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april 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 40
The interview, originally in Malayalam, has been translated into
English also by J Devika. A longer version of it was published in the
Mathrubhumi Weekly of 24 March 2014.
J Devika (devika@cds.ac.in) is with the Centre for Development Studies,
Thiruvananthapuram.
Becoming Society
An Interview with Seleena Prakkanam
J Devika
In this interview, central secretariat member of the Dalit
Human Rights Movement, Seleena Prakkanam talks
about struggles and leadership and caste issues.
Seleena Prakkanam represents a new generation of women
p olitical leaders from the dalit and adivasi communities who have
entered politics through oppositional civil social activism largely
outside formal politics in Kerala. Since the 1990s, Kerala has
seen wave after wave of struggles for access to productive assets,
especially cultivable land, and not just public welfare, by the
dalits and the adivasis people identied as the outliers of the
Kerala Model who did not share in the huge gains in social
development achieved by the state in general over the 20th century.
Born in the southern district of Pathanamthitta in 1979, she
completed school under challenging circumstances but was unable
to continue in higher education for long. She entered public life
as the leader of a local self-help group (SHG), a part of the
Kudumbashree, the statewide network of womens SHGs created
by the State Poverty Eradication Mission. In 2007, a major land
struggle led by the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi (SVSV),
an organisation led by the dalit leader Laha Gopalan, focused on
the Harrisons Malayalam Plantation at Pathanamthitta, broke
out, and thousands of dalit, tribal, and Other Backward Class
(OBC) families entered the plantation and occupied the land,
marking the beginning of what became a long-drawn-out struggle.
It drew on the history of dalit assertion in Kerala and India and
hailed Ayyankali and B R Ambedkar as their sources of political
inspiration. It continued despite the intense hostility of the ruling
Left Democratic Front government, and its leading constituent,
the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Prakkanam, who joined
this struggle in 2007, became the secretary of the SVSV and one of
its most familiar public faces. In 2010 she joined the Dalit H uman
Rights Movement (DHRM) and is currently a member of its central
secretariat. The DHRM, much maligned by the mainstream
Malayalam media as representing dalit terrorism, was founded
in 2007. It has sought to work among the most marginalised of
the dalit population in Kerala those who live in the overcrowded,
underprovided colonies to propagate native Buddhism and
the elimination of sub-caste differences, aiming at a total trans-
formation of dalit subjectivity. In Kerala, they are at present a
signicant and growing mass movement, unprecedented in
the history of the region.
In this interview, Prakkanam speaks about entering public life
and politics, and her understanding of the DHRMs practice and
ideology as a dalit woman leader. Her account of the anti-caste
politics practised by the DHRM makes it evident that it breaks
with the reigning consensus on social development and its very
history; the centrality accorded to the democratising of gender-
and family-relations are an implicit acknowledgement and
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Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 26, 2014 vol xlIX no 17 41
c reative extension of the feminist critiques of the Kerala Model.
In many ways, it appears almost to be Rancierean politics and a
dissensual community in which people excluded from the dis-
tribution of the sensible, seek to recongure the order of the sen-
sible so that they may be heard and seen. The DHRM is still con-
ned to south Kerala and a few areas in the extreme north and
continues to be stigmatised, but is indeed a mass movement.
T
he number of women entering higher education is
growing in Kerala. What were your experiences of
higher education?
It is true that more women are entering higher education; it is
also true that more and more poor dalit women are aspiring to
enter college. In general all parents of all social groups, all
over the world perhaps desire to educate their children well.
Some 15 years ago, a child passing even the 10th standard
exam in a dalit family was an occasion to celebrate. The family
would want to send this child to college but would have no
clue about choosing an appropriate stream, so the child would
just accept whatever stream that was offered. Then would
come the major challenge: lacking adequate language skills
and having to sit in a classroom with others uent in English.
Teachers would pay no attention to you, either, and after a
time, all you would want to do is run out for your life. It is hard
to describe those feelings! This is not just my story it is
the story of many, many dalit girls who eagerly enter higher
education but then leave it in grief.
Do you think this affects their desire and ability to enter
public life?
Of course it does. Being dalit, you are always treated as
second-class, and on top of that, there are these inadequacies.
And perhaps more important is how education is generally
u nderstood. People treat it as a mere means to a job. Study to
get a job, poor parents tell their children, dont pay attention
to anything else. Just get a job, some job, stand on your own
two feet. The country needs much more, though. It needs
well-educated citizens. Instead, education here serves to insert
people into different status-levels. It is no surprise that dalit
girls hesitate to enter public forums boldly. As school students,
many of them have good abilities in their chosen subjects but
this condence melts and disappears when language becomes
a barrier. That drains their power.
