Knowledge Gap and politics of new labelling in India

Kaleidoscope is loosing its track as his country is giving him one blow after another, mostly below the belt. He is like many of his fellow citizens is bending lower so as to touch the ground to absorb such blows. Everytime he is trying to stand on his ground another blow from the most unexpected corner of the country comes.

Kaleidoscope is seeing new polarisation, separation and terminologies. It's the discourse taking shape of an euphoria of madness. Kaleidoscope has seen the newer constructions of the Minorities, Dalits, seculars, liberals, leftists, urban naxals as the facets to be isolated first and then eliminated. 

A complete disregard for the past, for the diversity and a rising 'might is right' policy and political practice have given rise to newer spheres of organised violence. Needless to mention the nature of execution, it's safe to assume it has successfully affected everyone around the corner. 

This everyone includes even the perpetrators too! 

The categories

For the students, it's facing a battleground with uneven weapons resulting in mass hysteria. To say pen is mightier than the sword means nothing unless your writing room is secured. 

For the Muslims it's a series of terrorization first by repeated incidents of lynching followed by the Babri verdict and then the fear of Citizenship Amendment Act. The silence from the statesmen in Lynching issues, the indifference of the administrative machinery and increasing marginalisation of the opposition voices have convinced a section of the population about the indifference of the Country at large.

For the liberal intellectuals, the attack on university campuses, arrests of several respected academics for their dissent and killing of well respected public intellectuals is the new India. Here, one can easily get a tag ranging from Urban Naxal to Tukde Tukde gang just by expression a dissent. 

What about the organised goons? And the brainwashed youth, including a section of the students? They too are becoming the new India, where they are taught not to tolerate anything other than what they are told through their organisations. The identity frenzy, the ready to beat up, the complete disjunctioned bundle of goons are graduating without any clue of the world, dreaming of a Nazi regime without knowing anything about it. They are short sighted like their leaders, and either cannot see the darkness coming to engulf them or are completely visionless to live for the moment as most of the capitalistic brands wants to build the late capital subjectivities. 

The knowledge production and consumption gap - 

One of the major factors that provided the ideological backup to the construction of newer labelling everyday is the gap between knowledge production and consumption. For example, Kaleidoscope belongs to the knowledge production Enterprise and strives every moment to produce something new, something different from what was already known. He is part of a community which is too busy to look at anything else but to work out something new and then sturggle to publish them in academic journals of high repute!

They are busy because it gives them the feel that being in academia is worth a life. These journals never pay back to the authors, but charges a heavy amount to it's consumers. Clearly, one needs to be part of an academic institution which has the subscription to even get a glimpse of what is going on around the world. Nearly everyone doesn't have the luxury. Meanwhile, the domains of post-truth has made the knowledge product unfounded and extremely shaky. The yellow journalism along with the Information Technology Cell belonging to most conspicuous violence promoting party have rapidly filled up the gap between knowledge production and consumption! 

The complex hegemonistic sphere has grown with a virtually free space for constructing a depthless present, an absent trace of hyper real. A range of items including the chest size of Mr. Modi to Tukde Tukde gang are real, perhaps more real than the blood oozing out from JNU president's stitches or the brutal lynching of the Muslims, being killed with an administrative aid!  

Apolitical bar and a 'cultural' Jai Shri Ram : Bengal Politics in a nutshell

It was a hot summer noon with the mid sun sucking everything that a human has to offer. Along with one of his close colleague turned friends Kalieodscope seeks refuge to one of the local not so famous bars. These are the bars where real people meet chat and perhaps discuss the whereabouts of the rest of the world. These are the bars which doesn't stop you from smoking while you enjoy your drink because it's ultimately your lungs and your decision, remember the famous my body my choice move. these are the bars where you get to see people across spectrum some engineer, some medical representatives and also some of the truck drivers and local political goons. These are the bars that can suspend the bars between classes, political identities and what not. Truly postmodern experience crystallized in the form of alcohol consumption located nearby. They are not going to give you fantastic foods or so called ambience. However these are the places where one can find out real feel for a sample of the entire cosmos which is happening around you and things which are making people affected.

So when they entered the bar all of the tables were occupied some by engineers one of whom was afraid of getting married but was sufficiently pressurized by his family, couple of medical representatives who like Kaleidoscope was looking for a refuge from the scorching sun, one of the local businessmen, a couple of local political workers exhausted with installing party flags in neighbouring areas in order to mark the territory of one of the political parties facing stiff challenge from the others, and also an auto driver who thought it was enough for him to earn for the day and grab a beer.
The thing that was striking in the bar was a couple of codes of conducts pasted on its wall. Kindly refer to the photograph Kaleidoscope managed to take.

