New Phase of Dalit-Bahujan Intellectual Activity

Author(s): Gopal Guru and V. Geetha

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Jan. 15-21, 2000, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Jan. 15-21,
2000), pp. 130-134
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4408822

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Economic and Political Weekly

This content downloaded from

150.242.60.97 on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 08:12:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 New Phase of Dalit-Bahujan
Intellectual Activity
The Dalit Intellectuals' Collective has provided a forum for debates in which
statements on issues of relevance to dalit life and culture are interrogated
constructively by non-dalit scholars. It hopes to lead dalit culture from the realm of
empiricism to that of theory, particularly a distinctive theory of knowledge.

GOPAL GURU, V GEETHA

alit-bahujan cultural life has been nally, these intellectual efforts, by and
that today most of the dalit political leaders
marked by growing intellectual- and not only in Maharashtra - are driven large, suffer for want of interrogation or
activity in recent years. Interest-
by anti-intellectualism. For these leaders,internal critique.
ingly, this activity seems to be takingacademic
place or theoretical endeavours and The lack of internal critique is justified
well outside the formal educational sites by some dalit-bahujan scholars on the
the writings of Ambedkar have only sym-
in which such endeavours usually flourish.
bolic value. ground that it is not advisable to attack a
Broadly speaking, it is being promotedThe agenda of these dalit-bahujan intel- dalit self which has not even emerged.2
lectual efforts includes an audit of the
variously by the state, by the Republican But this concession would tend to deprive
Party of India (RPI) headed by Prakash public institutions that practise exclusion
dalit-bahujan scholars of their moral-in-
Ambedkar, by dalit-bahujan bureaucrats,of dalits and domination over them. Thesetellectual claim to speak for all the poor
institutions include the Indian Council of
with or without the support ofdalit-bahujan toiling masses searching for universal
Social Science Research (ICSSR), the
political parties, and by dalit non-govern- representation.
mental organisations (NGOs). University Grants Commission (UGC) and Finally, all these dalit-bahujan efforts
All these institutionalised intellectual different universities and research institu- tend to be excessively preoccupied with
tions. The dalit-bahujan intellectual ef- critiquing of mainstream discourse. Per-
efforts other than those organised by NGOs
forts seek to democratise intellectual life
have much in common. First, they treat the haps one would have to go beyond
thoughts of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and and change the terms of the academic criticising the external adversary and offer
Bhimrao (Babasaheb) Ambedkar, both discourse. Their mission involves the a theoretical-ideological alternative. The
considered infallible, as a given and indis-pursuit of the recognition which is denied
dalit intellectual activity should be respon-
pensable framework. Secondly, they lack by the adversaries of dalits who tend siveto
to internal attitudes to intellectual
genuine interrogators, either from within control such institutions. The emergenceendeavour as well as to metropolitian
the dalit-bahujan intellectual tradition orof such dalit-bahujan intellectual activity
intellectualism, which is insensitive to dalit
from outside it. Most of the scholars who should be understood particularly in the arrogant and intimidating.
issues,
participate in these efforts belong to dalit- context of the denial of the authenticity of
bahujan castes. Thirdly, these endeavours the claim to intellectual representation. A Different Forum
seek to create an intellectual base for taking However, the dalit-bahujan intellectual
on the Hindutvawadi' forces whose project claims are likely to remain problematicSuch so is the background against which
is to distort and destroy Ambedkar's long as they are treated as a battle Vikas to be Adhyayan Kendra (VAK), Mumbai
thought. Besides, the dalit-bahujan schol- fought with the force of ideological po-
has attempted to bring dalit and non-dalit
ars seek to establish their claims to intel-
lemic rather than with that of rigorous
scholars together. These scholars have
lectual representation away from the dabate. While ideology is important,established
it is the Dalit Intellectuals' Collec-
'brahminised' socialists and the commu-
tive (DIC) with the support of VAK. The
not enough for developing an emancipatory
nists who are often accused of attemptingsocial theory. That has to be achieved
DIC stands for dalit intellectual activity
through a nuanced understanding with
to lead dalits away from Ambedkar thought. of aa difference. The scholars are divided
Fifthly, they take place in a context of the
complex social reality. The second prob-
into two basic categories - those who make
lem with these intellectual efforts is that
efforts of non-dalit intellectuals to hijack statements (most of them dalits) and in-
the dalit intellectual agenda or speak theyon are influenced by the politics of
terrogators who are expected to be creative
behalf of the dalits only for furthering their
presence or symbolic recognition in politi-
and constructive and not patronising.
own ends.1 These dalit efforts are ulti- cal and civil society rather than by The the DIC does not seek only to audit the
mately aimed at establishing a claim toworld of political ideas. Thirdly, these external adversaries of the dalits. It also
dalit-bahujan scholars lack critical wants
intellectual representation as authentic and con- to go in for an audit of the dalit
holding on to it. sciousness, primarily because many of
intellectual tradition and culture, which
The context in which this intellectualthem aim at self-discovery - which re- and sustain internal hierarchies.
create
activity is taking place includes the fact
places any need for further inquiry. Fi-
Secondly, it wants the dichotomy between

