Dalit will always remember EMS Namboodiripad as their Villain Number One
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Since the soul never dies, after its transmigration, a �dead� person is eulogised and rarely suggested to criticism. The obituaries written after EMS� death are quite in consonance with this age-old Hindu tradition. But that is a Hindu tradition, not a Dalit one. The Dalit tradition makes it mandatory to see the past with a critical temper for only then can a better future can be visualised. This Dalit tradition compels us to see EMS as he was in his socio�political context.
The April 17, 1998 issue of Frontline has EMS as its cover story. Many have aired their views on EMS and his contribution to Indian society. The magazine�s editorial titled �Thinker, Doer, History Maker�. The CPI(M) general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, describes EMS as a model for all revolutionaries and asserts that �he showed a new path to the entire world through the introduction of land reforms�. R. Krishana Kumar, in his article, declares EMS� land reform model as the �most comprehensive land reform is South Asia. V. K. Ramachandran quotes statistics to show how Kerala�s model of development, a product of EMS� vision, could be a model for all of India. Prabhat Patnaik, a noted economist, asserts, �EMS� interest in planning was enthusiastic in the extreme.�
Most obituaries which have appeared in English newspapers have invariably lauded EMS for his most �radical� ideas on land reform and its implementation in Kerala. EMS was chief minister of Kerala twice and the Left has ruled the state for around 17 years. Therefore Kerala must best reflect EMS� �grand vision�. If EMS is indeed responsible for the formulation of land reforms policy for India, in general, or Kerala, in particular, then he should definitely be held responsible for the landowning pattern amongst Dalits in Kerala.
Of the total Dalit Main Work Force engaged in the primary sector of the state�s economy (1991), 77.16 per cent SCs and 71 per cent STs were landless agricultural labourers as against their all India average of 63.54 percent and 36.32 per cent! With India having been ruled for around 45 five years by the rightist Congress, facts indicate that EMS� Kerala model lags far behind the Congress model of development.
In terms of size of landholdings, while 91.96 per cent non-Dalit landholdings fall in the marginal category, 99.36 per cent of SC and 82.91 per cent of ST land fall in this category. In other words, virtually the entire Dalit population in Kerala�s agrarian economy does not own sources of sustenance!
Let�s take another yardstick to understand the Kerala model of development. In economics, is well�acknowledged that a rising share of the secondary and tertiary sectors in relation to the primary sector in the Gross Domestic Product indicates modernisation and economic progress. On that count, Kerala is indeed a role model for the rest of India.
Of the total Dalit MWF in the state, a mere 30 per cent of the SCs and 10 per cent STs are in the secondary and tertiary sectors. This only means that the Dalit work force in the state has not experienced the same, or nearly the same, rate of shift as the non�Dalit work force. In this respect, it is not Kerala but Gujarat that emerges as a role model with 44 per cent of the SCs in the secondary and tertiary sectors. And this is despite the fact that Gujarat lags behind Kerala by 10 per cent in terms of the percentage of its non�Dalit MWF being in these sectors.
In terms of the degree of disparity (the work force shift from primary to other sectors) at the all�India level there is a gap of 15 and 28 points respectively between the SCs/ STs and others. But in case of Kerala the gap is much higher � 26 and 44 points respectively. Who should be held accountable for this phenomenon, if not EMS and his much-lauded model of development?
Much hype has been generated about Kerala�s high literacy rate, which again is attributed to EMS� model. Would the apologists of EMS tell us what the literacy rate of Kerala was at the time of its formation? Was it lower than the all�India literacy rate ?
On the question of radical social change, EMS is known for his crusade to liberate Namboodiri women from oppressive customs, promoting widow remarriage and campaigning against child�marriage. The social evils EMS fought against were indeed evils and he deserves credit for that. But the question remains why in EMS� ranking of social evils, untouchability was definitely lower down the order! What social vision of the greatest �communist� India has produced!
The fact is that in his vision, Dalit liberation had no place. Ever since the government of India Act (1935) came into being, and prospects of independence had brightened, the question of land reform emerged as an issue of intense debate. In the Lucknow (April 1936) annual conference of the Congress Party, Pandit Nehru spoke of eliminating the feudal autocracy. But the Congress could not evolve a clear policy of land reform even though the �radical� section within the party was insisting on land to the tenants.
When he was a member of the inquiry committee established in 1939 to study tenancy relations in the Malabar region, EMS� note of dissent ultimately evolved into a thesis to guide the land reform policy all over India. This radical (read reactionary) vision of EMS sealed the fate of majority of the Dalit populace of the country. This is because Dalits were, in general, not tenants, but landless agricultural labourers.
Ambedkar at that time had comprehended the hidden agenda of the progressives, and constantly argued for his land to the tiller thesis. In his �State and Minorities� (1942), essentially a memorandum prepared on behalf All India Scheduled Caste Federation and submitted to the constituent Assembly, Dr. Ambedkar had argued that: (a) agriculture will be a state industry;
(b) the state, after taking over land from the Zamidars/Zagirdars will suitably compensate the former owners in the form of debentures;
(c) the state will re�organise the rural populace into co�operatives and standard size land holdings will be leased out to them;
(d) land-labour relations will be such that there will be no landlords, no tenants and no landless agricultural labourers in India.
Such was the land-labour thesis of Dr.Ambedkar, on which the Indian Left never agreed. Noted Marxist scholars such as Prabhat Patnaik and Ashok Mitra should tell us what was Lenin�s view on land-labour relations in the then Soviet Union or Mao�s in China?
Last but not the least, was EMS unaware of the social identity of various social segments and their linkages with the land�labour relationships: upper varnas as land owners, upper shudras (middle castes) as tenants, and untouchables as landless agricultural labourers? Was he unaware of the percentage share of various social categories in Kerala�s total population? Dalits constitute 10 of the state�s total population, Brahmins are far less in number.
For a successful electoral strategy, a political party with no vision of radical social transformation must logically cultivate the largest social block. In case of Kerala, it meant the erstwhile shudras. In doing so, one can afford to theoretically oppose Brahmin supremacy without doing any real damage in real life. At the same time, while theoretically speaking for the Dalits, you can cripple their upward mobility by evolving anti�emancipatory policies.
EMS�s socio�political doctrine throughout his political life hovered around mobilising the middle castes (shudras). That doctrine of EMS found its purest expression in Kerala and West Bengal, and that accounts for the Left�s success in the two states. Howsoever honest, dynamic, and intellectually versatile he may have been, EMS� thesis on land reform has deprived millions of Dalit masses from precious land resources. Dalits will always remember him as their villain Number One.
If EMS was born in South Africa, and an anti-apartheid approach was not his passion, he may not have been described even as an average democrat. But in a country like India, even after treating untouchables as untouchables, a person like him becomes the �greatest� revolutionary. Long live his socialism!
Chandra Bhan Prasad
(Chandra Bhan Prasad is president, Dalit Shiksha Andolan)