Let’s talk polls but first, how about One Nation One People?

Last month, an ugly fracas erupted between the ruling and opposition parties in parliament over remarks made on B R Ambedkar by Home Minister Amit Shah, during a debate on One Nation One Election (ONOE). The altercations that followed – causing injuries to a few – were, of course, politically charged but it was also another reminder on the polarisation of our society along caste lines. Ambedkar has a special place among the heroes Dalits deify, some of whom are earthy historical figures who have resisted upper-caste oppression.

Recently, a news headline caught my attention: ‘Pujas halted as Dalit youths enter temple near Chikkamagaluru’. The report was about members of the Kuruba community, a notified backward caste of shepherds, refusing to resume the rituals as the temple had become ‘impure’ with the entry of Dalits. A compromise was reached after district officials accompanied by the police threatened legal action. However, the villagers insisted that worship could continue only after priests appointed by the Muzrai Department performed the “purification rituals”. I recalled a line by the great philosopher-saint Kanakadasa, a Kuruba by caste – “Why are you all constantly fighting about caste, can anyone discover his roots? Is not everyone born from a womb?”

In 1936, Mahadev Desai, personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi, wrote thus to poet Rabindranath Tagore: “Revered Gurudev, a number of people have been quoting your opinion on the question of the conversion of Harijans to Sikhism in support of their contention that to embrace Sikhism is the only way to retain Hindu culture and yet, renounce Hinduism. Bapu could not believe that you could ever have given your assent to a proposition like this. Would you mind setting out your considered opinion on the matter?”

Tagore, in a long and well-argued reply, clarified that he did not advise but only “pleaded the case” of Sikhism and had the same view on Buddhism. “In everyday use, Hinduism is just a way of life, and however great its philosophical and cultural basis may be, that alone will not atone for all its social injustices perpetrated throughout ages, in its name... Sanatanists are not very far wrong when they claim that the spirit of division, keeping down a large section of our community, is in permanent structure of our religion,” Tagore reasoned.

He noted that it was “a great day” for the whole of India when Guru Govind defied the age-long convention of Hindu society and made his followers one, breaking down the barriers of caste.

When it dawns on you that not only the orthodox Brahmins but also other castes would not eat or drink what a Dalit had touched, you realise why Dalits feel a greater kinship with Muslims, Sikhs, or Buddhists. In my village Gorur on the picturesque banks of the river Hemavathy, in Hassan district, Dalits were referred to as ‘Adi Karanatakas’. As the name connotes, they were the first-born of this land; they pre-existed the rest of us who are all migrants.

While the inner quarters of the village had the Brahmin streets, in the outer ring were residents who were Gowdas, Kurubas, Bestas (fishermen), Vishwakarmas (blacksmiths), Kumbaras (potters), and others. But Dalits lived in a colony outside the village. Sheep and chicken could be slaughtered inside the village but beef which Dalits consumed was carved out of cows and buffaloes along the banks of a canal that meandered, skirting the village past the colony. The Muslim merchant purchased the skin of the animals, their bones, and beef from them which they also partook. This explained their symbiotic kinship.

I’m reminded of Samskara, that powerful Kannada novel by U R Ananthamurthy. When Naranappa, a Brahmin villager who drinks and eats meat and has a Dalit live-in partner Chandri, dies of plague, none of the Brahmins in the village are willing to perform his rituals and carry the dead body of the “impure sinner” for cremation, even as his body decomposes and vultures hover above. Chandri, desperate to honour her beloved, appeals to a Muslim merchant, Ahmed, who empathises with her and carries the dead man on his ox cart and accompanies her to cremate him.

Today, all political parties are invoking Ambedkar and appropriating the father of our Constitution for political gains without forsaking their caste and communal designs. What should have been a serious, dignified debate on an issue with far-reaching consequences as One Nation One Election descended into pandemonium, degrading the sanctity of the parliament.

The tallest of our leaders such as Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Ambedkar, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and C Rajagopalachari had differences among themselves but they were dignified while exchanging their views. Can we learn from them? The debate on ONOE must continue but if we do not strive to become One Nation One People, will we endure as a society?