>"The BSP leadership rejects this and maintains that the costs of political
>violence
are usually paid for disproportionately by the poor. They point to
the
neighbouring state of Bihar, where the Naxalite insurgency has led to
the
formation of upper-caste citizen armies, with devastating results for
the
poor and the vulnerable."
Do the poor really have many choices against having to pay
disproportionately for political violence?
If the answer were yes, option might be certainly something like
chosing between peaceful popular mandate
and massive militant combat against the perpetrators of violence.
Unfortunately,the agenda of violence
is incerasingly being set by the state powers, rather than by the
poor led by communists in the case of
many parts of the country. I would say that is true, even viewed from
a global perspective.
When someone says in the context of Bihar, that communists by their
violent methods invited retaliatory state violence and upper-caste
citizen armies and made the poor pay the price disproportionately, how
will be the phenomenal violence and lawlessness in Gujarat explained?
How will you explain the violence in Orissa? How will you explain the
violence in Karnataka directed against minority communities and women
of all class and caste,including the bourgeois?The Sangh- Muthalik-
Modi-Advani forces acting hand in glove with a virtually lawless
administrative set up and salva judum type civilian forces, ensure
that people are always kept in fear.
The incarceration of Dr.Binayak Sen by the Chathisgad govt purportedly
as part of combating political extremism, was in fact, on fabricated
charges without a grain of evidence against him.
And yet, each of the political formations , UPA, NDA , or the new
aspirants distancing from both, choses not to speak out. On the
contrary, often we find them united against the poor in the name of
dealing with political extremism. Both the statist forces and the
civilian combatants parading as one Sena or other, openly come out
even against people trying to express themselves in democratic and
peaceful ways.
My point however, is not that there is no space at all for a change
for something better through a peaceful popular mandate . On the
contrary, I would suggest that violence in most part, is fundamentally
emanating from the State; secondly, fascist violence these days, is
especially being perpetrated by civilian senas acting hand in glove
with State powers. Bangalore, Mangalore and many other favourite
places of peace loving people all over india are increasingly
becoming battlefields where these fascists are arrayed on the one
side to claim spaces everywhere, and people on the other side
striving hard to retain / reclaim those very spaces which naturally
belonged to them till recently.
On Mar 7, 12:20 pm, damodar prasad <damodar.pra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1.While assesing a leader, need we turn a blind eye to the serious charges
> of corruption (TAJ corridor case) and amasing of wealth only because that
> one is solidarity with cause she champions?
> 2. If some argues that such allegations of corruption and nepotism are
> raised on casteist grounds and press/media fails to highlight the
> high-handedness of upper caste poltiicians. How justifiable is this?
> 3 The new democratic movement (of which a notice of the meeting at
> ernakulam was published in Green youth) and similar new movements are
> taking a firm stand aginst corruption. One demand of this movement was the
> prosecution of CPM state secretary on account of CBI charge-sheeting.
> 4. Mayawathi birthday fanfare does not look well for a party and leader that
> apsires for a radical change. How does the BSP tend to differentiate it from
> other parties. I am not referring to some political compromises. The same
> plight that happened to Dravida parties may soom happen to BSP but within a
> lesser span of time.
>
> On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 3:45 PM, Ranjit Ranjit <ranjit.ran...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > The "untouchable" and her rise to power in India
>
> > In the late 1960s, a little girl and her family set out from a Delhi shanty
> > town to visit her grandparents in a distant village. It was a long journey,
> > and her parents began to chat to other passengers on the bus. When they
> > revealed their destination was the chamar mohalla – the area usually found
> > on the outskirts of a village and inhabited by those at the lowest level of
> > the Indian caste hierarchy – the bus fell silent. The little girl’s mother
> > had to explain to her that other Indians considered the caste to which her
> > family belonged to be unclean.
>
> > More than 40 years later, that little girl, known simply as Mayawati, is a
> > political hero for lower-caste Indians throughout the north of the country.
> > She is a Dalit, a member of the caste known historically as “untouchables”.
> > And Dalits in the state of Uttar Pradesh hurry in their thousands to her
> > rallies, where she tells them how proud she is to have been born into a
> > Dalit family. “I am the daughter of a Chamar [a Dalit]. I am a Chamar. I am
> > yours.” In May 2007, she became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the
> > fourth time. On taking the oath of office, she declared that “nobody can
> > stop me from becoming prime minister”. We shall find out soon enough if she
> > is right: India goes to the polls in a general election in April and May
> > this year.
>
> > Mayawati was born in 1956, the second of nine children from a family which
> > originally hailed from the village of Badalpur in Uttar Pradesh. Unlike most
> > of India’s Dalits, she grew up in a city, in the lower-middle-class Delhi
> > suburb of Inderpuri, where her father was a clerk in the department of post
> > and telegraphs.
