CASTE & MOVIES

CASTE IS A GREAT AND EFFECTIVE INSTITUTION.  Must the majority of Indians give up their caste and community leanings for the sake of just 16% of the Dalit population. !!!????
It is really absurd !!!!


http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/films-caste-and-violence/article7052278.ece#comments

Pro-Dalit parties call for a ban on 'Komban' ahead of its release on Thursday, alleging that it is glorifying a particular community. The issue brings to fore issues of freedom of speech and censorship

It’s happening again. Actor Karthi’s Komban, due for release this week, is in the eye of the storm after K. Krishnasamy, leader of the pro-Dalit party, Puthiya Thamilagam, demanded a ban on the film saying that it would incite violence in the State.

The call for a ban has stemmed from the fear that the film could be glorifying the Thevar community, dominant in Tamil Nadu’s southern districts. This has triggered yet another debate on censorship and relevance of censor board in Tamil Nadu.

While freedom of speech and expression must be defended, one must also be empathetic and create space for those who disagree with the film, say intellectuals and filmmakers.

Post-Censor Censorship

Thevar Magan

Tamil and Dalit intellectuals have criticised the film for glorifying the Thevar community, a politically and socially dominant community in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu

Sundarapandian

Filmmaker Prabhakaran's Sundarapandian, featuring actor Sasi Kumar in the lead role, was accused of sensationalising caste pride and honour killing in the opening sequences of the film.

Kutti Puli

The director of Komban, M. Muthaiah's earlier film was also hauled up for its pro-Thevar tilt. The film was accused of glorifying the dominant caste group in southern districts and endorsing anti-Dalit views.

Nattamai

The adoption of market economy coincided with the nation-wide mobilisation of dominant backward castes in India, which had its impact on cinema as well. Other egs: Chinna Gounder, Ejaman

Ravikumar, a Tamil intellectual and member of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, said there is a difference between freedom of speech and freedom to spew hate. “The former must be defended, while the latter has to be condemned,” he said.

With southern districts of Tamil Nadu seeing a rise in caste-related violence in recent times, an artist must not just view cinema as commodity to be monetised but as cultural product that will have a social impact, he said.

“Just like cinema commodifies sex and violence, it has commodified hate as well. In a society where the message of equality is uncommon, an artist must challenge caste-pride and not normalise it,” he added.

Documentary filmmaker, R.P. Amudhan, who made a film on manual scavengers titled ‘Shit’, says he doesn’t believe in a ban, but calls for a no-holds-barred debate on the subject. “All films deserve severe criticism and anyone can raise a stink in the Assembly and approach the court. After all, in the so-called new wave cinema, the popular semi-urban Tamil films present an OBC-tilt and an anti-Dalit perspective, is it not?” he asks, adding, “We have to respond to it properly, be empathetic to protests and not dismiss them under the pretext of freedom of speech.”

S. Ve. Shekar, regional Chairman of Censor Board, says the CBFC was following the guidelines in certifying films, but the State government had every right to decide if it has to be screened or not. A former AIADMK MLA, Mr. Shekar said the CBFC was always “liberal” and society must be more tolerant.

A filmmaker, who has made films about caste and didn’t want to be named, clarified that a distinction must be made between films that extol the virtues of a caste society and those that criticise them.

“Only when you live in Ramanathapuram, you will understand the politics of it all. This kind of censorship cuts both ways. Look at what happened to Perumal Murugan who wrote about the practices of a dominant community.”

Panel to watch film, submit report

Mohamed Imranullah S. reports from Madurai

The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday constituted a 10-member committee headed by two retired judges of the court to watch the film in a private screening in Chennai on Tuesday and submit a report to the court on the claim that the movie had the potential to instigate caste clashes in southern districts.

Justices S. Tamilvanan and V.S. Ravi ordered that the committee’s report should be faxed by Tuesday evening since the court had to decide the issue expeditiously as the film is scheduled for release for Thursday. The orders were passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by Puthiya Tamilagam president K. Krishnasamy.

Apart from the two former judges, K. Ravirajapandian and A.C. Arumugaperumal Adityan, the committee would comprise the petitioner and three of his lawyers besides the film producer and three of his advocates.

Arguing the case before the Bench, petitioner’s counsel W. Peter Ramesh Kumar contended that the film’s two-minute trailer, released on YouTube, shows that the story revolves around decades-old animosity between caste Hindus and Scheduled Castes in Ramanathapuram district, which has a chequered history of caste clashes.

