Book Review

The Unseen Skills of the Dalit Population

Vaijayanta Anand
vaijayanta@gmail.com

Post-Hindu India: A Discourse on Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-

Spiritual and Scientific Revolution
Kancha Ilaiah
SAGE India, New Delhi
2009, Rs 295/-, pp 340.

Post Hindu India, a discourse on Dalit-Bahujan, socio-spiritual and scientific revolution is

another salvo from Kancha Ilaiah after his earlier book Why I am Not a Hindu against his
pet peeve the Hindu hegemony or the Brahminical Hindu hegemony. It has been published by
Sage Publications in the year 2009.

The book is presented in the form of thirteen chapters each dedicated to a caste group or an
issue. The chapters are arranged in the way the village structure evolves based on caste
hierarchy in the village. Kancha Ilaiah starts with the tribal people before touching upon the
various caste groups.

The first chapter touches upon the lives of some of the tribes like Kondareddys, Chenchus,
Nayakapus Gond and Koyas, native to Andhra Pradesh. The author describes the inbuilt
knowledge system and skills, intrinsic to their life pattern. One of the important aspects
standing out in this chapter is the symbiotic relationship of the tribal to the forest. The
seasonal fruits, roots, vegetables and its place in the diet of the tribal have been narrated very
effectively. The author emphasises the fact that the immense knowledge base of the tribal
lives and their mystic relationship with nature has remained confined to their own culture.
The mainstream culture and the education system have never incorporated this knowledge
base nor has the science world taken the trouble to verify and recognise the potential of the
knowledge in the fields of herbal medicine, nutritional values of the flora and fauna including
the local brew.

The next chapter deals with the Madigas or the Chamars as the untouchable caste group in a
village system. He calls the Madigas as the subaltern scientists. He describes the entire
leather economy and its connection to the cattle rearing practices. The techniques and
knowledge base involved in skinning the dead animals, tanning the leather and making
articles from the leather makes the reading interesting. He pinpoints that the science involved
in the whole process has been passed orally and through family training from generation to
generation. Throughout the chapter the emphasis is on the unjust relegation of entire leather
related caste groups as untouchables by the Brahminical Hinduism forces. According to him
entire leather processing has been seen as impure and not fitting in the ideas of kosher or pure

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January 2012
and polluted by the Brahmins. Along with the leather articles, the author also has been able to
bring out the cultural dimensions in terms of musical instruments used by the Madigas .The
musical instrument dappu is compared with veena and flute popular with the Brahminical
culture.

The other untouchable caste group taken up by the author is the Malars or Mahars. This
chapter narrates the kind of work carried out by the Malars or Mahars and its importance in
the village life. The unsociability and the humiliation faced by this caste group is also the
central theme of this chapter. The manure making activity, a part of the livelihood pattern of
the Malars and Mahars has been discussed in length here in terms of the techniques and the
ingredients used. The utility and science base of the manure making in the agrarian society
has also been emphasised by the author.

The Subaltern feminists and the social Doctors are the two chapters talking about two
more caste groups, the Dhobis and barbers. The chapter on dhobi deals with the roles and
functions of the caste group involved in laundry work for the entire village excluding the
untouchables. Although the laundry work is done by the family, the author has chosen to talk
about the women dhobi. The author has been able to bring in finer nuances of the skills
involved in washing and drying of clothes and possibility of invention of indigenous soap
making process.

The chapter on the lives of the barbers as the caste group starts with the importance of the
role played by the barber in maintaining personal hygiene of the village population. Later on
the author concentrates mainly on the cultural practices like Brahmin women being
encouraged to grow long hair or the sadhus and sanyasins not opting to cut their body hair,
terming these practices as part of the Brahminical Hinduism with deliberate intention of
taking away the importance of barber caste group in the society. The importance of the
women in the barber community in the reproductive processes of the village women as
midwives mentioned by the author is understandable and deserves appreciation for the
knowledge base and skill involved

The Chapter on the Yadavas titled as meat and milk economics deals exclusively with cattle
rearing caste groups. The animal husbandry and cattle rearing forms an important part of
agrarian society with close connection to agriculture. The milk and meat form a very
important part of the food table of the Indian society. Therefore the information given about
the lives of the Yadavas is useful.

The second chapter termed as unknown engineers and food producers deal with various
other caste groups defining the agrarian social structure. The toddy tappers, iron smiths,
carpenters and the gold smiths are some of the caste groups presented in the chapter titled
Unknown Engineers. The author has argued that the knowledge and skills of this caste
groups are at par with engineering but have never been given a place in the mainstream
occupation. He has focused mainly on the Hindu brahminical value judgement of these caste
groups. The caste groups involved in agricultural activities have also been analysed with

eSS Book Review, Anand on Ilaiah

January 2012
focus on two aspects; the glorification and mystification of the knowledge and skills used by
the caste groups against the negative mystification used by the brahminical Hinduism.

The remaining chapters are spent on analysing the spiritual fascism of the brahminical Hindu
forces. Islam, Christianity and Buddhism have been shown as paths for salvation and these
religions have been mystified and glorified for their egalitarian and democratic nature. The
espoused civil war with the intention of wiping out the cultural fascism of Hindu brahminical
forces has taken up the remaining chapters.

