FROM A SOCIAL OUTCAST TO PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOCRACY

On Thursday, 20 July 2017, Ram Nath Kovind a member of India’s poorest and most oppressed caste –the Dalits- was elected President of India. Ram Nath Kovind is the second member of the Dalit caste to become president of India; the first being  K.R. Narayan, who held the post for five years commencing 1997.  

The President of India though largely a ceremonial role, is the legal Head of State of India and is elected by an electoral college, which comprises members of both Houses of the Parliament of India.
The Dalit community or caste, comprising around 250 million people -more than ten times Sri Lanka’s population- has for generations been treated as less than human, seen as outcasts, oppressed, deprived of education and denied all basic human rights. Unfortunately despite having two Heads of State coming from the caste, the past 70 years have done little to address the discrimination the caste/community faces.

Even today the members of the Dalit caste receive little protection under the law. As recently as in May this year the ‘Guardian’ reported how an advance team for the BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, reportedly gave Dalit villagers soap and asked them to clean themselves before an official visit.

Indian media continue reporting incidents of members of the Dalit community being attacked by upper caste Hindu vigilantes. The   Hindustan Times reported of four Dalit men being stripped, chained to a car and beaten up by cow protection vigilantes in Gujarat -the state where Prime Minister Modi was once Chief Minister. 

Despite the Prime Minister condemning the actions of India’s ‘cow vigilantes’ the attacks continue. Again Premier Modi rose from a tea-boy to Premier, but it has not helped India’s poor.

We saw in our own country –Ms. Sirimavo Bandaranaike elected the first female Prime Minister in the world, Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge became Sri Lanka’s first modern female head of state and president, but it did not make much of a difference to the status of the women in our country. Even today our legislature is overwhelmingly dominated by the male of the species. Our present Parliament has only 13 women  -5.7% of the total members of Parliament being female.

Barrack Obama became the first African-American president of the US in 2004. He served two terms as president. He was in fact the most powerful man in the world because of his office, but yet even today African Americans remain at the bottom of the US social ladder.

stateofworkingamerica.org reports  African Americans had the highest poverty rate at  27.4 percent, followed by Hispanics at 26.6 percent and whites at 9.9 percent. 45.8 percent of young black children (under age 6) live in poverty, compared to 14.5 percent for white children.

The eternal truth we are faced with, is that a single individual assuming the highest and sometimes even the most powerful office in the world does not change the system, which controls the country/s concerned, nor does bring mega changes to the societies from which these individuals come.
A major share of the blame for the continuation of oppressive policies and discrimination against particular communities or groups, must be borne by the major religions. Religions preach equality and love, but the actions committed in the name of religion have veered away from the great leaders’ vision. 

Colour, caste, creed and difference of religion, more often than not tend to divide and oppress people.
It has become the strategy of the rich and powerful to use individual members of particular communities to promote the idea that social change is taking place because a single individual has reached the pinnacle of power in his/her field.

Unfortunately today’s reality is different. Let us hope however, that India’s new President will be able to lead the most oppressed section of his land to break the bonds of castism which have been shackling them for generations in a new, free and 
modern India.