Ethics and morality in public life: need for cultural revolution in India
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
My last article evoked sharp reactions as some felt that personal matters should remain personal and we should discuss the professional issues of an individual and should not indulge in peeping into the personal affairs of people. I would like to reiterate that by talking about double standards in our life, I am not poking my nose in the personal affairs of individuals. In fact, in a country where privacy is an issue we all love to hate and all of us want to peep into the bed rooms of people, the article written by me had in no way any connotation to that. My only meaning was that the principals which we talk in public must be the same at home. It does not mean that we can not educate our children and can not send them to better schools. It does not mean that if our children work contrary to our beliefs then our ‘upbringing’ to them was wrong. The choice of individuals and freedom to dissent is an important point of modern democratic value system and not historical traditional culture values which we romanticize. It means that those supporting primitive values of traditional hierarchies, parents are responsible for their children. For them, our karmas are responsible for our present being. Hence, if we believe in that principal of Karma, then it is difficult for us to rationalize our argument. Hence, there is no issue whether our children go to foreign universities or not. It only means that when we send our wards to private schools and English medium schools then in our public opinion we can also feel that every one wants to do that and that learning English is the desire of our students. It means that all of us want best educational institutions whether by government or foreigners. It means that any foreign link up is not that bad in practice. It only means that we all know what is good and bad for us and our society and that society also knows who is doing good or bad for them. So let the people decide. We can not be guide to everything. We can only put issues in front of them and seek their support.
A friend wrote to me, ‘What will happen if our children go US and UK for study? Should we stop criticizing them? Actually, that is the dilemma of many as problem is not with their children going to UK and US. Problem is when you feel that every foreign connection is bad. Problem is when we demean all those who raise the issue at international level or national level. Problem is when we speak on behalf of communities and tell them not to speak to some one since he or she had ‘foreign links’. I do not know what those links are and can any one do anything against communities. Why we do not tell people to judge the people on the basis of their work and not on the basis of their birth, their linkages, their being civil society or this ism or that ism. How will our children go there when their parents spit venom in the ground against ‘foreign power’? Enjoying Europe and America means, you enjoy their democracy. You enjoy their freedom and the diversity and independence they provide to you. I am not here to go and mop every individual Marxist or Maoist who claims the US, UK civilization as imperialist one and then send their children to these countries. Better they can send their children to former Soviet countries, to Venezuela or Bolivia and learn a few things about ‘communist’ democracy in these countries.
Also, why do we send our children to Europe and America? Certainly, we all go there for better education and greater future prospectus. That means, somewhere we want them to earn better than others. Then why we cry so much against their societies. Of course, we can always speak against human rights violation there and their government interfering in the internal affair of other countries. But to condemn everything there and then trying to be part of it is dishonesty. If earning good and trying to get a good life is better for your child, how can that be bad for a tribal or Dalits? When you can negotiate with your enemies what is wrong if the local tribal try to negotiate with powerful at local level to get his things done. Who are we to tell them that everything is bad? So, those followers of ‘revolutionaries’ must first understand that for a healthy society we need healthy dissent and accept diverse view point.
We are not discussing here the personal lives of people. We know every individual has a right to life and live. I took the debate to a different level where Ambedkar started with cultural change. I say, we need Cultural Revolution. When I speak of it, it does not mean, we are deciding about every individual. In fact, we support rights of every individual to decide about her self.
In his response, Vikas Mogha mentioned about Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s marriage to Mrs Savita Ambedkar. I again said that it was their personal decision and we must respect that. Both of them are not alive here to answer our questions but I have heard utterly negative comments about Dr Savita Ambedkar. These comments do not do justice to the personality of Dr Ambedkar. We must leave it to him whether it was good or bad, it was not our concern. Lots of things were written against her but at the end of the day being a woman she had to face double the calumny.
We must target all those, national or international corporate or individuals and their bid to control our resources and destroy our water, forest and environment. But in that case it is the issue of environment which is more important and if that is hurt even by a domestic company then too we must speak loudly and vociferously. Our criticism must be based on facts and not on rhetoric. Long back, I wrote we all need international cooperation and linkages with people, individuals. In this era, can we live in isolation? So, when we talk about imperialism, it has different meaning. But our leaders will speak differently. On everything they will start international conspiracy. I want to know what kind of ‘international conspiracy’ has kept Mushahars, Kols, Balmikis, Mehtars, and other dalits and tribal communities subjugated for centuries. They all are victim of our Hindu civilization. Most of the conspiracy theorists rarely speak against the internal colonization. Yes, when we speak so loudly against the international imperialism then we must speak at the same length against internal imperialism. That is what we call Hindu Imperialism in India. But right from Marxists, to Maoists to Gandhians, none talked about it. Except for the fact that Ambedkar, Phule, Periyar etc talked about it but they are not our mainstream leaders. They are termed as leaders of ‘subalterns’.
Ambedkar realized the change in the life style when he went to US. There he could meet any one and could shake hand with all which was not possible in India. He realized the meaning of democracy and equality there while Gandhi was finding greatness in our village and primitive cultural value system.
When 74 policemen were killed in Chhatishgarh many sympathizers rejoiced. When the four policemen were abducted in Bihar, the sympathizers wanted Bihar government to release the leaders. Some said the other day that politics is difficult thing today and hence we need friends like Maoists to fight against caste and communal forces. So, you club together caste forces with the Hindutva gangs and rejoice your own failures. Did any one of them ever launch anti caste movement. If yes, then what was the result? And why was it stopped?
Now, see the background of the policemen killed in killed in ambush in Chhatishgarh. Most of them belonged to Dalits, tribal and backward communities, basically sons of our farmers and workers. Who were the people abducted in Bihar. Again the same communities including Muslims were targeted. So, what is the benefit of killing them? No, they are state agents, say our sympathizers. They are fighting on being paid by government and they are paid handsomely when they die, remarks some of them shamelessly.
And who are the sympathizers? Well, they too get much bigger salaries than the poor policemen fighting with the age old 303 rifles. Most of them can be an ideologue inside the campus of JNU, Delhi University or other universities. Some might be living in the accommodation provided by the government in posh central or New Delhi regions, condemning the state yet being part of it. Nothing happen. If a policemen revolt in Chhatishgarh against the operation green hunt, he would lose his job but our respected elderly intellectuals have both the tags at their whims and fancies. They can be intellectuals, revolutionaries and can cry against any one at free of cost. After all, the universities do not even ask them as how many days they were absent or what is the courses they finished. Universities have become political battle ground and safer locations for the revolutionaries. In handsome salaries you are everything. You do not need to go out. You will be invited. You are tagged as intellectual and if you are a public person, then you are a ‘leader’ also. And most importantly you can shout loudly that you do not get any funds. You are not saleable. You can shout you are not NGO. You do not get funds for your revolution. Yes, you get much more than an ordinary NGO gets in all. Yes, you do not get for revolution but your salaries are for your students and your teachings. That is where we have double standards. We misuse our offices and become the champions. It is the politics of powerful of those who have money and resources to control our social movements in the guise of being independent.
This trend was started many years ago in Bengal where developing a civil society outside the CPM’s domain was difficult. To demonize the civil society you needed some ‘intellectuals’ who can cry ‘international’ ‘conspiracy’ as if NGOs are that powerful which can dislodge the CPM. After all, a government will be dislodged by the political parties only. Soon, this ‘progressive’ terminology started every where when the Dalits and other marginalized sections of society also started building up their organizations. ‘You get funds from abroad’, they would charge them. Yes, they do not get billions of dollars for building up a University or High way. One need to see their conditions in which a social activist survive life long yet when those living in glass houses throw stones at him it pains. This has become fashionable now. Rather than speaking to a person about his work, his perceptions and his actions, we are more interested in what he or she is earning and where from.
In India, you can speak against the state and be a star as nothing will happen as bigger than the state we have a brahmanical domination in each walk of our life from Gandhian brand to Maoism to socialism that speaking against state is easier. The extra powerful element of the state is Brahmanism and it is safe with the Swamis and Sanyasis of our time. None of them is ready to wage a war against the brahmanical system. Yes, all of them want to join hand to curtail the ‘caste’ forces. So, Naxal will help them curtail the rise of caste forces. Perhaps that is the reason why our ‘nationalists’ upper caste lead social movements have so much concern for their brothers in the forest. So what is common between RSS and Naxals. It is the caste assertion of the down trodden that hurt both of them and their supporters.
They say that Naxals are revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh who got nothing. How do you club them with Bhagat Singh whose vision for a casteless society has rarely got the attentions of these so-called revolutionaries? Do they know that Bhagat Singh never believed in such criminal violence which our friends are indulging? Even in the Lahore bomb case in which he got death sentence, Bhagat Singh and his friends could have killed an entire leadership but that was never their intention. I am sure; Bhagat Singh today would have fought a bigger battle against both the Indian imperialism as well as global imperialism. And most importantly, Bhagat Singh had the guts to challenge the religious practice at home. So he believed that to fight against orthodoxy and conservatism one has to be clean in his personal self and then fight. Legendary M.N.Roy analyzed in his book ‘Our Task in India’ about the inability of Indians to bring revolution. He said that since the proletariats in India are unable to liberate ourselves from reactionary social outlook and somewhere we are influenced by ‘religion, spiritualism and Gandhism’.
By calling for a cultural revolution, one is not seeking any religious morality to curtail individual freedom but strengthen that. In fact, we want India to change for better and that change is not possible with out a cultural change which can replace the tainted Brahmanical value system that never consider human being as equal and which believe in two many facets of life, thus destroying the lives of millions through cultural subjugation and deep rooted caste and gender prejudices.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Double Standards of life hamper the growth of social movements
Double Standards of Life hurt our social movements more than anything else
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
At a public meeting in Uttar-Pradesh recently where I was one of the speakers, I found that speakers after speakers loudly and radically talking about the Gods and Goddesses and how they had suffocated us, deprived us and killed our spirit. Songs were played and people clapped whenever any reference to any particular god was being made. I was quite disgusted at all this as those of us who have been in the Ambedkarite movement for long know that somewhere we have developed this infatuation for Manusmriti and various gods and simply have lost new ideas and agendas.
I know it is not unusual for hitting on gods and goddesses and then escaping from the bigger problem of how we have to change personally. We can fight a lot with others and abuse others but is not there a need to change our self internally. Crying against the Hindu gods means that we are still interested in negotiating with them in being part of that fraternity which denied people justice and dignity. Dr Ambedkar tried his best in the 1930s when he led various protest movements only to realize it later that there is no benefit in crying loudly as it will only hamper our energy. It is better to chart your own path which he clearly felt Buddhism would provide to all of us. And afterwards, he did not take much interest in what the Hindus were doing and preaching. His bigger concern was how can Dalits be liberated and what could be the right path for the community. And he started thinking on it. He made a clarion call that though ‘ I was a born Hindu, which was not in my hands but I would not die as a Hindu’. The clear meaning of this sentence was that he decided to do what he could do.
Ambedkar, Phule, Periyar and all others who we consider our icons actually led from their personal examples. That is why despite all differences, people used to respect them for their high level of integrity. When Periyar married to Maniamma at the fag end of his life, many of his colleagues were not happy but given his radical views he did not care for those who thought he was a pervert. His decision was entirely his own even at the cost of a possible negative public opinion yet that did not change him. He did not hide anything in public life and never felt apologetic about his wedding.
What makes the difference between the current political class and the great icons of yesteryears? What keep them apart from others and people still love and revere them. If we analyze each one of them we will find that the biggest aspect in their life was their personal integrity. What they preached they practiced. Today, a number of our leaders whether they are politicians or belong to another generations of ‘social activists’ have different faces at different places. At home they are following the same pattern to keep their family alive while outside the home challenging those very facets. How is it possible? Is not that practicing a double standard?
Well, one of my dear friends always argues with me not to bring personal matters into public life. My argument was about our political class which preaches one ideology at the gate and other inside their homes must be exposed and it has resulted in failures of our movements. Our families have become biggest scandals to stop liberation of people. She rightly says that parents should not be blamed for the fault of their children. I agree to that point. When I say about personal integrity, that does not mean that every parent should decide everything about their children or do away with it. If we are ideologically clear, that ideological practice should be reflected in our family also. That is the root of our argument. At least, till 18 years of age, your children will follow your dictates. This article does not mean that our children should be hold responsible for our deeds or parents should face punishment for their children’s misdeeds. It is about ethics in public and private behavior and I am trying to explore where we fail.
Two great leaders from Uttar-Pradesh, late Chaudhury Charan Singh and now Mulayam Singh Yadav have a great fan following among the farmers. Both of them claimed to be secular and supported the cause of poor and farmers. And both were against modern technology. Charan Singh’s party’s manifesto condemned the technological advances in agriculture. Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh got his education in an American University and learnt computer that time when the very usage of IT was never known. Now Charan Singh who preached people against English education and technology send his own son to US. Ajit Singh could not have done without his father’s support? Ofcouse, Charan Singh could easily say that what Ajit Singh does is his own concern, but can any one deny the fact that what will be Ajit Singh minus Charan Singh. If he were not Charan’s son, would any body vote for him? Though we respect our leaders yet we normally never question their double standards in life.
Similar is the case of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, who claimed to be following Dr Ram Manohar Lohia’s path. Mulayam officially abhorred English and warned that all the signboards of English languages will be blackened in Uttar-Pradesh. He responded to mails in Hindi only. But look the irony, Yadav’s son Akhilesh went to best educational institutions in the world. Can it be called personal matter of Mr Yadav. If he can think that English education is good for his son then why he preach it is bad for farmers and poor. If English could help his son why and how would it be detrimental for others. It is ‘thankfully’ to Mulayam’s education policy that the students of Uttar-Pradesh remain far behind than their counter parts in other parts of the country.
This double standard is every where particularly those who claiming to represent the ‘poor’. We know Jyoti Ba Phule, who practiced first and then preached. Educating his wife before going to others was a revolutionary work. They did not care what other would say about it. Bhagat Singh wrote of atheism and had courage to shorten his hair against the wishes of his father; Baba Saheb embraced Buddhism before preaching to embrace it. But the double standards are many in today’s life as I have personally seen those preaching Marxism, Maoism to the poor tribal, enjoying the best corporate life. Those abuse the west; enjoy the Western drink and courtesy. How can we say that personal life is different than your ideological life?
The point I am referring is that the right wing extremism or left wing extremism have no love for differences of opinion. That is why, when they pretend to lead from the front, the best example should from their personal lives. If a multinational is bad for tribal then it should be bad for the family members also. That is why we see the contrast in the personal lives of those who leads these social movements. Their children enjoy the best of the west while their ‘client’ the poor of India are fed on hot argument of ‘nationalism’ and ‘culture’. When, I points out the corporate background, the religious back ground of some of the sympathizers, we are told that ‘they are greater than those who started with poverty and have become rich’ at the cost of the people. Some of them are simply targeting the Dalit leadership which has some how come up and can claim to be equally corrupt like others. My problem is not whether they have declassed themselves or not the fact is that most of them have only been in the movement to ‘lead’ and not to sit and guide.
The problem is not what one earns how much or not. Despite all differences with ‘spiritual Gandhi’, one can not ignore the integrity of Gandhi as he publicly disowned his son Hari Das Gandhi when he felt that he was violating basic principles of his life which he believed in. Baba Saheb Ambedkar was a man of complete dedication and probity in personal life and hence none could even blame him today that he had double standards in life. It is not that he preached something different to people and practiced differently.
Many Ambedkarite today speak loudly in public and start with thrashing the Gods and Goddesses that never existed. I just tell them please stop this and start at home. The best way to get rid of this menace of God is what Baba Saheb Ambedkar preached you. If you have got a new way of life then do not worry why others are in that dirty pool. Your duty is to inform people and the best practice to get rid of them is from our very personal life. That is why in his personal life too Baba Saheb Ambedkar was perhaps the cleanest person who could defend anything and any action that he did in his life. He had valid arguments for his actions and based on those principals of life he grew. He was not a politician who could justify things for his personal gains. There was rarely anything personal for him. The amount of money that he invested to educate people, the educational institutions that he started are visible in the form a wider movement among the masses in various parts of the country. The cultural changes are also visible in our life that he strived was lead by him in his personal life. He did not preach us what he did not practice.
