The model of vigilante justice, i.e, bulldozer politics, by the State itself is a phenomenon that has gained fresh legitimacy during the past decade under Modi.
“Under what law can they demolish a house for an offence that hasn’t been proved?”
Former SC Justice Madan Lokur.
..police cannot, “under the guise of investigation”, bulldoze anyone’s house without permission, and if such practices continue then “nobody is safe in this country” ..: “Show me from any criminal jurisprudence that for investigating the crime, the police, without any order, can uproot a person, apply a bulldozer. .”
There are interventions of courts which are considered to be ‘breaking new grounds’.
The Gauhati High Court’s judgement in the ‘illegal demolitions’ at Salonabari (May 2022) was one such occasion.
The two-judge bench of the high court led by Chief Justice RM Chhaya and Justice Soumitra Saikia had come down heavily on the demolitions executed without following any procedure and declared such actions ‘illegal’ and compared the police actions akin to a ‘gang war’ and ordered compensation to the victims as well as actions against guilty officials.
Two years later, this issue was again before high courts recently, as the affected families had approached it for the government’s dilly dallying on compensation and actions against officials.
How Ten Years of Modi Regime Has Undermined Constitutional Rights to Dalits
Image courtesy: Wikimedia commons
“If the fundamental rights are opposed by the community, no Law, no Parliament, no Judiciary can guarantee them in the real sense of the word”,..“What is the use of fundamental rights to the Negro in America, to the Jews in Germany and to the untouchables in India. As Burke said there is no method found for punishing the multitude’
– Ambedkar
Introduction
Within less than a fortnight we will have a new government in power.
Indian people normally make a judicious choice while electing their representatives, their government and this year won’t be different.
One can recall their wisdom when their united resistance helped unseat Indira Gandhi regime after the emergency (1977) or their concerted action could overthrow the Vajpayi government ( 2004) despite the much hyped ‘India Shining’ rhetoric pushed by it.
Today also ground currents definitely suggest change is in the air.
People’s desire to defeat the Republic of Hate which is pushed before them and regain their Republic of Hope seems overwhelming.
As already expressed by scholars, political activists, concerned citizens, if the elections remain free and fair, if the various guardrails of democracy can remain true to their mandate , we will have real ‘Acche Din‘ waiting for us.
It is an opportune time to look back and see how this much trumpeted regime fared in the last decade in various aspects of India’s society and state.
It is opportune to see how the ‘New India’ – which we have supposedly ushered in – has fared via-v-vis Dalits. What follows is not an exhaustive picture of the last decade of Modi rule but a cursory glance at the issue at hand.
The Right-wing party has been justifying and legitimising Mir Jafar, Mir Sadiq and associates, while demonising Siraj-ud-Daulah and Tipu Sultan.
The tomb of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Elections to the 18th Lok Sabha have broken records in many ways.
Right from the arrests of Opposition leaders on the eve of elections, the spinelessness shown by the Election Commission (EC) to the open mouthing of hateful speeches targeting a community by top members of the ruling dispensation, to complete metamorphosis of the mainstream media into a cheerleader of the government, all such signs are ominous for the future of democracy in the country.
May be one should add to it the open justification by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of the betrayal by the likes of Mir Jafar and his associates like Raja Krishnachandra Roy, Jagat Seth, Omi Chand — which lead to defeat of the Siraj-ud-Daulah (1733-July 2,1757), the last independent Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey, which ultimately opened the gates of conquest of the rest of India by the Britishers.
If 2019 elections are still remembered because BJP had fielded candidates who were accused of involved in terrorist acts, the 2024 elections would also be remembered how they helped betrayals covered in glory. ( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/how-bjp-covers-betrayals-glory)
Dr. Parakala Prabhakar, is an author, economist, and public intellectual. He served as Communications Advisor, held a cabinet rank position in Andhra Pradesh Government between July 2014 and June 2018. He was also a former spokesman and one of the founding general secretaries of Praja Rajyam Party.
