[sacw] SACW Dispatch | 27-28 Oct 00

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South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
27-28 October 2000

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#1. UK: Dead priest's details revealed to end racist attack rumor: police
#2. India: UGC okays Courses For Pandits, Astrologers
#3. India: IIT faculty divided over introduction of value education
#4. Call For An Anti-Fascist Peoples' Front
#5.Book Review: Politics of Elite and Communalism
________________________________

#1.

DEAD PRIEST'S DETAILS REVEALED TO END RACIST ATTACK RUMOR: POLICE

By Shyam Bhatia, India Abroad News Service

London, Oct 26 - Police have revealed details about the private life of a
murdered Hindu priest in Britain to lay to rest any speculation that he may
have been the victim of a racist attack.

The body of Harish Purohit, 42, was found by his father and brother in an
empty house in Leicester last Friday. He had been stabbed 13 times and the
room he was in had been set on fire.

The police disclosure last Monday that Purohit had led a "double life" in
Leicester's gay community has been criticized by some Hindu community
leaders who have questioned its relevance to the murder investigation.

But sources close to Leicester police said the decision to release
information about Purohit's private life was prompted at least in part by a
desire to scotch any speculation about racial motivations behind his
killing.

"Race is a hot potato, especially after the Stephen Lawrence affair", a
source said. He was referring to the 1993 murder of a London teenager
Stephen Lawrence and the bungled police investigation into his killing. A
government inquiry -- the MacPherson Report -- subsequently criticized the
London Metropolitan Police for "institutional racism" within its ranks.

Detectives involved in the Purohit murder investigation say he went out most
evenings with friends from the gay community in Leicester and have appealed
to them for help in tracking his killer. The news of Purohit's secret double
life continues to send shock waves through the Hindu religious community in
Leicester.

Jagdish Bhatt, the secretary of the Federation of Hindu Priests, said,
"According to our religion it is against nature to be gay, it is shameful to
us. "People from our organization have been stunned by this."

Nathubhai Jagjivan, spokesman for the Shree Sanatan Mandir, said: "If he was
an ordinary member of the community it would be very shocking, but he was
leading the public as a priest."

Police said there was no sign of forced entry to the property where Purohit
was found, suggesting that the killer might be someone he knew. They are
also still trying to trace Purohit's mobile phone.

Chris Marlow, chairman of the Leicester Gay Group, said, "Being gay is
natural, it is not a matter of choice. But the overriding factor in this
case is that somebody has been murdered. We would always encourage people to
come forward and give information."
_____

#2.

UGC OKAYS COURSES FOR PANDITS, ASTROLOGERS

DH News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 14: The University Grants Commission is going
ahead with its plan to produce 'certified' pandits, astrologers
and assorted experts in Hindu rituals. This was confirmed here
today by the chairman of the UGC, Dr Hari Gautam.

Dr Gautam said the basic idea was to "produce certified persons
in the areas of Vedic astrology and Human karmakand (rituals)
with a view to provide job opportunities abroad".

An expert committee had been set up to suggest the duration of
the courses, curriculum and structure of these courses. He said
the courses could begin from the next academic session if the
expert committee submitted its report soon enough.

"These would be vocational training courses upto the level of
PhD," he pointed out. In other words, the universities would be
asked to introduce courses and award PhDs in astrology, Hindu
Karmakanda (rituals), palmistry, etc apart from BAs, MAs and
MPhils in such courses.

Dr Gautam also noted that at a later stage, the UGC would begin
similar courses to produce Muslim priests (maulanas) and
Christian priests (padres), adding that the Jamia Millia Islamia,
a central university, already ran courses to produce 'maulanas'.

Brainchild of the present dispensation under Dr Gautam, who took
charge of the UGC last year, the decision to begin courses in
Vedic astrology and Hindu karmakanda was taken keeping in mind
"tremendous demands" for qualified Hindu priests abroad,
specially the NRI communities in the US and the UK.

The move of the UGC is learnt to have the approval of the present
Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr Murli Manohar
Joshi, himself an advocate of Vedic studies....

DECCAN HERALD, Oct 15, 2000.

_____

#3.

