A Lokavidya Perspective
Background
Social exclusion is the process by which individuals or entire
communities of people are systematically blocked from (or denied full
access to) various rights, opportunities and resources that are
normally available to members of a society, and which are fundamental
to social integration within that particular society (e.g., housing,
employment, healthcare, civic engagement, democratic participation
and due process).
Alienation or disenfranchisement resulting from social exclusion is
often connected to a person's social class, educational status,
childhood relationships, living standards or personal choices in
lifestyle. The result of social exclusion is that affected
individuals or communities are prevented from participating fully in
the economic, social and political life of the society in which they
live.
Many communities experience social
exclusion; such as racial (e.g., Black in America) and economic
(e.g., Dalits and tribals in India, tribals in latin America).
Another example is the
Aboriginal community in Australia and the indigenous 'Indians' of the
American continent. Externalisation of native communities is a
product of colonisation. As a result of colonialism, these native
communities lost their land and were forced into destitute areas,
lost their sources of livelihood and were excluded from the labour
market. Importantly, native communities lost their culture and values
through forced assimilation and lost their rights in society. Today
various native communities continue to be externalised from
mainstream society due to the pursuit of (capitalist
market)practices, policies and programmes that meet the 'development'
needs of mainstream society and, often wilfully, ignore the needs of
these marginalized groups themselves.
In India, jati
(caste) has been the dominant mode of expression of social
segregation. The rights/privilages accruing to a particular jati,
within the aggregate social society (village or panchayat) began, it
is said, to be hierarchically determined about 300 BC and this
hierarchy became oppressive and cast into a rigid mould during the
next 1000 years as depicted in the later smritis, shutras
etc. The panchamas
or dalits became
“untouchables” and were socially ostracised and made to live
separate from other jatis with
severe restrictions on their social interaction with other jatis(
The 'origin' of the dalits
is still an open question). Inter-dining and inter-marriage across
jatis was utterly
taboo.
One
of the most pressing problems , of Indian society today, in
its march towards 'equality' and an egalitarian social order,
is the dismantling of the opressive hierarchy of the caste-system.
There have been many “social reform” movements, all aimed at
negating this hierarchy and heralding a more humane and equal social
order, during the past two millenia. However, caste barriers and
taboos of all kinds persist even to this day in the subconsciousness
of the polity and affect, many times adversely, the effort of many
soci-economic programmes designed to ameliorate the condition of
dalits,
tribals and other oppressed communities.
Lokavidya and externalisation
We
can look at the history of 'social reform' movements(revolutions) as
a continuing flux in Lokavidya(knowledge in and with
society) . Every time a certain
knowledge thread came into ascendency and sought to radically alter
Lokavidya Samaj(the
society that lived by Lokavidya)
there was a movement within Lokavidya Samaj
to relegitimise or redefine a 'relegated' thread of Lokavidya
and ensure inclusion of those sections that were(being) 'excluded'
from Lokavidya Samaj.
As
examples:
The ascendency of
(what we know as)Vedic thought around 1500BC while reinforcing the
hierarchy in the extant social organisation (varna-jati
system – a system that sought to 'preserve' nascent productive
knowledge and practice and the inherent equality bewteen such
threads of knowledge); led to the exclusion of large sections of
these productive sections from mainstream society. This process
'resulted' in the Buddhist and Jaina movements for re-legitimisation
of a knowledge thread(in Lokavidya) that promoted inclusion
and served as a basis for a more egalitarian and less-hierarchical
social organisation. This phase of social inclusion, of the hitherto
excluded sections, lasted upto about 700 AD.
The infusion of
ideas(knowledge) from Christianity(33 AD onward) and Islam(6th
century post Nalanda) resulted in the externalisation of various
segments of the Samaj(especially
Dalits and tribals) from 'mainstream' Hinduism largely
through 'conversion', with the 'promise' of providing such sections
a more egalitarian social status. This process gave rise to
movements during the period between the 8th and 12th century to
restablish the supremacy of Vedic thought in Lokavidya(through
AdiSankara, Madhava, Ramanuja etc) and sought to resestablish the
primacy of the 'Vedic thread' in Lokavidya while attempting
to include those sections that had been 'excluded' through
conversion during the Buddhist, Christian and Islamic periods.
