It is this silence — ‘indifferentism’ as Ambedkar had prophetically termed the caste Hindu/liberal attitude to anti-caste concerns — that continues to echo for Badhal… When only Dalits are forced to bear the burden of articulating Dalit issues they are dubbed sectarian; the casual betrayal of Dalits by the rest of society passes for secularism.
Navayana publisher S. Anand wonders why the left-liberal set stood up for an art student in Baroda but not for Dalit students at AIIMS.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Really important post. Thanks! It does raise a significant question about why some issues pick up momentum and some dont. I do hope we discuss this more. Jinee
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Dear Anand,
I share your anger but not your argument. Your analysis is based on the distinction between the victims. The distinction is real but not relavent.I think the real cause of the contrast in the scale of response was the difference between the perpetrators. Attackers in Chandramohan’s case are enemies of everybody. Unfortunately, the persecutors of Badal are only enemies of Dalits. From an activist point of view, your piece will play a very necessary role of sensitizing the liberal, secular intelligentia to the oppression of Dalits. But from an analytical point of view, it has the danger of legitimizing the misconceived equation of two qualitatively different kinds of evils. I am really very unhappy to write these lines because it may spoil the appeal your well-meant attempt – to shame the upper caste liberals by means of showing the contrast- may have. I would not have objected to it if I don’t fear that it would persuade some of the Dalits to equate caste oppression with Hindutva. Hindutva is a much bigger danger and requires much immediate response. You rightly showed the poverty of our secularism which opposes only the spurious claims to religion but neglects the caste oppression which is really sanctioned by religion. But, this very necessary expansion of secular is better achieved by complementing and not by contrasting, caste and religion.
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Dear Anand,Leftist are hindus who are protecting the hindu Dharma,Why all communist states are being ruled by Brahmins.Leftist never brought Mao,Lenin thoughts in India because they were knowing that hinduism will be wiped out from India.Leftist movement had been hijacked by Brahmin Basu in west Bengal,Dange in Maharasthra and Namboodripaud in Kerala.Dear Ananad ,you need not to go any where ,you will find the answer,When Dr Ambedkar had stood for election from Bombay ,communist Dange had supported the Congress candidate and not Dr Ambedkar.Indian communist are not communist they are bunch of Hindu mahant who donot want to loose their mathas .Now dalit masses has recognised the true face of communist hindus in India.
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Dear Anand, Kureela, CBP etc
Why don’t the Dalits get agitated when muslims are killed all over the world. From Gujarat to Palestine to Iraq. On the contrary their ideolouges like Prof Chandra Bhan Prasad priase American capitalism. Dalits like brahmins, Muslim or any other group look at their intersts in isolation. They will ignore atrocities committed by mayawati. Anyone who raises question will be called anti-dalit and threatened by Prof Chandra Bhan. If you defend freedom of speech of Salman Rushdie, Muslims fundamentalist will threaten you. The limits of identity politics are apparent. But many of us get our bread and butter from it. So lets milk it as much as we can. Then we will find other notions of victimhood…
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Dear ?,You did not write your name so any how if you say we donot get agitate is wrong. Muslims,Christians,Buddhist ,all are our blood brothers and We have same pains what muslims are feeling in Gaza to hindu India.as for as Mayawati is concerned She is the only Dalit chief minister in Whole India.I only admire Mayawati is that their is no roits in UP otherwise every government whether It is congress or BJP ,mostly muslims are killed in hindu sponsored genocide in India.V.T.Rajshekhar who is publishing Dalit voice for 27th year without government support is a written proof of dalits support for cause of muslims,Dalits,Buddhist,Christians support.Dear what else you want from dalits who donot have even a single national news Papers or electronic medias. those are oppressed and denied basic rights since centuries in India are always stand with the people who are oppressed and suppressed.I never met Mr Anand but I admire his guts to stand in front of hindus toilet papers(Indian National News Papers) for dalit cause.Dear would you explaim me what else you want from dalits and Buddhist in India ,I could not understand your aim for mentioning Mr Anand ,CBP name.Whether you are a brother of AC or DC.
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Dalit/Muslim/Brahmin,
Unfortunately our comments policy is such that we try not to delete comments as far as possible. However, we do want to distance kafila from your combative stance against individuals who are not part of this debate, but more importantly, from your accusing all Dalits of not being concerned with violence against Muslims and so on.
This is an incorrect representation and we do not appreciate your views or your style.