>
> > The family was poor, yet was able to send her to a government school and
> > then to university. After graduating with a teaching qualification, Mayawati
> > worked as a teacher in Delhi, where she met Kanshi Ram, the founder of the
> > Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Until Ram’s death in 2006, he and Mayawati worked
> > together to forge a new politics of Dalit identity.
>
> > Central to this vision is the desire to end caste discrimination and build
> > a society founded on ideals of equality and fairness. Officially, the
> > practice of untouchability and caste discrimination was outlawed by the
> > Indian constitution in 1950. Unofficially, however, little changed. A recent
> > study by ActionAid illustrates the problems that Dalits continue to face. It
> > found significant discrimination in the provision of public services,
> > including the denial of barber services and separate seating and utensils in
> > restaurants. In many of the villages surveyed, Dalits are banned from
> > holding marriage processions on roads and from wearing brightly coloured
> > clothes.
>
> > Physical violence against Dalits is common. The National Crime Records
> > Bureau reports
>
> > that each day two Dalits are killed and three Dalit women are raped. In
> > October 2007, a Dalit woman in a village in Madhya Pradesh refused to work
> > alone to harvest an entire crop for a local farmer. The upper-caste farm
> > owners tied her to a tree and beat her, fracturing her limbs. When the woman
> > regained consciousness and asked for water, she was given urine to drink.
>
> > Under Indian law, segregation is illegal. The problem lies not with the
> > law, but with the willingness of the state to implement it. Lacking either
> > financial or political clout, many Dalits struggle to persuade the local
> > police to register complaints against abusive landowners and others with
> > money and influence. However, the BSP’s control of the police force and
> > judiciary in Uttar Pradesh has helped to protect Dalits in that state
> > against violence and intimidation.
>
> > The BSP has been active in politics in Uttar Pradesh since 1984, when it
> > began to attract Dalits by speaking to them in a language with which they
> > were familiar. Mayawati and Kanshi erected statues of Dalit heroes
> > (themselves included) and asserted Dalits’ right to celebrate their identity
> > in public spaces. A well-trained and committed BSP cadre travelled around
> > the state spreading the message and enlisting support.
>
> > While upper-caste journalists mocked Maya wati, the BSP grew stronger. From
> > winning just 13 seats in the 1989 elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly,
> > the party now has a majority. Mayawati’s early success came as a result of
> > her ability to give political expression to the aspirations of Dalits. But
> > their numbers (they make up a little more than 15 per cent of the Indian
> > population) meant a narrow, caste-based identity politics, and no political
> > party in India will ever win a national election by appealing to one
> > particular caste or by campaigning on caste issues alone.
>
> > The 2007 state election demonstrated Mayawati’s ability to build
> > cross-caste alliances on economic and social issues. Since 2002, for
> > example, she has built support for the BSP among Brahmins, traditionally at
> > the apex of the caste structure. Just as Dalits fear the landholding castes
> > in the middle of the caste system, so Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh have felt
> > their position threatened by this group. Mayawati showed herself just as
> > capable of addressing Brahmin fears of middle-caste self-assertion as she
> > was of mobilising Dalit identity.
>
> > The approach paid off; the party increased its share of Brahmin votes in
> > the state election from 6 per cent in 2003 to 17 per cent in 2007. Mayawati
> > campaigned on a platform of law and order, and on a promise of equal
> > development, irrespective of caste. Coupled with some careful handing out of
> > party tickets to ensure that all castes were well represented, it was enough
> > to win her power.
>
> > Mayawati has chosen to fight for Dalit rights with the ballot box. However,
> > some activists say the plight of the lower castes is so grave – 59 per cent
> > of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh live below the poverty line – that only a violent
> > overthrow of the state government will lead to lasting change. The BSP
> > leadership rejects this and maintains that the costs of political violence
> > are usually paid for disproportionately by the poor. They point to the
> > neighbouring state of Bihar, where the Naxalite insurgency has led to the
> > formation of upper-caste citizen armies, with devastating results for the
> > poor and the vulnerable.
>
> > Since the decline of Congress Party dominance, it’s a brave person who
> > tries to predict the outcome of an Indian election. At the last general
> > election, in 2004, psephologists widely assumed that the Bharatiya Janata
> > Party would win, with its “India Shining” campaign, Hindu nationalism and
> > appeal to the new, aspirant middle class. Few thought to consider the
> > relevance of a successful call-centre industry to a drought-stricken farmer,
> > or what a bullish stock market%2
>
> > ------------------------------
> > Get rid of Add-Ons in your email ID. Get yourn...@ymail.com. Sign up now!
> > --
> > Ranjit
>
> > <http://in.rd.yahoo.com/tagline_dbid_6/*http://in.promos.yahoo.com/add...>-
> > Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
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