For several years he presented a current affairs discussion programme on television channels of Andhra Pradesh. His programmes included Pratidhwani on ETV2 and Namaste Andhra Pradesh on NTV .
His book of essays ‘The Crooked Timber of New India : Essays on a Republic in Crisis‘ was widely discussed.
Dr Parakala completed his doctorate from the London School of Economics. He did his Master of Arts (M.A.) and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
About the Talk :
Relentless in exposing the sinister nature of the communal politics of the current ruling dispensation and meticulous in exposing the voodoo economic policies pursued by them which are disastrous to the Indian economy, Dr Parakala Prabhakar is going to speak on ‘The Political Economy of New India’ in this lecture.
आधा ज्ञान या आधी जानकारी हमेशा ही खतरनाक साबित होती है।
2021 की जनगणना तक करने में फिसड्डी साबित हो चुकी मोदी सरकार की इकोनॉमिक एडवाइजरी काउंसिल की तरफ से चुनावों के ऐन बीच जारी आंकड़े शायद यही कहानी कहते हैं। इस रिपोर्ट के जरिए 1951 से 2015 के कालखंड के दौरान विभिन्न समुदायों की आबादी में हुए परिवर्तनों के आंकड़े पेश किए गए, जिसमें हिन्दुओं, जैनियों तथा अन्य धार्मिक अल्पसंख्यकों की आबादी मे कुल गिरावट देखने को मिली है, जबकि मुसलमानों की आबादी बढ़ी है। और इस रिपोर्ट को लेकर सत्ताधारी पार्टी के प्रवक्ताओं ने तथा मुख्यधारा के गोदी चैनलों ने जनसंख्या का हौवा दिखाते हुए बहस भी छेड़ने की कोशिश की ।
पीटीआई की तरफ से जारी यह आंकड़े इस प्रकार थे:
वर्ष 1951 से 2015 के बीच जहां हिन्दुओं की आबादी में 7.8 फीसदी की घटोत्तरी हुई वहीं मुसलमानों की आबादी 43.1 फीसदी बढ़ी। अगर हम आंकड़ों का ब्रेकअप करें तो 1950 में जहां आबादी में हिन्दुओं की तादाद 84.68 फीसदी थी तो वह 2015 में 78.06 फीसदी तक पहुंची थी , जबकि मुसलमानों की आबादी जहां 1950 में कुल आबादी का 9.84 फीसदी थी तो 2015 में वह 14.09 फीसदी तक पहुंची। भारत के जैन समुदाय के बारे में भी बताया गया कि उनकी आबादी देश की कुल आबादी के 0.45 फीसदी से लेकर 0.36 फीसदी तक कम हुई है।
The Vajpayee government tried to change the Constitution, but lost in 2004. We must be vigilant, as a similar chorus is being raised again by Hindutva Supremacist forces.
..make India an independent sovereign republic and guarantee and secure for all the people of India social, economic and political justice; equality of status and opportunities and equality before law; and fundamental freedoms—of speech, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action—subject to law and public morality;
and also ensure that
adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes.
(Excerpts of Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly, moved by Pandit Nehru on December 13, 1946 and adopted unanimously by the Constituent Assembly on January 22, 1947)
It was just another press conference in the national capital.
The only difference was that it was held at the house of a member of Parliament belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party then…
This was on December 25, 1992. Less than three weeks before India had witnessed one of its deeply troubling, disturbing moment in its history where a mosque, which stood for more than 500 years, had been demolished by a horde of people who had gathered there from different parts of the Country, mobilised by the forces of Hindutva supremacism.
..Swami Muktanand and Vamdeo Maharaj, who were closely associated with the Ram Mandir movement (India Today, January 31, 1993) addressed the press meet.
‘This Constitution is anti Hindu‘ and needs to be rejected.”We have no faith in country’s laws‘ and ‘Sadhus are above the law of the land‘.’
..The press meet ended rather abruptly.
Journalists, who had gathered there to hear something about the movement, felt cheated that what unfolded there was an anti-climax.
लोकसभा चुनाव के प्रचार के कई भाजपा नेता संविधान बदलने के लिए बहुमत हासिल करने की बात दोहरा चुके हैं. उनके ये बयान नए नहीं हैं, बल्कि संघ परिवार के उनके पूर्वजों द्वारा भारतीय संविधान के प्रति समय-समय पर ज़ाहिर किए गए ऐतराज़ और इसे बदलने की इच्छा की तस्दीक करते हैं.
कुछ तारीखें हर जम्हूरियत की तवारीख में सदा के लिए अंकित हो जाती हैं.
6 दिसंबर 1992 ऐसी ही एक तारीख है. इस घटना के तीन सप्ताह के अंदर दिल्ली में एक प्रेस सम्मेलन हुआ था. 25 दिसंबर 1992 को स्वामी मुक्तानंद और वामदेव महाराज, जो राम मंदिर आंदोलन से क़रीब से जुड़े थे, उन्होंने मौजूदा संविधान को बदलने की बात छेड़ दी और कहा कि यह संविधान ‘हिंदू विरोधी है’. (इंडिया टुडे, 31 जनवरी 1993 )
एक सप्ताह बाद 1 जनवरी 1993 को स्वामी मुक्तानंद के नाम से हिंदूवादी संगठनों की तरफ से एक श्वेत पत्र जारी किया गया, जिसमें भारतीय संविधान को ‘हिंदू विरोधी’ घोषित किया गया था. श्वेत पत्र के कवर पेज पर दो प्रश्न पूछे गए थे: एक, ‘भारत की एकता, बंधुत्व और सांप्रदायिक सद्भाव को नष्ट किसने किया?’ और ‘ किसने भुखमरी, गरीबी, भ्रष्टाचार और अधर्म फैलाया ?’
श्वेत पत्र का शीर्षक इस प्रश्न का जवाब दे रहा था , ‘वर्तमान इंडियन संविधान’!
How a Central university is being allowed to humiliate/ stigmatise Ambedkar and a conspiracy of silence still pervades it.
Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra is again in the news for wrong reasons. It has been more than around four months that a unique initiative of doing readings from Ambedkar has been forcibly stopped, show-cause notices being issued and even punitive action being taken against Dalit teachers, but there is no murmur of protest about it and despite being in the know of these developments, the top bosses of the UGC or University Grants Commission are silent over it.
Stop readings on Ambedkar in open in University Campus, it could endanger the “safety and health of (participating) students and reputation of the university‘
The news of this unbelievable diktat by an educational institution remained dormant for a day.
Expectedly, the tremendous nationwide uproar about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election speech in Banswara, which is considered his most ‘divisive’ in last 30 years, overshadowed other similar urgent issues.
The institution under scanner for this diktat to teachers is Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Maharashtra, a Central university. You would recall that some time ago, this institution had similarly attracted eyeballs when a team of Hindi research scholars from China had visited it. A visit that was followed by this team’s meeting with RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) leaders at their headquarters in Nagpur.
What is rather troubling to note is that it has been more than four months that this unique experiment of doing readings from Ambedkar, in open, which was an initiative undertaken by the Dalit teachers of the vishwidyalaya, under the informal group called Ambedkar Study Circle India, stands forcibly stopped, show-cause notices being issued to teachers involved and even punitive action taken against three of them, but a conspiracy of silence has pervaded it.
What must have prompted this action by the University administration against the teachers, who were were just following the UGC recommended Code of Professional Ethics? ( Please read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/new-india-no-ambedkar-readings)
A brief outline of the talk is also shared below :
Theme : Bhakti Streams of Religious Movements in Medieval North India
Outline
The idea is to take up discussion of the Bhakti Movement as it moves to medieval North India. It is often stated that the Bhakti Movement was born in the Tamil land in the 6th-7th centuries and over the next millennium it made its way to the northern and eastern parts of the subcontinent. In his famous Patel Lectures of 1964, the famous Sanskritist Professor V Raghavan engagingly described the pradakshina yatra (clockwise circumambulation) of the Bharat Bhumi by Bhakti carried on the shoulders of singing saint-poets. Such a narrative, however, can contain only partially the historical truth. It is difficult to locate a singular source of a phenomenon that covered the entire subcontinent and took twelve hundred years to accomplish that. Given its scope and complexity and its temporal span, it is even more difficult to attribute to it a linear historical momentum that would carry it along an identifiable trajectory across the subcontinent. ..