Yes you got it right the bar was asking its customers not to discuss political issues and not to use slangs. It was quite clear that these two domains frequent in that space. Kaleidoscope's friend's fun full response to this is that it's a sanskari bar. However, when the couple of local political workers entered the bar they looked at one of the tables where one of the customers were previously known to them, chanted "Jai Shri Ram". Yes you got it right not Rum but Ram.
immediately the entire scenario of the Bengal as well as India's political terrain surfaced. People do not consider Jai Sri Ram as a political slogan and there is hardly anything that anyone can do about. Entire political landscaping BJP is capitalising on is by using the cultural baggages which is apparently not political at all. Starting from their campaigning strategy which uses social media that requires huge amount of money to their sloganeering that uses so called what Kaleidoscope had said cultural misrecognition. There is hardly anything that can be done at this point of time to convince people that these cultural misrecognitions are misrecognitions and not so called innocent cultural expressions anymore.

Kaleidoscope knows as many others that the the cultural ideological sloganeering and poitics is winning unhindered in most part of his country and its alarming.

The eight pillars of BJP’s rise in West Bengal in 2019

Contents

The eight pillars of BJP’s rise in West Bengal 1

1. Identity –Organisation interface. 2

2.Primordial identity beyond political identity: 3

3. Governance issues and absence of participation: 4

4. People’s disgust with Corruption: 4

5. Governmentality of fear. 5

6. BJP’s Organisation, Temples and money: 5

7. BJP as a new saviour. 6

8. Internal sabotage within TMC: 6


Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shown a radical surge in Parliamentary election 2019 in West Bengal. While many find this rise as unexpected and shocking, this article with the help ethnographic research in Rural Bengal since 2008 shows the possible reasons for such a rise. It appears that in recent past excepting 2016 when CPIM and Congress had alliance, BJP’s vote share is rising rapidly in the state. If one compares the 2016 Assembly election it is an astronomical figure in favour of BJP (Figure 1). I have been doing fireworks in different places in West Bengal since 2006. Based on such field experiences and available scholarly works in this article I explore some of the major reasons that has escalated BJP's rise in West Bengal, a state which was relatively immune towards Hindutva sentiments until now.

Figure 1 Vote percentage share of different political parties in West Bengal since 2006 (Source: indiavotes.com and news paper reports)

1. Identity –Organisation interface

While, the three decades of left rule was successful to install an interesting form of public transaction through ‘party society’ that undermined every other competing channel, it changed drastically in post left Bengal. There has been a surge of state sponsored festivals (both secular and religious) that permanently altered the political landscape of West Bengal once and for all. West Bengal is one of the soft targets for identity polarisation given the partition history and repeated riots and state's failure since independence to 1970s when Left Front took up the office. In my fieldwork sessions since 2006, I have been to places where Riot like situation was created during the Left’s tenure because of a) misunderstanding between the communities (e.g. a cow's leg was found in some temple, but it was carried by a bunch of jackles not by the Muslims), b) purposive attempt (to polarise) and, c) a mix of the two. These were managed effectively by the party society. Usually, a school teacher, or a govt employee would have informed the local party cadres to mitigate the tension even before it was formed. Whenever an inter-caste or inter-religious marriage took place, or for that matter any familial crisis arose, it took little time to become partisan. Booth Committee – Branch Committee – Local Committee has been champions of quick and easy fixing of a wide range of conflicts which could potentially spread and instigate further violence and counter violence. Such a mechanism of public transaction was completely wiped out by the TMC since 2011. After their landslide victory first, they assumed control over several Left Front’s party offices and then as an obvious political mechanism they sidelined the ‘party line’ of control. As an alternative to the organisation based system TMC depended on a handful of locally powerful elites. In several villages these elites are often the persons who had to give away land during the Land Reform movement and had considered the left to be their class enemy. This section had money and assumed control over a significant section of the rural youth. TMC used this mechanism and exercised control through a new form of party machinery which was unknown to the people of West Bengal. Over time, the individual dependent organisation structure started to show crippling chain of command, role confusion, area confusion and ultimately dreadful factions. When the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee depended on a significant number of film and like personalities instead of her dedicated party workers for giving tickets to the Parliamentary Elections in 2014, TMC’s inability to manage faction was clear.

As Political Society and Party Society got weathered away (as theorised by Partha Chatterjee 2004 and Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya 2009, 2016), TMC tended to depend more on the ‘cultural’ and ‘representational’ issues which Suman Nath theorised as ‘Cultural Misrecognition’. Nath (2018: 99) in Economic and Political Weekly shows that TMC “Instead of bypassing or substituting existing channels of public transactions, the TMC is inviting existing channels of public transactions to take place but within the templates provided by them.” Hence, while TMC undermined and dismantled the party society invited traditional Identity based mobilisations ranging from Shalishi Sabha to the rise of Religious festivals and religiousity. Although, with most of the TMC state level leaders’ association with Durgotsav, it is not surprising to see such an inclination towards identity-festival-TMC nexus after they assumed political control in the State Assembly.

As the party began to focus more on the festivals (one instance is the allocation of funds to the Ministry of Information and Culture from Rs. 61 Crores in 2010-2011 to Rs. 300 Crores in 206-2017), politico-identity issues began to surface from 2013 onwards. If one sees the number of riot like violence of the state it shows a steep rise from 2012 onwards (see figure 2). 

