DYCHE, The Dalit Psyche

A Volume by M C Raj and Jyothi

An Introduction

For a long time we have been dabbling with the issue of Dalit empowerment and liberation. There has been interplay of theory and praxis in all of our engagement with the caste society in India and with our own people predominantly in the villages. Having come to work among our people after collecting many academic authentications it was a struggle all the way to identify the congruence between the intellect and the inner being, between the cognitive and the emotive, between the rational and the sensitive, between acquired knowledge and native wisdom.

Congruence! Yes, where has it to be found? In the lives of the people in need of liberation? It was there in abundance. Incongruence was in our education. It was in our leadership positioning. We needed to work on ourselves before we could tell the people what changes had to come about in their lives. That is when the whole gamut of theory and praxis began to touch the psyche, our psyche. Without bringing this touch in the psyche we could not possibly be effective in the lives of our people.

The dividing line between psychology and philosophy became very thin and diluted. Often they looked the same and inseparable from each other. Is philosophy a way of getting entangled and extricated? It looked as if it is a mechanism of getting extricated. But it was in reality often an entanglement within oneself. It was a running away from oneself or a steeling of oneself. What right was there for us to get engaged in liberation when we were getting more and more entangled? We needed to work on our psyche to get extricated, primarily from the shackles we had constructed around ourselves and secondarily also from the shackles that the external world had fabricated around us.

Both these brought us closer to the people. The shackles as well as the endeavour to extricate! We had to get engaged in the business of Dalit liberation. Liberation from what? There was the social activist who gave an immediate answer unhesitating a bit. Liberation from systems and structures! Asked for an expansion the social activist quipped, liberation from systemic and structural exploitation and oppression! Very true!

But there was a bondage deep within. May be the bondage was originally caused by what is described as systemic and structural. But the truth of its existence could not be pushed under the carpet. The bondage was too visible to be pushed. It had happened whatever may be the cause. It belonged to us now. The cause lies outside of us. But the bondage lies within us. The linkage between the cause and the caused is inextricable. In as much as we succeed to remove the bondage within we also distance ourselves from the cause that lives outside of us. But can we remove the bondage in us in as much as we deal with the cause? An unfathomable reality indeed!

How do we remove the bondage? Is it possible at all? Cry the question. Can we reduce the bondage? How do we do that? Social rhetoric, political jargon, economic slogans, a heady mixture of all these to the utter neglect of the cultural and the psychological dimensions were the order of the day in the liberation circles. Speak of liberation. Some would show their backs. They were far removed from this. What they wanted to be busy was development. Speak of spirituality, there would be derision. University education did produce some specialists of the top order. But it did not help the ordinary and the simple.

Dealing with theories, strategies and subsequent sloganeering was exciting. Dealing with people posed a very complex proposition. It involved culture, psychology and spirituality. Unfortunately spirituality had this immature mix with religion. Development brought programmes to the centre stage. Liberation brought people as the epicentre of development. That made a world of difference. Culture, psychology and spirituality were viewed and are still viewed as avoidable paraphernalia to development.

After many decades of development liberation is still staring in the face of the interventionists. The difference between implementation, engagement and involvement became stark. Involvement with the liberation of the poor and ethnic minorities demanded engagement of a completely non-anticipated enormity. Engagement required bringing the oppressor to the negotiating table. There was no table at all. It was most of the time under the tree. But that is where culture became alive, not in the enclave of air conditioned rooms. Negotiation between the oppressor and the oppressed, mediating between both and arriving at mutuality demanded tremendous skills and tenacity.

It demanded a non-egotistic involvement of the mediator. Adler has pointed out that we are all vain in one way or other. Can mediation be vanity? In the context of the Dalit community the mediator has to be one of them. Again Adler contents that adaptation to the community is a very crucial psychological function. The mantle of the mediator became too heavy occasionally. But there was no choice. The mantle cannot be thrown away in wanton ways. The mantle became heavy because of sensibilities. Can one hurt the other in the negotiating table just because he was the oppressor? What is ultimately important, taking out unresolved anger or succeeding at the negotiation table? And there was a choice. The mantle had to be worn.

Sensibilities demanded understanding psyche and working through different psyche in different sections of people. There was no stereotyping. That would not bring success. Each person, each situation, each negotiation demanded its own inimitable creativity. There was this world famous artist who attended a conference in Bangalore on the issues that plagued the Dalit world in India. Somewhere during the course of discussions he brought out the incident where some Dalit young people went to him to create the picture of a Dalit woman goddess. He found fault with the Dalit young men and was decrying them because they wanted him to create a soft and beautiful looking woman.

The conference was thrown into a commotion as we objected to his stereotyping of Dalits as only being worthy of rough and hard. Why cannot Dalit young men aspire for soft touch of a woman goddess or even soft women in their lives? Is it something that they do not deserve? Should they have only what is coarse and rough and tough in life? The artist was

completely flabbergasted. There were different ways of looking at the same truth if one understood psyche and psychology.