‘The anger and anxieties over ‘Agnipath’ scheme – have not died down.
Gone is the period of open protests by youth and students and other ordinary people which rocked when the scheme was hastily announced (June 2022).
It does not mean that the youth are now happy about this scheme.
In an ambience of rising unemployment how is it possible to be happy about the fact that “[d]ue to the implementation of the Agniveer scheme, around 1.5 lakh candidates selected for the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy between 2019 and 2022 were allegedly denied joining.( 2)and all future possibilities of such an employment being closed forever.
Anyone who is keen to know how Agnipath has literally ‘destroyed’ thousands of jobs in military can take a tour of Kuchman City in Nagour ( Rajasthan) once a hub of more than 200 defence coaching academies preparing students from Rajasthan, Haryana and neighbouring parts of Western UP for entrance exams in Military..
…The anger and discontent of the Youth will continue to harm the ruling dispensation – whatever gloss they try to apply over the scheme.
The talk looks at the practice of Gandhi in his struggle against communalism in the years leading up to Partition.
This is a hugely controversial subject with polarised positions taken by his followers and critics.
The perspective of the talk emerges from Gandhi’s oft quoted but not heeded statement, My Life is My Message. The talk is a reading of a life text in this sense: Gandhi’s mission in Noakhali to mend the social fabric torn by communal riots and spread of communal ideology.
Gandhi’s search for a way out may offer some insights to those sharing his concern for a secular, plural society and polity today.
About the Speaker :
Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, till the end of February 2023, Professor Mahajan has been visiting professor and Fellow at different International and National Institutions.
She was member of the prestigious international research projects such as SPECTRESS and CHCI-MELLON Crises of Democracy, Global Humanities Institute. She has authored and edited many books on India’s Independence Struggle, Partition, Challenge of Communalism, Composite Culture etc
Publications :
Towards Freedom: Documents on the Movement for Independence in India, 1947, Parts One and Two, (edited and with an Introduction) OUP, 2013 and 2015. Education for Social Change: MVF and Child Labour, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2008. RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi- The Hindu Communal Project (with Aditya and Mridula Mukherjee) Sage Publications, 2008. Composite Culture in a Multi-Cultural Society (Co-edited with Bipan Chandra), Pearson India & National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2006. Rites of Passage, A Civil Servant Remembers: H.M. Patel, (ed.), Rupa & Co., New Delhi,2005. Independence and Partition: The Erosion of Colonial Power in India, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2000.
How the policy of PPP (Public Private Partnership) Model in Sainik Schools is counter to all Constitutional principles and values
Representation Image
In a controversial and much reviled decision, the union government under prime minister, Narendra Modi “decided” to hand over “67 per cent of Sainik Schools to the Sangh Parivar (and its allied organisations who are self-acclaimed majoritarian and unconstitutional), BJP Politicians and allies. This investigation was undertaken by meticulous examination by the Reporter’s Collective and became public on April 3, 2024. This piece looks at the gross implications of this move.
“It’s the day of resurrection…”:
Swami Avdheshanand Giri after Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya[1]
It was October 2020 when a Sainik School for boys was inaugurated in Shikarpur Tehsil of Bulandshahr District.[2] Right from Indresh Kumar, or Ram Lal, to Mahant of Junagarh Avadheshanand Giri, a seer supposed to be close to the proponents of Hindutva, many leading lights of the RSS and its frontal organisations or co-travellers of their ideology attended the high profile function.
The event made headlines for several reasons:
One, it was called the ‘first Sainik School of RSS’.