You entered public life as a Kudumbashree
1
leader. What
are your reections on that experience?
First of all, you need to see that women become leaders in
Kudumbshree not because they desire to be so, especially dalit
women. Women take up such responsibilities because all kinds
of welfare benets are received through that network of SHGs
and this welfare is only temporary relief, remember, it does
not make you self-reliant. Dalit women become leaders only
because the government has made it mandatory through rules.
And in crucial occasions such as internal elections, they step
aside because it is women with greater social and political
i nuence who are invited to contest they win, and this is
p rojected as merit. It is not as if dalit women cannot create
their own base of supporters, but they are often plunged into a
sense of inferiority. Here too, education is important.
In its workings too, often, dalit women have to function as a
front so that others can claim benets. I still remember how
we distributed goats to members in our group the rule was
that this benet was limited to dalits who possessed above 25
cents of land. Which dalit would have that kind of land? We
are a people who have no place to bury our dead; our people
have had to dig up the ground in their kitchen for burial! So
the non-dalits got all the benets. The applications were sent
in dalit womens names, we also attended the training, but the
goats went to the non-dalit, landed women! Even recently, a
group I know well split in two, into dalit and non-dalit because
there was gross injustice in the way loans were distributed!
There are many number of instances dalits are unable to
make use of the benets simply because they lack the neces-
sary r esources. So the governments statistics would tell you a
w onderful story of welfare benets gushing towards the dalits
but the ones who are becoming truly self-reliant in that over-
ow are certainly not dalit.
Did you enter the Chengara land struggle out of disillu-
sionment with this sort of development work?
I was active in Kudumbashree when I left for the movement
but not entirely because of it. From childhood I have always felt
deeply for my people, never have I wanted to follow the ways of
those who were above us. As I child I could see, we did the hard-
est, most taxing work. Such hard work, the body itself became
worn and weak. Our mothers slaved in other peoples kitchens.
And we had nothing, others seemed to have everything. They
commanded, made us work, and my people took orders. True, it
was for wages, but I could not see anything more than slavery
there. All they lacked was the whip. This could not be remedied
by just raising wages, I began to feel. The problem was funda-
mental: they commanded us, as a group. In my village it is in a
rubber-growing area the tappers are mostly dalit. My father
was one himself. They work from 3 am every daythe farmer
turns up only when the rubber sheets are ready. Everything
worth owning was in their hands.
But to say that I joined the Chengara land struggle
2
just
b ecause I loved my people is false I went there because I
was landless and knew well that I may not be able to buy land
for myself. It was the hope that I can win the land through
struggle that led me there.
You were one of the most well-known faces of the Chengara
land struggle. Why did you leave?
I must say that I was a bit reluctant to go at rst; but after my
f ather persuaded me to go there, I was convinced that this was
my struggle. I attended several talks at Chengara that edu-
cated us about the struggle and why it was our right; besides, it
was the rst time ever that I saw all my people together, col-
lectively, in one place. It was a great inspiration; people like
me, all of us together, ghting for our rights. Above all, I was
convinced: if people who suffered the same pains got together,
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that pain subsides. Until then, I had looked to others for a solu-
tion to our problems the government included but now I
changed. I also travelled in dalit colonies in many districts,
i nviting people there to join our struggle and that was great
education. For till then I had not seen people who shared our
plight outside my district.
But then, soon, I also had questions. For instance, will our
problems end if we receive land? Even if we receive it, do we
have the abilities to make sure that we will still possess it after
two generations? The Chengara land struggle could provide
no real answers to these. Besides I had questions about myself:
I am not a Hindu, therefore I have no caste, and I am not a
Christian or a Muslim then who am I? Many participants in
the land struggle said they were not of the Hindu fold but for
many other purposes, they possessed certicates that called
them Hindu. I did not receive a satisfactory answer to this
question either. It appeared to me that it was not enough that
people deprived of assets had gotten together to wrest them
from the government. If we are thus united, to just meet a
common need, that wont endure. If people join together in
struggle just because their individual needs coincided, they
are bound to part soon, irrespective of whether those needs
are met or not, they will part for sure! Indeed, it has been
hard to get together the people who have received land now.
It was around the time I began to doubt thus that I heard of
the witch-hunt against the DHRM and decided to nd out
about it. I felt that it provided some answers to my questions
and so I joined it.
You were a very young woman when you entered public life
and became a leader. What were your experiences then?