He claimed that the protagonist of the movie was portrayed as a caste Hindu and the villains as belonging to Devendrakula Vellalar through subtle representations such as tying of red and green, colours of Puthiya Tamilagam flag, threads on their wrists. Such depictions would lead to unnecessary unrest among people, he argued.

Pointing out that nearly 100 murders with caste overtones had taken place in the southern districts in the last one year, counsel said: “Under such circumstances, there is every possibility of the film destroying the social fabric and promoting disharmony between communities, which are already not in a cordial relationship.”

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NEW BRAND OF CHRISTIANITY – INDIA IN GRAVE DANGER FROM FORCES DETRMINED TO DALITIZE INDIA !!!

Even at the cost of  being branded communal or Right-wing  and anticipating the negative prospects of being ostracized from ‘secular’ circles, if not already in that situation, I sincerely feel it is my duty to inform  of a grave danger, gnawing our Indian republic from within.

My morning walks has earned me quite a few friends. One such is a retired Professor from a very old and  reputed institution in the metro city where I am staying. Today morning (22/08/2014) I was trailing behind him  by about  hundred meters before I could catch up with him. I could see him ahead, conversing and walking along with another gentleman, who was his same age, but slow in his movement. Since the Prof. walks faster than anyone of his age, while observing the pair, I could see him breaking away from the other gentleman and forging ahead. Walking faster, it took me some time before I could overtake the relatively slower gentleman, and keep pace with the Prof.

I greeted him , and now we were walking together. The Prof. told me that he had been walking alongside his neighbor for quite some time, before breaking away from him. Then he told me about the content of his conversation with the Christian Pastor, his neighbor.

The Prof. had not seen his neighbor for quite some time.  Even I was noticing the other gentleman for the first time. I knew the house of the Prof. and had seen the occupants of his neighbouring houses. But this other gentleman I had not noticed before.

In reply to the query of the Prof. about his long absence, the Pastor told that he had been travelling extensively within India and abroad. His married daughter is now occupying the house , adjacent to the Prof’s house, and his son-in-law is the pastor of the New-Age Church at the end of the street. This church is on the way to my house, and I used to see the members of the small congregation. From their appearance, I could make out that culturally they belonged to the lowest strata of society.(These people may be the laggards in the Sanskritising process, or they would have migrated  to India at a much later period.The Sanskritising process is itself a slow process, and assimilation into it is also slow. Moreover by becoming Christian, they loose their roots, which is psychologically damaging)

The Pastor  had just returned from Bihar and he will be in the metro for some days with his daughter before moving on. He had gone to Bihar to inaugurate a welfare scheme there. It included training courses to handle computers, housed in a four-storey building , the total cost of the entire project being  Rupees Twentyfive Crores !!!

The pastor claimed that he had studied only upto tenth class (failed), but later worked as a pharmacist in Dubai, where he made his money. His son is also a pastor and ‘labours’ in Malayasia & Indonesia. The Sr.Pastor apprised the Prof. that he owns property worth Rs.200 Crores in India, of which Rs.50 crores is in the metro where I live. In addition he owns a good no of vehicles, and I had wondered about two very recent acquisitions – a new Tata Winger Passenger van and another new mid-segment car in the possession of his son-in-law.

To the Prof.’s surprise, without asking, the Pastor  outlined the aim of his mission/labor. As per his statistics, the Christian population in India is at present 10 percent. By 2025, he is confident  that through the ‘sustained labor’ of New Age Churches like his own, they will achieve the targeted conversion of 25 percent of the Indian population. They have got a organized and detailed plan for this effort, and have identified  the people  targeted for conversion.

Not only that , he said that it was a set-back to Christian groups like his, that Modi came to power. During the previous Govt. , with a very ‘tolerant’ Sonia at the helm, he said that the  operation of Christian Groups engaged in conversion were smooth, without any kind of hindrance. Now he has to tread with caution.

Now the crucial aspect of the conversation is this: The Pastor  had been to US after  Modi formed his Govt. He had met fellow  missionaries there who are close to some US Senators. The Pastor is optimistic based on  information gathered in the US that, soon Sonia will come back to power, and that too  before Modi completes his term in office. Is it the imagination of a fanatic Christian  about the invisible hand of Jesus Christ  acting against Modi, or is it that the Christian Groups will pressure the Obama Administration towards engineering dis-affection towards the Modi Govt by “some sections” of  the people of India and thereby remove him from saddle by hook or crook !!!??? The second option is likely  if the Modi Govt.  in any way hampers the free-operation of these Christian Groups engaged in conversion. The US Administration with the help of  CIA is notorious for its covert operations, in destabilizing other peaceful nations at the behest of pressure groups within & without.