And what is the difference between psyche and psychology? Is it a botheration? Yes it should bother all those who are dealing with people. Psychology is the science of psyche. That is what it professes to be though one can cast a shadow of doubt over such a claim. Psyche is something that is deeply imbedded in every human being. Psychology is the scientific understanding of psyche. It is not a prerequisite to have a psyche. But psyche is a necessary prerequisite for psychology. Can the two have detached existence? It looks so. One can understand psyche without knowing the science of psychology and one can study psychology and understand psychology without understanding psyche. This throws up the rationale for many psychologists themselves being psychic cases, in utter need of understanding themselves, their own psyche.

As a science psychology is relatively new. German Wilhelm Wundt who is hailed as the father of psychology died only in 1920. He is the one who insisted that psychology should develop as a separate discipline. It has to be a little more empirical than philosophy and a little more philosophical than physiology. Even as early as this, psychology has a contention. The American philosopher William James is considered to be the founding father of modern psychology.

To understand and expand psychology there is a demand for substantiation. But to understand psyche one does not need substantiation. Illustration will be adequate though substantiation will definitely adduce authority to interpretation of psyche. Can anyone be engaged with the liberation of people without getting engaged with psyche? It has not been possible for us. Many success stories have been woven with the intricacies of Dalits in Tumkur district because of an interpretive integration of psyche with social, economic and political. Once integrated it is the science of culture. Psychology, philosophy and culture seem to intertwine themselves inextricably in the path of socio-economic and cultural liberation of an oppressed people such as the Dalits.

Whose psychology are we speaking of or try to understand? becomes a crucial issue especially for those who are living in India. One group of Indian psychologists are accusing the other group of Indian psychologists as blindly aping the west in teaching the discipline of psychology to Indian students. Both the groups seem to manifest a paucity of understanding psyche. Big scholars of psychology, and not minions like us sweating it out in the villages. They teach psychology in the universities and are the authorities of what is called Indian psychology. That is what they claim to be. There is no problem as long as they battle it out among themselves. After all progress is a dialectic movement. We hope it will lead to synthesis.

What disturbs the minions in the path of dialectics of the giants is the variable that they are using. They are using not one but two variables to mark their discipline of psychology. They mark it as Indian Psychology. They also mark it as Indigenous Psychology. Both the variables are problematic. Variables become problematic on their own argumentation. While accusing the other group of blindingly aping the Euro-American science of psychology they profess to develop an indigenous psychology. They call the Euro-

American psychology as dominant which tries to throw overboard what can be termed as Indian psychology. They accuse the Euro-American discipline of psychology as dominant because of its endeavour to universalize the science of psychology. Very attractive argumentation for the naive and the simple!

In developing their own theoretical trajectory in psychology they completely throw overboard the existence of a psyche in the Dalit and Adivasi people of India. For them these two do not exist anywhere. What exists for them in psychology is the cumulative essence of what is contained in the Hindu Scriptures. They call this Indian psychology. They are actually blindly aping the Euro-American scientists in as much as they completely derecognize the legitimate existence of the Dalits and Adivasis. Theirs is a blatant and unethical attempt at establishing as Indian what can be easily termed as Hindu. Do we have any grudge at all against a Hindu psychology? Not at all! Our clamour is for recognizing Hindu psychology as Hindu psychology and not for mixing it up with Indian psychology. These are two different variables in science. It may be a bit too premature to term such attempts as being dishonest but it may prove to be so if they do not change colours. But then it is for history to judge such blatant endeavours.

They also use the variable of Indigenous Psychology alternately for what they call as Indian Psychology. No problem with this categorization provided it is scientific! According to their own science something becomes indigenous when there is an adaptation of what is local. It has to be adaptation and not co-option. Adaptation will require a lot of sacrifice of egotistic assertions by the dominant forces. Co-option is a different ball game altogether. Adaptation will necessarily require a recognition and acceptance of the Dalit and Adivasi psychology when it is applied to India. In the face of complete skipping of these two they lose the legitimacy of calling their psychology as indigenous. It is not merely a whitewash of the primordial science of the Adijan and Adivasis of India. There has been a heavy level of appropriation of the local sciences to constitute what has come to be known today as ‘Indian’. What is marked as pan Indian psychology by the bigwigs can easily compare with what they characterise as Euro-American psychology. The trendsetting is the same in both. The trajectories are the same in both.

Is there something called a Dalit Psychology? Never heard of! That is what this book is all about. Dalit is a misnomer. It is used only for the sake of common understanding. As long as there is a psyche in Adijan and Adivasi people and in as much as it can be understood there is Adijan Psychology. In as much as Dalit psyche can be interpreted traversing through the many faces of wounding that took place there is Dalit Psychology. In as much as psychic interpretations can be shaped into theoretical framework there is definitely a Dalit psychology which can be called the indigenous psychology.