I entered public life when I was 24 years old and was in the
land struggle at 27. I have seen a lot of patriarchal hubris from
then to now. But never have I let it push me back. Leadership
consists of people in power, they are obliged to help me real-
ise my goals, but these goals are mine, and realising them is
my right. This rm belief has driven me to speak up rmly
and loudly whenever necessary and also study things care-
fully, till the last detail. So I have always displayed a kind of
courage-on-the-brink, but that came out of my rm belief that
my d emands have always been just. I have therefore not been
afraid to take the lead because I was convinced of the right-
ness of the decision. And even when I agree with someone, I
make it a point to state clearly why I agree, so that nothing is
taken for granted. This has brought me many bitter experi-
ences, but also approbation even those who criticised me
have admitted that my presence was an important strength.
Why were you attracted to the DHRM?
From the very name, it upheld a different promise. Other dalit
organisations in Kerala are named Mahasabha, or Service
S ociety, and so on. Instead, the mention of human rights in the
organisations name, I thought, was a way of highlighting
d irectly the denial of these fundamental rights to dalits here
it connected with all people oppressed by elites in the world. I
do believe it highlights the dehumanisation of dalits in Kerala.
Secondly, I found that the DHRM was creating a society of
activists (pravartakarutetaaya samooham) committed to
working with dalit people.
Society of activists? How does that differ from the cadre
system in political parties?
Since the 1950s, all community organisations in Kerala are di-
vided into masses and leaders. The leaders represent the masses
but the masses cannot really connect with them. Because of this,
the leaders can never really generate a new society from and of
the masses, however progressive their talk may be. They spawn
several kinds of elites intellectuals, writers, leading activists
but no new society from the masses they address. And as far as
dalits are concerned, being the cadre of political parties is the
same as being conned to providing physical strength for a
period of time being the striking force it has no intellectual
content at all and are at the very bottom of the organisation.
The society of activists we imagine is different: it consists of
activists who are embedded in their local social contexts, they
are neither above nor below. These activists are people who
have transformed themselves, gained new identities, and seek
to spread that transformation to the people around them, thus
slowly extending a new society among the masses.
Tell us more about these new selves and identities.
We believe that in India, only the political authority of the
kshatriyas was redistributed with democracy the brahmini-
cal social authority remains undivided. The move away from
Hinduism is necessitated by this continuing reality. In order to
create a truly enduring self, one has to move away from this
debilitating legacy we need to nd another, more enabling
foundation. Native Buddhism is that foundation. Indeed, in
Kerala we represent the Navoddhanam, the Renaissance, be-
cause we seek to revive the historical legacy of Buddhism in
Kerala which was violently erased by brahminism that is, we
believe that even Sree Narayana Guru Devan and his contem-
poraries achieved only Naveekaranam renewal. Only on such
a basis can we construct a new self and new identity that will
be free of sub-caste distinctions. So we demand caste certi-
cates that identify us as Native Buddhist. Renewalism is only
like giving the old house a new coat of paint.
But it is interesting; some felt that we were deifying leaders
like Baba (Ambedkar) and Yajamanan (Ayyankali) because
we use these names to refer to them. Now, we dont accept
even the Buddha as god, do you think we will deify mortal
leaders? The name Yajamanan was given to Ayyankali by his
people, the people who he led, what is wrong in continuing
that usage? These people dont mind when the names given to
him by the Renewalists mahatma or sreemant are used!
But wont that lead to loss of reservations? Are you against
reservations?
No, we are not. But we do not believe that our political ener-
gies must be majorly focused around the question of reserva-
tions. As individuals, we do not want them. This is because the
order of caste must be abandoned thoroughly. It does not unite
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the dalits, but rather accentuates the struggles between sub-
castes and other hierarchies.
Besides, as it operates now, reservations help to perpetuate
benets within the same family for generations. Reservations
would have been benecial had they been utilised differently.
For instance, if we had a system by which a family which ben-
eted from reservations would pass on those benets to other
deserving families the next time a rotating system things
may have been different. But now it works to the benet of
particular family circles.
In any case, we work with the large majority of dalits for
who reservations are too far a prospect some 70 lakh people.
We are not against reservations but our horizons are much
wider than that.
Tell us about your efforts in education.
There has been some talk that we are against modern educa-
tion and schooling. This is totally untrue for we do believe that
besides social power, we also need to claim political power
through asserting citizenship. This can be done only through
modern education. However we do feel that in schools, the
teaching of languages and history is totally inadequate. So we
have begun to establish a homeschooling system by which
children are taught in groups at home we especially want to
make them strong in English by introducing the language
through everyday objects. Now some 280 children are attend-
ing the home school and those of us who could not complete
school are joining them.
