To transcend caste, clear statistics needed: Congress

According to the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, the Vaikom Satyagraha was the biggest struggle against untouchability in India. The Vaikom Satyagraha started on March 30, 1924 and ended on November 23, 1925.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress on Tuesday said clear statistics on caste and actions based on it are needed to transcend caste. Congress Working Committee member K Raju made the remarks at the Vaikom Satyagraha centenary celebrations held here. The 603-day-long Vaikom Satyagraha, which started on March 30, 1924 and ended on November 23, 1925, was the biggest struggle against untouchability in India with people of different castes, religions, locals and foreigners being part of the struggle, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) said in a release.

Raju, who inaugurated a two-day historical conference organised by the Vaikom Satyagraha Centenary Celebration Committee, said, "In order to transcend caste, clear statistics on caste and actions based on it are needed." Raju also said that the Vaikom Satyagraha was the driving force behind Congress' struggles against untouchability and the caste system.

He said that in the present world, our nation's history and cultural diversity were under attack by far-right fascist forces as people in social and political life do not give any importance to truth and evidence, and emotional matters are more important than knowledge. Speaking at the event, KPCC chief K Sudhakaran said that he experienced caste discrimination first hand as a child.

He said that the present generation does not know that Kerala has such a past and they need to know how and through whose efforts they were enjoying the benefits that they have now. "Vaikom Satyagraha is the most influential political and social movement in modern Kerala. It played a crucial role in the formation of democratic Kerala.

"But even after 100 years, there are still hundreds of struggles like the Vaikom Satyagraha," he said, according to the release. However, despite that Dalit representation in the judiciary, government employment and the media was still a mirage, Sudhakaran claimed.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan, in his keynote speech at the event, said the present generation worships dictators because of their ignorance about world history. Satheesan said that socio-economic inequality has changed the course of world history. He said that Kerala was a state that organized the upper caste movement a hundred years ago against caste discrimination. "Our tradition is inclusive. The Hindutva tradition promoted by the RSS does not belong to India," he contended.