Dalit's Right to be Soldier in Hindu Framework

In India education and military duties were denied to ninety percent of the people. The absence of the stake of the Shudras in the state can be compared only with the position of slaves in a state but their position was different from that of slaves in some ways. Firstly there has been no state where the slaves outnumbered the rulers. Secondly the doors of freedom were not totally closed in slavery. A slave could free himself by paying a certain amount or displaying bravery in a war but a Shudra had no way of liberation. Once born as a Shudra he had to suffer deprivation till his death. This deprivation kept him totally aloof from the state. Whosoever ruled the state did not matter to him.

This aloofness prevented him from joining hands with his exploiters to form a nation. The masters of slaves used them as soldiers also. Many wars were won with the bravery of slaves and many times they rose to very high ranks in army. In India, Shudras were slaves but their masters preferred to lose wars rather than allowing them to fight the enemy. They feared that once the Shudras were allowed to carry weapons, it will be difficult to keep them under control. If we accept India as a nation before the arrival of the British, it will be a sole example of a nation in the world which did not win a single significant victory against foreign invaders.

A few hundreds of Muslim or European invaders used to come and defeat many times larger army of Rajputs. If in place of Rajputs, Chamars, Bahngis, Dusads, Mahars or other Shudra castes were given a right to fight, the history of defeats would have been different and it could have helped us in becoming a nation. In Indian subcontinent only 1971 war was won by us as a nation but it was possible when we had a large number of Dalits and Shudras in our army. Another danger could have arisen if we had allowed the Dalits to fight side by side in the battle field. This danger was of power sharing or participation in power. If a Dalit fought side by side with a Rajput, he would have certainly asked for the price of the blood shed by him.