Identity, Rights, and Awareness Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in Asia Series Editor Stephanie P. Stobbe, University of Winnipeg The field of Peace and Conflict Studies acknowledges the importance of culture in the theory and practice of conflict resolution, but often takes a simplistic or monodimensional view of the cultures studied. This series intends to explore the many processes of resolu- tion that are found in Asia, accounting along the way for the complex mix of distinct ethnic groups and their contrasting languages, cultural lineages, and practices. Books in the series will move beyond the typical top-down negotiation styles to look at the wide variety of negotiation styles used by the billions of people living in the region. Editorial Board Jay Rothman, Bar-Ilan University Honggang Yang, Nova Southeastern University Ellen Judd, University of Manitoba Paul Redekop, University of Winnipeg Charles Crumpton, JD, Crumpton Collaborative Solutions Recent Titles in the Series Identity, Rights, and Awareness: Anticaste Activism in India and the Awakening of Justice through Discursive Practices, by Jeremy A. Rinker Conflict Resolution in Asia: Mediation and Other Cultural Models, edited by Stephanie P. Stobbe Identity, Rights, and Awareness Anticaste Activism in India and the Awakening of Justice through Discursive Practices Jeremy A. Rinker LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2018 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available LCCN 2018951436 | ISBN 9781498541930 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781498541947 (electronic) TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Dedicated to Charles W. Rinker Jr. and David W. Chappell Two men who helped formulate my understanding of justice and integ- rity. Your influences are still felt and your steadfast resolve and engaged presence are missed. May you both rest in the vast peace and justice you helped to create. And to the many unnamed Dalits who have endured the suffering and humiliation of centuries of social ostracism, marginalization, and oppres- sion. May this book provide one small window into your collective trau- ma and ongoing work for social justice. Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: At the Center and in the Periphery xi 1 Caste and Anticaste Identity: The Evolution and Legacy of Difference in Indian Social Life 1 2 Narrative Violence and Injustice Awareness: Reading Anticaste Activism as Narrative for Social Change 33 3 Doing Strategy in Indian Anticaste Activism: A Systems Approach to Understanding the Struggle for Identity, Rights, and Awareness 61 4 Fostering Dalit Buddhist Identity: TBMSG’s Organizing Around Ambedkar Buddhism 93 5 All-India Rise Up: BAMCEF and Educating for a National Identity and Injustice Awareness 119 6 Narrative Testimony as Rights Agitation: PVCHR’s International Rights Discourse 143 Conclusion: Identity, Rights, and Awareness: The Power of Discourse to Change Entrenched Systems of Oppression 167 Epilogue: The Making of Discursive Change Platforms and Writing from the Periphery as a Form of Resistance toward the Dominant Center 189 Bibliography 195 Index 207 vii viii Contents About the Author 211 Acknowledgments How do you adequately thank all those who gave you the time and support to pursue your interests and passions? I am privileged to have been given the space and time to read, write, and rewrite on questions that I developed and fashioned around my own set of interests. Over many years, I have been given, by so many, the gift of time and space to explore, think, and seek answers to what I experienced and observed. Though I remain unsure that I have answered any critically important questions, the time and space to pon- der them is a gift that I have not received lightly. Chief among those that deserve thanks are my wife, Stephanie, and our boys, Kylor and Tarin. Their consummate patience as I sat in my study writing on many a beautiful week- end is both laudable and grievable. Their sacrifices and my regrets cannot be rewound. To times and milestones missed all I can do is apologize and express, as best I can, that I appreciate each of you. I ask your forgiveness for my many absences. I love you all dearly and I hope that this work repays a small part of your sacrifice. To my parents: Lore Ann Rinker and Charles W. Rinker Jr., your inspira- tion goes much deeper than words can express. Your lives continue to serve as an inspiration to me and I remain thankful that I was blessed with such caring, supportive, and dedicated social activist parents. Dad, your presence is missed but not forgotten. Mom, I look towards many more years together and hope that you enjoy reading