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KanchaIlaiahNEW WhyIamNotaHindu - Indd
KanchaIlaiahNEW WhyIamNotaHindu - Indd
KanchaIlaiahNEW WhyIamNotaHindu - Indd
Why
I Am Not
a Hindu
A Sudra Critique of
Hindutva Philosophy,
Culture and Political Economy
se ec
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Kancha Ilaiah
KANCHA Shepherd
ILAIAH
se ec
Copyright © Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published by SAMYA, an imprint of Bhatkal and Sen, 16 Southern Avenue, Kolkata 700026,
in 1996; eighth reprint 2003.
The second edition was first published in 2005; reprinted 2007, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2017.
se ec
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My niece Rama and nephew Krishna Kanth typed the first draft
and G. Ramalingam of Osmania University keyed it on the computer.
R. Srivatsan came to our aid whenever computer technology creat-
ed
knots. In the process Srivatsan, who is a scholar himself, read
the manuscript,
gave me
much-needed
encouragement,
and offered
his valuable comments. My sister-in-law, K. Bharati, brother Kattiah
and two younger nephews K. Naresh and M. Surender helped in
several ways while I was writing this book. I thank all of them.
Preface
to
the First
Edition
xii
Introduction
xiv
fields. The only people
1
CASE LANGUAGE
festival of Ellamma who is their kuladevi (caste Goddess). For
Among all these castes what was unknown was reading the
book, going to the prayers
temple, chanting
or doing
the sandh
yaavandanam (evening worship). The Bhagavad Gita is said to
2
of
The stories
Hindu Gods
and Goddesses are full
of descrip-
tions of sexual
encounters.
The most
powerful narrative
exists
in the form of Goddess and God relations among Hindu men
art form. This does not mean they do not sing songs based on love
stories.
They
sing the love
stories
of people
around
them.
The
nar-
rative is basically secular. Yet another big difference between the
family
life
ofthe Hindus
and the
Dalitbahujan castes
is that
the Hin-
dus make sex a leisure-bound divine activity whereas among the
3
of
recitation
of
that
divine
word.
The
Brahmin
mind—male and
power. They think that since political power has come to them up
4
somewhat visible, were the Shalaas (weavers) who were in the cloth
We were always told only about Gandhi, Nehru, Subhas Chandra
The philosophical
perception of
a
liberal leader
Hindu and a
Communist Hindu leader about the Dalitbahujans is similar to that
the
the
5
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
Brahma’s wife is known as Saraswathi, which also means learning.
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
Pochamma is the most popular of Dalitbahujan Goddesses in
Andhra (I
Pradesh am sure
a Dalitbahujan
Goddess
with
similar
characteristics exists all over India). Near every
village, there is a
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
wooden
frame
with
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
style.
I have
Hindu Gods and Us: Our Goddesses and Hindus
6
(i) (ii)
Vatsyayana-type
7
What are
the
implications
of Dalitbahujan
collective con-
sciousness? Everything—good or bad—that takes place within
physical and mental skill. Tapping the gela in a way that
makes
the
toddy
but does
not hurt
the
tree,
cannot
be
done by
Commission Report.
the future.
Brahminism
saying: ‘A dissatisf ied pig is better than a satisf ied man.’ Particularly
fire
Hindutva
base
of society,
civil
hence
their
soul
and
self acquired
a
definite
historicity. Hinduism distributed socioeconomic and political p
ower
among the
Brahmins,
Baniyas
and
Kshatriyas.
The ‘feet-born’ Sudra/
OBCs have been relegated into a philosophical oblivion.
writings.
American-born,
Hinduism
from
clear
form,
class ideology
also
will not form
on
proper
methodo
logical foundations.
Nagaraj
seemed
to have searched
for
soft
options for repo
si
tioning caste
relations within
Hinduism
and
making
it a
before
scientific
conflict
led by the organic
Shourie
first
Rama
worshipping
Dalitbahujan
Dalitbahujan
Jyotirao Phule
is at work.
.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd recently retired as Director, Centre for
Study
the
of Social
Exclusion and
Inclusive
Policy,
Maulana Azad
National Urdu
University,
Hyderabad. He is Chairmanof
Telangana
Mass and Social Organizations (T-Mass) that works for English-
medium education. He has helped to build up Dalit-Bahujan and civil
liberties movements in India. He received the Mahatma Jyotirao
PhuleAward,
2000.
His paper
‘Experience as Framework
of Debate’,
which
in
appeared the Economic
and Weekly,
Political
set
up
new
terms for thedebate
on the
reservation policy
during theanti-
Mandal struggle in 1990. His contributions have appeared in
Economic and Political Weekly, Frontier and Mainstream, and in
major national English dailies like The Hindu, The Times of India,
Times, The Indian Express, Deccan Herald and Deccan
Hindustan
He is also a regular contributor to Telugu magazines and
Chronicle.
to dailies
like
Vaartha
and Andhra Jyothi.
As his books raised a major debate in English and other regional
he wrote a book in Telugu, Manatatwam (Our Philosophy),
media,
which productive
put the Dalit-Bahujan
philosophy in
a new
per-
spective. The book became
an ideological
weapon
among
Dalit-
Bahujan and Left circles in Andhra Pradesh. Among his books are
the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Time and
Turning
The Weapon
of the
Other:
Dalit-Bahujan Writings
and the Remaking
of Indian Nationalist Thought.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd was a post-doctoral fellow with Dalit
Freedom Network, Denver, Colorado, 2004–2005, and as a member
of the network, he has deposed before several international com-
mittees about
the
historical
role
of caste
and
untouchability in sus-
taining a modern form of slavery in India. He was a member of the
National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) that took the
caste and untouchability issue to the UN Conference on Racism,
Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia at Durban in 2001.
Arguing forcefully for social justice, this book contains a
selection from Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd’s columns in popular
newspapers like The Hindu, the Deccan Herald, the Deccan
Chronicle, the Hindustan Times among others, and journals like
Mainstream and the Economic and Political Weekly. Among the
many issues he tackles are the right to conversion, the role of
the OBCs as providing muscle power to the Hindutva forces, the
imperative need for the spread of English amongst all castes
and for reservation quotas in education and employment,
globalization and gender.
Paperback
978-93-532-8256-1
In this book, Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd propounds a view of Gautama
Buddha as India’s first social revolutionary. Buddha did his best to
give the principles of tribal democracy and egalitarianism a
sanctuary in his own sangha. In so doing he foreshadowed modern
India’s experiment with parliamentary democracy. Critical of the
caste system, Buddha inducted low caste members into the sangha
and made them his trusted advisers. He gave women an honoured
place in the sangha. Dissent was indeed permitted, and even
Buddha was not above the law.
Paperback
978-93-532-8259-2
Ilaiah Shepherd’s evocative memoirs reveal the struggle for
education and dignity that a great majority of Indians undergo. As a
little boy herding sheep and goats, he and his brother were the first
in their family to go to school. The author writes of his long and often
interrupted journey to becoming a writer and an intellectual, without
support and having to overcome adversities. In English, this is the
first written account of growing up in an OBC family and covers
social issues that affect those regarded as the lower castes.
Paperback
978-93-81345-41-2
Writing incisively on modern India as he sees it, this Dalit writer
offers a critique of Indian society. A refugee post-Partition,
Manoranjan Byapari spent his early years in the refugee camps, lost
his sister to starvation, a brother to tuberculosis, and later became a
political criminal who narrowly missed getting murdered during the
Naxal movement. He was taught to read and write while he
was in jail by a fellow prisoner. After his release,
he went on to become not only a published author
but also a Sahitya Akademi award-winner.
Paperback
978-93-81345-13-9