(Recieved via Frederick Noronha)

IIT FACULTY DIVIDED OVER INTRODUCTION OF VALUE EDUCATION (Feature)
by Deepshikha Ghosh, India Abroad News Service

New Delhi, Oct 26 - The Indian Institute of Technology's (IIT)'s bid to "add
value" to its syllabus by introducing a course with a spiritual edge has
divided its faculty over fears of "promoting religion."

A move by IIT Delhi to prepare a course in value education for its
students -- to be eventually adopted in all technical institutes in the
country -- saw sharp differences emerge among faculty members at a recent
workshop about possible religious undertones to the course.

Two workshops were held to determine how many faculty members were willing
to teach engineering undergraduates the importance of value in life through
the soon-to-be-introduced core course in the second and third semester.

As part of practical value orientation in the course, students would spend a
part of their summer vacations with eminent personalities involved in
socio-spiritual work.

However, some faculty members are not entirely convinced that the course
would manage to steer clear of religious references or scriptures, which is
a rather sensitive subject in a multi-religious society like India. Their
reservations reportedly persist despite the assurance that the course would
teach value "through science" and not scriptures.

"The argument is not about the course itself, but how to go about teaching
it," a member of the core group, Amulya Sharma, told indiaabroad.com,
voicing the concerns of members who had expressed reservations. "Values are
universal to all religions and cannot be taught. There is a world of
difference between preaching and practical interaction."

IIT Delhi's value education course will serve as a model to be adopted by
all technical institutes in the country, as per a directive issued by the
Ministry of Human Resource Development. The ministry's note does mention the
need to tap adequately and express the "storehouse of traditional wisdom".
Also, it seeks to encourage students to take electives out of courses well
designed to promote "healthy nationalistic feelings" and pride in India's
cultural and spiritual heritage.

P.L. Dhar, one of the brains behind the course, admitted that some teachers
had the usual apprehensions about drawing flak for "communal shades" in such
an exercise. "Though it is a view of a small section of the faculty, we
would still like to see that everyone is convinced about the course", he
explained.

Dhar, who has taught an optional science and humanism course for two decades
in the institute, pooh-poohed these apprehensions, pointing out that the
kind of value education teaching they had in mind would be interactive and
deal with the problems of modern science.

According to Dhar, the science and humanism course was elective, but value
education would be a core course to introduce students to the importance of
value in life with technology.

"We were told decades ago about the utopia of a technologically advanced
society. Yet, technology has not helped in doing away with poverty, crime,
wars et al," Dhar said, adding "we will ask students to investigate and
identify drawbacks and learn how to use knowledge in a positive way."

The course will encourage students to do some soul-searching through
meditation and also contemplate the problems of modern science. The package
would be based on discussions rather than didactic teachings, Dhar asserted,
adding he would try to develop a "correct" perception of happiness.

According to him, students who took the science and humanism course
witnessed drastic transformation. "Many were influenced to stay on and work
in India instead of seeking out prosperous avenues abroad. And those who
went abroad, re-adjusted their priorities and looked homewards," disclosed
Dhar.

--India Abroad News Service

_____

#4.
CALL FOR AN ANTI-FASCIST PEOPLES' FRONT
I K Shukla

Two extremely stark features of Indian polity today stare one in the face.
One, the defiant upswing in the crimes of the anti-national forces led by
the rabidly communal outfits of the so-called Hindutwa. Two, the supine and
comatose response of the progressives and the so-called "civil society" to
these fascist thugs. This inaction on the part of those presumably aware of
India's inveterate traitors and cowards, now mutated into communal
terrorists, is, to put it mildly, breathtaking. This lack of response has
been interpreted by the saffron bullies and bandits as endorsement of their
tribal Talibanism.

It is depressingly evident that the political parties, including those of
the Left, are both unwilling and unable to take on the ugly monster of
ersatz Hinduism which is alien to the soil of India, and which is a clone of
Italy's fascists and Germany's national socialists. Its ideological
inspiration, its institutional layout, its intent, its insensate and inhuman
totalitarianism - all owe their origin to foreign models of meanness,
immorality, and ethnocide. The Nazis are still being hunted even if their
crimes can't be undone. It would be much more desirable that the Hindunazis
be stopped in their tracks right now if we wish to avoid witnessing the
massive bloodbaths they portend and plan.Their bid to hack India into
chimerical pieces, and demolish it beyond recognition, if it doesn't abide
by their nostrums, is no more a verbal threat; it is ominous, it is obvious.
We would ignore or soft-pedal it at our colossal peril.

