[Reader-list] Revolts & Rebellions : Arundathi Roy Interviewed by David Barsamian

[anupam chakravartty]

"Continued diatribe against so called upper
class Hindus is a crap. It is a deliberate attempt to divide Hindus. How
many
upper cast Hindus, today preside over how many political parties in India at
national or state levels? The ruling party head at the centre who also is
the
de-facto ruler of the country is of foreign origin & not a born Hindu.
 Today upper class Hindus are also competing
in general category for the jobs reserved for the lower casts. One can only
derive sadistic pleasures in differentiating poverty & deprivation on the
basis of religion & cast."

I am supposedly a Brahmin. Yesterday, I spoke to a few students from EFLU in
Hyderabad. Every month Dalit students organise a beef festival in the mess.
Since beef is not readily available in this country, with a regime which
calls for a ban of the selling of beef, but have been also kidnapping the
animals from farmers (hundreds of instances in Rajasthan and Gujarat), these
students bought buffalo meat. What my friends told me is that they have this
festival every month.

A few Upper Caste north Indian students, mind you some Brahmins as well,
attacked these Dalit students. There are documentary evidences that these
students urinated on the food, threw it on the walls. Altogether the
incident left a bad taste beyond all the discourses and other things. It was
food. The upper caste students, from what I have been told said that how can
you organise a beef festival in the hostel mess.

Thanking you Lalit. I hope I am able enough, with my whatever caste identity
to keep replying to such "crap" over and over again.

Anupam


On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 6:44 PM, Lalit Ambardar <lalitambardar at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
>
>
> The whole conversation sounds depressing.
> ‘I’, ‘me’ & ‘my’ are symptomatic of narcissism that overlays the hate India
> campaign.
> Besides self flagellation ad nauseam by her, Arundhati Roy’s affirmative
> contribution in ameliorating the living
> conditions of the very people she purportedly is concerned about is hardly
> anything. She has a list of grievances but no concrete suggestions to
> remove
> those.
>
>
>
> It is because of her chronic hostility
> towards the state that she readily embraces even the proponents of
> ‘azadi-
> bara- e- Islam’ (freedom for Islam) in Kashmir.
> Her comrade-in arms- Geelani who like other Kashmiri Muslim separatists
> regards
> Kashmir as the unfinished agenda of Jinah’s religion based two nation
> doctrine
> & wants Kashmir’s inclusion with Pakistan has just declared Osama a
> ‘martyr’
> calling for mass prayers today in Kashmir. ADR does not mind this religious
> blackmail of gullible masses. Her rhetoric on Kashmir might be a
> moral-booster
> for Kashmiri Muslim separatists & their indoctrinated foot soldiers but it
> can not erase Kashmir’s civilisational links with rest of India. It doesn’t
> bother her
> conscience that those Kashmiri jihadists who self admittedly got trained in
> Pakistan & ferried weapons from there & launched anti India jihad in
> 1989-90 & who deserve to be tried for crimes against humanity are roaming
> free, practicing ‘politics’. Even the brutal ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri
> Hindu
> Pandits at the hands of Kashmiri pan- Islamists in the land of their origin
> does not cause her any indignation.
>
>
>
> Continued diatribe against so called upper
> class Hindus is a crap. It is a deliberate attempt to divide Hindus. How
> many
> upper cast Hindus, today preside over how many political parties in India
> at
> national or state levels? The ruling party head at the centre who also is
> the
> de-facto ruler of the country is of foreign origin & not a born Hindu.
>  Today upper class Hindus are also competing
> in general category for the jobs reserved for the lower casts. One can only
> derive sadistic pleasures in differentiating poverty & deprivation on the
> basis of religion & cast.
>
> Talking about exploitation of tribals, it
> was way back in seventies that a journalist ‘bought’ a tribal girl from
> somewhere in central India
> to prove a point. Continued apathy towards tribals deserves utmost
> attention.
> But is ‘violence’ the answer? Maoists’ guns have brought the Maoists &
> their overt sympathisers in the limelight but development continues to
> elude.
> Induced ‘Christianisation’ over the decades has only divided the families &
> communities.
>
>  As
> if all that is evil exists in India
> & in India
> only. Yes, we are no where close to claiming a system that ensures a fair
> degree of socio-economic justice. Crony capitalism is a serious threat. But
> there is a growing awareness of our shortcomings & positive activism is on
> rise. In spite of apparent pitfalls, it can not be denied that democracy is
> evolving in India.
> Civil checks & balances are necessary to counter the propensity to misuse
> democracy. If there was 2G scam, the media exposed it & the Govt. of the
> day is nailed. Civil society is pursuing introduction of severe laws
> against
> corruption. People are demanding return of Indian wealth illegally parked
> outside. Sustainability is the topic of discussion today. Peaceful
> awareness
> & opinion mobilisation campaigns would go a long way in nation building
> than antagonistic activism.
>
>  Intellectual
> manipulations do not bring about genuine revolutions & revolution need not
> be synonymous with violence or anti India hate campaign.
>
>
> Rgds all…LA
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > From: aswathypsenan at gmail.com
> > Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 12:50:48 +0530
> > To: reader-list at sarai.net
> > Subject: [Reader-list] Revolts & Rebellions : Arundathi Roy Interviewed
> by    David Barsamian
> >
> >
> http://www.malayalanatu.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=703%3Aarundhati-roy-revolts-a-rebellions&catid=15%3Aessay&Itemid=19
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