Beef, Babasaheb & Bhadrolok

Kolkata witnessed its first Beef Festival in April last year at an academic space but it went largely unmarked, without any newspaper reports or sensational controversies. The uber cool Bengali middle class which flaunts its progressivism by gobbling plate after plate of beef steak  too stayed away. What is so explosively political about a Beef Festival celebrating the declaration of Ambedkar’s birthday as a national holiday that efforts had to be put in to invisibilise it? Finds out Drishadwati Bargi.

“Their   doings are   not our doings. Their being is not our being. But we  can  eat  what  they  say  with a  hearty  reassurance  of  our  material  and  symbolic  profit, for  what  could  be  more  politically  correct  than  reading  the  wonderful  protest  literature  produced  by  all  these  groups  of  people who  have  been  oppressed  and  deprived  and  under-privileged through all  those  uncountable centuries? We  could now  begin to  undo  the  sins  of our  ancestors, it  seems  by  reading  and  praising  Dalit  poetry. Only  so  long  as  we  are  not  forced   to  eat with  them, or marry  our  daughter  to  one  of  them.”

Jaware  Aniket,  “Eating  and  Eating  with  the  Dalit”

Aniket  Jaware’s skeptical   remark  sounds  counter-intuitive  at  a  time  when  Dalit  literature  and  anti-caste  writings  are  gradually  making  their  way  into  mainstream  literary  establishments and  institutions. However, it  throws the  gauntlet  at  the  contemporary  liberals  who  have  started  consuming, circulating  and  publishing  Dalit  literature with  the  zeal  of  a  revolutionary. Moreover, it  is  particularly  apt  in  encapsulating  the  predicament  of  the  bhadrolok (read  upper  caste, propertied )  society  of  Kolkata which continues  to  consider itself  the  harbinger  of  modernity  and  radicalism. Thus, when the  Ambedkarite students(Georgy,Vikas, Richa, Santosh, Swathy, Gita) at  the  Centre  for  Studies  In  Social  Sciences, Patuli organise  a  Beef  festival  in order  to  celebrate  the  declaration  of  Babasaheb’s birthday  as  a national  holiday,  they  confront unenthusiastic classmates and  hostile  non teaching  staff. The  former  group  includes  Bengali  Dalit  students (noted for  their  invisibility), armchair  Maoist  sympathisers  who  believe in  class  struggle  and  hence  have  no  faith  in  anti –caste  politics and  the  absent students and teachers of  Jadavpur  University (CSSS being affiliated to Jadavpur).One  must  mention  here  that  the  faculty of  CSSS supported the  festival and    participated  in  the  exhibition. The  non  teaching  staff  resisted  and  prevented  the  cooking  of  the inside the canteen  because  it  is  presumably   a “ non  Hindu  food”  and  it  cannot  be  cooked  in  a  “Hindu institution”. The  secularism  that  middle  class  Bengalis  have  been  so  proud  of turned  out  to  be a  veneer  that   fell  off  when the non teaching staff  said  that  from  the  following year they  would  definitely   organise  Saraswati  puja    in  reaction  to the festival.

For  a  bhadro-Dalit woman  like  this  scribe,  who  was  initiated  to  beef  by  two  caste  proud  baidya Bengali  men, the  festival  offered  an  opportunity to be  part  of  the Ambedkarite  movement. As I  chatted  with the  students  about the  festival, browsed  the anti caste cartoons  of  Shyamsundar, the  photographs  commemorating  important events  of  Dalit  history, read  the  protest  poetry of Rajkumar, Siddalingaiah and Kalekkuru Prasad  I  confronted, perhaps  for the  first  time the  presence  of  active  Ambedkarite  politics in  an institution and how  the Dalit  and  non  Dalit  students  living  outside WB  have  absorbed   it  into  their  very  existence. This is  not  passive  devotionalism. Rather, this is  an  act  of  claiming  the  institution, thereby inscribing in  it the facticity of Dalit experience   which  is  symbolized by beef. The  statement  needs  elaboration.