Figure 2 Number of riot like conflicts in West Bengal, Source State data provided to the Parliament

2012-2013 onwards two major policy linked events happened, a) provision of a monthly allowance to the Imams and Muezzins which was considered as an instance of Muslim appeasement by the state and b) Not allowing Durgotsav procession to go during the Muharram to avoid communal clashes. Moreover, organising Durgapuja Carnival has often been seen as a balancing act from the TMC. Ram Navami rallies started to spread rapidly since 2015-2016 and became aggressive over the years. AAMRA Ek Sachetan Prayas Forum, an organisation doing serious conflict studies in West Bengal had documented and Published several reports on the detailed nature of such conflicts and how these are connected to a) religious festivals including Ram Navami, Muharram and Durgotsav, and b) hoax faceboook posts in different parts of the state.

Once, the identity faultline was opened up, BJP capitalised on it by consolidating the Majority vote including that of erstwhile Left Cadres.

2.Primordial identity beyond political identity:

From the extent of vote share it appears that the reduction in Left vote from 23% to 6% and rise in BJP from 18% to 40% is self explanatory, but it would be a gross generalisation if one makes such a streamline conclusion that Left people simply voted for the BJP. In my ethnographic works, especially in places where active identity mobilisation has taken place since 2013, I have seen the proliferation of Rashtriya Swayamshebak Sangha (RSS) led organisations like Bajrang Dal, Durga Shakti, and Hindu Samhati which has a cross party appeal. In a couple of articles published in 2019 at International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV) and at the Journal of Indian Anthropological Society Suman Nath and Subhoprotim Roy Chowdhury write on the ways in which these organisations are pulling people from across the political spectrum in the name of “saving the Hindus”! There are workers belonging to TMC, Left and Congress who did not hesitate to say that party comes next to the Identity/Community. Such a divide has been percolating and tearing apart the public sphere through a variety of mechanisms that range from circulation of videos and texts via social media to tangible experiences of riots. If one observes the geographical dimension of the riots it appears that once there is a communal tension at one place, its adjacent places are affected within months. Among several instances we can imagine the recent conflicts in Naihati-hajinagar-Chandannagar and Baduria-Basirhat. While in the first instance a mix of population is notable (Nath and Roy Choudhury in IJCV article) which includes people from other north Indian states in the second instance significant minority presence is noted. As one of the TMC worker in Basirhat says “Nusrat has got votes because of her identity only, who knows her to be a party worker?... earlier it was the Didi factor, she could make anyone win, but now its Hindu-Muslim factor!”

While the popular film actress Nusrat won the Basirhat seat allegedly because of her identity, TMC lost with its veteran Dinesh Trivedi to Arjun Singh of BJP who recently left TMC. It has something to do with consolidation of Hindu votes in the region. Similarly, Assembly by-poll at places like Bhatpara is won over by BJP defeating experienced TMC leader, Sarada Scam accused Madan Mitra because of Identity polarisation.

3. Governance issues and absence of participation:

The discursive sphere of West Bengal since 2018 had one issue in common: the disgust of the people who could not volte in the Panchayat election. Three District Panchayats in West Bengal are won over by TMC uncontested. Additionally as the Election Commission of India data shows about 34% of all the seats from different tiers are won over by the TMC uncontested. Panchayat election has been one of the bloodiest elections that the state has witnessed in recent times. West Bengal has always witnessed high poll percentage, especially in Panchayat elections. In fact in a Bengali book entitled Shreni’r Drishtite Gram Panchayat, (Panchayat, seen through the Class) written by CPIM leader Dr. Surya kanta Mishra voting percentage is shown as one of the achievements of politically conscious vibrant public sphere. Indeed, as written by Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Bhaskar Chakrabarti and Suman Nath in 2010 in Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, even though there is a falling percentage of attendance to the annual Gram Sabha meetings over the years, Gram Sabha continues to occupy an important position in the Rural West Bengal. With DFID sponsored Strengthening Rural Decentralisation, during the last phase of the Left ruled West Bengal has seen special emphasis on the Gram Sabha led Annual Action Plan preparation. With the advent of TMC’s rule and onslaught of World Bank sponsored Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayat Programme (ISGPP) there is a parallel shrinking of space for participation in decentralised governance. Consequently, even though a number of schemes have actually catered the needs of the rural poor along with the improvement of rural connectivity and livelihoods support base, people got alienated from the Gram Panchayat. It is important to note that Gram Panchayats are not only an institution of governance, but it is an institution that entangled itself with the social fabric of rural West Bengal. For instance, a Pradhan (chef of a Gram Panchayat) is not only the office bearer but also a guardian of the region. He is called up to resolve family issues and often given a lot of respect in different ritualistic performances.  