That is why he succeeded. The silent revolution in India that we have seen in Maharastra and elsewhere in India is actually brought by those who believed in Ambedkar’s vision of life. And the result is that more than anything that the Maoists and Marxists could bring, the Ambedkarite vision was of changing yourself and adopting the new vision of life, which is more democratic, more egalitarian and more respectful towards dissent. Today, the neo Buddhists are in all walks of life. In private sector, in sports, in industries, in entrepreneurship, at the music concerts, as the cultural change is visible among them. Others have not come up because they are still fighting the very battle of dignity with in those paradigms where things will not change. A cultural renaissance is needed to Change our self rather than wasting our energy on something that is fictitious and job of a perverse mind. That is where I appealed to all the right thinking persons to take care of their own home first and then preach the others. But some of our friends took it in a different way. They say, ‘It is absolutely wrong to bring personal matter into public’. I said there is nothing personal here but if you call yourself an Ambedkarite or Marxist or even a Maoist or an atheist then God should always be fearful of you rather than you fearing of ‘him’. You can not celebrate your godly traits, dine with them and say it is the freedom of your wife. These are not the issues of freedom but issues of our cultural subjugation. You can not keep it under the wrap that I am an Ambedkarite but I defend my wife’s right to wear a Mangalsutra and sport a sindoor over her head. You can not be a Marxist or an atheist at the same time playing an obedient husband of your wife on a ‘Karwachowth day’ and celebrating all those festivals that actually deny women a right to equality.
We can respect divergent view points. As I said at home our children may be different but we take care of them. At least some of the basic ideas they take from us. We do not say that they should do everything what we tell them. But definitely they should know what we do and they should have their view. Can our children disown us if they disagree our view points? Can we disown our children if our views are quite contrary to them? For example some Ambedkarite fathers actually disliked their children’s marriage to the upper caste girls. But that is an individual choice and must be respected. But what happened if the girl or the boy does not agree to father’s choice and start propagating the ideology of hatred just opposed to what we have believed. What should be the response? Should it just be two differences of opinion or should it be openly discarded and disowned? Moral questions are basically on these lines. You can always have differences of opinions as long as that believe in basic human liberty and democratic values, does not spread racial hatred and filth.
Two years back, I was in Tirupathi for a seminar on Ambedkarism being organized by a University there. In the evening, I got two veteran Ambedkarites from Delhi. One came along with his wife and wanted to find whether I was interested to visit Tirupathi Devasthanam in the morning as his wife came because of it. I flatly refused saying that I would rather sleep in the morning than going to a place which is epicenter of discrimination based on caste, gender and pocket. These things happen in our life. Number of friends married outside their castes. Not just with in the Dalits but mostly among the Brahmins and upper castes yet they face dilemma of revealing the facts. Question is one is not asking whether they should reveal who they married or not. Question is if you believe that inter caste marriage could be good for you then why you say it is bad for others. I speak against those who say that it is not good for others.
Unlike their western counterparts, Indian society is still patriarchical and completely male dominated. Here parents influence on children is always visible. Well, writing this article does not mean every child should become a Xerox copy of his parents and should not have the freedom. It also does not mean, every parent should kill their child if they marry outside their clan and community. As a humanist, I believe in that freedom, what I am writing about those who do not want to give this freedom to people who they treat as ‘subject’, and give them different prescription. My belief is that as a human being what I promote in the public should hold true to my family and personal matters. Social movements will only grow positively and effectively otherwise they will remain instant protest for some needs being exploited by the powerful ‘nationalist’ elite claiming to ‘represent’ the marginalized and giving all those prescription to Dalits and tribals which had become redundant for their own personal lives. Once the leadership has a feel of the pulse of the people, they will not take their fight to endless struggle till the ‘whole’ world changes, while living in their comfortable air conditioned halls. It is time to wake up for every individual to think well and not to surrender their right to any one else. The biggest change in the world comes through changing oneself. Ambedkar did it. We need to follow his words of advice and complete the revolution.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
At a public meeting in Uttar-Pradesh recently where I was one of the speakers, I found that speakers after speakers loudly and radically talking about the Gods and Goddesses and how they had suffocated us, deprived us and killed our spirit. Songs were played and people clapped whenever any reference to any particular god was being made. I was quite disgusted at all this as those of us who have been in the Ambedkarite movement for long know that somewhere we have developed this infatuation for Manusmriti and various gods and simply have lost new ideas and agendas.
I know it is not unusual for hitting on gods and goddesses and then escaping from the bigger problem of how we have to change personally. We can fight a lot with others and abuse others but is not there a need to change our self internally. Crying against the Hindu gods means that we are still interested in negotiating with them in being part of that fraternity which denied people justice and dignity. Dr Ambedkar tried his best in the 1930s when he led various protest movements only to realize it later that there is no benefit in crying loudly as it will only hamper our energy. It is better to chart your own path which he clearly felt Buddhism would provide to all of us. And afterwards, he did not take much interest in what the Hindus were doing and preaching. His bigger concern was how can Dalits be liberated and what could be the right path for the community. And he started thinking on it. He made a clarion call that though ‘ I was a born Hindu, which was not in my hands but I would not die as a Hindu’. The clear meaning of this sentence was that he decided to do what he could do.
Ambedkar, Phule, Periyar and all others who we consider our icons actually led from their personal examples. That is why despite all differences, people used to respect them for their high level of integrity. When Periyar married to Maniamma at the fag end of his life, many of his colleagues were not happy but given his radical views he did not care for those who thought he was a pervert. His decision was entirely his own even at the cost of a possible negative public opinion yet that did not change him. He did not hide anything in public life and never felt apologetic about his wedding.
What makes the difference between the current political class and the great icons of yesteryears? What keep them apart from others and people still love and revere them. If we analyze each one of them we will find that the biggest aspect in their life was their personal integrity. What they preached they practiced. Today, a number of our leaders whether they are politicians or belong to another generations of ‘social activists’ have different faces at different places. At home they are following the same pattern to keep their family alive while outside the home challenging those very facets. How is it possible? Is not that practicing a double standard?
Well, one of my dear friends always argues with me not to bring personal matters into public life. My argument was about our political class which preaches one ideology at the gate and other inside their homes must be exposed and it has resulted in failures of our movements. Our families have become biggest scandals to stop liberation of people. She rightly says that parents should not be blamed for the fault of their children. I agree to that point. When I say about personal integrity, that does not mean that every parent should decide everything about their children or do away with it. If we are ideologically clear, that ideological practice should be reflected in our family also. That is the root of our argument. At least, till 18 years of age, your children will follow your dictates. This article does not mean that our children should be hold responsible for our deeds or parents should face punishment for their children’s misdeeds. It is about ethics in public and private behavior and I am trying to explore where we fail.
Two great leaders from Uttar-Pradesh, late Chaudhury Charan Singh and now Mulayam Singh Yadav have a great fan following among the farmers. Both of them claimed to be secular and supported the cause of poor and farmers. And both were against modern technology. Charan Singh’s party’s manifesto condemned the technological advances in agriculture. Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh got his education in an American University and learnt computer that time when the very usage of IT was never known. Now Charan Singh who preached people against English education and technology send his own son to US. Ajit Singh could not have done without his father’s support? Ofcouse, Charan Singh could easily say that what Ajit Singh does is his own concern, but can any one deny the fact that what will be Ajit Singh minus Charan Singh. If he were not Charan’s son, would any body vote for him? Though we respect our leaders yet we normally never question their double standards in life.
Similar is the case of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, who claimed to be following Dr Ram Manohar Lohia’s path. Mulayam officially abhorred English and warned that all the signboards of English languages will be blackened in Uttar-Pradesh. He responded to mails in Hindi only. But look the irony, Yadav’s son Akhilesh went to best educational institutions in the world. Can it be called personal matter of Mr Yadav. If he can think that English education is good for his son then why he preach it is bad for farmers and poor. If English could help his son why and how would it be detrimental for others. It is ‘thankfully’ to Mulayam’s education policy that the students of Uttar-Pradesh remain far behind than their counter parts in other parts of the country.
This double standard is every where particularly those who claiming to represent the ‘poor’. We know Jyoti Ba Phule, who practiced first and then preached. Educating his wife before going to others was a revolutionary work. They did not care what other would say about it. Bhagat Singh wrote of atheism and had courage to shorten his hair against the wishes of his father; Baba Saheb embraced Buddhism before preaching to embrace it. But the double standards are many in today’s life as I have personally seen those preaching Marxism, Maoism to the poor tribal, enjoying the best corporate life. Those abuse the west; enjoy the Western drink and courtesy. How can we say that personal life is different than your ideological life?
The point I am referring is that the right wing extremism or left wing extremism have no love for differences of opinion. That is why, when they pretend to lead from the front, the best example should from their personal lives. If a multinational is bad for tribal then it should be bad for the family members also. That is why we see the contrast in the personal lives of those who leads these social movements. Their children enjoy the best of the west while their ‘client’ the poor of India are fed on hot argument of ‘nationalism’ and ‘culture’. When, I points out the corporate background, the religious back ground of some of the sympathizers, we are told that ‘they are greater than those who started with poverty and have become rich’ at the cost of the people. Some of them are simply targeting the Dalit leadership which has some how come up and can claim to be equally corrupt like others. My problem is not whether they have declassed themselves or not the fact is that most of them have only been in the movement to ‘lead’ and not to sit and guide.
The problem is not what one earns how much or not. Despite all differences with ‘spiritual Gandhi’, one can not ignore the integrity of Gandhi as he publicly disowned his son Hari Das Gandhi when he felt that he was violating basic principles of his life which he believed in. Baba Saheb Ambedkar was a man of complete dedication and probity in personal life and hence none could even blame him today that he had double standards in life. It is not that he preached something different to people and practiced differently.
Many Ambedkarite today speak loudly in public and start with thrashing the Gods and Goddesses that never existed. I just tell them please stop this and start at home. The best way to get rid of this menace of God is what Baba Saheb Ambedkar preached you. If you have got a new way of life then do not worry why others are in that dirty pool. Your duty is to inform people and the best practice to get rid of them is from our very personal life. That is why in his personal life too Baba Saheb Ambedkar was perhaps the cleanest person who could defend anything and any action that he did in his life. He had valid arguments for his actions and based on those principals of life he grew. He was not a politician who could justify things for his personal gains. There was rarely anything personal for him. The amount of money that he invested to educate people, the educational institutions that he started are visible in the form a wider movement among the masses in various parts of the country. The cultural changes are also visible in our life that he strived was lead by him in his personal life. He did not preach us what he did not practice.
That is why he succeeded. The silent revolution in India that we have seen in Maharastra and elsewhere in India is actually brought by those who believed in Ambedkar’s vision of life. And the result is that more than anything that the Maoists and Marxists could bring, the Ambedkarite vision was of changing yourself and adopting the new vision of life, which is more democratic, more egalitarian and more respectful towards dissent. Today, the neo Buddhists are in all walks of life. In private sector, in sports, in industries, in entrepreneurship, at the music concerts, as the cultural change is visible among them. Others have not come up because they are still fighting the very battle of dignity with in those paradigms where things will not change. A cultural renaissance is needed to Change our self rather than wasting our energy on something that is fictitious and job of a perverse mind. That is where I appealed to all the right thinking persons to take care of their own home first and then preach the others. But some of our friends took it in a different way. They say, ‘It is absolutely wrong to bring personal matter into public’. I said there is nothing personal here but if you call yourself an Ambedkarite or Marxist or even a Maoist or an atheist then God should always be fearful of you rather than you fearing of ‘him’. You can not celebrate your godly traits, dine with them and say it is the freedom of your wife. These are not the issues of freedom but issues of our cultural subjugation. You can not keep it under the wrap that I am an Ambedkarite but I defend my wife’s right to wear a Mangalsutra and sport a sindoor over her head. You can not be a Marxist or an atheist at the same time playing an obedient husband of your wife on a ‘Karwachowth day’ and celebrating all those festivals that actually deny women a right to equality.
We can respect divergent view points. As I said at home our children may be different but we take care of them. At least some of the basic ideas they take from us. We do not say that they should do everything what we tell them. But definitely they should know what we do and they should have their view. Can our children disown us if they disagree our view points? Can we disown our children if our views are quite contrary to them? For example some Ambedkarite fathers actually disliked their children’s marriage to the upper caste girls. But that is an individual choice and must be respected. But what happened if the girl or the boy does not agree to father’s choice and start propagating the ideology of hatred just opposed to what we have believed. What should be the response? Should it just be two differences of opinion or should it be openly discarded and disowned? Moral questions are basically on these lines. You can always have differences of opinions as long as that believe in basic human liberty and democratic values, does not spread racial hatred and filth.
Two years back, I was in Tirupathi for a seminar on Ambedkarism being organized by a University there. In the evening, I got two veteran Ambedkarites from Delhi. One came along with his wife and wanted to find whether I was interested to visit Tirupathi Devasthanam in the morning as his wife came because of it. I flatly refused saying that I would rather sleep in the morning than going to a place which is epicenter of discrimination based on caste, gender and pocket. These things happen in our life. Number of friends married outside their castes. Not just with in the Dalits but mostly among the Brahmins and upper castes yet they face dilemma of revealing the facts. Question is one is not asking whether they should reveal who they married or not. Question is if you believe that inter caste marriage could be good for you then why you say it is bad for others. I speak against those who say that it is not good for others.
Unlike their western counterparts, Indian society is still patriarchical and completely male dominated. Here parents influence on children is always visible. Well, writing this article does not mean every child should become a Xerox copy of his parents and should not have the freedom. It also does not mean, every parent should kill their child if they marry outside their clan and community. As a humanist, I believe in that freedom, what I am writing about those who do not want to give this freedom to people who they treat as ‘subject’, and give them different prescription. My belief is that as a human being what I promote in the public should hold true to my family and personal matters. Social movements will only grow positively and effectively otherwise they will remain instant protest for some needs being exploited by the powerful ‘nationalist’ elite claiming to ‘represent’ the marginalized and giving all those prescription to Dalits and tribals which had become redundant for their own personal lives. Once the leadership has a feel of the pulse of the people, they will not take their fight to endless struggle till the ‘whole’ world changes, while living in their comfortable air conditioned halls. It is time to wake up for every individual to think well and not to surrender their right to any one else. The biggest change in the world comes through changing oneself. Ambedkar did it. We need to follow his words of advice and complete the revolution.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Shame
Khairlanji verdict expose our national concern on violence against Dalits
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Khaurlanji’s verdict is out. The Bombay High court did not find the case rarest of the rare. Though, the Maharastra government is going to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court and we must wait for the same, the verdict has left most of us who were following the case deeply disappointed. But for me the High Court’s judgment not finding it as rarest of the rare reflect that, such things are happening regularly at different parts of the country and we are habitual offenders of the dignity and self respect of the Dalits in the country. Hence if the ‘honorable’ high courts give capital punishment on ‘such normal things’, then a large number of our friends will have to face gallows. We all know how judiciary is being put to pressure by media and political forces. They will shout loudly over the issues and convert a non issue into a national problem but when the issues which should be discussed and focused the media keeps that for a one minute byte or into the middle pages of their news papers.
We can easily establish how media publicized the issue of Jesica Lal or Ruchira case that their families become ‘social activist’ rather than a respondent and played an activist role asking people to protest and come in the street. How can the same media completely sidelining the case of Khairlanji? Why is this that the issue of boycott of Dalit cooks in Uttar-Pradesh and other parts of the country do not attract the same space as Jessica Lal or Ruchira case? The news of Indians being targeted racially in Australia has always made headlines in almost all the news channels and some of them actually following each and every incidents involving Indians in that country. The size of the news is enormous and many of the reports regarding Indians being racially targeted turned out to be faked. Yet, the outrage is high in this country which takes morally high ground against ‘racial prejudices’ yet the news in its own home turf do not make headlines. It is passed as another incident of ‘violence’ against the Dalits. It is not termed as the basic nature of Indian society which has not been able to digest the fact that we have a constitution that empower each citizen of the country and that the Dalits are equal citizens with equal rights. Our editors do not shout and grin as they do on Maoism or terrorism, that this country should hang its head in shame when children learn to discriminate. We always sang song that the children are innocent and do not believe in the caste system, do not know who is big and who is small but if you read what is happening in different parts of the country including Uttar-Pradesh, then we will have to hang our head in shame. Why don’t we discuss this issue so seriously and take the governments, the officials to task. Why does not it become our campaign against prejudices in our society? Why the feelings of our editors and news reporters are not hurt the same way when they shout on any issue and turn the non issue as a major issue. Well, we have to understand that for these racist, the wedding of Mahendra Singh Dhoni was more important than the racial prejudices of children who refused to eat with Dalit children or refused to eat food cooked by the Dalit cooks at school. Unfortunately, rather than taking action against them, the government seem to buckle under the pressure as if that has hurt the sentiments of the upper caste children. Is it because there is no one speaking for them? Is it because the media has conspicuously kept silent on this issue?
