Bhawan. It took nearly 13 years to complete. [pp. 7-8]

Indeed there are people who see the brighter side of slavery. They argue that had there been no slaves, the pyramids in Egypt or the Great Wall of China would not have been built. These and many other great works are the results of unpaid wages extracted from men and women in bondage. Just imagine the unfortunate Bhangi and other low-caste men and women for long 13 years were forced to work without wages for the splendid palace! Nobody, however, bothered to know how, in the face of extreme exploitation, those construction labourers kept their house-fire burning. Such harrowing experiences are an integral part of dalit life in every corner of the country. Now the sufferers are required to put them in black and white. There would no doubt be Shyamlals in scores to tell their tragic tales in every language and dialect of the country.

The education of the deprived children faces many intractable bottlenecks, finding resources being the most crucial. With unmatched determination, the author???Вм?Д?s mother put her heart and soul into her son???Вм?Д?s education. So she did what nobody would perhaps have imagined anywhere in India to pool resources in an ordinary course: ???Вм?УOur livelihood came from the work my mother did in the city. ?В?Вм?У Says the Vice-Chancellor: Public latrine were the places where always in the morning and evening all high caste men, Banias, shopkeepers, etc. Came for defecation. As soon as a Bania, trader or businessman was seen coming to the toilet, my mother requested them to wait for few minutes to provide them a neat and clean toilet and when they came out, she requested to give one anna or so. Thus she collected a few annas from which we purchased book, pencils, rubber, etc. [pp. 8-9]

A mother of mothers, she stands out unrivalled in supreme sublimity above head and shoulders over others.

An exclusive study room is moonshine for any dalit student across the country. Shyamlal presents a portrait of his study: During my school days, I realised quickly though, painfully, what the stigma of untouchability meant. There was no chance for the provision of studying and possibility of employing a tutor was beyond dream. A small Bharshali (entrance lobby) was full of domestic articles and utensils. It was smoky and crowded. Firewood was stored above head and also in one corner and in the other corner was the fireplace. The room served as a kitchen and a study room. [pp. 13-14]

After this we may just have an idea of the nutrition content of food the mother afforded for her children. There were days when we could get only one meal and that too a very dry and poor one. We could not afford milk, butter or meat. In spite of all these our family life was always happy and there was no discontentment amongst any members. [p. 10]

Could the exterior be different if the interior of the house was so unflattering? Shyamlal depicts the days of his childhood: I was the true child of untouchable bustee, where there was no drain, no light, no water and marshland, where I lived amongst the public latrines and in the stink of their dung scattered about here and there of the world where the day was like dark night and the nights pitch dark. I had wallowed in its mire, bathed in its marshes, played among its rubbish heaps and my listless, lazy manners were the results of my surroundings. I was a friend and companion of the flies and mosquitoes since my childhood. [pp. 5-6]

This was the childhood of a dalit. One, who passed the dark and dreary patch as this with no light at the end of the tunnel, could not recall anything sweet and memorable to cheer him up in later life. His pre-ordained occupational burden, its degrading environment and social hatred and taboos attached to it, made a Bhangi untouchable, uapproachable and unseeable. Society in Rajasthan ordained the Bhangis to shout: ???Вм?УPaiyas, paiyas???Вм?? (Keep distance) whenever on roads, in public places or gatherings to announce of their presence so as to warn others against pollution. Shyamlal???Вм?Д?s mother Bhanki failed to utter the prescribed warning once. ?В?Вм?УBitch,???Вм?? shouted someone, ???Вм?Уwhy didn??shout?1[p. 13]

Life drove the author to believe: Bhangi is worse off than a slave, the slave may change his master and his duties and even become free but the Bhangi is bound for ever, born into a state from which he cannot escape and where he is excluded from social intercourse. [p. 6]

Caste does not allow manumission unlike the slave. This is why caste is far worse than all other forms of deprivation known to the human society. Its face bears a divine glow and propagators include godmen. Its sanctity has been upheld for centuries by scriptures dear to the Hindus. There were Europeans like Sir George Birdwood who were over head and ears in infatuation by caste. He says: So long as the Hindus hold to the caste system, India will remain India; but from the day they break from it there will no more be India. That glorious peninsula will be degraded to the position of bitter ???Вм?УEast End???Вм?? of the Anglo-Saxon Empire. (Quoted by Jawaharlal Nehru in Discovery of India, p. 247)

The practice of untouchability towards the low castes makes the Hindus their enemies. However, the Muslims were no different. The autobiographer vouches for it: We were not allowed to fetch water from the public taps meant for caste Hindus and Muslims, as the Hindu and Muslim castes considered that if so the water could be polluted. [p. 6]

The usual refrain of many is that India has ungrudgingly accommodated all religions irrespective of their tenets or origins. The truth is that the followers of almost all other religions have internalised in full measure the vices of the Hindu caste system. Hatred for a Bhangi is a plague afflicting Muslims in common with the Hindus. They hate those whom the Hindu hates and hold in esteem these to whom the Hindu is respectful. The Christians have a full-fledged caste hierarchy. Sikhs have shown their colours only recently in Talhan village of Jalandhar district in Punjab. The Jat Sikhs committed unspeakable atrocities on the Mazhabi Sikhs, who converted from the erstwhile untouchables.

