The Scene of Action

The twin villages of Adavinathunikunta and Bynapalle are situated in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, South India. It is a region that receives scanty rain fall, despite the pleasant temperatures throughout the year. Punganur is the closest town; Madanapalle, famous as the birth place of the mystic philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthy, as well as the hill resort of Horsely Hills are nearby. We are just two-and-a-half hours away by road from Bangalore, the hi-tech capital of India, but unfortunately, very far from the social and technological advances that urban India has made since independence nearly 60 years ago.

This is the story of our on-going experiment to use rationalism as a tool to modernize the people of the region. This is also an account of the difficulties and dilemmas that we have faced as Humanists, in our attempt to spread scientific temper and inculcate human values.

Around 1000 people live in these two villages. About 500 would be from the upper castes, some 400 are from the so-called backward castes, and nearly 80 are from the Dalit community, or the traditionally untouchable castes. The Dalit community consists of the Malas and the even more downtrodden Madigas. Here, like in most other villages, the Malas themselves used to consider the Madigas untouchable!

The democratic Panchayat system of local self- government exists in Indian villages, and these two villages, along with 5 other neighbouring ones form the Raganipalle Panchayat, covering over 3000 inhabitants. Several such Panchayats fall under the jurisdiction of Punganur mandal. A mandal is an administrative unit – Andhra Pradesh state with its 90 million population has 23 administrative districts, in turn made of 1123 Mandals.

The Story of Our Village Well

Following India’s independence in 1947, the Government of India initiated a programme of masonry well digging so that Dalits could have easy access to drinking water. The well that was dug in 1950 in my native village, Adavinathunikunta, provided surprisingly tasty water – but sadly proved to be a bane for the Dalits. The upper caste people in the village summoned the Dalits and informed them that they wanted access to the new well. Since it was impossible for the upper castes to share the well with the Dalits, the Dalits would have to cede ownership. As a concession, a parapet wall would be built – and the Dalits would be allowed to stand behind the wall and receive water poured to them. Of course, this arrangement imposed on the Dalits had no legal sanction – indeed it was a punishable offence!

This was still the situation in 1969 when I, then a young lecturer in English at the Sri Krishna Devaraya University, and a fellow villager, B.V.Ramana, a post- graduate student, decided to do something about it. We wanted to chase untouchability in our village, help widen village streets and improve sanitation, as well as start a village library. In that Centenary year of Gandhi’s birth, it would be our tribute to a great man, we thought.

We organized a meeting in the village where the local Member of the State Legislative Assembly was invited. My friend, Mr. Muni Venkatappa, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (and a Dalit himself) from a nearby village, Laddigam, was also present when the well was declared open to all sections of the village. This was welcomed by the Dalits, of course, and happily there were no protests from the upper castes. However, after the meeting, and when the public officials had left, the leaders of the upper castes insisted that the new arrangement would be acceptable to them only if the Malas acknowledged the right of the Madigas also to use the well. Their confidence was that the Malas and the Madigas would not be able to agree on this and that the status quo could be maintained. This was an unexpected challenge for us. We consulted with the Dalit community leaders and called for a meeting. After considerable discussion and a lot of education, the two communities agreed that there would be no internal untouchability amongst the Dalit families. Both the communities began to draw water from the well.

When this good news was announced to the rest of the village, instead of keeping their promise, the upper castes immediately reverted to the old well which they had abandoned in 1950 because of the salty water. Apart from the Dalits, only the Muslims now used the well. From amongst the so-called upper caste families, only my mother, a believer as well as an illiterate, continued to draw water from the well. She was heckled by the rest of the upper caste people, because the water was fit only for animals, now that it was defiled by the Dalits. It took over ten years for the Brahmins in the village to overcome their prejudice and to end their boycott of the well. Finally, the village priest Narayanaswamy and his family too came back to the well.

Not everywhere are the Dalits that lucky. Mr. Muni Venkatappa was a high ranking government officer till his retirement a few years ago, and yet, the upper caste people in his village still avoid a shortcut path in the village because it passes by his home and because he is a Dalit.

