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It hurts all Dalits. It hurts more when falsehood overwhelms truth and truth turns into falsehood. Only over a century ago, Dalit children were chased out of classrooms. Dalit Parents were hounded for sending their children to schools. Caste Hindu teachers would refuse joining ‘Special Schools” created by the British. That’s the social capital Dalits inherit. Things changed. No more Dalit children are chased out of the school premises today. But, to a certain degree, the past continues impacting the present.
Disfranchised socially and battling poverty, millions of Dalit parents now manage to push their children into the world of learning. A tiny Dalit middle class has come into being and their kids are competing with the kids born with inheritances of learning. The truth however remains- the largest majority of Dalit students lag behind the Caste Hindu students in terms of scoring in examinations- and that’s why they need some concessions in form of affirmative action. Citing the relative underperformance of Dalit students, the Caste society attributes a ‘lower’ level intelligence amongst Dalits.
I want to settle the issue of merit/intelligence for ever. Most Dalit kids in education belong to first or second generation learners. The third generation Dalit kids are at par with the rest. While I acknowledge the relative underperformance of Dalit students-despite so many hurdles they face, I would like to remind the Caste Hindus as how their kids performed when they were new to the British system of education- notwithstanding the fact that they had the inheritance of the indigenous system of education for ages.
The Third Class is the most despised category in examination results. Those who score a minimum of between 33 to 45 percent do qualify for the next stage of learning, but are placed under Third Class category. Those between 45 to 59 percent are placed under Second Class and those beyond 60 percent and above are placed as First Classers. In the early years of the British education system, most of the student population was made up from to Caste Hindus- often Brahmans. I have ample archival evidence to show that the Third Class was introduced for the children of Caste Hindus. As a starter, look at the history of the THIRD CLASS, and more will follow in the future. Further, only a century ago, how did the children of Caste Hindus perform? What was their pass percentage and how many of them passed with First Class! If the pass percentages are mirror of ‘intelligence’, how do understand the ‘intelligence’ level of Caste Hindus!
Hope my Caste Hindu fellows listen to the voice of reason and stop insulting Dalits. Please look into this mirror- of the examination results for twenty years- 1901-1920:
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