Opinion - News Analysis

A retrogressive move

By M. S. S. Pandian

The current effort by the Tamil Nadu Government to abolish the special status of the Adi Dravida Welfare Schools (numbering 1,017 with 2,18,385 Dalit students) and Government Tribal Residential Schools (numbering 243 with 23,687 tribal students) and to bring them under the control of the Education Department will spell disaster for the future education of the Dalit and tribal communities.

The move by the Government is defended on a number of grounds. First, it is claimed that it would end the isolation of the Dalit and tribal students and integrate them with others. Second, regular inspection of these schools by the officials of the Education Department will improve the educational quality of the Dalit and tribal students. Third, the maintenance of these schools accounts for about 60 per cent of the annual budget of the Adi Dravida Welfare Department; and by bringing the schools under the Education Department, this money could be used for other welfare measures benefiting the Dalits.

None of these arguments seems to be valid.

These schools came into being because of the caste Hindu resistance to accommodate the Dalits in regular schools. The long history of this resistance to Dalit education need not be recounted here. It was campaigns by Dalit leaders such as Irrataimalai Seenivasan, Panditar Iyothydoss and Swami Shajananda, relentless efforts by a section of Christian missionaries and British colonial bureaucracy, and administrative moves by Justice party ministries in the 1920s (in particular, the ministry under P Subbarayan), which ensured to the Dalits minimal access to education during the colonial period. In other words, if the Adi Dravida schools remain special and separate, it is because of the long-standing and continuing resistance by the caste Hindu society to Dalits' education.

Have times changed and are we ready for integration? Going by all evidence, different forms of untouchability abound in various parts of Tamil Nadu. The `two-tumbler' system is a well-known instance. The violence against the Dalits by caste Hindu communities and the so-called enforcers of law is definitely on the increase. While this signals the Dalits' assertion against caste oppression, it also tells us about the refusal of the caste Hindus to give up their caste privileges. The state itself has become a puppet in the hands of the caste Hindus. The fate of a state-run transport corporation named after Veeran Sundaralinganar is a telling instance.

Schools are not institutions located outside society and the caste relations in the wider society find their own manifestation on school campuses: sports teams in schools are divided on the basis of castes; better performance of the Dalit students in a sports event spills on to the streets as caste violence; and noon meal centres keep separate plates for the Dalit students. The recent press reports tell us that Sri Chandrasekarananda Saraswati University at Kancheepuram, a deemed university run by the Kanchi Mutt, discriminates its business management students, despite their having paid a substantial capitation fee, on the basis of caste. In such a context, the so-called integration can only lead to constant humiliation and marginalisation of the Dalit students in classrooms and, consequently, to their self-hate. That is no congenial atmosphere for learning.

Again, it is not true that inspections by the officials of the Education Department will improve the quality of education in these schools. An appraisal done by the Department of Evaluation and Applied Research has found that the Dalit and tribal students of the special schools have done better than their counterparts in regular schools in Plus-Two examinations. The reason could very well be that the teachers in these schools are drawn from Dalit communities. This could have resulted in an environment of non-discrimination of the students by the teachers and even a certain extra commitment to the students as both the teachers and the students share the same social milieu.

Finally, there is no guarantee that the additional funds made available by bringing these schools under the Education Department will augment the benefit to the Dalits and tribals. It is almost an annual ritual that part of the funds allotted for welfare programmes for the Dalits is returned unspent to the Union Government. Thus, it is not funds that seem to be at the heart of the matter, but the will of the state and its bureaucracy. A recent exercise carried out at Chennai as part of sensitising state functionaries to Dalit issues is instructive here. When the state functionaries were given the imaginary option to choose a caste other than their own, most of them opted to be either a Brahmin or a Thevar. This being the state of things, to expect the additional funds to be spent at all— that too meaningfully— is to indulge in fantasies.

Denial of education as a way of exercising authority has a long history in this State. For example, the first Congress ministry in the Madras Presidency after independence, headed by C. Rajagopalachari, chose to close down hundreds of rural schools. The current move by the Tamil Nadu Government is yet another effort partaking in this past legacy— this time targeting the most marginalised sections.

Alongside this move, the Government is planning to hand over Dalit welfare hostels to NGOs— in an effort to privatise them. Confirming reports, Jayendra Saraswati of the Kanchi Mutt has admitted that the Mutt has expressed its willingness to the Government to take over these hostels. He also reasoned that if the hostels were handed over to Christian missionaries, they would convert the Dalits into Christians, but his agenda is one of humanising them. While his statement treats the Dalits as awaiting humanisation, his uncalled for invocation of the Christain missionaries makes explicit his Hindutva agenda.

It is for the Dalits to decide whether they wish to be Hindus, Christians, Muslims or atheists. It is not the business of the state to guide them into any one of these or other options. After all, education is meant to expand human choices rather than restrict them.

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