EDITORIAL : THE INDIAN EXPRESS, INDIA

 

Caste & cleansing

The Kerala Human Rights Commission has asked the secretary, taxes department, for an explanation on a bizarre incident. After the then inspector-general of registration, A.K. Ramakrishnan, retired on March 31, his office and official car were allegedly washed with cowdung-mixed water. Ramakrishnan complained to the commission that this incident took place the very next day, on April 1, and that to dodge the charge that his office was being specifically “cleansed” because he happened to be a Dalit, the entire office too was sprayed with this mixture. As reported in this newspaper, the office of a panchayat president at Elanthur had been similarly washed with cowdung water after it was vacated by a Dalit.

The commission has sought a reply by May 7, and it would be right to wait till then before passing judgment on the incident. But the very fact of the complaint is a reminder of the demeaning and dehumanising ways in which caste creeps into even those spaces we had thought to have been long liberated from ritual hierarchies. At worst, of course, the slight administered to those perceived to be of a lower caste is deliberate — and in each case that this happens, there must be disciplinary action, to make the point that this amounts to outright discrimination and simply cannot be allowed to pass unchecked. But even the more generous view that often the slight is caused inadvertently is problematic. Administrators have to be conscious of the nuances that consolidate inclusiveness.

Purification rituals that are coded with caste hierarchies do not convey inclusiveness — in any situation their survival is a reminder of our unfinished democratisation. But when they occur in a public space, they are that much more deplorable.

Make it better

But such generalised invective against the entire political class is both empty and dangerous — our representatives are as we are. Besides, such anti-politics nearly always serves as a cover for politics. As Edmund Burke memorably wrote, this cynicism about politics and, by extension, Parliament only makes you “think ill of that very institution which, do what you will, you must religiously preserve, or you must give over all thoughts of being a free people”. Those who seek radical insta-solutions to the tortuous processes of democracy would do well to ponder the alternative. They may see why the solutions to so many of our problems lie in empowering our legislatures and holding them more stringently and transparently to account.

Tagore’s gifts

Ties between India and Pakistan have never been easy, but have always been given a certain sort of attention. Hindustani poetry has been quoted back and forth, even — perhaps especially — during political interactions; singers move across the border, celebrated here and there; the nostalgia and affection that Punjabis on each side of the border have for the towns and villages of the other side informs and pushes efforts to bring the two nations closer. Oddly, with our other large neighbour, with whom even more Indians share a common, tightly held heritage, and with whom relations have improved rather than stagnated, little of this cultural sheen animates our interaction. There could be many reasons for this, but it is definitely true that Delhi’s policy establishment’s look westward rather than eastward is driven not just by cold realist calculation, but partly by culture. It is necessary, perhaps, to inject into India-Bangladesh ties, too, a reminder of shared civilisational heritage.

The productive meeting this week of India’s and Bangladesh’s culture secretaries, which resulted in a confirmation that Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary would be commemorated this May in a series of joint programmes, is thus welcome. Tagore, the writer of the two countries’ anthems, an outspoken internationalist who is beloved in both nations, is the best starting point for reviving cultural exchanges. But this cannot be left to languish in boring sarkari cultural-ghetto hell. The schedule that has been released, for example, focuses on opening ceremonies in New Delhi and Dhaka; West Bengal could justifiably complain that it is being ignored.

... contd.