this, my first book. While it goes without saying that many colleagues, friends, and family were instrumental in the book you now hold in your hands, too many have played important and influential roles in my intellectual and spiritual devel- opment to list in full here. Of course, like any human work, a book is never created in solitude, but rather is the product of many hearts and minds. To the late Dr. David Chappell, thank you for your friendship, inspiration, and intro- ix x Acknowledgments duction to both socially engaged Buddhism and the work of TBMSG. To Haresh Dalvi, Mangesh Dahiwale, Priyadarhsi Telang, Lenin Raghuvanshi, Tanoj Meshram, Dr. Vivek Kumar, Dharmacharini Amitamati, Dharmachari Lokamitra, Dr. P. D. Satya Pal, and all those unnamed Dalits still working in anticaste movement, thank you for your friendship and research support along the way. Without each of you, and many more unnamed anticaste activists, I am sure this book would not have come to fruition. Undoubtedly, I have forgotten many important individuals, but in asking that you forgive this oversight I rest assured that your collective hurt does not compare to the continued suffering of the many Dalits still living under caste oppression today. I ask that you please forgive any mistakes I surely made in this writing by keeping those less fortunate in the forefront of your thoughts and feelings. To all those oppressed by social injustice: May your stories be your birth- place of resistance, your touchstone of resilience, and your ultimate salva- tion! Introduction At the Center and in the Periphery I began my India-based fieldwork on the Trailokya (now Triratna) Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG) in late September 2006. Jolted into action by the realization that October 2, 2006, would mark the fiftieth anni- versary of Dalit1 social reformer Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s (1891–1956) historic conversion to Buddhism, I arrived in Nagpur’s B. R. Ambedkar airport with an outsider’s knowledge of modern Indian caste mar- ginalization and the many political interests, normative identity construc- tions, and deep-seated passions that the Indian caste question enlivens. What some might call naiveté quickly turned into an inclusive feeling of excite- ment and camaraderie as the auspicious anniversary of Ambedkar’s conver- sion quickly approached. As the geographic center of India and home to a diversity of opposing political movements and ideologies (from the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh, or RSS, a youth militant wing of India’s current ruling party, to various Dalit rights movements), Nagpur city pro- vided an appropriate prologue to attempting to discern the subtle complex- ities of India’s marginal social peripheries. As a key center of anticaste activism, Nagpur represents both a beginning, and possible end, to modern Indian social change. The complex socio-political milieu and the ambiguous narrative identities that low-caste communities encounter in Indian society’s marginalized periphery represent artful spaces of resistance, resilience, and, some might argue, salvation. As I experienced my first visit to Dikshabhumi (the site of Dr. Ambedkar’s historic conversion to Buddhism in Nagpur city), the complex marginalized identities of low-caste Dalits were being narrated in front of my eyes. In this center of Dalit Buddhist agitation, one could see glimpses of the marginalization that takes place on the peripheral boundaries xi xii Introduction of Indian society, as well as visions of the possibilities for change emanating from this important center of anticaste activism. Given the powerful influ- ence of my first auspicious encounter with Dalit Buddhists, it seems appro- priate to begin this work with my own short narrative reflections of this formative experience of embodied resistance at India’s anticaste center. Now, sixty years after his conversion, Ambedkar’s significance is lost on no one in either the periphery or the center 2 of Indian politics and society. Ambedkar’s story of conversion is an under-told story of Indian nonviolent resistance and collective resilience. My own experience of the fiftieth anni- versary of this historic event opens important vistas on theories of social change. Even ten years after my auspicious introduction to Ambedkarite Buddhists in Nagpur, in celebrating Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s 125th birth anni- versary at Michigan State University in April 2016, Ambedkar’s central im- portance as a leader of the marginalized and archetype of resilience remains unmistakable. Even for Indian elites, Ambedkar has been recast as a central founding father of the nation.