Dalit Panthers Manifesto
(Bombay, 1973)
Revolutionary stand of the Panthers
Today we, the 'Dalit Panthers',
complete one year of our existence. Because of its clear revolutionary
position, the 'Panthers' is' growing in strength despite the strong resistance
faced by it from many sides. It is bound to grow because it has recognized the
revolutionary nature and aspirations of the masses with whose smiles and tears
it has been bound up since its inception. During last year, motivated attempts
have been made, especially in the far corners of Maharashtra, to create
misunderstandings about our members and our activities. Misconceptions about
the objectives of the 'Panthers', about our commitment to total revolutionary
and democratic struggles, and about its policies, are being spread. It has,
therefore, become necessary clearly to put forward our position.
Because, 'Panthers' no longer
represent an emotional outburst of the dalits. Instead, its character has
changed into that of a political organization. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar always
taught his followers to base their calculations about their political strategy
on deep study of the political situation confronting them. It is necessary and
indispensible for us to keep this ideal before us. Otherwise we might mistake
the back of tortoise for a rock,' and may be drowned in no time.
The present Congress rule is
essentially a continuation of the old Hindu feudalism which kept the Dalits
deprived of power, wealth and status for thousands of years. Therefore, this Congress
rule cannot bring about social change. Under pressure of the masses it passed
many laws but it cannot implement them. Because the entire state machinery is
dominated by the feudal interests, the same hands who, for thousands of years,
under religious sanctions, controlled all the wealth 'and power, today own most
of the agricultural land, industry, economic resources and all other
instruments of power. Therefore, in spite of independence and the democratic
set-ups, the problems of the dalits remain unsolved. Untouchability has
remained intact. It remains intact because the government did not do anything
to eradicate it except passing some laws against it. To eradicate
untouchability, all the land will have to be redistributed. Age-old customs and
scriptures will have to be destroyed and new ideas inculcated. The village
organization, the social organization, peoples' attitude - all these will have
to be restructured to suit true democratic objectives. We must pay attention to
the objective process of the power that imprisons the dalit and which has
succeeded in making him tie his own hands. The Hindu feudal rule can be a
hundred time more ruthless today in oppressing the dalits than it was in the
Muslim period or the British period.
Because this Hindu feudal rule
has in its hands all the arteries of production, bureaucracy, judiciary, army
and police forces, in the shape of feudal, landlords, capitalists and religious
leaders who stand behind and enable these instruments to thrive. Hence the
problem of untouchability of the dalits is no more one of mere mental slavery.
Untouchability is the most violent form of exploitation on the surface of the
earth, which survives the ever-changing forms of the power structure. Today it
is necessary to seek its soil, its root causes. If we understand them, we can
definitely strike at the heart of this exploitation. The oppression of dalits
still exists despite the lives and work of our two great leaders - Jotiba Phule
and Babasaheb Ambedkar. It is not only alive, it is stronger. Hence, unless we
understand and give shape to the revolutionary content latent in the
downtrodden lives of the untouchables, not a single individual seeking a social
revolution would be able to remain alive in India.
Truly speaking, the problem of
dalits, or scheduled castes and tribes, has become a broad problem, the dalit
is no longer merely an untouchable outside the village walls and the
scriptures. He is untouchable, and he is a dalit, but he is also a worker, a
landless labourer, a proletarian. And unless we strengthen this growing
revolutionary unity of the many with all our efforts, our existence has no
future. The dalit must accordingly accept the sections of masses, the other
revolutionary forces as part of his own movement. Only then will he be able to
fight his enemies effectively. If this does not take place, we shall be
condemned to a condition worse than slavery. We must develop and help this
consciousness ripen every year, every month, day, hour and every moment. Then
alone shall we possess the right to be called human beings at all. It was for
this that Dr. Ambedkar made us realize our humanity even in our state of
beast-like exploitation. We should, to be successful, accept and understand a
thing only after deep study, with a calm mind. We should not fall prey to
slogans and outbursts. We must uproot the varna system, the caste system that
enslaves us in its snares. The soil in which it survives and grows must be made
infertile. We must understand that the caste nature of the term dalit is
breaking down.
