Gandhi & Caste
States have their iconic heroes. Founding Fathers. Jinnah in Pakistan, Ataturk in Turkey, George Washington in the U.S., Gandhi in India. To criticize them is risky business as they have been elevated to god-like status. Gandhi is no exception. He is revered and honored. His portrait hangs in many buildings and homes. His statue graces many public squares. And he is on the rupee note. The adulation extends outside of India. The British government recently announced that his statue would be placed in Parliament Square. But all people have cracks in their armor. Gandhi supported the highly elaborate Hindu caste system of social segmentation and stratification, and hereditary class division. While deploring discrimination and oppression of Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, Gandhi did not see the hierarchical caste system as morally wrong and undemocratic.
Keynote address recorded at the BC Library Conference.
Speaker
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is a world-renowned, award-winning writer and global justice activist. Tariq Ali says of her, “She is both loathed and feared by the Indian elite. Loathed because she speaks her mind. Feared because her voice reaches the world outside India and damages the myths perpetrated by New Delhi.” She is the recipient of the prestigious European Essay Prize for lifetime achievement, and the PEN Pinter Prize for telling “urgent stories of injustice with wit and beauty.” Among her many books are The God of Small Things, Capitalism: A Ghost Story, My Seditious Heart, and Azadi. Her latest books are The Architecture of Modern Empire and Mother Mary Comes to Me.
Yogesh Maitreya –
Her views are totally disguised. her Introduction of AoC will further distort the western readers who are yet to know the gravity of the caste-conflicts. Now this is the problem with the western readers, before reading Dalit writes and scholars on caste issues, they start liking this cunning women just because she is some BOOKER winner and have a space to dominate the discourse. pity on western agencies who claim to be an Ambedkarite.
http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7652:arundhati-roy-s-introduction-appropriation-as-tool-of-brahminical-hegemony&catid=119:feature&Itemid=132