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Dalit as Deva à la Black is Beautiful

By Murthy, BS

Book Id: WPLBN0100303703
Format Type: PDF (eBook)
File Size: 175.09 KB
Reproduction Date: 7/24/2021

Title:	Dalit as Deva à la Black is Beautiful
Author:	Murthy, BS
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Non Fiction, Hinduism Today, Indian society, Dalits, Social rights, Human rights, Human dignity, Caste oppression, Harijans, Scheduled Castes, Hindu social order, , Social Sciences, Social oppression, Racism, Untouchability, Racial discrimination, Caste discrimination, lower castes, , On giving their due to the socially oppressed Hindu outcastes
Collections:	Hinduism Today, Authors Community
Historic Publication Date:	2021
Publisher:	Self Imprint

Member Page:	BS Murthy
Citation APA MLA Chicago Murthy, B. (2021). Dalit as Deva à la Black is Beautiful. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.us/

Description
Though the dalit tag affords political clout to its desperate classes as a whole, it had failed to buttress the self-worth of its disparate caste groups for in the Indian cultural calculus, caste is intrinsic to the social-worth of its members. Thus, it is imperative to cast a sense of caste-worth in the dalit fold in the ‘Black is Beautiful’ mould for the collective moral upliftment of its member castes. But self-belief being the by-product of the zeal to strive and not a corollary of plucking low-hanging fruits, the system of reservations has effectually given a go-by to the zeal to excel, a vital ingredient of personality development. It is thus, the doles of the state inadvertently, but effectually, came to harm the dalit cause in the long run, and what’s worse, even the genuine dalit achievements entail a diminished stature for they come under the shadows set by low performance bars, thereby precluding their due social recognition at large. The way out, while yet retaining their quotas is for the dalits to volunteer to get their reservation bar raised to touch the prevailing positions.

Summary
Maybe, this is an opportune dalit moment for God, who could have felt slighted at their discarding Gandhi’s harijan tag but realizing at long last that they were justified in doing so, in the spirit of let bygones be bygones, had ushered in Narendra Modi to embark upon changing India’s outlook towards itself, to achieve which, he may cease his vanchit, shoshit, peedit rhetoric and instead exhort Malas, Madigas, Chamars et al to feel good about themselves. So, now it’s for the dalits to become devas, and strangely though, they can draw inspiration from the very Brahmins whom they perceive as the source of their socio-economic plight, for the so-called dwijas, the twice born, owing to their single-minded focus on acquiring knowledge above all else, could affirm ‘Brahmano mama devata’, Brahmins are Angels. So, could Dalits be Devas of a New India.

Excerpt
Though slavery was abolished in America way back in 1865, the undying discrimination against its ‘free’ Negroes remained such that even Jesse Owens, who having symbolized the U.S. sporting power in the Berlin Olympics of 1938, had to keep holding the bias end of its racial stick. Though the innate physical strength of Negro biology continued to yield sporting returns in their scores of Olympic medals that buttressed the American athletic glory, their racial plight remained the same that was till Martin Luther King Jr. came up with that historic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in 1963, as a consequence of which, the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement, meant to fight for equal rights for African Americans and a positive perception about them, took wings. And it was the ensuing self-belief of the African Americans that slowly but steadily produced Black Stars in every human endeavor to name, the acme being ‘colored’ Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the U.S. presidency. Well, all this without any constitutional provisions for positive discrimination towards them, which proves that sense of self-belief is the elixir of upliftment, and what is more, their former oppressors, who pride themselves in self-actualization, have begun to take this newfound Black Confidence in their stride, maybe with a pinch of salt.