The ascendency of
this 'Vedic' thread, which once again led to an increasing exclusion
of the productive castes/jatis from the centre stage, led to
a widespread Bhakti movement,
(12th to 14th century) all over the country(probably for the first
time),
initially in South India( Nayannars, Alvars etc)which spread rapidly
northward throughout this period and upto about the 17th century,
and established a very visible presence through verse and music
(Dnyāneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram, Eknath, Kabir, Meerabai,
Annamacharya, Purandara, Ramadasu,Tygaraja etc). [The rise of Sufism
through Nizamuddin Auliya , Kwaja Bande Nawaz and others, also
paralleled this movement]The Bhakti movement,
among other things, attemped, through music and verse, to re-include
the productive Sudra jatis including the dalits and tribals,
into the mainstream Samaj while emphasising the inherent
unity of the Samaj. Among the 'worshipped heroes' were
Krishna a Yadava(sudra) god- included as an avatar of
Vishnu .
With the advent of
British rule ,in the 18th century, a system of production and
governance came into being, that proved ruinous to the Samaj.
Livelihoods
based on Lokavidya were
systematically destroyed and there was a concerted attack on
Lokavidya with
a view to delegitimizing it. Every member of the Samaj
was made to feel inadequate and incapable of a productive role in
society. The focus (of localised movements) shifted to the
productive activities of the Samaj and
attempts were made to preserve the livelihoods and
strengthen Lokavidya Tana-bana(the
idioms used in the early wars against British rule were all rooted
in various aspects of the culture and traditions of the Samaj).
The incursion of modern science and technology(19th
century onwards) and the development of capitalist modes of
production and distribution led to the exclusion of these
jatis(Bahiskrit Samaj) and, importantly, vastly altered the
mode and relations of prodcution and market. Gandhiji
spearheaded the movement to relegitimise that thread within
Lokavidya that was based in the ordinary life of the productive
jatis and bring it to the fore- as providing the
guiding principle of regeneration and rebuilding of
society(sarvodaya); restablishing the pre-Vedic period
'equality' between the varnas
Gandhiji
wrote a classic essay called “The Ideal Bhangi”: in which he
said
“The
Brahmin’s duty is to look after the sanitation o f the soul, the
Bhangi’s
that o f the body o f society ... and yet our woebegone
Indian
society has branded the Bhangi as a social pariah, set him
d
own at the b o t tom o f the scale, held him fit only to receive
kicks
and
abuse, a creature who must subsist on the leavings o f the caste
people
and dwell on the dung heap.
If
only we had given due recognition to the status o f the Bhangi as
equal
to that o f the Brahmin, our villages, no less their inhabitants
would
have looked a picture o f cleanliness and order. I therefore
make
bold to state without any manner of hesitation or doubt that
not
till the invidious distinction between Brahmin and Bhangi is
removed
will our society enjoy health, prosperity and peace and be happy.”
and
firmly believed that only this would 'recast and reorient' productive
activity and help release the true creative potential of the people
(swaraj).
The economic
disruption in productive activity, caused by British rule, brought
inter-caste rivalry based on a seeming heirarchy of 'forward' and
'backward' castes to the fore, while the dalits(untouchables) were
'urged' to circumvent this conflict through conversion and achieve a
'favoured' status in the emergent modern social setup. Lokavidya
Tana-bana and the unity of the Samaj were, then, cast in
the mould of an opposition to caste-based social hierarchy and
untouchability(Jyothiba Phule, Gandhi, Ambedkar etc) and symbolised
through a focus on the productive
activity of the (Satyashodak)Samaj:
the charkha and khadi (Gandhi). The
'backward class' movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
sought to preserve and protect the Lokavidya identity of
these sections of the Samaj while demanding a prominant role
for the Samaj in the new productive order.
The Vaikom
Satyagraha(1924–25) in
Travancore led by TK Madhavan, KM Pannikar, Periyar Naranaswamy
Naicker and others, was the first systematically organized agitation
in Kerala against orthodoxy to secure the rights of the 'depressed'
classes and against untouchability. The movement was centered at the
Shiva temple at Vaikom near Kottayam.The Satyagraha aimed at
securing freedom of movement for all sections of society through the
public roads leading to the Sri Mahadevar Temple at Vaikom.