Involving the Community

Several years later, as a Professor at the university, I had the opportunity to lead a team of 35 students to Lakkunta village. For 15 days we all stayed in the Dalitwada – or the Dalit colony. It could hardly be called a human habitation, and it was located away from the rest of the village. There, living amongst the Dalits, we cooked for each other, and shared food and water, both as a measure to express our solidarity with fellow citizens, as well as to pass on a message to the upper caste villagers. This was a trip that is remembered fondly by all the Dalits of the village and indeed of the region, for what this did to their self esteem. It was also a life changing experience for the students who after initial hesitation overcame their prejudices and became committed to social change.

I retired from the University in 1999, and went back to my native place with the sole purpose of bringing about a social change in that backward area. By this time the Elementary school I went to in the village grew to be a 200 pupil Upper Primary school. My first attempt at making Adavinathunikunta, a modern village was to get a High school sanctioned so that everyone in the village will at least be a matriculate. We were also happy that computer moghul Ajim Premji’s Wipro Foundation selected our village for free computer education.

However, despite all these welcome developments, and even if outwardly all seemed well, Adavinathunikunta
still practised untouchability. Dalits were still not allowed into the village temple, and the villagers still did not eat together, even if the barber and the washerman community were no longer excluded from upper caste homes. This was the situation even in early 2006.

Dilemma for a Humanist

As a first step, the village temple had to be opened up to all who wished to go inside. Also, one of the biggest taboos in society relates to people’s food and eating habits, and by encouraging everyone to share food we would drive out the last vestiges of untouchability in the village. How could I, a Humanist who has little time for God and for temples, work for opening the village temple to all? It was morally reprehensible that a place of worship is not open to all, and it was legally a crime. What I and my believer friends were doing was to make sure that those Dalits who wished to enter the village temple would not be denied access. It was not a question of promoting religion, but that of promoting equality in a deeply divided society.

The Ugadi (Telugu New Year Day) which fell on March 30th 2006, provided an opportunity for us to bring the high caste Hindus and Dalits together. We succeeded in our attempt to persuade the upper caste people to welcome the Dalits into their fold to celebrate Ugadi together but without the superstitious reading of the astrological almanac – the Panchangam! Mr. N. Venkata Reddy, a leading advocate and a popular political activist from the neighbouring village, Mallupalli, participated in the programme and encouraged the villagers to live in social hamony. About 70 youngsters from all castes (Brahmin and Dalit) came together to march in the village streets shouting slogans “All Humans are Equal!”; Caste and Religious Differences should go!” and “Untouchability should be eliminated!” Happily enough, the village priest Narayana Swami himself ceremonially threw open the temple doors and welcomed two Dalits, Krishnamurthy and Narasimhulu, to conduct puja (prayers) in the sanctum sanctorum. My daughter, Sahana, prepared a huge pot of the traditional Ugadi pacchadi (with the legendary six different tastes) which the Dalits distributed among all the homes in the village. What is more, the Brahmin Pujari himself took prasadam and Ugadi pachchadi from the Dalit who replaced him. Later high caste Hindus themselves entered Dalit homes and accepted prayer offerings.

Everyone in the village felt that this was a new beginning for them, for they were meeting each other as equals. It was a true liberation for both the upper castes and the lower castes, for they discovered and were publicly practicing the great humanist value of equality. For example, when some Dalits were rebuilding their homes, the powerful Reddy community welcomed them into their colony – something unthinkable in past years.

Very soon, we utilized the religious festival of Sri Rama Navami which took place on April 7th 2006, to further the cause of removal of untouchability in Bynapalli with the help and cooperation of Mr. C.Srinivasa Rao, a retired government lecturer in English – and a Brahmin by birth. We organized an interdining programme in front of his house. He came forward with his Brahmin friends to participate in the event. Brahmins, Upper Castes, Backward Castes and Dalits all sat and ate together in a moving display of brotherliness.

80 years after Periyar!

It is sad that after Periyar’s successful temple entry programme of 1924, Dr. Ambedkar’s temple entry campaign of 1930, Gandhi’s opposition to untouchability, and Gora’s interdining activities of the 1930s, the same activities have to be repeated some 80 years on, even if the social resistance is far less now.