Two, a whooping sum of Rs 40 crores was supposed to be spent over it – thanks to the largesse extended by the union (Modi) government.
Thirdly, it was one of those rare occasions when RSS had moved beyond its founder member Dr Hedgewar to build memorials. Remember Rajendra Singh alias Rajju Bhaiya (1922-2003) was the first non-Brahmin and non-Maharashtrian Supremo of RSS from 1994-2000. This Sainik School is located in the same place where he (Raju Bhaiya) was born.
Normally, an idea to start a school is met with jubilation. This one however had the opposite effect. There were voices of concern raised by educationists, social activists as well as political leaders,
The added concern was that Vidya Bharati, the education wing of the RSS – which already runs 20,000 schools across India – would now also be running this military school although there was a clarification that this Army School will follow the CBSE curriculum and will have classes running from Class 6 to Class 12.
The same Vidya Bharatii (of the RSS’) whose stated mission is
“To develop a National System of Education which would help building a generation of young men and women that is committed to Hindutva and infused with patriotic fervour”. [3]
Questioning the whooping sum of Rs 40 crores which would be spent over it, Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the Samajwadi {arty (SP) and former Chief Minister of UP, had, at the time, underlined that since we already have enough such institutions “[r]un by the government so where is the need for RSS to run its own army school,”[4]
He did not hide his apprehensions about what curriculum be taught there.
“RSS apparently wanted to serve its political purpose by opening the army school where the students will “probably be taught lessons in mob lynching and disrupting social harmony”.[5]
The concern expressed by many about this project could not be brushed aside easily. It is a different matter that in today’s mediatised world, things move with such a speed that the issue of a RSS run military school , the RBSVM – Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir – and the attendant furore soon died down. Little did anyone carry the premonition that the founding of RBSVM was just a trailer of what lay in store: asli film abhi baaki thi‘.
अपनी जनतांत्रिक छवि चमकाने के लिए ‘मदर आफ डेमोक्रेसी’ होने के दावों से शुरू हुई भारत सरकार की यात्रा फिलवक्त डेमोक्रेसी रेटिंग गढ़ने के मुक़ाम तक पहुंची है. अभी वह किन-किन मुकामों से गुजरेगी इसके बारे में भविष्यवाणी नहीं की जा सकती.
‘भारत- जिसने औपनिवेशिक हुकूमत से आज़ादी के बाद जनतांत्रिक संरचनाओं को अपनाया और हर नागरिक को संविधान के तहत बुनियादी अधिकार प्रदान किए- वहां जनतंत्र की परंपरा कमजोर की जा रही है….’
दुनिया के अग्रणी विद्वानों- जिनमें से कई भारतीय मूल के हैं – द्वारा पिछले दिनों जारी बयान में प्रगट सरोकार काबिलेगौर हैं. बयान में साफ कहा गया है कि किस तरह यहां ‘मूलभूत आजादियों को भी कुचला जा रहा है या कमजोर किया जा रहा है. ’
गौरतलब है कि साझे बयान का फोकस न्यूज़क्लिक न्यूज़ पोर्टल पर हुए संगठित हमले, भीमा कोरेगांव मामले में पांच साल से अधिक समय से हुई गिरफ्तारियों और उत्तर पूर्व दिल्ली में हुए दंगों के बाद इसी तरह जेल में डाले गए लेखकों, कार्यकर्ताओं पर रहा हैे, लंबे समय तक जेल में रखने के बावजूद चार्जशीट तक दाखिल न होने पर है, लेकिन वह यहां की बद से बदतर होती स्थिति को ही रेखांकित कर रहा है.
तय बात है कि एक ऐसे समय में जबकि चुनाव आसन्न हैं और मोदी सरकार द्वारा देश के अंदर उठाए जा रहे दमनात्मक कदमों को लेकर मामला सरगर्म है, यहां तक कि चुनावों का ऐलान होने के बाद विपक्ष के नेताओं की गिरफ्तारी, प्रमुख विपक्षी पार्टी कांग्रेस के बैंक खातों को बहाना बनाकर सील देने के कदम ने देश-दुनिया में चिंता प्रगट की जा रही है, उस समय इस बयान ने निश्चित ही मोदी की अगुवाईवाली हुकूमत को कत्तई खुश नहीं किया होगा.