130 Economl -nd Political Weekly January 15, 2000

This content downloaded from

150.242.60.97 on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 08:12:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
theoretical brahmins and empirical shudras critically. In pursuit of this mission it
Satyanarayana argued that any attempt to
done away with. It wants to enable the organised a public meeting in Mangalore accord a pan-Indian status to this category
dalits and others to visualise the intellec- would rob other identities based on region
in April 1998. At the meeting dalit political
tual journey from the immediate to the concerns and issues were presented and culture of their authenticity. Pandian
abstract, from the familiar to the universal,by Valerian Rodrigues, K N Panicker, did not suggest, however, that the category
from the empirical to the theoretical. Rajeev Bhargav and the present authors oftodalit be given up completely. In fact,
The DIC is exploring the feasibility aof public which had witnessed communal he still suggests that a theoretical attempt
developing a 'dalit theory.' It has in mind be made to make the regional and pan-
riots at Suratkal (Mangalore) the previous
a theory that would act as a moral coun- month. Indian categories commensurate with each
The redefinition of the dalit self is not
terweight to the language of politics which other so that the dalit category is inclusivist
seeks to humiliate dalit-bahujan leaders.
being sought in any given theoretical frame-rather than incorporating.
work. On the contrary, it is being sought Kancha Illiah has been arguing for the
The endeavour is also to provide theoreti-
in the context of the several theoretical-
cal respectability to the dalit political extension of the dalit category so as to
culture, which is now lampooned by ad- ideological positions (Marxist, liberal include categories like 'bahujan'. The
Marxist, cultural Marxist, communitarian,
versaries. The DIC has taken upon itself problem with such a formulation is that
Ambedkar-bahujanwadi and subaltern)it neglects the dialectical relationship
the task of taking serious thinking to the
people by developing the public political
represented by DIC scholars. The intention between 'dalit' and 'bahujan' which has
reason. is to arrive at some kind of overlapping a bearing on the formation of the dalit
But prior to its engagement of theoretical-ideological
with the interests. Thecategory and its marriage with 'bahujan'.
public the DIC will formulate the attempts
catego- at redefinition made at DIC Culture as a constituting element of
ries and concepts which could make a dalit
meetings the dalit category was invoked by some
so far represent a kind of rigorous
theory possible, and then test their vera-
contestation of points of views which depart
scholars like Satyanarayana,3 who said that
city. It will examine the potential from each forother on nuances but come it was important to look at the category
generalisation, if any, in those together
categories.on the normative concerns that as a construct achieved by recruiting the
In other words, it has set for itself an
still empower the human agency. hidden culture and textual history of the
agenda which includes documentation, dalits. Without such recruitment the cate-
clarification and interrogation, and theo- Is 'Dalit' Valid? gory is likely to remain historically very
retical arrival. The DIC wants to interro- weak. Thus, the resources for redefinition
gate the post-modernist attempts in the In the context of the redefinition of the of the dalit self are purely dalit in character
area of inter-textuality which involve an
dalit category and the theoretical resources for Satyanarayana.
