Polemics of Dalit Activism

I am wary of so called Dalit Activists. Chandrabhan Prasad is one such fine example. Going through his columns I fail to understand what is he aiming for.
If it were for upliftment and progress of Dalits I could have understood it.
And yet even a cursory reading will be sufficient to establish the fact that whatever the intentions, the writer spends much of energy and space in ranting against upper caste. I do not deny the fact that there is a sufficient ground for any Dalit Activist to be irate.

I accept that casteism has been a bane of our society and Dalits have been oppressed. I will not speculate the origins or intentions of caste, it might have social stratification or it might have been racism, but let it be said whatever the intentions, the effect of caste has been most pernicious not only on the oppressed caste, but also on Indian society.

However what I do not understand is how a Dalit Activist proposes to resolve this. So far my experience has been that Dalit Activists are more interest in visceral hared against Upper castes, than any constructive program. The ire and anger towards upper caste is so absolute and all encompassing, it makes one wonder that this hostility is more a result of resentment than any serious contemplation.

The language of Dalit Activist is that of a polemicist. His enemy is each and every person belonging to upper caste.
I belong to upper caste, I did not choose to be one, it was just a matter of birth and for me caste identity holds least importance.
Neither I nor any member of family (immediate or extended) has ever discriminated against dalits either consciously or unconsciously.
Therefore I fail to understand ire of Dalit Activist towards me, or my family, because he directs his bile towards, all sparing none. In doing so, by marking me as an object for hatred and contempt, he is perpetuating casteism.
Instead of obliterating caste identities, he is just making them stronger.

But the matter doesn’t stop here, while creating a permanent enemy helps in consolidating the constituency, it does nothing to uplift them. On the contrary by aggravating social division it works against dalits.

Dalit Activist professes to work for Dalits. Yet by slandering Hinduism he causes acrimony and division. Blinded by pseudo – scientific theories of racial division between upper castes and lower caste, it seeks to create separate and antagonistic identities. Neither is this intellectually honest, while caste oppression has been a feature of Hindu society for long time, so is the fact that social reformers and saints have worked against it.

The final result is that it will work against Dalits, but in all probability that is the intention of these activists.

PS To understand his rhetoric, see rig vedic budget, according to gentlemen the lack ofo reform (or industrilization) is not due to obstructionist policies of communist thugs but becauase of brahiminnical conspiracy. Also note the wonderful comparision between Dalits and Dasyus.
The irony is that as far as I remember Chidambaram is hardly a brahmin or for that matter pro- Hindu.

State of West

An interesting post by Amit Ghate concerning western civilization. (via lgf)

I agree for the most past. West is indeed an intellectual descendant of Ancient Greeks, even Roman Empire for most part was extension of Greeks. Where Romans excelled was in modifying the institutions which were robust enough to handle the extent of Roman Empire. If I may be pardoned the geek slang, Roman architecture was scalable.
Here I will beg to differ from the writer, while influence of Greek is most visible on west, role of Judea- Christian ethos is also significant.

Christians were persecuted by Romans for their belief and practice before Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as state religion. Therefore Church developed an early antagonism towards roman ethos. The reason because Church became so popular in the first place because Rome had descended to hedonism, (refer this post). That said early church borrowed a lots of idea from Greeks, especially Plato. That was one of the reason that Greek wisdom survived even if dormant. In addition to this Ten Commandments and Gospels helped establish an egalitarian society. Overall the relation between modern west, ancient Greek and Christianity is complicated.

As I have said before that when Indians think of west, we fail to appreciate the history behind west. West was not built in a day. Further it is my belief that Indic civilization holds as much promise as, if not more than Greek civilization.
Also Indian ethos and Greek ethos complement and compete at the same time.

Lastly more than radical Islam west should be more concerned about itself.
West is again sinking into a state of morass arising out of absolute individualism and hedonism. West might again go the way of Romans.

Party Pooper

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Although I am not an economist, I think that much of the debate in blogosphere regarding Indian Economy can be summarized in the above quote. I am afraid that much of acrimony regarding prediction of Indian Economy and it's comparison with China while not exactly tarot card reading, is nevertheless an exercise in speculation based on overstretched assumption resulting in expectation which can only be termed as irrational exuberance.

Why do I feel like this? Consider the problem that Indian growth is sustainable or just flash in the pan? Now not being an expert on it, I do not know.

What I do know is that there are significant roadblocks; one is dismal condition of infrastructure. Another is less than flattering education standards, yet another is dysfunctional administrative structures, controlled market and restrictive labor laws.

Sure they are mentioned as a footnote in any essay, but I have yet to see their detailed analysis in either media or blogosphere.

I am afraid that either people have become overconfident or worse assuming that all things will remain constant. And that is what I am afraid of; our competitors are catching up all the time.

Reforms have been stalled at least till 2009, Indian industries are still pygmies compared to global giants and it is not clear to me whether they will be able to scale up or not.

Further the opportunity cost is steadily increasing, for example toys manufacturing. India is suitable placed to leverage as it is possible to acquire technical know how as well as there is a robust domestic demand, however since it is reserved for small scale industry, there is a situation where market is inundated with Chinese imports.

Another example is shipbuilding and ports, both of these industries are labor intensive and as such Indian and them are made for each other and yet there is hardly any movement. These issues are important and in my view serious enough to spoil the party.

That is the reason I remain skeptical of rosy analysis.

Status and Facts

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Earning the Right

I remember a remark that US President George Bush made, that US wanted to make India a superpower. As much as I appreciate President and USA, I think any such assumption is delusional or worse disingenuous. One can no more make anyone a superpower as he can make him a genius. That status has to be achieved. Respect is earned not petitioned.

Religion & Reformation

Secular – Right posted about a debate regarding reform of Islam.

The gentleman who was representing Islam, to me seemed to be not at ease; his arguments were evasive and tended to be defensive.

The problem with any discussions can be stated like this.

How Islam (or any religion for that matter) is defined. If it is assumed that Koran contains words of Allah in immutable and final form and therefore a true Muslim has to obey it in absolute sense without modifying any of the instructions, it poses a problem because along with suras which instruct for kindness and tolerance, there are many others which instruct to ruthlessly crush the non-believers.

This is not unique to Islam. Old Testament, New Testament and Hindu scriptures contain lots of instructions which call for violence which will be unacceptable in modern civilization. This is a dilemma for any religious person, but especially adherent to “book”, by this I mean Muslims and to a large extent Christians. It is sought to be resolved by reinterpretation of the inconvenient verses, this in my view is a self defeating exercise.

For example there are verses which exhort to eliminate idolaters, or which instruct to distrust Jews. The instructions are clear enough, they can not be reinterpreted or limited, nor is it possible to quote some other instruction which preach tolerance. This causes lots of stress to anyone willing to follow the canon.

As a religious person here is my thought on that. I was born Hindu therefore I have a natural bias for Hinduism. I hope I will be able to form a consistent world view, a right way in other words. It might be Hinduism or Christianity or even Atheism. I am a seeker, since I have a. inherent affinity with religion of my birth, I am also skeptical of my conclusions.

I do not accept that scriptures were handed to us by God. They were written by men, exceptional men no doubt but men nevertheless. Therefore scriptures contain human wisdom, they also contain human folly.

I will accept scriptures which I agree with, I will reject those I do not agree with.
For example I accept of a higher truth, but I reject discrimination on basis of birth. I accept dharma but reject suppression of women.

The earliest Hindus were seekers of knowledge; least I can do is to emulate them.

Existence

From “Beyond the Horizon” by Robert Heinlein (I have not finished the book yet)

“The only rational personal philosophy based on a conviction that we die dead, never to rise again, is a philosophy of complete hedonism. Such a hedonist might seek his pleasure in life in very subtle, indirect, and sublimated fashions; nevertheless pleasure must be his only rational purpose-no matter how lofty his conduct may appear to be. On the other hand, the possibility of something more to life than the short span we see opens up an unlimited possibility of evaluations other than hedonistic.”

This is the reason all philosophies whether theist or atheist, strive to assign some value system independent of and outside logic and perceptions.