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the failure of class identity as the universal meta narrative of emancipation has shown us that identities are bound to fail. the crumpling capitalism will testify the inevitable nature of the crisis of identity. the essentialistic core of identity politics is a double edged sword. many a time it makes invisible the conflation of various identities. u r not just a gendered self; u have a caste self; a class face; u dont live on the bank of a binary; ur life not determined by a YES or NO; it s beyond such limited notions. does it qualify one to mock at identity assertions? rather, it shows another kind of identity frustrated by another identity. the world will be too boring to look at if everything looks identical. the violence of homogenity and integrations are resisted by the politics of various identities. If u think Dalits dont agitate when muslims are killed, u r either blinded by the homogensation mission of hindu colonialism. Then , what abt Dalit muslims ? (see there is a muslim and Dalit here.. and dont forget gender and class)
do u want to say that they also dont agitate? u may go wrong. problm is THE WE has not yet created a realm to understand the category Dalit. it s beyond our mainstream theoretical visions/missions. that s its strenght and weakness.
thanx
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Dear Ranjuradha,India has no vision or mission for oppressed in hindu dominated India.Hindu led government has only agenda how to suppress dalits and minorities in India.Congress is ruling India for most of years if you leave Janta Dal and BJP rule.Whether Mr Nehru,Indira Gandhi,Mr Deasai,Mr Rao, Mr Atal and now Manmohan singh ,they all are anti dalits and anti minorities and they donot have any agenda for 50% of Indian population(dalits and minorities ).Dalit rights was snatched in 1935 byMr Karam chandra Gandhi which known as Poona Pact and now Dalit MPs and MLA are winning the election by hindu votes and not dalit votes.mr Gandhi did fast for to reduce his weight but he made all dalits starved for for whole life.6% of Indian population is depended on private and government services but remaining population is depended on land and miniral resouces.most of hindus are holding the government and private post and having the Agriculture land also who can not work in agriculture field .In all over the world means America ,Europe,Australia,Newzeland you can not keep land if you donot work as farmars.Dalits are being cheated by hindus in name of hindu Dharma,congress,Laftist,Bjp,and other small party eg Janta Dal.175 million dalits who constitute the same population of Pakistan who left in India to die.Pakistan has got the nuclear wepons to defend themself but 175 millions dalits donot have rights to live and earn livelihood without hindu violence
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Dear “Dalit/Muslim/Brahmin”,
You are committing slander when you write something like, “But many of us get our bread and butter from it. So lets milk it as much as we can.”
You can do this only because of your anonymity. If only you were to write you real name one could tell what you’re milking.
As Nivi says, your comment that Dalit’s don’t stand up for others. Anyone who’s ever been to one of the ISF events in India would tell you better. You only have to see NCDHR’s involvement on SEZ’s and anti-land grab movements to know how many Dalits are more than willing to make broader alliances across the spectrum. You mention Gujrat without even knowing how much Dalit NGOs and intellectuals have spoken about Gujarat not least because Moditva used Dalits as footsoldiers in riots. You have a lot of Googling to do and in the process you may also find out your real name.
It’s also rather irritating that you club all dalist together – millions of people across the length and breadth of India – and make disparaging generalisations. As someone who has seen first-hand the work of many Dalits and non-Dalits in the voluntary sector, I can tell you thatevery statement of yours is a falsehood. When you write “They will ignore atrocities committed by mayawati,” you are simply unaware of the human rights activism scene in UP and the involvement of many brave Dalits in it.
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Dear Kafila Friends,
It seems some readers found my comments in bad taste and politically offensive. I apologise for offending them. I did not mean to demean/insult any particular group or community. Just a small clarification. When wrote :why don’t dalits get agitated…” i meant why don’t some dalit activist get agitated……” Anyway no excuses…sorry once again…Keep up the good work
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Dalit/Muslim/Brahmin and others:
Maybe I am reading this all wrong. And smack me down if I am but aren’t both sides of the argument about a universal politics? Dalit/Muslim/Brahmin’s arguments are those of a classic social liberal. So are the ideas of the left.
To me the productive goal would be to facilitate the voice of the oppressed rather than speak on their behalf, though I not unaware of the dangers in the idea called “facilitation”. I digress…
@Dalit/Muslim/Brahmin: You ask: “Why don’t the Dalits get agitated when muslims are killed all over the world.”
How do we know they don’t get agitated. Perhaps because the media is so busy transmitting images of beautiful faces, sporting/terror spectacles, lifestyles etc that such voices do not find any space. Media studies would call it “salience” of one set of issues over other. Some readings in agenda setting and media, framing, and then accessing non mainstream media spaces might demonstrate that your claim is false.