While, on the one hand the party society was dismantled, sphere for people’s participation in democratic functioning of Gram Panchayat was also reduced significantly. In a 2017 article published in Critical Asian Studies, Subhasish Ray and Mohan J Dutta show how in Junglemahal (the forested western part of the state) Gram Panchayat decisions are being implemented bypassing the elected wing of the Panchayat. They argued that this form of “hyper development” has alienated people from the development initiatives. Clearly, People’s inability to vote and stopping people from filing nomination in 2018 election have backfired.

4. People’s disgust with Corruption:

In a 2017 Economic and Political Weekly article entitled “Everyday Politics and Corruption in West Bengal” Suman Nath showed how the corruption charges against TMC especially that of Sarada Scam and Narada bribery could not give any electoral dividend to the opposition. He further argued that people are quite habituated to become involved in the corrupt transactions in their everyday life. Starting with empanelment to employment generation schemes to getting houses, everywhere party demands money and people are usually willing to pay a certain amount if that speeds up the process. Such an everydayness of corruption made the corruption charges virtually insignificant. This scenario, however, has changed over the last few years. Allegedly, a large number of people bribed to get employment at variety of positions. News reports of such incidents made headlines every other day. While corruption charges are not new in West Bengal, last few years have seen complete open discussion of such bribery and corruptions in the public sphere. It was well known informally who were asking money for what. The chain of command was open and sometimes there were conflicts regarding the percentage share of the money among the party cadres of different layers. When, BJP came with an alternative form of corruption free governance system, it got immediate appeal to people at large.

5. Governmentality of fear

CPIM led Left parties had a powerful trade union among the government employees. For clerks and officials it was Coordination Committee and for other people occupying relatively higher echelons had a variety of associations. Transfer to distant places happened to be the most feared punishment to anyone getting involved in anything which party doesn’t approve. There were competing associations belonging to non-left parties, but they were weak and hardly had any command over how does the government function or make the decisions. Since 2011 these associations were dismantled through a variety of mechanisms and slowly administrative wing took over the welfare issues of the workers. While, it helped bringing back the much needed “work culture” of the offices, a large sections of the employees disheartened to see the rights to protest and participate in strikes were dealt with stringent action. A government employee for last few years is supposed to come not only on the day a strike is called but also the day before and the day after. Additionally, there are grievances related to significant difference in Dearness Allowance and delay in implementation of the Pay Commission benefits. It is said that based on the calculation of postal ballot which is issued mostly to the government employees who were involved in election, BJP wins about 39 out of 42 sits in West Bengal.  

In my ethnographic works in different government offices it is found that there is an ambiance of fear among the employees everywhere primarily because of two reasons. First, the stringent action taken against those failed to appear on the days strikes are called. Second, public image of the government employee has been affected by statements made against such employees by several political leaders. In consequence, there is an ambiance of fear of becoming subjected to public and media trial which is anything but a biased and often with heinous consequences. Government employees are not isolated from the society, rather they are important nodes to the web of society. Their disgust had dreadful consequences to TMC’s vote share and perhaps gave confidence to the BJP.

6. BJP’s Organisation, Temples and money:

It might sound unreal to people who know the political landscape of West Bengal if I say BJP has its organisation strength in West Bengal. However, throughout my fieldwork in different districts of West Bengal I have encountered BJP’s organisation in a variety of names. It includes pro-Hindu new organisations like Hindu Samhati, Durga Shakti and Bajrang Dal long with several existing temple, sacred grove based local organisations which get funding from Viswa Hindu Parishad and RSS. Apart from these, several places like North and South 24 Parganas, Hoogly, Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Bardhaman BJP in the name of BJP has earned popularity. There were already existing workers who earned confidence with regular visits by central leaderships and state level leaderships. There happens to be a silent movement “Meri booth sabse Majboot” (my booth is the strongest) among the BJP players. In several rural places in addition to identity polarisation and statement like “Hindus are in danger” they also popularised the notions that people need jobs and self reliance. They also campaigned based on the Panchayat level corruption and lack of democratic practices at the Panchayat. I remember before the election in several places there were saffron flags along with BJP flag hoisted in the paddy fields – something symbolically state the extent of political percolation in rural sphere.

With the rise of BJP’s popularity and cadre base, TMC local leaders in many places panicked. They panicked primarily because of the relatively chaotic organisation and confusing chain of command within their party network. Additionally, allegedly there was a huge fund flow along the line of establishing political control. During poll two BJP workers were arrested carrying one crore of rupees in a railway station which is symptomatic to the nature of illegal money flow during the election.

7. BJP as a new saviour

I have encountered several Left Front supporters and cadres in rural West Bengal who took help from the BJP cadres to come back to their villages and to fight against the alleged false cases registered against them by TMC. These are localised and extremely significant findings to actually show the reasons behind the left’s support to BJP. Additionally, a simple calculation of enemy’s enemy is a friend has been playing a background score. In this situation in addition to the identity issue and Hindu vote accumulation, Left’s vote consolidation under BJP’s banner is nothing but natural and instinctive.

