“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
Benjamin Franklin
“यदि कोई व्यक्ति अपने धन को ज्ञान अर्जित करने में खर्च करता है तो उससे उस ज्ञान को कोई नहीं छीन सकता है।ज्ञान के लिए किए गए निवेश से हमेशा अच्छा प्रतिफल प्राप्त होता है।”
बेंजामिन फ्रेंकलिन
Cheiraoba, also known as Sajibu Nongma Panba, is a significant festival celebrated by the Meetei community that follows Vaishnav Hinduism in Manipur. This festival is considered one of the most important festivals of the northeastern state and is celebrated with great pomp and joy.
Cheiraoba is usually celebrated in the month of April and marks the beginning of the lunar new year for the Meiteis residing in Manipur and elsewhere. While the followers of Sanamahism, Meitei’s indigenous religion, celebrate it on the first day of the lunar new year, the followers of Vaishnav Hindus celebrate it on the 13th or 14th of April every year according to the solar Hindu calendar.
On this day, Meiteis clean their houses and dress up in their traditional attires to mark the occasion. Traditional cuisines such as eromba, pakora, ooti, and many more are prepared and offered to the local deity in addition to flowers and incense sticks in front of the gates. The dishes are also exchanged with neighbors.
After they consume the sumptuous meal, people visit the closest hillocks for merriment in the afternoon. According to traditional beliefs, climbing the hilltop to worship the deity on this new year of the Meiteis will usher in prosperity and help people achieve greater heights in life. This tradition has great significance as it aids in digestion after consuming a lot of food.
At night, Thabal Chongba, the Manipuri folk dance, is organized by the locals across Manipur valley as a joyous event for ushering in the much-awaited Meitei new year. It is a lively dance, which involves rhythmic clapping, and the dance itself is performed in a circle.
On Cheiraoba, women visit their paternal homes with gifts for the family’s male members. This custom is an act of repaying the gifts received by them on the day of Ningol Chakouba, a festival celebrated for the strengthening of the bond between brothers and sisters.
Bohag Bihu is a seven-day festival of joy and abundance celebrated in Assam, a northeastern state of India. It is also known as Rongali Bihu or the spring festival, which signifies the onset of the seeding season. This year, Bohag Bihu will be celebrated from April 14-20, 2023. Let us dive deeper into this colorful festival and explore its various aspects.
Rongali Bihu is celebrated over 7 days and is one of the major festivals of Assam. It is a time for joy and happiness for the Assamese community, who celebrate it with great enthusiasm. The festival is celebrated with cultural programs, feasting, and exchanging gifts among family and friends.
Garu Bihu, the first day of Bohag Bihu, is dedicated to cattle. On this day, cows and bulls are bathed and decorated with flowers and vermilion. They are also fed special meals and offered prayers.
Manuh Bihu, the second day of Bohag Bihu, involves traditional baths and delicious food. People take a bath early in the morning with special herbs and enjoy traditional delicacies like pitha, laru, and doi.
Guxai Bihu, the third day of Bohag Bihu, is dedicated to worshipping household deities. People clean their houses and offer prayers to the deities.
Taator Bihu, the fourth day of Bohag Bihu, is celebrated for handlooms. On this day, women weave new clothes and offer them to the deities.
Nangolor Bihu, the fifth day of Bohag Bihu, is dedicated to farm equipment. People clean and decorate their farm equipment and offer prayers to the deities.
GharosiaJibar Bihu, the sixth day of Bohag Bihu, is celebrated for domestic animals. People clean and decorate their domestic animals and offer them special meals.
Chera Bihu, the final day of Bohag Bihu, is celebrated with much enthusiasm. People wear new clothes, visit their friends and relatives, and exchange gifts.
Bohag Bihu celebrations are incomplete without traditional musical instruments like dhol, pepa, gogona, toka, and taal. The dhol is a large drum played with two sticks, while the pepa is a long trumpet made from buffalo horn. The gogona is a bamboo mouth organ, while the toka is a small drum played with a stick. The taal is a pair of cymbals.
On April 13 this year, Assam entered the Guinness Book of World Records by performing the traditional Bihu dance at a single venue with more than 11,000 performers, including drummers and dancers, participating at the Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati. The traditional dance is performed especially during the Bohag Bihu. The event aimed to put Assam’s cultural heritage on the world map.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just released the final part of the Sixth Assessment Report. This report is seen as one of the most important assessments which makes it clear that anthropogenic climate change has caused widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere. It’s already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damage to nature and people. The report stresses how vulnerable communities that have historically contributed the least to current climate change are disproportionately affected. Unlike most of the previous reports by the IPCC, the AR6 synthesis report stresses on international and internal inequality and the disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable communities, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.