Psychology is all about understanding and interpreting psyche in a theoretical framework. There are people who call their interpretation in their theoretical framework as European psychology. There are people who call a similar dimension in their part of the world as American psychology. There are the bigwigs in India who call their interpretation in a theoretical framework much of which is also borrowed from Hindu Scriptures as Indian psychology or as indigenous psychology. Applying the same criteria the legitimacy of a Dalit psychology will not have to be on par with what is known as indigenous psychology.

Both Freud and Jung are emphatic that beneath the conscious, in the unconscious there is a treasure trove of psychology. There is a tremendous wealth of wisdom. This is a veritable data bank for any analysis and interpretation. In India such an ocean of knowledge and wisdom has been lying dormant among the Dalit and Adivasi people for an abnormal period of time. It was never allowed to resurrect itself on its own strength and identity.

However, developing a Dalit psychology is not our central preoccupation. What we are preoccupied with is the liberation of our people. It cannot be done without necessarily integrating the Adijan psyche and the Dalit psyche with a rational analysis and understanding of migrant psyche. What the scholars describe as Indian psyche or indigenous psychology in contrast to the Euro-American psychology is actually described in this book as migrant psyche. It has specificity and we do recognize its specificity and legitimacy. The legitimacy to call itself indigenous is unfortunately not drawn from the source. That is problematic in an effort to recognize the legitimacy of being indigenous. In order to substantiate its legitimacy as indigenous psychology the ‘Indian’ Psychology should necessarily accord a prime space and respect to Adijan psyche, Dalit psyche and Adivasi psyche. There cannot be a legitimate Indian psychology at the cost of any of these psychologies, including that of the dominant caste psyche which we call the migrant psyche.

The specificity is borrowed actually from the Adijan culture. However, there was no adaptation. There was appropriation. That is a bit wily. Variables in opposite directions! If there was adaptation probably it is much easier to accord recognition to this specificity as being indigenous. For indigenization requires adaptation and not appropriation. The moment Hindu scholars acknowledge the historical factor that they have borrowed their psychology, not all of it but at least a major part of it, from the now Dalit people and have adapted Dalit culture, the moment they do this, the foundations for brotherhood and sisterhood with them will be established.

There are multiplicities of psychological factors that constitute a multi-cultural society such as India. The purpose of this book is not to trace all of them with their inexplicable intricacies. We have a very limited purpose of analysing three major psychological trajectories in India. This is done to develop a rational understanding of what lies beyond the ‘rational’ or better said will be beneath the rational. In all trajectories there lies that something that is specific to its cultural milieu and which constitutes the psyche of a people. The understanding will become an investment not only for the present Dalit people but also to all others in an attempt to build a nationalism that has not seen the light of day till now in India.

Babasaheb Ambedkar has defined nationalism as the spirit of brotherhood and we add sisterhood. This is the ultimate aim of this book that this nation should build its nationalism on the true spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood. Such nationalism has failed the people of India. Caste has prevailed as the predominant foundation of Indian nationalism. It is healing at the psychic level that can restore a spirit. There is a conviction that a nation which is into the serious business of healing is simultaneously reconstructing its nationalism in the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood.

This book has a few historical-psychological agenda.

It has the agenda of identifying possible psychic dimensions that established what is today known as the wounded psyche. We call it Dyche. The age of globalization demands that the presently Dalit people look for ways and means of healing their wound that has been caused by the caste forces of India. The healing can come largely by bringing up their historic-psychological experience into the conscious realm and begin to deal with that experience. It is a process that has to be initiated by the Dalits themselves and they have to work on it with minimum support from externals. Not much help can be expected from outside in this healing process. There may be help for many other areas of liberation. This is an area that requires the wounded to heal its wound. The one who causes the wound will not step in to heal the wound. The cause needs to be dealt with systemically and structurally not only by the Dalit people but by the entire humanity.

It has the agenda of identifying the various dimensions of Adijan psyche which was existent much before the wound was caused by the intrusion of a migrant people. There is a need to bring back all the underlying elements of Adijan psyche in an effort to transform the wounded psyche into a healed unbroken psyche. Adijan psyche specifically refers to the good old times where there was no invasion from nomadic tribes into the lives of the indigenous people. The transformation has to take place by the hard work of the presently Dalit people in order to move into an unbroken future.

It has the agenda of identifying the inner psychic dimensions of the present Dalit people, which they have inherited from their ancestral past. These psychic dimensions have made them survive onslaughts, terrible onslaughts on their personality, self image and character. Their ethos has been assailed time and again and an alien ethos has been imposed on them in the name of gods, religion and nation. Their transformed personalities have to be deeply rooted in the strong psychic dimensions that their ancestors possessed and have left to their posterity. There have been damages to his heritage. However, not everything is lost. The hope still blinkers. Regaining the strength is still possible. Many individual Dalits have done it and are doing it. Now the community has to stand up as one in order to regain its psychological roots.