to be deployed for the redefinition, the
inter-group dialogue taking place in con-
ditions which make it infinitely inconclu-
category itself was taken up for discussion. Caste and Class
Two sets of arguments have been put
sive. In other words, to use a local and very
forward by scholars while discussing the
powerful metaphor, it does not want to join This position was contested by Panicker
the post-modernists in wrestling with oil category. For example, historian Romila Panicker argued that this category cou
applied all over the body but with noThapar said certain categories, including not be developed purely internally becau
Arya and un-Arya, lose their significance, the dalit self-perception included soci
intention of producing results. It hopes to
rein in those dalit intellectuals who are when examined in the light of the notion exploitation which embraced not only cas
enjoying such wrestling. of 'out-of-date history. One could argue and culture but class as well. He cited the
Finally, as mentioned above, the that
DIC the categories of shudra and adi- example of Premchand's novel Sadgati
wants to promote an interactive relation- dhamma have similarly become part of which according to him demonstrated the
ship between scholars and the general out-of-date history. However, Thapar has phenomenon of caste becoming an ideo-
public. In this context, its primary agenda maintained that there is a political neces- logical construct of class oppression.
is to seek a redefinition of the dalit self sity for holding on to the dalit category. Challenging the mainstream understand-
at the theoretical and political levels by She traces the roots of this category in Pali ing of caste Thapar argued that during the
developing public political reason. Devel- literature in which dalit means "the op- pre-colonial era there was flexibility about
oping such reason is an important part pressed".
of She seems to have been suggest- caste mobility. Maintaining that cultural
the agenda for two reasons. Firstly, the ing that it is difficult to put 'dalit' and capital was defined and redefined through-
cognitive map of the people at large,'Buddhist' together as the latter category out history, she indicated that narratives
particularly the dalits, seems to be occu- stands for conciliation and hence has little built up around caste appeared to be fash-
pied by a common sense which is full of transformatory potential. ioned sloppily. If the essentiality of class
intersecting layers of consciousness andRodrigues and M S S Pandian argued was not seen in caste, how could one
emotions. Secondly, public political rea- that the category of dalit did not lend itself understand the process of social stratifi-
son is not available to dalits in the kind to generalisation. The former wondered cation? In support of this argument,
whether a culture-specific category like Rodrigues argues that given the fact that
of civil society we have. In such a situation
reason itself is likely to remain diverse 'dalit'
and could be made to travel around the identities and categories are reconstruc-
ghettoised and hence incapable of facili- world. This category also suffered from ted and rearticulated from time to time, the
tating any meeting of minds. discursive naivety in that it tries to rush
privileging of 'caste' over other categories
Thus the DIC has a mission publicly to
towards universality without mediating lacks transformative power: the lived
with certain historical-cultural nuances.
defend certain concepts and categories, relations are not built up around caste
Endorsing this argument, Pandian and
including the dalit one, and discuss them alone.