How do we make sense of this report in India where the most climate vulnerable communities are Dalits, Adivasis, backward castes groups, nomadic and pastoral communities, traditional and small-scale fishers and small and marginal farmers, urban poor, women, and sexual minorities, etc?
In most part of India, the term climate change is slowly getting registered though its impact was being felt for more than a decade in India as variability in rain falls, changing monsoon patterns, increasing floods and heat waves, erratic weather conditions and coastal erosion, etc. As the Indian monsoon and rainfall patterns are changing significantly due to climate change, the agriculture sector, where 70 per cent of all farmers from the Scheduled Castes work as agricultural labourers dependent on daily or seasonal wages, gets hit first. As floods, heat waves, sea levels rise and extreme weather events are increasing, experiences from most part of India demonstrate how caste oppressed communities are not only disproportionately affected by them but get discriminated against during rescue, rehabilitation, and recovery from climate onslaughts.
Last year, Assam was flooded and around 197 people lost their lives and 2,35,845.74 hectares of crops were damaged. The sanitation workers (safai karamcharis) from the Banshphor (Scheduled Caste) community of Guwahati city had to work day and night to unclog drains and wash off the sludge in the city. According to the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a movement aimed at eliminating manual scavenging, approximately 98 per cent of all workers employed in this kind of work are Dalits and predominantly women.
Research has demonstrated how in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, one of the most drought-prone regions in the country, Mahar, Matang, Chambhar, Pardhi, and Koli-Mahadev communities bear the brunt of caste-based oppression, inequalities, and discrimination with recurring droughts in the region for decades.
As part of my research, in 2022, I traveled across South and North 24 Parganas districts in the state of West Bengal which are part of the Indian Sundarbans, one of the most climate vulnerable regions in the country. Most of the women from Munda, Bediya, Bhumij, and Oraon Adivasi communities I met complained about how their health is being impacted by the increasing saltwater content as a result of sea level rise. The women have to stand for several hours in the water to catch fish and collect crabs and mussels — a major part of their livelihood and diet.
Dalit and Adivasi communities have fewer adaptation resources to combat the damage from events related to climate change since they continue to be deprived of socio-economic and political rights and face systemic discrimination.
In the recently concluded United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Egypt, India spoke eloquently about international climate justice and the loss and damage funds that developed countries have to contribute to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. However, India doesn’t address internal climate justice and inequalities within. How do we even think about loss and damage when our society is based on caste that ensure permanent loss and damage to Dalit communities for centuries? What about the loss and damage of Dalits, Adivasis, backward castes, nomadic and pastoral groups, traditional and small-scale fishers and small and marginal farmers, urban poor, women, and sexual minorities in India? Can the government of India acknowledge that caste oppressed communities have disproportionate losses and damages? Do these communities have any rights over the loss and damage funds? Though India has a National Climate Action Policy adopted in 2008 and all states have state climate action policies by now, caste and the vulnerabilities of the caste-oppressed communities aren’t part of most of these action plans. The action plans need to acknowledge and address caste and climate vulnerability and special protection measures need to be in place during climate event preparedness and during the onslaught of climate events and post that.
Along with class, gender, and race, caste needs to be acknowledged as a category by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. India should recognise caste and climate vulnerabilities of caste-oppressed communities and initiate measures to protect them, and these efforts should be part of the national and state climate action policies.
These special vulnerabilities should also be integrated into disaster and climate risk management plans, governance, climate risk preparedness plans, climate impact relief assistance programmes, and social protection coverage in the context of climate change.
Beyond that, there should be separate climate action plans and implementation funds for caste oppressed communities. Mushrooming climate, energy, and sustainability initiatives across the country, mostly led by upper caste and savarna professionals who are distant from the caste realities, is another challenge for caste to get any importance in these spaces. It’s also crucial that the climate justice movement in India, mostly led by the urban upper caste and savarna youth from major Indian metros, genuinely integrate environmental and caste justice questions into their campaigns. They also need to have honest conversations with the ongoing Dalit, Adivasi, and backward castes movements across the country that have been raising the issues of water, forest, land, environmental rights, and dignity for centuries.
