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The Times of India, October 18, 2003 LEADER ARTICLE Rough Diamonds | Caste in a Different Mould JAWID LAIQ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2003 Indians are among the most status and class-conscious people in the world. Under the veneer of our one-person-one-vote democracy, most of us harbour a deep contempt for those downtrodden groups whom we consider beneath our position in the hierarchy of caste and class. This consciousness of class and caste cuts across the ideological spectrum from the Hindutva right to the liberals to the leftists. Sometimes, particular events and persons provoke a public outpouring of our class-ridden sentiments. The recent CBI investigations into Ms Mayawati's activities in the Taj corridor scam have evoked derision in the liberal media and amusement among some of the most progressive among Indians. The scorn borders on disdain for a Dalit leader who is perceived to be a lower caste woman from whom corrupt practices are only to be expected. On the obverse side of the coin, there are comments about how disgusting it is to see the leadership of the underprivileged Dalits exploiting their own poor people. There is a self-righteousness, particularly among armchair middle-class leftists, that is applied to the lower classes who are expected to be at the forefront of revolutionary change. The lower castes and classes are expected to be honest, to show group solidarity and to be able to produce incorruptible and competent leaders all the qualities that are conspicuously absent among the upper caste middle classes. The Hindutva advocates expect the lower castes to bolster Hindu solidarity while at the same time quietly continuing to suffer casteist insults and oppression. We will not accept the Dalits and the so-called backward castes as equals till we are willing to accept that, like in the rest of Indian society and politics, a goodly proportion of crooks and charlatans also have risen to the top from among the Dalits and the backward castes. The desire for diamonds is as apparent in the soft-spoken, convent-educated Ms Jayalalithaa as it is in Ms Mayawati. If Ms Mayawati celebrated her birthday bedecked in diamond jewellery, Ms Jayalalithaa and her friend Sasikala festooned themselves from head to toe with jewels for the former's foster son's wedding. So, why judge them by different yardsticks? Laloo Yadav's recent visit to Pakistan has also highlighted these double standards. We proclaimed to the Pakistanis that Mr Yadav was an example of how grassroots leaders have emerged from the cradle of Indian democracy. But, within India, we constantly pillory him as a product of the grass-and-fodder scam and consider him something of a buffoon. Mr Yadav and Ms Mayawati have headed notoriously inept and corrupt governments. But so have Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Prakash Singh Badal in Punjab and Prafulla Mahanta in Assam. Yet, the adjective notorious is generally reserved for the Laloos and Mayawatis. Leave alone politicians, mega-crooks in the private enterprise sector are also graded, not by the magnitude of their larceny, but by their class and caste origins. Harshad Mehta who purloined the savings and ruined the lives of thousands of households was regarded as a brilliant financial wizard by many among the middle class. Media portrayals of lower caste leaders are slyly slanted. Their photographs are often taken from angles which make them look faintly ridiculous. The same media shies away from entertaining us with the antics of the upper caste politicians. They are generally referred to as leaders, chieftains or satraps. Vote-bank inevitably conjures up images of unthinking herds of Dalit, tribal and Muslim voters. Bloc votes by Brahmins, Banias and Rajputs are never dismissed as vote-banks. These are just a few instances of the casual put-downs which pain those at the receiving end and are probably not even noticed by upper crust viewers and readers. The backwardness, illiteracy and poverty of the lower castes and Muslims are mentioned repeatedly while their positive virtues are routinely ignored. Tribal villages, despite their abject poverty, are sparklingly clean compared to urban middle class slums. Tribal people are community-minded and jointly endea-vour to keep their environment tidy. The urban middle classes expect the lower classes to clean up the heaps of garbage that they produce. It is also not recognised, for instance, that the relatively prosperous urban and rural upper castes of Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat are more prone to eliminating the girl child and brides than are the poverty-stricken tribals, Dalits and Muslims of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and the north-eastern states. Tribal people in remote hamlets practise greater gender equality than the middle class inhabitants of Mumbai and Delhi. This has been proved in many studies. No wonder the downtrodden groups turn to a Mayawati or a Laloo Yadav who provide an emotional salve, if nothing else, for the long-standing social slights and indignities visited daily upon their brethren. Ms Mayawati and Mr Yadav may be greedy, self-seeking and incompetent, but they echo the hurts of millions of Dalits and OBCs. There is a fire in the belly of these leaders and an emotional commitment to battling social insults. When a fiery Mayawati as chief minister made UP's upper caste administrative and police officers quake with fear and loathing in their boots, the Dalits of UP smiled silently. They cannot yet laugh loudly. |
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| << October20, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net] Move over, 'secularists',-says the VHP |
October21, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net]Censorship of internet- The Hindu >> |
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