This said, How is Mayavathi going to help the poor and oppressed. All she will do is build statues of Ambedkar and Phule and provide the illusion to the millions of the poor people she is one among them (she has declared her assets at 52 crores). It is Orwell’s animal farm all over again. You talk as if the poor will come to power if they vote for one of their caste. How does mayavathi represent the poor in any way other than belonging to some specific caste. She was a government servant in urban delhi before coming to politics. The politicians form a class of their own. The pro poor policies get diluted if you bring the caste factor in. As there are yuppies from all the backward, scheduled and castes they will eat the cake and thats what has happened in caste politics throughout. This is proven in Tamil nadu in the cesspool of dravidian politics, in Bihar, in UP… The need of the time is to think about development and not just think of caste. Hindol Sengupta atleast is honest. We need progressive leaders with progressive symbolism. Whats wrong with that unless you are so fixated on poverty. YOu claim middle class is worried about its own survival, which class isn’t worried about that?
People who think politicians from BSP represent the poor are living in a fool’s paradise.

Do yuppies have an answer to the problem. The reason few bunch of politicians are able to control a billion people’s destiny.

Look at the irony, the number of people who wanted mayawati to come to power were only 13% of the total eligible electorate in UP…..due to the dont touch me attitude of Yuppies and similar kin n kith…. who dont vote… mayawati gets to power..
For a smart lady like mayawati( i take the liberty to say so) its no problem to influence 13% of the total population when 50% of that was dalit voters.

But the question is, will reverse casteism solve the issue? For “yuppies” like me who don’t care about caste (which if you ask me is better in the long run for eliminating caste, or at least its ill effects), it only makes us more caste conscious — or, as in the current Gujjar protests in Rajasthan, even wish we weren’t one. Maybe then we could take the civil service exam 7 times instead of 3, or get our daddies to obtain an SC/ST/OBC certificate to get into an institution we weren’t otherwise smart enough to qualify by means of en entrance exam.

My father studied in a state where STs and OBCs constitute, I believe, 40% of the population. I’ve been told stories of those guys going out to watch movies while the regular students spent whole nights studying, of them barely passing – and still ending up with government jobs! But everyone must be equal. After all, maybe my ancestors had enough privileges in the past – its payback time, yuppies!

Of course, the media guys know more. I don’t really like going to villages to shoot pictures of poor children and emaciated people. But when I do look at them, and realize that us being born into what we are is purely a matter of chance (and not karma as my ancestor yuppies probably believed), I wish our country were a bit richer. Is reverse casteism going to achieve that? I do not know. It’ll be quite sad if it ends up pulling us back to where we started from though.

However, I have a pretty low opinion of some of the commentors here – they don’t seem to have understood your point. Hindol was honest, and he openly (out of naivety, perhaps) admitted things which a large part of the middle class knows but won’t admit. Instead, some try to just poke fun at it or be contemptuous as if he is an aberration. He is not, and he speaks for a substantial bunch of people, and that opinion, right or not, should be treated at face value.

There are more such biases. A Mayavati makes a large part of my Malayalee community (irrespective of caste) cringe. So does a Mulayam. I am sure many cringe at an Advani, or a Sonia. There is nothing to poke fun about there, and I mean this for your readers, not you.

For my class of people, however much a Lalu or Mayavati betters the lot of many, remain people who can ‘lower’ our quality of life and level of political discourse. As a class which has no voting power to keep them out, as political underdogs as the lower castes and the poor take over more political power, I believe those fears need to be addressed. You and blogs like yours can go a long way in doing that – something a Mayavati or Mulayam is hardly interested in.

Hindol mentioned another example – which you haven’t mentioned here. He spoke against the arrest of Chandramohan, while his cameraperson said no one insults his gods. He is afraid of a takeover by the illiberal. Legitimate fear?

gayi vo baat ki, ho guftagu to kyoNkar ho,
kahe se kuchh na hua, phir kaho to kyoNkar ho.

ulajhte ho tum, agar dekhte ho aaina,
jo tum se shehr meiN hoN ek do to kyoNkar ho.

jise naseeb ho roz-e-siyaah mera sa,
vo shaks din na kahe raat ko to kyoNkar ho.

Am writing this quick comment just to tell you that I am a no- class “neo-literate, village-bred, government school-raised middle aged” person and still staunch anti-reservationist. Please don’t generalize! I know many “MEMCRY” who are staunch reservationist and reaping the fruits of reservations for generations.

Again, Sengupta’s article is a sick one, but why bring reservation and all to criticize it!Whom are you fighting here?

I blogged about it too some time back. You can read it here if you so wish:http://smokeringsofmamind.blogspot.com/2007/05/much-mangled-media.html

T.O.

