Did the Kerala Government Ban the Word 'Dalit'?

There is a widespread campaign now, including in States like Tamil Nadu, claiming that the communist government in Kerala has banned the word 'Dalit'. There are posts circulating in Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and so on which make this particular claim. The campaign has been taken up by identitarian groups centred around the University of Hyderabad as well as by pro-BJP Dalit organisations in North India. The objective is to paint communists as “anti-Dalit”.

It was the Kerala government's Information and Public Relations Department which issued the directive that the word 'Dalit' should not be used in government documents and communications to denote communities that come under the categories of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The above-mentioned campaign claims that the so-called 'ban' is an order by the Kerala Chief Minister. What is the reality of this?

The word Dalit is one with a political connotation. There is no particular caste in that name. The word Dalit is often used by people who uphold Ambedkarite politics and other strands of progressive thought – mostly people who themselves belong to various castes which occupy different positions in the caste hierarchy (after all, graded hierarchy is the basis of the Indian caste system). The term is used by them to assert their political identity. It is an act whereby they seek to get out of the limited identity of their own caste, and to recast themselves into a wider political identity called Dalit. Universities of the post-Mandal times amplified this trend. Within the Dalit communities themselves, there are those who support and those who oppose the use of this term.

I use the word Dalit frequently myself, to denote the political representation of a community. This is also something that marks a political struggle. The word ‘dalita’ which means “divided broken, scattered” etc. is the one which gave birth to the term 'Dalit' as it is used today. Dalit is a political community which contains several factions, castes etc. within itself. It is a word which Jotirao Phule used and which BR Ambedkar popularised.

The word Harijan which was used by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to denote scheduled castes is also another such word with political connotations. Gandhi used the word in the sense of “god's people". But the scheduled caste communities which considered the term to be insulting abandoned the use of the word.

To the best of my knowledge, Ambedkar, who was the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, has not used the word Dalit anywhere in the Indian Constitution. Instead, he used the relatively neutral terms 'Scheduled Castes' and 'Scheduled Tribes', which means the castes and tribes which have been included in a special schedule.

It is the general understanding of the States across India, and not just that of Kerala, that neutral terms should be used in government documents and communications. In other words, there is no special decision here as far as Kerala is concerned.

It was on the basis of a directive by Justice P.N. Vijayakumar, the Chairman of the Kerala State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, that the Information and Public Relations Department issued the above-mentioned order. The order was not a "ban" on the use of the word in Kerala, but a directive that government documents and communications should use words with constitutional validity.

Dalit as a philosophical category avowedly has an emancipatory potential, and its scope necessarily transcends particular caste identities and could also include groups which are not classified as Scheduled Castes at this moment.

Justice P.N. Vijayakumar is not a CPI(M) member or sympathiser. He is the head of a Commission which has quasi-judicial powers and its own autonomy. The government department implemented the directive by the SC/ST Commission Chairman. But what is happening now is to misinterpret this step with a political agenda.

Now, is it the case that Justice P.N. Vijayakumar gave this directive on the basis of his whims and fancies? That is not the case either. A simple google search took me to this news headline: "Dalit word is unconstitutional: Scheduled Caste Commission". This is a report by PTI, dated 18 January 2008 – that is, almost ten years before. The text of the news is as follows:

RAIPUR: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked the state governments not to use the word 'Dalit' in official documents, saying the term was "unconstitutional".

The Commission has stated that sometimes the word 'Dalit' is used as a substitute for Scheduled Caste in official documents, sources in State Tribal Department said on Friday.

After consultation with the legal department, the Commission said that the word is neither constitutional nor the word has been mentioned in the current laws.

Rather 'Scheduled Caste' is the appropriate and notified word as per the Article 341 of the Constitution, it said in a letter sent to all states.

Acting upon the order, the Chhattisgarh government has directed District Collectors and its departments not to use 'Dalit' word in their documents, they said."

The News Minute website published a story on this issue on Monday, with the title "Is it wrong to use the term 'Dalit'? No, say Dalit activists reacting to Kerala ban". The fact is that Kerala has not banned the word. I truly do not understand the sentiment behind asking the sensational, loaded question, "is it wrong to use the word Dalit?" to Dalit activists. It could be because of the lack of historical and political awareness. Or it could be because there is a particular political objective behind doing so. Who is to say which of these is the case?

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick.