To Be a 'Criminal': Motiraj Rathod's Memoir Is a Rejection of Rejection

Philosopher and activist Cornel West uses the concept of the 'ontological wound’ to describe the stigmatised experiences of Black Americans. West defines ‘ontological wound’ as a mark imposed on individuals from historically marginalised communities as a result of their constant dehumanisation by the ‘superior’ others.

Scholars have also extended this concept to understand the history of communities and individuals oppressed by the caste system. With respect to the question of untouchability, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had called such a form of oppression – the robbing of one’s ‘persona’. The lives of the nomadic tribes, identified as ‘born criminals’ in the colonial period and as ‘suspected criminals’ in the post-independence era, too are marked by an ontological wound.

'Mi Ek Guhegar (Me, a Criminal), Motiraj Rathod, Pradeep Khetmar, Golden Page Publication, Pune

In his recently published memoir, ‘Me Ek Gunhegar (Me, a Criminal)' Motiraj Rathod, one of the pioneers of the movement of denotified and nomadic tribes in Maharashtra, documents his life and political activism. The memoir starts with a traumatic experience from  Rathod’s childhood which would go on to affect his life brandishing his head  with an ‘ontological wound’. Rathod remembers how the police would repeatedly harass his uncle – who used to run a country liquor distillery.

In one such incident, Rathod’s mother thrusted young Rathod in the middle of the brawl, thinking it would dissuade the police from beating his uncle. Instead, one of the blows landed on young Rathod, permanently wounding his forehead. Rathod’s memoir is a documentation of the rest of his life which he spends negating the personal and social wounds imposed on his persona and his community.

Rathod would regularly note down all of his intellectual and political activities aimed at overcoming the stigma of criminality and taken up in pursuit of social, economic, and democratic rights. Publisher Pradeep Khetmar has collated and edited Rathod’s diary entries and has given the writing its current shape. 

The definition of crime

Motiraj Rathod, was born into the Banjara community – which was classified as ‘criminal tribe’ in the British colonial law. Regardless of any real instance of theft, the police would search tribal settlements, physically torturing and mentally harassing them under the garb of ‘investigations’.

A common saying can be translated as, "Who knows who robbed the village, so the police arrested Banjaras (Lutun nele saare gaav, Daptari lamanache naav)". It precisely narrates the predicament faced by the community. Rathod’s family was not spared from such harassment either. When his father was incarcerated on the charges of producing and selling liquor, Rathod lost his sister to starvation. Compelled by this suffering, Rathod was motivated to erase the tag of ‘criminality’ on his community. Towards this end, he initiated multiple grassroots movements backed with solid socio-political analysis. However, even his efforts towards reclaiming ‘humanity’ were branded as ‘criminal’ by the established social structure. Despite hurdles, Rathod faced the consequences of his socio-political activism. In the 10 chapters that constitute this political memoir, Rathod details his ‘crimes’ in reclaiming humanity. 

The Phule-Ambedkarite standpoint

Rathod’s memoir chronicles his early life and entry into politics, in which he discusses the formative influence of the Phule-Ambedkarite movement in Maharashtra in shaping his political consciousness, both on the level of theory and practice. The anti-caste discourse nurtured in this Ambedkarite milieu underpinned his later political work and his engagement with the caste-class conundrum.

The two decades between 1960 and 1980 saw the emergence of new principles, theories and approaches within people’s movements seeking democratic inclusion and political transformation. In Maharashtra, organisations such as the Dalit Panthers arose from the fusion of Phule-Ambedkarite traditions with global movements for radical democracy, such as the Black Panthers. The Dalit Panthers were part of a broader local context in which several small anti-caste organisations emerged to address social and political inequalities. One such centre for multiple socio-political movements was Nagsenvan, a hub of activity across colleges and university campuses in Aurangabad. Dr Ambedkar had envisioned Milind College as a site for the cultivation of emancipatory knowledge and pedagogy, and it became a crucible for some of the most significant struggles of the post-Ambedkar period.

Situating his own activism within this milieu, Rathod recollects: “From the Panthers, I learnt the importance of leading a movement by writing for social upliftment.” With money pooled by fellow villagers, he began his higher education at Milind College, that bastion of socio-political activism. There, Rathod developed his political subjectivity both through his studies and through engagement with the movement. He encountered Ambedkarite literature, student magazines and Asmitadarsh, a landmark Marathi literary periodical. His entry into politics came in 1974 with the formation of the Banjara Yuvak Aghadi to organise Banjara youth in Aurangabad and raise political consciousness. At the same time, he served as president of the Banjara Hostel, a residence for students from the Banjara community.

When the Namantar movement gained momentum in Marathwada and other parts of Maharashtra, Rathod took a firm stand in support of renaming the university. He set up an office for the Namantar Kruti Samiti at the students’ hostel, but resistance from members of the hostel committee forced him to shift the centre to his own home. As a result, activists from across Maharashtra, members of the Namantarvadi Kruti Samiti, and other Ambedkarite figures regularly gathered at his house. Rathod writes that this period significantly broadened his political consciousness. While his political journey had begun with the Banjara Yuvak Aghadi and a focus on caste upliftment, during the Namantar movement, his outlook evolved towards a politics of caste annihilation. He began to understand the limits of a politics centred only on caste upliftment, and the movement became a turning point in his ideological development.