The regained psychological heritage has to be further transformed to suit the needs of survival in a totally different world with completely alien dogma, value systems and ethos. There is no going back. It is just impossible. There needs to be a thrust forward. There needs to be adaptations, adjustments, hard bargaining all of which can be done on strengths gained through healing and transformation and not on gloating over spilt milk of the past.

Two major psychic trajectories need to be identified based on two realities with which humans deal in their daily life. These trajectories are inextricably intertwined with the realities of the Earth and Heaven. One may characterize these as downward looking and upward looking trajectories. The terms downward and upward are chosen consciously because of the consequences these two trajectories effect on those who are affected by them. These two trajectories are problematic in their perceptions of reality. Yet they need

to be reconciled for appropriate perceptions of the self, the cosmos and especially of human dynamics. Both the trajectories are mutually inclusive.

However, the epicentre of each trajectory is different. There is a heaven centric trajectory and an earth centric trajectory. They differ from the other in the way they try to be inclusive of the other. The upward looking trajectory of heaven tries to be inclusive through a dominant worldview of demanding compliance to supposedly revealed dogmas, doctrines and subsequent normative order. The downward looking trajectory of the earth tries to be inclusive based on a cyclic worldview of providing unlimited space to all people of the earth without claiming any exclusive ownership to space and time. Till now known human history and culture have taken their origin from these two trajectories.

One of the core operational centres of Dyche is what is innate to the psyche of the Adijan people. In history this phase of Adijan psyche is marked as pre-Aryan without finality. It should not be construed that as soon as Aryans arrived in India the present Dalit people lost all their Adijan inheritance and started a wounded psyche. Even in their wounded history the unbroken psyche of Adijan continued and continues till today. In fact it is this preservation and perseverance in the Adijan psyche that has been the strongest foundation of Dalit resurgence. This particular psyche of Adijan people is marked by an undisturbed and unassailable innate security. Remnant psyche of the pre-Aryan Adijan people still lives in the Dalit people, especially in its women. This remnant becomes the data of analysis and the firm foundation of reconstructing Dalit psyche into a healed psyche. The chapter on Adijan psyche deals with the different dimensions of pre-Aryan psyche of the indigenous people.

In the psychic trajectory Adijan is the original Indian, the Kol Bhil Koi Bhajan. Shamanic cosmism, Charvaka’s materialism and the living legacy of the Dalit people in rural and urban India provide the much needed data. A glance through DALITHINK will show that. Not expatiated here in DYCHE! In ways more than one these two are inseparable. Both these also in a way looking back into the past with nostalgia in an effort to recapture the past which lives in the present to make a quantum jump into the future. DYCHE is indeed a journey back into the future. Recouping of energy to carry on the journey will have to be at the level of psyche. The transformation of Dyche into psyche will serve as the gas station in this journey of reconstruction of psyche and along with that also the reconstruction of Indian nationalism which is the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood.

This very constructive and creative journey will always face a major hurdle as the Dalits have faced throughout the many phases of Indian history. The hurdles have been already set up as landmarks of dominant caste ethos. Such landmark blocks have been systematically constructed both at the psychic and social levels. The caste forces in India are still at pains to create a new brand of nationalism. This is evidence enough to show that they lack the spirit of nationalism. They do not own this nation in their subconscious. Nationalism is not only about spirit. It also implies the practice of nationalism. What the dominant forces of India practice is not nationalism but casteism. The practice of nationalism has been efficiently subverted by the spirit of casteism. The Dalit spirit is in conflict with the practice of caste.

A dominant nationalism has been set in motion and many are now trying to re-fabricate it precisely to keep out and exclude many sections of what can truly be called India. They have struck at a level where it matters most. They have subverted a beautiful psyche into DYCHE. This book is indeed a call to them to join in the endeavour of reconstructing a psyche which will become a strong foundation for the reconstruction of future nationalism. The transformation of jingoism into nationalism will have to take place first at the psychic level.

This can easily be said to be the causative factor of what this book strives to analyze and explain as Dyche, the wounded psyche of the present Dalit people. The trajectory of migrant psyche suffers from a fundamental insecurity which has now become inherent to Brahminic and caste psyche. It has helped over many millennia the Aryans to climb up the social ladder in India and finally claim all resources in India to be theirs. This psyche is still continuing in the post modern India with an unrelenting vigour to transform this country into an Aryan nation. This phase of Aryan psyche is marked by innate insecurity. Therefore there is an all out effort to accumulate all that will either create security or an illusion of security.

