[Reader-list] 'Insight'

[Shivam Vij]

Dear Friends, I once again write to request you to subscribe and support
INSIGHT. It is an outstanding journal being brought out by students of the
Ambedkarite Study Circle at JNU. It costs a very modest Rs.200/ for a
years subscription ($20/ for overseas subscriptions). Please add 10% if
you send a cheque. Please write to Anoop Kumar (insightjnu at rediffmail.com)
for more details.
       Many many thanks.
                                       Shiva Shankar.
                       -------------------

                  'INSIGHTS' INTO INDIAN NATIONALISM

                           Dr.P.Kesava Kumar
                         Lecturer in Philosophy
                         Pondicherry University
                              Pondicherry

The little magazine 'INSIGHT' of Ambedkar Study Circle, a group of Dalit
students of JNU, needs encouragement from Indian intellectual community
working for egalitarian and democratic society. So far most of the Indian
intellectuals and social scientists either kept silent about the issues of
caste or explained in a mild way. There is no much theorization about
various problems of Dalits and their struggles till the day. That vacuum
is filled up by the initiative of young Dalit intellectuals. Now, we can
feel proud that there are many organic intellectuals coming up from the
Dalit community and raising debate on various issues in civil society.
This Insight magazine is the testimony for this. The young scholars
committed to the struggles of liberation of Dalits felt that there is a
need to bring scholarly publication at popular level to negotiate various
political groups of university campus exclusively from the Dalit point of
view. They have succeeded so far in bringing the six issues of INSIGHT
though they are facing severe financial problems. The last issue of
INSIGHT was focused on nationalism and raised many questions in relation
to Dalits. INSIGHT set the intellectual debate on the question of
nationalism in India.

The word nationalism is loaded with emotions and had the capacity to
manipulate Indian politics. Any claim or struggle has to be silent in
front of the nationalism. Most of the radical struggles like naxalite
movements are forced to maintain silence on this issue, otherwise dubbed
as anti-national. Parties like BJP came to power so easily with
exploitation of sentiment of nationalism. They are consciously propagated
and succeeded to certain extent by equating Indian with hindu through
their middle class propaganda machinery. In the name of our nation, Indian
identity attracted people from all castes including Dalits and Adivasis.
This coincided with people's experience of threatening loss of culture and
collective life in the wake of globalization. Within no time people
realized that hindutva forces limited to cultural nationalism in a
selected way, but not connected nationalism in economic and social
development. They never bothered about swadeshi economy. Social equality
and social justice are not in their project of nationalism. Cultural
nationalism has no meaning unless and until it connects to social and
economic equality. In the scheme of this upper caste Indian nationalism,
social aspirations and imagination of Dalits, Adivasis, Women got
marginalized. Reflecting on this kind of situation, INSIGHT focused on the
issue of nationalism and debated various questions in relation to this.

On the question of what makes a nation, Telugu writer Gurujada Appa Rao,
first modernist writer, said that, 'Nation is not just land, it is of
people'(Desamante matti kadoyi, Desamante manushuloyi). Bendict Anderson
argues that nation is nothing but the imagination of a community. Taking
clue from this Partha Chatterjee explains that building of the nation
state was taking place simultaneously, one from the social aspiration and
anxieties of uppercaste hindu middle class from the above and so far
marginalized lower castes from the below.

Dr Ambedkar confronted with Gandhi and so called nationalist congress on
this issue of freedom of the depressed castes. He held the opinion that
social precedes the political. Social equality only guarantees the
political equality. From Gandhi to BJP hindutva are not interested in
addressing this question. Rather they feel irritated when Dalits raised
this question. When Dalits are asserting national identity through their
political struggles, it needs critical and creative intervention on this
issue. Otherwise it ends up with dominant discourses. The Editorial and
Editorial Collective reflects that INSIGHT is clear in understanding the
question of nationalism and raised the relevant questions in making Dalit
Nationalism.

Anoop Kumar's 'Jai Ram to Jai Bhim' is the experience of any ordinary
Dalit. His social experience provides the transformation of his self from
ramsevak to conscious Dalit. He put it openly without any inhibitions. One
should not forget that in theorizing anything Dalit social experience
plays a significant role. I hope his article helps other Dalits too speak
openly about themselves. As Frantz Fanon said to speak is to assume one's
own culture.  Milind Awad has explained so nicely how hindu nationalists'
target against minority Muslim, that has implications for the Dalits,
OBCs, Adivasis and women. Excerpts from G.Aloysious' celebrated book
Nation without Nationalism in India are really helpful in providing right
perspective to the readers about the discourse of nationalism. After all
any nation come into existence, with the struggles of the people.
Struggles shape the nation. History of the people could not be manipulated
for ever. I hope with the intense struggles of Dalits and other
marginalised groups Democratic Nation will come into existence.