<"Critique of Mayavati is needed from the dalit perspective..."
What other perspective you find here, in connection with my reference, which was actually made in the context of an existing stream of criticism , which equally stakes claim for dalit perspective? This was made against Mayavathi/BSP for the too obvious ideological compromise with the Manu-ites, and there is enough reason to consider that this criticism, notwithstanding the jubilations for Mayavathi ,is not without a dalit perspective. It is not anything new that the BSP had made its debut appearance in the arena of electoral politics in India in the 1980s riding itself on the Ambedkarite vision, giving expression to the dalits' collective will of smashing the prisons of caste created by Manuvadis. Thanks to the combined effect of the Mandal and Masjid, the party could grow in strength since the late 80s. It surprised most of the political analysts when the BSP could share power with the emerging hard core brahmanic right wing, anti-mandal and anti-muslim party, in total disregard of the ideological polarity between the two. After not being able to cope with the contradicting interests from within the alliance, the BSP had soon to part ways with the BJP . If the people of India had not risen to the occasion in 2004 to rout the BJP & NDA, it could be anybody's guess whether the BSP would have liked to share power with the BJP at the Union level by offering a handful of seats the NDA might be short of support to form a coalition. Viewed against this background and in an emphatically asserted dalit perspective too, one can very well say that the quoted slogan (brahman sankh bajaayega, haathi age badaayega)raised by the BSP for securing power in UP clearly indicated serious digression from the path of criticising Brahmanism, and hence, the logical backtracking from any serious critique of caste itself. What exactly conforms to dalit perspective may be debatable not only among dalits, but also among all sections concerned with the struggle against the tyranny of caste and gender. One thing I wish to agree with Ranju (as obvious from his postings, though he hadn't used the same expressions), is that tailing BSP & Mayavathi without any criticism is not same as fighting Brahmanism and following the thoughts of Dr.Ambedkar. The other points you've raised against the arbitrary assumptions and interventions of 'cheiftains of civil society' in their purported attempts to educate dalits as though the latter are not capable of articulating and expressing by themselves appears out of context. Ambedkar had never retracted from his pursuit of struggling for the rights of dalits.He had never compromised anywhere in his life- long engagement with Brahmanism, for that matter. If anybody is suggesting that Mayavathi and BSP are trying to do just that, I wish less to agree than to disagree. The role of intellectuals, I believe , is not just to engage the 'soft targets' or the comparatively inconsequential opponents who may have minor disagreements. On the contrary, I believe that it is more imperative to challenge those ideas and assumptions in real lives that perpetuate hegemony and allows the perpetrators to get away with impunity, in systematically recurring and institutionalized forms of commissions and omissions. Regards, Venu.K.M On Mar 24, 11:25 pm, "ranju radha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Mayavati is into power politics > if issue based alliances in civil society could have "universal > brahman/"upper" casstes" why deny the same possibility in politics > > if Mayavati' could utilise the bureaucracy to make some changes (it wont > happen over night) that would be nice > like it or not chiftains of civil society should accept the agency of > mayavati and how she use Dalit/brahmin/OBC/muslim combination effectively in > UPs politcs.. > critique of mayavati is indeed needd from dalit perspective.. > the prblm is in the assumption that DAlits cant understand anything and > chieftains of civil society has to make them aware of it... i was > questioning it. > dalits from their day to day experience are theorising society/culture/ > they understood wht ambedkar said from their lived experiences > evolving dalit discourse will be testimony to > > chengara brings forth the agency of people and their struggle itself is > theorisation of critique of kerala model of devpt and class deterministic > marxist discourse of the region > > On 3/25/08, venukm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > With all appreciation and pride for Mayavathi ,let one also be > > reminded of this slogan, reportedly used by the BSP in the electoral > > campaign that led Mayavathi ultimately to the CM's post. > > "Brahman sankh bajaayega, haathi aage badaayega." > > Venu.K.M > > > - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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