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What The Statues Say
Badri Narayan
21 December 2009, 12:00am IST
If you travel through Uttar Pradesh's kasbas, townships or cities like
Lucknow and Allahabad, you might see some 20,000 Ambedkar statues. The
vast and sprawling Ambedkar Park in Lucknow showcases tall statues of
Ambedkar along with those of Kanshi Ram, Jyotiba Phule and Periyar.
Most of these statues were erected during three tenures of the chief
ministership of Mayawati (June 1995 to October 17, 1995, March 21,
1997 to September 20, 1997, and May 3, 2002 to August 26, 2003). After
Mayawati came to power with a clear majority in 2007, construction of
these statues gained momentum. Most of them were, and are, erected by
the Bahujan Samaj Party government, with the aid of the development
funds of several BSP ministers, MLAs and MPs. All this is being done
in the name of fulfilling the dreams and missions of Ambedkar.
Strangely, Ambedkar who advocated struggles at the grassroots for the
emancipation of Dalits was never in favour of erecting statues. In the
initial days of his political career, Kanshi Ram also criticised
Ambedkar's supporters in Maharashtra for betraying him by erecting his
statues. He used to say that, in Maharashtra, Ambedkar's followers had
killed his mission, message and dreams. He would ask, "What's the use
of erecting statues, crows sit on these?" It is difficult to
understand how the BSP founder later came to support the building of
statues of Ambedkar, Mayawati as well as his own.
The dominant features of the Dalit emancipation movement that Indian
society experienced were inspired by Ambedkar and led by Kanshi Ram.
The movement developed in the form of a BSP upsurge. Kanshi Ram argued
that the bahujan movement in UP was, in fact, the extension and
flowering of the Dalit movement in Maharashtra. He even used to mix
his own ideology with that of Ambedkar.
However, in the name of carrying forward the ideology of Ambedkar, the
BSP in the past formed a government with the BJP, whose Hindutva
ideology primarily strengthened Brahmanism. While Ambedkar favoured
the abolition of the caste system in Indian society for Dalit
emancipation, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati favoured the awakening of Dalit
and backward identities in order to link these with the bahujan
movement. Thus, in UP, to strengthen Ambedkar's vision, Kanshi Ram and
Mayawati transformed his 'abolish caste system' slogan into a 'promote
caste system' one.
So, while Ambedkar wanted it dismantled, the caste system was used by
Kanshi Ram to polarise the Dalits instead. The latter's argument was
that social polarisation based on the caste identities of Dalits and
marginalised communities was meant to oppose and eventually demolish
Brahmanical politics. Ambedkar laid emphasis on identity and the
struggle for self-respect, locating Dalits in history. In contrast,
Kanshi Ram mingled myth with history, popular culture with
intellectualism. He used pragmatic wisdom (vyavaharic vivek) as the
basis of his politics. In contrast, Ambedkar wanted to empower Dalits
by building their intellectual capacities in order to ensure their
political emancipation. His idea of emancipation was not memories or
memorials.
The basic differences between Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram are latent in
the development of their personalities and viewpoints. Ambedkar, who
studied at Columbia University, was a modern and intellectual leader.
Kanshi Ram, in contrast, belonged to a small village of Punjab, with a
critical stance towards Marathi Dalit politics. He evolved as an
excellent organiser of Dalit politics. Ambedkar believed Dalits
couldn't be freed from Brahmanism within the Hindu fold. He,
therefore, embraced Buddhism along with thousands of Dalits. Kanshi
Ram and Mayawati held an opposed view on this subject, the main reason
being not to alienate and anger the majority of Dalits who are part of
popular sects of the Bhakti kaal (era of devotion) of the Hindus, like
Kabirpanthi, Ravidasi, Satnami, Shivnarayani, etc. It was a wise
political strategy, which was to both link them and carry forward the
avowed mission.
If Ambedkar were around today, he might have paused and thought very
deeply before forging alliances with the Hindutva forces. But Kanshi
Ram was known to defend his political strategy without any scruples or
qualms. He used to say, "If someone feels that this is opportunism, my
answer is that if Brahmanism used it to strengthen itself, why i
should not strengthen the Dalits treading the same path?"
Though Kanshi Ram criticised the Congress and the BJP for practising
Brahmanism, he followed the path of these political parties. Ambedkar,
on the other hand, favoured an alternative culture, religion and
politics to assert Dalit rights; he held ideology and principles in
high esteem. Kanshi Ram, by contrast, adopted pragmatic politics as a
guide in the search for Dalit emancipation. He used to elaborate the
differences between Ambedkar and himself by saying, "Ambedkar used to
collect books, i collect people."
The difference between a thorough intellectual and a practical
organiser is, therefore, pretty sharp. The statues in UP are a
testimony to two very different political visions.
The writer is with G B Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad.
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