8. Internal sabotage within TMC:

TMC has a practice of nominating people with little known political career behind them. These are the popular faces from the silver screen who managed to win in 2014 election but many of them failed to do so in 2019. As already discussed it was a master stroke of TMC supreme to deal with the internal and factional conflicts within the party where it became inevitable that nominating one would make the other angry. Instead, someone fresh, someone having enough “symbolic capital” earned from other field (like film and television, theatre, etc.) got the nomination. This strategy made internal alienation of the workers and leaders who toiled to curve out political space from the Left and now compete with the BJP. Consequently, before the parliamentary election several TMC leaders held open disagreement with TMC’s chain of command. Sabyasachi Dutta exemplifies one of those leaders who held significant difference in terms of TMC’s decisions. It is highly likely that there were internal agreements with the opposition forces in many places in exchange of money and/or promise of ministership etc.

There are several other individual and microscopic reasons for such an astonishing rise of BJP in West Bengal. Those require thorough studies. To conclude that the entire Left vote has changed its camp and got accumulated to BJP would always entail oversimplification to a much complex and detailed story. Each of the districts will reveal a different story of the rise of BJP, however, it is needless to mention whatever issues they have taken up the major axis of BJP’s rise is on identity mobilisation. A dimension which has been fuelled since 2011 and BJP being champion of it excelled and steered the benefit in their favour.

About the author:

Suman Nath, PhD, teaches anthropology in Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Government College, New Town, Kolkata. He is doing research on development governance and politics in West Bengal since 2006. He regularly publishes scholarly and popular articles in journals like EPW and news papers like Anandabazar Patrika. His book People-Party-Policy Interplay in India is due to release from Routledge, New York this year.

"There goes our last..." India and the imagined secularism

Congress President Mr Rahul Gandhi in a temple in Madhya Pradesh

How many of us remember the movie Ice age 3, where the Dodos are shown loosing their "last female" and the "last melon," one of the Dodos could blow the whistle saying "There goes our last female", "the last melon." The frustration was there but the the whole fun filled scene could transcend the frustration of the the Dodos and spectators kept looking at Sid the funny sloth!

This anecdote, I find quite apt in explaining what we are experiencing today in India especially when BJP has lost significantly in the Hindi heartland. Mr. Gandhi says "we defeated BJP today, we will defeat them in 2019 Lokesabha polls too" (click here). Of course, those who were looking for some respite from the fast intolerant India are happy. At least these results have given numerous people to grasp some air in their lungs, in their mind too. The kind of fast and furious Hindutva and monolithic cannonical approach will definitely face stiff challenge after this result. Or will it?

Congress predecided Rahul Gandhi's temple visits in each of the poll bound states. A simple googling will show the kind of pro-Hindu image propageted by Mr. Gandhi in poll bound states. For example in Rajastan Congress declared that Mr. Gandhi will be visiting three temples (click here). Ajaj Ashraf argues that Congress is desperate to remove the "anti-Hindu" label (click here).

While I wrote on the kind of alternative Mr. Gandhi gave by hugging his opposition and challenging the masculinity of the Parliament (click here), the temple visits has been a parallel development of Congress's strategy. Whether to term it soft Hidutva, is questionable, as I find each form of mobilisation of primordial identity carries the potential to turn violent, aggressive and intolerant.

India struggles to find its way to go beyond such identities, secularism whether as "Sarba Dharma Samabhaba" or separation of state from religion seems a distant dream.

Somewhere a few of the dodos continue to echo "there goes..." secularism - our last resort.

Sabarimala - there goes the secularism once again

Interplay of the hill shrine of Sabarimala in Kerala, a supreme court judgement allowing young women to enter, Pro-Hindutva activists results in whole country dancing in the tune of religious rights once again. Meanwhile BJP president Mr. Amit Shah's comment unveils already unveiled the fact that the party is nothing but a representative of  Hindutva ideology in a supposedly secular country. The protesters have jeopardized the law and order situation of the region and BJP finds it to be one of those rarest opportunities to use their age old, tested election winning mechanism - polarisation.

Let us quickly see the situation in broad spectrum:

The protesters:

They are on their way to protect one of the age old unjust prohibition in the name of 'tradition' against women with fertility. These sort of orthodoxy is nothing new and is to be found everywhere. There is no point in blaming the protesters just because they believe SC verdict will defame the sanctity of their tradition.

The politics with faith:

With Parliamentary election around the corner Sabarimala temple is a battle for political space in Kerala for the BJP. The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala represents the last bastion of the left rule in the country. Their positions have two important elements, a) they upheld the belief that everyone has equal right to worship and b) it has attempted to upheld the court directives. Most of the national leaderships including Indian National Congress (INC) have projected it to be a 'historic judgement.' With time and rising agitation INC, at least the Keralian form of it started to fumble and INC president Mr. Rahul Gandhi who, by the way, gave some hope against the aggressive masculinity in Indian politics (click here: 1, 2), had to categorically say that he believes men and women possess equal right to worship (click here).