Claiming the  institution

When Georgy  and  Vikas  arrived  at  the  CSSS  from  Hyderabad to  pursue  their  Ph.D and  M.Phil  degrees respectively,  two  things  surprised them. Inspite  of  being  the  birthplace  of  the  Subaltern  Studies, the  CSSS  has  not  a  single  Dalit in  the   Faculty. Secondly,  they  also  noted  that the  institution  does  not  follow  the  rules  of  affirmative  action  in  the  admission  of  Scheduled  Caste  and  Scheduled  Tribe  students.  When  the  boys  approached  the  teachers , the  familiar  argument  over   merit  followed. What  was  more  disappointing  was  the  fact that  inspite  of  its  international fame,  it  has  remained  isolated  from  the  surrounding neighbourhood.  The  students discovered  a hostel  for  Poundra  Kshatriya ( a Dalit  caste)  men,  some  fifteen  minutes  from  the  institute  and  went  to  invite them  to  the  festival.  To their  dismay, inspite of being a caste conscious Ambedkarite organisation, the  men  at the Poundra Kshatriya hostel were  not  aware of the existence of the Centre. One  of  the  festival’s  aim  was  also  to counter  the insularity  of  the  institution. Vikas  pointed out that  when  the Beef  Festival  was  organised  at   Osmania  University,  the  opposition  came  from  the  faculty as  well  as  students. The  fierce  opposition  led  to  the  arrival  of  police  and  the  festival  made  it  to  the headlines. Ironically, the   festival got some visibility due to the opposition. In Kolkata, more  insidious  forms  of  censorship are  practised. When the  organisers informally spoke  with  some  of  the  journalists working  with    different  newspapers  of  the  city, they  hardly  showed  any  interest.  Since  I  was also  promoting the event  via  Facebook,  I  noticed  that  the  interest  mainly  came  from students  living  outside  Kolkata . The habitual  beef  eaters bypassed  the  event. Perhaps  they  were ashamed  of  eating  beef  minus  the  cosmopolitan  aura  surrounding  it. When  made  part  of Ambedkarite  politics,  beef  no  longer  remains just the  food  to  be  consumed  and  gorged on  but a  resistance  to  be  confronted.


This  weird  phenomenon of  bhadrolok  doublespeak  cannot  be  understood  without  looking  at  the historical  role  the  bhadrolok  has  played  in Bengal  politics, thanks  to  the  thirty four  years  of  Leftist  rule.  It  is  not  that  the  previous  governments  gave  space  to  Dalits or  Muslims, who  are  equally  invisible  in  West  Bengal. But  the  Left  Front  rule , with  its  focus  on social change created  a  vanguard  out  of  the  bhadrolok  who successfully  pre empted  any  challenge  from  below. Appointing  themselves  as  the  liberators  of  the  masses  , they  ended  up  representing  the  latter   not only in  politics  but  also  in  culture. The  representation  has  lead  to  abstraction of  concrete  lived  realities thereby ignoring  factors  of caste,  gender, sexuality or  ethnicity. As  a  result  any  politics  that  brings  up  these  structures  of  oppression faces  strong  resistance. For  instance, it is  extremely common  for people  who attempt  to  talk  about  caste to  encounter  the   assertion  that  it  is  not  caste  but  class  that  is  the  chief  cause  of  oppression  in  WB. The  assertion  has  now  taken  the  form  of  fact,  given  the  dominance  of  the  bhadrolok in  the  cultural and educational sphere thereby  preventing   alternative /Dalit epistemologies  to  emerge. For  instance, take  the case  of  Jadavpur  University  where  I  study. It is not that  students  do  not  face  casteist  remarks  or abuses. Teachers holding degrees  from  prestigious  universities do  not  hesitate  to  jeer  at  students  with  non  Brahminical  surnames. Scheduled  Caste and  Scheduled  Tribe  students  face  ridicule  from  the administrative  staff.  On  the  one  hand,  there is a  minuscule number  of Dalits  in  the   faculty .On  the  other,  such  is  the  dominance  of  Left leaning  intellectuals on  campus  that students who  want  to  work  on  caste  in  Bengal  would  normally  find  little  encouragement. In  one  of  the  interviews,  when  I  expressed  my  desire  to  work  on Dalits   in  WB,  I  was  told that  there  aren’t  any   in  WB! This  extreme  reluctance  to  perceive  the Scheduled  Caste  population  of  Bengal  as  Dalits   stems  from  a  paternalistic  impulse  of  the  upper  caste  intelligentsia.  By  claiming  the  Dalit  identity , which  had  its origin  in  Maharashtra,  the  Dalits  in  Bengal  are  severing  their  ties  with  the  bhadrolok  led  movements  of  Bengal  and  to  make  matters  worse  acknowledging  their  allegiance  with “non-Bengalis”!The  gesture resists  Bengali  chauvinism  and  brahminism  in  the  same  vein. It  is  important  to  point  out that  brahminism  is  inbuilt within  the  construction  of Bengali identity. One  simply has  to  look  back  at the  literature of swadeshi period when Bengali identity  was  being politicized  by the  bhadrolok. Jati or  caste (read anti  caste assertions  by  Dalits) came  to be  seen  as  hindrance  to  a Bengali identity and the bhadrolok replaced it with  the  idea of   a Bengali  jati created, led  and  defined  by  the  caste  Hindu  male. For instance,  Nazrul’s  famous  song  Jater namey bajjati  shab, popularized  during the  swadeshi  period laments  this  division of  caste  only because  it  leads to  disunity  among  Bengalis.