This leaves us with the more interesting issue. If my hypothesis that identity politics is about a universal political then maybe there is room to work together.
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i think, all identity assertions intend to make a claim on the universal, though pose a counter narrative against the violence of universal homogenisation.
the claim for visiblity from the ‘absent presences’ are in fact claims for invisiblity.
the ideologically construed domiannt narratives of state/media/civil society attribute a stereotypical notion of Dalit. It denies epistemic authority/agency to Dalits. These narratives ‘talk for all the marginalised’ assuming that the “subaltern can’t speak”. The violence embedded in such polemical narratives constructs spheres of knowledge production and transgresss the practice of purity/pollution into the modern mileu. (see the debate on merit in the context of higher education in india)
The Dalit life world defies such dominant constructions and imagines its own universal
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Those are hindus thay can not feel the pain of dalits in hindu India.this is the leftist word that we talk about all mergenalised groups in India.some dalit writer written correctly that only Rakh will know how they burnt.for hindus ,Dharma is most important then dalit lives whether top leaderships of congress,BJP orleftist or any other NGOs .People say leave the dalit in mainsteem they will swim if not they will die and this is natural selection.for dalits ,Dr Ambedkar is Pagamber and his buddha and his Dhamma is Kuran and all other hindu intelectuals are dalits eater tigers in sheep skin.Why in India only dalits are being killed and raped by hindus not any other part of world because hindus know that Police ,Judiciory, Parliament are run by hindus and they will dilute the case and hindu brothers will be scott free by courts.Now question arise how to defeat the hindu intelectulas who are pretending to dalit friends one side and Police,Judiciory,and Parliament on otherside.Dr Ambedkar was knowing this problems and he gave speech in Mahar conference in 1935or 1938 how to get out from hindu violence .He question the dalit masses why you only are killed and raped in tinny village of hindu India not any muslims who might be living as single family in that village.Why these hindus donot kill or raped the muslims because hindus know that muslim brothers are behind that family from Kashmir to Madras.We always learn to defend from animal kingdom or society who are succesful in defending their own people.In my openion , 175 million Dalits should convert to Buddhism and stand firm with Dr Ambedkar 22 vows .Dr Ambedkar ,22 vows are your ultimate wepons to defend your religion and your people from dalit holocaust.
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Ranju: Wouldn’t the project of homogenisation be the function of capital. For example: “Yes, you are black, white, Indian, Chinese but you all want an iPod. Look! it comes in various colours.”
I am so out of my depth to understand Dalit issues that I find it productive to listen and read their own words. For example Kancha Ilaiah’s musings on science of the establishment vs science of the goat herder is particularly instructive and demonstrates the problematic of the particular and the universal.
The reason why we promote a kind of science (actually more of technology) is because it is linked to industrialisation and jobs and economy and so on and so forth. So, the established order is happy to have us wear all kinds of weird identities as long as we are productive labour. I think I am digressing. Will stop here.
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market need not be the only reason. the market may use the slogan of ‘women’s liberation’ to promote smoking among women. does it mean that the emancipated women are born out of the need of themarket? not necessarily.
capitalism’s liberation moment may be the same fought for ages by the masses. but the liberating potential in the struggle should not be undermined siting the capitalist moment.
one needs to re-invent oneself for the present as well. the state would prefer to see Dalit as a pre-modern category to be civilised by welfare missions. the potential of ‘Dalit’ unlike other categories such as ‘Harijan’, ‘SC’ etc is that it enables Dalits to re-invent for the present and propose a future- the Dalit Utopia- not only for Dalits but for all those who d emancipate from the system of castes.
Ilaiah tells that science and technology belong to Dalit/Bahujan. but trapped within the shackles of ‘tradition’. the trap of tradition needs to be trnsgrssd and the knowledge should be regained for the renewd soci0-cultural realm. It could only be possible through Dalit capitalism. what prevents Dalits from acquirng capital is the modern institutional form of caste system. the opening up of market in neo-liberal era may help them to acquire capital; but those who live in “gandhian villages” will still be at a disadvantage. the possibility of negotiation was even denied there by the stringent form and practice of caste; but such possibilities may be available at a much advanced level in the globalised world where Dalits can market their ‘knowledge’ and acquire capital. as kureela pointed out the hindu india will try their level best to prevent Dalits from acquiring capital at any level. in the name of ‘merit’, ‘efficiecny’, ‘langauge’, ‘color’, ‘pedigree’ and whta not they will try their level best to mentally/physically harass Dalits. Every Dalit child born into this world has to fight each and evry minute against this brahmincal terror. the fight is on…
thanx
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Why hindu intelectuals are not thinking about land distribution among dalits who are land less because of Manu dharma,and here responsibilities goes to our Leftist brothers because we had and we are sheding our blood for leftist brother in name of nexlite movement and our leftist brothers are having dinner with RAW and IB chief and marrying their daughters.Communist are ruling Bengal for 61 years but look at the Pathetic condtion of dalit movement in west Bengal.Why dalits are not able to defend themself in hindu india because of Poona Pact.