The irony is that a few weeks ago, a UP court asked police to file cases against some of the ministers and publishers of ‘Ambedkar Today’, a journal in Hindi, for ‘hurting’ the sentiments of ‘Hindus’ by writing vitriolic language against their Gods. Some years ago, the activists of Vishwa Shudra Mahasabha in Lucknow, were charged for ‘hurting’ the sentiments of Hindus. Periyar is out of Uttar-Pradesh and its BSP’s icon list as the upper castes do not want him as he is the most famously known Ram bashers. The Hindutva brigade said ‘Ram-drohi’ is desh drohi i.e. anti national. So, writing on any fictitious things hurt the sentiments of others but killing as well as justification of killings and discrimination does neither hurt our sentiments nor compel us introspecting our literature and religious texts. ‘How can they hurt our sentiments, traditions given to us by our ancestors’, said a supporter of ban. ‘But I consider Buddha, Kabir, Raidas, Ambedkar, Phule, Periyar, Bhagat Singh as my ancestors’, I told him, and added that I too am bound to respect their sentiments too. All of them asked me to be a humanist and questioned the religious texts too. All of them were rationalist humanists who fought against the ugly racist caste order. How can one enjoy the festivals that celebrate the victory of a racist order on the others who they claimed were ‘Rakshashas’. Times have changed and a thing of 3000 years back may not be true to us and may not be respected. How can our judicial system justify those years old texts when we know well that our constitution which is just 60 years old has the flexibility of changing according to the needs and demands of the time? Why can’t we dump these holy text which continue to guide our children and deny some of them right to live with dignity while give a false sense of superiority complex to others. We need to learn from France in this respect where the constitution wants citizens to follow the egalitarian and secular values of its constitution. W do not need a secular constitution which glorify every act of regression in the garb of multi-culturarlism and where every act of questioning ‘hurt’ the ‘sentiments’ of those who never cared the sentiments of the others.
One is amazed to see why our sentiments are never hurt when children are told to discriminate against each other. How can a country planning to host Common Wealth Games, going to tell the world that racial brahmanical disorder is a thing of past. Is it possible to demolish the caste structure in this country which is suffering from ‘identity’ dilemma?
Caste is the biggest issue in this country. Daily the maximum violence that the Dalits face is because of caste. It is nothing but a false passport to superiority and further developing the clan culture where a few ‘respected’ men decide about the fate of others. Children are being brutally killed and we do not feel shame on it. In fact, we feel proud of ‘protecting’ our honor by killing our children who dared to love. Love is the most hated word in the town but watching the C grade ‘colored’ films are not bad in these sacred heartlands from UP to Bihar to Rajasthan. I do not believe much in the theory that some Indians are better than others as often comparative notes are given to us like Delhi is worst or Mumbai is better or Chennai superior to Hyderabad. All the diversity in India has a commonality of caste and gender discrimination. North, East South West caste seems to be the best for Indians who can not live with out, who are told infinite virtues of their caste and the great achievements of it.
My point is that as far as feudal structure is concerned, that remain intact in India despite a secular constitution. It is a bullying tactics to make all those who look different or dissenters to either fall in line or perish. Hence, if Baba Saheb Ambedkar writes something on the riddles of Hinduism, the protesters are up in arms to burn the book. Even if some body makes an expose of a so-called holy book on our religious faith that hurts the Bahujans and Dalits, he will surely face criminal action for hurting the sentiments of the people. In Indian context we will have to understand the exploitation and annihilation of the Dalit culture by these fascist elements. Yet, they want no further study on the subject. The subaltern history is coming with new ideas and new explanation of every brahmancial text and that is creating ripples in the minds of these elements. Hence a film like Teesari Azadi was termed as ‘ Zaharili CD’, a poisonous propaganda material by many in the media asking for a complete Ban on it while the film was just explaining how crooked our caste system was and how the Brahmins manipulated the system for their benefit. What is wrong in it? Have we not seen the annihilation of Buddhist culture, and its cooption as well as destructions of Buddha Viharas by the brahmanical forces? Why are the historians and social anthropologists silent on it? One has to understand the movements of the Dalit Bahujan and their effort to get out of the clutched of the brahmanical value sytem. One will have to understand the meanings of these festivals. Every major festival is a celebration of some killings or work of treachery over the Dalit Bahujan masses. How can any right thinking person celebrate such festivities, but these forces want us not to question those festivals, not to question those celebrations. Fine, but why should we celebrate them. Not celebrating them becomes a droha, a challenge to the country. Whatever we do but new thesis, new question will always be raised on these texts and we must be prepared to face all of them.
If we know the Indian system and how work then we should not be surprised. As a nation, we have not grown and develop into an egalitarian democratic society. A democratic society is only possible where social system is based on democracy. A society segregated so much on caste lines can not really built a democratic culture in the country. Here, we feel proud of our caste being higher then the other one. We continue to bow to those in ascending order and regularly assault and humiliate those in the descending order. It is not surprising therefore that we still have millions of manual scavengers, carrying human excreta manually and we do not feel any shame in it. Our heart does not melt when we see young children who should have been in the school but carry night soil. How will our heart melt when the so called civil society, opinion makers, middle classes have a small chhotu at their home who take the heavy bags of their children to school bus and regularly do the service. How can we ever feel the shame when we have employed these chhotus at our home virtually buying them from their helpless parents?
Khairlanji verdict shocked us but still the reaction is calm unlike the time of the incident that raised fire in Mahrastra. We thought a new movement is on the way when the Dalits protested there. A few committed workers worked on the case while a majority of forgot it after a few days pilgrimage. Why should case of such a magnitude which shook us is termed as a Dalit issue alone? Why as human being and fellow national we do not feel the same pained and agony on these issues? The attitude of Mahrastra government was disgusting. See the contrast. When you have fight against Muslim accused, the media, the Hindutva and the ‘nationalist’ all join hand in the common ‘national’agenda but Khairlanji does not bother them, the denial of dignity to Dalit children in school does not bother them.
The basic question is why is there a regular denial of justice? Who will judge the judges who do not take these issues seriously while give certain judgments that hurt the basic premise of our constitution? Our government and political class will have to think on these issues more seriously. How can a judge leave the cases in the absence of ‘credible’ evidence? But the fact is that the state has no desire to get justice. It does not provide any credible evidence and then want us to blame it to the judges only.
The word of Baba Saheb Ambedkar remained prophetic as ever when he describes the nature of our villages. Truly, the villages still live in darkness, in caste identities, in feudalism. Yes, when I went to Allahabad recently where upper caste goons tried to molest a Dalit woman, demolished her home, beat her mercilessly along with her child and her husband and to my deep shock and anguish none ‘saw’ the incident. Not a single person in the village ‘saw’ it. There are numerous incidents where we have brought to the notice of the authorities but do not have ‘credible’ ‘evidence’. That does not exist. Once, I filed a report on manual scavenging and I am still getting letters that it does not exists in that part because the municipality say so. How interesting is this system is that you file a complaint against some one and the same person is made responsible to answer your question.
How can you get credible evidence when an entire village turns up against the person belonging to a particular community? Where is the credible evidence against those who are killing their own children in the name of ‘honor’? Is not it a shame when those who kills people in the name of honor terming it their ‘culture’ and asking the government to ‘bend’ on their whims and fancies and look how it is ‘crawling’ to the demands of such ‘civilized’ people.
Indian society is still a primitive society which has no space for dissent despite its pretensions to look modern and democratic. Whether it is Khairlanji or Tsunduru, Dalits face violence for being biggest dissenters of the brahmanical system. The fact is once you realize the treacheries of the system, you will become a dissenter. Asking for your right to live with dignity and self respect has become the biggest obstacles for the brahmanical forces. They have turned these democratic demands as dissent and seek to suppress it with violence. Such violence is happening daily but the struggling masses do not cow down to such intimidations. The courts verdict on Khairlanji is similar like what happened in Kanpur where authorities just let the incident happen. But these have raised serious issues of propriety. As a democratic nation which is claiming to become world leader, should such incident be allowed to go unchallenged? When the Indians make so much noises of discrimination against them outside India, why should we not make similar demand from the Indians who go abroad? Should not the government ask its employees to take oath in believing in secular constitution and asking its people to be non religious and non casteists. Should we not ask the foreign government to be very strict with Indians and Indian government on these issues of caste discrimination and caste violence?
The issues of violence against Dalits in India put serious question mark about our judicial system. Why do the Dalits not getting justice in our institutions. India is already facing tribal revolt at the moment, a Dalit revolt will only add to its woes and it would be difficult for it to recover. Let the democracy and its institutions prove that they honor equality and dignity of human being and are capable of providing justice to each and every citizen of the country without any racial discrimination.
Khairlanji’s incident has proved that our courts have not yet sensitized to the Dalit cause. The incidents of children not eating food cooked by the Dalit cooks also reflect that Indian constitution has not yet been able to prove its supremacy over the rigid and outdated laws of Manu. The various forms caste violence, honored killings and inability of children to mixed up only reflect that Indian state has failed in secularizing the people and most importantly the political class itself has no faith in secular values except using it to satisfy the whims and fancies of caste and religious thugs. Nothing could be more shameful for a nation claiming to be a superpower in the 21st century. It’s a wake up call for all.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Rise of Dalit Literature
The rise of 'Dalit lit' marks a new chapter for India's untouchables
As caste divides fade, a fresh crop of writers is emerging
By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
The market in India for Dalit literature is huge: Dalits make up a fifth of the country's population
Ajay Navaria, a writer of novels and short stories, cannot help but laugh as he reflects on the nature of his "other" job teaching Hindu ethics and scripture at a leading university in Delhi. The 39-year-old is a Dalit, a so-called "untouchable", and little more than a generation ago, for him to have even been discussing Hindu texts would have been an offence that could have cost him his life. The fact that he now teaches them brings a smile to his face.
"Fifty years ago it would have been a crime. I think about this and think that if I had touched those scriptures I would have been killed," he says, perched in a booth in a decaying coffee house in Delhi's once grand Connaught Place. "But democracy has given me power. It has given power to the depressed classes and helped to make a more modern society."
In his own way, Navaria is at the spearhead of a quiet cultural revolution sweeping India's literary establishment. Having long been confined to writing only in their own, local languages and largely ignored by the literary mainstream, Dalit authors are now being swooped on by some of the country's biggest publishers, such as Radhakrishna Prakashan which is translating their work into Hindi, the lingua franca of northern India and beyond.
Novelists, poets and writers of short stories are receiving both exposure and opportunity in the market-place that they have never before received. There are Dalit magazines, Dalit literary forums (there are two competing groups in Delhi alone) and Dalit workshops. And as further proof of the rising importance and clout of "Dalit lit", Mr Navaria was this year a guest at the influential Jaipur literary festival, an annual gathering and networker's paradise of Indian and international air-kissing types.
Indian society can sometimes seem harsh or even brutal. Nowhere is this more evident than in its caste system, a centuries-old hierarchy of categorisation based on ancient Hindu teachings that groups people into one of four main castes (and thousands of sub-castes). Traditionally, the caste someone belonged to decided where they would live, what job they would do and even what they would eat. People outside of these groups were considered unclean and not true Hindus, fit only for tasks such as cleaning toilets, making leather and sweeping the roads.
Dalits have suffered centuries of abuse and even today, despite legislation to protect them and an increasingly urbanised society, they are still the victims of widespread prejudice, discrimination and violence. A recent report by the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, a coalition of human rights groups in southern India, revealed a bewildering degree of discrimination, both in scale and form.
Among the various abuses detailed by the authors of the report, Dalits were not allowed to use a mobile phone in the presence of upper-caste people. They were also prevented from having their clothes washed, permitted only to drink tea from coconut shells while squatting on the floor, barred from entering temples, forced to eat faeces, raped and burned alive.
Yet Dalits total more than 150 million people – around 20 per cent of India's population – and the realisation has slowly come that with such critical mass, this community could have considerable leverage. In India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, low-caste voters have on three occasions elected a Dalit chief minister, Mayawati Kumari.
The size of the population has also been a factor in the emergence of Dalit literature as publishers have woken up to the potentially massive market. As Navaria says: "They are doing their business, they are not missionaries. If they get a profit, they will do it. If they do not, then they won't."
A key figure in the emergence of low-caste writing is Ramnika Gupta. She is not a Dalit but she produces a quarterly magazine, Yuddhrat Aam Aadmi, devoted to previously marginalised writers. She estimates that she and her team of just three full-time assistants have published around 1,500 Dalit writers from across India over the last two decades. Large publishers regularly go to her for information about new talent. She helps on the condition that the publishers agree to produce a paperback edition that is affordable for ordinary people, in addition to the standard hardback run.
In the first-floor drawing room of her home, which also serves as her office, she noted that Dalit writers never lacked subject material. The highly influential writer and Dalit leader, B R Ambedkar, she explained, had said it was essential that low-caste people had their own literature and that they wrote about their own lives.
Mrs Gupta, who has herself written dozens of books on Dalit and tribal people's issues, said of the caste system: "India's culture discriminates. It's a state of exploitation. Everyone thinks 'He is lower than me' or 'I'm superior'. What we are trying to say is that we are all equal and if anyone is weak, we can help them to rise."
Dalit writers say the emergence of low-caste literature has taken place alongside a broader growth of consciousness and activism, particularly in urban India. While in rural India, caste remains all-pervading, in cities many of the signs and signals that identify a person's caste have vanished. In cities, too, Dalits are better organised to stand up for their rights.
"There is a growing consciousness that is emerging. People are now better educated and they all get to know about their rights," said Anita Bharti, a long-time writer and activist who heads a Dalit literary forum that meets every month in Delhi.
Literature, said Ms Bharti, has an important role to play in the ongoing struggle by Dalits to end discrimination. While abuse of low-caste people still happens, "they can now write about it. Also, people realise that Dalits have been mistreated in the past and that there is a need to bring Dalit literature to other people."
Navaria, who is now working on his second novel, agrees. When he wrote his first novel, Udhar Ke Log (People From That Side), he had no doubt that the main antagonist would be a middle-class, urban Dalit. The story tells of the various ways in which his low caste affects his life, including being rejected by his lover – herself a sex-worker – when she discovers he is a Dalit. "I chose to write about Dalit consciousness. I have felt myself treated like this many times," he says.
One of his most painful, burning experiences was as a schoolboy of 12 or 13 when scholarships were being offered to Dalit pupils. His teacher walked into the classroom and asked any low-caste pupils to stand up so that their names could be taken down. "I never stood up. I went to the head teacher later [to apply for the scholarship]," he recalls. "You feel so ashamed. One friend said to me 'You don't look like a Dalit'. I asked him, 'What do you think a Dalit looks like?'"
Navaria rejects the suggestion that by writing about purely Dalit issues and by knowingly organising themselves as Dalits, this new generation of writers is actually reinforcing caste divisions, rather than breaking them down. "If there are divisions in society, how can there not be divisions in literature? Publishers are not promoting these divisions but are reflecting them," he says. "Caste is very important. You cannot imagine India without caste. If a person says they are a Hindu, then they will have a caste."
One breakthrough these writers have yet to make is getting published in English. Partly that is because the writers prefer to work in a medium that their main audience can understand. But Ms Bharti and others say that getting the attention of the "elite" English-language media is still a challenge.
Navaria says he sees many obstacles ahead, but that he has the energy to overcome them. "Writing is not my profession, it's my passion," he says, as he finishes his coffee, Delhi's warm yellow sun slipping from the sky. "I cannot even sleep if an idea is in my head. For two or three nights, I cannot sleep until it's completed. It's a duty to the society."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-rise-of-dalit-lit-marks-a-new-chapter-for-indias-untouchables-2014053.html
As caste divides fade, a fresh crop of writers is emerging
By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
The market in India for Dalit literature is huge: Dalits make up a fifth of the country's population
Ajay Navaria, a writer of novels and short stories, cannot help but laugh as he reflects on the nature of his "other" job teaching Hindu ethics and scripture at a leading university in Delhi. The 39-year-old is a Dalit, a so-called "untouchable", and little more than a generation ago, for him to have even been discussing Hindu texts would have been an offence that could have cost him his life. The fact that he now teaches them brings a smile to his face.
