The other day I was reading a sociology book by MN Srinivas on social changes in India. Interestingly, the way most sociologists have written about caste sitting in their privileged pedestals is sickening. They are either trying to explain why caste system existed, why it was essential or how some communities had social mobility and how is was glorious and great for the dominant castes. They don't try to justify it directly but they only say everything from savarna stand point. Never a word about how evil it is and how it is a human rights violation. They go so much as to call it the "Great" Indian tradition and culture. There is very few space given for the attrocities on lower castes and their point of view. As Lakshmi Chithra calls it, a "very sugar coated sulking against caste". Most space in sociology and anthropology, even today is dominated by these upper caste academics who try to dominate the discourse on how caste system works by marginalising the voices of people who actually suffer the attrocities. It was bright to my attention today that even a book like Ambetkar's annihilation of caste which was freely available was taken over and modified as a commodity and remodeled on savarna "knowledge" by adding essays and references of high caste academics who Ambetkar was fighting all his life. Some people like Arundhati Roy, who wrote and introduction to this book, and many other Messiahic liberals, who identify themselves as saviors of the untouchable, sadly aid them without acknowledging their privilege, and thus depriving the oppressed even their right to resist. "Brahmins oppress them, brahmins revolt for them, brahmins save them. And Brahmins appropriate them. The same cycle again and again"(Lakshmi Chithra). The whole of academia and media is dominated by these savarnas that they take away the space to voice the issues from these oppressed castes. They even make the rules on who gets visibility, which discourse gets recognition and how the bahujans should resist the oppression. Thus in effect, there are no issues in India other than what these people raise.
PS: The above post was a result of conversation between me and Lakshmi Chithra about an article in roundtable India discussing criticism to Arundhati Roy's introduction to Annihilation of caste. Click here for the article.
Lakshmi Chithra is a Doctoral candidate in Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.