The agitation brought forward the question of civil rights of the
'low caste' people into the forefront of Indian politics. No mass
agitation in Kerala acquired so much all-India attention and
significance in the twentieth century as the Vaikom Satyagraha.
[Vaikom is a small temple town famous for its Shiva temple, which
in the early twentieth century was the citadel of orthodoxy and
casteism. As was the custom prevalent in those days, the Avarnas
were not allowed to enter the temples. But at Vaikom, they were not
permitted even to use the public roads around the temple. Notice
boards were put up at different spots prohibiting the entry of
Avarnas reminding them of their social inferiority. All the
more unbearable to them were the fact that a Christian or Muslim was
freely allowed on these roads. An Avarna had to walk through
a circuitous route, two to three miles longer to avoid the road
beside the temple. [There is an acecdote that when Ayyankali, a
dalit leader of the pulaya caste, had to travel through this
road, he was asked to get down from his bullock cart, and walk
through the circuitous route and his bullock cart without him was
allowed to pass through the road!]
The colonial phase
of the knowledge movement
With the advent of
direct British rule from the mid-18th century and the introduction of
the 'modern' school system (which got a filip with Macaulay's minute)
the infusion of 'western' knowledge including 'modern' science and
technology into society began to
sharpen the heirarchy and gave rise to intense caste rivalry in
Lokavidya Samaj. A new
definition of 'literacy' or 'learnedness' came into being and the
process of delegitimising Lokavidya
began in earnest. The
advent of the capitalist mode of production and the consequent
expansion of the capitalist market (at the cost of decentralised
production and the local market) greatly added fuel to this fire. The
establishment of (centralised) government bodies of authority
spanning every aspect of public and social life introduced a new
element of alienation among the constituents of Lokavidya
Samaj. The
new education, based and nutured by science and technology, developed
a new class of 'skilled' labour in all areas of production and
service. The class was comprised mostly of those members of the upper
castes who had access to these educational institutions-schools and
who believed that a capitalist path of development was 'progressive'
and desirable for an independent India and would lead to an
egalitarian society divested of the ills of caste-based
discrimination where a new-found fraternity would emerge(pan-Indian
nationalism) to replace localised community-based fraternities(Dr
B.R. Ambedkar's position).The
late 19th and early 20th century was witness to the 'Backward class'
and 'Non-Brahmin' movements in South India and a Dalit movement led
by Dr Ambedkar all over India- the disruption of the tenuous bonds of
mutual cooperation and coexistence within Lokavidya Samaj
was complete.
Gandhiji observed that these devlopments would actually
lead to large scale deprivation of Lokavidya Samaj. He
spearheaded a movement for relegitimising Lokavidya and
regeneration of Lokavidya Samaj while attempting to rid the
Samaj of many discriminatory social ills that plagued it (such
as untouchability, oppression of women, uncleanliness, detestation of
manual labour, destruction of the natural environment etc). In other
words, Gandhiji led the first inclusion movement as a
necessary corollary of the Independence movement so that, in
Independent India, Lokavidya Samaj would have a voice and
control over its productive and service activities and a
re-invigorated local market served by these activities.
The
current phase of the knowledge movement
In 67 years after Independence, we see that the plight
of Lokavidya Samaj has, in every aspect, become more
precarious. This society, which once had the wherewithal of meeting
the basic needs of its members- food, clothing, shelter and
livelihood; now finds itself completely at the mercy of the
knowledge(centralised planning for development) that guides the
ruling urban industrialised section of society. Even the provision of
access to 'modern' education has not significantly altered the
soci-economic status of the Samaj and large sections of its
population are forced to live on earnings amounting to much less than
Rs.50 per day per family. The wanton acquisition of lands and forests
have forced vast farming and tribal communities into the ranks of
landless and homeless(beggars). The weavers and artisans of all
types, who possessed knowledge and skills of cloth and fabric
production, utensils and implements/machinery, service activities of
all types- have also been forced to join the ranks of 'uneducated
skill-less' labour. The children of the Samaj see no salvation
in pursuing the 'trades' of their fathers and , having spent their
childhood and youth in attempting to acquire new found knowledge and
skills in schools and colleges now find themselves holding Lokavidya
in contempt and nowhere to go in the modern industrialised world. The
local markets have all but been destroyed so much so that even those
sections of Lokavidya Samaj, who can only pursue the
'traditional' livelihoods, find no means of obtaining a 'remunerative
price' for the products of their knowledge, skills and labour.