There is no point keeping on blaming the Aryan psyche endlessly. Analysis is a must. Condemnation can wait. Healing is a difficult and arduous path. But without healing the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood will become a mirage. Can a tiger change its stripes? No. But a chameleon keeps changing colours. It is important to recognize the chameleon in a world of changing colours. It is not the same world any more. It is better that things change in the direction of building a strong nationalism where all people will have their legitimate space intact. Dalits and Adivasis must take up the leadership for realizing this transformation.

Unfortunately the Aryan psyche was not confined to the Aryans alone. It had an ineluctable intrusive impact on the Adijan people to the extent that it forcibly converted them into a people of wounded psyche. The present Dalit people have not yet managed to recover their innate psyche completely. They have to struggle with a wounded psyche in all spheres life. Most of their communicative interaction is conditioned externally by what the Aryans have developed for them as the norm of life. The Aryan psyche has this double edge that on the one hand it strengthens itself psychologically as the most privileged people on the earth and on the other hand it completely decimates the psychic life of the present Dalit people in order to preserve them physically and destroy them psychologically. Such a psychic trajectory has its avowed social, economic and political agenda.

Dyche has its specific characteristics that are not to be found anywhere else in the world, as mechanisms of wounding the Adijan psyche are very unique. There are parallels in the history of the Black people of Africa. The similarities between Black psyche and Dalit psyche are very striking. The characteristics of Black psyche are exemplified in the writings of Du Bois (The souls of Black folk) and Frantz Fanon (Black Skin, White Mask). However, Brahminism has excelled in the capacity for wounding like nobody else in history. The inner being of all human beings is positive. However, Dyche has been caused by wounding and it has unresolved accumulated anger. There are deep cut wounds in the

subconscious. There are both wounds and many scars of the past wound in the conscious. Becoming conscious of the scars causes further wounds.

It is like a woman with a beautiful face or a man with a handsome face. Both have developed a healthy self image. Suddenly somebody pours acid on their face. It makes a deep psychic dent in the personality. Doctors work on the wound and heal them. But the scars remain to keep reminding of the past, the evil of the person who poured the acid. Whenever there is a conscious reminding of the scars it causes further damage in the psyche. The scars may remain but the self image can be reconstructed by working vigorously on other dimensions of personality and strengthening them. The interplay of the subconscious and the conscious needs to be clearly marked, to meaningfully get into a process of healing. The analysis of migrant psyche and Dyche are not attempts to take out compulsive anger. It is to enable the construction of a path for healing the wound. While the caste forces have caused untold misery on the psyche of the Adijan people they have also self inflicted wounds in their own psyche which is in dire need of healing. Without applying the balm of healing to the migrant psyche there cannot be a meaningful approach to healing of Dyche.

Dyche can be understood well through it multifarious manifestations. The scars are reflection of real wound in the psyche. In order to arrest further wounding in the psyche it is imperative to have a conscious look at the scars and accept the manifestations as real and through them also see the real wound that is probably buried in the subconscious. DYCHE has a persuasive peep into the scars as manifestations of DYCHE. Can a people be allowed to keep on living with wounded psyche? Can a nation be constructed on dilapidated legacies of the past? The sooner we get into the business of reconstruction of the nation the better it is for all her people. Reconstruction has to start by clearing off the debris, the legacy of a wounded psyche, the DYCHE.

Healing of wounded psyche is possible only when there is a collective recognition and acceptance of the fact that the present Dalit people have been wounded abhorrently. The unearthing of the subconscious to the conscious has to be done at all levels. There has to be a dissection of externally caused wounds and self inflicted wounds. Extreme care is necessary in this dissection. As in the case of the scars on the face self inflicted wound can be because of an externally caused wound. The externally caused wound can become virtual foundation of many self inflicted wound in the future. Care has to be taken not to trace all self inflicted wounds to external causes while simultaneously it is of paramount importance on the part of dominant forces not to shift the onus of healing to the victims by dumping all wounds as self inflicted.

The causes need to be recognized so that healing can be done faster and a psychological resurgence of the Adijan people may take place. When causes of the psychological wounds are identified and recognized one can say that half the problem has already been solved. Achieving the other half will be only a logical consequence and a question of time. Identifying the causes is a two lane highway. There is the external. There is the ‘someone’ out there who made me to be what I am. But there is also the ‘I’ in me and the ‘we’ in us. Both are causes in different proportions. There is no exclusive factor that caused psyche. At least as hindsight it needs to be recognized that Dalits are not a bundle of flesh that are

tossed around by caste forces into the pages of history at their whims and fancies. They have responsible personhood. There is a choice through which they have traversed the pages of their history. These choices have to be brought back alive. New choices have to be made in a changing world. New resurgences have to be designed and executed for the present as the foundations for a future. The present is as much important as the future if not more important.

