Author: Milind Ghatwai
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: December 9, 2000
I am a Brahmin by Karma,”
says Jairambhai Shankar Keni of Dehri village, who has come to attend the
80th birth anniversary celebrations of Pandurang Shastri Athawale on the
banks of Narmada river. “Most Brahmins don’t know much about the
Vedas but I do,” he says proudly, pointing to the sacred thread peeping
out of his shirt. Not many can dispute that argument though Keni
is just a fisherman.
The Swadhyay movement
of Pandurang Shastri Athawale has turned the ancient system of caste hierarchy
on its head by conferring brahminhood on those who are on the lower rungs
of the social ladder. So far about 150 fishermen have been made ‘Bhukants’
who can recite the Vedas and speak Sanskrit.
“Their number is not
significant but the concept is,” says Bhanubhai Badani, a member of the
organising committee for the December 10 celebrations which will be attended
by eight lakh devotees from both sides of the Narmada.
“Had it not been for
the movement, we would have never got to speak Sanskrit, leave aside (read)
the Vedas,” says Arjunbhai Mangela, reeling out a couple of couplets from
The Gita.
Lakhs of fishermen from
Okha to Goa have joined the movement since 1969 when Dada, as Athawale
is called by his followers, held his first meeting in the coastal town
of Daman. Now there is not a single coastal village between Okha
and Karnataka where fishermen are not part of the movement.
Athawale began by giving
a new name-Sagarputra- to fishermen. He asked them to give up meat,
vices and old social dogmas. Many families have become totally vegetarian
though they still cast the net for their livelihood. “More than anything,
he gave us dignity. How else could we have even thought of taking
to the Vedas and Sanskrit, which we believed only Brahmins by birth were
entitled to,” says Mangela.
Who can become a Bhukant?
“Only those who have studied and understood the Swadhyay philosophy and
mastered Sanskrit and the ancient sacred books,” says Santosh Lakshman,
a 24-year-old Sagarputra from Umbergaon who has given up meat and liquor.