What remains important in fumble INC, aggressive BJP is the fact that "secularism is dead" as Ashis Nandy mentions or at least alien as Romila Thapar mentions.

Gendered world:

No doubt, women represent one of the strongest pillars of patriarchy Sabarimala  reaffirms that once again (click here). However many young women journalists from CNN -News 18, NDTV, India Today, and New York times were made to step down from their vehicles. Then many young women making attempt to enter into Sabarimala are made to stop by violent means.

The essential element: 

No matter what happens with Sabarimala, its a win for those looking for making India a religious country, far away from the concept of secularism whatsoever. It is an attempt to work on the issue of access to a religious institution. Mr. Bijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala seems to be right as he says "It shows how an RSS mind has formed so firmly within the congress... but they should that if Congressmen join the agitation led by the BJP, tomorrow they will all become the BJP's supporters."

While Mr Rahul Gandhi makes visits to one temple after another, West Bengal sees increasing fall in the number of Left supporters with a subsequent portion of them going towards BJP, it is perhaps time to question the very foundation of secularism of the country once more. Why Sabarimala? Why Sabarimala now? 

Perhaps this is the time political parties look at their ideological training parameters which has somewhere gone missing, except for the BJP, they hardly requires any. They easily attach to the existing primordial identity structure. 

Zara Haatke Zara Banchke Yeh Hai CBCS Meri Jaan

Kaleidoscope happens to teach in an heavily understaffed college in Kolkata. It is so understaffed that even with their best efforts, a considerable percentage of possible classes are not allotted. Yes, this happens even after they exceed more than about 20% of their supposedly working hours as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) rules. Well as he knows UGC has become a temporary matter with something 'revolutionary' to install by the centre, curriculum has undergone drastic revision as well.

Now its no longer the 1+1+1 system, this is much awaited, hyped the CBCS system with a name that everyone happens to talk about the Choice Based Credit System. Kaleidoscope is not going to discuss the system and its flaws, because that will entail a research paper and Kaleidoscope hardly has the time for it. Let him just place his case in the broad spectrum of revolution that Higher Education system awaits.

Kaleidoscope teaches in a department with two faculties. To attain the CBCS demand of total 140 credits and 20 credit for the first semester (click here) Kaleidoscope had to set a routine in which which the first semester took away about 75% of their total possible classes. Think about the unfortunate second and third year (fortunately Kaleidoscope does not have a third year yet) students. They are left with no choices than to enjoy the underdeveloped campus. Yes, they can do whatever they want to. They can supervise the construction work, see the vertical extension or go to the shopping mall near and see how people enjoy the airconditioned built in neo-liberal economic spectacles. They will not have classes, nor they have a proper library which is yet to develop in this college.

The broad spectrum:

Kaleidoscope would invite you all to look at least at four recent phenomenon:

a. The move to replace 62-year old UGC by Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) based on no solid ground but a mere argument that "the existing regulatory structure as reflected by the mandate given to the University Grants Commission required redefinition given the changing priorities of higher education" (HECI 2018).

b. "uniform standard and quality... maintenance through systematic monitoring" happens to the second most important aspect HECI, hence a designed syllabus from which only a small percentage universities can change.

c. declaration of Jio Institute (which is still in imagination) as one of India's six Institutes of Eminence.

d. an increasing push on revenue earning through the institutions themselves -  a push towards privatisation.

Kaleidoscope's case - not unique:

Kaleidoscope's case is by no means unique. Understaffed colleges and universities are understaffed for both teaching and non teaching positions and now there is a centralisation of curriculum. This is expected to result in a large-scale failure of the entire system of the public higher education institutions throughout the country. 

Meanwhile, those of institutions of repute will seek an increase in the revenue earning as there is a push from the system itself. 

It is not very far that a parent will find both the public institutions and private institutions charging more or less the same amount of fees and that the private institutions having autonomy have developed better infrastructure including the number of faculties required to meet the CBCS like curriculum. 

The resultant factor definitely will be conscious beings making choices, yes Jio institute or the like will flourish by then.

Impact on society:

On a personal note, Kaleidoscope was once told by his father "if there was no Nehru with his socialist policies, I could not have afford to give you education even in the local school you have studied, let alone college and university." Yes, Kaleidoscope like millions of his fellow country men could not have studied if they were not given near free tuition fees, free books and wonderful teachers and no teaching uncles. 

With a push for unification and privatisation and eventual failure of the public institutions, people will seek private sector educational institutions. Now it is of no surprise to find that in All India Higher Education Survey (AISHE) the grtoss enrolment ratio has increased from less than 5% to 25% if one compares it with 1990s and 2016 - 2017. There is a notable increase in the enrollment of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) students which is about 50% in public institutions. What is the scenario in private institutions? Yes, as expected this is less than 27% of the total enrollment. Similar case is that of women which is about 33% in private institutions and 45% in the public institutions and this trend will increase. 

