Call for a neo-Dalit movement to overthrow feudalism, neo-fascism and neo-liberalism through a popular action
Ben Duboc ( Mr.Benoit Dubocquet)
India is a
beautiful country, land of diversity and land of great and long history
populated by many different peoples, from many different origins, and who have
many different religious, political and philosophical views. This cultural mix
in the long term and the amazing natural diversity made India one of the
richest countries of the world. But India seems incapable to enjoy this wealth
with wisdom. Many abuses are committed against peoples due to their caste or
their religion and nature is more and more systematically ransack for privates
interests. In that context, I would like to propose an explanation of the
causes of this situation in order to suggest subsequently a way to improve the
situation for all, and more particularly for the most marginalized.
According to
me, the mains problems facing the country came from two thinks: the
implementation of a "culture of
impunity" - which is a sharing believe that few can act without be
accountable for their actions – at the social, economic and political level,
and the meet of this cognitive problem with a context of market democracy and
economic globalisation. This explanation will try to explain how the
combination of those two factors – cognitive and contextual – allow the rise of
a neo-fascism state – an authoritarian state which want to make one country
with one nation – and the implementation of an aggressive neo-liberal
capitalism – which perpetuate social and economic injustice. By this way, we will see how the neo-fascist Hindutva project is use to
perpetuate caste domination and allow the Indian leaders to realize profit by
selling the country to national and international companies, and we will
understand how this economic deregulation marginalized lower castes and
therefore, strengthening social division on castes.
After that, I
will take time to propose a way to change this situation by calling for the
creation of a "neo-Dalit"
movement – combining shudras and ati-shudras from all regions. I will also
try to explain why this popular movement seems to be the best way to remove
this "culture of impunity" and how opinion leaders from all
communities have a great role to play on this major gathering.
I would add that I am writing
this article because I believe that many problems that face India today are
linked together and therefore cannot be separate both in understanding and
resolution. For that reason, I believe that the most effective way to resolve
them is to address the problem in a comprehensive approach that takes into
account the political, economic and sociological and seek to solutions which
take care about those different "linked problems" and based on a
popular movement.
A
multidisciplinary approach to a better understanding of the actors and factors:
India has one of the highest GDP
rates of the world. As a "developing economy" in a global world-wide
economy, the country tries more and more to insert themself on the
international market for goods and capital. This amazing economic growth is
beautifully accompanied by the establishment of democracy, and seems made India
as a paradise under construction. But this lovely frontage is hiding many
inappropriate practices such as poverty, brutality and nature destruction.
Let's begin this round trip of those practices by a little bit of economic
policy.
We can describe Indian economic
policy as a conversion to the neo-liberalism religion with a brutal "shut
up" ritualization. On one hand, politicians use India as a reservoir of
raw materials. They allows big corporation to rape nature, and destroyed a
fragile ecosystem who's allow rural peoples to live since the down of live, and
they sell all the national key infrastructure – such as water, electricity,
health, telecommunication, transport, education, natural resources – to
privates companies in order to make money through corrupt practices. This
privatization process of state and land is also strongly encouraged by neo-liberalist
global institutions – as the World Bank, the international monetary funds, etc.
In the other hand, such practices
of piracy again People – who is dispossesses of the wealth of his country by
political and economic leaders - are allows by authoritarian and violent
measures that government takes again peoples who trying to mutiny again this
spoliation. Police is using torture, army is sending against citizens who is
supposed to defender and hazardous legislation which makes both of them safe from
any penalty for the violation of human rights are enacted – as the Prevention
of Terrorism Act, which is as much used against terrorists than against peoples
who attempt to peacefully criticize these policies. During that time, other
legal texts are enacted to protect and attract multinational companies in order
to provide to them fiscal and legal advantages on a very broad definition of
what we call the "free market"– as the Nuclear Civil Liability Bill
which limits liabilities of Transnational companies (TNC) for nuclear
industrial disaster!