What difference does DHRM make for women?
We are trying to bring about Renaissance and the equality
between women and men is part of the legacy we want to
draw upon. Before the coming of the Aryans, women were not
enslaved. It was within brahminism that they were slaves.
Even under brahminical slavery, dalit women were not really
subordinate to men because they were equally subject to dehu-
manising labour. But brahminical ideas denitely inform dalit
family life now and so girls face discrimination and wives,
people believe, must submit to husbands. Marriage rituals also
were brahminised. If they were equal, then the bride would
have tied tali on the groom too in marriage not like now,
when the groom ties it on the bride alone. This is plain foolish-
ness. When we know well that humanity cannot survive with-
out both, why put one above the other?
I have been in the leadership, and there is no male-female
distinction people with leadership qualities lead. Also, young
people are not discriminated against. In my earlier experience
of leading, even as I took the lead and fought off male control,
there was at the back of my mind a tiny grain of thought about
my female naturethat what I was doing was against it. But
thats gone now. I feel as though I am fully human.
DHRM activists address each other as saar (sir) and
teacher.
Yes, that is the way we usually refer respectfully to school-
teachers, male and female, isnt it? We do it because it helps us
to maintain mutual respect, and also it reminds us that we
have something to learn from everyone, however young she or
he may be.
What is the DHRMs understanding of the family?
Our aim is to become a society, undivided by sub-castes and
unsullied by brahminical norms. Placing too much emphasis
on the family and its privacy does not help this. We under-
stand that children belong not just to their parents but to the
society we dream of and that their abilities must benet others
too. Seen this way, it is clear that feelings of partiality towards
ones own offspring are a hindrance.
The family as it exists now is constructed of narrowly-
conceived roles. The father is valued if he works as the provider,
the mother, if she works as the cook and housekeeper, and the
children, if they obey the parents unconditionally. The result
of this is that when the father or mother can no longer perform
these roles, or the children grow out of their obligation to obey,
they turn against each other or abandon each other. We need
to re-conceive the family from its very foundations. Children
are not just the responsibility of the parents, but of the new
society itself, and so the care of children must be a collective
responsibility. But because they belong to society and not just
to parents, they have a special duty to make sure that they
grow up as full human beings. Parents must be respected and
cared for by children not because they perform certain roles
but because they are givers of life to the children. These
b ecome sacred duties to be performed. So when our activists
help men in colonies to get out of alcoholism, they are also
i nstructed in these different family values and return home
with a culture of non-violence. So many times, we have seen
men starting to actually talk with women and children at
home, and the latter being thoroughly wonderstruck at the
transformation!
So it was not a coincidence that our strongest source of
support was the women in the colonies, when we faced false
accusations from the police and the brahminical mainstream
media.
3
In fact the ganging up of political parties against
the DHRM was precisely in reaction to the success of our anti-
alcoholism work in these colonies.
Because we believe in a different family, there are no dowry
payments in marriage marriage is not the common vivaham,
but cheral (merging, joining) not just two individuals but
also of sub-castes. All our celebrations, including weddings,
are communal, family unions. We cook, eat, sing, and play in-
struments together in collective expressions of joy. And above
all, except for the essential private space and materials needed
for normal life, we merge all our worldly assets intellectual,
spiritual, material. I and others have donated our assets to the
commune it will be owned by all DHRM activists equally,
from Kasaragod to here. This too is different from the commu-
nist model no member can eject another from ownership.
Tell us more about this commune.
People who become activists of the DHRM automatically
b ecome members of the commune and their children become
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heirs to this collective property. We do not insist that our
activists should necessarily give their assets to the commune
it is entirely voluntary. We also advice people to join only
after serious thought and people who become activists
are allowed to do so only after it is clear that they want to
renounce the o rder of caste wholly. The commune, in one way
of looking at it, is a response to our lack of assets which is
being perpetuated despite many dalit struggles we want to
pool our r esources and make available productive resources
in a collective way. We have already bought ve acres of
paddy land and will be farming it; we also have a plant
nursery on 17 cent of land. Another way of looking at the
commune is as part of our Renaissance, as a renewal of
Keralas farming culture. The native Buddhist calendar indi-
cates specic seasons and dates and marks out agricultural
festivals. The Buddha who inspires us is not the Buddha of
prayer, but the Buddha of practice. We intend to farm collec-
tively. The pooled wealth is to be managed by a registered
trust. Women and men of course have completely equal rights
here and we aim at a food self-reliant society, where we
produce what we eat.