It is the saffronites' desperate vote hunt that impelled the formation of
three new states out of Hindi heartland, not any voice of reason or
democratic altruism. It fits well in their overall design of capturing power
by hook or crook. Unless this fact is digested well we will not have
realized how the deadly earnest preparation for the final poll has begun.

To keep the privileged ones in power and pelf, and to assert their eternal
right to social hegemony and political domination, the Hindunazis would
resort to both "legal" (law bent to their whim) and illegal means
(brigandage and blood-letting). This violent drive for perpetuating economic
disparities and societal iniquities does away in one fell swoop with the
Constitution and destroys the egalitarian ideal and pluralistic impulse of
the nation. Therefore, it denies the glorious and great contribution of the
"minorities" to the historical edifice of India, it debars them from
celebrating the holistic heritage of so richly endowed an ancient nation, it
deflects the liberationist and emancipationist demands of the masses and
drowns them in sectarian and communal holocausts. With the aid of this
assiduously spread miasma it dodges the searchlight into its treasonous
antecedents and noisome agenda.

That it has voluminous financial resources at its command, both indigenous
and foreign, and doesn't want them probed, is now fairly well known. It is
this licit and illicit till that it seeks to hide zealously. Anyone seeking
to scrutinize this ill-gotten hoard will be persecuted and hounded as is
borne out by the notorious case of Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, an Income Tax
officer. It is the guilt and fear of its own exposure that prods it to call
intermittently for a probe into the "foreign" funds of the Christians, as if
that is a mystery for the Home Ministry. This device of deception and
deflection is a weapon well honed by Hindunazis for purposes too dark and
diabolical for comfort. Out of such a horror hat are conjured "conversion"
and Kargil, the former to terrorize the Christians, the latter to tyrannize
over the Muslims, and thus "Indianize" them both.

This trick absolves the Hindutwa governments, federal and state, of the
duties and responsibilities entailed in governance. Disruption and
subversion thus assigned to the ISI of Pakistan, Hindutwa hordes become free
to pursue and execute their agenda of purging Bharat of the impure
"foreigners", i.e, Muslims, Christians, and Dalits ( Buddhists, who became
"foreign" millennia ago). Thus the imperatives of universal health care,
urban sanitation, primary universal education,
rent control, expansion of mass transit, building national infrastructure,
streamlining the judicial system, equitably distributing land among the
tillers, cracking down on the incessant cycle of communal and casteist
carnage, hanging the adulterators, corralling the corrupt and communalists
in the police and bureaucracy - all become flimsy disposables to be thrown
by the roadside. And, in their place, building of temples by gangsters
stealing prime property, misappropriating Church-Mosque-Idgah- Kabristan
lands, using the same as a perennial source of personal income- this
becomes the major task of RSS-BJP-VHP-BD-SJM goons in the name of building a
new and pure Bharat, free of "foreigners", alongside selling the national
resources for peanuts and pocketing massive amounts of kick-money. This is
business ("religious" and "patriotic", "cultural" and "nationalist") as
banditry. Which explains why it needs and trains its paramilitary
auxiliaries for executing its nefarious and seditious designs.

Since Hindunazis erase a thousand years of Indian history, since the
reprobate neo-Hindus disown the national heritage, since they dishonor the
national flag and national anthem, since they defy the
democratic-secular-pluralistic ethos of the nation, since they repudiate the
hoary and enviable tradition of diverse peoples constituting and continually
enriching India, since they pioneered the splintering of India along
communal lines (the latest is their drive for trifurcating Kashmir), since
they are selling out to foreigners our sovereignty in the national
resources and mortgaging the future of our people to a predatory and
militaristic imperialism - indulging in bottomless profiteering for selves
and party, since they betray the national interests again as they did in the
past, since they owe allegiance not to Indian history, Indian people, Indian
heritage, but to foreigners of feral fame, since they never repented or
apologized for their crimes past and current, since they persist in their
lies and lethal ventures, they have proved by their misdeeds that they are
irredeemable enemies of India. Should they be tolerated in a democratic
polity?