The
way forward
The real( and remaining) strength of Lokavidya Samaj
lies in Lokavidya.
It is Lokavidya that has sustained 'traditional' society and
livelihoods and has, against all odds, helped the Samaj to
survive and continue to contribute to the productive and service
activities of Indian society as a whole. In this strength lies the
basis for the unity of the Samaj and the motive force for the
rebuilding of the Samaj; with a new dispensation, commensurate
with the changed times and environment. The inter-relationships
between different sections(jatis, communities) of the Samaj
also need to be recast in a new and more robust manner that will
perpetuate and enhance the mutual cooperation and fraternity that
appears to have sustained them for so long.
In the post 1990
'knowledge era'-where University knowledge, based on Science and
Technology, has assumed commanding heights and in the era of the
Internet where the potential of 'knowledge management' has come to
the fore; there has been a renewed attempt to de-legitimise Lokavidya
and decimate the knowledge-basis of Lokavidya Samaj. This
is a sort of reverse-exclusion. The knowledge-basis of livelihoods
of Lokavidya Samaj and
the material basis of these livelihoods-land, water, forests etc have
been encroached upon. The acquistion of natural resources for the
purposes of intensifying capitalist development has led to a great
knowledge-divide. Lokavidya Samaj is
being deprived of its fundamental right to a life of dignity based on
its inherent knowledge and skills and
because it has no knowledge-certification from the dominant sections
of society it is
being excluded from the 'development' paradigm!
In the age of the Internet and 'Information revolution'
, Lokavidya Jan Andolan represents
the current phase of the knowledge movement for re-legitimising
Lokavidya and including all movements for the assertion
of peoples' knowledge and fundamental rights thereof.
The 'revival' of Lokavidya Jan Andolan in 2011 by
Vidya Ashram, Varanasi started with attempting to relegitimise
Lokavidya in Lokavidya
Samaj and appealing to the westernised sections of Indian society
to recognise the need to allow space for (ever-dynamic) Lokavidya
Samaj to assert itself and re-cast Lokavidya to help it
counter the onslaught of centralised industrial production and
market.
LJA
carried out campaigns to re-establish the local market
for Lokavidya-based
products so that fraternal and more equal relationships between
different sections of the Samaj could find their contemporary
moorings. The role of women in the productive and social life of the
Samaj has to be reasserted and this was sought to be achieved through
a concerted campaign for Women's empowerment through recognition of
her knowledge, skills and labour. The belief in the fundmental
right of every individual to live a life of dignity based on his/her
knowledge led to the movement
for a demand of equal basic pay for all sections of workers(Multai,
2014)- be they members of urban indutrialised society or Lokavidya
Samaj. This would , we
believe, lead to an appreciation of the knowledge, latent strength
and contribution of every section of Lokavdiya
Samaj and lead to better
fraternal relationships between them. In the realm of education, the
ongoing attempt is to incorporate the teaching/learning of
Lokavidya-based
skills in schools and recognition of mastercraftsmen and farmers,
formally, by institutions of higher learning. Local self-government
is the connerstone to the establishment of a truly democratic polity
and we believe that the restablishment of a Panchayat
Raj (based on a Gyan Panchayat i.e a local collective of knowledge-represenatatives)system of planning
and government alone would help the amelioration of Lokavidya
Samaj while providing
the modern centralised system with a new knowledge paradigm to face
the challenges of socio-economic and environmental degeneracy. This
local self-government system would also moderate the relationships
between different jatis
of Lokavidya Samaj and
help them recast the inter-relationships in a new mould capable of
sustaining
their existence as dignified members of a more
egalitarian society.
Krishnarajulu
Written May 2015 Posted October 2015
