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This is a story about the story of Dalits (lowest in the social order of the Indian caste system)
SOMEONE WHO IS SHACKLED BY FEARS OF FAILURE UNTIL THEY BREAK FREE.
Rajesh was an energetic person in the village. His father was a landless farmer. They belong to the Dalit community. In that village, many Dalit families like them lived in utter poverty, were Illiterate, ignorant, economically backward and socially degraded. Dalit families suffered discrimination and ill-treatment from the upper-caste Hindus.
Rajesh suffered from the fear of failure to leave his village, though some of his community people migrated from his village to many Indian states and more importantly, the nearby states like Punjab and Haryana. He was always shackled by fear of failure, preventing him from taking risks in new ventures for new attempts, efforts, and thinking. Because he felt if he failed, he would be humiliated by his fellow men in his community.
One day, his father was seriously ill, and he took him to the Government hospital for free treatment, as he did not have money. However, he borrowed money to keep it for emergencies from his community person with a fear in his mind of repaying the borrowed amount. He saved his father from the disease with the government hospital treatment and borrowed money.
A few months later, Rajesh was affected by Tuberculosis. Once confirmed, he was taken to the government hospital for treatment, where he was subjected to all the tests and free medication. For nearly two months, he was in the hospital and later discharged with the advice to visit every month for tests and medicines. This was his latest health record.
The doctor advised him to take Protein-rich food and ensure a clean environment; he further advised to avoid smoking and alcohol. Rajesh became cautious about his diet and habits after his discharge.
In the next month's review, the doctor appreciated his improved health, encouraging him to continue the diet habits of Protein-rich food and personal clean habits of non-smoking and tea-totalling. This encouragement gave him a new lease of life, as he was happy to recover from the tuberculosis disease.
One day, he was attending a religious discourse in the temple nearby. Being a Dalit, he could not mingle with the other upper-caste Hindus. He was standing far away from the temple entrance and heard the lecture clearly, as it was performed with the loudspeakers kept on top of the temple. In the discourse, the seer mentioned Swamy Vivekananda’s real-life story. He narrated: A monkey was threatening Vivekananda, who was running like a racer out of fear to escape from the monkey. But the monkey was running after him ferociously. It was running closely behind him and threatening him with unusual sounds, exhibiting anger.
After running for some time, he encountered an older man. He stopped him and asked Vivekananda why he was running so fast. Vivekananda explained about the chasing of the ferocious monkey.
Then the old man advised him first he should stop running and secondly that he should threaten the monkey somehow: “As long as you are running away with fear, the monkey definitely will chase and threaten you. But the moment you stood courageously against it, took a stone and threw it against the monkey, you could see the monkey would run away. Because now you are threatening the monkey instead of the monkey threatening you,” he added.
As advised by the older man with his wisdom, Vivekananda did it. And the monkey was driven away successfully. Vivekananda thanked the older man and happily went home without the fear of the monkey.
Hence, Vivekananda talked about fear in his own words:
“I have no fear. Tell this to everybody. Have no fear. Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell. Fear is unrighteousness; fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in this world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.”
The seer said many things about life--truth, hard work, continuous effort, a never-give-up attitude, and justice. Vivekananda’s condemnation of fear haunted Rajesh’s mind.
That day, he was not much worried about migrating to some cities or towns in other states or nearby states, searching for better employment opportunities to earn money to support his family- his mother, father and two sisters to have a better life. Since the fear was losing its strength in his mind, he started gathering information about migration to nearby states -Punjab and Haryana.
Once he determined to migrate to Punjab, he discussed the matter with his parents and sisters. He wanted to go to Punjab to search for a job to improve his personal life so that he would benefit and send money to support the family. Hearing that, his mother was in tears, thinking about his separation.
Someone discouraged him, stating the subtle burning of smoke would affect his health, being a tuberculosis patient, referring to the Delhi government declaring holidays for school children to prevent them from breathing the polluted air.
But his parents and two sisters agreed with him as there was no way to settle the borrowed money for his father’s medical expenses. Earning by him sufficiently in their native village was impossible, where the discrimination of castes and ill-treatment prevailed very much and discouraged every Dalit boy and young man from living in their village.
One day, Rajesh, after their parent’s blessings, boarded the Seemanchal Express and reached Ludhiana, Punjab the next day, where he worked in a sports shop with a salary of ₹10,000 per month. He was pleased to get such money with dignity, equality, and no caste discrimination. The shop owner never asked him about his details, like caste and the village from where he migrated to Ludhiana. So, with this anonymity, he happily worked there as a man free from the shackles of fear of failure.
