{ed- note - The page is Work in Progress. Please send you your take, and we will integrate it into the text}
A few of us have been talking about how will the country come out of the current crisis - Lockdown, Economy, Secularism.
Vijay Pratap, man of many parts, wrote this article: There Is No Alternative to a Congress-Left-RJD Combine in the Bihar Assembly Polls
Narrative:
VP: The present battlefield of narratives of nation building, the non-BJP parties are not doing enough and not undertaking efforts unitedly. Caste, Mafia, Dabang politics.. this read with Shekar Gupta take: Vikas Dubey's killing, UP’s mafia culture and triple nexus of politics, crime & caste sets me thinking what would be the mafia of the opposition caste be working on, and if that alternative is desirable. Organisations, and NGOs are too isolated to make an impact here, was the response. Perhaps, then it means that all talk of trying to build an alternative climate resilient economy around returning migrants, seems peripheral till the policy itself is changed.
The current regime which may be rooted in the elite caste, is able to make forays into middle caste, through sponsoring "dabang" as in "lynchings" and "goraksha" through appeal to the "kshatriya" in some castes, and Breadcrumbs through shishu mandirs, patronage of some castes who have been marginalised by the more dominant backward castes, some of whom are projected as Christian, or Muslim traders, meat dealers etc.
Basically, BJP's mobilsation on has been on several verticals sometimes in silos to neutralise possible antagonism on potentailly divisive issues. a) temple run b) lynching, c) human rights/ d) Kashmir e) Nikamma/Government that works f) corruption linked to public sector, g) jingoism, h) modern competitive economy, atmanirbhata etc. Each vertical is managed by a different groups
Is secularism the issue?
Abhay Dubey’s book 'Hindu-Ekta banam Gyan ki Rajniti' [Hindu Unity vis-à-vis Politics of Knowledge] summarise by Yogendra Yadav says This Hindi book on Indian secularism could have exposed liberals, but it was ignored
Acccording to YY ( heavily edited by us) , "Secular ideology drew and started believing in a caricature of its adversary:
"a) floated self-serving myths about the past,( narrative would be: arrogance of the Westernised Left-liberal-secular elite; dismiss the intellectual lineage of Hindutva ideology because it drew inspiration from a religion)
"b) subscribed to formulaic understanding of the present ( demonising BJP as merely Brahminical and Fascist; failure to understand the reasons for the rise of this ideology; weaknesses of secular politics: exclusive focus on defence of minority rights, inability to speak against minority communalism with the same force as Hindu communalism, and the tendency to gloss over Congress’ inconsistencies and failures in upholding secular principles) and
" c) lack of trusted reluctant warriors and non-existent allies to fight the battle for secular India ( this is premised on the belief that the existence of pluralism, composite culture and the moderating logic of democratic politics would negate the possibility of Hindu majoritarianism; failure of secular political strategies: the idea of an imminent revolt against ‘Brahminism’, ‘bahujan’ unity as an antidote to majoritarianism, dependence on dominant OBC castes and better-off communities within Dalits to carry out the project of social justice and fight for secularism, or the assumption of Dalit-Muslim unity. ) .
Rajmohan Gandhi however feels that Indian secularism still has a future if followers stop blame game with RSS:
Source of alternative understanding:
( to be worked on. waiting for references, and quotes )
Dharma Kumar, sociologists
Satish Sabarwal,
Imtiaz Ahmed and
D.L. Sheth,
political scientists Suhas Palshikar and partially
Rajni Kothari and
Rajeev Bhargav