Mainstream WeeklyKerala remains the model of social development for Amartya Sen, who worked out the Human Development Index (HDI), which empowers women and Dalits and others to be educated and live a healthy life because health facilities are available. HDI of Kerala is touching 9 points, which top European states have achieved. This model of development with healthy inter-community relations has brought back people of Kerala after retirement to their home state. They play an important role in participatory panchayat, where planning is made at the grassroots level. Kerala is able to create a model which contrasts Gujarat, where the massacre of 2002 took place, which resulted in the deaths of thousand of Muslims. People of Gujarat do not have access to proper education or health facilities. Their agricultural fields are without irrigation facilities. Winning an election on a communal jargon or a rigged election is making Modi and Shah the leaders of India, who are trying to destroy the democracy based on the Rule of law by providing an alternative system known as bulldozer justice, which is condemned by the Supreme Court. Modi and Yogi are not bothered by the warning of the Supreme Court, as they themselves are the law. Kerala model of targeting kutumbam in terms of providing land, education and health brought an end of extreme poverty. Kutumba pushed to hunger-related death. In Hinduism kutumba is a battleground for pushing the poor to the margins. It is a victory for rationality and scientific temper rather than Hinduism.
The Kerala model, where Left and Congress played decisive roles in eradicating extreme poverty, is a victory for democracy and the Constitution. The BJP’s Gujarat model has been studied by a French scholar found that Gujarat is carrying Bihar on its back. So much poverty in Gujarat and so much discrimination against Dalits and tribals.
Kerala model of development started in 2024 when Gandhi experimented his temple entry movement for Dalits into the temple at Viacom Gandhi believed in dialogue and discussion regarding the abolition of untouchability. Three important gentlemen initiated the dialogue with the priestly class. One of them was a Christian, and the other two were Hindus who broke the ice. Dialogue between them and the priests was moderated by Gandhi himself. He raised a critical question: Could you show the ancient texts where it is written about the practice of untouchability? The priestly class started searching the materials from the ancient text and found nothing was supported them. There was no proof of the practice of untouchability. Then the priests admitted that they were wrong, and this is the defeatist moment for Gandhi, as the upper castes joined hands together to fight against him. He faced physical violence from the high castes, specifically the priestly class from Banaras, Gaya and Deogarh. All these priests belong to Maithali Brahmins, and they turned violent against Gandhi and exhibited violence like throwing stones and sticks at his car and incidentally, Jagjivan Ram was accompanying him in this car.
Last three terms, the local level governance has improved. Public participation has increased and local-level planning has been worked out. As educated people after retirement live in each village they contribute to the local level planning. This gets worked out by the state government. This is made it possible to locate the poorest of the poor within the village and allot land for them and allow houses to be constructed and some arrangements for earning livelihoods have been possible. This is a great attempt and creating a possibility against the basic tenets of Hinduism that poverty is a part of the works of a previous life. Kerala politics has a high level of participatory democracy, which brings both the Communists and Congress to come to power alternatively, except this time. Both of them are committed to the welfare of the people. This is where one hears people are divided into two camps, such as LDF and UDF. Public policies get formed at a higher level of consensus. This becomes easier to implement the policies for the well-being of people.
Kerala created a tradition of interlinking cultural capital, human capital, with economic capital by distributing land to tillers. The first government gave homestead land to the poor belonging to Dalits, which made them feel capable to questioning the caste system. The next day, they started cultivating the banana tree and sent their children to school. Access to land makes it possible to have access to education. All these change the balance of forces against he rich and powerful on the theoretical level.
Malayali writers have their speciality, and they represent the community and the society at large. This brings critical consciousness among the community members and carries the universal values. The best example is Basheer and while he writes stories about his community, he does not leave them unscathed. Some of the stories related to the Muslim community are highly critical of their social conservatism, but at the same time, these stories turn into classics in Malayalam literature. A writer has social responsibility towards his community and society, and the nation, which blends together.
We are examining below the possibility of other states in India to tackle the poverty and backwardness of Dalits and tribals. We feel that each state has the potential to handle such extreme backwardness of these communities.
Dalits of Haryana are educated and they have made the decision collectively that they would leave rural Haryana and migrate to urban areas. They have taken Ambedkar seriously that urbanisation brings liberation from social oppression. What is the status of Dalits in UP, and it is interesting to note here that the Dalits have little property, and they got educated themselves and are holding jobs in teaching, medicine and engineering and civil. Our study shows that there are industrialists among Dalits who have invested capital and taken risks in expanding business. Hindutva wants to restrict their freedom, but they are not nervous and they are ready to go ahead.
Looking at Bihar, where poverty is concentrated in three important communities, Paswan, Mushahair and Mahjis. They belong to the substantive people of Bihar but are struggling to educate their children and have little or no land. Their poverty is multidimensional, and any attempt to liberate them from extreme hunger and illiteracy is going to take a long time. Kerala started well, but other states are looking to wait for a long time. After Kerala society is planning to get rid of extreme hunger and poverty-stricken persons out of this trap one feels excited o evaluate the poor in other societies. The poor in Odisha hail from both the cultivating castes and dalits and tribals. Hunger-related deaths happen in each community and no exception to Dalits. Daltis are an alert community as they had experience of Buddhism, which kept them on equal plane with the other cultivating castes. Dalits are not totally landless and but their poverty strikes people among Dalits are more than the Cultivating caste. They assert their rights and but after coming of Hindutva their they get threatened. Tribals live outside of the caste society, and they do not bow down to the Hindu caste system.
Andhra society is a productive society, and they use the dalit labour in a productive manner. We went to the villages near Amravati and found the Dalits are aware of their rights. They are a politically active community but their partnership with the main Telugu society needs to remove the poorest among them. The abolition of extreme poverty has been worked out by the Left front government but it needs to be praised as the poorest are people belonging to Dalits living outskirts of the village. They have worked out with their social project, Kutumbam to incorporate the families into the village community. This is where the Tamil Nadu model is failing as one visits the villages and one finds the lanes of Dalits are clearly demarcated and they are aware of their rights, and they demand their dues from the state and administration. But incorporating into the village community is going to take a long way. The same is happening in Bengal, where the Dalits live outside the main village, and they are aware of their rights and but have not yet integrated into the village community. In the case of Gujarat, there is deep hatred against the Dalits, which is where the Gujarat model is atrocious.
The hill regions, except J and K, has an equal share of Dalits and high caste Hindus, but under the BJP government, the position of Dalits has been pushed down as there is physical violence against the Dalits and Muslims in the region. Traditionally the caste discrimination cannot be maintained as rigidly as in the plains, both share the same mountainous space and confront nature.
The position of Dalits in the Western region, specifically Maharashtra and Gujarat, is worse except for the Mahar community. In Gujarat, Dalits live in fear and in Maharashtra, Dalits and others live separately. The roads in the village are two different paths, one for Dalits and the other for others. Hindutva has crushed the spirit of such a vast section of society.
MP has a rigid caste system where Dalits are oppressed by the high castes like Brahmins and Rajputs. Political democracy has not been able to soften the attacks on Dalits. At the same time, one hears that the working of political democracy has modernised feudal Rajasthan, where caste oppression has got diluted because of the alertness of the Congress Party.
Kerala model of development has created miracles in achieving the abolition of poverty and social backwardness among Dalits and Muslims. Most of the States of North India are unable to create a path of development yet because of anti dalit and anti Muslims approach of the BJP governments. Kerala is going to challenge the tenets of Hinduism, which accepts poverty as an integral part of the religion. This is going to be a blow to Hindutva politics in India.