The methods for gaining  Christian converts in India  is through subterfuge. This is a continuation of Christian policy from colonial times. It is not the victory earned after the end of a game played as per rules and fairly. From the so-called upper castes of Hindus, it is impossible to get converts. Even if any converts are gained from the upper-castes, they will be the ‘dregs’ of those communities. Detailed accounts  of  Missionary frustration in getting converts from the upper-castes , is available in plenty from the Missionary narratives of 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Since Missionary machinations among the upper-castes  end up as a futile exercise, they are targeting the Dalits, who form approximately 16% of the Indian population. The first step is to create disaffection towards India, its religion and Culture, while sowing the seeds of hatred in Dalit minds towards the so-called upper Castes ( which includes even Christian & Muslim upper-caste). They are aided in this efforts by the Leftists(Marxists) , the Ambedkarites, and other Dalit organizations along with their versions of HISTORY. If one closely follows the statements and actions of these groups, it can be seen that  systematic & deliberate  efforts in effecting cleavages within Indian society are orchestrated.

The Pastor  is having access to at least Rs.200 Crores. How many Indians have access to such funds.? From his own accounts about association with Christian Groups abroad, especially US, we get  a fairly good idea, that this Rs 200 Crores and even more is not the result of the pastor’s sweat and blood. He has easy access to funds from abroad .This funds are sent here to  Destabilize(Dalitize) & Christianize India.

In this metro, the members of the community to which I belong(Nair), under very conservative estimate numbers to approx  60,000 to 70,000. We are planning to have a community centre here. The budgeted project cost is Rs.10 Crores. The community leaders are planning for this the past three years. But they find it impossible to raise this amount, because the members mostly belong to middle-income bracket. In contrast, men like the Pastor , with alien support  are capable of executing projects in far-away Bihar, worth 25 Crores. This kind of continuous access to huge and irresponsible funds is sure to upset the social balance. It does not augur well for the future of the Indian society.

Please also refer to the following three links :-

 http://msradha.blogspot.in/2014/05/sowing-seeds-of-hatred-in-dalit-minds.html 

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2014/05/channar-lahala-canard-spread.html

http://msradha.blogspot.in/2014/05/breast-cloth-controversy-three.html

Today's Paper

NEW DELHI, August 20, 2014

Give Modi a chance: church

Anita Joshua

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The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) wants to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “chance” and not pre-judge him because of his record as the Gujarat Chief minister or his association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

A day after he met Mr. Modi in the capital, CBCI president Cardinal Baselios Cleemis on Tuesday said that the church preferred to take the Prime Minister’s call for a 10-year-moratorium on communalism seriously rather than the ‘Hindutva-subsumes-all-other-identities’ statement of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Anxiety

Admitting that Mr. Bhagwat’s statements did create anxiety, he said undue weightage should not be given to the personal opinion of one person.

Asked about the apprehensions about Mr. Modi in the past, his refrain was: “Mr. Modi has just begun his administration as the head of the government at the Centre.

“It is sensible and legitimate that any government needs time to settle down and work out its policies.

“He has been elected and we have to see his actions. We are optimistic.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/give-modi-a-chance-church/article6333168.ece 

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EBOLA & UNTOUCHABILITY - TIME TO RECONSIDER THE CRASS ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT & CONDEMNATION OF UNTOUCHABILITY

 

Prevention  of  (spread of) epidemics and  communicable diseases were built into  the social life in India . Communities are prone to certain diseases due to their customs and manners. eg food-habits. 'Knowledgeable Indians' in the upper echelons, allowed other castes and communities to pursue their own lives without restraint, but conforming to the general and accepted social customs. They had devised a brilliant template, in which all types of  communities could be accommodated. They did not butcher/exterminate those who did not conform to their own highly REFINED lifestyles.This is quite unlike the happenings in N.America, where White Colonists, assuming themselves to be superior, exterminated   the native Red-Indians there.  Contrasted to this, in India, it was a policy of live and let live. Despite such humanistic attitude, members of the so called 'upper-castes'  are subjected to negative portrayal in the name of CASTE & UNTOUCHABILITY.