It is, for this reason, incumbent on every Indian worth his salt, not to
wait for the political parties and the NGOs to deliver and take cudgels on
his behalf. When masses are consigned to the dustbin after being used and
abused as vote banks, when terror is employed to dragoon the voters, when
dollops of filthy money, drink, and fraud become the legitimate instruments
of parliamentary power-grab, when the legislature becomes the sanctuary of
the corrupt and the den of the criminals, when anti-social and anti-national
scum of the nation prescribe a mutilated freak and disgraceful fraud as
"patriotism", when the metro media becomes a tool in the hands of the
enemies of the nation, when discredited and diabolical alien ideologies of
hatred and violence, exclusion and intolerance are inducted and inculcated
in the populace, when all that made India uniquely great as a continental
nation subsuming a slew of full-fledged nationalities is being consigned to
flames, it is time for the ordinary and common citizens to stand up, be
counted, and counter the conspirators and their foreign cohorts.
And, fascists have historically been dear to the imperium. They have always
received, and will continue to receive, massive monetary and military aid
from their imperialist patrons and foreign mentors to crush nationalist
assertion and people's resistance. This threat looms large on the Indian
horizon.

Unless the people forge soon a nation-wide anti-fascist peoples' front, all
will be lost irretrievably.
It is towards this that they (workers, peasants, students, the deprived and
oppressed sections) must bend their energies, their minds, their resources.
India had never faced such an implacable enemy, such a diehard fifth column,
entrenched in the polity and ensconced in the society. It can't be left to
the mercies of criminals bent on its destruction, its dismantling brick by
hallowed brick, its relentless demolition by perfidious and profane
perverts. This India of historical antiquity and a vibrant culture must not
be allowed to be wiped off the map of the world. It took millennia to build.
The roving death squads and rampaging demolition gangs, under the benign
watch of the state, can destroy it in a jiffy going at it hammer and tong.

Call however loudly, cry however hoarse and long, they, destitute and
deprecatory of everything Indian, will never Indianize themselves. To
camouflage their obstreperous bigotry, obscurantist obduracy, moral opacity,
innate inferiority, and historical handicap, they call for millions of
natives ("others") to "Bharatize". That is, vaporize.

Puppets, polluters, and profiteers, assassins and arsonists, they float and
flap in their caverns of atavism; they don't need a nation. It is the
millions of Indians, duped and degraded by them, who do. Let them defend it
with all their might for the values they cherish - for peace in the
sub-continent, and progress towards justice and prosperity within the
nation. Let them cleanse India of the absolute evil that Hindutwa embodies.

25 Oct. 2000

_____

#5.

>From Economic and Political Weekly
Oct. 7, 2000

Politics of Elite and Communalism
Book review, ' Communalism in Indian Politics' Rajni Kothari , Rainbow
Publishers, Delhi, 1998, Price,H.B. -Rs. 245