By this way, Indian leaders try
to create a good "investment climate" for big corporation, allow them
to play their dangerous economic game with all the right and no duties, and
with a few and controlled popular contestation. So India is a beautiful dream
for TNC and a daily nightmare for rural and urban workers. Furthermore, we should understand that this situation is dangerous, not
only because this seems to foreshadow the establishment of an authoritarian
regime which allow brutal political repression with impunity, but also because
this political impunity is put in place
alongside with the implementation of an economic policy of corporates
impunity.
But
this political and economic culture of impunity cannot only be fully understand
by the opening of Indian market to the international one or by the corruptive
practices that plague public and private institutions. Behind those external
factors, there is a cognitive reason which is also very important to understand
such behaviors among actors. I want to talk about the caste system.
Indian society has lived for
hundreds of years on a strict and rigid social hierarchy based on the
Brahmanism stream within Hinduism. The caste system - which so many peoples see
wrongly as concomitant to Hinduism – is a social organisation of society which
allows upper caste to do whatever they want – including mental and physical
tortures - to lower castes and women, who are considered as inferior. Those
last ones have just to accept this supremacy theoretically founded by gods but
actually righting by human to implement an unequal political regime. This
believe created a cognitive complex of inferiority and superiority –
respectively for the lower and the upper castes – which allowed the implementation
of a national culture of caste and social impunity, itself perpetuate by a
culture of silence created by fear, pain and lack of self-esteem of the lower
casts.
But the story doesn't stop here,
because all those "cultures of impunity" which allow a minority group
to govern and exploit the majority of the peoples can be partly questioned by
civil society organisations and protest movement who want to reverse this
cognitive and social pyramid or, at least, flatten it. For those reasons, power
holders use many means to divide lowers castes majority and divert them from
the key issues that face India - through communitarianism hatred – and ensure
their freedom of act as leaders - by enact draconian laws to so-called protect
peoples from communitarianism terrorism act that they contribute to create
themself.
So,
politics impunity and economic impunity are two side of the same social
impunity coin.
Social activists and lower castes who want defend their right and critics the
system are beating by the police and the army without any respect for their
humanity, while neo-liberalism allows upper castes and big corporation to make
profit with all impunity, because peoples fighting each other for religion
issues or because they do not dare to attack the Brahmanism power.
In this division process of the
poorest majority, those who try to keep their power use classical methods in
order to conserve their social position. They know that hate call for hate.
This is a universal law. And when government leaders begin to feed communal
hatred between their own citizens and practice authoritarian political
repression, we can qualified it as a "neo-fascist" state because he
implement a national culture of hatred against difference, and love – or at
least blind respect – for authority.
As an example, we can take the
case of the chief minister of Gujarat who calls for genocide again Muslim
community in 2002 to revenge the death of 53 Hindu who are burned alive on a
railway coach in still unclear circumstance. To achieve his bloodies aim;
Nerendra Modi used violence rhetoric of hate in the media in order to
stigmatized Muslim and victimized Hindu. And it is well knows that
victimization feeling is the best way to create genocider which, as terrorist,
feed their murder-craziness with the blood of the martyr and the blindness of
hatred fascist ideologies – as Hindutva project or Islamic communalism one. Mr. Modi was next hailed as a hero by RSS
and re-elected in Gujarat. Then, in 2009, this genocider was awarded by Ratan
Tata (from Tata Group) and Mukesh Ambani (from Relience Industries) and
received from them the Gujurat Garima award for the development of his policies
– which at same times endorsed him for prime minister in national elections.
What does this example means?
Just that some political leaders have an interest to create divisions on
society in order to conserve their power? Or maybe just that the true aim of
the Hindutva project is to divide peoples in order to allow traditional power
holder – upper casts – to keep ruling the country and keep easily running their
business with economic leaders? Or just
that those who promote genocide and mass-killing can do it with impunity and
that there are actually reward for this?!?
Actually, This example highlight
well that neo-fascism and authoritarian Hindutva project which feed communal
hatred and divide the poorest majority of the society is also promoted by
economic leaders in order to hide the implementation of an economic policy of
impunity, which is supposed to make India as an attractive country for foreign
investments and enrich both politic and economic leaders.