Economic and Political Weekly January 15, 2000 131

This content downloaded from

150.242.60.97 on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 08:12:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Morton Class,5 Sharad Patil6 and Gail The search is on for a way of knowing that the virtual sector. He argued that this could
Omvedt7 do privilege the category of caste would recover dalit lives and agencies bode great disaster for the dalits, since
over other categories, at least at this point from the frozen past. most of them were primary workers, and
of time in the historical journey of 'caste'. This knowing cannot be merely sub- most closely linked to the production
Patil says the take-over of 'caste' by 'class' altern - an alternate gloss on life and process.
began with the introduction of the perma- thought, an ironic expression of revolt and Moreover, IT might well go to constitute
nent land settlement policy of the colonial anger. It requires an intimate and sensuous a new knowledge elite - those who knew
state.8 engagement with dalit lives, a patient and the complex working of the system. Then
On the other hand, some dalit scholars gentle heeding of stories that have never there was a problem of addiction. Com-
have in recent years been arguing in de- been told before and of the manner of their
puters were highly addictive. The user
fence of caste as the dominant reference telling. The discussions on dalit intellec-either lost himself or herself in a world of
point. They define 'dalit' purely in terms tual traditions at the Mangalore DIC make-believe or retreated into a narcissism
of caste anchorage. For example, Sanal meeting suggested ways and means of so profound that he or she lost touch with
Mohan argued during the DIC meeting reconstituting epistemologies and histo- reality. In either case he or she became easy
held in Pune in March 1997 that in the ries. prey to unfounded propaganda. Teltumble
Indian context caste was still the operative Anand Teltumble's paper dealt with in- warned that IT might well create an ego-
reality. He lamented the fact that in Indian formation technology (IT). It was both a istic culture which had no sympathy for
historical writings there was a singular general critical valuation of the promises or patience with liberal, equalitarian val-
absence of caste. According to Mohan, that ostensibly inhered in IT and an ap- ues or community consciousness.
social sciences in India have come to be praisal of these promises in terms of what He was sceptical about the democratic,
centred primarily on the 'bhadralok'. they The implied for dalits and others whose liberative aspect of IT: the unfettered
historical writings on caste have discounted access to knowledge was policed and circulation of information and the possi-
narratives of caste oppression and exploi- blocked. He observed that brahmins were bility of self-expression for those who had
tation. Hence there is a need to recover the granted a monopoly right over knowledge not been able to exercise that choice for
historical memory of the dalits. and that they implicitly devalued all othergenerations. While granting that groups
Mohan's observation on Indian history claims to knowing, especially the claims like the Mexican Zapatistas had used IT
writing could be true, by and large. Even of those who were rooted in the production to revolutionary advantage. He added that
in the subaltern history series caste had to process. This led to the value of knowledgethe information highways offered one's
wait for its turn till the sixth volume in- becoming inversely proportional to the adversaries the same advantage that it