आधिकारिक तौर पर इस बयान को लेकर मुल्क के मौजूदा हुक्मरानों की तरफ से कोई प्रतिक्रिया नहीं आई है और न ही उनके हिमायतियों ने इसके बारे में कुछ कहा है. उसकी पूरी कोशिश यही होगी कि हुकूमत के प्रति आलोचनात्मक रुख रखने वाले अन्य बयानों, रिपोर्ट की तरह इस बयान को भी भुला दिया जाए या दफना दिया जाए. ( Read the full article here : https://thewirehindi.com/271640/why-does-the-mother-of-democracy-need-its-own-democracy-index/)
It is an interesting coincidence that ‘Best Friends’ Netanyahu and Modi have been put on the defensive by the judiciary, which they so tried to control.
..[t]here is another way to break a democracy. It is less dramatic but equally destructive. Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. Some of these leaders dismantle democracy quickly, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire in Germany. More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.
How Democracies Die – Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
The greatest danger the tyrant can inflict is to limit us to his range of options, not only “for how to live, but also for how to exercise our options.”
– Hisham Matar
(American born British-Libyan writer)
Every hurried and ill-thought attempt to browbeat the judiciary on the basis of legislative majority hides the possibility of a backfire.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, popularly known as ‘Bibi’, is learning this lesson the hard way, in the midst of a genocidal war he has unleashed against the Palestinians — a war which has already killed more than 30,000 people — mostly women and children.
Gone are the days when he was riding the popularity charts. Today, after the attacks on Gaza, there is increasing discontent among the Israeli people themselves against this ‘unending war’ which has manifested itself in the demand of Bibi’s quitting to ‘Save Israel’. Massive protest demonstrations have been held in different parts of Israel.
The recent judgements of the Supreme Court of Israel have further added to Netanyahu’s discomfort. ( Please read the complete article here)
(This is another article on ‘Wokeism’ on Kafila, you must be familiar with earlier discussions on this theme here and here)
Ram Madhav and Mohan Bhagwat, Stylised by Jaseem ( Photo Courtesy : The News Minute)
The shrill voices of those who give orders Are full of fear like the squeakings of Piglets awaiting the butcher’s knife, as their fat arses Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs…. Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but The rulers too.
—Bertolt Brecht
The global right is ’terrified’ (at least that’s what it wants us to believe)
We are being increasingly told that it has finally discovered what could prove to be its nemesis.
Right from the likes of Donald Trump to the Indian origin American Vivek Ramaswamy – who has even written few tomes on this ’menace’ to the controversial hard right Florida governor De Santis, there are claims that the spectre of woke or wokeism haunts them. One can recall how De Santis had famously declared in his re-election victory speech that ’Florida is where Woke ideology goes to die’. [1]
What needs to be noted that this ’menace’ felt by the right is not limited to the Western World only.
There are newer converts to this movement.
Mohan Bhagwat, the Supremo of RSS ( Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) – a Hindutva Supremacist Organisation – happens to be the newest entrant. Sometime back he joined this chorus by the global right, similarly expressing his anger against ’Wokeism’ and ’Woke People’ in no uncertain terms. For him these were ’forces’ who were ’spoiling Indian ethos’.
It was the early part of last year when the chorus of India as ‘mother of democracy’ gathered pace.
The summit for Democracy held in March, witnessed PM Modi in his virtual address sharing his pearls of wisdom as India being “indeed the mother of Democracy” citing reference to Vedas and Mahabharata
Delegates who arrived for the G 20 summit in Delhi were similarly greeted with the slogan Welcome to the ‘Mother of Democracy’ ( -do-)
Rightwing think tanks were not behind to project India’s past experience in its very own Indic Democracy despite proofs to the contrary.
