Use of ‘Dalit’ not derogatory: Experts

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 22

Though the Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission has issued instructions to refrain from using the word ‘Dalit’ for identifying any person belonging to the SC, experts of Dalit studies and legal luminaries say it is a term chosen by the Dalits for themselves and there is no offence in using this for the oppressed classes.

Taking notice of the word being used for Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, commission chairperson Tejinder Kaur on Tuesday issued instructions to not use ‘Dalit’ to mark the identity of any person belonging to the SC. The government is widely using the term in its official communication. The government even has a Dalit Welfare Board.

Prof Ronki Ram, an expert on Dalit studies and professor of political science at Panjab University, says since ancient times, Dalits have been called with various derogatory names. Like in the medieval times, they were called ‘achhoot’, in modern times, they were given the name of ‘Harijan’. If ‘achhoot’ was a derogatory term, ‘Harjian’ conveyed pity. “None of the two were chosen by them. But Dalit is the only term which they chose for themselves,” he says. Prof Manjeet Singh, former director of Panjab University’s Ambedkar Centre, says, SC can’t be a replacement for the Dalit. Scheduled is a constitutional term but the Dalit has historical, political and social connotations. The Dalit unites all oppressed castes whereas scheduled still makes differences in castes. The moment you are out of it, you are not part of that schedule.”

“Now ‘elite classes’, including bureaucrats among the Dalits, who have reaped the harvest of reservation, are feeling problem with the term but the real Dalits are fine with that,” he says.