Written by Ajmal Khan
Source: Indian Express, 16/04/23
Earlier this week on April 14, Dr BR Ambedkar’s 132nd birth anniversary was observed. Dr Ambedkar remains one of India’s tallest leaders, the father of the Indian constitution, and an inspiration for generations of Indians continuing his struggle against caste oppression.
Today, we discuss a small excerpt from his classic undelivered speech, Annihilation of Caste. Written in 1936, the speech was meant to be delivered at a meeting of liberal Hindu caste reformers in Lahore. However, in light of its apparent controversiality, the organisers of the meeting revoked Dr Ambedkar’s invitation. Consequently, he self-published the speech which would go on to become arguably his most famous piece of writing.
Quotes from famous historical figures form an important part of the UPSC Civil Services Exam syllabus. This one becomes relevant for topics related to social issues and social justice.
The quote
“The Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers. Civilised society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilised society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments … it is a hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other.”
Responding to a commonly stated defence of caste (that it is just another name for division of labour), Dr Ambedkar succinctly yet profoundly describes the uniqueness of the caste system and why it is problematic.
Division of labour
The basic point of social organisation is to share responsibilities. In other words, living in a society means that no one person has to perform all the tasks required for their sustenance. The burden of these tasks is distributed in society, through what we call ‘specialisation’. Thus, a society has farmers who produce food, factory workers who produce goods, sweepers who clean buildings, cobblers who produce shoes, and so on. Over time, the division of labour has morphed and gained sophistication.
However, in almost all schools of thought, it is considered both necessary and inevitable. The issue surrounding it is rather about how this division is made – “who does what work” – and how remunerations are decided. This is at the heart of many discussions about different bases of injustice, such as class (why are factory workers paid a fraction of the amount a CEO is paid?) and gender (why is women’s labour at home not remunerated?/why are women expected to work at home”).
Division of labourers
Ambedkar acknowledges that the division of labour is necessary for society. However, caste goes far beyond being just that. This is because of two basic features of the caste system.
First, the caste system works on the principle of heredity – an individual inherits their caste, and thus their occupation, from their father. This means that if the father is a vaidya (doctor), the son must follow in his footsteps regardless of his own talents or proclivities. Through the principle of endogamy (marrying within one’s own community), the society is divided into “clear, watertight compartments”. This is why Ambedkar calls caste a division of labourers rather than labour – there is no scope for mobility and intermixing among castes (through taboos on things like interdining, untouchability, etc.)
If caste were just a division of labour, it would be possible for a sweeper’s son to become a priest and a priest’s son to be a sweeper. But that is not how caste society works. In fact, till this day, stories of social mobility are exceptions rather than the rule.
For instance, as recently as 2021, then Minister of State of Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athwale told the Rajya Sabha that 73.31 per cent of all manual scavengers were from Scheduled Castes, who, as per the 2011 census, make roughly 16 per cent of the population. Ambedkar calls this an “unnatural” division.
Gradation of these divisions
Not only does caste create watertight compartments in society, but it also grades these compartments on what French anthropologist Louis Dumont would call “the notion of purity and pollution”. Every occupation falls somewhere in this vast, often contested, scale. For example, intellectual work, such as reading scriptures, is considered to be the purest while manual work like cleaning toilets is considered to be polluting.
This is the basis of untouchability as well – people of castes who engage in certain tasks considered polluting are thus discriminated against as untouchables. Given that occupation is strictly passed down hereditarily, this gradation of individuals on the basis of the purity of their occupation is the ultimate injustice of caste.
While across the world, there are class divisions, which too treat some occupations as being better than others, the reason why caste is unique is that this treatment has a moral connotation, with certain tasks more virtuous than others. In fact, the justification for the caste system is done on moral terms – people are born into a caste based on the deeds/misdeeds of their previous life.
As Ambedkar writes in the following paragraph, “This division of labour is not spontaneous, it is not based on natural aptitudes… (the caste system) attempts to appoint tasks to individuals in advance – selected not on the basis of trained original capacities, but on that of the social status of the parents.”
Written by Arjun Sengupta
Source: Indian Express, 17/04/23
“In matters of conscience the law of majority has no place.”
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)
“विवेक के मामलों में बहुमत के नियम का कोई स्थान नहीं है।”
मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी (1869-1948)