When a person lying in a corner of the village comes to live in the city and allegedly starts living in the midst of civilized society, there is a stir among the people around. He is harassed. People are not able to digest that till yesterday the person who used to serve at our place has come to live on an equal footing with us. This is to say of Ramesh Chand Gehlot i.e. Ramesh Bhangi.
Ramesh Bhangi of Valmiki Samaj is a well-known name in the world of Dalit literature and is practicing law these days. When he came to live in a society in Ghaziabad, there was a buzz in the neighborhood. He was harassed. Dirt was poured into their water tank. The neighbors wanted Ramesh to leave the Bhangi Society, but he stayed put as we faced difficulties.
It is not that Ramesh Bhangi promoted his caste. Ramesh Bhangi says my certificate name is Ramesh Chand Gehlot. It is a common name, it does not reveal caste, but in Indian society your caste goes ahead of you. As the fragrance of a flower moves forward, so does your caste. Can’t escape caste. I have to say that India itself means caste. The identity of India is only from caste.
How did Ramesh Bhangi become Ramesh Gehlot, and why? When asked, Ramesh says, “All the books on sociology, all start with caste. All the books written on India start with caste. So the reality of India is caste, it is difficult to avoid it, so I added my caste to my name.
Ramesh Bhangi struggled a lot in order to come to Delhi from the Dalit colony of the village. He was born in 1968 in Malakpur village of Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, situated on the edge of Delhi. From here he took education up to primary. When he was studying in the fifth standard, he and other children of his caste were made to sweep the school. The teacher then used to keep a separate stick for the children of the Dalit community. A big stick, so that he can beat the children of Dalit society and also stay away from them.
Later in the day, Ramesh Bhangi came to Delhi. During this he also did the work of scrap. He used to go around the city to collect papers. Ramesh Bhangi did not give up the desire to move forward despite doing many odd jobs during the days of struggle. His inspiration was Babasaheb Dr. Ambedkar, whose biography he got to read in his childhood. Babasaheb’s life struggle instilled in Ramesh Bhangi the belief that life can be successful if there is struggle. Ramesh realized how caste works when he went to the exchange office to enroll for a job. There was a vacancy for the bus conductor. But the clerk sitting there told him to work as a sweeper, what would he do by working as a bus conductor? However, later he got a job as a bus conductor and then later he was appointed as a translator in the Central Translation Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs. After which he saw closely what the Dalit community had to face while living in the residential colony.
He saw casteism closely while living in different government and private flats. And when he came to live in Vasundhara area of Ghaziabad situated at the mouth of Delhi, then there was an earthquake in the society. Ramesh Bhangi recollects, “I joined a society of Vasundhara in 2001. Everything went well for a few years. Then in the year 2006, my neighbor asked my wife about caste. Then the wife told her caste. Since then she started cutting off from us and gradually other people of the neighborhood also came to know about our caste.
After the truth of Ramesh Bhangi’s caste came to the fore, many times the neighbors argued with him. He was harassed in various ways. Ramesh says- “Everyone wanted us to leave from there. But if we stick to our identity, the neighbors start harassing us indirectly. Like broke the chairs kept on my terrace. They break our pots, they break the plants in them. Let’s break the water boil inside the water tank. Since we do not see who has done this, we cannot even say anything. So in this way there is an attempt to harass us.”
After all, in a society where all the people are educated, intelligent, who are called civilized, why do those people do this? When I ask, Ramesh Bhangi says that the people of Dalit society are still not being fully accepted in the residential areas of the cities. If the person in front belongs to the Valmiki community, the discrimination against him increases further. People also want to escape from our shadow. This is a mental illness and if the person in front has a mental illness, then he should also get treated. I am a Victim.
