| Dear friends: While different people- from Yoga gurus to Anna Hazare go on fast to protest against corruption in India- one needs to ask whether such approaches are good or do they land up suppressing large scale dissent from oppressed groups, with 75% of India living under $2 per day per capita (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty). Other reasons for absence of large scale dissent in India include i) Populist schemes of government like free/subsidized distribution of rice, television, grinders, gold etc which do not question the unequal distribution of assets/income, returns to labor, usurpation of natural resources, ii) The inadequate emphasis on labor intensive growth by government and on dry land agriculture growth (MNREGS is palliative and poorly implemented, rarely in manifesto of state specific parties), iii) Initiation of schemes like SGSY without linking them to land redistribution or rights to ponds, forests, tanks, markets. iv) The anti-Dalit sentiment by upper and middle castes, the blindness of society towards poverty, the upholding of patriarchal values, phobia towards people of diverse sexual/gender identities, Muslims*, etc. v) Belief of people in institutionalized religion and that one's religion is superior to that of the others. vi) Emergence of NGOs under corporate control as well as NGOs which engage in service delivery (which should be done by government). NGOs' role should ideally be restricted to making state and inter-state organizations accountable or showing replicable models of making oppressed groups take control over livelihoods and assets along value chain and making households, community and markets accountable. vii) The internationalization of good social movements by INGOs by funding them, with leaders being pulled to different countries to speak. Cannot technology be used to speak from here? Viii) Inadequate back up support mechanisms for few non party political formations that have survived this onslaught. It is time to challenge the yoga guru and middle/elite class led development and protest models and ask the oppressed (50% of whom are Dalits and Adivasis in India (bahujannews.blogspot.com/.../zestcaste-my-response-to-ashok.html), majority are unorganized workers- with women amongst them being more marginalized) what they see as Just model (s) of development, governance, spirituality and sustainable living. It is obvious that neither unfettered capitalism nor communism has worked. Instiutionalised religion is divisive. If necessary, one could expose oppressed to different interpretations of Ambedkar, Lohia, Paulo Friere, Andre Gunder Frank, Marx, Che Guevera, Trusteeship of Gandhi, etc, pose a few questions and leave it to them to evolve a model which is non violent. Listening to the songs of 70 year old Naynamma, a dalit from Thervoy Kandigai, Tamil Nadu I feel she could teach us a lot. Dalits, Adivasis and Sufis also follow a lot of non-institutionalized spiritual and sustainable living practices and follow their own governance systems (though not equitable in all aspects of diversity). FURTHER IT IS TIME TO GIVE FELLOWSHIPS TO OPPRESSED GROUPS WHO HAVE LED STRUGGLES OR RESOLVED CONFLICTS TO FORM PREVENTIVE STRUGGLE and CONFLICT RESOLUTION COMMITTEES (WITH LEADERSHIP BY THEM) AND NOT CURATIVE ONES AFTER (INTER) NATIONAL CORPORATE CONTROL, STATE CONTROL AND CONFLICT STARTS. OTHERWISE THERE IS A DANGER THAT SOONER OR LATER SPORADIC PATHS OF VIOLENCE MAY SPREAD FURTHER. AFTER ALL OPPRESSED ARE NOT FOOLS. FURTHER, WITH TECHNOLOGY AND FREE DISTRIBUTION OF TELEVISIONS PEOPLE KNOW PATHS OF PROTEST HAPPENING IN OTHER COUNTRIES. * 31% of Muslims are below poverty line, higher than national average (articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com › Collections › Dalits - Cached). |
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