Hence, he was flourishing in Ludhiana. He was accustomed to the Sikh religious beliefs, culture, and food habits. Changed his speech to Punjabi language gradually with a Hindi accent. Also started practising Sikh religious belief with five marks of Sikh. Most importantly, he changed his name to Rajesh Kumar Singh, besides wearing kirpan in his Turban, one of the five marks of the Punjab Sikh religion and going regularly to the Gurudwara for prayers and sometimes doing services to the devotees coming to the Gurdwara.
One day, Rajesh came to his native place. After returning from Punjab, he called his friends in the evening near the Neem tree in the vast ground and discussed his new work at the sports shop Ludhiana in Punjab. And the equality he was enjoying and the absence of discrimination. He felt he was a free person, recognised for his work and the truthfulness of his character.
He also suggested that willing persons accompany him to Punjab as there is every possibility of getting jobs with a minimum salary of Rs 8,000 to 10,000 per month. And they could very well send a few thousand to their family in Bihar so that their family could come out from the financial crises and lead a somewhat happy life with at least two meals per day and good clothes.
On hearing about his respectable job with a handsome salary, about 5 to 6 of his friends expressed their willingness and said they would certainly go with him for the new job in Punjab.
Of the five persons who expressed their willingness, after 2 to 3 days, they were reluctant to go to Punjab with him. They expressed their fear of failure in the unfamiliar employment and environment, totally cut off from known relatives and friends of the same caste. Caste discrimination, safety, and residence also threw the fear of failure in their minds. So, finally, they were not going with him to Punjab, as they were in the shackles of fear of failure and could not break free. Also, they expressed the fear of subtle burning smoke in Punjab, which affected the lungs of people in and around Delhi, who suffered a lot and became sick because of the subtle burning smoke. The Delhi government decided to close schools till the situation was improved from the polluted atmosphere because of the subtle burning.
Hence, Rajesh left Punjab without these friends.
***
One day, thinking of the five persons was changed, and they decided to go with Rajesh when he came the next time.
Yes. One day, these people attended a meeting where Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan addressed the gathering. He was quoting so many incidents of atrocities against Dalits in the northern part of India. Also expressed his support for all the Dalits to come out of the atrocities and discrimination of the caste system and caste-related crimes, violence, and inequality. He was extremely critical of the inaction of the governments to act against caste Hindus who were not allowing Dalits to enter the Hindu temples and preventing them from fetching water from the public wells. “ Since we are poor and illiterate, we suffer greatly at the hands of upper and backward caste Hindus.
Dalit people could not come out of the problems of Bonded labour due to our ignorance and illiteracy. Education is a powerful weapon for our social mobility and for improving our financial condition.
Dalits are degraded and placed in the lowest rung of the four castes, ill-treated in whatever manner possible, though the constitutional safeguards such as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act, and forming National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and many welfare schemes for uplifting them.
Hence, I advise all my Dalit brothers and sisters to earn money even by migrating to nearby states if they get a chance for the same.”
With a big applause, Chandrashekar Azad Ravan concluded his speech. And the crowd dispersed with the slogan ‘Ambedkar chindhabad’ in a roaring voice.
Fear of failure haunted six Dalit friends after hearing Shri Azad's address, discussed at length about going to Punjab, as they finally broke free from the fear of failure. Now, all six people expressed their desire to Rajesh to go to Punjab.
After a week, Rajesh took all six people along with him to Punjab. All took shelter in his small room. After breakfast that morning, they proceeded to the town, where he was employed -- the sports shop. On the way, he enquired about twenty-three shops for employment. And three of his friends got new jobs in different shops--one in a grocery shop, another in a stationery shop and the third in a fruit shop. The remaining three people went along with him to the sports shop. After meeting the Manager, he explained about his three friends and requested employment. The manager immediately offered a job to one of them. Finally, only two people left.
He asked them to wait until lunchtime, and he started working in the sports shop as usual along with his friend employed that day.
During lunchtime, he took the three for lunch. In the hotel, Rajesh requested the Hotel Manager to appoint one or two people to the hotel for any job. The manager accepted one person for a hotel job, and he was so happy to be working in the hotel because food was free three times and free accommodation. He couldn't have imagined three times food and a good environment. So, ultimately, Rajesh left with one friend. He, along with him, went back to the sports shop, leaving the one offered a hotel job.
