Rahi Gaikwad: The idea of India consumes the range of discourse from left to right. Upper caste ideologues have defined nationalism and anti-nationalism both, based on their respective ideologies and political stances, putting the question of caste to the periphery. By and large, among them, they have fixed the contours of what gets termed a national discourse. To be able to define, label and conflate your political interests with nationalism is a sign of caste privilege.
It is in this context that I see the JNU protests. After Rohith Vemula’s death there was a semblance of a larger debate on caste and an indication that Dalit mobilization was becoming stronger. With the arrest and attack on Kanhaiya Kumar and the journalists in the Patiala House court the tide has turned. Exit caste, enter free speech.
The countless struggles of the Dalit bahujans pre- and post-independence have little to do with the binaries of the left and right, the notions of national and anti-national or concerns such as sedition and free speech. What is free speech to the scores of Dalit and adivasi children who have no platform to articulate their realities using their own agency? Who needs the threat of sedition when you can get killed in a caste massacre? More here.