Allies

Thus, the memoir also gives a glimpse into how Rathod evolved his own political vision for the denotified and nomadic tribes from his engagement with Ambedkarite ideology. Rathod did not merely seek to ally such issues with Ambedkarite political struggles on the ground, but he also engaged with the broader ideological questions of the anti-caste movement Ambedkarite movement. 

In the postcolonial period, as NT-DNT communities began to settle and integrate into agrarian life, they were increasingly absorbed into the caste system. Nomadic tribes, once caste outsiders, became entangled within the logic of caste. This shift was mirrored in the political strategies of the new leadership emerging from these now-settled communities, which tended to focus on caste upliftment, i.e. mobilising caste strength and lobbying for state support, rather than pursuing caste annihilation. The broader vision of dismantling caste hierarchies was largely absent in their rhetoric.

Rathod, however, anticipated these developments and situated his politics in the ‘annihilation of caste’ rather than the ‘upliftment of caste’. To underscore his political vision, he repeatedly evoked Ambedkar and talked about how the "former untouchables" and "former criminal tribes" can form a natural alliance. Rathod's theories perhaps resonate from Dr Ambedkar's Untouchables or the Children of India’s Ghetto: “They (primitive and criminalised tribes) have the strongest ground for over-throwing the Hindu Social Order."

Rathod’s approach to the annihilate rather than uplift caste especially gains significance because he came from the Banjara community – which was a numerically dominant caste group and was a part of the middle class in postcolonial India. Rather than limiting his activism to his own caste, Rathod mobilised the smaller nomadic and denotified tribes which had not yet found a voice in the mainstream. Communities such as the Pardhi, Nathpanthi, Davri, Gosavi, Vaidu and other such extremely marginalised tribes formed the basis for his work.

Rathod’s approach reflects in his memoir. Instead of solely focusing on his own life, he documents the voices and labours of women  like Rangubai Kale, Sundarabai Vadar, and Reshma Bai Fase Paradhi. The contributions of Rathod's wife Kalaa and the other progressive activists of Aurangabad are detailed in the pages of his diaries as well.

Creative forms of resistance

Rathod’s politics not only confronted the questions of mis-recognition but also put the material questions of land and livelihood at the forefront. The movement 'The Prison is Our Home' deserves a special mention here. In this unique protest, people from the nomadic tribes put their livestock in Nashik prison cells to demand land to live and cultivate. In another such protest, they burnt their jholas under the slogan of 'Dhanda Parivartan, Samaj Parivartan – change our business, change our livelihoods' – which aimed to change the forms of livelihood available to the nomadic tribes. It asserted their desire to live proper lives with proper livelihoods. What becomes clear through movements such as these is that Rathod's politics cuts across the divide of caste and class. Moreover, Rathod also goes beyond the caste-class conundrum to address the gender question by forming Sarvahara Mahila Aghadi (Proletariat Women’s Front). Through this organisation he intended to combine anti-class and anti-caste-patriarchal politics. 

The book goes on to document  important agitations and movements led by nomadic and denotified communities around issues such as land, reservations, and violence suffered. From the protest march to the Bombay high court to Rathod’s support to the Gairan movement, the memoir richly documents the voices on the margins and their political claims. Rathod’s creative nomenclature of these movements and organisations – such as Birhad Morch , Turung Hech Amche Ghar (the prison is our home), Sansar Chalu Rasta Band, Jamin Jumla Dakhpatra Andolan only gives a glimpse into his novel approach to mass mobilisation.

Rathod has written extensively on issues concerning the nomadic and denotified tribes, including both informative small tracts like Ex Gunhegar Jamati (Ex-Criminal Tribes), Tanda Sanskruti (Banjara Culture), and Pal Niwasi (Residents of the Tents), and political pamphlets like Bhatkya Vimuktancha Jahirnama (The Nomadic Tribes Manifesto). Additionally, during campaigns and mobilisations, he would keep detailed notes on the lives of nomadic and denotified communities and regularly write articles based on them. His collection of essays serve as a rich depository of anthropological knowledge on such communities. However, despite their significance, his essays in newspapers like Dainik Marathwada and Vimukt Vichar have unfortunately remained on the margins of Marathi public spheres and scholarship. 

Persisting socio-economic inequalities have continued to reject constitutional promises to nomadic and denotified communities. Against these hostile conditions, Rathod’s memoir serves as a beacon of hope, narrating the multiple struggles of emancipation built from the bottom. The memoir is not just a documentation of a political movement but offers a powerful rejection of rejection – by communities who have relentlessly continued to assert their human rights. 

Sagar Naik is a Jalgaon-based researcher.

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