After finishing the work in the evening, the three came out of the sports shop, went to the nearby tea shop, and had tea. Rajesh said, “ Look. Among the six of our friends, five got appointments today. You will get an appointment today or tomorrow; don't worry.”
He also said, “After seeing the incidents happening since morning, I am very hopeful that we help more of our brothers from our village to get a job, provided they would come out of the fears of failure. All five people who got the employment returned to Rajesh’s room. One of the six said, “Sir, the first-day experience is nice. All are incredibly happy to get the appointments,” thinking about their past unbelievably bad experiences in the village- ill-treatment, harassment, discrimination, starving for many days and half-filled stomach for many days.
Sharing their day-one experience one by one, all got good sleep and slept.
Next day morning.
Except the person who was still to be employed, all were busy to go to their respective offices and another who was employed in the hotel. So, within half an hour, all left for their workplace. Finally, Rajesh and his unemployed friend left.
On the way, like the previous day, they asked the owners of several shops--bookstores, repair shops, and other shops. Finally, his friend was offered a job at the Motorcycle repair shop. His friend readily accepted it, as the Shop owner assured him a salary of ₹8000 per month.
After that, both had breakfast. Rajesh went to his sports shop, leaving his friend in the motorcycle repair shop.
After the day’s work, they all met at about 8:00 p.m. in Rajesh’s room. Happily, discussed their experiences.
Days moved on.
They were now getting three meals a day with assured income. They were happy to send money every month to their family. They all became a little relaxed. And started thinking about the other Dalit brothers suffering in the village because of poverty, harassment, discrimination, inequality, and ill-treatment.
Since all of them daily heard the prayer song of the Sikh religion from the nearby gurudwara, they all started the Sikh religious practices. People in that area learned they were exceptionally good people, recognising their hard work and truthfulness. One day, one of the devotees to the Gurdwara met all these seven people and asked about them. After knowing they were not from Punjab, they explained everything about Sikhism and suggested religious conversion to Sikhism from Hinduism. After knowing that there is no discrimination, equality is assured, and no harassment, all seven accepted for conversion to Sikhism, and all made necessary arrangements for the same.
Rajesh suggested a common fund for a common cause by contributing per month ₹100 each. So, after receiving a salary, all contributed ₹100 to him. And including his own, it became ₹700. He opened a savings bank account in a nearby SBI branch. Also, they opened one account each for themselves. They deposited their money in the bank and left. So, the day became a wonderful day for them. The following day, all sent money to their old age- parents ranging from Rs3000 to Rs5000 and all were delighted.
Days moved on.
***
Since they became comfortable, now they thought about the Dalit brothers suffering in their village. So, they guided them for migration to Punjab, as there was plenty of employment. Also, they started thinking about building a gurudwara in their village for prayer as they embraced Sikhism.
After 2 to 3 months, the six persons went with Rajesh and returned to their village in Bihar to visit their families with money and clothes for their family members. They were enormously happy to return with that kind of financial condition. After reaching the village, their family received them warmly and gave an excellent reception with the money they sent. They cooked tasty food-chicken and mutton. A lovely feast for the earning member of the family returned to their village from three hundred kilometres away from their village.
The return of six persons with Rajesh with a few thousand, besides the money sent in the first week of every month, was known to the village people. Also now came with good gifts. Information about their arrival spread in the village, mainly to the five men reluctant to go with him due to fear of failure, as what would happen if someone killed them somewhere, and they became unclaimed dead bodies in an unknown place. Or if they lose their employment, what to do, or if their Dalit caste was found out … so many such thoughts of fears failed them to migrate to Punjab. So, with all these negative feelings, they were reluctant to go with Rajesh when he counselled them for their migration.
Now, slowly, their thinking changed, as they realised, after seeing the six men of their castes, went with Rajesh, with better financial conditions as they benefitted with an assured monthly income, irrespective of drought or floods. In contrast, in the village, the landless Dalits suffered during drought or floods and severe winters as no agricultural labour work at that time.
Adding salt to their injuries, landowners started using machines for sowing, reaping, and spraying pesticides and fertilisers. Hence, the Dalit agricultural labourers lost their livelihood in Bihar to a maximum extent.
The five people reluctant to go with him met Rajesh in his residence one evening. Rajesh offered an excellent tea for all five people and discussed at length as they had to come out of the clutches of fear of failure.
So, they expressed their willingness to go along with Rajesh to Punjab to earn money for their livelihood since they broke free from the shackles of fears of failure.
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