New Delhi: In a brazen attempt to woo Dalits into their fold, and concoct a version of history, which would put even the most conspiratorial in the country to shame, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has sought to attribute the birth of communities long oppressed as “untouchables”, to “Muslim invasion” in medieval times.
Three top RSS leaders, Bhaiyyaji Joshi, Suresh Soni, and Krishna Gopal, have articulated these views in their forewords to three books, authored by BJP spokesman Vijay Sonkar Shastri and released by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently — “Hindu Charmakar Jati”, “Hindu Khatik Jati” and “Hindu Valmiki Jati”.
The Sangh leaders claimed that these castes had come into existence due to atrocities by foreign invaders and did not exist in Hindu religion earlier.
According to Joshi, ‘shudras’ were never untouchables in Hindu scriptures. ‘Islamic atrocities’ during the medieval age resulted in the emergence of untouchables, Dalits and Indian Muslims.
He further elaborated, “To violate Hindu swabhiman (dignity) of Chanwarvanshiya Kshatriyas, foreign invaders from Arab, Muslim rulers and beef-eaters, forced them to do abominable works like killing cows, skinning them and throwing their carcasses in deserted places. Foreign invaders thus created a caste of charma-karma (dealing with skin) by giving such works as punishment to proud Hindu prisoners.”
Another top RSS functionary, Suresh Soni, echoed the same: “Dalits had their genesis during Turks, Muslims and Mughal eras. Today’s castes like Valmikis, Sudarshan, Majhabi Sikhs and their 624 sub-castes came into being as a result of atrocities against Brahmins and Kshatriyas during Medieval or Islamic age,” he wrote.
Krishna Gopal, Sah-sarkaryavah, RSS, went on to bolster the Sangh’s new found agenda saying, “In pre-historic and Vedic age, Khatik castes have been recognized as Brahmins who affected sacrifices. It may be noted that before the advent of Muslim invaders, there is no reference to rearing pigs in India. It was a vocation adopted by Hindus to defend their religion.”
How these RSS functionaries came to these conclusions, and what historical sources did they base their “reasearch” on, is, like all other Hindutva theories – unexplained, but it is clear that the outfit is trying to intensify its efforts to unite various caste and sub-castes under one Hindu identity, in an attempt to create, a Hindu Rashtra.
The Dalits, according to many sociologists, are considered the most oppressed community in the world. In many parts of India, communities considered “high caste”, continue to persecute the so-called “low caste” as “untouchables”.
To this day, the community is forced to clean the human waste of “high caste” people and carry it on their heads, and in some areas, they are not allowed to wear shoes or walk on the road, used by the “high caste”.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, had advocated conversion to other religions, as the only solution for the annihilation of caste. However, Hindutva forces, fearing nibbling down of Hindu population, has always sought to bring back the community into the Hindu fold, although only superficially.