"Fifty years ago it would have been a crime. I think about this and think that if I had touched those scriptures I would have been killed," he says, perched in a booth in a decaying coffee house in Delhi's once grand Connaught Place. "But democracy has given me power. It has given power to the depressed classes and helped to make a more modern society."
In his own way, Navaria is at the spearhead of a quiet cultural revolution sweeping India's literary establishment. Having long been confined to writing only in their own, local languages and largely ignored by the literary mainstream, Dalit authors are now being swooped on by some of the country's biggest publishers, such as Radhakrishna Prakashan which is translating their work into Hindi, the lingua franca of northern India and beyond.
Novelists, poets and writers of short stories are receiving both exposure and opportunity in the market-place that they have never before received. There are Dalit magazines, Dalit literary forums (there are two competing groups in Delhi alone) and Dalit workshops. And as further proof of the rising importance and clout of "Dalit lit", Mr Navaria was this year a guest at the influential Jaipur literary festival, an annual gathering and networker's paradise of Indian and international air-kissing types.
Indian society can sometimes seem harsh or even brutal. Nowhere is this more evident than in its caste system, a centuries-old hierarchy of categorisation based on ancient Hindu teachings that groups people into one of four main castes (and thousands of sub-castes). Traditionally, the caste someone belonged to decided where they would live, what job they would do and even what they would eat. People outside of these groups were considered unclean and not true Hindus, fit only for tasks such as cleaning toilets, making leather and sweeping the roads.
Dalits have suffered centuries of abuse and even today, despite legislation to protect them and an increasingly urbanised society, they are still the victims of widespread prejudice, discrimination and violence. A recent report by the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, a coalition of human rights groups in southern India, revealed a bewildering degree of discrimination, both in scale and form.
Among the various abuses detailed by the authors of the report, Dalits were not allowed to use a mobile phone in the presence of upper-caste people. They were also prevented from having their clothes washed, permitted only to drink tea from coconut shells while squatting on the floor, barred from entering temples, forced to eat faeces, raped and burned alive.
Yet Dalits total more than 150 million people – around 20 per cent of India's population – and the realisation has slowly come that with such critical mass, this community could have considerable leverage. In India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, low-caste voters have on three occasions elected a Dalit chief minister, Mayawati Kumari.
The size of the population has also been a factor in the emergence of Dalit literature as publishers have woken up to the potentially massive market. As Navaria says: "They are doing their business, they are not missionaries. If they get a profit, they will do it. If they do not, then they won't."
A key figure in the emergence of low-caste writing is Ramnika Gupta. She is not a Dalit but she produces a quarterly magazine, Yuddhrat Aam Aadmi, devoted to previously marginalised writers. She estimates that she and her team of just three full-time assistants have published around 1,500 Dalit writers from across India over the last two decades. Large publishers regularly go to her for information about new talent. She helps on the condition that the publishers agree to produce a paperback edition that is affordable for ordinary people, in addition to the standard hardback run.
In the first-floor drawing room of her home, which also serves as her office, she noted that Dalit writers never lacked subject material. The highly influential writer and Dalit leader, B R Ambedkar, she explained, had said it was essential that low-caste people had their own literature and that they wrote about their own lives.
Mrs Gupta, who has herself written dozens of books on Dalit and tribal people's issues, said of the caste system: "India's culture discriminates. It's a state of exploitation. Everyone thinks 'He is lower than me' or 'I'm superior'. What we are trying to say is that we are all equal and if anyone is weak, we can help them to rise."
Dalit writers say the emergence of low-caste literature has taken place alongside a broader growth of consciousness and activism, particularly in urban India. While in rural India, caste remains all-pervading, in cities many of the signs and signals that identify a person's caste have vanished. In cities, too, Dalits are better organised to stand up for their rights.
"There is a growing consciousness that is emerging. People are now better educated and they all get to know about their rights," said Anita Bharti, a long-time writer and activist who heads a Dalit literary forum that meets every month in Delhi.
Literature, said Ms Bharti, has an important role to play in the ongoing struggle by Dalits to end discrimination. While abuse of low-caste people still happens, "they can now write about it. Also, people realise that Dalits have been mistreated in the past and that there is a need to bring Dalit literature to other people."
Navaria, who is now working on his second novel, agrees. When he wrote his first novel, Udhar Ke Log (People From That Side), he had no doubt that the main antagonist would be a middle-class, urban Dalit. The story tells of the various ways in which his low caste affects his life, including being rejected by his lover – herself a sex-worker – when she discovers he is a Dalit. "I chose to write about Dalit consciousness. I have felt myself treated like this many times," he says.
One of his most painful, burning experiences was as a schoolboy of 12 or 13 when scholarships were being offered to Dalit pupils. His teacher walked into the classroom and asked any low-caste pupils to stand up so that their names could be taken down. "I never stood up. I went to the head teacher later [to apply for the scholarship]," he recalls. "You feel so ashamed. One friend said to me 'You don't look like a Dalit'. I asked him, 'What do you think a Dalit looks like?'"
Navaria rejects the suggestion that by writing about purely Dalit issues and by knowingly organising themselves as Dalits, this new generation of writers is actually reinforcing caste divisions, rather than breaking them down. "If there are divisions in society, how can there not be divisions in literature? Publishers are not promoting these divisions but are reflecting them," he says. "Caste is very important. You cannot imagine India without caste. If a person says they are a Hindu, then they will have a caste."
One breakthrough these writers have yet to make is getting published in English. Partly that is because the writers prefer to work in a medium that their main audience can understand. But Ms Bharti and others say that getting the attention of the "elite" English-language media is still a challenge.
Navaria says he sees many obstacles ahead, but that he has the energy to overcome them. "Writing is not my profession, it's my passion," he says, as he finishes his coffee, Delhi's warm yellow sun slipping from the sky. "I cannot even sleep if an idea is in my head. For two or three nights, I cannot sleep until it's completed. It's a duty to the society."
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-rise-of-dalit-lit-marks-a-new-chapter-for-indias-untouchables-2014053.html
Friday, July 09, 2010
Dalit woman wait for justice in Uttar-Pradesh
Dalit Woman Humiliated and victimized in Allahabad
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Her one eye is completely turned red at the moment as the upper caste goons threw slippers at her. The entire body bears the brunt of the brahmanical violence on July 3rd, 2010 at the Sheetalpur Tikari village under Tharwai police station in Allahabad. Her cloths were torn and the goons tried to pee on her mouth but the police kept her in the police station for 24 hours and try to deny anything like that happened. This is the story of Lalli Devi, 45, who was constructing a house allotted to her under the Indira Awas Yojna when Devi Sharan Mishra, a local money lender and well connected person came along with some other members and demolished the house. As Lalti tried to reason with the man, she, her husband Gulab and her son aged 12 years were beaten mercilessly by these goons. Her huts where she used to sleep and cook were completely razed to the ground. ‘It was the incident at around 8 am on Saturday when I was cleaning my chulha’, said Lalli. ‘Eight members lead by Devi Mishra just entered in with lathis and thrashed me after beating my husband and son. Sir, they put me on ground, put their feet on my chest and tried to pee on my mouth. I resisted but they torn my cloths, hit at me and threw slippers at me which hurt my eyes. It is aching now and has turned red. I am still not able to breathe properly’, said Lalti when I visited her. There is no place for them to sleep. Its rainy season and given the nature of our villages, Lalli and her family has no way to save them from the fury of nature.
According to police officials, there was a land feud between the two which was in the court and there was a stay on it. When Lalli Devi was constructing her house given to her under Indira Awas Yojna, Devi Mishra and his gangsters demolished it and also razed her other huts to ground, beat up her husband and thrashed her when she reacted. She was humiliated and her body bears the mark of the thrashing.
This incident happened about 30 kilometers from Allahabad town on July 3rd, 2010 in the morning hour around 8 am. This nondescript village resembles the old structural villages of India which Baba Saheb Ambedkar described as ‘den of feudalism, nepotism and corruption’. The village in darkness. The village has 5 families of Yadavs, 10 families of Patels (OBCs), 25-30 families Passies (Dalits) and nearly 20 families of Brahmins. Nearly 10 families belong to Telis i.e. Guptas and one family belong to Dhaikar, a Dalit community which is engaged in bamboo weaving work. They make bamboo baskets and other related things. And see the tyranny of the caste system in the village, none of the communities coming to her rescue. The Brahmins, as master manipulators are using all techniques to disturb her. They are in power structure every where. She is alone. The Kurmis near her do not feel for her, the Pasis are known to resist yet not a single person is ready to speak. The terror of these Brahmin is so high that a Dalit woman says, ‘why do you speak to us. Are you not able to see our faces and judge as what is the situation here’? Lalli Devi know this situation as she says, ‘ Most of the people saw me being dragged on the ground and my cloths torn but no body want to speak as they fear the powerful’.
A police Jeep is picketing in front of her house. She went to police station to lodge her complaint but she was not only hounded but kept at the police station for 24 hours. Daily Amar Ujala and Hindustan reported it on July 6th and later the local news channels started running the story on their prime time which suggested that Lalli Devi was attacked and her cloths were torn but police deny she was paraded in the village. However, the question is whether hiding things make the grave incident less grave? For the police officials, it is like any other land dispute. They term it as a fight between two leaders for lording over the Dalits and other communities in the region. The Brahmin politics of Allahabad is well known to be explained here. But for the information of the readers, the Member of Parliament is a former pracharak of BJP but now his ‘heart’ is changed and hence is a man of ‘social justice’ in the BSP, though his brother’s heart still beat for BJP and hence he is MLA from that party. The other brother has just achieved victory for MLC on BSP ticket. None of them had visited so far. But the leaders from other political parties are also visiting her. I do not know but Lalli Devi tells that she was given support of Rs 3000/- by one politician and Rs 1000/- by the other. That is the cost of the dignity and respect of a Dalit woman in India.
The police officers on duty are mostly agreeing that she was beaten up and ‘sab kuchch galat hua’ but they are not ready to accept that ‘her dignity’ was attacked. When I ask them whether any case has been filed under Prevention of SC-ST Atrocities Act, they answer in affirmative but that has to be verified at later stage and action need to be seen. The culprit Devi Mishra’s supporter charge that the Lalli Devi is working on behalf of village Sarpanch Yogesh Tiwari who function as a Sarpanch pati, defecto Sarpanch of the village.
Antecedents of the culprits
Most of the villagers say that the Brahmins play power politics in the village and that Devi Mishra is a moneylender. As we know well that in Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, the moneylenders suck your blood more than even the corporate. Here the interest rates are exorbitantly very high. According to the villagers, it very according to the ‘favor’ done by the moneylenders but nonetheless it starts from a minimum interest of 5% per month but normally is 10% month. Most of the villagers actually mortgage their papers and the problem is that at the time of receiving the money, they do not really bother to check the contents of the agreement and later are trapped in the game and therefore lost their land or other immoveable assets.
Devi Mishra’s supporter say that Lalli Devi does not own that land in which she was constructing her Indira Awas as the land was legally belong to him as he bought it from him, while Lalti Devi says that her father in law was a habitual drunk and nobody ever took him seriously. She also says that her husband also is not keeping well and has hearing problem. The fact is that she lives in the Abadi i.e. human settlement side which is never recorded and on the ground the grave reality is that Mishra and his goons assaulted her. Even if everything that Lalli Devi was saying wrong, that does never justify the grave violence inflicted on her by the arrogant brahmanical forces of the region and the dubious role played by the local police which was unable to arrest the culprits.
Though nobody is verifying things yet some of the dalits on the condition of anonymity informed that Devi Mishra is a Junior Engineer with some government department. According to them, he does not go to his office. Probably, it is a common decease in UP and elsewhere that the upper caste benami officers. It is up to the government to think over it and take action against him if it is proved that he is a government servant. Not only should his job records be produced to the court but also all those who connived with him in this misdeed should be arrested.
The village and the lonely woman
As Baba Saheb Ambedkar said that the caste system has never provided any unity of the oppressed and hence annihilation of caste is essential for social justice but how and who would be interested in it as annihilation of the caste itself mean elimination of the brahmanical social order? This hierarchical structure keeps people isolated and it is the biggest obstacle in the unity of the oppressed people ghettoized in their own shells. Here also if one see the isolation of Lalli Devi, one only realize how prophetic Ambedkar was in his analysis of our ‘great’ ‘villages’ which has ascending order of respect and descending order of contempt as the community that Lalli belong to does not serve any political purpose for those for who vote matters the most. Just adjacent to her huts are people, who are not ready to share her pain and agony. Women are inside their house. In the local PDS shop, I meet an old man who refuses to answer my question. I ask him Baba just tell me what happened to Lalli and this man says ‘ sab karmo ka phal hai’, everything is the result of her karma’. I ask Baba, what is your caste and this man inform me that he is a ‘Kurmi’ which is a powerful backward community. Yes, she does not belong to your caste and hence you are not bothered about her, I scold him. Near him, is a lonely woman who brick house is just adjacent to Lalli. Yes, Uma Devi is a Teli by caste. A single woman, she narrates her plight as how her land was snatched and converted by the powerful Brahmin in the village and she was thrown here. Uma is a lonely woman, left by her husband and rejected by her family, she live a life of pain and agony. She does not speak. The villagers speak for her as if she can not speak. The cruelty of village life is reflected in the eyes of Uma. Even a child can scold her in front of every one to the ‘delight’ of all the elders.
She shares the pain of Lalli but only say that she was not at home. Every one is speaking the same language of not being there. How is it possible in the village where you can see huge crowd on a small issue, that a woman is being robbed, molested and none of them has seen it. The police will work for a few days and after some time when ‘situation’ comes back to normalcy. Villagers know it well that they will have to respond again and as there is no ‘witness’ to the case, Lalli Devi may not get justice. The only possibility is that a few politicians and administration would try to ‘compensate’ her honor in a few thousands rupees. But Lalli Devi says,’ Sir, I was born here. My parents and grand parents lived her for so long. I can not leave this place. This is my home. I want to die here only’ But the pressure is on her to leave as none is ready to cooperate with her and we all know after several years the judiciary would not be able to give her justice. Lalli Devi knows that politicians are coming; media is highlighting the issue but just for a few days. After that she will remain alone along with her husband and a child. ‘Politicians promise a lot but I know they never come back’, says Lalli.
While Lalli says she did not face any caste based discrimination but the fact is isolation and ghettoisation is a way of life in the villages and accepted norms. As her opponents are charging her as a close associate with Pradhan she says categorically that she neither knows the Sarpanch nor wants to get involved in their activity. How will he be interested in us, she asks.
As I move around in the Pasi locality, lot of signs boards are there putting slogans of NREGS, promising bright future for the villagers. ‘Why should you leave village when the work is at home’, portray a slogan. The question one must ask these people as why migration is increasing. Is it just for work or it is for dignity also. What do we expect from people like Lalli Devi? Will she be allowed to live a life peacefully in the village by the feudal structure?
There is scarcity of water in the village. In the hamlet of Pasis, for over 25 families, they have just one water connection. So it is war among the poor. One family pay Rs 18/- a month apart from basic investment of Rs 3000/- yet no water on time. ‘Of course, water will be here for a few days as Netas come here and TV cameras roam around, but once things die down, nothing happen. It will again be the same politics of Mishras and Tiwaris, says a villager. None of them have land and yet less than 10% of them have the BPL card. It is shameful, say an old man that all the landless people have APL card. As far as the job card is concern, they do not get any work. Poor people do not even know that they have to apply for the job. They feel it is a favor by the village Pradhan or some political party.
Conclusion
Lalli Devi’s honor was violated at Sheetalpur Tikari. Her house has been demolished. Even the police admit that she was beaten mercilessly though they do not agree with everything that Lalti Devi speak. The issue is much bigger here. Is the crime against her less serious? What is the police doing. Has it really taken investigation to a conclusion? How will it destroy the nexus of the money lending upper castes who are illegally grabbing lands of the Dalits in these areas? Our experience shows that the police and authorities try to shut your mouth by compensating the person. They know well that after some days the issue would close down.
Human Rights are meant for each citizens of the country. A truly democratic governance structure should ensure that the most marginalized and tiniest minority must feel safe and secure. Our villages do not provide that confidence where the women like Lalli Devi feel secure and can live a life with freedom and dignity. The goons can come any time and assault her and our structure try to compensate it in a few thousand rupees while condoning the racist nature of our society. Though the police can not fight such violence, it can best do the work impartially and take the case to a logical conclusion. It will take long time. How can we ensure justice to Lalli Devi. Can our Human Rights bodies take any action against the authorities and follow it up? But if it takes years to get justice then how will Lalli and her family remain free and safe from the violence of the village and that of the goons? Will the police act against its own officers who denied that nothing happened and Lalli was lying?
