A Milestone for the Indian Republic

Bhushan Gavai J.'s appointment as the CJI and the continuing struggle for fraternity

Fraternity everywhere in the history of the world has been a culmination of sustained struggle and a forceful assertion of dignity. Not long ago, Dalit culture, languages, breads, water, company, clothes, complexion, smell, colors, touch and even shadows were despised and rejected by the savarna minority in India. A token acknowledgement of this fractured fraternity and resistance to it became implicit in the promise of the Indian Constitutional Republic. “Educate, organise, agitate” embodied the spirit of resistance. A lot has changed and yet nothing has changed. Gavai J., a Dalit Nava-Bauddha, becoming the Chief Justice of India offers to each of us a solemn moment to reflect on this travesty. This post is on my part an invitation to celebrate this historic moment.

Gavai CJ. greeted members of the bar with the traditional slogan of resistance Jai Bhim.

Gavai J. being appointed as the CJI, reminded me of the grave atrocity committed in Maharashtra fifty-one years ago. I had read of it in JV Pawar’s historical account of the Dalit Panthers, a movement he co-founded. In Akola, year 1974, Gopal and Babruvahan Gavai (not related to the CJ but the same caste-group) were working with Gopal’s sixteen-year old daughter in Mr. Shinde’s field. Gopal’s daughter was raped by the field-owner’s son and she remained pregnant. When Gavai brothers pleaded with Mr. Shinde that his son marry Gopal’s daughter, FIRs were registered against the Gavai brothers and Gopal’s daughter for concocting accusations. The Shindes later ganged-up and gouged the eyes of the Gavai brothers. Read the excerpt from the book to learn how the Panthers brought this atrocity to light. The caste-group connection was instantly forged within my mind. In part this was an important reminder of the historicity of the caste struggle, in part an ugly guilt about a caste-consciousness.

The political struggle of equality seldom transforms into love, belongingness, empathy or shared-solidarity. It at the most uncomfortably bridges two groups and identities and tries to meld them into the fictitious citizen identity. Worlds often mingle but the millieu can never really dissolve in the teeth of historical forces of difference, diffidence and derision. ‘Our’ and ‘their’ universes remain divided by luck, privilege, accident of fate and the history of oppression. To illustrate, I will draw on two examples my own little world so as to not appropriate experiences. My otherwise noble late grandfather, a God-fearing Congressi Sarpanch, was trusted to have been fair, kind and generous to all. However, as soon as he was back from public gatherings he had to bathe to wash away the shadows and evil spirits afflicting him. In a snail-shift, my parents were gradually convinced to give up some notions of purity and for instance stop keeping separate utensils for maid-servants. Much of this change is tokenist. My parents for instance married inter-caste and in face of staunch opposition; however they will be quick to shoot down a proposal of me marrying a Dalit woman. In most savarna spaces there is commonly routinized outright derision of Dalits and their ‘lowly-distinctiveness’. In some others, the general outlook is that of a haughty, benevolent and delusional acceptance of ‘them’ and ‘their ordeal’. Very few of my siblings from the upper-caste-community will therefore celebrate this occasion of a Dalit Nava-Bauddha being appointed the Chief Justice, in fact some will even be sore about it. I am afraid that the historical and civilizational significance of this achievement of a century-long struggle will perhaps not dawn upon them. That is therefore the first reason to write and; to them is my most important invitation to celebrate.

Further, not too many Marathis are seen celebrating that the genesis of this struggle and its success all emanate from Maharashtra. Gavai CJ. was born in a Marathi family in Amravati and cut teeth as a lawyer in Nagpur. Gavai followed his father’s footsteps in caste-politics through the now-splintered Republican Party of India before turning to rendering judicial services and reaching one of the highest constitutional office. (Watch his mother describe how the CJ was meant to do politics but landed in the judiciary). The Republican Party, Panthers’ movement, politics of Ambedkarite resistance, Deekshabhoomi and neo-buddhist movement for preserving a dignified distinctive existence—all struggles—the culmination of which is Gavai J.’s life and his eventual elevation as the CJI originated in Maharashtra. This historical fact should not go unregistered in Maharashtra as a victim of fractured fraternities. It is a legacy of struggle that should be owned-up, shared-in or celebrated-along. It must not remain an inconvenient footnote to the history of the State. This is then my second reason for me to record this celebration as a post and to invite attention of my Marathi siblings. I must recommend Jai Bhim Comrade to apprehend a part of it better.

Gavai J.’s appointment as CJI would be a milestone and no less than a silent revolution for many: a vindication of their faith and struggle in Baba’s mantra, struggle and life. Some may certainly have muttered under their lips that unlike Gavai CJ., they are condemned to wait for their stars to align in this Republic of Chance. They might remind us that not everyone’s father is Dadasaheb Gavai. However, great many brethren, Nava-Bauddhas amongst them, who hang Baba’s portrait in their living room and praise it before any God, would have their hearts full that Baba’s vision was realized by at least one of Baba’s foot-soldiers. Today is a big reckoning that “it is possible” and “we did it”. Many Dalit parents certainly instructed their children to watch one of them becoming the Chief Justice of India. Holding the highest office in the institution that is the guardian of public reason and constitutional values in India. Ambition, assertion, inspiration, acceptance and vindication are all central to the universe of struggle. All these ringed through WhatsApp notifications throughout the country today. Sharing in this success and struggle is the third reason for writing this post and extending the invitation to all.

Political equality then is a necessary site of defiant conflict that can vindicate and legitimize experiences and struggles. Political equality is crucial to wrest the narrative and cloak the struggles and inspiration to strive in a new vocabulary of haq and aazadi. It is also an affront to entrenched hierarchies suppressing such liberation. Many amongst us wouldn’t celebrate this opportune moment and would remind ourselves and others of the enormous dark abyss that yet awaits us. Usefully remind that this divide affects only some of us. However, Gavai J. becoming the Chief Justice of India is not a momentary wild-card charade or a mere show-piece in an old and persisting world of contradictions. Nor is this just another act of benevolence by the great Republic and its self-healing civilization. It is a mark of a person and a community having overcome the boundaries of caste-identity in a casteist-society with sustained steadfast defiance and struggle. That mark not only be made distinctly but also heard, talked of and accepted but also welcomed and celebrated. That is my fourth reason for this post and invitation.

This image would have betrayed even the most Utopian political imagination of a future-India seventy-five years ago:

Ms. Droupadi Murmu, a Santhal woman, the Santhals who first led the revolt against the white man— the first citizen of the republic. Gavai J., Nav-Bauddha from amongst the Scheduled Castes, now appointed the Chief Justice of India. They greet each other with the very Indian Namaste.

We rarely pause to appreciate and applaud the struggles in such solemn moments, and that then is my final reason to write this post. This moment has been earned with struggle to which respects and tributes must be paid. This appointment marks a milestone in the chequered history of identity-based oppression that continues to beleaguer the Indian civilization. It is a silent re-iteration of an undying faith in the promise of a shared and equal republic. This is one in the line of Thurgood J., O’ Connor J., Fathima Beevi J. and Balakrishnan J. This is one for the history and for the future. It is a flicker of fraternity emanating from a constitutional promise that must keep glowing bright.