What has the government done for the dalits?
When India obtained Independence
in 1947, the face of the administrative class changed. In the place of the
king's prime minister came the 'people's representative'. In the place of the Vedas,
Upnishands, Manusmriti and Gita, came the Constitution. On a blank page,
independence, equality, brotherhood proliferated. From 1947 to 1974 is a long
period of time. In these 27 years the Congress government, turning the freedom
struggle into its own capital, has been ruling with a monopoly. Four five-year
plans, five general elections and three wars have gone by in this
post-independence 'coming of age'. But the problems and needs of the dalits, of
the entire population, have been kept in a sort of deep freeze by the
government.
Beyond preserving state power in
its hands, the government has done nothing else. On the contrary, by raising
slogans of people's rule, of socialism, 'garibi hatao' (eliminate poverty), and
green revolution, it has crushed the dalits, the landless, poor peasants and
the working class under its feet. Gambling with their lives, tempting a handful
amongst them, the government tried persistently to endanger their very
existence. Using divisive tactics that split people along religious, caste and
other lines, they endangered the very integrity of democracy. In a democracy
where men cannot exercise self-respect, well-being and an importance to their
lives, where men cannot develop his individuality and his society, where those
who with their blood wet every grain of the country's soil have to starve,
where men have to forgo the land under their feet, the roof over their heads,
where the upright have to break down and fall, where men have to see their
mothers and sisters raped, in such a democracy, independence cannot be called
true independence.
The struggle for independence was
a struggle under the leadership of national capitalists, landlords, feudal, for
their own benefit. It was not under the leadership of the people, or of the Dalits.
And Dr. Ambedkar had always said that it should be of the latter. That man
called Gandhi in whose hands the leadership of the struggle rested, was
deceitful, cunning, an orthodox casteist and one who gave shelter to those who
wanted to preserve class rule. Merely to preserve the unity of the Independence
struggle, he flirted with problems of the Dalits, of untouchability, of the
people. And that is why Babasaheb (Ambedkar) called him, time and again, the
enemy of the people, the villain of the nation. Babasaheb used to say, Gandhism
means preservation of religious authority, Gandhism means traditionalism,
Gandhism means casteism, Gandhism means preservation of traditional divisions
of labour, Gandhism means incarnationism, Gandhism means the holy cow, Gandhism
means worship of images, Gandhism means an unscientific outlook.
The British gave up their rule
because of the seamen's mutiny, the emergence of the Azad Hind army, because of
the struggles of the peasants, workers and dalits. Because of these they could
no longer remain in power. Giving independence to Gandhi and Gandhians meant
that the British wanted their own interests in the country to be looked after.
This was the sort of borrowed independence we got. True independence is one
that is snatched forcibly out of the hands of the enemy. One that is like bits
thrown to a helpless beggar is no independence. In every house and every mind
the flame of true independence has to be ignited. This did not happen. That is
why the DaIit, the worker, the landless and the poor peasant did not become
free; the muck at the bottom of the pond remained where it was and, in fact,
the government that retained the status quo kept on telling bigger and bigger
lies to the Dalits.
What have other parties done for the dalits?
The left parties, having fought
five elections, have grown bankrupt. They are now interested in moving from
election to election. In 1967, the Left parties united against the Congress.
There was such opportunism in the united front that parties like the communists
joined hands with communalist parties such as Jan Sangh and Muslim League. In
some states, Left united fronts came to power. But the absence of a clear cut
programme made the anti-Congress stand useless. In the task of putting some
alternative before the people, of solving the problems of the dalits, of
establishing the rule of the poor in the country, all the Left parties proved
powerless. As a result, revolutionary people's groups lost faith in electoral democracy.