Hence, Kaleidoscope should not be seen as cynical if he finds a dark wall in front of him as he prepares for his classes. There will be campuses with biases, rising incidents of suicides by the underprivileged students as exemplified by Rohit Vemula. There will be rise in the fees to such an extent that families like Kaleidoscope had will not be able to afford, and there will be private institutions where only wealthy can educate themselves. There will be funding available for only departments like Centre for Rural Development and Technology at IIT Delhi, spearheading the national programme on panchagavya (cow science). Textbooks will be rewritten to suit a particular political agenda and so on.

Rapes and Riots: Controlled Violence in post Gujarat India

There are two different patterns of riots in India. The one that attempts to divide the country into two. There is a second that attempts to translate riots to electoral dividend. The first is wide spread, with high death toll and often political consequences often with a degraded political images that take years to recover from. If we look at the consequences of Gujarat 2002, even after the Supreme Court of India monitored Special Investigative Team (SIT) gives clan cheat to the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr. Narendra Modi (see livemint), there are confusions continuing (see India Resists) regarding whether it can be considered as a clean chit or not.

The dilemma:

Why should there be riots being linked to the politics with communal fault-line? There are two related and known reasons, first, religious fault-line helps propagation of particular forms of ideologies, such as those who wish to see India in a particular form of religious state in opposition to Islamic Pakistan. Second, religious fault-line often prioritizes issues which has no link to the deliverables of the state, such as the people's protections from 'others' - for so long, its the Muslim others. Meanwhile an Yale University study done by three Political Scientists have shown clear association of BJP's electoral gain from riots (click here). The second most effective method followed by BJP to gain electoral win is through coalition. BJP happens to be an expert coalition maker (Sudha Pai 2013 and Sridharan 2013 click here). Hence, there happens to be a double edged sword with which BJP has to move. First, it cannot afford to take part in a full fledged riots which can only make subsequent coalition building process difficult. Second, as I have already discussed with evidence, it is quite difficult to erase public memory, especially about the person held responsible in the public image.

How can one leave such a tested political game plan ever?

Smaller incidents and newer strategies:

What instead we are seeing in practice is smaller incidents of 'riot-like' situations, such as those in West Bengal and disturbing trends of rapes in Kathua on a Muslim girl and in Unnao on a Dalit girl. Both the cases represents classic examples of women seen as non-human objects to be marked, used and so on. Rape happens to be the instruments to humiliate men by assulting 'their' women. Both of these are representations of masculinity, political and sexual identity as I have already discussed in my previous post (see Rapes as Instruments: India's Chances of Survival). 

Presently, India is witnessing what may be termed as "controlled violence" and not a full fledged genocide as was evident in Gujarat 2002. 

Image courtesy: https://newsclick.in/sites/default/files/gujarat_riots_0.jpg

Ecological Opportunism: Cow protection and making Jantarmantar green

Kaleidoscope has witnessed painful departure of much loved cows at his mother's ancestral home. The departure was eased through a process of handing over the dying cow to mercy killers (to read about the story click here). However, those days have gone in most part of his country at present and there is some new era has come when you are not supposed to use you assets as and when needed. Kaleidoscope is not talking about note ban nor he is interested to deal with the consequences of ATM queue or the problems of AADHAR card linking. This is more substantial. No ATM, no money. This is about mother (or father?) nature.

Stray cows:

We listen to over and over again about the damage that can caused by the non performing assets or the bad loan recovery by the banks. We are supposed to hit worse with these things. Now let us think about your asset demanding a lot and giving you nothing in return. Please no PETA argument here. People who raise cows raise them because this is their asset and their livelihood depends on it. They do not fantasize like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Mahesh. That excellent short story even today makes Kaleidoscope cry and I guess most of its readers feel the same way. How can a person has so much of attachment with his cow? Well this is possible, Kaleidoscope has seen it and knows it. But one must also understand cows (similarly hens, ducks, pigs) are valuable assets with strict economic issues attached to it. Since, there is strict rules about how to sale and buy cows the economic dimension of the cow rearing all of a sudden has fallen under strict vigilance. In consequence, there are people who have no choice than to abandon their cows. Let them starve to die or to encroach in places where they are supposed not to enter. This includes not only farmland in places like Uttar Pradesh (For a Business Standard article click here) but also places like reserve forest (for Hintustan Times article click here). Professor Sudhir Panwar of the Department of Zoology, Lucknow University in a recent article has expressed grave concern for the rising number of abandoned cattle and potential damage they can cause over reserve forests (click here). He says "Developments following the 'cow protection' efforts of the government and other social organisations have not only crippled an already beleaguered livestock sector but also resulted in the proliferation of stray cattle, raising serious economic and ecological concerns" (page 13). One might talk about the cow shelters recently been built up to give shelter to the strays, but these full and cows are ill treated. Hundreds of them have died already (click here for more information). This simply is a disaster having serious economic and ecological consequences.