Untouchability was essential in 'those' times to preserve self, family and community. Refer http://msradha.blogspot.in/2014/05/untouchability-fully-justified-was.html Or imagine a situation where the men wielding knowledge and power  forcing the  various 'non-refined' (non-Sanskritised) castes into 'REFORMATION' camps, and teaching them habits of cleanliness and hygiene   by the use of  FORCE. Since they were 'knowledgeable' and imbibed with wisdom, they did did not resort to such inhuman tactics.Further  fully realizing the impracticability of VIOLENT methods,  some made their own enclaves to live their refined lives unhindered and at times zealously guarding such spaces. (eg. Agrahara).

Ultimately, we have to take charge of our own lives.That is what the pandemic EBOLA reminds us. Neither the State nor SCIENCE can guarantee protection against such DEADLY  micro-organisms, the knowledge of which is NOT fully grasped by modern science. In the Atharva-Veda, there is awareness of disease causing organisms, seen & unseen (Drishtam & Adirshtam). That may be  one reason why the learned-men were careful & selective  in their social intercourse. 

N.B- Those who are freely willing, without any second thoughts to share their tooth-brush , with kith & kin may condemn this post.

 Ebola: the return of cordon sanitaire

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/ebola-the-return-of-cordon-sanitaire/article6314845.ece

Donald G. Mcneil Jr.

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The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is so out of control that governments there have revived a disease-fighting tactic not used in nearly a century: the “ cordon sanitaire ,” in which a line is drawn around the infected area, and no one is allowed out.

Cordons, common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since the border between Poland and the Soviet Union was closed in 1918 to stop typhus from spreading west. They have the potential to become brutal and inhumane. Centuries ago, in their most extreme form, everyone within the boundaries was left to die or survive, until the outbreak ended.

Plans for the new cordon were announced August 1 at an emergency meeting in Conakry, Guinea, of the Mano River Union, a regional association of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries hardest hit by Ebola, according to Agence France-Presse. The plan was to isolate a triangular area where the three countries meet, separated only by porous borders, and where 70 per cent of the cases known at that time had been found.

Officials at the World Health Organisation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have experts advising the countries, say the tactic could help contain the outbreak but want to see it used humanely. Experts said that any cordon must let food, water and medical care reach those inside, and that the trust of inhabitants must be won through communication with their leaders.

The phrase cordon sanitaire , or sanitary barrier, appears to date from 1821, when France sent 30,000 troops into the Pyrenees to stop a lethal fever raging in Spain from crossing the border.

In Sierra Leone, large sections of the Kailahun and Kenema districts, an area the size of Jamaica, have been cut off by military roadblocks.

Inside the cordoned area of Sierra Leone and Liberia, alarmed residents have told reporters that they fear starving because food prices are rising. It is not clear whether plans to deliver food, water and care are under way. — New York Times News Service
 

Cordons, common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since 1918

Sowing the seeds of Hatred in Dalit Minds !!!! - A First Hand Account

My intimate experience with Dalits are limited. But from  the age of  about 12 years to around 18 years, I had seen my father in his middle forties interacting with Dalit Christians (from the Pulaya community) frequently, necessitated by agriculture. I am sure this has continued from his father’s time (my grand-father), and before I had been born, one Dalit Christian family from my grandfather’s time  had been tenants on our land. I had heard  it from my father’s side that they had a hut in the corner of the land. But  a law favouring the landless tenants paved the way (forced ?) to buy a plot of land (5 cents) for this family, and they were thus relocated  to  their own land and tiled roof house  less than a kilometer away.

After partitioning  of land between siblings, my father got an acre(100 cents) of paddy field, and this land was within the municipal limits. All the landholders around were only having the same extent of land and those having more than  five acres were non-existent. And each holder had close contact with  one Dalit Christian family , with that family head as ‘Kaval-karan” (care-taker)of the agricultural land. After  sowing, during re-planting of the shoots , during harvesting  or any occasion when more hands are needed he used to organize  members from the Dalit families around him. Otherwise he and his family handled all the agricultural works almost six to eight months in a year and  daily wages were paid , in addition to food.(two times with black coffee in between). During the lean months when work was not  needed consecutively for more than seven to ten days, for his needs I had seen him approaching my father, and without any reluctance my father shared what was possible. Looking back and thinking about the interactions, I am aware that a organic relationship existed between them, though the surrounding environment had started vitiating with Marxisim and trade-unionism.  I also think that the land-lord and tenant were each in his own world, and the interactions between them necessitated by the needs of both were peaceful and cordial. There was an invisible bonding between them.

I used to go to the field during the time of re-planting and sowing, and there is one Dalit woman in my vivid child-hood memories. She was in her middle thirties at that time, married and with three children and my memories connected with her is due to her singing during the time of field labour. Her name is Thanka.

When I joined  for Pre-Degree (around 16 yrs) , all farming activities ceased. Buying rice and milk became cheaper and convenient than the efforts and money spent for paddy cultivation and cattle rearing. Within a few years, our contact with the Kaval-karan of our land, which used to be regular and almost on a daily basis became few and widely spaced. Thereafter we used to see them very rarely, mostly on festival occasions like Christmas, Onam or Vishu. Nowadays all contact is lost  between the new generations.

The  agricultural labourers, mostly belonging to the Dalit community took to other vocations, mostly modern. Thanka, the dalit woman I had mentioned earlier, took to selling fish. Thus she used to visit our house hold occassionally. Needless to say, the warmth in regards/relationship of these familiar people, (shall I say old-guard) was palpable.

After 18 years, I had never been in my native place constantly for more than six months. Thereafter I got employed and finally had settled in Chennai. During this time my father expired, and mother was with me and my visits to native place became few and far.

Between 2009-2011,  I used to visit my hometown often. My fathers’s younger brother stays adjacent to the  family property I inherited. During one  visit, he informed  that Thanka, now in her middle sixties wished to see me and had enquired with him.

Thus she came to see me. She climbed the steps of the verandah and sat on the half-wall, and motioned to  me to take the chair opposite to her. During my father’s  time, they used to stand in the courtyard outside the half-wall. She addressed me in my pet name, which she had used when I was a boy. She said she had come to ask donation for  the church building. The  church building, used by the small Dalit congregation, she informed me was in a dilapidated condition. I donated her money, for which she gave me a printed receipt.

Thereafter  our conversation  drifted to old reminiscences, which were pleasant for us both. But when the conversation drifted to the present, I could sense rancour in her words. Cultivation in large swathes of  paddy fields within  and around the  municipal limit terminated and were lying fallow from 1980-82 onwards.  Most of the Dalit families who were traditionally dependent on these lands, as agricultural labourers were forced to go in search of other work.  By this time the extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides used in these fields, had made many of them diseased. Alchoholism  became rampant. There was thus total disruption in their way of life & work.

When it came to the talk of   the new church building, her anger burst out. Dalit Christians she said were never treated  on par by other Christian denominations. Social intercourse like marriage or even interdining  or atleast  common worship  (within the same church building/congregation) were TOTALLY absent with other Christian sects.  She felt that this whole society from historical time  continues to exploit them and have let them down.

What she explained to  me next surprised and shocked me.!!! She informed me that she knew History and asked me whether I knew the etymological origin and meaning of the word ‘Pulaya’ (male) & “Pulakalli” (female). Pulaya is the name of the Dalit community to which she belongs.

She told me that the word Pulakkalli is comprises of two parts. The first  part according to her is the word  Pular, that means early morning. The second part is the word ‘kani’, meaning the first object or person that you see, as soon as you wake up in the morning. If one is seeing an auspicious object or person, the day will pass-off  favourably. Malayalees used to keep ‘Vishu-kani’, on the first day of the Malayalam New-Year.

After providing the etymological roots of the word ‘Pulakkalli’, she proceeded to draw up the connections. She told that in the pre-modern past, the Pulayas used to live in a corner of the land owned by the ‘janmi’ (land-lord) , and it is their (Pulaya women) first duty in the morning to clean the front-courtyard of dry leaves and other materials that  makes it untidy. In those days in Travancore, women especially those belonging to disadvantaged castes never used to cover their breasts.  So these Pulaya woman/women are required to bare their bare breasts standing upright, facing the front-door of the  house, on the crack of daylight , the instant when they hear it being opened. The land-lord had imposed on them this duty DAILY, so that when he opens the front door and peers out, he is able to see the most auspicious sight of the bare breasts of these Dalit women. She narrated this story with undertones of  lascivious behavior and sexual exploitation by landlords and Dalit women being sex-slaves of the Hindu landlords.

Those who would have tutored her to hate this land and its customs  & traditions, would not have anticipated  the questions that I posed to her. Since she was married and had three children it was quite easy to put across the idea to her. I just asked her to recollect her experience of male human sexuality. I just asked her whether her husband in the prime of their life had only  lust and sex in his mind. 24x7 does a man think of only sex !!!!.  Moreover has she ever spared any thought regarding  the land-lords family members. Wouldn’t he be having in his house teenage sons, grown up sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, wife, aged mother, father etc. Will any family man dare to exhibit  such unrighteous conduct, setting a degrading example  before his kith and kin. It should also be kept in mind that matriarchy was prevalent in Kerala, with the matriarch as the head of the house-hold.

She  became speechless, considering what I had told her. I just told her whoever is behind this venomous story being projected as ‘History” is trying their level best to create hatred between the Dalits and other communities. In a very personal way, animosity/hatred  between her children and my children. The intensity of this hatred of her children or succeeding generations  will be very severe because of the element of sexual exploitation and attack on the modesty/chastity of  their mothers. They will try to retaliate in the same coin.

Fortunately  at that time I had an authentic Malayalam Dictionary , ‘Shabda-tharavali’ with me , which I had bought to  take with me to Chennai. Together we looked up the meaning of the word Pulayan & Pulakkalli in it. The word Pulayan means one who works on the land. Pulam has the meaning land, field etc.Pulakalli is the female noun of Pulayan.

She then demanded that the Dictionary costing Rs.800/-  be given to her. She wanted to show it to those who had given her coaching in History. I agreed on condition that it be returned  during my next visit a few months later. I could not elicit any information from her as to her tutors.  I could only speculate about them- Marxists !!??, Ambedkarites !!!???, New Age Evangelists !!??? New Age Christian Faith Groups !!!???Other evil influences stalking our land !!???( I believe that traditional Christians in Kerala will not stoop down to such low levels in the indoctrination of hatred.)  Who is likely to benefit from the alienation of the Dalits !!??

Why did I narrate this experience of mine ? I feel that there are concerted  behavior   from various quarters, some committed unwittingly, some done deliberately to create cleavage between communities. It is desired earnestly by modernity and associated commercial  interests that traditional equilibrium be broken and the society turns violent. A violent society provides huge business opportunities  and huge/quick  profits . As of today’s position  USA will then intervene and put its puppet govt and then bleed the country white. In the process all the goodness of a society will be lost. 

As far as I can recollect , I had never seen my father or his siblings(two are alive) speaking badly about, deprecatingly   or having any sort of animus to the Dalit community, even to this day.(To this day because ,both are not bound together (at present) in the practice of agriculture). Even though, occasionally  there were discontent  on the quantum of work completed, never wages were compromised or any harsh conditions of work (like modern time/motion study)  imposed on the agricultural labourers. Nor were any discrimination practiced , Dalits  vis-à-vis  labourers belonging to other communities. Nor  was there much difference between the material conditions of the land-lords  vis-a-vis labourers. The inequality in wealth was mostly restricted to the ownership of land.

I am puzzled when reading reports about the atrocities and violence between communities and Dalits vis-à-vis non-Dalits.  What could have gone wrong ? Did the moderns who are at the helm of  authority, newspapers and other agencies understand the problem clearly.?  Has modernity infused  the undesirable value of limitless and unrestrained material ambition  across all sections  of  people, which may be the root cause of violence !!??Are  the disturbance & violence  the handi-work of malcontents, which you can find in all sections of the society and at all periods in time !!??

Has the  modern world really contributed  in producing better human beings !!!??? Think about this. Meanwhile let us not talk disdainfully about our  ancestors and the Caste system !!!!!

AMBEDKAR = CHAMELEON !!!!!??????

Pragmatist , opportunist, ambitious these are the qualities that comes to mind , when one reads the op-ed article about Ambedkar in the Hindu today (02/04/2014). At one point in time he advocated that the Constitution (document) of India,- the formulation of which he took the lead role,- should be burned.(this is one idea to be considered !!!) As per the facts given in the article, he was a vacillatory personality. (To save time one may read the last section 'Which Ambedkar ? ")

Considering all that matters about his personality, wonder how (many/how could) Indians in general accept him as a national leader with desirable leadership qualities ??. Is it because we are practicing re-conciliatory politics, thereby compromising as well as sacrificing essential values, specifically in the public sphere !? In the process we let go off high ideals and embrace lower ones, thereby reducing our standards and also are saddled with coalition govts, who pull in different directions.. The numerous statues of him erected at various cross-roads are a eyesore, considering who he really was based on his thoughts and actions. (Strictly not according to his birth). Arun Shourie had written a book titled "Worshiping false Gods" in which the dilly-dallying of Ambedkar and his siding with British interests is vividly portrayed. In spite of available and open historical facts, Ambedkar is projected as a great leader and is foisted on the people of India, by highly vested interests !!!!!

Excerpts from the op-ed "Or the Ambedkar who was the architect of the Constitution and advised Dalits to adopt only constitutional methods for a resolution of their problems or the one who disowned it in the harshest possible terms and spoke of being the first person to burn it down?"

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/an-ambedkar-for-our-times/article5860715.ece

TODAY'S PAPER » OPINION

April 2, 2014

An Ambedkar for our times

ANAND TELTUMBDE

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In an interview published in Outlook (March 10, 2014), Arundhati Roy says, “We need Ambedkar — now, urgently” — it was in connection with the publication of a new annotated edition of Ambedkar’s text, The Annihilation of Caste , brought out by Navayana, a New Delhi-based publishing house. Ms. Roy wrote a 164-page essay titled “The Doctor and the Saint” as an introduction to the book, which has now become 415 pages thick, expanding the core text of just about 100 pages.

Behind the controversy

Her introduction has already created an unseemly controversy in Dalit circles, reminiscent of the debate in the 1970s in the wake of incipient Dalit literature, about who could produce Dalit literature. The protagonists of Dalits insisted that one had to be born a Dalit to do that. The controversy now reflects a similar identitarian obsession that one had to produce a caste certificate (Scheduled Caste) to introduce either Ambedkar or his text. It is intriguing however why such a controversy has cropped up only in the case of Ms. Roy especially when scores of non-Dalits have written on Ambedkar and his writings earlier. Is it because of her celebrity status or of her infamy as a Maoist sympathiser as perceived by middle class Dalits? The latter is more probable. For them, anything even remotely connected with communism is enough to evoke despisal and disapproval.

Whatever be the motivation behind this uproar, it is surely unwarranted. Ignoring the outpouring of nasty “one-liners” in social media, the main objections, at a reasonable level, to her writing this piece appear to be her undue projection of Gandhiji to introduce Ambedkar or to her being qualified to do the job in the first place or even her purported introduction not being an introduction to the text that followed. Even if one concedes the validity of these viewpoints, they need not have been expressed with such vehemence and negativity. As a matter of fact, the creative writer in Ms. Roy chose not the text per se but the stand-off between Ambedkar and Gandhiji in the context of Gandhiji’s reaction to the text in his magazine Harijan . She imagined that she could bring forth the problem of castes far more effectively if she used the contrast between Ambedkar and Gandhiji, who best represented moderate Hindu society, than dealing with the subject matter in a dry and mechanical manner. As for the qualification, while she took great pains to understand the issue she wrote on, her writings never reflected any aura of authority beyond a commonsensical objectivity necessitated by her style. Perhaps, and therefore, they appeal more to common people than to the so-called intellectuals.

Ambedkar, real and unreal

The most interesting argument however came not from Dalits but, paradoxically, an upper caste journalist (“B.R. Ambedkar, Arundhati Roy, and the politics of appropriation” by G. Sampath, Livemint, March 18, 2014). Challenging Ms. Roy, it said that if she wanted the bauxite under the Niyamgiri hills to be left to the Adivasis, why did she not leave Ambedkar who has been the only possession of Dalits to Dalits themselves? Interestingly though, the implication of the argument can be dangerous insofar as any engagement of the “other” defined as such on the basis of caste can be dismissed as illegitimate. May be, Ambedkar symbolises the cultural good of Dalits, but still, to ghettoise him to Dalits alone will mean downright disrespect to him and incalculable harm to the cause of Dalits. Niyamgiri left to the Adivasis implies a progressive interrogation of the prevailing developmental paradigm, while leaving Ambedkar to Dalits will mean retrogressive destruction of the annihilation-agenda of Babasaheb Ambedkar.