cluded a very interesting essay by Partha social value and relevance of the informa- offered oneself. Besides, there was the
Chatterjee. On the other hand, some his- tion it contained. question of affordability.
torians in England and Japan have beenThe progress of western education caused Teltumble's paper elicited a long discus-
at pains to give the category of caste propera break in caste consciousness as educa- sion. Ram Bapat argued that there were
treatment in their writings. Caste has tion became linked to the reclaiming of that dalits be granted special rights
demands
not attracted many Marxist historians. one's human identity. But dalits had of not
access to new technology and that these
The notable exceptions inlude Romila been able to do this reclaiming. In demands
fact, had to be understood in terms of
Thapar, R S Sharma, D D Kosambi and they had been actively prevented from how dalits viewed the configuration of the
Irfan Habib. participating and completing this process power of knowledge in India. The question
The DIC meetings have also taken of self-recovery: education and the prom- was one of how one managed the transition
up the question of gender and, within it,ise it held continued to function within an to an information-centred present so that
dalit feminism as a distinct category. As economic order that overworked and the dalits felt least at a loss.
competently argued by Sharmila Rege9 underpaid them. Would this create a community of
dalit feminism has to be treated differently More than ever before, Teltumble brahminised dalits? Or would it lead to the
(dalit women talk differently) from theargued, dalits stood threatened with the creation of an enabling human reserve that
standpoint of epistemology. The debate onrise of IT, which appears set to perpetuate could intervene intellectually in the
this question is still on. Some scholars existing inequalities. Information techno- economy? Bapat observed that all such
foresee the danger of the dalit womenlogy does not represent merely a moment prognostications must keep in mind the
question becoming a fetish, getting trappedin technological progress. It has to be seen
fact that the mediating site for such trans-
in post-modernist wrestling or being usedas an aspect of a rapidly transforming formation was the space of politics. Ul-
as a counterpoint by those who want capitalism, as a child of the free market.
timately, it was a question of creating a
to benefit from the inconclusiveness of
Teltumble noted that IT had grownpolitical movement against the new eco-
the issue. phenomenally on account of researchnomic reality even while attempting to
master its terms.
prompted by big business in the 1960s and
Dalit Knowledges actively encouraged by the United States Gajendran's paper proved to be an in-
department of defence. The technical vir-
teresting foil to Anand's. Gajendran noted
Traditional knowledge systems of the tuosity of IT was thus a function of its that upper-caste common sense saw dalits
dalits are also being tapped in the effort military usefulness and its viability for as uncultured and primitive people doing
to redefine the dalit self. The DIC is seized market capitalism. menial jobs and lacking a written antiq-
of the agenda of first knowing the dalit With the unchecked growth of IT, saiduity. In the discourses of hindutva, dalits
knowledge systems and assessing their Teltumble, the primary sector of produc- were accommodated within the terms of
usefulness for an emancipatory project. tion might be subsumed and edged out by a 'condescending peripherality'. For those

