Lecture and Explanation: Reading to be covered: Omvedt, Gail, 2011, Independent India: Brahmanic Socialism, Brahmanic Globalisation, in, Understanding Caste: From Buddha to Ambedkar and Beyond, Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi
Keywords: Gail Omvedt, Independent India, Brahmanic Socialism, Brahmanic Globalisation, Brahmanic Socialism, Understanding Caste, Buddha, Ambedkar, Tilak, Gandhi,
The University of Delhi, Bachelor of Arts, Sociology of India: Images and Reality
 |
Brahmanic Socialism, Brahmanic Globalisation, Understanding Caste From Buddha to Ambedkar and Beyond by Gail Omvedt, Image Credit: Plato Terentev from Pexels |
Pg. 67
This article is about how caste, national, and nationalism are interlinked.
Gail Omvedt is saying that after independence everywhere Hindu upper castes were promoted in the name of nation and nationalism.
Sometimes it was also a Militant Hindu Nationalism by RSS.
The portrait of this as nationalism and anti-Muslim but it was neither nationalism nor (only) against the Muslim It was against the downtrodden caste.
All these things have done through symbolism.
#READ-MORE What is symbolism? Please read Erving Goffman.
#FOR-LAST-CLASS READ – Riddles of Hinduism by Dr Ambedkar, Govt of India
#ALSO-READ Sarita Collection on theme
Pg. 68
Gail Omvedt emphasized Dr Ambedkar’s rational thoughts to eradicate poverty.
For Hindu Nationalism, Gail Omvedt is saying that even Gandhi was the victim of Hindu Nationalism.
See these two videos on Gandhi and think yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfGpJfGxHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb0Oa35BQKE
Why these videos are important?
These videos are important because this act is not about killing the individual person called MK Gandhi, but this is representing the idea and culture of Hindu Nationalism.
In LAST CLASS ONE STUDENT HAS ASKED that how Shastras are responsible for the Sati or this is also valid to ask that can we say that these Shastras are responsible for the atrocities and crime against a weaker section of the society? This may include Scheduled Tribe, Caste, Women, Child Labour, and Poor etc.
THE GOOD AND HONEST ANSWER is that these texts are responsible and associated with the various atrocities because these texts are part of the day-to-day life, they are part of the life and thoughts, therefore they go to the unconscious mind of the people. This is not co-incident that almost all Babas who found involved in sexual harassment are associating themselves with the Krishna
SEE THE WORLD HISTORY
Not only in India but all over the world, the Nationalist Movements are against the downtrodden, weaker people and the women. They are always saying that “they are putting the nation first” but what they mean by the nation is important.
For example, it sounds good that Swarajya Hamara Janmsiddha Adhikar hai but the moot question is that what they mean by Swarajya?
#HOME-WORK for history students: find the meaning of Swarajya according to the Tilak.
Here Gail Omvest also questioning the Communist. For Gail Omvedt the communists themselves who claimed to be the main class opposition to the ‘bourgeois’ Congress could not offer a serious challenge at the level of mass mobilization, despite the Telangana revolt.
Pg. 69
Gail Omvedt has said on Congress and Nehru that they were Hindu Character from the beginning. She has also said that the left’s critique of Congress socialism has been that it was capitalist reform because it did not admit of working-class leadership.
Pg. 70
MK Gandhi was against Indian industrialization. For this Gail, Omvedt has criticized MK Gandhi. And Gail Omvedt also observed that neither MK Gandhi nor any of the well-known Gandhian economists could offer a rational basis for a decentralized development.
#READ-HERE Hindi Swaraj by MK Gandhi
Brahmanic Socialism and the Hindu Rate of Growth
Gail Omvedt is saying that the Brahmanic Socialism of the Nehruvian model of development created a powerful superstructure like - a heavy industrial base, a scientific and technological establishment, an extensive university system, a glittering cultural scene. The growth rate it involved, aptly nicknamed the ‘Hindu Rate of Growth’ by economists Raj Krishna was at 3.5 per cent, but it was barely 1.5 per cent per capita annually.
#HOME-WORK #What is the meaning of Superstructure?
Pg. 71 Skipped
Pg. 72 Skipped
Pg. 73
Gail Omvedt is questioning all kinds of growth rate including the Hindu Rate of Growth, that why still India is lacking behind in all human rights indicator, even in contrast to other developing countries. Poverty declined, but rather minimally. Millions still faced hunger; farmers committed suicide as agriculture remained backwards and discriminated against under a liberal trade regime as much as under a statist one.
Brahmanic Socialism and the Hindu Rate of Growth
Gail Omvdt satirically criticized Brahmanic Socialism and Hindu Rate of Growth. I quote her-
If anything caste tension increased. That earlier ‘Brahmanic Socialism’ phase had lead to an argument by some that the ‘Hindu Rate of Growth’ was necessarily low because higher growth would cause turmoil in the society. Higher growth with increasing inequality did indeed lead to turmoil. The first crisis in the mid-1960s had led to an upsurge of radicalism in the 1970s, including Naxalism and anti-caste organizing. By the 1990s, Dalits and OBCs – ‘Other Backwards Castes’, the new name for ex-Shudra, deriving from the Mandal Commission - were organizing in new ways, representing a challenge to Hindutva, Brahmanic globalization and social-economic inequalities. It is to this, that we now turn.
Image Credit: Photo by Plato Terentev from Pexels
Anil Kumar | Student of Life World
Lecture, Study Material, and More
Keep Visiting ~ Stay Curious
0 Comments