It is on the foundations of healing that the resurgence of nationalism according to the order of Ambedkar is possible. We take recourse to Ambedkar not only because of our emotional attachment to him but also because he is the one who has enshrined the spirit of Indian nationalism in the constitution of India. He is the one who had dwelt on the nitty-gritty of realizing Indian nationalism. The challenges are much. A healed psyche will be a difficult proposition for dominant caste forces of India to deal with. It will transgress their vanity. They have developed the technology for dealing with a wounded psyche and not with a healed psyche. They may be psychically forced to go back to their original insecurities.

That is how it all started. They were not able to cope with psyche that had integrity with nature. They were confronted with a psyche that was never in need of healing as there was no wound in it. There will be need for redesigning their technology to make it possible to deal with healed psyche. In similar vein the present Dalits cannot be regenerating their past wounds in a subconscious attempt to seek psychic compensation. Their technologies have to equally go through a process of metamorphosis. Both have to develop and transform not only their technologies but also reinvent appropriate symbols of their transformation as pragmatic measures of mutual confidence building.

The healing has to start with one’s psyche and not with the other. It is essential that the other psyche is as much healed as one’s own. However, if one waits for the other to heal first it will end up as a game of ping pong. There has to be an unhesitating determination to start the healing process in the deep recesses of one’s personality, however much wounded it may be. The ideal situation will be both the victim and the apparent cause of victimhood start the healing process together. However, in an asymmetrical society it is well neigh impossible that it started from the cause. It may sound topsy-turvy. But there is no other way.

The argumentation of DYCHE is that a part of Dalit victimhood is an amalgamated compensatory mechanism. One need not have been a victim though historically it has come to pass that the Dalit people have become victims and have allowed their psyche to be wounded horribly. They have always kept the doors of healing open by not taking recourse to vindictive action. Now, that is not enough. Though they are not the cause of the problem they can and have to be the cause of the healing. Reconstruction of a psyche from Dyche has to start from them because it their psyche that has to be reconstructed. Having allowed the oppressor to wound their psyche they cannot now wait for the same oppressor to start a healing process.

Where does it start? Naturally it should start with the Dalit self, the wounded psyche. The first block of reconstruction has to start from every Dalit person. The first corner stone of

the foundation has to be laid by the Dalits themselves. DYCHE strongly believes that reconstruction is possible and without reconstruction at the individual psyche no sustainable healing at the community level is possible. When there is a jubilation of reconstruction, celebration of liberation from the personal bondage to compulsive factors at psychic spheres there is a natural inclination in human beings to spread it across to those who are at physically communicable distance. Liberation is such a beautiful experience that when it is experienced it assumes wings and flies to near and far corners wherever it finds access.

When freedom assumes wings and begins to fly it affects neighbourhood and also moves beyond the neighbourhood. It has the potential to travel to far corners of the world. It becomes a community. It makes sense to those who have wounded psyche and are aspiring for liberation from the bondage. Healing is soothing for everyone. Healing one’s psyche of wounds is an arduous task. But there is no other go. One has to work on oneself to be healed. Some tools are provided in DYCHE in the section on healing. Accompaniment may be a necessity. But when what lays buried in the subconscious is brought out into the terrain of the conscious more than half the problem is resolved, the healing process would have been effectively set in motion.

When the caste psyche does not discriminate one Dalit from another in its blind drive to wound the collective psyche of the Dalit community is at the receiving end. It is the entire community of Dalits, not just once as if an accident, but throughout history has been singled out to a treatment that cannot be imagined to be human. In fact what has been commonly described as ‘inhuman’ will pale into nothingness in the company of the ‘humanity’ of Brahminism. DYCHE is in collective need of liberation, of freedom from the psychic shackles of the caste psyche and its consequent system.

The section on manifestations is an attempt to raise much of the buried and compulsive anger into the conscious. Collective healing would be set in motion when one applied the collective to the individual self and the personal to the collective. They are not interchangeable realities. But they can be the same at the conscious level and the healing mechanism becomes more effective. It is not the ‘everything’ of healing. The community has to exercise itself serious on its Dyche to transform itself into a healthy psyche.

DYCHE asserts that every Dalit has a strong psyche which has not been allowed to find the light of day. There is a native wisdom in individual Dalits as well as in the Dalit community. Each Dalit as well as the Dalit community has to firmly believe that this strength exists within. Unless there is a faith in interiority healing will be problematic. It is like Milton Erickson’s horse. When he was a boy he found a horse that strayed into his farm. He did not know to whom the horse belonged. He just jumped on the horse and began to ride it. He did not guide the horse. He was just at its back and rode the horse as it went. Finally the horse reached its home. The real owners were surprised and asked Erickson how he found out that it was their horse. Erickson sprang a surprise on them by saying that it was not he who knew their place. It was the horse that knew that it belonged to them. He just allowed the horse to go where it wanted and it came to its place.