by Ram Puniyani

The lopsided growth of Indian society, has gone through diverse
trajectories during last 50 years. While on one side the rise of
substantial elite and middle classes have accompanied the economic
policies pursued by the state, on the other side it has also resulted in
marginalisation, deprivation and pauperisation of a vast chunk of rural
and urban poor. The complex phenomenon of democratic and urban processes
has not unfolded itself completely with the result that the oppressed and
the exploited have also seen an attack on their potential democratic
space. It is in this backdrop that Rajni Kothari traces the trajectory of
Indian state, the downfall of Congress, the rise of elite and middle
classes and the growth of communal virus in this society. The complex
phenomenon of democratic processes has not unfolded itself completely with
the result that the oppressed and the exploited have also seen an attack
on their political democratic space. It is in this backdrop that Rajni
Kothari traces the trajectory of Indian state, the downfall of Congress,
the rise of elite and middle classes and the growth of communal virus in
the society.
Kothari a leading human rights activist has grappled with the problem from
the viewpoint of a scholar-activist. This compilation of essays most of
which were written at different times even before 1984 and 1992, as per
the author have continued relevance and many a concept delineated by him
earlier seem to have a greater bearing now. This is a valuable addition to
the scholarly works, which have come out on this issue. Kothari's sharp
perception of social dynamics at the level of society, state and politics
of ruling parties comes out as a contribution which fills in many gaps in
the earlier works on the subject. To begin with the author points out that
unlike in the west where the word communalism stands for community based
positive action, in south-Asia it stands for conflicts between various
religious communities, he also makes a very relevant point that 'the main
thrust of nation building was on democracy, development and social justice
built into the conception of secularism was a special regard for
minorities and their rights; though minority communalism was as much to be
discouraged as majority communalism." (Pg 7)
He is able to relate the
rise of communal problem with the changing form of state. The core of
this new change had been the insensitivity of the 'new' state to
socio-economic problems and it's growing primacy of communal and
chauvinistic dimensions. These have occurred due to change in the system,
from the one based on centrality of politics and seeking to replace it by
the views based on experts and technocrats, who generally articulate the
aspirations of the corporate sector, import sector and multinationals. As
per their views Indian state had been very open and tolerant to the views
of 'trade unions', and of deprived sections of society like slum dwellers,
adivasis etc. and if India has to catch up with the advanced states then
these roadblocks' (sensitivity to the aspirations of the deprived
sections), has to be removed. This philosophy of technocratic model also
propounds that technology provides a great spur for national power,
greatness and unity. The regime should be 'stable' to implement these
policies for which even if "the religious and ethnic minorities, the
national peripheries and various kinds of popular movements have to be
'fixed' or bought over, this should of course be done" (Page 39)
Thus here one finds a meeting point of technocratic model of state and a
communal model of nation. It is in this context that more and more middle
class sections come to think of society essentially in communal terms, the
'other' of which is misplaced tension and hysteria about threats of
national unity from extremists, terrorists etc, which in turn legitimises
the primacy to communal angle over the pressing socio-economic problems
like growing unemployment and marginalisation of vast sections of people.
The first few decades showed a fair 'stability' of the system despite
increasing problems because the downtrodden hoped that solutions to their
problems are in the offing ( a la Garibi Hatao and the likes), and this
also got reflected in the growing participation of these sections in the
democratic processes. Lately with the idea of homogenisation, the
diversity, the very soul of the society is being projected as a problem.
It is not the poor and the underprivileged but also the religious and
ethnic minorities who have been making demands. It has been a period of
considerable assertion of the minorities, of nationalities at regional
levels, of tribal movements for independent homelands, and of greater
autonomy at the state and lower levels. A greater demand for a truly
federal structure has also been growing." (Pg 66) Developing his theme of
technocratic state he further points out that a technocrat need not
necessarily be more secular. This new style manager derives strength from
the philosophy of homogeneous techno-economic push" and he finds managing
diversities as a distraction from his goal, and thus this model of nation
building leads to a chauvinistic perspective, "Increasingly the Hindus are
perceived as the majority. Which should have a hegemonic voice in the
running of the state and with which other minorities should fall in
line"(page 66)
Explaining the matching changes at electoral level the author points out
that after 1969, there emerged an electoral coalition of the Congress,
representing, Muslims, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, some depressed
castes and Brahmins, which also allied with significant southern forces.
Over a period of time elections rather than heralding the process of
social change have come to become the instruments of status quo. In
addition there is occurring a mix-up between the nationality, and regional
