THE AAMIR KHAN COLUMN To be a cohesive team, and to have a
common, shared vision, we have to start by first accepting that we have
built up differences, walls, barriers.
In a number of ways, Gandhiji was different from other freedom fighters
and leaders of the time. One difference was that he gave equal
importance to one more fight along with the struggle for independence,
and that is, the emancipation of those ostracised as “untouchables.”
Gandhiji’s work against untouchability began in South Africa around five
decades before our independence. After his return to India, an incident
at his Kochrab Ashram near Ahmedabad shows us how much importance he
gave to the concept of equality between castes.
The year was 1915.
Thakkar Bappa, a close associate of Gandhiji, sent a Dalit by the name
of Dudha Bhai to live in the ashram. Everyone in the ashram, including
Kasturba, was opposed to this, and this was specifically due to Dudha
Bhai’s status, as deemed by the caste hierarchy. Gandhiji made it clear
that Dudha Bhai would not leave the Ashram. Anyone who was not
comfortable with this was free to leave. He was informed that no one
would agree and that even the funding for the ashram might stop.
Gandhiji was undeterred. He was ready to shift his ashram to the Dalit basti,
he said, even if it meant that his ashram would have only two members,
namely Dudha Bhai and himself. Finally everyone turned around, except
Gandhiji’s sister Gokiben, who left Kochrab as a result of her brother’s
firm stance, never to return.
Why did Gandhiji give so much importance to the removal of
untouchability, or discrimination based on caste? Let’s reflect on that
for a moment. I think it is because the freedom he was fighting for was
not just political. He did not merely want a different set of people in
the corridors of power. Freedom for him meant freedom for each and every
citizen of India. A freedom that could only be born from genuine
equality, and the protection of the dignity of every Indian.
Untouchability was clearly incompatible with his vision of freedom.
Working together
Today, many of us have a vision of what our country should be, what it
can be, what India’s rightful place in the world is. Many of us dream of
India becoming a superpower. But can this ever happen in a country
where society is so fractured; where walls divide us? Can we ever
achieve our vision if we don’t believe in a shared social good? A common
vision?
What do I mean when I say shared social good?
Public property is a shared social good, a street or a road is a shared
social good, our public health system is a shared social good.
Unfortunately we are so fractured that we don’t see all this as ours. No
wonder we throw garbage on our roads because we don’t really see the
road as ours. We are not interested in our public health system because
we don’t really see it as ours, which is why it is in a shambles. We can
have a shared common goal, or a shared vision, only if we as a people
are one.
Our forefathers who wrote the Constitution of our country, led ably by
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, have clarified and laid down their vision for us
— a vision of a country where all are equal. Where brotherhood and
fraternity are pillars of our Constitution. Our leaders have shown us
the way. They have laid down laws that tell us that discrimination based
on caste and religion is illegal. Now, we have to find place in our
hearts to follow them. We also have to find place in our hearts to
accept that discrimination between people is against the very concept of
humanity.
To be a cohesive team, and to have a common, shared vision, we have to
start by first accepting that we have built up differences, walls,
barriers. Then, we have to start working towards removing these
differences. For example, there are umpteen housing societies all across
the country which don’t sell houses to either Dalits or Muslims or
Hindus or Christians or Sikhs, or to people from a different caste. This
kind of petty thinking has to be done away with. And perhaps a great
way to start making amends and moving in the right direction is to start
with our children. Let us not sow the seeds of separation in our
children. Let us not teach them the lessons of differences that we have
been taught. And maybe if we stop practising these differences, in the
innumerable ways that we do, then these divisions will not percolate to
our children.
Manual scavenging
When I speak of a shared vision, of a shared common good, I am reminded
of my own shortcomings in this regard. One of the most heartbreaking
encounters for me was listening to Mr. Bezwada Wilson speak about manual
scavenging. Words fail me. I am ashamed to admit that it was as late as
last year, at the age of 46, that I came to recognise and actually see
the existence of manual scavenging. At this late age, for the first time
I felt the horror and inhumanity of it. How could I have for 46 years
accepted, without batting an eyelid, the fact that some of our
countrymen are made to clean the excreta of others with their hands as a
means of survival? That they have no means of escape from it because of
the caste that they are born into? Why didn’t I notice or react to this
earlier? Not because it wasn’t happening around me. No. I did not
notice it because I guess I had grown so used to seeing it around me
right from my childhood that it didn’t seem unusual to me! And as I was
not the victim, the horror and injustice of it probably did not occur to
me. I am afraid I am guilty of this insensitivity. How can I even think
of a shared common good as long as manual scavenging exists?
Well, having reacted to it now, I think it’s high time I do something
about it. Because, I do believe that we should work towards a shared
common good, a shared vision, a dream which can belong to all Indians.
Jai Hind. Satyamev Jayate.
(Aamir Khan is an actor. His column will be published in The Hindu every Monday.)
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