So, we can say that all those
political repression, police torture, bureaucratic corruption, economic
exploitation of human and nature, and rigid hierarchy of social domination are
allow as much by the implantation of those social, political and economic
cognitive cultures of impunity than by external factor such "the dangerous
cross-currents of neo-liberal capitalism and communal neo-fascism"[i]. As much
by the actors cognition than by the contextual factors.(Life Cycle Chart as
annexure 1 as attached).
The
creation of a popular protest movement through the reformulation of a political
identity:
We have seen that all those
problems which look apparently different are actually linked together. We will
see now that this multiplicity of causes can be overcome together by creating a unity process. A People's one.
What is the best way to fight
again a neo-fascist politics of casts and communities division? Unity. Which kind of unity can we
create to fight against caste system – which is the origin of social division
and cultures of impunity – and neo-liberalism – that increase the gap between
have and have-not and deprives many people of the benefit of natural resources?
A union of lower's castes. I mean a
union of lower caste from all religions, because misery doesn't matters of
theologies. A union between shudras and ati-shudras, or between dalits and ati-dalits,
and a union with Muslim lower casts and other marginalized peoples. A movement
of the poor and the abused people for breaking the economic exploitation and
the silence culture of caste torture is another unity. A movement is against
Brahmanism and caste system, but not again Hinduism and upper-caste. A movement
is against neo-liberalism capitalism, not against democratic capitalism based
on rule of law and pluralism.
I
want to propose this unity today because I think that this is the best way to
fight against this culture of impunity and because I don't think that change
will come from peoples who benefit of this system. So, structural change can
only come from the bottom of the social pyramid. I propose to call this
movement: "neo-Dalit", because this is the Dalit community who has
suffering most of all for this entire situation and because this name is
already synonym of political struggle created by Baba Saheb Dr. Bhim Rao
Ambedkar.
Of course, create a sense of
belonging to an imagined political inter-caste community may seem impossible,
as in the caste structure of society is old and perfectly integrated into the
everyday life and that this change of identity require a sacrifice from both of
those castes and communities. The Shudras must learn to deny their right of
lord (feudal) on ati-Shudras if they want to break free of their upper castes
masters. On the other hand, the extended reformulation of the term
"Dalit" also requires an ati-Sundra sacrifice, as these take away the
monopoly of the first identity that they recognizes as legitimate, from the
first name that they accept to name themselves and which is synonym of their
own political fight. The first name that their use with a little bit of pride.
This integration problem is even
greater when we try to include in this movement the "old" - but
actually still - lower caste who converted to
Islam or the oppress Christian and tribal populations.
Because of all those
difficulties, we have to well understand and emphasis the sameness among those
different social groups. First, we should make them understand that they are
both castes slaved and aliened by the upper casts. There are a majority who is
rule by a minority in a country who is theoretically become a democracy more
than sixty year ago. Second, we should show them that main economic resources
and power are hold by the upper castes, and that there is no sense to fight
between each other's or give a positive answer to communitarianism hatred
because such behaviors will not implement neo-Dalit lives conditions.
I talk about the classical
example of the landless Dalit who is fighting with a poor Shudra owner because
the Dalit cow damages the Shudra field for food. During that time, the rich
upper caste – landlord of a hug superficies where are often exploited Shudras
and ati-Shudras – has not to deal with this kind of problems, because the caste
mentality allow him to beat lower casts in all impunity, because lower castes
have internalized this brutal domination that they now regard as normal and
because the upper castes have police in their pocket. In this kind of
situation, we should explain to the Dalit and the Shudra that this conflict
situation is the result of their marginalize situation that they share together
due to the caste mind. We should show to them that they sharing a common
problem which require a unity response.
By this way, a united movement of
protest of this poorest majority will have enough power to fight – in a
non-violent way – again the rich minority who have seen from too much time as
"un-attackable", against religious leaders who feed hatred between
communities or divided lower castes, and against others corrupt officials who believe
that they can racked and abuse of poor peoples with impunity because they don't
have money to enforce their right in a corrupt political regime.
Because the "divide for
better ruler" politics is become an institution in the country: what
better answer than a unification process of lower castes from all religions can
we give to create a unified social movement again Brahmanism caste system,
communitarianism neo-fascism and capitalism neo-liberal.
