|
Editorial
Of Caste, Rifts & Bridges
WSN Network
 There is little
gainsaying in repeating that India remains in the vicegrip of
Brahamanical forces, and the latest phase of politics in India,
exemplified by the Congress’ bout with Mayawati, the UP Chief
Minister, only underlines the faultlines of caste in the Indian
society.
But we will be
naïve if we merely consider it the doing of certain politicians and
assume that leaders like Mayawati tend to use these caste fissures
to keep intact their vote banks.
Language is an
index of a person’s or a society’s mind, and the language used for
people of a certain caste in India does give a glimpse of the
mindscape of India’s ruling classes.
UP Congress
chief, a woman herself, exceeded all limits of decency and cannot be
allowed to hide behind a stance that she was indeed speaking up
against the atrocities on Dalits. She is not expected to do nothing
less. But the viciousness and the vulgarity of what she said and
meant affords us an understanding how the caste superiority works.
Is it necessary to invoke the language of sexual assault to make a
point that cash cannot compensate for anything that cannot be
bought?
Those who may
abhor Mayawati’s caste politics may be well advised to think for a
moment what could the consequences have been had someone, God
forbid, made such a comment about the Congress chief? It would have
been equally obnoxious, insensitive and downrigfht stupid. Granted.
It could have incited much more violence. Perhaps. But the larger
point is that there is little chance that it could have happened.
Caste superiority flows one way.
But the real
point is not which woman could have launched such inhuman assault on
the other? It is about a society where a small number of people are
self-appointed brokers of God and occupy the top social slot,
consider themselves born-to-rule, some are seen as brokers of war,
then there are other backward castes as their fighting foot-soldiers
and then he rest are to be bought and sold.
Notions of caste
may seem like tales from the medieval times, but the core thesis of
divisive Manusmriti remains in operation. Isn’t it noteworthy that
all social exploitation claims a holy sanction?
It is in this
paradigm of India that Sikhism had a huge role to play. No wonder,
it was this religion which the Brahamanical forces were most keen to
appropriate.
The beauty of
Brahamanism is in its great capacity at continuously evolving
itself, metamorphosing into shapes that are not immediately
recognizable. The sundry tentacles of the Sangh Parivar, the
thousands of yoga gurus, the solar eclipse expert pandits, the
myriad forms of Hindu bodies, the proponents of Akhand Bharat, all
combine with the ultra-nationalist, the so called patriotic bodies
to form an umbrella so huge it becomes difficult to escape its cloud
and breathe fresh air.
Brahamnical
forces are sitting on huge resources, machinations, brilliant minds,
armies of those ready to defend it and marshal any counter argument.
As generations come in proximity with knowledge about centuries of
social placidity and are exposed to the modern inputs of education,
urbanization and democracy, the giant waves of teeming masses crying
for equality threaten the brokers of God. It is to stem this that
men like Gandhi thought of beautiful sounding names like Children of
God (Harijans) to lull them to sleep.
In such a
scenario, there is need for the Sikh community to come to the aid of
and join forces with the strains that are crying out to break away
from Hindutva. The recent incidents of Ravidassia bhagats advocating
a rift with the Sikh religion are a result of pernicious argument.
This is a time to multiply the force. Disciples of Bhagat Ravidass
must not let down the one man they consider Guru. It is time they
look around and ask themselves why a UP Congress chief uses this
language? Because we often do not know which forces to stay away
from, which ones to build bridges with.
22
July 2009
|
Read Also