The entire book is without any references or mention of researched sociological,

ethnographic literature. It is totally based on the authors interpretation of the issues. The
issues touched upon are serious subjects and have been the central theme of some of the
works of theoreticians and also prominent exponents like Dr Ambedkar. Somehow the
seriousness of the issues gets lost in the rabble rousing simplistic statements against the
brahminical Hindu forces. Since the author is a well known academician, it would have
helped if he would have used scientific research tools or methods in developing a strong
authentic base for his arguments. The New Capitalist a book written by Hari Damodaran
comes to mind where he has very effectively written about the rise of non- traditional and
mostly other backward caste groups as business powers .

Some of the critical points coming across while reading the book have been given below.

The chapter on tribals has perhaps indirectly indicated the possible reasons for
malnourishment and food deprivation among the tribals in the context of deforestation. The
knowledge base as illustrated by the author, rooted in the forests and deep insights passed on
for generations does emphasise the importance of the indigenous wisdom pool hither though
neglected and rejected by the dominant Hindu socio cultural system.

Although one understands the anguish and sufferings faced by the madigas or the chamars
and the resilience shown in continuing with the leather work as livelihood choice, it is
however not clear when and how this caste group took up or when they were forced to take
up leather work and were relegated to the untouchable categories. Though Kancha Ilaiah
quotes the mythological stories and various myths perpetuated in the society, there is not a
single historical or particular extracts from mythological text which have been given as
reference. The chapters related to madigas, malars or mahars attempts to glorify and justify
the work relegated to the caste group without giving any evidences or any reference as to
when and how the brahminical Hindu forces managed to entrap this group and pushed them
as untouchables based on their occupation. Nowhere the author questions the audacity of the
brahminical hinduist culture of pushing an entire caste group from generation to generation to
the menial tasks and depriving them from any other livelihood choices

In the chapter written on dhobis, the feminist angle is linked more to the bathing rituals of the
women dhobis and the ability of the women dhobis in involving their men folk and the items
of clothes washed rather than looking at women dhobis as strong productive forces. This
seems farfetched and very superficial way of understanding the life and power of women who
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January 2012
were directly involved as productive forces. The mythological story of the dhobi in
Ramayana has been quoted but somehow fails to make a point. The mention that the women
folk from the barbers family had the power of killing the babies and restrained themselves
due to high morality of the caste groups is not convincing. The act of assisting women in
delivering babies is humanitarian work well appreciated in mythology and in the village
system which somehow has not been seen by the author.

In the chapter on Yadavas, what was expected was a deeper analysis of the livelihood pattern
of the yadavas and the difficulties faced by them in sustaining their occupation. The major
portion of the chapter is spent on the parallels drawn between the mythology of lord Krishna
as cattle grazer and the shepherd caste groups. The cow being more sacred to brahminical
Hindu groups in comparison to buffalo due to its colour is unbelievably nave or simplistic
interpretation given by the author.

One of the striking aspects of this book is the reference to Mahatma Gandhi as a person
belonging to Baniya caste. But he propagated a frugal life and therefore not accepted as ideal
by the baniya caste people. The author appreciates the attempt made by Mahatma Gandhi in
trying to bring simplicity in his life style. In the anti-caste movement the positions taken by
Hindu revivalist ideologies is represented by various persons including Gandhi. It is a known
historic fact that Mahatma Gandhi believed that there is nothing wrong with the caste based
socio-cultural Hindu society except that certain occupation were termed as unclean and dirty.
Gandhi believed that the glorification or establishing the dignity of labour by renaming the
untouchables in respectable term can resolve the issue of untouchables. One cannot but help
mentioning the stance taken up by Dr Ambedkar with regard to the traditional occupations
followed by the untouchable caste groups. He went ahead and gave a call to all the dalits to
give up their traditional occupation and leave the caste ridden exploitative socio-cultural
system in the villages to join the mainstream and take education as a weapon to prove their
mettle. It is essential to mention two of the seminal works of Dr Ambedkar, Who were the
shudras and Annihilation of caste. The analytical methods used by Dr Ambedkar to
understand caste issues are still relevant and could have been used by the author. Dr
Ambedkar has chosen to use references of various literature both Indian and international
nature in his books. It is disappointing to see that the book by Kancha Ilaiah, an academician
is devoid of any references.

Another dimension of colonisation of our country by the British and its impact on the
industrial development has not been touched upon by the author. The modern education
system imposed by the British did not include any indigenous knowledge base or made any
attempt to document the indigenous knowledge and skill base. The skill formation and skill
upgradation remained outside the arena of the education system thereby restricting the skills
and knowledge to certain caste groups .The industrialisation process did not evolve in India
from the local artisans and traditional traders. The Bahujan artisan caste groups remained
neglected and impoverished also because of this. The author however has chosen not to
deliberate or dwell on this aspect at all.

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January 2012
Throughout the book the author has mentioned other religions like Christianity, Islam and
Buddhism as possible paths of salvation for the Bahujan Dalit population. The Indian version
of these religions have not been able to get rid of the caste hierarchy, is a fact emphasised by
the plight of the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims .The author has not touched these deeper
issues at all. Except for Buddhism other religions made inroads in India mostly through
conversion. The plight of the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims is written adequately by
many other authors. In this book the author chooses to remain silent.

This book makes you think but is not able to provide any scientific answers to numerous
questions raised. The stance taken by the author might bring in a feel good approach among
the readers seeking some solace from the derogation and unjustified treatment meted out to
the Dalit Bahujan population, but is not strong enough to shake the roots of the social
exploitative system.

This book succeeds in helping the reader to absorb the anguish and frustration of the entire
population involved in upholding the socio-economic foundation of the Indian society but
humiliated and neglected in the caste ridden socio-cultural context.

eSS Book Review, Anand on Ilaiah

January 2012