One word could capture veteran journalist and trail-blazing anti-caste activist, VT Rajshekar, who died in Mangalore on 20 November aged 92: intense. The arresting intensity of his talk compelled you to listen and read his writings, given the directness of his prose.
I had the privilege, as a teenager in the early 1970s, to get to know him while attending conferences and seminars in Bengaluru. Anti-corruption meetings and seminars were all the rage then.
During one of those meetings around town, I got talking with VTR, as he has come to be known, and he made it clear that he took a dim view of the anti-corruption talk, as the malaise afflicting Indian polity and society was much more deep-rooted.
Over the next few years, he invited me home to share his thoughts post breakfast, while he waited for his wife to get ready and his son too to don his school uniform and get going. He often asked me to get into the back of his small two-door Herald car as he drove to drop his wife at her office and then to the Indian Express office, educating me immensely on caste and casteism.
He had already authored a pamphlet entitled “Marx failed in Hindu India”. He argued that the Left parties were under Brahminical control, had neglected to address the issue of caste, and that any change to the current exploitative structures in India was impossible without tackling the centrality of caste oppression.
Rajshekar, who went on to drop the ‘Shetty’ surname – of the Bunt caste (Other Backward Class) in coastal Karnataka – was part of an anti-caste churning at that time in Karnataka. D Devaraj Urs had become chief minister in 1972 and ushered in land reforms and schemes for the upliftment of ‘backward’ castes. He was ably assisted by Ambedkarite cabinet colleagues such as B Basavalingappa, who briefly courted controversy by saying that much of Kannada literature was “boosa” or fodder. Urs appointed LG Havanur as head of the Backward Classes Commission, its 1975 report having emerged as a major template that the Mandal Commission set up later by prime minister VP Singh relied on.
Meanwhile, VTR, who often spoke about the Brahminical stranglehold on Indian news rooms, was also emerging as a troublemaker inside the Indian Express offices, making common cause with agitating workers and standing with them on the picket line. It was inevitable that he had to part ways and he did so, founding Dalit Voice in 1981, a periodical devoted to exposing caste discrimination. The publication quickly emerged as a powerful vehicle for airing the concerns of backward castes and espousing unity among the Dalits and the minority communities, gaining wide readership both in India and abroad.
Awards and recognitions
Rajshekar won the 2018 Mukundan C Menon Human Rights Award instituted by National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations given each year to organisations and individuals that embody excellent activism in the defence of human rights.
Earlier, in 2005, he received the London Institute of South Asia (LISA) Book of the Year Award for his Caste: A Nation Within the Nation.
Among many other books he authored were The Black Untouchables of India; Why Godse Killed Gandhi; Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar: Clash of Two Values; and Apartheid in India: An International Problem.
Words of praise pour in
At a packed hall at St Joseph’s College of Commerce on November 30, representatives of all communities paid rich tributes to his life and work.
Earlier, on November 20, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted at some length: “Deeply saddened by the passing of renowned journalist, thinker, and activist V T Rajshekar (93). A fearless voice against caste discrimination and human rights violations, he founded Dalit Voice in 1981 after two decades at Indian Express.
“Rajshekar, whom I had known since those early days, was a guiding mentor and well-wisher. His loss is a significant blow, leaving a void that is hard to fill.
“My heartfelt condolences to his son Salil Shetty [former Secretary General of the global human rights organisation, Amnesty International], his family, and admirers.”
Noted academic and Dalit rights activist, Dr Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd said: “He was a friend and a guide of courage and confidence for activists and writers like me across India and beyond.”
Amnesty International India chair Aakar Patel said at the November 30 meeting that Rajshekar’s writings are with us and that a strident publication such as Dalit Voice getting going is unthinkable in the present political climate in the country.
N Jayaram is a journalist based in Bangalore, and has spent more than 23 years in East Asia and 11 years in New Delhi. He was with the Press Trust of India news agency for 15 years and Agence France-Presse for 11 years and is currently engaged in editing and translating for NGOs and academic institutions. He writes Walker Jay's blog.