aspirations, which are being put on par with communal and sectarian
tendencies. This in turn is resulting in some dominant castes or even
linguistic groups who are faced by the challenge from the lower classes
giving this challenge a chauvinistic character. The example of Marathas in
Maharashtra, who have closed their ranks against all non-Marathas, giving
it an anti-Dalit, anti-Muslim, anti-lower caste form which is just a
whisker away from assuming the role of gaurdians of Hindutva. This is very
apparent in the latest turns in politics of Maharashtra. This way dominant
caste assume the communal character and some is visible in case of Gujrat,
Haryana, UP, Andhra Pradesh as well.
Thus the social manipulation of
diversity and plural identity in communal direction explains the rapid
communalisation of these states in 80's. In this context Kothari, in a
very penetrating analysis brings out the deeper dynamics of
communalisation of society in last two decades or so. This phenomenon is
in association with de-ideologisation of politics, comes as a backlash
against the peoples movements and mass upsurges, has been accompanied by
the lumpenisation of politics begun by Sanjay Ganbhi phenomenon and taken
to it's extreme later by the likes of Bajrang Dal, and is accompanied by
the newer phase of capitalism, globalisation without hindrances, where the
informal sector of work force is rising at the cost of the sector of work
force who have better chances of getting organised.
The communal scenario draws
heavily form the current economic policies, which have resulted in
division between 'Two Indias'. " It is a theme of two Indias in which
development or even democracy have led to a kind of division between
those with access to power, privileges, resources and positions and the
rest who didn't have access to these positions and previleges and one left
out of dominant techno-economic models around which the modern state is
sought to be steered. These are poor, the untouchables, the tribals, the
backward classes, the lower castes and also large sections of religious
minorities. And of course, most important of all, women." Kothari points
out that atrocities of the poor communities at the hands of upper
castes/elites , ultimately take the turn to anti-communal violence. The
newer idea occupying the common social thinking is that the poor and
deprived sections are the ones who are retarding the pace of progress and
they are the roadblocks to a powerful Indian state, and thus they are
dispensable sections of society.
The other theme
which Kothari develops very systematically is about the transition of
Congress from the ideologically commited phase of 'Garibi Hatao' to first
when Indira and then Rajiv encashed on the commuinalisation of society and
in the process reinforced the status quo. Indira as such was the first one
to recognise the potential of communal politics for remaining in power and
after her return to power in 1980, she completely changed the ground on
which the Congress stood. In the process the earlier coalitions were also
changed, i.e switching over to the urbanised middle and lower middle
classes in the Hindi heartland, she did instill the danger of Nation's
unity, to garner their electoral support and that converted the Punjab
problem into the Hindu-Sikh problem. In the same mould Rajiv, supported by
a vast network of RSS volunteers in post Indira mudrder election of 1984,
played the fundamentalist appeasement and in Shah Bano case and in opening
the locks of Babri Masjid, Kothari remarks,'In turn this spurned
communalisation of responses from the opposite sode too, from Sikhs, The
Muslims, the depressed castes, the tribal hinterlands, the peripheral
nationalities. Majority communalism spurs minority communalism too and
vice versa" 4b)
Kothari takes up the growth of
communal whims in a fairly systematic way, locating it in the social
dynamics, which has thrown up different sectors of society, elite on one
hand and disadvantaged Dalits and minorities on the other. He brilliantly
links with the homogenisation idea, floating in the air and looking doown
upon the ethnic and religious diversities and small cultures. The
modernised Hindu minority, the upper castes/elites, enriched by the
economic policies pursued by the state, are out to hegemonise the society
appropriate most of the social previleges to themselves and are out to
create a synthetic majority. 'Indian society has for centuries lived
through tremendous diversity, including the diversity of a horizontal kind
with every caste grouping having it's own lifestyle and it's own gods and
godesses, each rural folk culture having it's own identity, a society made
up of a series of communities. These do not add up to being a majority'.
The ides of a majority is alien to Indian culture' (page 67). The external
threat of Pakistan in present themes is a permanent theme song of this
so-called majority.
Analysing the phenomenon
in a slightly deeper way he goes on to comment "Hindu communalism began
first within Hindufold, against lower castes and untouchables and the
like. Upper caste Hindus are far more prejudiced against and contemptous
of lower castes than they are of other communities"(Pg. 68). The role of
cultural revivalism is not brought out very clearly though there is a
brief mention of role of culture in the process of strengthening the
cultural problem. He correctly located the rise of communalism as a
backlash to the rising assertion of lower castes, the landless and the
tribals and to the newer social movements which give expression to these
aspirations. As the lower castes, exploited are getting stirred up they
challenge the hegemony of the upper castes and the latter hit back in the
communal constructs and onslaughts. The dominant privileged minority has
not only succeeded in projecting itself as a majority but has got away