Indian villages need radical changes. India administration needs bigger changes so that the democratic thought can flourish and women like Lalli Devi do not live in constant fear and humiliation. Can we grow and ensure that each one in the country live in dignity and self respect? Right now, we can only wait for justice to Lalli.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Her one eye is completely turned red at the moment as the upper caste goons threw slippers at her. The entire body bears the brunt of the brahmanical violence on July 3rd, 2010 at the Sheetalpur Tikari village under Tharwai police station in Allahabad. Her cloths were torn and the goons tried to pee on her mouth but the police kept her in the police station for 24 hours and try to deny anything like that happened. This is the story of Lalli Devi, 45, who was constructing a house allotted to her under the Indira Awas Yojna when Devi Sharan Mishra, a local money lender and well connected person came along with some other members and demolished the house. As Lalti tried to reason with the man, she, her husband Gulab and her son aged 12 years were beaten mercilessly by these goons. Her huts where she used to sleep and cook were completely razed to the ground. ‘It was the incident at around 8 am on Saturday when I was cleaning my chulha’, said Lalli. ‘Eight members lead by Devi Mishra just entered in with lathis and thrashed me after beating my husband and son. Sir, they put me on ground, put their feet on my chest and tried to pee on my mouth. I resisted but they torn my cloths, hit at me and threw slippers at me which hurt my eyes. It is aching now and has turned red. I am still not able to breathe properly’, said Lalti when I visited her. There is no place for them to sleep. Its rainy season and given the nature of our villages, Lalli and her family has no way to save them from the fury of nature.
According to police officials, there was a land feud between the two which was in the court and there was a stay on it. When Lalli Devi was constructing her house given to her under Indira Awas Yojna, Devi Mishra and his gangsters demolished it and also razed her other huts to ground, beat up her husband and thrashed her when she reacted. She was humiliated and her body bears the mark of the thrashing.
This incident happened about 30 kilometers from Allahabad town on July 3rd, 2010 in the morning hour around 8 am. This nondescript village resembles the old structural villages of India which Baba Saheb Ambedkar described as ‘den of feudalism, nepotism and corruption’. The village in darkness. The village has 5 families of Yadavs, 10 families of Patels (OBCs), 25-30 families Passies (Dalits) and nearly 20 families of Brahmins. Nearly 10 families belong to Telis i.e. Guptas and one family belong to Dhaikar, a Dalit community which is engaged in bamboo weaving work. They make bamboo baskets and other related things. And see the tyranny of the caste system in the village, none of the communities coming to her rescue. The Brahmins, as master manipulators are using all techniques to disturb her. They are in power structure every where. She is alone. The Kurmis near her do not feel for her, the Pasis are known to resist yet not a single person is ready to speak. The terror of these Brahmin is so high that a Dalit woman says, ‘why do you speak to us. Are you not able to see our faces and judge as what is the situation here’? Lalli Devi know this situation as she says, ‘ Most of the people saw me being dragged on the ground and my cloths torn but no body want to speak as they fear the powerful’.
A police Jeep is picketing in front of her house. She went to police station to lodge her complaint but she was not only hounded but kept at the police station for 24 hours. Daily Amar Ujala and Hindustan reported it on July 6th and later the local news channels started running the story on their prime time which suggested that Lalli Devi was attacked and her cloths were torn but police deny she was paraded in the village. However, the question is whether hiding things make the grave incident less grave? For the police officials, it is like any other land dispute. They term it as a fight between two leaders for lording over the Dalits and other communities in the region. The Brahmin politics of Allahabad is well known to be explained here. But for the information of the readers, the Member of Parliament is a former pracharak of BJP but now his ‘heart’ is changed and hence is a man of ‘social justice’ in the BSP, though his brother’s heart still beat for BJP and hence he is MLA from that party. The other brother has just achieved victory for MLC on BSP ticket. None of them had visited so far. But the leaders from other political parties are also visiting her. I do not know but Lalli Devi tells that she was given support of Rs 3000/- by one politician and Rs 1000/- by the other. That is the cost of the dignity and respect of a Dalit woman in India.
The police officers on duty are mostly agreeing that she was beaten up and ‘sab kuchch galat hua’ but they are not ready to accept that ‘her dignity’ was attacked. When I ask them whether any case has been filed under Prevention of SC-ST Atrocities Act, they answer in affirmative but that has to be verified at later stage and action need to be seen. The culprit Devi Mishra’s supporter charge that the Lalli Devi is working on behalf of village Sarpanch Yogesh Tiwari who function as a Sarpanch pati, defecto Sarpanch of the village.
Antecedents of the culprits
Most of the villagers say that the Brahmins play power politics in the village and that Devi Mishra is a moneylender. As we know well that in Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, the moneylenders suck your blood more than even the corporate. Here the interest rates are exorbitantly very high. According to the villagers, it very according to the ‘favor’ done by the moneylenders but nonetheless it starts from a minimum interest of 5% per month but normally is 10% month. Most of the villagers actually mortgage their papers and the problem is that at the time of receiving the money, they do not really bother to check the contents of the agreement and later are trapped in the game and therefore lost their land or other immoveable assets.
Devi Mishra’s supporter say that Lalli Devi does not own that land in which she was constructing her Indira Awas as the land was legally belong to him as he bought it from him, while Lalti Devi says that her father in law was a habitual drunk and nobody ever took him seriously. She also says that her husband also is not keeping well and has hearing problem. The fact is that she lives in the Abadi i.e. human settlement side which is never recorded and on the ground the grave reality is that Mishra and his goons assaulted her. Even if everything that Lalli Devi was saying wrong, that does never justify the grave violence inflicted on her by the arrogant brahmanical forces of the region and the dubious role played by the local police which was unable to arrest the culprits.
Though nobody is verifying things yet some of the dalits on the condition of anonymity informed that Devi Mishra is a Junior Engineer with some government department. According to them, he does not go to his office. Probably, it is a common decease in UP and elsewhere that the upper caste benami officers. It is up to the government to think over it and take action against him if it is proved that he is a government servant. Not only should his job records be produced to the court but also all those who connived with him in this misdeed should be arrested.
The village and the lonely woman
As Baba Saheb Ambedkar said that the caste system has never provided any unity of the oppressed and hence annihilation of caste is essential for social justice but how and who would be interested in it as annihilation of the caste itself mean elimination of the brahmanical social order? This hierarchical structure keeps people isolated and it is the biggest obstacle in the unity of the oppressed people ghettoized in their own shells. Here also if one see the isolation of Lalli Devi, one only realize how prophetic Ambedkar was in his analysis of our ‘great’ ‘villages’ which has ascending order of respect and descending order of contempt as the community that Lalli belong to does not serve any political purpose for those for who vote matters the most. Just adjacent to her huts are people, who are not ready to share her pain and agony. Women are inside their house. In the local PDS shop, I meet an old man who refuses to answer my question. I ask him Baba just tell me what happened to Lalli and this man says ‘ sab karmo ka phal hai’, everything is the result of her karma’. I ask Baba, what is your caste and this man inform me that he is a ‘Kurmi’ which is a powerful backward community. Yes, she does not belong to your caste and hence you are not bothered about her, I scold him. Near him, is a lonely woman who brick house is just adjacent to Lalli. Yes, Uma Devi is a Teli by caste. A single woman, she narrates her plight as how her land was snatched and converted by the powerful Brahmin in the village and she was thrown here. Uma is a lonely woman, left by her husband and rejected by her family, she live a life of pain and agony. She does not speak. The villagers speak for her as if she can not speak. The cruelty of village life is reflected in the eyes of Uma. Even a child can scold her in front of every one to the ‘delight’ of all the elders.
She shares the pain of Lalli but only say that she was not at home. Every one is speaking the same language of not being there. How is it possible in the village where you can see huge crowd on a small issue, that a woman is being robbed, molested and none of them has seen it. The police will work for a few days and after some time when ‘situation’ comes back to normalcy. Villagers know it well that they will have to respond again and as there is no ‘witness’ to the case, Lalli Devi may not get justice. The only possibility is that a few politicians and administration would try to ‘compensate’ her honor in a few thousands rupees. But Lalli Devi says,’ Sir, I was born here. My parents and grand parents lived her for so long. I can not leave this place. This is my home. I want to die here only’ But the pressure is on her to leave as none is ready to cooperate with her and we all know after several years the judiciary would not be able to give her justice. Lalli Devi knows that politicians are coming; media is highlighting the issue but just for a few days. After that she will remain alone along with her husband and a child. ‘Politicians promise a lot but I know they never come back’, says Lalli.
While Lalli says she did not face any caste based discrimination but the fact is isolation and ghettoisation is a way of life in the villages and accepted norms. As her opponents are charging her as a close associate with Pradhan she says categorically that she neither knows the Sarpanch nor wants to get involved in their activity. How will he be interested in us, she asks.
As I move around in the Pasi locality, lot of signs boards are there putting slogans of NREGS, promising bright future for the villagers. ‘Why should you leave village when the work is at home’, portray a slogan. The question one must ask these people as why migration is increasing. Is it just for work or it is for dignity also. What do we expect from people like Lalli Devi? Will she be allowed to live a life peacefully in the village by the feudal structure?
There is scarcity of water in the village. In the hamlet of Pasis, for over 25 families, they have just one water connection. So it is war among the poor. One family pay Rs 18/- a month apart from basic investment of Rs 3000/- yet no water on time. ‘Of course, water will be here for a few days as Netas come here and TV cameras roam around, but once things die down, nothing happen. It will again be the same politics of Mishras and Tiwaris, says a villager. None of them have land and yet less than 10% of them have the BPL card. It is shameful, say an old man that all the landless people have APL card. As far as the job card is concern, they do not get any work. Poor people do not even know that they have to apply for the job. They feel it is a favor by the village Pradhan or some political party.
Conclusion
Lalli Devi’s honor was violated at Sheetalpur Tikari. Her house has been demolished. Even the police admit that she was beaten mercilessly though they do not agree with everything that Lalti Devi speak. The issue is much bigger here. Is the crime against her less serious? What is the police doing. Has it really taken investigation to a conclusion? How will it destroy the nexus of the money lending upper castes who are illegally grabbing lands of the Dalits in these areas? Our experience shows that the police and authorities try to shut your mouth by compensating the person. They know well that after some days the issue would close down.
Human Rights are meant for each citizens of the country. A truly democratic governance structure should ensure that the most marginalized and tiniest minority must feel safe and secure. Our villages do not provide that confidence where the women like Lalli Devi feel secure and can live a life with freedom and dignity. The goons can come any time and assault her and our structure try to compensate it in a few thousand rupees while condoning the racist nature of our society. Though the police can not fight such violence, it can best do the work impartially and take the case to a logical conclusion. It will take long time. How can we ensure justice to Lalli Devi. Can our Human Rights bodies take any action against the authorities and follow it up? But if it takes years to get justice then how will Lalli and her family remain free and safe from the violence of the village and that of the goons? Will the police act against its own officers who denied that nothing happened and Lalli was lying?
Indian villages need radical changes. India administration needs bigger changes so that the democratic thought can flourish and women like Lalli Devi do not live in constant fear and humiliation. Can we grow and ensure that each one in the country live in dignity and self respect? Right now, we can only wait for justice to Lalli.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Democracy in the hands of undemocratic people
Democracy as tool to strengthen power elite
The victims of 1984’s disaster wait for justice
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The verdict from Bhopal has shocked the nation. After 25 years the victims of this monumental disaster got nothing while Union Carbide and Anderson are safe in America. The man who was at the helm of Madhya Pradesh that time was considered to be a potential prime minister for many years nurturing that secret desire which remain unquenched. In the meanwhile, the people and their generations lost everything that they had without any remorse from the political class. But those who feel that just because Union Carbide was an American Enterprise and hence could not attract any judicial scrutiny must rethink the issue. Is Anderson the only one to have survived a holocaust which happened in Bhopal? We blame him alone for massacring over 25000 people without asking question to his Indian counterparts, our responsible leaders who made him escape and our judicial system which has not been able to provide any hope to millions in Bhopal who are crying for justice. The children, women, old people, all became heap of rubbish in one night and generations have faced the trauma of the horror of the gas tragedy yet that could not prick the conscious our combine nationhood which we witness during Gujarat 2002 or Delhi 1984. It may be because the trauma of Bhopal was not related to any particular identity. It did not hurt our religious feelings which are too often these days. It did not hurt our ‘national security’.
Just remember the gory events of October-November 1984, just a month before Bhopal pogrom took place. Indira Gandhi was assassinated and our doordarshan was broadcasting ‘ khoon ka badla khoon se lenge’.. eye for an eye and the streets of Delhi were witnessing another holocaust of Sikhs. The political leaders used the opportunity to polarize the event. Every Sikh became a ‘terrorist’, a suspect and our prime minister offered an explanation for these gruesome killings saying ‘ jab bada ped girta hai to dharti hilati hai.. when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’. Again, the children became orphaned here as they saw brutal killing of their parents. Families lost everything and yet years after those horrific nights, people waited for justice and it still eludes them though the political class reaped a great harvest on it.
In December 1992 Babari Masjid was razed to ground by the Hindutva goons and our conscious was hurt differently. Prime Minister Narshima Rao, who remained mute in 1984’s Delhi pogrom, promised the nation that the mosque would be rebuilt. He promised to take action against the culprits. Immediately after that Bombay witnessed the worst ever riots with open involvement of both Shiv Sena and Congress goons in 1993. What was the response of the government? Rajiv Gandhi came to power in 1984 over the dead bodies of Sikhs. It was a polarization that made Congress the mascot of Hindutva while after demolishing the Babari Mosque, the BJP took away that nationalism which was sole domain of the Congress and ultimately came to power in Delhi. It brought party from marginalization to mainstream their vicious agenda.
The Mumbai riots brought Shiva Sena and BJP to power in Maharastra while the great Gujarat pogrom strengthened Narendra Modi for ever. The polarization is so powerful that the more you abuse Modi, the bigger his image in Gujarat. He is being projected as one of the finest leaders and those who were the victim of his conspiracy are facing charges.
For the past two months we have witnessed violence against the Dalits in Haryana. In Mirchipur the cruelty of humanity occurred which is usual as the caste Hindus can not even think that it is abnormal. A young physically challenged girl from Balmiki community was burnt with her father and the state remains mute. It tries to justify the violence under some pretext. The Dalits have not yet returned to their villages while Congress is making lot of noises about the condition of Dalits in Uttar-Pradesh, Harayana’s record in protecting Dalits would put any government to shame. It is not that just of party politics. Haryana is essentially Jaat Politics. Whether you go to Congress party or counter it from Indian National Lok Dal, Harayana’s polity is dominated by Jaats. When the community has understood the power of its number, then it does not bother about right or wrong. Might is right and Jaats think that way that they can force a government on knees. They have done it in past. In Jaat Gujjar land in Western Uttar-Pradesh, when the Dalits could never exercise their votes though their leader Charan Singh always claimed to lead the Dalit Kisan and Majdoor. Of course in reality, these Dalits and majdoors were never equal to kisan in the Jaat Gujjar heartland. Violence against them never made the newspaper headlines and oppression was systematized. One can understand the same arrogance when Mahendra Singh Tikait, the leader of Bharatiya Kisan Union virtually abused UP Chief Minister Mayawati using derogatory caste references. He only cowed down when Mayawati was determined to teach him a lesson yet the Jaats had no remorse. They did not feel that such things are wrong. This is the arrogance of muscle power which emnates not through guns but through vast land commercialized by the builder lobby and protected by the political class of the community.
Today, Harayana’s chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda is demanding change in Hindu Code Bill to ban inter gotra marriages. It is strange for such people to become moral guardians today. Problem in this Jaat-Gujjar land is that you can not even commit to an inter-caste marriage. You will be killed and state leaders will always justify it as the ‘ijjat’ of the society. So many khap panchayats have dictated death sentence to young couples daring to marry at their own over coming their caste prejudices yet no action is taken against them.