Professor Rajeev Bhargava, noted political theorist will be delivering the 29th Democracy Dialogues Lecture on Sunday, March 31, 2024 at 6 PM ( IST)
Please reserve the time and date for the lecture. Details are given below
Democracy Dialogues Lecture 29:
Speaker: Professor Rajeev Bhargava
Date: Sunday, March 31, 2024, at 6 PM IST
Theme:
Democracy and Religion in Modern India: Critical and Self-critical Reflections – Prof Rajeev Bhargava
– New Socialist Initiative
Abstract:
“It is widely accepted that ‘secular’ is an alien category in India. This is too simplistic a view. But even if we agree with it, how come no one has asked if ‘religion’ is alien to India? My claim is that it is or at least it is as foreign to India as secular is. What are the implications of this thesis? What have been the consequences of religionization on Indian society and polity? How has it shaped Indian democracy? In my presentation, I shall expand these views and show why India needs secularism and in what form.”
About the speaker :
Renowned political theorist and former director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies ( CSDS), Delhi Prof Rajeev Bhargava is currently an honorary fellow at the Centre and the director of its Parekh Institute of Indian Thought. He has taught at the University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi) and has lectured, taught and held visiting professorships at several international universities.
Prof Bhargava’s work on individualism and secularism is internationally acclaimed. His publications include Individualism in Social Science (1992), What Is Political Theory and Why Do We Need It? (2010) and The Promise of India’s Secular Democracy (2010). His edited works include Secularism and Its Critics (1998), Politics and Ethics of the Indian Constitution (2008) and Politics, Ethics and the Self: Re-reading Hind Swaraj (2022), Bridging Two Worlds : Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China (2023)
Anantkumar Hegde, BJP MP from Uttari Karnataka, is again in the news.
Close on the heels of his controversial statement about demolition of a mosque and his invoking of Hindu community who would not rest ‘until more mosques are reclaimed ‘ (1) he has delivered another explosive statement.
This time the whole edifice of Constitution is under his attack, which according to him has ‘distortions introduced by the Congress to suppress Hindu society’. (2) ..
..Critics have rightly said how this suggestion exhibits real intentions of the saffron regime which wants to usher us into Hindu Rashtra, end reservation for scheduled and backward communities, reinforce caste system and also replace Constitution drafted by Dr Ambedkar with a worldview inspired by Manusmriti. The main opposition party Congress has expressed fear that all such statements, steps just go to vindicate how a ‘cloud of dictatorship’ now hovers over India. (3)
It is a different matter that neither BJP top guns nor PM Modi – who had famously declared way back in 2014 that for him ‘Constitution is the most sacred book’ deemed it important to condemn Hegde’s statements or ordered him to seek apology for his claim.
One learns that it has merely distanced itself from Hegde’s controversial statement to convey an impression that what he said was his ‘Mann ki Baat’ and not BJP’s Dil ki Baat’ .
An atheist school teacher’s case in Nashik before the Bombay HC resonates with the recent case of a Dalit teacher’s suspension in Rajasthan.
Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr
Can anyone compel a teacher to offer prayers inside a school?
This was a little vexed question before the Bombay High Court when a case came up before a two-judge bench led by Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Revethi Mohiti-Dhere. Sudhir Salve, an atheist teacher from a school in Nashik — who otherwise had an excellent record in his profession — had approached it for relief, because the school management where he worked had denied increment to him for ‘indiscipline’.
The teacher’s refusal to fold hands at the time of school prayer or even at the time of taking oath of the Constitution was construed as such an act. As it happens in most such cases, Salve’s case had lingered on for more than six years in the lower courts.
But it did not take much time for the two-judge bench to decide the case, which declared that any such compulsion to fold hands will be a ‘[v]iolation of the fundamental rights conferred on an individual under the Constitution’.
One was reminded of Salve’s case when the suspension of Hemlata Bairwa, a Dalit lady teacher from an upper primary school in Rajasthan’s Baran district, made headlines recently.