Caste is all-pervasive. It leaves nothing and touches everything in the Hindu world. From birth to death, from home to graveyard everywhere caste shows its strong presence. Shyamlal recounts the days in his school. "Although the school was a government institution, the atmosphere in the school was not free from casteism. There were some prejudices and feelings. All such insulting refusals and ill-treatment engendered in me a burning hatred for Hinduism. In my childhood days, this was the experience I met at the hands of my coreligionists, the galling humiliation and the inhuman treatment under which my whole community had been labouring for untold ages. [p. 14]

He did not speak in nebulous terms. He presents instances to substantiate his contention as a very conscientious writer. As a researcher he did not leave his statement unsubstantiated and open to allegations. Meghadutt Srimali, a ???Вм?Уvery rigid and orthodox Brahi ?Вм??Shyamlal's Sanskrit?Вмteacher in school, finds specific mention. He particularly hated the Bhangi students.???Вм?? [p.14]

During school hours, this teacher used to abuse us directly. The teacher neither touched our notebooks nor did he ever ask us to recite poems, or put questions to us for fear of being polluted. When we felt thirsty in school, we stood separately and then the school peon or a higher caste boy would kindly pour drinking water into our hands (as if through a funnel).

The high caste children were abusive but for ???Вм?Уfearing severe beating, we dared not to react???Вм??. [p. 14] In his childhood Ambedkar suffered similar discrimination and humiliation in his school. Hindus persist with their tradition with unflinching devotion.

The Bhangi students launched a campaign against the Sanskrit teacher by enlisting the support of a reputed Bhangi social worker, Narsingh Dev Gujarati, through democratic means: a complaint of harassment, insult and humiliation towards the untouchable student against the orthodox teacher was lodged with the Inspector of Schools, who set off a prompt enquiry. The erring teacher quickly reformed himself and started behaving towards his Bhangi students.

Nevertheless, Rajasthan was the pioneer in the country in having a Bhangi as the Vice-Chancellor of a university. Thanks to the unorthodoxy, foresight and enlightenment of the Governor Baliram Bhagat and Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhewat, Prof Shyamlal, Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, University of Jai Narain Vyas University (erstwhile Jodhpur University), was appointed as its Vice-Chancellor on March 1, 1996 for a three-year tenure on the recommendation of a search committee, comprising specialists of the Governor-cum-Chancellor of the universities of Rajasthan, University Grants Commission, and the Syndicate. One of the contenders for the high office even enjoyed the blessings of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Prof Shyamlal most skillfully galvanised all departments of the teaching and administration into fervid activity. He had his cupful of woes in setting things on rails through the thorny campus. Vested interests pulling the university in disparate directions made it a veritable hotbed of chaos and conflicts unfit for academic excellence and achievement. His catchwords???Вм???determination, impartiality, integrity and openness???Вм???earned him an eventful tenure as the Vice-Chancellor. He had no favourites. He was rightly unfriedly with the evil forces whose patrons were in the high echelons of the political and administrative set-ups. The author???Вм?Д?s transparency and selflessness enlisted a wide range of friends and admirers. The press appreciated his crusading zeal in transforming the university into a model one in the State. He took the bulls by the horns and did not compromise with the interests of the University.

The author considers his defining moment when he carried the Syndicate with him in approving appointment of 33 posts of Assistant Professors in the face of stiff opposition and prolonged legal battles waged by the vested interests in the university. Of these 21 Assistant Professors belonged to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This, he says, ???Вм?Уfulfilled in a way the constitutional obligation???Вм?? thrust on august body. (p. 199) He has elaborated how some arrogant elements were determined to frustrate the pious efforts of the University for enforcing reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. A coterie comprising teachers and some Syndicate members, all high-caste Hindus, claimed that they ???Вм?Уstand for the SC/ST more than???Вм?? the Vice-Chancellor or his colleagues and were committed to their cause. ?В?Вм?УTo that claim,???Вм?? say Shyamlal, ???Вм?УI can only say that it is one of the many claims, whi irresponsible people keep making, although the persons concerned with regard to those claims have been invariably denying them.???Вм?? (p. 193) The Vice-Chancellor has bluntly called the bluff. Many a "noble soul" in the past has befooled the deprived by mouthing platitudes in similar styles. But when the time for reckoning arrived, the so-called well-wishers just changed their hue and denied, nay siphoned off, the benefit meant for the deprived.

Established in 1962, the University had nineteen Vice-Chancellors including Prof Shyamlal. Only five of them completed their three-year tenure. Others, to use the local parlance, earned the unflattering sobriquet, Bhagoda Vice-Chancellors. One who runs away from the battlefield is called a bhagoda. One would perhaps recall when Prof Santosh Bhattacharyya attended his office in the Calcutta University in the 1980s as its Vice-Chancellor, The Statesman, Calcutta came out with an editorial. For most part of his tenure, Bhattacharyya could not or was not allowed to come to the University to discharge his duties. He used to attend to his work from his residence under security guards. In many parts of the country if a Vice-Chancellor can complete a full tenure he must be congratulated even if he does not or cannot do anything. Financial bankruptcy and serious irregularities, unauthorised appointments without vacancies, favouritism and nepotism, ego-clashes among the dons of the university, senseless agitation of the non-teaching staff, student unrest, backlog of examinations, innumerable cases in High and Supreme Courts, apathy for academic work on the part of many senior teachers, etc. Make the job of a Vice-Chancellor unenviable. His role is like a fire brigade, fighting always emergencies. Prof Shyamlal is a rare breed, who succeeded triumphantly.

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