http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=prasad%2Fprasad215.txt&writer=prasad
Cauldron of ideas The UP election has been a learning experience for me. Ideas, it appears, are at war with each other, post the UP win. Jubilation, speculation and apprehension have stormed Dalit minds in the State. The average Dalit with no direct stake in the political power structure is happy. Not that it expects any Government triggered changes in his life. For most, life will go on and the changes have to come from them. Call it surrealism, but that's how things are. The college-going Dalit has ambitions too. For him the future is bright. For the school-going, more facilities are required in education. The Dalit bureaucrat hopes for a better posting. On earlier three occasions when Mayawati ruled, the Secretariat was a Dalit hamlet; important departments were headed by Dalits. A section of Dalit social workers are now at a loss - what to do now, whom to blame? Dalit NGOs are devastated - who will fund them now as the society has chosen a Dalit to rule? The educated Dalits, however, are unable to answer a much deeper ideological question. A number of them seriously believes that Mayawati's UP magic might dampen the Dalit determination in dismantling the caste order. Some believe Mayawati's successes may result in assimilation of Dalit identity. Traditional Mayawati critics think her Dalit-Brahmin thesis and its success, is a setback to all Dalit movements. During my two-week sojourn in UP, I found a riot of ideas running through Dalit minds. Back in Delhi I did nothing but reflect on this. My dispassionate self-belief says that Dalit ideological sub-currents require an overpowering moderation. Believably, we are victims. Idealistically, we must emerge as conquerors. Dalits are, indeed, conquerors, at least in UP under Mayawati. To a section of the Dalits, the UP success is self-defeating. Success often make a person or society content. The situation often moistens anger or restlessness from within. The fundamental question that the contemporary Dalit movement needs to resolve is: Can the unrest within be an objective? Dalit movements have to make a choice - success or innate restlessness! For the Dalits, success occurs once the process of desegregation is set in motion. This process can result into assimilation. It had threatened the Black movement in the US. They fought for racial desegregation. In the initial stages, fear of assimilation appeared real as successful Blacks were seen moving towards the dominant White society. Their identity began changing. They had resisted Whites' given Negro identity, and asserted for "Black". As a class of them advanced, they resisted even "Black", and settled for "African-Americans". With a further rise in their status they reverted to their original identity, "Blacks"- with pride. All existing Dalit movements have to change their vision. They have to address the all important question - the difference between integration and assimilation. Segregation, separate settlements, separate wells, separate streets, everything separate, was not our choice. Since it is imposed on us, we fight against it. Can there be anything more humiliating than a regime of segregation? Dalit movements have to redefine their choices - should we perpetuate our segregation, or desegregate society and enter into work places, business houses and call centers? In other words, we must aim to liquidate all history-imposed social identities - including our own. That would mean making India caste-neutral in the initial stage resulting finally into annihilation of the caste order - a vision seen by BR Ambedkar. If a Dalit-led Government experiment has to expand elsewhere in India, Dalits holding all levers of power is not a sensible thing to advocate. As a minority, Dalits can be only stake hold in the power structure - with the caveat that, the power structure is presided over by Dalits. The UP elections have shown signs of change, we too ought to change notionally and nationally.