By this time we felt confident enough to invite journalists – and all over the state news about this was widely broadcast. We were slowly becoming confident of what has been achieved, and our village was getting ready to announce to the world that we had finally buried untouchability in our community! It is true that untouchability is a crime anyway, but this was the first time that a village came together to formally and publicly state that they had eliminated the heinous practice.

International Humanist News December 20

On 14 April which is the birthday of the great Dr. Ambedkar, we organized a meeting at Punganur Municipal office compound where some 800 Dalits attended from various villages to celebrate Adavinathunikunta’s achievement. It was also the occasion for IHEU’s Babu Gogineni – at whose suggestion and with whose help we had planned the events – to provide a Humanist perspective. The Humanist stand point was widely welcomed, and we have had many enquiries since about the Humanist stance.

Organising Themselves

Enthused by all these activities, some 40 youngsters in the village came together to organize themselves into a formal organisation called Pragati Yuvajana Sangham (Progressive Youth Association) so that they could continue this work. The youth group resolved to promote a rational outlook, and to fight untouchability wherever it may be found. They also resolved to support the anti-liquor movement so that the men do not waste their earnings on liquor and on gambling. When they went to formally register their organization with the local Registration office in Chittoor, the official demanded a bribe. They refused to pay.

In a democratic nation, change at the political level is very important. Sadly, Indian public life is a cesspool of corruption and caste politics. So when elections were to be held at the Panchayat level recently, we tried – unsuccessfully – to get a non partisan social worker from the backward castes elected. She was very poor but quite committed to social change. Unfortunately, the intimidatory tactics of the political parties made sure that the candidate that we were encouraging withdrew from the election.

Our Approach

Only education can guarantee emancipation. When young people are exposed to powerful modern ideas, and when they are trained to relate their knowledge to their conditions of life, the results can be very impressive. When the ability to think for themselves is developed amongst people and they are exposed to the right knowledge, superstition will find no home in their minds. We also organized in the summer this year training programmes which were aimed at providing
some important skills to people from the backward castes – an event in which Babu Gogineni also participated.

Throughout, the methods we adopted were that of non-confrontation. After all, we live in a village where there is so much inter-dependence. Fighting with the entrenched forces in a violent manner would not help bring about a friendly and lasting transformation. We want to liberate all in society – both the upper castes from their oppressive arrogance and the lower castes, from their economic, social and cultural misery. The various acrimonious debates and violent confrontations elsewhere in Indian society were also cautionary examples to us. There is of course no one single approach to the problem, each situation will require a solution tailored to the specific circumstances.

Is our poor village liberated? Not entirely. But it is surely well on the way to quietly achieve some important cultural gains. Most importantly, the participants in the social change – both upper castes and lower castes – saw the need to organise themselves to continue their activities. The community has come to own and cherish the change that has been brought about. As is obvious, more needs to be done. Our village is yet to welcome true democracy and we are yet to develop rationalism as the dominant culture in the community. And yet, despite the fact that caste still remains, the villagers themselves set an example for others in the region. As important as what the villagers achieved, was to tell the world about it. Now many wish to replicate the experiment of Adavinathunikunta. The time is ripe as the people are more responsive. We will soon repeat the 14 April event in Punganur, this time with greater numbers and also by involving the district administration.

We want to give the Dalits a face and an identity, we want them to organize themselves. As Humanists, we want to be the catalysts for a social movement which will be driven by the beneficiaries of the change – for that we are planning on how to provide them Human Rights training and Humanist education. The social movement must also be Humanist in identity and we are establishing a Society for Social Change and Humanism which will apply for membership of IHEU. IHEU’s involvement in our activities, and its commitment to making all this happen has been very encouraging to us
– and most valuable.

Prof. Venkata Reddy is Honorary State President of the Jana Vigyana Vedika (a science popularization group) and President of the All India English Language Teachers Association.

The rapid progress true Science now makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born too soon. It is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter. We may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity, and give them absolute levity, for the sake of easy transport. Agriculture may diminish its labour and double its produce; all diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not excepting even that of old age, and our lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian standard. O that moral science were in as fair a way of improvement, that men would cease to be wolves to one another, and that human beings would at length learn what they now improperly call humanity!

Benjamin Franklin’s letter to Joseph Priestly, 8 Feb 1780