Uprisings like Naxalbari took place and the spark spread around the country. With
the 1972 elections, things came back to square one. The Congress sat like a
beast on the heads of the dalits, of the people; famine struck, the very livelihoods
of crores of people were uprooted, animals perished. Factories were shut down,
workers faced unemployment, everyone was harassed by the mounting price rise. The
full eclipse that Congress rule represents for the life of the country has not
yet terminated. But our Left parties, playing the politics of parliamentary seats,
are still wasting time trying to get recognition from the Congress. Not one dares
to turn revolutionary to take up the problems of the people. All those Left parties
who do not possess political power have ignored questions of a social revolution.
They have not combine he class struggle with the struggle against untouchability,
have not raised a voice against cultural and social domination along with
economic exploitation. Untouchability is nothing but an extremely poisonous sort
of exploitation. This exploitative system was given birth to by Hindu feudalism
and thrives for its benefit. The framework of untouchability is simply widening
with the help of the army, the prisons, the legal system and the bureaucracy.
Under the name of highflown philosophy and liberation of the soul (moksha,
nirvana), dalits have been deprived of earthly happiness, and have been looted
of all they possess. With the industrial revolution, machines came into being.
Dalits were harnessed to the machines. But in the minds of the upper castes,
feudalism survived. Because the owners of the machines could make a profit only
by keeping the social structure intact. Only if a social revolution grips the
minds of the dalits, will there be a political revolution. If this takes place,
the upper caste, the upper class, will lose the power it possesses. The stand
that is take by the Left parties prevents the spread of revolutionary ideology
amongst the people. Because struggles really and truly meaningful to the dalits
were not conducted, dalits have grown poorer. They have had to face innumerable
atrocities.
The Republican Party and Dalit Panthers
The problems of the dalits today,
be they social, political or ethical, cannot be solved within the framework of
religion and caste. This is what Dr. Babasaheb realized after his defeat in the
1952 general elections. A scientific outlook, class consciousness and a
completely atheistic approach and fighting for humanism alone could add an edge
to the struggles of the dalits. For this purpose, Dr. Ambedkar wanted to
transfer the then-existing Scheduled Caste Federation (SCF) into a broad-based
party. This could not happen during his life time. After his death, his
'followers' simply renamed SCF as the Republican Party started to pursue
casteist politics. They never united all the dalits and all the oppressed. Above
all, they conducted the politics of a revolutionary community like the dalits
in a legalistic manner. The party got enmeshed in the web of votes, demands,
select places for a handful of the dalits and concessions. So the dalit population
scattered over the country, in many villages, remained politically where they
were. The leadership of the party went into the hands of the middle class in
the community. Intrigue, selfishness and division became rife. Destroying the
revolutionary voice of Dr. Ambedkar, these contemptible leaders made capital
out of his name and set up their beggars' bowls. This is Dr. Ambedkar's party,
they said. This is Dr. Ambedkar's flag, they said, and filled their coffers.
And thus, except the satyagraha of the landless conducted under the Dadasaheb
Gaekwad's leadership, the party did not take up any programme worth its name.
the atrocities against dalits grew endemic. In a period of one and a half
years, 1117 dalits were murdered. The land grew barren, not a drop of water was
available. Honour was violated, houses gutted, people killed. Along with the
very question of living, physical indignities grew sharper. What did the
Republican Party do? The party got caught in the net cast by a cunning
ruling-class leader like Yashwantrao Chavan. Its life perished. Unity vanished,
impotents filled the party. If we put our future in the hands of such impotent
leaders, we will forgo our very lives, and that is why today we have to
announce with deep pain that we are no blood relatives of the Republican Party.
The Dalits of the world and Panthers
Due to the hideous plot of
American imperialism, the Third Dalit World, that is, oppressed nations, and
dalit people are suffering. Even in America, a handful of reactionary whites
are exploiting blacks. To meet the force of reaction and remove this
exploitation, the Black Panther movement grew. From the Black Panthers, Black
Power emerged. The fire of the struggles has thrown out sparks into the
country. We claim a close relationship with this struggle. We have before our
eyes the examples of Vietnam, Cambodia, Africa and the like.
Who is a dalit?
Members of scheduled castes and
tribes, Neo-Buddhists, the working people, the landless and poor peasants,
women and all those who are being exploited politically, economically and in
the name of religion.
Who are our friends?
