Why Dalit intellectual Anand Teltumbde may not remain an unfettered man

"I am an ideal subject to send a lesson that they can do anything to anybody," says Anand Teltumbde

In the little-known village of Bhima Koregaon on the outskirts of Pune, 2018 dawned with a violent turn to what had been a quiet annual gathering for two centuries. On January 1 every year, Dalits visit a vijay stambh (an obelisk signifying victory) to celebrate the 1818 Battle of Koregaon. In the battle, the East India Company, which had predominantly scheduled caste Mahar soldiers in its ranks, defeated a numerically stronger, upper-caste Peshwa force.

On January 2, 2018, as clashes broke out between Dalits and upper castes, Dalit intellectual and academic Anand Teltumbde wrote in The Wire: “While the resolve to fight the Hindutva forces is certainly laudable, the myth (of Bhima Koregaon) used for the purpose may be grossly counterproductive insofar as it reinforces identitarian tendencies whereas the necessity is to transcend them.”

A year later, Teltumbde is facing arrest after being accused of having links with the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence. Last year, the Pune police arrested 10 other activists and lawyers on similar charges, including a plot to assassinate the prime minister. Earlier this month, on a single absurdist day, Teltumbde was arrested at Mumbai airport and released the same day after a sessions court reminded the police of the Supreme Court’s interim protection till February 14 (the date was subsequently extended to February 22).

Last month, after the Supreme Court refused to scrap an FIR filed by the Pune police against him, Teltumbde made an impassioned appeal seeking public support saying he was “devastated by the prospect of imminent arrest”. He also noted that his article on Bhima Koregaon angered Dalits, too, and that he had differences with the conveners of a conference on December 31, 2017, known as Elgar Parishad, and that he did not in fact attend the conference.

As a sword of Damocles hangs over his head, Teltumbde has received an outpouring of support from students, workers, academics and intellectuals, including from abroad. It is reflective of the different fields he has straddled —a management professional with a corporate career behind him, teacher, writer, civil rights activist and political analyst.

Born into a Dalit family in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, the mechanical engineer and alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has held senior positions at Bharat Petroleum and Petronet India. Teltumbde, now senior professor and chair of big data analytics at the Goa Institute of Management, also occupied elected positions as a student activist and has been involved with democratic rights movements.

Although he was charged under the iron-fisted Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Teltumbde says in an email interview that he wasn’t worried until recently because after a raid at his Goa residence on August 28, 2018, the police neither confiscated anything nor called him for questioning.

At a press conference a few days later, the police read out a purported letter — addressed to “Com Anand” by a likely Maoist — as evidence against him. The letter also claimed that Maoists had arranged for him to attend a meeting in Paris in April 2018. He had indeed attended an international conference but one organised by the American University of Paris at their invitation and expense, he adds.

One of the persons mentioned in the letter is French Marxist scholar Étienne Balibar, while two other professors were made out to be Maoist accomplices. Teltumbde obtained the letter from a journalist friend and forwarded it to those whose names found mention in it. “They were all stunned by this criminal fabrication by the police,” he says, adding that the organisers wrote a letter exposing the falsehood. Professor Balibar complained angrily to the French embassy in Delhi, as did the provost of the varsity. “I decided to prosecute the additional director general of police for criminal defamation and wrote to the government on September 5 for permission but there is no response to date,” says Teltumbde.

He petitioned the Bombay High Court for the case to be quashed, but was turned down. But it was the subsequent rejection by the apex court, too, that induced shock and despair. “That came as a big jolt because our notions that as innocent citizens we are safe were proven wrong. Our lives turned topsy-turvy. The only option left for me was to seek pre-arrest bail. But when the police arrested me, their intent became clear. It was not any investigation but to humiliate and harass me,” he says.

When asked why, Teltumbde says, “It may be that with my prominence and reputation, public image and also being a part of the family of Babasaheb Ambedkar, I am an ideal subject to send a lesson that they can do anything to anybody.”

Teltumbde’s brother-in-law Prakash Ambedkar, who is a former MP and the grandson of B R Ambedkar, says that the case against the intellectuals and activists is flimsy and will not stand judicial scrutiny even though he expresses surprise at what he sees as a failure by the higher courts to refuse insufficient proof. “If you are accusing him, then you should produce at least one student whom he has brainwashed,” he adds, pointing out that Teltumbde’s core activity over three decades has been teaching. According to Ambedkar, the administration is increasingly unable to stand up to the pressures of political bosses. “Anand and all the others are being targeted to create a fear psychosis that anybody else can meet the same fate as them.”

IIM-A professor Navdeep Mathur rates Teltumbde as among the best academics he has known or worked with. “The term ‘public intellectual’ is often used for people who study policy, but it means one who takes a stand in public on very difficult issues. He is one such rare intellectual.” What makes Teltumbde an exception, adds Mathur, is also that he doesn’t stand on group identities but on deep thinking, scholarship and engagement. “He is not an outright hagiographer of Ambedkar as well. So, some orthodox Ambedkarites view him with a bit of scepticism.”

As his stance on the Bhima Koregaon politics shows, Teltumbde has ruffled feathers among Ambedkarites and Marxists in the past with his views. Teltumbde speaks with conviction when he says that the objectives of Marxists and Dalits are entwined with each other. “Without Dalit support, there is no revolution and without revolution, there is no annihilation of caste.”

Dalit writer and ideologue Chandra Bhan Prasad, an ardent believer in capitalism as a means to liberate the oppressed community, is opposed to Teltumbde. But he argues that Teltumbde’s conviction in the ideology he believes in doesn’t make him a criminal. He calls Teltumbde an achiever — as a corporate executive, consultant and writer. 

“Dalit achievers are generally still not celebrated, despite all the changes that have taken place in Indian society. Anand Teltumbde is related to the Ambedkar family and is a well-known face. By targeting and humiliating him, the government of the day wants to send a message to Dalits, particularly after the nationwide protests last April against a Supreme Court order on the Atrocities Act, that ‘this is what we can do’. This is a Hindutva onslaught on Dalit activism,” he says.

He says that in Pune, an organised attack on the Dalits and the subsequent arrests of those behind it were ignored whereas activists were picked up and jailed. Hindu right-wing ideologues Sambhaji Bhide (founder of the Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan) and Milind Ekbote (president of the Samasta Hindu Aghadi) were accused of instigating caste violence in Bhima Koregaon. Bhide was not arrested. Ekbote was arrested in March 2018 but was released a month later. Teltumbde may be arrested after February 22.