To recapitulate the turn of events, it was Republic Day (January 26, 2024) and Bairwa had garlanded the portraits of B.R. Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule and Mahatma Gandhi before the assembly of students in her school. Two of her fellow teachers interrupted the programme and asked her to put a photograph of Saraswati, goddess of knowledge as per Hindu mythology, which she plainly refused. Despite pressure by them, who even allegedly made casteist slurs against her and were even helped by the local head of the panchayat, Bairwa refused to relent.
When the video of the whole incident went viral, the state education minister Madan Dilawar announced her suspension in a public programme — an act that evoked a strong reaction within the Dalit community. Demonstrations were held in different parts of the state opposing this action by the education minister, demanding revocation of the suspension order and removal of the minister from the post.
The question arises: Will Bairwa similarly have to wait for a long period like Salve for justice? Or whether the Bombay High Court’s intervention would impel the Rajasthan High Court to take up her case suo motu.
कहीं ऐसा तो नहीं कि ‘सांस्कृतिक मार्क्सवादी’ और ‘वोक पीपल’ (Woke People) को लेकर संघ सुप्रीमो की ललकार एक तरह से उत्पीड़ितों की दावेदारी और स्वतंत्र चिंतन के प्रति हिंदुत्व वर्चस्ववाद की बढ़ती बेचैनियों को ही बेपर्द करती है.
मुल्क की दारूल हुकूमत अर्थात राजधानी दिल्ली- आए दिन कुछ न कुछ सेमिनार, संगोष्ठियां, विचारोें के अनौपचारिक आदान-प्रदान की मौन गवाह बनी रहती है. आम तौर पर वह ख़बर भी नहीं बन पाते, अलबत्ता कुछ तबादले खयालात कभी-कभी सुर्खियां बन जाते हैं.
पिछले दिनों यहां के भव्य ताज एम्बेसेडर होटल में एक विचार-विमर्श चला, जो अलग कारणों से सुर्खियां बना. आयोजक के चलते और जिस मसले पर वहां गुफ्तगू चली उसे लेकर. दरअसल इसका आयोजन भारतीय जनता युवा मोर्चा ने किया था, जो आम तौर पर ऐसी बौद्धिक गतिविधियों के लिए जाना नहीं जाता है.
दूसरी अहम बात थी कि इस विचार-विमर्श में अमेरिका, जर्मनी और चंद अन्य पश्चिमी मुल्कों के कई अनुदारवादी, रूढ़िवादी विचारक, अकादमिशियन जुटे थे और भारत के शिक्षा संस्थानों से जुड़े कई अकादमिशियन भी थे. बातचीत किन मसलों पर चली इसके आधिकारिक विवरण उपलब्ध नहीं है, लेकिन इतना तो समाचार में सुनने को मिला है कि वहां ‘वोकवाद’ (Wokeism-वोक़िज़्म) पर भी बातचीत चली थी. ( Read the rest of the article here)
How Mohan Bhagwat’s exhortation that ‘cultural marxism’ and ‘woke people’ are spoiling India’s ethos betrays Hindutva Supremacism’s real agenda vis-a-vis assertion of the subalterns and independent thinking
‘A spectre is haunting the Conservative world – the spectre of Wokeism’
The brainstorming by conservatives from US, Germany and other Western countries along with academics from India is over. The host was Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) the youth front of the ruling dispensation here namely BJP – which loves to call itself ‘the biggest organisation of youth in the world.’
One does not know whether the organisers had put any such banner regarding the ‘spectre’ or not but few of the available details of meeting tell us that the gathering did discuss ‘wokeism’ apart from other issues.
BJYM’s sudden waking up on the challenge of ‘wokeism’ is not difficult to understand.
It could be easily traced to Sangh Supremo Mohan Bhagwat’s exhortation in his Vijayadashmi Speech – few months back – wherein he had castigated ‘cultural marxists’ and ‘woke people’. in no uncertain terms, who according to him were ‘spoiling Indian ethos’. He even accused them of undermining education and culture, promoting conflicts and disrupting social cohesion. ( Read the full article here)
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 