Each Dalit and the Dalit community must discover the inner horse and walk according to its guidance. They must know for sure that there is one. The leadership in these communities must allow the people to guide them. If they tried to guide the horse without knowing its true place both will land in a blind gully. That will be a leap of faith. Unless the leadership has a firm and unshakable faith in the inner wisdom of the people and ride on its wisdom blind gully may be the ultimate destination for both. Accompaniment while trusting in the people is one of the biggest challenges to any leadership from oppressed communities. The zenith of this challenge is allowing the people to take their decisions even for the path of the leadership. That is the call of the divine to the Dalit leadership. The divine is not an illusionary god dwelling in the heavens but the people of good hearts who have a forbearance much beyond the levels of gods witnessed in human history.

To assume only the victims to be wounded! Problem of the psyche of the common humans! Inflicting pain has become an artistic design for the perpetrator. Victims are not the cause. They are the objects. The subjects have the technology to wound the objects. The ultimate pleasure of causing wound in others becomes a burden of beast in their subconscious. How can anyone know the intensity and depth of the wound self inflicted in the subconscious by the internal agency of the dominant psyche. Dominant humanity has always passed through different phases of intermittent compulsions to live with its self inflicted wounds in its own psyche.

Migrant psyche is very insecure intrinsically. It is much worse when compared to the wounded psyche. Multifarious dimensions of migrant psyche are explored systematically in DYCHE. Healing will be almost impossible. Much more hard work at multiple levels is required. If there is no healing in the psyche of the perpetrator it could spell a doom for the future of the world, for the future of India. The compulsions of wounding others will keep on persisting. Unhealed dominant psyche can turn out to be a roaring lion prowling to devour its victims without any provocation.

Who is the best doctor? Who can heal self inflicted wounds? The one who caused the wound will best know where it hurts most. In the interest of humanity caste psyche has to go through a healing process, a metamorphosis.

Between the cause and effect stands the agent. The interventionists can do both the things efficiently. They can either speed up the healing process in the wounded psyche or they can also further aggravate the wounds under the pretensions of healing. They can be either messiahs or they can masquerade as messiahs. There are many innovative ways in which they masquerade. Many interventionists suffer from what psychologists identify as the FOG syndrome. FOG is expanded as Fear, Obligation and Guilt. They are not only interventionists but also investors as their very existence often stands on the victimhood of the owners of DYCHE. If they are overpowered by the investor psyche their first attempt will be to establish an emotional hold over the psyche of the people on whose behalf they make the intervention. The interventionists have to exercise extreme care in implementing what they set out to do with the Dalits. If they do not take care they can, and often they do, end up as efficient emotional blackmailers of the Dalits. Their psyche can in turn become another agent of wounding the already wounded DYCHE. Interventionists can turn out to

be a dangerous tribe of technicians meddling with the psyche of a people as if they fiddle with machines.

Healing is not a wishful thinking as the self professed messiahs would like to believe. It is a scientific process. It has to be scientific. Otherwise healing can become the mask for further wounding. Precious lessons learned from history! Locales of healing abound. They need to be identified. New technologies of healing and not wounding have to be invented. It is not difficult. They are available in the horse of Erickson. One needs to move with faith in leaps and bounds. There are many ways for healing. But it is crucial to identify where actual healing is required. Wounded spots need to be located exactly and proportionate dosage of treatment has to be prescribed. DYCHE identifies the locales of healing.

Adijan psyche is without blemishes. But it cannot be brought back in its pristine glory. Residual psyche of Adijan psyche will be of much use in the healing process as it is likely to operate like Erickson’s horse. There is a world of wealth in the subconscious of the Adijan and Adivasi psyche. They must be made the best use of in the healing processes of wounded psyche. Self inflicted wounds both in the migrant psyche and in DYCHE are serious concerns in the healing process. Since wounds are caused in a dominant way there needs to be negotiated healing. DYCHE vehemently proposes a healing that will bring about a win-win situation and not a healing that will make one group win over the other. No healing is possible anywhere in the world if any one feels that he/she will have to lose. In fact no one should be made to lose anything. Healing is a true gain. It must be available for all.

In the interest of India all Indians have to get into the serious business of healing. This is all the more so of the ruling castes of India who have the reins of power in their hands. They can either make or break India. Healed psyche is the biggest resource in the kitty of a nation that wants to progress. India is having dreams of progress and nightmares of development. It cannot develop in a balanced way leaving aside systematically the Adijans and Adivasis of India. Psychic healing has to develop as a national enterprise at different levels. There is not a single community that can assume the sole responsibility for healing. If that happens it will be a subverted healing which will cause further wounds in the psyche of people. Out of this healing will come peace. As the Dalit people of Tumkur District have shown a national healing can be a veritable harbinger of hope for peace.

