Whatever might have been the intention behind creating the caste system by our ‘Noble men’, it has tarnished the fragile image of our society in the eyes of civilized world. We have always been teaching others against apartheid and racial discrimination but we have ourselves been ruthlessly practicing the worst kind of discrimination under the rap of our past glory. Not only the political leaders and religious preachers, but our most popular and sacred books like Maha Bharata (Dronacharya rejected Eklavya, a son of Sudra, as a potential student to his ashrama ), and Ramayana (Sudra, named Sambuka, was killed by Rama for reading the Veda.), have been teaching discrimination based on caste system.
God only knows how many souls have been tortured and massacred in the caste related violence. Our memories are still fresh with the massacre of Khairlanji dalits. On September 29, 2006, a mob of upper-caste men beat to death the whole family of a Dalit, Bhotmange. Before the women were beaten to death, they were raped. These incidents are well documented by human right activists and other non-governmental organizations, but very little or nothing has been done to break the vicious circle of casteism and stop this kind of human carnage.
I will leave you to read a little known secret about 1857 sepoy uprising by “ Raja Sekhar Vundru” which he wrote for TOI and decide whether Mangal Pandey was a hero or a protector of his upper-caste glory.
1857: The untouchable story.
Any historic event properly dramatized would make a good film, be it Robert Clive (1935, USA) or Mangal Pandey – The Rising (2005, India). The transformation of the military history of the sepoy mutiny in to the social history of the first war of independence has already taken a good deal of historian’s time. Still, the underlying facts need re-examination.
On February 11, 1857, Major General J. B Hearsey, commanding the Bengal Presidency Army reported an incident from Berrakpore to Colonel R. J. H Birch, military secretary to the East India Company : A high – cast Brahmin sepoy was stopped by an untouchable khalasi employed at the ammunition depot. The thirsty untouchable sought some water from the Brahmin’s lota. The Brahmin sepoy refused, as the untouchable’s touch would defile the vessel. The Khalasi taunted the sepoy, “You think of your cast, but wait a little, the sahib-log will make you bite cartridges soaked in cow and pork fat, and then where will your cast be?”
Soon the rumour about the cartridges for the new Enfield rifle spread in the Bengal Army. The high-cast Brahmin sepoy who dominated the army refused to use the new cartridges. The Muslim sepoys were equally enraged.
Unlike the Bombay Army, which has a predominance of untouchable Mahars ( with a pre-colonial military history) or the Madras Army with its Pariah and Mala untouchables, the Bengal Army had a high presence of Brahmins. Lord William Bentick in 1826 was highly critical of the Bengal Army, which had only a few low- cast sepoy, and was inefficient and expensive army.
Sir Charles Napier, the commanding officer of the Bengal Army in 1850, noted that if high cast Hindus were to opt between their cast and military discipline, they would sacrifice the latter. Fear of loss of cast prompted the Bengal Army’s high cast sepoys to refuse to travel overseas, bury their brethren in the war field and eat food cooked by low-cast untouchables (who were traditionally the company’s cook with no qualms in handling beef and pork).
B. R Ambedkar, from a Mahar military lineage, argued in the 1930s that the British established its rule in India with the help of valorous untouchable soldiers. The Bengal Army, which fought the battle of plassey, was largely composed of Dushads. The Anglo- Maratha wars, which let the British in to western India were won by Mahars of the Bombay Army. The Madras army which defeated Tipu Sultan in the south, was of untouchable pariah and Malas.
But the social composition of the company’s army changed after the British raised 74 regiment’s native Bengal infantry, between 1757 and 1825. High-caste Hindus chiefly Brahmins, drawn from the military labour markets of Awadh and Bihar, dominated all these new regiments. Soon the British realized the role of caste vis-vis loyalty, valour and discipline. Hence they recruited 24 regiments of Panjabi Infantry between 1846 and 1857, mostly from untouchable, Mzabhi Sikhs to balance the caste composition of the army.
For sepoys like Mangal Pandey and other high-caste men, cast came before their military carrier. Biting cartridges coated with cow fat was a dreadful prospect that led to loss of caste. Such fear ignited the mutiny of the first war of independence. Caste and religious loyalty once again took precedence over military discipline 127 years later, when a few sikh soldiers deserted Indian Army after the 1984 Operation Bluestar.
But the savage massacre of British women and children on July 15, 1857 by sepoys
at Bibi-ghar, Cawnpore, which Karl Marx compares to the practice of the Christian Byzantine Empire, was a pointer to the ritualistic killings done by high caste men when confronted with a threat to their caste. A modern day analogy would be the butchering of low caste women and children by Ranvir Sena.
Finally, it was the untouchable Mzabhi Sikh soldiers who broke the sepoy’s siege of Delhi on September 15, 1857. The Mahars and Pariahs from Bombay and Madras armies were pressed into service. A re-reading of history could even bring out poetic justice in the great historic moment – events that began with the refusal of water to an untouchable by a high-caste Brahmin sepoy, were put to an end by untouchable soldiers. So much for the ‘rising’ of Mangal Pandey.
“ Raja Sekhar Vundru” TOI