Jater name  bajjati shab,                           Wiles  in  the  name  of  jati (caste)

Jaat  jalia  khelcho  jua                               you are swindling  with  your   jati(caste)

Chule  porei  jaat  jabe                               if   mere   touch  destroys  jati(caste) 

Jaat  cheler  hather noi  toh  moa            jati (caste ) is  nothing  more  than   a  child’s  toy/candy

Hukhor jal aar  bhater  hari,                     Hukah’s  water  and  rice from the pot,

Bhabli  etei  jatir  jan                                 you thought  jati (caste)  thrives  on these!

Tai  toh  bekub  korli  tora                        Fool!  That’s   the  reason  why you broke

Ek  jatike  ekshokhan ;                              one jati( Bengali nationality) into  hundred

Akhon  dekhish  bharot  jora                   Now ,  throughout  Bharat 

Pore  achish  bashi  mora ,                       rotten  corpses  lie  scattered

jat  nai  aaj  ache  shudhu                          No jati  (caste  as  well  as  nation)  lives  today …..

Jaat  sheyaler  hukka  hua.                    (an approximate translation)

Beef and  Facticity of  dalit experience

In  his  essay  The  Origin  Of  Untouchability , B.R  Ambedkar argued  that beef  eating  by  the  Dalits  is  the  reason  for  their  untouchability.  In  his  understanding, given the  shastric  sanctions  against  beef, beef is  the  reason  why  caste  Hindus  hate  Dalits . Since  beef  is  the  cheapest of  all  available  meat, the  centrality of it as  the  main  source  of  diet  in  Dalits’  life  is  only  natural. However, what  is  more  important  is  the  symbolic  import  of  consuming  beef  by those  Dalits  who  can  afford  to  have  other meat  and  yet  are  claiming beef  within  the  institution. At  a  time  when the  Hindutva  brigade’s  arrival  is  all  set,  claiming  to be  a beef  eater  is  not  just a  claim  not  to  be  Hindu  but a  move  that  seeks  identification  with  the  Muslims. It  directly  assaults  the  myth  of  the  Hindu  nation, given  the  strategic  importance  of  Dalits  in  BJP’s  communal  pogroms, (the  Dalits  have  been  co opted into its  Hindutva  politics .For  instance it is  said  that  the first  brick at  the  Ayodhya  temple  was  laid  by  a  Dalit  after the  demolition  of  Babri  Masjid  by  the  BJP-RSS  combined  forces. The  6^th December 1992 riot  was  strategically  organized, among other reasons,  to  prevent  a  huge  gathering  of  Dalits in  Mumbai  to  commemorate  Ambedkar’s  death.) In  this  scenario, beef  is  an  assertion  of the  autonomy  of  the  Dalit  community, it is its’ refusal  to  be  identified  as Hindus. In the  light  of  Ambedkarite thought  to  be  a  Hindu, is  also  to  have  a caste. One  can  become  casteless  only  when  one  renounces the  religion, which according  to him  is  no  more  than  a  system  of  codes  and  laws. It  is  due  to the  centrality  of  Dalits  in  maintaining the  dominance  of  Hindu  religion that the Ambedkarite  Beef  Festival  made the  fissures  so  prominent. The  meat could  only  be  cooked  outside  the  kitchen as  the  non  teaching  staff  would not  tolerate  the  touch  of  beef. Surprisingly that day,  the  usual  ceramic  cups  were  not  available  and  tea  was being  served  in  use and  throw  plastic  cups .