with selling the point that the communalisation of minority is
communalism, while the communalism of the majority is nationalism. The
observation of his sum up of the ideological successes of the majoritarian
communal forces.
The strongest point of the book
and it's highest merit lies in the analysis of the caste problem and Dalit
issues. In the light of the exloitation and atrocities against them the
dalits have become concious of their rights and have started to assert
themselves. "Entire communities are found to be in deep turmoil, face
constant humiliation and growing erosion of their identity and sense of
being part of civil society, the nation and the state."(page 167). These
days casteism is being equated to communalism only because the equations
have changed. Till the time caste conciousness was the preserve of the
Brahminic upper caste, it was respectable. Today the sufferers from within
the system(caste) are invoking caste identity and claims. And those who
want to overcome it are using this caste identity to break it, and that's
why again the upper caste backlash equating casteism with communalism. For
Kothari', "Caste can be oppresive but it can also provide a basis for
struggle against oppresion. It can at once be a traditionaliser and a
moderniser. It has the potential to be a two pronged catalyst: as a
preserver of collective identity as well as an inhibitor of the same
hierarchical order from which from which the collective identity is
drawn. Furthermore, certain types of caste mobilisation are also pitted
against communalism of religious and sectarian type and hence my
characterisation of it as a 'secular upsurge' against which eminent
sociologists have expressed their disagreement". (page 172). Caste can
thus be 'identity giving' as well as 'identity eroding' factors in social
dynamics. Kothari most correctly holds that the role of Dalit movement can
be historic in rolling back the onslaught of fascist and fundamentalist
movements . Though this reviewer will fully support his contention, he
also feels that the status of Dalit movement today is highly fragmented,
full of corrupt, opportunist leadership at present, does not give any
impression at all that it can fulfill this task, which is a prerequisite
for it's own liberation. At the moment the scales semm to be tilted in
favour of of the elite led Hindutva (a mix of fascist and fundamentalist
features) which is not only able to co-op a section of Dalits to itself by
a clever social engineering, but it ios also actively breaking the
possibility Dalit unity and other oppressed alliances espeacially the one
with the oppressed minority community. One hopes this comment is
applicable for the temporary slumping in the movement and that Kothari
will prove right in the long term sense.
The brilliant contribution
by one of the foremost social scientists of our time is full of excellent
insights at the phenomenological level. One cannot doubt his exposition of
the caste problem which may be amongst the best, one has come across so
far. One does not have even an iota of doubt that the dynamics of change
of state, and congress party are true down to the core. Despite these
valuable insights the book fails to throw light on the subtle difference
between the use of communalism tesorted to by the Congress and the one
being spearheaded by the Sangh parivar (RSS, BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal, ABVP
etc.). No doubt Indira and later Rajiv were the first to jump in the
bandwagon of communal politics, for them it essentially remained to use
the phrase used by Aijaz Ahmed, a pragmatic affair, an opprtunist use of
this demon. Having recognised that the ground is fertile for their
'programme' of Hindu Rashtra, the Sangh parivar rghtfully too over the
whole movement with ease. The twin aspects of the social base of this
communal politics, a 'homogenised' nation state and 'hegemony of the elite
were 'successfully', integrated into the comprehensive project of the
Hindu right in the slogan of 'one nation, one people, one culture' i.e
Hindu Rashtra. Thnought the Congress did use this monster against the
ethnic aspirations of Sikhs. It's pragmatisation could not take it beyond
operation blue star and anti-Sikh pogroms in Delhi. While the communalism
of the Hindu right is bursting at the seams with the agenda which has only
roed in the elites/upper castes/middle classes in the Hindi Heartland but
is also making inroads into the southern states as the incidents of
Coimbatore are a clear signal in that direction.
Again the
author does not delve deep into the 'movement' of the middle classes which
sustain this movement, the tilte of the cover raised hopes that this
distinguished contribution to social dynamics may take the debate of
fascist-fundamentlist nature of the Sangh Parivar, a wee bit deeper.
Probably here his expositions on modernity are also not adequate enough to
explain the painfully slow pace of secularisation process in our society.
Modernity cannot just be seen as a an introduction of new technology. It
heralds the onset of newer social relationship based on 'Libert, eqaulity,
fraternity', breaking the bonds of feudal structural hierarchise to bring
in the fluid bourgouise hierarchies which can give a potential liberal
space for the stuggles of the oppressed, those on the lower rungs of
heirarchy.
All in all this outstanding contribution
takes the understanding on communal issues further than the earlier
contributions by Basu, Datta, Sarkar. Sarkar and Sen( Khaki shorts,
saffron flags), Achin Vanaik,(communalism contested) and Christophe
jafferlot(Hindu nationalism), especially on the issues of the role of
state and the analysis of issues of role of state and the analysis of the
Dalit issue.

Ram Puniyani
Secretary-EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity)
B-64, I.I T. Qutrs,Powai Mumbai 400076
India