Ignoring the North: Redressing a Serious Flaw in Liberation Theology from the Context of Malawi

Discrimination

Dalits can be understood contextually within the parameters of the caste system as they form part of the larger Indian system. They are sidelined in a number of ways as Prabhakar explains: ‘The social structure of India is stratified, with inbuilt inequalities and injustices based on the caste-system sanctified by Brahminic Hinduism. Mass poverty, mass illiteracy and mass unemployment are distinctive characteristics of an underdeveloped society, which, sadly enough, India is, in spite of its ancient heritage of spiritual wisdom, scientific knowledge and remarkable modern progress’. ⁴ Understanding Dalits therefore, means engaging with the descriptions of their social status, their education, economy and the social fabric that tries to define them fully. There is also need to dig deeper into the hierarchical complexities which try to negate Dalits’ participation in daily life as Rajkumar asserts: ‘It is often argued that notions of purity and pollution constitute the foundations of the caste system in India’. ⁵ A different school of thought on the same Dalit predicament of untouchability is represented by Mary Douglas in her research work Purity and Danger. She argues that there are contesting ambivalences of terminologies inherently imbedded in the Dalit realities which at the end will be chaotic. She relates:

I believe that ideas about separating, purifying, demarcating and punishing transgressions have their main function to impose system on an inherently untidy experience. It is only by exaggerating the difference between within and without, above and below, male and female, with and against, that a semblance of order is created. ⁶

Douglas assumes as a fact this competition between the pure and impure as a unanimous ideology and goes on to reconfigure how people’s mentality of danger and impurity comes into play. She concludes by saying that people take into account everything dangerous that tries to tamper with cognitive makeup that in the end may create space for division. This understanding is embedded into the mind of the upper class category that looks at Dalits as polluted people.

Douglas goes on to say that in every cultural fabric, there are three distinct dimensions, namely the body, the social and the cosmos. This understanding of society prompted Rhoads to propose a strong thesis that the society which is

anxious about what goes in and out of the orifices of the bodily boundary… will probably also guard the social boundary carefully to protect who goes in and who goes out of their social group. Regarding the cosmological level of beliefs in such a society, one would expect to find a dualism with a distinct boundary separating the good from the evil, the holy from the unclean. ⁷

This assertion by Rhoads has little or no space in the caste hierarchy because no one is supposed to change the caste where one was born to avoid disturbing the social orders of belonging. However, the author of this article is also aware of the theory of pollution in the caste system as Rajkumar puts it:

It is the translation of notions of purity and pollution into the semiotics of hierarchy, exclusion and power which makes notions of purity and pollution problematic and questionable. This inter-linkage between notions of purity and pollution and hierarchical exclusion has often been argued to be foundational to the Indian caste system. ⁸

Rajkumar is critically aware of the resistance generated in the caste system from the Brahmins to the Dalits, dubbed outcastes. The notion of purity and pollution overwhelms the whole section of Hindu community where sacredness and secularities are two sides of the same coin. There is no room for negotiation. Dalits are not only discriminated against but they are also distanced from communal living in the society they find themselves in, which is another dehumanising factor.

Distanciation

Dalits are spectators in a number of social, economic and political events taking place in India because of their caste orientation. Socially, Dalits are considered as polluting bodies, hence, the upper caste group stay away from them for fear of pollution as Rajkumar explains:

The Dalit communities are considered capable of polluting everything within the range of 74 feet. Their shadow is believed to pollute well-water, so they are denied access to the village wells….To avoid physical contagion, usually the Dalits live in segregated areas outside the main villages ⁹

Rajkumar is critically aware of human rights injustices and tries to bring into the open a gloomy picture of the worst form of discrimination from community the world has ever had. He has also unveiled the Dalits’ exclusion from public participation, a basic human right. Moreover, he points out how tenets of pollution can be exaggerated to punish the innocents. Several scholars ¹⁰ are aware of this malpractice and have extensively written about this social injustice to bring awareness to the Indian social pedigree. One such scholar who makes a strong case is Onesimu. He writes:

Untouchability and caste are mentally constructs of a diabolic mind, specifically aimed at taking away all the resources of the country and subjugating the people in return. Brahminism produced innumerable discourses for the establishment of untouchability as a divine order for the peaceful running of society. Dalits do not believe in untouchability. The core value of Dalitism is inclusiveness. Therefore, untouchability is outside the purview of a Dalit worldview. To identify a people as untouchables is the worst things than can happen to human civilization. ¹¹

In line with other scholars, Onesimu lays stress on the worst form of association, the untouchability in a societal web. This means that the caste system has rendered the Dalits peripheral and passive recipients of their inferior status in society. Commenting on the same but from an educational point of view, Arudoss has this to say:

The caste system, which is deep-rooted in Indian society, prevents the Dalits from having an easy access to education. Dalit children are refused either to be admitted to schools or to sit with high-caste children. ¹²

Arudoss’ concern points out the level of illiteracy that the untouchable group is subjected to. These outcastes are Indians by nationality and denying them an education is as good as harbouring illiteracy that will haunt them in future. This has greatly contributed to the dropout of Dalit pupils in schools as Rasquinha explains: ‘despite state assistance in primary education, untouchability in schools has contributed to high drop-out and illiteracy levels for Dalit children far beyond those of general population’. ¹³ This act reinforces powerlessness. However, there are individuals like Babasaheb Ambedklar who were resilient enough to acquire their education despite the social isolation intrinsic to the caste system. In 1950, the Indian Government clearly stated in the constitution ¹⁴ that untouchability as a practice was abolished. This statement should have cut across all sectors of life – be it education, health or workplace. To the contrary, untouchability is still taking shape in India as Rasquinha continues to say that