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Dear dalit/muslim/Brahmin,you have all rights to defend you and your communities or your Dharma.Kafila might not require your openion but dalits do require your openions whether about Mayawati,Buddhist,Dr Ambedkar or any body else.I am agreed you that some dalits donot get agitated who are they ,I would say they are hinduised dalits who are being used as a foot soldiers against the muslims.I would give you some example of hinduised dalits ,they are Bangaru laxman,Sangh Priya Gautam,Boota Singh,Sushil Kumar Shinde. majority of hinduised dalits belong to Sangha Parivar groups and they are in minorities.We require your help to make them Ambedkarised because you got the Prints and electronic medias in your hand.dear you are very honest person but we donot know your some form of your name.We love to discuss about dalits and Mayawati and muslims affairs.Muslims are our blood brother who had librated earlier Islam.Hopefully you will come back to this forum again and discuss about muslim problems in India and middle east,Aferica or any other part of world.
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@Chittibabu Padavala: I read and re-read Anand’s post and I think am veering towards his arguments. It appears that Badhal’s case was highlighted by Times of India and CNN-IBN. So why a greater salience for Srimantula and not for Badhal. Is it because it is more fashionable and romantic to defend an artist over a doctor? I don’t know. I am just thinking out aloud.
Both are unique cases. While one deals with the vulgar and obsence underbelly of the right, the other deals with the systemic nature of discrimination.
I think there is a real danger of missing out the systemic violence against the marginalised for violent eruptions such as Chandramohan and Maqbool Hussain.
I think both are linked, one is systemic, the other is the visible eruption.
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Dear kishorbuddha,
Sorry I missed your post :) It is more than two years by now :). I agree with you that it is not just the difference between the kind of perpetrators and there is glamour to some causes while others lack it. I see that you and me agree that fight against uppercasteism and communalism should go hand in hand.
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@kishorebudha
my take would be like this:
the case of caste discrimination against Dalit doctors in AIIMS demands the intellectuals to engage with the Dalit Question which may hurt their ‘secularly imagined brahimncal credentials and values.
in the case of baroda student artist, the overall support was for the artisitc freedom and similar abstract ideals.
it s easy and comfortble for any one to enagage with the rhetoric that wont challenge one’s subjectivity. the status quos will remains untouched and therefore comfortable to engage with.
in the case of AIIMS, it forces one to imagine Dalit as a modern category and that too in the elitist context. It demands from the intellectual to renew their understanding of Dalit and see it not as a premodern category, but modern and emancipating. the intellectuals (both left and right) may not like this idea. This requires a cultural transfromation of their mindset built by brahminal values. this would be ideoalogically strnous and therefore cleverly avoided.
and interstingly, both these cases hav linkages. the underlying ideological mission embedded in both these cases- hindutva cultural policing and caste discrimination in elite educational institutions– are one and the same. it is the ideological blindedness of intellectuals that make them see one and blind to the other.
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Dear Ranju radha,I am 100% agree with you that hindutva cultural Policing and caste descrimination in elite institution eg AIIMS and IITS are one and same.I would like to know who is ruling the country for 61 years and whose support,Congress is main culprit,who one side telling the world that they are against the caste descrimination and otherside ask elite institution to practice the caste descrimination. Between year 1980 to 1995 if dalits was going for any job interview, board used to be asked dalit candidates what name you will be happy whether Harijan or Dalits,If candidates tell them Dalits then he is not suitable for post.What a shame on IITs in India.it took 61 years for dalits to come out from Harijan to dalits ,who are responsible for such crime against the self respect and humanity ,I would say hindu itellectuals and hindu led governmet at centre and states.At the Pind level ,dalits are abused by hindus and at the elite institution dalits are discriminated by so called hindu itellectuals.All hindu intellectuals,hindu led government,and elite institution are smothering the dalits in name of hindu dharma and our leftist brothers who are sitting with hindu intellectuals are doing nothing to save dalits lives ,What made leftist to keep mum on dalits discrimination ,I donot know.
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@Ranju Radha: Thanks for that exposition. It was useful and illuminating.
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