National Green Tribunal and Jantar Mantar:

Interestingly, while there is a rapid growth of an environmental disaster primarily because of cow protection without proper management plans, the National Green Tribunal asks all the protesters to be relocated from the historical Jantar Mantar ground in Delhi (click here). While Kaleidoscope has been there a few times to experience the iconic sundial and to see the protests. He has also felt a stream of blood flowing while watching Rang de basanti (those requiring some motivation watch the movie, click here), those places are repeatedly shown. There is no denying that those who have pleaded to the court on account of the continuous dharnas have suffered for long, but then again from where one can protest other than Jantar Mantar? Its not too close neither too far from Parliament house, very close to police stations and the roads can be cordoned off without much disruption to the city's traffic. Ramlila maidan as a replacement of Jantar Mantar is ineffective: first of all it does not have that location advantage, and second, its close to some of the major hospitals! 

The question of dissenting voices:

Kaleidoscope recently completed a refershers' course on environmental issues at Jadavpur University to gather respect for the National Green Tribunal. This article doesn't mean that he has lost all of his faith on the organisation. He always preferred stronger institutions. He prefers stronger institutional mechanisms and he doesn't mind if there are relatively weaker leaders. However, the incidents of stray cows and till date silence from the part of National Green Tribunal and a proactive decision is symptomatic. It is symptomatic to a possible shrinking of democratic space and a bias that can bring an all-round disaster economic-ecological-democratic. 

Image courtesy: Hindustan Times: http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/joint-protest-by-1000-farmers-brings-traffic-to-a-crawl-in-delhi/story-mUC6yz7fOp2yO6leajCcHM.html. 

The dangers of mob lynching and cattle politics

... It is perhaps the time we should call Selim (the old man exhales, expressing a grief)
... Cant we make her stay a little longer? - his wife asks
... No, lets not prolong her suffering, Salim will take care of her, she cant even move! - the man replies
... but, look the way she is looking at us! - the wife continues
... yes, she is looking for mercy, her legs will start rotting soon, lets call Selim - the old man says and a stream of tears starts flowing through his eyes..


Selim comes with two of his associates


... what happened to kalapahar? She was quite fit and fine, Ashu da! - Selim asks to the old man
... Yes, Selim, she is old and you know we cannot let her die like this, you please take her - the old man cries!


Selim inspects Kalapahar, touches her head, neck and ears with tenderness, and shakes his head


The old man's wife brings some vermillion and oil to worship Kalapahar for the very last time. Selim pays his respect too. Salim's assistants do the same. The old man, his wife and many kids, including kaleidoscope pay their respect, gently touches its head and neck. Finally,  Selim and his associates takes away Kalapar to 'help' her cross the boundary of life and death.


Yes, Kalapahar was a black cow which Kaleidoscope has seen when it was in its full youth. Kaleidoscope has attempted to steal its milk along with his brothers. Has been kicked by the youthful cow and then finally watched her to be taken away by Selim.


Kaleidoscope didn't know Selim is a Muslim name. He used to call him Selim kaku and not Selim Chacha. Kaleidoscope also didn't know that one of Selim's associates was a Dom - a dalit and outcaste.


It was and Kaleidoscope still hopes is a standard and regular practice in many part of the rural Bengal. A practice which needs to be abolished for the construction of a Hindu Rashtra.

The dangerous idea of Hindu Rashtra and Gawraksha:

Lets have some statistics through one of the reliable sources: indiaspend.com

Cow related violence in India

Victims of cow related attacks

Apart from these clear data, predictably about half of the cases are coming from BJP ruled states and about 124 people are injured (click here).


Although it does not matter, lynching is lynching, killing is killing, but it is nevertheless important to note two qualitative parameters of many of the incidents: first, a substantive number of incidents have taken place based on rumors, and second, in most of the cases such incidents have been recorded and then the videos have gone viral. Yes, Kaleidoscope is serious. He lives in a society which shares such videos of violence against people of different faith and belief systems.


Yes, Kaleidoscope hates it to report that his society is dangerously close towards a catastrophe. Such viral videos are symptomatic, killing based on rumors are indicative. The issue becomes prominent with the murder of Junaid by mob in train. A ray of hope is #NotInMyName. An urban social media based movement that actually have been successful to compel the Prime Minister to comment on the issue.


However, since there is a need for the use of symbolic means to initiate the idea of Hindu Rashtra, PM didn't say cow protection is not needed! He only said killing or taking law in one's own hand in the name of cow protection is not acceptable.




Hence the vigilance and attacks continues.


In an all party meet with Parliamentary sessions expected to be halted by the issues of Cow vigilantism PM says: "Cow vigilantism shouldn't be given a political or communal colour."


Kaleidoscope like others doesn't know how not to associate the idea of Hindu Rashtra - saffronization, BJP and its wings with cow vigilance!


He can only hope that in rural hinterland the conversations of Selim and the old man is continuing even though there are a thousand attempts of creating walls between them!