The Dalits and their issues and problems have remained peripheral to the curriculum and their representation if at all has been weak and distorted. This near invisibility of the Dalits represents and symbolizes their invisibility and absence in social reality, wherein they have little or no say in the decisions that matter. ¹⁵

Similarly, the economic status of the Dalits puts them at a far distance from the rest of the population in the caste system. By the very nature of the system, most Dalits are poor. They make ends meet by begging or doing piecemeal jobs. The upper caste people have taken advantage of their economic poverty to manipulate them. In a similar way, the current political barometer shows that even though the sitting President of India is a Dalit, he has no decision making powers. Perhaps this is a symbolic rendering of the powerlessness of the Dalit community as a whole.

The dehumanizing tendency which negates human rights policies is not limited to the Dalits in India. It is traceable in other cultural backdrops of human existence, a good example is the situation in northern Malawi.

Political System

Down the decades, the consolidated political domination of the Northerners has negated their dignity and made them powerless over and against political gurus from the central and southern regions. This has caused the Northerners to view their two counterparts (from central and southern regions) as oppressors. In this scenario, Northerners feel and think that they have lost their humanity and dignity. Their understanding is characterized by anxieties and worries ‘primarily of discrimination, deprivation, denial, rejection and low self-image and low sense of inner self-worth’. ¹⁶

As earlier alluded to on the history of independence of Malawi, the first political party was formed sometime around 1958 by Orton Chijele Chirwa, a Northerner. He was overtaken swiftly by clever people from the central region and Chirwa was viewed as an outsider in the political lineup. The presidency of the party was given to Kamuzu Banda who by the time of its formation was in Britain. Being a Northerner, he was considered a political threat and hence, sidelined. During the 1964 cabinet crisis, the most affected cabinet ministers were from the North with no clear reasons behind the scheme. Masauko Chipembere, in his last speech in the 1964 parliamentary deliberations argued that ‘history takes long to declare its verdict. The villains of today may be declared saints tomorrow; it may be after their death….’ ¹⁷ By villains he might have been referring to some of the ministers from the North who were regarded as threats in that they could have attempted to take the government by force. As soon as Chipembere’s words came into effect, some of the ministers from the North, in the name of Kanyama Chiume and Orton Chirwa, had their names stripped from the cabinet list, an action that led Chinguwo to make this critical observation:

Probably one of the most outrageous events Malawi has ever gone through since independence inter alia was the cabinet crisis. Any book of the history of Malawi as an independent nation is devoid of profundity if it does not make mention of the cabinet crisis in passing or in detail. This was disarray within the first cabinet of post independent Malawi which was created by abrupt expulsion of some ministers from the cabinet and subsequent resignations by other ministers following an irreconcilable and growing rift that had developed between the then Prime Minister Dr. Banda and cabinet ministers. ¹⁸

The whole scheme, beginning from such a gross act, was to do away with the North, viewed as a political threat, a trend which was unfortunate. Similarly, during transition into multiparty democracy, a Northerner, again by the name of Chakufwa Thom Chihana, battled for freedom whilst all Malawians feared the dictatorial regime of Dr. Kamuzu Banda. Banda ruled the nation for 31 years with an iron fist. When the battle was over, a southerner took over and placed Chihana as a second vice president in the government, a position which is a rubber stamp in its very nature. Complicating matters with an unconscious bias, the current president, who also comes from the south, has a lean cabinet of 20 ministers. In trying to repeat history, he has picked only three ministers from the North. The practice has caused the Northerners now to rise up calling for a federal state, which in my opinion, will make a difference. Plan B suggests that the office of the presidency be on a rotational basis, a gesture not welcomed by other regions.

Socio-Economic System

Given their situation of powerlessness, the Northerners are gripped by the struggle to retain old memories as custodians of education. They desire to go on with education in order to do away with illiteracy; they have been oppressed for a long time and are longing for the day when their liberation will come. Previously, I noted that being a Northerner, means a person is perceived to be a political threat. At the present time, being a Northerner means being educated, even if this is acquired through difficulty. All through history, the northern region has been a citadel and hub of education, a development that other regions are not happy with. As in the cabinet crisis trying to eliminate the Northerners, the government of the day uses a quota system ¹⁹ which Levi Njombole Nyondo, ²⁰ speaking during the funeral ceremony of chief Malanda of Nkhatabay at Nkundi headquarters, accused Mutharika’s ²¹ regime of using to promote disunity in the country by marginalizing the North. ²² Although the forum was not conducive to these sentiments being voiced by other quarters, the indications reveal the gravity of segregation of the Northerners in terms of education. Nyondo further said that ‘traits of disunity by the government is seen in education quota system of selecting students to public university as opposed to merit, saying the system is marginalizing the people of the North’. ²³ The main aim of introducing a quota system is to paralyze and suffocate the Northerners who are always torchbearers. The quota system has also infiltrated the workplace compromising the delivery system and quality of production.