विगत 17 सालों से पत्रकारिता के क्षेत्र में सक्रिय अशोक दास अंबेडकरवादी पत्रकारिता का प्रमुख चेहरा हैं। उन्होंने साल 2012 में ‘दलित दस्तक मीडिया संस्थान’ की नींव रखी। वह दलित दस्तक के फाउंडर और संपादक हैं, जो कि मासिक पत्रिका, वेबसाइट और यू-ट्यूब के जरिये वंचितों की आवाज को मजबूती देती है। उनके काम को भारत सहित अमेरिका, कनाडा, स्वीडन और दुबई में सराहा जा चुका है। वंचित समाज को केंद्र में रखकर पत्रकारिता करने वाले अशोक दास की पत्रकारिता के बारे में देश-विदेश के तमाम पत्र-पत्रिकाओं, जिनमें DW (जर्मनी) सहित The Asahi Shimbun (जापान), The Mainichi Newspapers (जापान), The Week (भारत) और हिन्दुस्तान टाईम्स (भारत), फारवर्ड प्रेस (भारत) आदि मीडिया संस्थानों में फीचर प्रकाशित हो चुके हैं।
अशोक दास दुनिया भर में प्रतिष्ठित अमेरिका के हार्वर्ड युनिवर्सिटी में साल 2020 में व्याख्यान दे चुके हैं। उन्हें खोजी पत्रकारिता (Investigative Journalism) के सबसे बड़े संगठन Global Investigative Journalism Network की ओर से 2023 में स्वीडन, गोथनबर्ग में आयोजित कांफ्रेंस के लिए फेलोशिप मिल चुकी है। वह साल 2023 में कनाडा में आयोजित इंटरनेशनल कांफ्रेंस में भी विशेष आमंत्रित अतिथि के तौर पर शामिल हो चुके हैं। दुबई के अंबेडकरवादी संगठन भी उन्हें दुबई में आमंत्रित कर चुके हैं। 14 अक्टूबर 2023 को अमेरिका के वाशिंगटन डीसी के पास मैरीलैंड में बाबासाहेब की आदमकद प्रतिमा का अनावरण अंबेडकर इंटरनेशनल सेंटर नाम के संगठन द्वारा किया गया, इस आयोजन में भारत से एकमात्र अशोक दास को ही इसकी कवरेज के लिए आमंत्रित किया गया था। इस तरह अशोक, दलित दस्तक के काम को दुनिया भर में ले जाने में कामयाब रहे हैं। ‘आउटलुक’ मैगजीन अशोक दास का नाम वंचितों के लिए काम करने वाले भारत के 50 दलितों की सूची में शामिल कर चुकी है।
उन्हें प्रभाष जोशी पत्रकारिता सम्मान से नवाजा जा चुका है। 31 जनवरी 2020 को डॉ. आंबेडकर द्वारा प्रकाशित पहले पत्र ‘मूकनायक’ के 100 वर्ष पूरा होने पर अशोक दास और दलित दस्तक ने दिल्ली में एक भव्य़ कार्यक्रम आयोजित कर जहां डॉ. आंबेडकर को एक पत्रकार के रूप में याद किया। इससे अंबेडकरवादी पत्रकारिता को नई धार मिली।
अशोक दास एक लेखक भी हैं। उन्होंने 50 बहुजन नायक सहित उन्होंने तीन पुस्तकें लिखी है और दो पुस्तकों का संपादक किया है। ‘दास पब्लिकेशन’ नाम से वह प्रकाशन संस्थान भी चलाते हैं।
साल 2006 में भारतीय जनसंचार संस्थान (IIMC), दिल्ली से पत्रकारिता में डिप्लोमा लेने के बाद और दलित दस्तक की स्थापना से पहले अशोक दास लोकमत, अमर-उजाला, देशोन्नति और भड़ास4मीडिया जैसे प्रिंट और डिजिटल संस्थानों में आठ सालों तक काम कर चुके हैं। इस दौरान वह भारत की राजनीति, राजनीतिक दल और भारतीय संसद की रिपोर्टिंग कर चुके हैं। अशोक दास का उद्देश वंचित समाज के लिए एक दैनिक समाचार पत्र और 24 घंटे का एक न्यूज चैनल स्थापित करने का है।