What commonality do we see in all these? Barring Anderson, all of them are Indian nationals and respected national leaders. They justify their act in the name of ‘people’s sentiments and take over the charge of becoming the moral guardians of our communities. They find excuse in killings and murders in the name of community sentiments. None of the politicians have so far gone to Jail or face criminal charges against their misdeeds which threatened life of people and integrity of the country. There are certain facts which can not be ignored in Indian context. Though we adopted the west minister module of Parliamentary form of democracy yet it is the Manu’s model which dominates our national life. Those who are leading democracy are highly undemocratic in their personal lives. How can the undemocratic people be made responsible to protect democracy. That is the Indian contradiction. Democracy here is nothing to respect individual and everything to legitimize the misdeeds of political class. Hence, you can do anything in the name of democracy here. You can massacre people in the name of democracy; you can unleash a rain of terror to minority community under some pretext. If we see how these things are happening and who are doing it then we will realize who are taking democracy to ransom. The powerful leaders come from powerful communities. Nothing can ever happen to them. Powerful communities can get away with all kind of violence and no action is taken. You can not arrest Bal Thackery. Instead make Udhav as member of National integration Council. Sharad Pawar is a powerful leader from Maharastra who presided over a regime which allowed Bal Thackery and his goons to bleed Mumbai in 1993. Thousands of farmers are committing suicide in Vidarbha but Sharad Pawar will not lose any election. He will remain the tallest leader of Maharastra as he is the symbol of Maratha asmita, i.e. Maratha pride which perhaps is the only reason why Bal Thackery could not tame Pawar despite all his short comings because in the caste scheme of things, the Marathas can tame the caste of Thackery and hence playing the Hindutva card is his compulsion. Nothing has happened to either Thackrey or Pawar.
Kalyan Singh proudly said that he was responsible for destruction of Babari Masjid and he said he is responsible towards the biggest court of the Lord Rama where he kept his words and destroyed a mosque which according to him symbolizes the enslaved mentality of Hindus. He became the symbol of Hindu pride. Could Kalayan Singh have said the same if he were a Muslim? Lal Krishna Advani went on a Rath yatra which spilled bloods in the streets in different parts of India to fulfill his long cherished Ayodhya March. What happened to him? His party grew from 2 seats to 120 and finally came to power in Delhi and he became Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, presiding the same department which charge sheeted him on Ayodhya matter.
During the constituent assembly debates Sardar Hukum Singh raised some valid questions about minority rights. He said,’ Majority’s assertion would always term as nationalism while minorities cry for their rights will be termed as communalism’. And this is reality why everything that the Sangh Parivar, Shiv Sena, all these Khaps and other Panchayats could speak in such derogatory manner as they will never face the level of being ‘anti national’ or working against the interest of Indian state. Patriotism for them is natural through their caste order. Though, we develop a secular constitution the fact remain that we are predominantly a brahmanical state and it is they who decide what is nationalism and what is not. What should be our national priorities and what not? It does not care for the sentiments of those who differ with it. It wants to treat them militarily and through the barrel of the guns. It will not vote. Even for the census, its people, the urban middle class do not want to be counted. They look down upon those who are coming for enumerations yet it want to claim everything on our national resources. It does not vote yet it gets everything. Unfortunately those who participate in this democratic exercise still remains in the slums, and in semi urban areas where elections and democracy seems to be the biggest mela. Democracy does not respect the poor. It has not given the poor any hope and solution so far. Those who have utter contempt for democracy are its guardians and use its tools to legitimize their illegal acts. Anderson hails from American democracy which killed millions in Iraq, Afghanistan and middle- east. It legitimizes Talibans and when they question thrash them. It ensures that people’s resources are handed over to the few powerful corporate houses.
It is interesting to see how Anderson escaped from India. Chief Minister Arjun Singh, our secular hero, sent his personal plane to rescue him from Bhopal. None of us ever questioned him. Today, we are shocked because our media is pretending to do so. I am sure, after some days, media will help thing die down. Indian Express has already written a nasty editorial for forgetting things. None of the Indian Industrial houses have said anything on the issue. The Confederation of Indian Industries, FICCI and all other organizations which should have been in the forefront are conspicuously silent because they know that they do not follow safety norms. What happened to recent industrial disaster at the Indian Oil depot in Jaipur could have been a repeat of Bhopal but then I don’t think we demand justice for people of Jaipur. No head rolled and no one was sent to jail for those who were responsible for disaster. Did we ever say that the managing director of Indian Oil is responsible for the gas leak in Jaipur. Like the Americans we too have our own criteria to target people. We make difference between ‘indigenous murderers and external murderers’. We are ready to fight against the ‘external’ forces as it is easier as all the indigenous defaulters also take shelter in Indian nationalism and look more patriotic then others. But the fact is a murder is a murder whether carried out by Anderson or Indian Oil.
And it is here there is a commonality between all these incidents. That the powerful can get away with justice. The hypocrisy is that Bhopal disaster’s victims were not a vote bank. It could not instigate a nation which is easily choked on communal, religious, regions and other identity lines. Is it because our middle classes have been working with the big corporations? Is it because all the victims are commonly known as poor who predominantly consisted of Dalits and Muslims? The secular Arjun Singh would not bother about these incidents as they don’t matter as the crime was committed by a company and not by politically opponent ideology hence it would not serve the purpose. This is important meeting point of our political parties whether BJP or congress that they do not speak against industrial misconducts. Jindal will get his work done anywhere whether it’s a BJP state or Congress. Similarly things are true with other corporates. Hence corporate misconduct do not fall in the secular-communal ambit and therefore our secular friends keep quite on these issues. They feel it is not their issue.
My friend John Dayal rightly said that 1984 was one of the most traumatic year in the history of post independent India. It was clear that time that Indira Gandhi’s policies were tilting towards Hindutva when she send Indian army to invade Golden Temple to get rid of Bhindaranwale and his fellow terrorists who she created to counter the Akali Dal. The most traumatic events of June 1984 resulted in her own assassination on October 31st, 1984, resulting in brutal massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country. We all know nothing has happened to those who were involved in these incidents. No political leader has ever got convicted to any case in the 1984 trials. We have not seen any one going to jail for Babari demolition, for 1992 riots, for 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat.
Therefore, it is sheer hypocrisy when we shout that Anderson was left to go abroad. What has the government of India done for the people? Can you allow people to be killed without any assistance simply because the company is multinational and you can not fight with it? What is the state’s responsibility? Have we taken any lesson from it? In fact, we are promoting it. We want Posco and Vedanta at the cost of our people. We want Jindals and Essar at the cost of the tribal. So what is learnt from Bhopal is nothing but an eye wash since the issue is now picked up by the media hence something should be said and justify your inaction under the pretext of inability to arrest some powerful man of America. We forget to ask our political class as what has it done for the people of Bhopal? How can government allow a generation to be destroyed? Let the government fight endless battle with Union Carbide but how can people who lost everything wait for more. Why were the victims left to defend themselves?
Targeting Anderson is escapism as we all know the powerful corporate interest. It exonerates our political class from their misdeeds as they are hand in glove with these international corporations. They fight their cases in Supreme Courts and represent their interest at many places. The Indian state has a history of not providing justice to any victim whether it is massacres which we call as communal violence or those who are displaced to make way for big companies. A number of the killers in these riots are in India. They became ministers, chief ministers and prime ministers. Has any one of them got convicted?
1984’s horror will always haunt us as people are still waiting for the government to deliver its promises. It is difficult task as behind every act of these is efforts to save the big people responsible for both these tragedies and our agencies have no spine to question the powerful. The committees may be formed but the will of the state is not there to provide justice. Bhopal does not suite the political interest of any political party like the tribal of Dantewada hence the ‘shock’, ‘anguish’ will be there for a few days and disappear soon. Union Carbide was an international giant and might be following certain norms there are hundreds in India secretly killing our people and environment and our media and political parties will not be able to take them on as a number of these ‘disasters’ may be owned by the leaders themselves. We need not only national but international mechanism to provide justice to the people the government and political parties can not take shelter in the court proceedings. At least, the support must be provided immediately. Let the government fight with Anderson and Union Carbide but people can not be allowed to die and suffer inhumanely because of the consequences of it. The government provided land and protection to the company and therefore it can not take shelter in the courts and judicial process. It must continue but let not the people suffer endlessly. Will this democratic structure for which we write reams of paper work for the people of Bhopal, or for the Dalits in Haryana, for the tribal at Dantewada or for those who lost their everything in 1984 stage managed riots? The coming days will show whether this edifice of democracy is really working for the poor or legitimizing the corporate interest. Political class as a whole will have to respond in unison to this great crisis of democracy which can not survive through serving the corporate interests only and that would be the saddest day if all these victims lose complete faith in democratic structure and its judicial process and decide to take law in their own hand.
The victims of 1984’s disaster wait for justice
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
The verdict from Bhopal has shocked the nation. After 25 years the victims of this monumental disaster got nothing while Union Carbide and Anderson are safe in America. The man who was at the helm of Madhya Pradesh that time was considered to be a potential prime minister for many years nurturing that secret desire which remain unquenched. In the meanwhile, the people and their generations lost everything that they had without any remorse from the political class. But those who feel that just because Union Carbide was an American Enterprise and hence could not attract any judicial scrutiny must rethink the issue. Is Anderson the only one to have survived a holocaust which happened in Bhopal? We blame him alone for massacring over 25000 people without asking question to his Indian counterparts, our responsible leaders who made him escape and our judicial system which has not been able to provide any hope to millions in Bhopal who are crying for justice. The children, women, old people, all became heap of rubbish in one night and generations have faced the trauma of the horror of the gas tragedy yet that could not prick the conscious our combine nationhood which we witness during Gujarat 2002 or Delhi 1984. It may be because the trauma of Bhopal was not related to any particular identity. It did not hurt our religious feelings which are too often these days. It did not hurt our ‘national security’.
Just remember the gory events of October-November 1984, just a month before Bhopal pogrom took place. Indira Gandhi was assassinated and our doordarshan was broadcasting ‘ khoon ka badla khoon se lenge’.. eye for an eye and the streets of Delhi were witnessing another holocaust of Sikhs. The political leaders used the opportunity to polarize the event. Every Sikh became a ‘terrorist’, a suspect and our prime minister offered an explanation for these gruesome killings saying ‘ jab bada ped girta hai to dharti hilati hai.. when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’. Again, the children became orphaned here as they saw brutal killing of their parents. Families lost everything and yet years after those horrific nights, people waited for justice and it still eludes them though the political class reaped a great harvest on it.
In December 1992 Babari Masjid was razed to ground by the Hindutva goons and our conscious was hurt differently. Prime Minister Narshima Rao, who remained mute in 1984’s Delhi pogrom, promised the nation that the mosque would be rebuilt. He promised to take action against the culprits. Immediately after that Bombay witnessed the worst ever riots with open involvement of both Shiv Sena and Congress goons in 1993. What was the response of the government? Rajiv Gandhi came to power in 1984 over the dead bodies of Sikhs. It was a polarization that made Congress the mascot of Hindutva while after demolishing the Babari Mosque, the BJP took away that nationalism which was sole domain of the Congress and ultimately came to power in Delhi. It brought party from marginalization to mainstream their vicious agenda.
The Mumbai riots brought Shiva Sena and BJP to power in Maharastra while the great Gujarat pogrom strengthened Narendra Modi for ever. The polarization is so powerful that the more you abuse Modi, the bigger his image in Gujarat. He is being projected as one of the finest leaders and those who were the victim of his conspiracy are facing charges.
For the past two months we have witnessed violence against the Dalits in Haryana. In Mirchipur the cruelty of humanity occurred which is usual as the caste Hindus can not even think that it is abnormal. A young physically challenged girl from Balmiki community was burnt with her father and the state remains mute. It tries to justify the violence under some pretext. The Dalits have not yet returned to their villages while Congress is making lot of noises about the condition of Dalits in Uttar-Pradesh, Harayana’s record in protecting Dalits would put any government to shame. It is not that just of party politics. Haryana is essentially Jaat Politics. Whether you go to Congress party or counter it from Indian National Lok Dal, Harayana’s polity is dominated by Jaats. When the community has understood the power of its number, then it does not bother about right or wrong. Might is right and Jaats think that way that they can force a government on knees. They have done it in past. In Jaat Gujjar land in Western Uttar-Pradesh, when the Dalits could never exercise their votes though their leader Charan Singh always claimed to lead the Dalit Kisan and Majdoor. Of course in reality, these Dalits and majdoors were never equal to kisan in the Jaat Gujjar heartland. Violence against them never made the newspaper headlines and oppression was systematized. One can understand the same arrogance when Mahendra Singh Tikait, the leader of Bharatiya Kisan Union virtually abused UP Chief Minister Mayawati using derogatory caste references. He only cowed down when Mayawati was determined to teach him a lesson yet the Jaats had no remorse. They did not feel that such things are wrong. This is the arrogance of muscle power which emnates not through guns but through vast land commercialized by the builder lobby and protected by the political class of the community.
Today, Harayana’s chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda is demanding change in Hindu Code Bill to ban inter gotra marriages. It is strange for such people to become moral guardians today. Problem in this Jaat-Gujjar land is that you can not even commit to an inter-caste marriage. You will be killed and state leaders will always justify it as the ‘ijjat’ of the society. So many khap panchayats have dictated death sentence to young couples daring to marry at their own over coming their caste prejudices yet no action is taken against them.
What commonality do we see in all these? Barring Anderson, all of them are Indian nationals and respected national leaders. They justify their act in the name of ‘people’s sentiments and take over the charge of becoming the moral guardians of our communities. They find excuse in killings and murders in the name of community sentiments. None of the politicians have so far gone to Jail or face criminal charges against their misdeeds which threatened life of people and integrity of the country. There are certain facts which can not be ignored in Indian context. Though we adopted the west minister module of Parliamentary form of democracy yet it is the Manu’s model which dominates our national life. Those who are leading democracy are highly undemocratic in their personal lives. How can the undemocratic people be made responsible to protect democracy. That is the Indian contradiction. Democracy here is nothing to respect individual and everything to legitimize the misdeeds of political class. Hence, you can do anything in the name of democracy here. You can massacre people in the name of democracy; you can unleash a rain of terror to minority community under some pretext. If we see how these things are happening and who are doing it then we will realize who are taking democracy to ransom. The powerful leaders come from powerful communities. Nothing can ever happen to them. Powerful communities can get away with all kind of violence and no action is taken. You can not arrest Bal Thackery. Instead make Udhav as member of National integration Council. Sharad Pawar is a powerful leader from Maharastra who presided over a regime which allowed Bal Thackery and his goons to bleed Mumbai in 1993. Thousands of farmers are committing suicide in Vidarbha but Sharad Pawar will not lose any election. He will remain the tallest leader of Maharastra as he is the symbol of Maratha asmita, i.e. Maratha pride which perhaps is the only reason why Bal Thackery could not tame Pawar despite all his short comings because in the caste scheme of things, the Marathas can tame the caste of Thackery and hence playing the Hindutva card is his compulsion. Nothing has happened to either Thackrey or Pawar.
Kalyan Singh proudly said that he was responsible for destruction of Babari Masjid and he said he is responsible towards the biggest court of the Lord Rama where he kept his words and destroyed a mosque which according to him symbolizes the enslaved mentality of Hindus. He became the symbol of Hindu pride. Could Kalayan Singh have said the same if he were a Muslim? Lal Krishna Advani went on a Rath yatra which spilled bloods in the streets in different parts of India to fulfill his long cherished Ayodhya March. What happened to him? His party grew from 2 seats to 120 and finally came to power in Delhi and he became Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, presiding the same department which charge sheeted him on Ayodhya matter.
During the constituent assembly debates Sardar Hukum Singh raised some valid questions about minority rights. He said,’ Majority’s assertion would always term as nationalism while minorities cry for their rights will be termed as communalism’. And this is reality why everything that the Sangh Parivar, Shiv Sena, all these Khaps and other Panchayats could speak in such derogatory manner as they will never face the level of being ‘anti national’ or working against the interest of Indian state. Patriotism for them is natural through their caste order. Though, we develop a secular constitution the fact remain that we are predominantly a brahmanical state and it is they who decide what is nationalism and what is not. What should be our national priorities and what not? It does not care for the sentiments of those who differ with it. It wants to treat them militarily and through the barrel of the guns. It will not vote. Even for the census, its people, the urban middle class do not want to be counted. They look down upon those who are coming for enumerations yet it want to claim everything on our national resources. It does not vote yet it gets everything. Unfortunately those who participate in this democratic exercise still remains in the slums, and in semi urban areas where elections and democracy seems to be the biggest mela. Democracy does not respect the poor. It has not given the poor any hope and solution so far. Those who have utter contempt for democracy are its guardians and use its tools to legitimize their illegal acts. Anderson hails from American democracy which killed millions in Iraq, Afghanistan and middle- east. It legitimizes Talibans and when they question thrash them. It ensures that people’s resources are handed over to the few powerful corporate houses.