132 Economic and Political Weekly January 15, 2000

This content downloaded from

150.242.60.97 on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 08:12:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
who wished to refuse such a location, it able with them. These forces would custodians of local knowledge and/or
was important that dalit knowledge be very much like the dalits to follow their
resources.

relocated as indigenous knowledge - in own traditional occupations with very

Chalam's paper led to a discu
those ecological niches within which dalit specific knowledge systems, as thismajor
would issues. How may we charac
cultures grew. prevent competition and leave the relationship
entire of the protosciences th
Gajendran said dalit knowledges were field of the new knowledge system are said to have developed to s
based on sense perception and interaction open to the twice-born. Thus a culture- Given the tantrik tendency to
(experiencing the natural and social worlds specific knowledge system would ghet- through the senses how can their
in a sensuous way). These knowledges toise the dalits further instead of liberat-
knowledges be compared with the knowl-
were not the product of an individual ing them. Nor would it serve to invokeedge sanctioned by modem science, which
consciousness and were necessarily so- uncertainty as an epistemological ethic,is a product of the self's disjunctive re-
cial. Such knowledges were typically non- for this ethic existed in brahminical logiclationship with the world?
dualistic. The observing self became a as well. A second line of debate was opened up
crucial aspect of what it observed and the What would be useful, perhaps, would at the meeting. Bapat argued that as such
thinking subject became what he thought. be to locate the different claims of epis- readings of tantra as had been advanced
Thus, binary pairs such as individual and by Chattopadhyay represented an ideal-
temological superiority articulated by dalits
community, body and mind, private and istic rather than a materialistic account of
at different historic moments. Such claims,
public, private and social became irrel- for example, were made by Chokha Mela,
the past, materialist reading could not be
evant. extrapolated from them from these idealist
a 13th-century Maharsaint,10 and the Mahar
Dalit ways of knowing were alsodevotees
con- of the Mahanubhav sect in accounts. What was needed was a knowl-
stituently mystical, for at particular Maharashtra.
mo- edge of chronology and history as well as
ments they surrendered the imperative to a more complex understanding of the
comprehend, being aware of the limits to Tantra manner in which brahmin and shudra
human rationality. But this did not mean knowledge systems, if we might describe
they abdicated responsibility. K S Chalam's paper on 'tantra' proved them thus, were articulated or disarticu-
Gajendran compared the relationship be provocative. Chalam wonderedlated.
to of if
such knowledges to western science. tantra
Didcould be viewed as the obverse of Bapat submitted that the brahminical
the existing scientific conventions of brahminical knowledge, since it was as- traditions were not necessarily opposed to
verifiability and validation illuminate thesesociated with an underground world, fer- tantra. These traditions were willing to
knowledges at all? Could one isolate thetility, forbidden things. His paper, he noted,grant the validity of a knowledge that was
epistemological features of these modes ofwas based on Debiprasad Chattopadhyay's based on sensual experience. In fact, they
knowing from the larger cultural systemnarrative of tantric and was but a first step were appreciative of the theory of tantric
of which they were a part? practice. The point to be noted was that
towards articulating another sort of knowl-
Several points were raised at this junc- edge. Chalam suggested that tantra was the brahmins did not devalue other forms
ture: Gajendran's descriptions were not distinctive because it sought the validation of knowing (Bapat countering Teltumble,
peculiar to the world views and ideas ofof its claims through sense experiences, who expressed the opposite view) but
subsistence-oriented communities; dalit through sensuality. Since it treated knowl-
postulated that the real knowledge of the
knowledges, far from developing in iso-edge as based on experience, 'tantrik'material world was given only to the
brahmins.
lation, were a part of a larger social worldknowledge resisted codification and failed
of meaning which they contested, ac- to leave behind traditions of philosophical V Geetha's paper and Rajeev Bhargav's
cepted or subverted, as the case may be.literacy. shifted the discussion on dalit epistemolo-
Did such descriptions as offered by Chalam noted that tantriks gave them- gies to the terrain of contemporary history.
Gajendran and all those who held similar selves up to a life of the senses, to the Bhargav presented a thesis on what he
views add up to a "knowledge system"? eating of meat, the consumption of alcohol termed 'alternative modernities'. He ar-
What test of verifiability and validation and the fulfilment of unbridled sexual gued that the encounter with modernity of
may we apply? appetite. Nothing mortal was foreign groups
to such as the dalits could not be
The term 'indigenous' seems unfounded, them, and it was said that the aghoris, explained
a within the terms of a global
and there is an incipient romanticism in tantrik sect, even ate corpses. narrative about the fate of modernity. He
the use of the term - as if it is an extra- Being familiar with the sensory world,
proposed a cultural theory of modernity,
political compensation for the present.the tantriks developed material sciences which could allow us to see modernity as
Where do women figure in the making and such as alchemy and ayurveda. In fact, a multilinear and layered process of his-
deployment of these knowledges? Non- torical transformation.
these existed as protosciences, precursors
binary cultures yet retain the distinction to a more systematic form of knowing. In its travels - with colonialism, around
between the male and female principles, The tantriks conceived of knowledge the world - modernity acquired a complex
identifying women with all that is creative as action rather than as contemplationexistence.
or In its interaction with pre-modern
and pure and men with decay and destruc-meditation. Unfortunately for the shudra traditions, it remained unsynthesised,
tion - points of view which are highlyand dalit communities which practised unable to find a place in economic, politi-
problematic. cal and scientific institutions. In a third
tantra, their knowledges were appropri-
Such views are problematic for anotherated and recast by the brahmins, muchinstance
as it existed as creative adaptation
reason: the brahminical forces and even today's multinationals are appropriating
whose meaning escaped the interpreta-
the knowledge of the tribal and other
the global forces would feel very comfort- tive net of both modernity and the indi-

