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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The myth of Dalit capitalism by Akshay Deshmane

The myth of Dalit capitalism by Akshay Deshmane

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published Published on Jan 13, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 13, 2012

Till recently, I did not know of a single movie, let alone documentary, which could persuade a viewer to sit under the open sky on an unusually wintry night for over three hours. On Monday night, I was in an audience of about 200 for one such documentary, Jai Bheem Comrade, by activist-filmmaker Anand Patwardhan.

It was with much curiosity and anticipation that I went for the first Indian public screening of the much-awaited film, which comes almost 10 years after Patwardhan’s previous one. That it was organised in a way that was inviting and all-inclusive (screened in a chawl, no tickets or VIP stands; windows of homes in the adjoining buildings turned into improvised balcony seats and one could leave midway) only added to the attraction.

Watching the movie was like journeying into the last 14 years in the history of the Dalit community, only the bare outlines of which I knew till now. While struggling to avoid getting overwhelmed, I couldn’t help but think about the latest catchphrase that has become fashionable with sections of the media and intellectuals: Dalit Capitalism.

It is said that in New India, Dalits have finally ‘arrived’, aided in no small way by the market. Recently, the likes of Ratan Tata and Adi Godrej openly supported the ‘Dalit Capitalists’. Media coverage and opinion celebrated the emergence of this ‘new’ section of Dalits and, beholden to the logic of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation) economics, pundits praised the ‘economic reforms’ and the state’s reservation policies lavishly for ‘creating opportunities’. And Milind Kamble’s opinion — that the community has too many political leaders while it needs business leaders — was almost presented as a success formula for the future. The contrast couldn’t be starker.

Those who have bought into the phenomenon and consider it as the complete truth may want to check the results of the CII’s internal countrywide caste survey, which confirmed what we already knew: the proportion of SC/STs in private sector jobs in the most industrialised states of the country is extremely small compared to their general population.

Aren’t these ‘market fundamentalists’ making the same mistake that many erstwhile communists did: looking for a politico-economic solution for the caste issue and ignoring its cultural aspect?

Perhaps, it is only to be expected. For, despite neo-liberalism being increasingly challenged in the West, the Indian bourgeois intellectual does not feel necessary to challenge what has become the conventional economic wisdom in the last two decades, as the system is not pinching him yet.

Charles Mackay puts it best in his ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds’ : “In reading the history of nations... we find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first...Men, it has well been said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”


DNA, 12 January, 2012, http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/comment_the-myth-of-dalit-capitalism_1636432


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