I) Revolutionary parties set to
break down the caste system and class rule.
Left parties that are left in a
true sense.
2) All other sections of society
that are suffering due to the economic and
political oppression.
Who are our enemies?
I) Power, wealth, price.
2) Landlords, capitalists,
money-lenders and their lackeys.
3) Those parties who indulge in
religious or casteist politics, and the government which depends on them.
Burning questions before dalits today
I) Food, clothing, shelter
2) Employment, land,
untouchability
3) Social and physical injustice
The struggle for the emancipation
of the dalits needs a complete revolution. Partial change is impossible. We do
not want it either. We want a complete and total revolutionary change. Even if
we want to move out of the present state of social degradation alone, we will
have to exercise our power in economic, political, cultural fields as well. We
will not be satisfied easily now. We do not want a little place in the brahmin
alley. We want to rule the whole country. We are not looking at persons but at
a system. Change of heart, liberal education, etc. will not end our state of
exploitation. When we gather a revolutionary mass, rouse the people, out of the
struggle of this giant mass will come the tidal wave of revolutions. Legalistic
appeals, requests, demands for concessions, elections, satyagraha - out of
these, society will never change. Our ideas of social revolution and rebellion
will be too strong for such paper-made vehicles of protest. They will sprout in
the soil flower in the mind and then will come forward with full force with the
help of steel-strong means.
Dalit Panther is not a mere
slogan
The way we look at our questions
is the first step to solving them. Panthers will paralyzingly attack
untouchability, casteism and economic exploitation. This social system and
state have taken maya cruel path to convert us into slaves. Turned us long back
into 'shudras'. In the present modem forms of slavery there are mental chains
of slavishness. We will try to break them. In our struggle we will become free.
Our Programmes:
1) More than 80 per cent of
India's population lives in the villages. Of those, landless peasants are 35
per cent, and 33 per cent of all landless agricultural labourers belong to
scheduled castes. (Those Dalit poor peasants who do own pieces ofland, own a
negligible amount). The question of landlessness of the dalit peasants must be
resolved.
2) Landless peasants must
immediately get excess land through the application of the Land Ceiling Act.
Waste and jungle land must likewise be distributed.
3) Feudal survivals are still to
be found in the villages. Due to this, dalits are cruelly oppressed and
exploited. Landlords and rich peasants get social prestige along with wealth.
Due to this, the atrocities on dalits have grown endemic. This system has
clamped itself on the dalit's chest, affecting every part of his life, from day
to day living to the deeper economic questions. This system must be destroyed.
4) The wages oflandless labourers
must be increased.
5) Dalits must be allowed to draw
water from public wells.
6) Dalits must live, not outside
the village in a separate settlement, but in the village itself.
7) All means of production must
belong to the dalits.
8) Exploitation by private
capital must cease.
9) Social, cultural and economic
exploitation must be removed and socialism must be built in India. Misleading
nationalization must give away to a true introduction of socialism.
10) All dalits must be assured of
daily wages.
11) Unemployed dalits must be
given unemployment benefits.
12) All dalits must be given free
education, medical facilities, housing and good quality cheap grains.
13) When giving employment in
educational institutions, the requirements to declare one's caste and religion
must be immediately removed.
14) The government must stop
giving grants to religious institutions immediately and the wealth of religious
places must be used for the benefit of dalits.
15) Religious and casteist
literature must be banned.
16) The division in the army
along caste lines must be ended.
17) Black marketeers; hoarders,
money-lenders and all those exploiting the people economically must be
destroyed.
18) The prices of essential
commodities must be refunded. We will build the organization of workers,
dalits, landless, poor peasants through all city factories, in all villages. We
will hit back against all injustice perpetrated on Dalits. We will well and
truly destroy the caste and varna system that thrives on the people's misery,
which exploits the people, and liberate the dalits. The present legal system
and state have turned all our dreams to dust. To eradicate all the injustice
against the dalits, they must themselves become rulers. This is the people's
democracy. Sympathizers and members of the Dalit Panthers be ready for the fmal
struggle of the dalits.
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