It is interesting to see how Anderson escaped from India. Chief Minister Arjun Singh, our secular hero, sent his personal plane to rescue him from Bhopal. None of us ever questioned him. Today, we are shocked because our media is pretending to do so. I am sure, after some days, media will help thing die down. Indian Express has already written a nasty editorial for forgetting things. None of the Indian Industrial houses have said anything on the issue. The Confederation of Indian Industries, FICCI and all other organizations which should have been in the forefront are conspicuously silent because they know that they do not follow safety norms. What happened to recent industrial disaster at the Indian Oil depot in Jaipur could have been a repeat of Bhopal but then I don’t think we demand justice for people of Jaipur. No head rolled and no one was sent to jail for those who were responsible for disaster. Did we ever say that the managing director of Indian Oil is responsible for the gas leak in Jaipur. Like the Americans we too have our own criteria to target people. We make difference between ‘indigenous murderers and external murderers’. We are ready to fight against the ‘external’ forces as it is easier as all the indigenous defaulters also take shelter in Indian nationalism and look more patriotic then others. But the fact is a murder is a murder whether carried out by Anderson or Indian Oil.
And it is here there is a commonality between all these incidents. That the powerful can get away with justice. The hypocrisy is that Bhopal disaster’s victims were not a vote bank. It could not instigate a nation which is easily choked on communal, religious, regions and other identity lines. Is it because our middle classes have been working with the big corporations? Is it because all the victims are commonly known as poor who predominantly consisted of Dalits and Muslims? The secular Arjun Singh would not bother about these incidents as they don’t matter as the crime was committed by a company and not by politically opponent ideology hence it would not serve the purpose. This is important meeting point of our political parties whether BJP or congress that they do not speak against industrial misconducts. Jindal will get his work done anywhere whether it’s a BJP state or Congress. Similarly things are true with other corporates. Hence corporate misconduct do not fall in the secular-communal ambit and therefore our secular friends keep quite on these issues. They feel it is not their issue.
My friend John Dayal rightly said that 1984 was one of the most traumatic year in the history of post independent India. It was clear that time that Indira Gandhi’s policies were tilting towards Hindutva when she send Indian army to invade Golden Temple to get rid of Bhindaranwale and his fellow terrorists who she created to counter the Akali Dal. The most traumatic events of June 1984 resulted in her own assassination on October 31st, 1984, resulting in brutal massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country. We all know nothing has happened to those who were involved in these incidents. No political leader has ever got convicted to any case in the 1984 trials. We have not seen any one going to jail for Babari demolition, for 1992 riots, for 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat.
Therefore, it is sheer hypocrisy when we shout that Anderson was left to go abroad. What has the government of India done for the people? Can you allow people to be killed without any assistance simply because the company is multinational and you can not fight with it? What is the state’s responsibility? Have we taken any lesson from it? In fact, we are promoting it. We want Posco and Vedanta at the cost of our people. We want Jindals and Essar at the cost of the tribal. So what is learnt from Bhopal is nothing but an eye wash since the issue is now picked up by the media hence something should be said and justify your inaction under the pretext of inability to arrest some powerful man of America. We forget to ask our political class as what has it done for the people of Bhopal? How can government allow a generation to be destroyed? Let the government fight endless battle with Union Carbide but how can people who lost everything wait for more. Why were the victims left to defend themselves?
Targeting Anderson is escapism as we all know the powerful corporate interest. It exonerates our political class from their misdeeds as they are hand in glove with these international corporations. They fight their cases in Supreme Courts and represent their interest at many places. The Indian state has a history of not providing justice to any victim whether it is massacres which we call as communal violence or those who are displaced to make way for big companies. A number of the killers in these riots are in India. They became ministers, chief ministers and prime ministers. Has any one of them got convicted?
1984’s horror will always haunt us as people are still waiting for the government to deliver its promises. It is difficult task as behind every act of these is efforts to save the big people responsible for both these tragedies and our agencies have no spine to question the powerful. The committees may be formed but the will of the state is not there to provide justice. Bhopal does not suite the political interest of any political party like the tribal of Dantewada hence the ‘shock’, ‘anguish’ will be there for a few days and disappear soon. Union Carbide was an international giant and might be following certain norms there are hundreds in India secretly killing our people and environment and our media and political parties will not be able to take them on as a number of these ‘disasters’ may be owned by the leaders themselves. We need not only national but international mechanism to provide justice to the people the government and political parties can not take shelter in the court proceedings. At least, the support must be provided immediately. Let the government fight with Anderson and Union Carbide but people can not be allowed to die and suffer inhumanely because of the consequences of it. The government provided land and protection to the company and therefore it can not take shelter in the courts and judicial process. It must continue but let not the people suffer endlessly. Will this democratic structure for which we write reams of paper work for the people of Bhopal, or for the Dalits in Haryana, for the tribal at Dantewada or for those who lost their everything in 1984 stage managed riots? The coming days will show whether this edifice of democracy is really working for the poor or legitimizing the corporate interest. Political class as a whole will have to respond in unison to this great crisis of democracy which can not survive through serving the corporate interests only and that would be the saddest day if all these victims lose complete faith in democratic structure and its judicial process and decide to take law in their own hand.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Initiate Political Process in the Tribal Hinterland
Who is afraid of civil society ?
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
‘Now, I would like to talk a little about the welfare of the elite, who profess to be concerned about the welfare of the people, who do little but blare it out from the rooftops. The rich build temples, mosques and churches, give donations to charities, and for this, are portrayed as great humanitarians. First they render people homeless and create orphans and then they open orphanage for them. In the name of development, they deprive people of their means of living, throw them out in the streets, force the women into prostitution, then they set up NGOs and campaign for Self Employment and brothel reform Centers. Not much money needs to be spent on this, even a tiny percentage of the millions and billions earned through the rampant loot of forest resources and minerals are sufficient to set up the propaganda machinery. They try to cover up the crimes of constructing the Tehri Dam (Which completely submerged the historic town of Tehri and forty villages, partially submerged 72 villages and affected 100,000 people) and the Narmada project ( which affected tribal areas of three states-Gujarat, Maharastra and Madhya Pradesh), by running a few NGOs and buying space in newspapers and that too at no more cost than expenses incurred on some product publicity.’
(Statement of Maoist Guerrilla Narang quoted dutifully by Satanam in his book ‘ Jangalnama’ published by Penguin India- page 121).
The above statement is not new to those who know the working pattern of political or semi political activists claiming to be sole champion of revolutions in India. Frankly speaking the revolutionaries are highly intolerant to any other view point and since they are not really capable to listen to dissenting voices, the result is in political violence. It happens because people feel they are being victimized. A victim mind is always creates extreme reactions and that is what happening in the forest zone. It is not that the articulations are wrong but in the articulations the issue of how to attain is more important. Emotions are created and amidst chant of rhetoric of a new wonder world, people come and join you. It is equally important that for a poor ideology is not important than survival and when he sees the apparatus of state working virtually against him, the discrimination of being a tribal or feeling of contempt towards him, the hatred grows and rhetoric further fires the passion for sacrifice.
As I write this comes the news of horrible train tragedy in Jhargram, West Bengal in which over 140 innocent people have been killed because of a derailment of Gyaneswhari Express. The Central government has given it to CBI to investigate while the West Bengal government has openly blamed PCPA, Lalgarh, for doing this. The government says civil society and human rights activists are not condemning it and all the time they put ifs and buts. May be they are unable to articulate it in the TV channels or Newspapers articles because of paucity of space and time. And there are so many voices in civil society and not all of them can speak in one voice. How can it be possible when the political parties can not speak in the same voice? Yes, after the recent attacks on trains and buses where innocent human beings are killed, one need to ask the questions to those who claim to speak for the ‘people’ as who has given them right to snatch the life of others. If the state is killing the innocent as they charge, then why they kill innocent. At the end it is the innocent who are being killed. And such killing needs to be condemned unequivocally and unambiguously. Those who do not have words for such killings should be prepared to receive the same news for themselves and their relatives and friends. Thinking about that is painful but then why we keep quiet on such heinous attack and justify it with other things.
Home Minister, P.Chidambarm is suave and articulate. He is the favorite of our English speaking media who think he provide answer to every problem of India particularly that emanate from the forests. They are absolutely sure that Chidambaram would resolve the current crisis and India will grow fast. Why is this that Chidambaram is getting huge support from the English speaking media but unable to garner support from different political parties including his party’s own senior leaders like Digvijay Singh and Ajit Jogi both of them have been important leaders from both Madhya Pradesh and Chhatishgarh.
Actually, the home ministry has little time to evaluate the way police actions are alienating the people. Chidambaram and his ministry seems to be too conscious of criticism in Delhi but not bothered about the sentiments in the tribal hinterlands where a sense of insecurity has gripped in the minds of the people. The pen pushers in Delhi who recommend army, air force and all other forces to flush out ‘Maoist terrorist’ do not know the terrain of the region. Most of the senior police officials have on record spoken against air support including Air Chief and Chief of our armed forces.
The biggest criticism of the government is coming through people like Arundhati Roy who does not need to have an NGO or an organization to air her view. She is famous enough to write and her writings are well marketed by the same corporate who she decries. Similarly, Varvara Rao is an ideologue based in Hyderabad who has been persistently claiming that every actions that ‘revolutionaries’ are taking is a retaliation against police atrocities. There are so many lawyers and academics who have been writing and speaking. Mr BD.Sharma wrote to the President of India about the marginalization of tribal. It is well known fact that Sharma was the first commissioner for Schedule caste and Schedule Tribe and his reports in the commission are path breaking. Justice Rajender Sachar is a former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. This apart there are many academics from Delhi-University, JNU, Jamia Milia and other Universities who do not support government’s initiatives in Chhatisgarh. There are many former bureaucrats who do not agree with the government’s strategies. Then there are Gandhians who are well connected with state apparatus and do not subscribe to Chidambaram and his theories. And all these people do not need an NGO to stand. They are much bigger than NGOs and even some time so called civil society. Then there are organizations like PUCL and PUDR which have their own positions on this unambiguously. They can shout as they do not receive any funds from the government or abroad. That gives them power to shout. Organisations like Asian Human Rights Commission have clearly condemned Maoist Violence while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have track record of condemning not only state violence but also non state actors.
Then there are thousands of smaller organizations being run by people at the grassroots. Most of them are involved in their ‘projected work’. Some work on health, while some on NREGS and a number of them create Self Help Groups. There are Dalit organizations working on particular issues while a numerous organizations working on Land and acquisition issue. The fight of Narmada Bachao Andolan is going on for years and the government must explain to us as how much it respected a completely democratic movement. There is a struggle going on against Posco at Kalinganagar ? It is not being run by the Maoists yet the tribal are being killed and humiliated in their own land. Does the home ministry not realize that people will rebel if they are left with no option except fighting?
Therefore a smart politician like Chidambaram should not have made nuisance remark about the civil society but the fact is that home ministries mandarins are behaving in worst possible way to control the criticism of their failures to tackle the Maoist menace in the country. That the Moists have virtually caught the fancy of tribal is a feeling in the Ministry because the government of India has its dirty track record of suppressing all the people’s movement through their intimidation as well as vicious media propaganda. In fact, in the name of independent media, we have corporate interest groups sitting in the chat rooms and speaking their own interests.
It is the nationalism quintessentially upper caste nationalism that is being played through the news rooms. And the cost is those who disagree with them and do not look like them. The consensus is created through media and some of the warriors find their way in these chat rooms to show that we ‘care’ for the opposite view point, though the likes of Arnab Goswami never even allow them to speak.
Is home ministry so naïve not to understand the criticism? Why is afraid of criticism? Why it is targeting the civil society organizations? Let us examine these questions?
The fact is that the Maoists or for the matter any close door ideological perception never like openness. With open ness they fear that people would get new ideas and may shift their ideological perception. West Bengal under CPM suffered this as any body who would not speak the language of the Marxists would be spied. Gujarat suffered it under the BJP’s Hindutva experiment as any fresh air is considered dangerous. Any ideological dissimilarity is a threat. This is happening in many other parts of South Asia whether it is Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan under Taliban. The Maoist will never want any civil society organization to work in their area. Those who pretend to work there can only do on the mercy of the Maoists and can not have their own freedom of expression because dissent is not allowed in the Maoist brand of democracy. NGOs for them and for many others are imperialist conspiracy to befool the people and defuse their resistance.
In the beginning the Congress party was afraid of them during the emergency when Indira Gandhi actually prohibited us to even express our ideas. So, newspapers just crawled when they were asked to bend, a phrase often used by politicians victimized during the emergency. Democratic opposition to Indira Gandhi grew up in entire country and finally mighty family had to bite dust resulting in the formation of the first non congress government at the center. Unfortunately, it had the same structure and therefore the internal contradictions helped congress come back to power again.
In the post 1980s, India’s issues took different turn. For the first time polity was facing a big challenge. In Punjab and Assam, there was a real challenge to mainstream polity in India. It was not just mainstream politics but to the very fabric of the constitution of India. Earlier we had thought it is just Kashmir and Nagaland which were seeking extra constitutional mandate but now the other states also started questioning.
The reasons were lots. The powerful center which could dismiss the states at their own. The governor’s became the stooge of the home ministry and the non congress governments were being targeted. To finish the Akalis in Punjab, the congress promoted Bhindarwale while to strengthen its base it promoted demographic changes in both Assam and Tripura. While the seculars may not like this but the fact is that the tribal in Tripura today are minority in their own state. How can a community of a state be called a minority?
Today, Shekhar Gupta in the Indian Express calls for the might of Indian state against Maoist Indian terrorist but forget that his own former boss in the Express campaigned to save two alleged killers of Indira Gandhi in the name of human rights. Shourie wrote extensively on Punjab violence and the role of Indian state there. We all know which side of the fence is Arun Shourie today.
It is also true that we can not really compare the private armies and their justification of picking up guns. State has a right to protect its citizens and since its forces are legitimate and accountable they need to follow the rules of the law and procedures. Ofcourse, Maoists are deliberating provoking so that it becomes a fight between them and the state and all the other actors are eliminated in between. The government and political parties must understand it. The issues raised by them are valid and need to be addressed. These issues have been raised by civil society for long and the government only looked it in utter contempt. Even the Courts orders are not being followed; environmental norms are not being followed. So, when you close all democratic process the end product is romanticism of guns and violence. The Maoists also know that the Indian state is a might state and their vision of overthrowing it is a sheer stupidity. But the state of India has given them shelter under tribal pain and agony.
We all know that if the state does not heal the wounds the situation will never change. The wounds in Punab were healed through a political process and hence Punjab is going better. Same thing happened in the north east. We invite Muviah to Nagaland and talk to him. We discuss with Laldenga in Mizoram and later he became chief minister. We are initiating political process in Kashmir. Unfortunately, there seems to be no political process in Chhatisgarh, because the political class thinks that they are ‘elected’ ‘democratically’and have got a political mandate to do anything. Yes, the bureaucrats who have least regard for our political class along with these same corporate who have no respect for rule of law, are preaching us the virtues of this democracy. Kanwal Sibbal, a former Ambassador of India in US, condemned the NGOs for taking money from abroad and selling country’s interest. I am surprised at the stupidity of these remarks of those whose children always study abroad and whose life can not be complete without visiting abroad. Prime Minister and his colleagues have studied abroad. Some of them worked for the world Bank. A large number of our IAS officers are getting huge offers in UN. A number of our subsidized IIAtians and Medical Students are getting lucrative offers abroad. Big companies are getting investment. Newspapers are publishing articles from magazines. TV channels are doing everything to show foreign films, view points and what not.. Then what is this particular about foreign. We never said, Manmohan Singh has lost his ‘Indian ness’ because he studied abroad or the planning commission is not Indian since it is inviting foreign experts.
I am amazed how can this thought come in our mind. If we are open society, we must not be afraid of criticism. If Kanwal Sibbol and others could not be purchased so are others also hence a criticism has to be countered ideologically and not who you are and what is your support base. Ofcouse, all those who speak democratically follow the rule of the law.
