JAI BHEEM....BRAHAMANICAL SEEDS..BRAHAMAN REMAINS AS A BRAHAMAN
Neither Anand nor Roy can say that she wrote this introduction or he did the annotations to help the Dalit cause – for the simple reason that to say so would be an insult to all Dalits. To their credit, neither has said anything like it in so many words. But they ended up further stoking Dalit anger by implying it, for instance, by saying that they have done it (published this edition) only for the noble cause of fighting Brahminism.
Thirdly, in the savarna view of the world, for Ambedkar to be just a Dalit deity is not an exalted enough status given his great intellect. He must, therefore, whether the Dalits like it or not, be elevated to his true position in the global, non-Dalit, pantheon of intellectual giants. And this requires transporting him – in a Brahmin bag -- from the claustrophobic confines of a Dalit temple to the open air of the global free market.
Strangely enough, Roy herself has written, most eloquently, about how it is the prerogative of the Dongria Kondh adivasis to keep the bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills, and about the central role of their deity, Niyamraja, in giving them a sense of identity and community. If Dalits wish to keep Ambedkar for Dalits alone – for after all, they, and not the savarnas, have been the ones who have kept his legacy alive all these years – how can she then say that Ambedkar belongs to all? How different is it from an industrialist saying that the minerals in the mountains belong to all and not just the adivasis who happen to live there? How can she acknowledge the political power of the Niyamraja for the adivasis, and be blind to the political power of Ambedkar the deity for the Dalits? — with Aibsf Jnu and 19 others.
Neither Anand nor Roy can say that she wrote this introduction or he did the annotations to help the Dalit cause – for the simple reason that to say so would be an insult to all Dalits. To their credit, neither has said anything like it in so many words. But they ended up further stoking Dalit anger by implying it, for instance, by saying that they have done it (published this edition) only for the noble cause of fighting Brahminism.
Thirdly, in the savarna view of the world, for Ambedkar to be just a Dalit deity is not an exalted enough status given his great intellect. He must, therefore, whether the Dalits like it or not, be elevated to his true position in the global, non-Dalit, pantheon of intellectual giants. And this requires transporting him – in a Brahmin bag -- from the claustrophobic confines of a Dalit temple to the open air of the global free market.
Strangely enough, Roy herself has written, most eloquently, about how it is the prerogative of the Dongria Kondh adivasis to keep the bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills, and about the central role of their deity, Niyamraja, in giving them a sense of identity and community. If Dalits wish to keep Ambedkar for Dalits alone – for after all, they, and not the savarnas, have been the ones who have kept his legacy alive all these years – how can she then say that Ambedkar belongs to all? How different is it from an industrialist saying that the minerals in the mountains belong to all and not just the adivasis who happen to live there? How can she acknowledge the political power of the Niyamraja for the adivasis, and be blind to the political power of Ambedkar the deity for the Dalits? — with Aibsf Jnu and 19 others.
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