Perhaps it is these radical changes that inspire fear in
the authorities. Is that why they strive so hard to depict
you as monstrous?
Any uncompromising struggle against brahminism is likely
to be rendered monstrous in this land! Our way is that of the
Re naissance, of our true legacy, Buddhism our Buddhism
has nothing to do with Sri Lanka or Thailand or anywhere
else. It is the Buddhism that was erased from Kerala that
we are resurrecting and its colour is black. The common
dress that activists, men and women, wear in public are black,
the colour of our spirituality. Yes, it is true that much of
the propaganda against us highlighted our view of the family.
But we do believe that we must begin the change from there.
It is that change that allowed members of our growing society
to open their eyes, to see that what we need is democracy
and not the rule of caste. And it is when they raised their
voices in the spirit of democracy that false charges, of murder
and violence, were slapped on us and terrible violence was
unleashed on us. The charges still remain unproved and we
have survived the attacks.
We have suffered waves and waves of attacks after the
physical attacks, the CPI(M) led others in spreading rumours
about a certain mysterious black man robbing, mugging,
raping!
4
He was projected as a malevolent spirit even! From
terrorists we became sorcerers!
It has been observed that the DHRM does not return
v iolence in the same coin.
Yes, that is correct. But it is surely not a strategy. They all
expect us to hit back with double the violence, at least
lash back through the press. But we have refrained from do-
ing so only because we do not believe in directing energy into
unproductive channels. The dog barks, but the elephant
strides on.
Also, we do not believe in excessive reliance on mass me-
dia. Society is built not through propaganda but through
transforming people. There is much talk of movements built
rapidly through the media, but we need to ask, will they last?
Also, such excessive dependence on the media is a symptom
of a desire to spread quickly that is not a healthy desire in a
country as diverse as India. We have tried to bring to public
attention only the horrendous violence unleashed against us;
we have of course conducted several large public protests, but
always to make ourselves visible, never to advance demands
for material resources or welfare. It is invisibility that we have
tried to ght through attracting public attention.
Lastly, about the controversy around upper-caste-born Jayan
Cherians award-winning movie Papilio Buddha.
5
The DHRM
found itself dragged into the debate over the signicance
of upper-caste-born peoples presence in dalit struggles.
Yes, but we do not believe that liberation from caste will neces-
sarily come only from dalits. We do not feel that the movie was
anti-dalit or misrepresenting dalit reality. We are trying to
wreck caste, not reafrm it. Jayan Cherian is not dalit-born,
but can we deny him the potential to be human, the desire to
shed caste and become human? An identity politics rooted in
Buddhism cannot but give attention and support to serious
r ebellion against caste, no matter who initiates it. And as long
as sub-caste divisions continue among us, who can say that
someone being born dalit is all that one needs to engage in
meaningful anti-caste politics?
Notes
1 See www.kudumbashree.org, accessed on
16 February 2014.
2 See Sreerekha (2012).
3 See report by the noted journalist and human
rights activist, B R P Bhaskar (2009).
4 News on the black man scare in Thiruvanan-
thapuram district where the DHRM commands
a sizeable following and have conducted public
protests with men and women clad in black jeans
and t-shirts with images of Ambedkar on them:
(http://2011keralaelectionresults.blogspot.in/
2012/12/black-man-caught-in-varkala.html);
(http://news.entecity.com/boo-here-comes-
the-black-man/), accessed on 16 February 2014.
5 A summary of the debate: (http://globalvoic-
esonline.org/2013/03/12/indian-censor-board-
restricts-papilio-buddha-a-gandhi-critic-movie/),
acces sed on 16 February 2014. For the critique
of Jayan Cherians upper caste birth, see Ajith
Kumar A S (2013).
References
Bhaskar, B R P (2009): Dalit Militancy Reports Raise
Disturbing Questions, 5 October (http://ker-
alaletter.blogspot.in/2009/10/dalit-militancy-
reports- raise.html), accessed on 16 February 2014.
Kumar, Ajith A S (2013): Reclaiming the Cinematic
Space: Countering the Liberal Speech on Caste
(http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option
=com_content&view=article&id=6270:reclai
ming-the-cinematic-space-countering-the-lib-
eral-speech-on-caste&catid=119:feature&Item
id=132).
Sreerekha, M S (2012) Illegal Land, Illegal People:
The Chengara Land Struggle in Kerala, EPW,
Vol XLVII, No 30, 28 July.
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