I think Sengupta hints at something more than the ‘objective’ position- he mentions the enormous power wielded by the middle-class- in terms social capital, economic power, access to global economy and opportunities arising through the global window, but does not seem to think much of it. He mentions that the middle-classes don’t matter as a vote-bank, but forgets that our higher judiciary and top bureaucracy is entirely middle-class, and hence, a large part of the middle-class worldview resonates in the state machinery already. Sengupta seems to have ignored or underestimated the role played by agencies like the Planning Commission, other non-elected governing bodies, which are significant avenues of power and influence especially in an unwieldy democracy. Sengupta seems to have also assumed the ‘objective’ point of view in imagining that the middle-classes are immune to corruption- cambridge-educated leaders, judges, bureaucrats, corporate top bosses across the world have not exactly lived up to the rational, squeaky clean, mega-efficient, accountable portrait that Sengupta seems to have painted. On the other hand, I don’t agree with Shivam’s pristine picture of Dalit political leadership either. Had a Mayawati or Yadav been the key solution to caste-marginalisation, UP and Bihar would not pick up guns everytime an election was around. Had the CP(I)M been representative of the ‘proleteriat’ it would not be feeding land to big corporates today. I think our intellectual urge to analyse drives us soemtimes to simplify power equations, because the other option would be to leave the puzzle unsolved, which is an urge I identify with, but wish away…

Yet, somehow middle class subversion remains far more appealing than caste-based hero worship.

Hindol was honest about himself. And Yuppie or no yuppie, he has a point. Castes may be churning, but what about the schools and the hospitals? Next election, inshallah, these shall matter more than sadhu, taraazu and talwaar.

(Hindol Sengupta)

Now someone needs to start a little ‘chanda’ fund, a little campaign to collect kisi se, paanch sau, kisi se teen sau rupaye, so that Hindol baba can be put on the next plane to some suffushiently suffustucated micro-emirate, where Angrezi bol bala waley baba-log with the right kind of manicure have the divine right to rule.

maybe theres a larger point that can be taken with regards to hindol’s piece…?

caste-politics in UP (and elsewhere?) are associated so closely with identity-politics which are, of course, vital and empowering and so on, and i don’t think that any of us (or anyone) would be in a position to take a normative view of a democratic vote (elite consociationalism?!!) – but what of the questions of what comes after identity politics?

you’ve emphasised (very eloquently, if i may say so) the importance of identity politics in driving empowerment, but this election more than being driven by caste seems to have driven by “sarva samaj”; perhaps a coalition of the poor, of the needy, more than one of caste alone? how will the dalit party’s emphasis on identity politics translate into other (more material, perhaps) gains such as education, healthcare etc.? i think it was weiner who said that with the exception of kerala, the efforts of states to provide material benefits for dalits remains marginal; “dalit politicians and bureaucrats and dalit associations and political parties have had little impact on public policies”.

mayawati’s win has likely impacts on the upcoming gen elections as well, with UP under her and a significant presence in neighbouring states, she could impact the votes of maybe 150 seats? so if we are looking at her in a national sense, what can we expect in terms of policy and planning that moves beyond what is seen as “dalit rage” and the politics of exclusion which mark the intersections between (dalit) caste and politics? much of dalit politics has been based on the need to gain power, confer dignity, self respect etc. – so with the assumption of power are we now inevitably moving to step 2: implementation? or can we wonder about that progression?

i’m not offering the “what will she know of global politics” line, because of course i agree that for atleast a decade now, in terms of economic issues, elections seem to have been won on issues of democracy and social justice but then policies framed have been macro-economic, elite ones (this is what yadav calls the “bifurcation of politics”… the bhasha-english divide)… but i am wondering how the shift will be made from what has been a politics of exclusion and discrimination to one of power and governance. in fact maybe i’ll stick my neck out further to suggest that to view hindol’s post as a MEMCRY lament alone is to miss the wood for the trees. the bsp is associated with amassing wealth, gaining power – what indicates that these traits will change now, or that they will work well on the natl/intl arena?

ps: and need i say, my views do not represent those of cnn-ibn etc. etc.

Jai jai mayaa maharaanee, tumahree kirpaa na jaay bakhaanee,
Tumhraa naam jape dalit jan saraa, tum unakee ho taaran haaraa,
Sab tumhree hai karay barai , tum unakee ho kaalee mai,
Tum gungan kee kariw khichai, apraadhin kaa jail pathai,
Jo tumhse hai karay larai, unko jail diyo pahuchai,
Unch neech jas gunde saare, tum unako kinho pichwaare,
Jitanee rahee fauz dhan saaraa, tum unako sab deen bigaaraa,
Unakee ijjat maatee me kinhaa, unase chheen talaab bhee linhaa,
Pahale jo the atayachaareel, unakee aay gayee balihaaree,
Ab un sab na karay larai, sabse rakhay mail milayee.
Aise rajya chalay kaa chahee, phir jantaa kaa chintaa nahee,
Hamrav ek vinay hai maayaa , hamre uppar kardo daayaa,
Diyo kahi par noukaree dilayee, tumharo gun jiwan bhar gayee,
Tum jantaa kaya karaw bhalayee, sabse rakho mail meelayee,
Tumharee kurshee phir jay na paye , sabkee jamanat jabt hoi jaye,
Sada karaw jantaa kay sewaa , sab kaa milay dudh awa mewaa,

Dohaa- jai jai mayawati sadaa karo kalyaan ,
u.p kee jantaa kaa Rakhanaa hardam, dhayaan,