If the nation does not work seriously towards peace through psychic healing the Dalit people will be left with only one other option and that is to go for a revolution. If they are pushed against the wall they will turn back and defend themselves. Such a defence can turn out to be aggressive and even violent. This should not happen as a nation which is on a compulsive mode of violence can hardly hope to survive as a nation. But then this is not a matter of wishful thinking. It is a matter of personal, community and national choices. We, as a nation of people have to decide for freedom and peace. Given the type of fast development of communication technology it will not be long before the Dalit people all over the world will forge a collective concern for the establishment of their dignity and participation in the Instruments and Mechanisms of national governance.

We hope this country will not push the Dalit people to a point of no return. We hope sanity in the national psyche will be restored at the earliest and Dalits will feel proud to have recovered their ancient heritage of a nation in which Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras and the thousands of fragmented castes and sub-castes will have their space, in which Dalitism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism and all other fragmented religions will have their space. It will be a nation in which animals and plants will have their space to live. It will become a land of peace as it was in the pre-Aryan period of the Adijan people.

Dyche suggests a reconstruction trajectory in the light of all the analysis that is coming in its many pages. Dyche has been divided into four books.

Book One contains two major chapters. One chapter is on the Adijan psyche which is on the pre-Aryan psyche of the present Dalit people. The other is the hitherto unexplored psyche of migrant people among whom Aryans have a predominant place. But it will apply to also many other dominant psychic trajectories whose origin is nomadic tribalism. The data for Adijan psyche is drawn from the empirical residual psyche of the present Dalit people in their multifaceted existence in a continuously challenging modern world. The data for migrant psyche is drawn from the present as well as the past of the caste forces of India. Fortunately there is such a lot of wealth of information in the writings of the dominant caste forces to substantiate the argumentation of DYCHE.

Book Two contains three significant chapters. It goes through the pains and pangs of the conversion of a very healthy and natural Adijan psyche into a terribly wounded psyche which we call Dyche. 34 Dimensions, mechanisms, and locales of wounding are analysed threadbare. While going through these chapters one cannot also escape from naturally linking them up once again with wounding mechanisms and wayward psychic proclivities of the dominant caste forces.

Most people in the world operate from anger. Therefore, anger is not a specific character of oppressed people. However, the way anger plays with the lives of the Dalits people is laid out for the same of clarity in perception of Dyche. By all standards this is a ‘never before’ exposition of the various mechanisms leading to the contemporary psychic situation of Dalits.

Book Three which is a long part of Dyche, contains nine chapters. Once again it explores the manifestations and consequences of wounding the psyche of the Dalit people. This is a treasure trove. It facilitates a self understanding of Dyche by Dalits as well as a very rational and emotional understanding of the behaviour of Dalits by all those who are concerned about social injustice and inequality. Undoubtedly this will be a treat to anyone in search of answers to many personal riddles.

Book Four is all about healing processes at the psychic realm of all those who have one or other type of wound in their psyche. The purpose of writing Dyche is not to apportion blame to anybody. It is to understand oneself and one’s community from a psychological perspective. It is to locate the different behaviour patterns of the oppressors and the oppressed, to bring the submerged subconscious into the conscious in order to

scientifically effect a healing in the psyche. The healing processes start from the self of the individual and spread slowly into the community and society at last.

Book four suggests many pragmatic ways of transforming wounded psyche into a healed psyche so that people of all hue and cry can live together in society and build a nationalism in India. Ambedkar has called nationalism as spirit of brotherhood/sisterhood. If all people in a country understand why they behave the way they behave more than half healing has already taken place. A nation with healed psyche will march forward courageously to redesign its nationalism to provide space for all people of the earth.

Dyche proposes to provide an inspirational impetus to the Dalits not to be simple seekers of their development and liberation but to become emboldened and empowered rudders that will navigate this county into the land of freedom and peace. In order to do this the Adijan and Adivasi psyche has to resurrect itself in self actualization without waiting for reflexive actualization.

India has to seriously get into the business of healing the wounds in the psyche of her people to survive. It is possible for India only when the Dalits and the Adivasi people are respected as her citizens and are given their dignity, rights and space psychologically, socially, economically and politically. When this happens it is bound to lay the foundations for world peace. India has to lead the way for world peace.

The following locales have been identified for healing and for reconstruction of Indian Nationalism,

1. Personal psyche of Individual Dalits

2. Community Dyche of Dalit communities

3. General social psyche of Indian communities

4. Migrant Psyche of the caste forces of India

5. Locales of convergence

6. Locales of specificities

7. Intervention

8. Dialectics

9. Negotiation

10.Governance Measures

11.Legal Measures

12.Peace Building

To have a complete theoretical and scientific understanding please read every page of the book. We wish you a good reading.

M C Raj

Jyothi 2008