If this democratic mandate is used as a bogey to install the corrupt mining companies then the Home Minister will have to think more. The questions are simple. Where are the tribal MPs, their leaders, their Panchayat leaders. Why are we silent on this issue? The government is saying that let the Maoist stop of the violence and it is ready to speak. I go one step forward. Let the government declare its intent clear. I again say, will it stay all the mining deals in the tribal areas. Can it stop immediately all the MOUs in these regions which are responsible for the possible displacement of millions of tribal. Not all tribal are Maoists. Those who do not have land, second time meal, do not have the luxury of ideology. If the tribal today are supporting the Maoist, it is the fear of losing their land. They know once the forest department and other government official comes back to them, they will lose all the land redistributed by the Maoists. Let the government declare that all the tribal who own land and are tilling land will not lose it. All the tribal and other forest dwellers who have land on papers will get it immediately. All the mining companies will be packed from the tribal region. Are we ready to say this? The consensus that the government is talking about is in Delhi and not in tribal land. The land where this battle is being fought need to be reassured Mr Chidambaram. They need to be reassured that they will not lose their land and their access to forest. By making the civil society the number one enemy, you are actually changing the track. In the fight against armed struggles, it is the democratic voices which need to be strengthened in these regions. Unfortunately, the political parties are playing dirty politics and media protecting corporate interest and therefore the best people to be blamed for the whole process is civil society. Let the ruling party puts its house in order and send its leader to all the Zones. Why should the poor CRPF Jawans go to the unknown terrain, a politician must know the terrain... let them ready to sacrifice their life so that people get assured that their leaders cares and have not sold their interest to crony corporate for throw away prices. The failure of the government and political parties should not be put on the civil society.
No society can flourish under the dictatorship of ideologues and those who fancy themselves to be the sole champion of serving the poor. The Maoists, it seems, believe in finality of their document which can not be changed. Mao for them has become a tool like the religious thugs who believe the finality of their religious books and are highly intolerant to the dissenting voice. It is this flexibility and capacity to listen to the dissenting voices which was envisioned in our constitution by Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, will make us stronger nation. Democracy means justice to the lowest and poorest and not justice in the name of the corporate. People will always pick up guns where the democratic process failed. Democratic processes have failed in Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra West Bengal and North East. In most of the states, the political parties, the governments have openly and in most brazen way, sided with corporate interests forcing the people to jumps in the ideological framework of those who provide instant justice. The answer to them is initiations of political process in decision making. Political process mean not just becoming political parties and play politics but involving people in their issues and getting solution from them and of course, putting a complete moratorium in further mining in those areas. If this democratic process does not help the poorest of the poor as emphasized by Dr Ambedkar in his Constituent Assembly address, then the same people will blow up the structure of democracy we so laboriously built. It is time the government introspect its strategy and ensure that the political parties take up issues, visit those areas, meet people and initiate a debate on it.
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
‘Now, I would like to talk a little about the welfare of the elite, who profess to be concerned about the welfare of the people, who do little but blare it out from the rooftops. The rich build temples, mosques and churches, give donations to charities, and for this, are portrayed as great humanitarians. First they render people homeless and create orphans and then they open orphanage for them. In the name of development, they deprive people of their means of living, throw them out in the streets, force the women into prostitution, then they set up NGOs and campaign for Self Employment and brothel reform Centers. Not much money needs to be spent on this, even a tiny percentage of the millions and billions earned through the rampant loot of forest resources and minerals are sufficient to set up the propaganda machinery. They try to cover up the crimes of constructing the Tehri Dam (Which completely submerged the historic town of Tehri and forty villages, partially submerged 72 villages and affected 100,000 people) and the Narmada project ( which affected tribal areas of three states-Gujarat, Maharastra and Madhya Pradesh), by running a few NGOs and buying space in newspapers and that too at no more cost than expenses incurred on some product publicity.’
(Statement of Maoist Guerrilla Narang quoted dutifully by Satanam in his book ‘ Jangalnama’ published by Penguin India- page 121).
The above statement is not new to those who know the working pattern of political or semi political activists claiming to be sole champion of revolutions in India. Frankly speaking the revolutionaries are highly intolerant to any other view point and since they are not really capable to listen to dissenting voices, the result is in political violence. It happens because people feel they are being victimized. A victim mind is always creates extreme reactions and that is what happening in the forest zone. It is not that the articulations are wrong but in the articulations the issue of how to attain is more important. Emotions are created and amidst chant of rhetoric of a new wonder world, people come and join you. It is equally important that for a poor ideology is not important than survival and when he sees the apparatus of state working virtually against him, the discrimination of being a tribal or feeling of contempt towards him, the hatred grows and rhetoric further fires the passion for sacrifice.
As I write this comes the news of horrible train tragedy in Jhargram, West Bengal in which over 140 innocent people have been killed because of a derailment of Gyaneswhari Express. The Central government has given it to CBI to investigate while the West Bengal government has openly blamed PCPA, Lalgarh, for doing this. The government says civil society and human rights activists are not condemning it and all the time they put ifs and buts. May be they are unable to articulate it in the TV channels or Newspapers articles because of paucity of space and time. And there are so many voices in civil society and not all of them can speak in one voice. How can it be possible when the political parties can not speak in the same voice? Yes, after the recent attacks on trains and buses where innocent human beings are killed, one need to ask the questions to those who claim to speak for the ‘people’ as who has given them right to snatch the life of others. If the state is killing the innocent as they charge, then why they kill innocent. At the end it is the innocent who are being killed. And such killing needs to be condemned unequivocally and unambiguously. Those who do not have words for such killings should be prepared to receive the same news for themselves and their relatives and friends. Thinking about that is painful but then why we keep quiet on such heinous attack and justify it with other things.
Home Minister, P.Chidambarm is suave and articulate. He is the favorite of our English speaking media who think he provide answer to every problem of India particularly that emanate from the forests. They are absolutely sure that Chidambaram would resolve the current crisis and India will grow fast. Why is this that Chidambaram is getting huge support from the English speaking media but unable to garner support from different political parties including his party’s own senior leaders like Digvijay Singh and Ajit Jogi both of them have been important leaders from both Madhya Pradesh and Chhatishgarh.
Actually, the home ministry has little time to evaluate the way police actions are alienating the people. Chidambaram and his ministry seems to be too conscious of criticism in Delhi but not bothered about the sentiments in the tribal hinterlands where a sense of insecurity has gripped in the minds of the people. The pen pushers in Delhi who recommend army, air force and all other forces to flush out ‘Maoist terrorist’ do not know the terrain of the region. Most of the senior police officials have on record spoken against air support including Air Chief and Chief of our armed forces.
The biggest criticism of the government is coming through people like Arundhati Roy who does not need to have an NGO or an organization to air her view. She is famous enough to write and her writings are well marketed by the same corporate who she decries. Similarly, Varvara Rao is an ideologue based in Hyderabad who has been persistently claiming that every actions that ‘revolutionaries’ are taking is a retaliation against police atrocities. There are so many lawyers and academics who have been writing and speaking. Mr BD.Sharma wrote to the President of India about the marginalization of tribal. It is well known fact that Sharma was the first commissioner for Schedule caste and Schedule Tribe and his reports in the commission are path breaking. Justice Rajender Sachar is a former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. This apart there are many academics from Delhi-University, JNU, Jamia Milia and other Universities who do not support government’s initiatives in Chhatisgarh. There are many former bureaucrats who do not agree with the government’s strategies. Then there are Gandhians who are well connected with state apparatus and do not subscribe to Chidambaram and his theories. And all these people do not need an NGO to stand. They are much bigger than NGOs and even some time so called civil society. Then there are organizations like PUCL and PUDR which have their own positions on this unambiguously. They can shout as they do not receive any funds from the government or abroad. That gives them power to shout. Organisations like Asian Human Rights Commission have clearly condemned Maoist Violence while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have track record of condemning not only state violence but also non state actors.
Then there are thousands of smaller organizations being run by people at the grassroots. Most of them are involved in their ‘projected work’. Some work on health, while some on NREGS and a number of them create Self Help Groups. There are Dalit organizations working on particular issues while a numerous organizations working on Land and acquisition issue. The fight of Narmada Bachao Andolan is going on for years and the government must explain to us as how much it respected a completely democratic movement. There is a struggle going on against Posco at Kalinganagar ? It is not being run by the Maoists yet the tribal are being killed and humiliated in their own land. Does the home ministry not realize that people will rebel if they are left with no option except fighting?
Therefore a smart politician like Chidambaram should not have made nuisance remark about the civil society but the fact is that home ministries mandarins are behaving in worst possible way to control the criticism of their failures to tackle the Maoist menace in the country. That the Moists have virtually caught the fancy of tribal is a feeling in the Ministry because the government of India has its dirty track record of suppressing all the people’s movement through their intimidation as well as vicious media propaganda. In fact, in the name of independent media, we have corporate interest groups sitting in the chat rooms and speaking their own interests.
It is the nationalism quintessentially upper caste nationalism that is being played through the news rooms. And the cost is those who disagree with them and do not look like them. The consensus is created through media and some of the warriors find their way in these chat rooms to show that we ‘care’ for the opposite view point, though the likes of Arnab Goswami never even allow them to speak.
Is home ministry so naïve not to understand the criticism? Why is afraid of criticism? Why it is targeting the civil society organizations? Let us examine these questions?
The fact is that the Maoists or for the matter any close door ideological perception never like openness. With open ness they fear that people would get new ideas and may shift their ideological perception. West Bengal under CPM suffered this as any body who would not speak the language of the Marxists would be spied. Gujarat suffered it under the BJP’s Hindutva experiment as any fresh air is considered dangerous. Any ideological dissimilarity is a threat. This is happening in many other parts of South Asia whether it is Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan under Taliban. The Maoist will never want any civil society organization to work in their area. Those who pretend to work there can only do on the mercy of the Maoists and can not have their own freedom of expression because dissent is not allowed in the Maoist brand of democracy. NGOs for them and for many others are imperialist conspiracy to befool the people and defuse their resistance.
In the beginning the Congress party was afraid of them during the emergency when Indira Gandhi actually prohibited us to even express our ideas. So, newspapers just crawled when they were asked to bend, a phrase often used by politicians victimized during the emergency. Democratic opposition to Indira Gandhi grew up in entire country and finally mighty family had to bite dust resulting in the formation of the first non congress government at the center. Unfortunately, it had the same structure and therefore the internal contradictions helped congress come back to power again.
In the post 1980s, India’s issues took different turn. For the first time polity was facing a big challenge. In Punjab and Assam, there was a real challenge to mainstream polity in India. It was not just mainstream politics but to the very fabric of the constitution of India. Earlier we had thought it is just Kashmir and Nagaland which were seeking extra constitutional mandate but now the other states also started questioning.
The reasons were lots. The powerful center which could dismiss the states at their own. The governor’s became the stooge of the home ministry and the non congress governments were being targeted. To finish the Akalis in Punjab, the congress promoted Bhindarwale while to strengthen its base it promoted demographic changes in both Assam and Tripura. While the seculars may not like this but the fact is that the tribal in Tripura today are minority in their own state. How can a community of a state be called a minority?
Today, Shekhar Gupta in the Indian Express calls for the might of Indian state against Maoist Indian terrorist but forget that his own former boss in the Express campaigned to save two alleged killers of Indira Gandhi in the name of human rights. Shourie wrote extensively on Punjab violence and the role of Indian state there. We all know which side of the fence is Arun Shourie today.
It is also true that we can not really compare the private armies and their justification of picking up guns. State has a right to protect its citizens and since its forces are legitimate and accountable they need to follow the rules of the law and procedures. Ofcourse, Maoists are deliberating provoking so that it becomes a fight between them and the state and all the other actors are eliminated in between. The government and political parties must understand it. The issues raised by them are valid and need to be addressed. These issues have been raised by civil society for long and the government only looked it in utter contempt. Even the Courts orders are not being followed; environmental norms are not being followed. So, when you close all democratic process the end product is romanticism of guns and violence. The Maoists also know that the Indian state is a might state and their vision of overthrowing it is a sheer stupidity. But the state of India has given them shelter under tribal pain and agony.
We all know that if the state does not heal the wounds the situation will never change. The wounds in Punab were healed through a political process and hence Punjab is going better. Same thing happened in the north east. We invite Muviah to Nagaland and talk to him. We discuss with Laldenga in Mizoram and later he became chief minister. We are initiating political process in Kashmir. Unfortunately, there seems to be no political process in Chhatisgarh, because the political class thinks that they are ‘elected’ ‘democratically’and have got a political mandate to do anything. Yes, the bureaucrats who have least regard for our political class along with these same corporate who have no respect for rule of law, are preaching us the virtues of this democracy. Kanwal Sibbal, a former Ambassador of India in US, condemned the NGOs for taking money from abroad and selling country’s interest. I am surprised at the stupidity of these remarks of those whose children always study abroad and whose life can not be complete without visiting abroad. Prime Minister and his colleagues have studied abroad. Some of them worked for the world Bank. A large number of our IAS officers are getting huge offers in UN. A number of our subsidized IIAtians and Medical Students are getting lucrative offers abroad. Big companies are getting investment. Newspapers are publishing articles from magazines. TV channels are doing everything to show foreign films, view points and what not.. Then what is this particular about foreign. We never said, Manmohan Singh has lost his ‘Indian ness’ because he studied abroad or the planning commission is not Indian since it is inviting foreign experts.
I am amazed how can this thought come in our mind. If we are open society, we must not be afraid of criticism. If Kanwal Sibbol and others could not be purchased so are others also hence a criticism has to be countered ideologically and not who you are and what is your support base. Ofcouse, all those who speak democratically follow the rule of the law.
If this democratic mandate is used as a bogey to install the corrupt mining companies then the Home Minister will have to think more. The questions are simple. Where are the tribal MPs, their leaders, their Panchayat leaders. Why are we silent on this issue? The government is saying that let the Maoist stop of the violence and it is ready to speak. I go one step forward. Let the government declare its intent clear. I again say, will it stay all the mining deals in the tribal areas. Can it stop immediately all the MOUs in these regions which are responsible for the possible displacement of millions of tribal. Not all tribal are Maoists. Those who do not have land, second time meal, do not have the luxury of ideology. If the tribal today are supporting the Maoist, it is the fear of losing their land. They know once the forest department and other government official comes back to them, they will lose all the land redistributed by the Maoists. Let the government declare that all the tribal who own land and are tilling land will not lose it. All the tribal and other forest dwellers who have land on papers will get it immediately. All the mining companies will be packed from the tribal region. Are we ready to say this? The consensus that the government is talking about is in Delhi and not in tribal land. The land where this battle is being fought need to be reassured Mr Chidambaram. They need to be reassured that they will not lose their land and their access to forest. By making the civil society the number one enemy, you are actually changing the track. In the fight against armed struggles, it is the democratic voices which need to be strengthened in these regions. Unfortunately, the political parties are playing dirty politics and media protecting corporate interest and therefore the best people to be blamed for the whole process is civil society. Let the ruling party puts its house in order and send its leader to all the Zones. Why should the poor CRPF Jawans go to the unknown terrain, a politician must know the terrain... let them ready to sacrifice their life so that people get assured that their leaders cares and have not sold their interest to crony corporate for throw away prices. The failure of the government and political parties should not be put on the civil society.
No society can flourish under the dictatorship of ideologues and those who fancy themselves to be the sole champion of serving the poor. The Maoists, it seems, believe in finality of their document which can not be changed. Mao for them has become a tool like the religious thugs who believe the finality of their religious books and are highly intolerant to the dissenting voice. It is this flexibility and capacity to listen to the dissenting voices which was envisioned in our constitution by Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, will make us stronger nation. Democracy means justice to the lowest and poorest and not justice in the name of the corporate. People will always pick up guns where the democratic process failed. Democratic processes have failed in Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra West Bengal and North East. In most of the states, the political parties, the governments have openly and in most brazen way, sided with corporate interests forcing the people to jumps in the ideological framework of those who provide instant justice. The answer to them is initiations of political process in decision making. Political process mean not just becoming political parties and play politics but involving people in their issues and getting solution from them and of course, putting a complete moratorium in further mining in those areas. If this democratic process does not help the poorest of the poor as emphasized by Dr Ambedkar in his Constituent Assembly address, then the same people will blow up the structure of democracy we so laboriously built. It is time the government introspect its strategy and ensure that the political parties take up issues, visit those areas, meet people and initiate a debate on it.
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