A
union of lower castes against the castes alienation, a union of religions
against communitarianism, a union of the poor against neo-liberalism are three
fights lead by one community, the neo-Dalits.
But what about the means of our
fight? How such social movement of unity can emerge? On which kind of struggle
should it lead? These questions are important and needs to be asked.
The creation of a neo-Dalit
political party doesn't seem to be the right choice. Political party who want
defend the poor are not going to raise enough money to play the election games and
leaders who will be involving in the institutional game have good chance to be
socialize to the corruptive rules of those institutions. The risk is that see
them takes some distance with the people that they are supposed to defender or,
worst, playing the democratic game only for their own profit – as Mayawati
Kumari (BSP Dalit leader) who made hidden alliance with RSS (Dalit – Brahmin
social engineering, not attacks against caste system) because she expect to run
for prime minister election. Another way seems to be preferable.
I think that it is better to
promote a reconciliation movement between lowers casts and religious
communities in the grass-roots level in order to create contact between those
who was speared for a long by communitarianism and Brahmanism. Connection and meeting
are the best way to fight again dangerous prejudices that lead to community's
hatred and reverse the process of division between lower castes. But it is
clear that this unification will not appear "like that" and that we
need, first of all, to create a hug and strong network among all the civil
society organizations who fight separately for the Shudras, ati-Shudras,
Muslim, Christian, worker class, farmer, etc. Because the best way is to
achieve this union and create a neo-Dalit social movement of protest begin by
coordinated actions lead by a shared interpretation of our common problems.
For this reason, this present
call is destined to all Suhdras and ati-Shudras, to all organisations who
fighting for the respect of human right, to all progressive peoples – whatever
her/his caste, religion, sex or social class – who want to reverse this process
of state-privatization, abuses of natural resources and division of society
through hatred spiral feed by communitarianism, feudalism and patriarchal-ism
implement by the Brahmanism caste system and his Hindutva project.
But one question remains: what is
the best way to bring together different social groups? I think that this
process should begin by a closer link between opinion leaders and others
representative of those groups. This idea has nothing new. Few times after
India independence, Gandhi-ji has already show use that it is possible to put a
term to communalism fight by a non-violent way. I talk about what peoples
called "the miracle of Calcutta". Gandhi-ji was able to engage a
disarm process of all gang of the city, but was not satisfy by this victory. He
demanded more. He asks to the leaders of Muslim and Hindu communities to give
promise that they will keep peace between them. And, ho "Miracle",
Calcutta and his areas had never more knowing any communitarianism riots.
This history shows us how it is
possible to create peace between communities and how opinion leaders have a
great role to play in such process. For that reason, the creation of a
neo-Dalit movement can't only begin with an approximation of the elites. We
should organise much more meeting with all those communities representatives in
order to make them work together and learn to know betters each other's. By
this way, they will probably learn that they protect different communities
which deal with different problems but which sufferings from the same culture
of impunity and neo-liberal alienation.
On the grass-roots level, we
should broke the silence wall and enhance self-esteem of the lower castes in
order to give them back their dignity and make them actors of their own change.
Moreover, we should work to bring the communities together by creating some
"sharing public space" for Shudras and Dalit, and for Hindu and
Muslim. This last point is important, because most of the socialization
processes seem to happen on the streets – where every communities and castes
are together but remain speared in different district or sidewalk – and place
of worship – where ati-Sudras remain only tolerated by the others castes.
So, to resume my proposition, I
want to emphasis three ways that the neo-Dalit movement should take in order to
improve their political, economic and social situation. First, we can fight
again political repression impunity by legal process. Many Human rights
organisations are already fighting in this way in order to transform the
Brahmanism "rule of lord" by making them respect the "rule of
law". Second, the social impunity should be defeat by changing cognitive
weakness which made some peoples victim of their inferiority complex and other
peoples tormentor due to their superiority complex. We need to created commons
forums for neo-Dalit in order to break the wall of silence which leads to the
acceptation of this situation and to launch a speech process which will teach
them that they are equal and they are sharing commons interest.”
