Being Brahmin, differently

Driving to the dentist to have my wisdom tooth removed (‘Never knew you had any wisdom’ is the common remark friends made when I told them about the planned dental surgery) I switched to 99.1 the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

I was very pleasantly surprised to hear a very ‘dehati’ (Indian rustic) English accent very similar to that of Acharya Rajneesh, later known as Osho, the mystic who preached sex, love and enlightenment in the ‘60s. I perked up and started listening. It was the voice of Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, this year’s winner of the prestigious Water Award.

To understand the enormity of what Bindeshwar-ji (ji is a term of respect in Hindi) is trying to do all you have to do is to take a rail journey anywhere in India around daybreak. You will find rows of men and women squatting near or slightly away from the tracks performing their morning defecatory act. Those of them who are privileged will have a can of water next to them to wash up afterwards. I shall not describe what those who are not so privileged do. It is a phenomenon that continues into the twenty first century, and, is degrading not to just those who have to see it, but, more so to those who have to squat that way. More horrendously so to the women who use the upper part of their sari to hide their face to avoid recognition.

Some writers have often criticized Gandhi for what they considered his enormous obsession with sanitation. (Nehru was the only person exempted from the toilet cleaning duties at his ashram…and Gandhi’s struggle with his wife to get her to clean the toilets is a potent scene in Attenborough’s movie on Gandhi) He believed that India could never really advance till it had dealt with the issue of sanitation. The dream that Gandhi had of a clean Indian countryside free of the degradation of untouchability, is what inspired Bindeshwar-ji.

By academic training, a Doctorate in Sociology, Bindeshwar-ji traces the story of human degradation through the emergence of night soil removers (people who, with their hands removed human excreta) before the arrival of septic tanks and flush systems. Though they performed the most sanitizing function of society, they were allotted the lowest rung of the social hierarchy, that of the untouchable. They lived in the filthiest part of the village and the upper castes very rarely allowed them access to anything, particularly water. Himself born an upper caste Brahmin, Bindeshwar-ji tells of how his grandmother made him go through a ritual purification at the age of twelve because he had touched one of the untouchables.

As he grew up he felt and realized the tremendous social disadvantage that would continue to exist unless there was a revolution in sanitation. While the western world had started using septic tanks and so on, in India the open latrine (toilet) still continued. Bindeshwar-ji realized that till this requirement for someone to manually clean and carry the excrement changed, society would have a need for the night soil carrier, and, the oppression would continue.

With a combination of indigenous technology he has developed a solid waste removal system that he is advocating (requires only two cups of water to flush) that will do away with the need for humans to be degraded as untouchables because they clear the untouchable waste of other humans. At a more urban level, visitors to India in the last ten years would have noticed the sprinkling of Sulabh public toilets in the urban centres which one can use (the MacDonalds Golden Arches have not spread enough in India to take a quick bio break when needed). The Sulabh toilet networks are Bindeshwar-ji’s contribution to the urban scenario.

Listening to Bindeshwar-ji explain how this is non violence in practice, I was impressed. “I am not asking for someone to kill or attack another human being because of a social injustice. All that I am trying to do is to change the technology so that the need for such work does not exist…” Believe me this is one of the most realistic applications of Gandhi’s dream that I have heard of. And the determined non violence comes through ever so clearly in the simple, precise way in which Bindeshwar-ji expresses himself. No rhetoric, just measured steps to change centuries of abuse without killing anyone…

He has backed this up with vocational training for the former night soil carriers who now do a variety of new trades. Some of them now sell vegetables and Bindeshwar-ji talked of how some upper caste people would not buy vegetables from them in the beginning because their hands had touched you know what…

Bindeshwar-ji talks of the day he took a group of former ‘untouchable’ women into the Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi’s super plush hotel, for a dinner. In days gone by they would have to announce their arrival by clanging an instrument so that the high caste Brahmins could move away and not be defiled by their shadow. The Hotel Manager was aghast when this crowd came in and tried to stop Bindeshwar-ji. But India was changing, and, the Hotel Manager knew that, by law, he could not stop Bindeshwar-ji bring them in. He just doubled the security and watched. When they finished and Bindeshwar-ji paid the bill, the Hotel Manager and others realized that in some way, Gandhi’s dream had come true…He admits there is a long way to go and the Maurya Sheraton incident is only symbolic…perhaps more potent that the Temple entry satyagrahas of the early twentieth century…

Born as an upper caste Brahmin, Bindeshwar-ji talks of the resistance he faced when he first undertook these projects. He was ostracized by all his close relatives, except by his wife, who, he says, remained silent (silently supportive, one presumes). Listening to this Brahmin talk of his mission to realize Gandhi’s dream I am reminded of the words of the Buddha defining a Brahmin, a word that could mean a spiritually evolved being

Na jatahi na gottena
na jacca hoti brahmano
yamhi saccanca dhammo ca
so suci so ca brahmano.

Not by reason of birth or by virtue of wearing matted locks (a manner of wearing one’s hair, common to 'God men' in India) is a person a Brahmin…

It is by reason of the actions that he performs that he can be called an evolved person, a Brahmin

Bindeshwar-ji, you were born a Brahmin, like many others. What is different is that, unlike many others, you have also proved by your actions to be one. That is rare. More power to you.