The controversy has surprisingly gone past the main point — that it is the bland business logic of the publisher that has fundamentally drawn Ms. Roy into writing the introduction. With her stature as a Booker Prize awardee, later amplified by her fearless pro-people stands on various issues on various occasions, the book was sure to go global. Moreover, it can well be imagined that her writing would certainly create a controversy, as has happened before. All this would mean a bonanza for any publisher in boosting sales of the book. Whether Navayana had consciously thought it out this way or not, these established product strategies of a publisher cannot be grudged by anyone as, after all, s/he has to follow the grammar of business. Notwithstanding the “anti-caste” tag Navayana tends to wear of late, publishing adulatory and cultish literature on Ambedkar is not the same thing as supporting the annihilation of castes. Once this controversy raked up by a few dies down, the vast majority of Dalits would rather take pride in the point that even Arundhati Roy joined them in worshipping their god. Every such form of Ambedkar adulation has indeed been reinforcing the caste identity and directly distances the annihilation project.

The acceptance of Ambedkar does not necessarily equate itself with the spread of an anti-caste ethos. Today, Ambedkar certainly outshines every other leader in terms of public acceptance. No other leader can rival him in the number of statues, pictures, congregations, books, research, organisations, songs, or any other marker of popularity of/on him. Curiously, his picture has become a fixture even in movies and television episodes. However, the incidences of casteism as indicated by cases of caste discrimination, caste atrocities, caste associations and caste discourses, etc. also show parallel growth. This paradoxical phenomenon can be explained only by separating the real Ambedkar from the unreal one, cast into the icons constructed by vested interests to thwart the consciousness of radical change ever germinating in Dalit masses. These icons package the enigmatic real Ambedkar into a simplistic symbol: an architect of the Constitution, a great nationalist, the father of reservations, a staunch anti-communist, a liberal democrat, a great parliamentarian, a saviour of Dalits, a bodhisattva, etc. These icons of the harmless, status quo-ist Ambedkar have been proliferated all over and overshadow a possible, radical view of the real Ambedkar.

Which Ambedkar?

Notwithstanding the intrigues behind the promotion of such icons by vested interests with active support from the state, the evolution of Ambedkar, the pragmatist sans any ideological fixation, all through his life, makes him intrinsically difficult to understand. A young Ambedkar who theorised castes as the enclosed classes, the enclosure being provided by the system of endogamy and exogamy, expecting the larger Hindu society to wake up and undertake social reforms like intermarriage in order to open up castes into classes is in contrast to the post-Mahad Ambedkar, disillusioned by the rabid reactions from caste Hindus, turning his sights to politics to accomplish his objective. Were his threats of conversion to Islam for a separate political identity for Dalits, or to force caste Hindus to consider social reforms? Then there is the Ambedkar of the 1930s, anxious to expand his constituency to the working classes sans castes, who founded the Independent Labour Party (ILP), arguably the first Left party in India, and walked with the communists but at the same time one who declared his resolve to convert to some other religion to escape castes. What about the Ambedkar of the 1940s, who returns to the caste, dissolves the ILP and forms the Scheduled Castes Federation, shuns agitational politics and joins the colonial government as labour minister or the one who wrote States and Minorities , propounding state socialism be hardcoded into the proposed Constitution of free India? Or Ambedkar, the staunchest opponent of the Congress or the one who cooperated with the Congress in joining the all-party government and accepted its support to get into the Constituent Assembly? Or even the Ambedkar who developed the representation logic culminating in reservations, expecting that a few advanced elements from among Dalits would help the community progress or the one who publicly lamented that educated Dalits had let him down? Or the Ambedkar who was the architect of the Constitution and advised Dalits to adopt only constitutional methods for a resolution of their problems or the one who disowned it in the harshest possible terms and spoke of being the first person to burn it down? And finally, the Ambedkar who kept referring to Marx as a quasi benchmark to assess his decisions? Or the one who embraced Buddhism and created the ultimate bulwark against communism in India to use the words of one of his scholars, Eleanor Zelliot, or even the one who would favourably compare Buddha and Marx just a few days before bidding adieu to the world, saying their goal was the same but that they differed in the ways of achieving them — Buddha’s being better than Marx’s? These are just a few broad vignettes of him, problematic in typifying him in a simplistic manner. If one goes deeper, one is bound to face far more serious problems.

Ambedkar is surely needed as long as the virus of caste lingers in this land but not as a reincarnation of the old one as most Dalits emotionally reflect on. Not even in the way Ms. Roy would want him to come now and urgently. He will have to be necessarily constructed to confront the far messier problem of contemporary castes than that obtained in his times.

(Anand Teltumbde is a civil rights activist with CPDR, Mumbai.)

Today, Ambedkar certainly outshines every other leader in terms of public acceptance. However, the incidences of casteism also show parallel growth. This paradoxical phenomenon can be explained only by separating the real Ambedkar from the unreal one -