Vijay Prashad by Untouchable Freedom

Author:Untouchable Freedom [Inconnu(e)]
Language: fra
Format: epub

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80 / Untouchable Freedom

(Ram Rajya) in which an ancient Hindu sociology will be allowed to

come into its own. The reappearance of this sociology is seen to have

nothing to do with the extant systems of social production and there is no

suggestion how the social order will be fundamentally reconceptualized

given the technological leap from Vedic times to the present (but more

on this in the following chapter).

Until early in the twentieth century, Hindus did not betray an interest

in their fraternal ties with dalits. From the 1870s, Hindu èlites in Punjab

turned their eyes towards what they saw as an unnecessary fragmentation

among their own. Disunity amongst subcastes led to animosity towards

each other. Further, Hindu intellectuals looked back at the long span of

the subcontinent’s history and counted the many people who had left the

Hindu pantheon for Islam and Christianity. Eager to claim these people

to their flock, Hindu organizations attempted to garner some individual

rais Muslims and Christians into the newly-organized Hindu community.

The Arya Samaj was at the forefront of the Shuddhi movement and its

various periodicals (Arya Patrika and Arya Magazine) recorded the cases

with muted enthusiasm.44 In 1893, members of the Samaj joined with

the Singh Sabha to form the Shuddhi Sabha at Lahore. Three years later,

the Arya Samaj and its confrères conducted a mass reconversion to

Hinduism. By 1896, the Samaj was fully equipped with an ensemble for

conversion, such as missionaries (updeshaks and pracharaks) and

institutions (orphanages, clinics, and community centres). The Samaj

directed all its energy to the consolidation of the èlite; even at this late

date, it was not enthusiastic about the conversion of dalits.

In 1899, the Arya Samaj orphanages made it very clear that they would

accept any ‘destitute minor . . . of castes other than sweeper’.45 The Arya

Samaj schools taught Hindu boys because of the assumption that ‘Bhangi

and Chamar boys could not possibly attend the same schools in which

caste Hindu boys were reading’.46 From 1886, one faction of the Arya

Samaj conducted shuddhi amongst dalits such as the Ods, Meghs, Rahityas,

Kabirpanthis and Dumnas, but their activities did not please the Arya

44R.K. Ghai, Shuddhi Movement in India (New Delhi: Commonwealth, 1990),

pp. 45–6.

45DMC Progs., 28 November 1899.

46Jugal Kishore Khanna, Oral History Transcripts no. 177, NMML.

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