 Beyond the  Festival :  Dalit cultural  assertion  

If  the  Beef  Festival  was  intended  to  disrupt  the  religious  conservatism  of  the Bengalis,  the  exhibition  of Shyamsundar’s cartoons, highlighting  caste in the  academia, cross  caste  amorous  relationships, Ambedkar’s  role in the  history  of  modern  India, photographs  of  Dalit  public  protesting  against  the state  or  celebrating  the  erection of  Ambedkar’s  statues and  most  importantly books  by  Bengali  Dalit  writers challenged  the  Brahminical  pedagogy  of  the  institution. Georgy  and  Vikasrepeatedly  said  that  there is  a  reluctance  among  the  faculty  to  look at  caste  from  an  Ambedkarite  perspective .The  objectivity and  theoretical  excellence  for  which  the  centre  stands , turns  out  to  be  a  hindrance  for  researchers  who  want  to  look  at  caste  from  an  Ambedkarite  perspective. The  loopholes  came  out  very  recently  when  Dalit writers  like  Manohar  Mouli  Biswas  and  Manoranjan  Byapari  got invited at the Centre  to  share  their  perspectives  on  caste. In  spite  of  the  faculty’s  engagement, the  students  were  found  sneering  at the  speakers, laughing at their  accent and  opinion. The point  I  am  trying to  make  is  that even the so  called meritocratic students   who  have   fed  into  the  discourse  of   SS have  not  learned  to  listen  to  the   subaltern  inspite  of  their  anti elitist  claims. The  fact  that one  has  to  question  one’s  basic  assumptions, to  shake  the  very  foundations  of  one’s  zealously guarded  values in  order  to enter  into  a  fruitful  conversation with  the  “other”   has  not  gone  down  well   with most  of the students.  That  is  the  reason  why  upper  caste  Bengalis  do not  even  question the  fact  that  in  their  denial  of  existence  of  caste  in Bengal, it  is  their  sense of superiority they  are  defending.

The  beginning  of  a  movement

Perhaps  for  the  first  time in  the  history  of  Kolkata,   anti  caste  protest   got a  space   to  express  itself  within  an  institution. A quick survey of  the  social  networking  site  reveals  that  it  has  successfully  provoked  bhadrolok  sensibility. A  fierce  assertion of  “class” has  been  made  with  the  lamentation  that  caste  is being  given  greater  importance  than  class  in  the academia! While  the  irony  of  the  statement  is  all  too  palpable  to  be  further talked  about,  the  fact  remains  that  caste  has  been  invisibilised  through  such  assertions. The  festival  has  offered  an  opportunity  to  break  the silence  surrounding  caste. Let students of other institutions draw  inspiration from  the event .  

(Drishadwati Bargi is an M.Phil student at the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University)