Economic and Political Weekly January 15, 2000 133

This content downloaded from

150.242.60.97 on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 08:12:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
genous traditions. All these three forms reverse the maxim 'theoretical brahmins
labour in a society that devalued all manual
might co-exist in the same society, making labour. and empirical shudras'? At the moment the
modernity a contradictory experience. DIC is in an evolving mode of reading
For dalits, modernity was liberating in Conclusion history and theory whose co-ordinates have
that it forced a recognition of the self of yet to be enunciated. [3
all citizens. On the other hand, it did not Dalit intellectual activity in contempo-
sanction reciprocity. The question was also rary India represents a very interesting Notes
whether, while making adaptations, we scenario in which an urgent need is felt
valorised the alternative or the modern. Ifto make theoretical sense of the dalit reality.1 For example, Vichar Vedh (a search for
thought), which is being held in Maharashtra
we leaned towards the former, we were left These intellectual efforts indicate that dalit
since 1992.
with a culturally descriptive variant of a theory might acquire a critical mass in the 2 This problem is expected to be solved within
dominant modernity. If we leaned towards future. It is clear from the above discussion the community itself. Any public discussion
the latter, we must ask ourselves how the that the dalit-bahujan scholars do not seem on the internal dissension is likely to be
power of normative thought might be to be interested in the post-modernists' exploited by the adversary.
3 These were interventions made in the Pune
retained without erasing cultural specific- offer of a sophisticated but disappointing DIC of March 1997.
ity and agency. intellectual exercise. The scholars have 4 Ibid.
Geetha's paper appeared to be in con- not lost their confidence in the dalit as 5 Morton, Class, Caste, Orient Longman, Delhi.
versation with Rajeev's formulations. agency, a concept that the post-modernist 6 Sharad Patil, 'Caste and Class in Maharashtra',
Geetha suggested that the 'creative and challenge tends to unsettle. EPW, special number, 1979.
7 Gail Omvedt, Cultural Revolt in Colonial
productive' reworking of modernity in the The DIC's significance lies in the fact
Society: Non-Brahmin Movement in Western
thought of E V Ramasamy ('Periyar'), the that unlike other dalit-bahujan intellectualIndia. The question has also been discussed
founder of the Tamil self-respect move- forums, which out of insecurity and guiltby Partha Chatterjee in his article on caste and
ment, was interesting for the relationship go for intertextuality, it wants a serioussubaltern consciousness in seventh volume of
it posited between labour and knowledge. engagement with the question of dalitthe subaltern history series.
8 Patil, op cit.
Arguing that knowledge was central to agency: How did dalits act in the past?
9 Rege, Sharmila, Seminar, Delhi, November
Periyar' s struggles against caste, she noted What was the philosophical basis for their1998.
that Periyar considered the crucial con- action. Why is it important to construct 10 a
A brahmin used to take down the 'abhangas'
tradiction between mental and manual dalit epistemology? Is it important only to recited by Chokha Mela.
labour.
Born to labour, manual labourers could
not claim the right to knowing, and being APPOINTMENTS
denied that right they could not compre-
hend or escape their condition of being
labourers. Their productive power thus
remained captive to a social order which
alienated them from the fruits of their
CENTRE FOR MULTI-DISCIPLINARY
labour and the knowledge which this labour
helped bring into existence. DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH (C.M.D.R)
Despite his understanding of the link D.B. Rodda Road, Jubilee Circle,
between labour and knowledge, Periyar Dharwad-580 001, Karataka
did not seek to locate in history this knowl-
edge that was denied the caste labourers:
what were its forms, modalities, what Applications are invited from the candidates for the following posts.
culture of artisanship existed here? On the
contrary, he cut a broad swathe through Lecturer/Associate Fellow - Two
these intricate knowledges and located lib- Reader/Fellow - One
eration for the worker in scientific progress.
Library Associate - One
This oversight on his part left local knowl-
edge traditions at the mercy of history.
Periyar wanted the shudras and the adi- These are project related positions but are likely to con
dravidas to unite in a sustained struggleproject period. Candidates for first two positions having r
against the caste camp, bound together by in the areas of Developmental Economics, Public Fin
the ideologies of self-respect and 'sama-
dharma' rather than by their shared history Sociology of Education, Health, Environment will be g
of captive and degraded labour. Geetha'sCandidates for the third position should have requisite libr
paper raised a very significant question: and experience. Applications with detailed bio-data and cop
Did knowledge have to be necessarily
should reach Director, CMDR on or before 15th Feb
aligned to labour? Was this not an impor-
tation from the Marxist theory of value?
Director.
This led to a debate on the importance
of recovering the meaning and worth of

134 Economic and Political Weekly January 15, 2000

This content downloaded from

150.242.60.97 on Thu, 02 Feb 2023 08:12:05 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms