idea of india_derivative, desi and beyond_gopal guru_epw 10 sep 11

7/29/2019 Idea of India_Derivative, Desi and Beyond_Gopal Guru_EPW 10 Sep 11

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september 10, 2011 vol xlvi no 37 EPW Economic & Political Weekly36

The Idea of India:Derivative, Desi and Beyond

Gopal Guru

This article is based on the text of the

Founders Day lecture delivered at the Madras

Institute of Development Studies, 28 April 2011.

Gopal Guru ([email protected])

teaches political theory at the Centre forPolitical Studies, School of Social Sciences,

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

The dalit discourse in India

presents a sharp contrast to the

derivative and the desi

discourses governing nationalist

thought and the idea of India.

The dalit discourse goes beyond

the two in offering an imagination

that is based on a negativelanguage which however

transcends into a normative form

of thinking. The dalit goes beyond

both the derivative and desi

inasmuch as it foregrounds itself

in the local conguration of

power, which is constitutive of the

hegemonic orders of capitalism

and brahminism.

In this essay I would like to make two

interrelated arguments. First, socio-

political thought in colonial India

represents a multiplicity of ideas from

India. Thus in the afrmative imagina-

tion, the idea of incredible India can be

arguably attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru,

while we need not have any hesitation in

associating the idea of village India or

Ram Rajya with M K Gandhi. Similarly,

we need not hesitate to relate the idea of

mother India with nationalist thinking in

the 19th and 20th century nationalist

imagination in West Bengal. In another

shade of Hindu nationalist thought the

idea of father India and holy India can

be undoubtedly attributed to Vinayak

Damodar Savarkar. There is an alternative

imagination as well. In this kind of imagi-

nation, we have Jyotirao Phules India

of Baliraja (the benevolent peasant kingwho existed in myths) and Babasaheb

Ambedkars prabuddha Bharat (enlight-

ened India).

The alternative imagination of India as

proposed by Phule and Ambedkar follows

a particular methodological route. The

conception of an alternative or afrmative

imagination of India seems to be preceded

by what could be termed as oppositional

imagination. For example, Ambedkar also

imagines India as bahishkrut Bharat

ostracised India.

Second, the thinkers who have imag-

ined India use a particular language,

which this essay argues is articulated via

three routes the methodological, the

conceptual and the hermeneutic.

Taking a cue from some leading scholars,1

I would like to argue that the methodo-

logical language plays an important role

in terms of deciding the epistemic calibre

and evaluating the universal standards

of nationalist thought. At another level,methodological language seeks to charac-

terise the autonomy of nationalist thought.

To put it differently, the methodological

device is deployed to decide the authenti-

city of nationalist thought. Authenticity

in this context involves the question

whether a particular thought is original or

imitative? In the present context, original-ity is contingent upon the conditions (cul-

tural and intellectual) that x the territo-

rial boundaries around the nationalist

thought. What is being suggested here is

that spatiality as well as epistemology

foreground the question whether a partic-

ular thought has an alternative point of

origin or is it a lazy extension of the

modular form of nationalist thinking,

which is already available in the west and

waiting to be replicated in India. Thus, the

methodological categories adopted by

some of the noted scholars seek to desig-

nate certain distinct character to Indian

thought. Let me put this point in a more

dramatic fashion. Does the nationalist

thought in India don those categories that

are cast off by western modernity? Do we

shop in second hand? What is wrong in

borrowing the used and abused categories

from the west?

Thus, the methodological language is

suggestive of a characterising function thatcertain categories tend to acquire. It could

be argued that the category derivative

as adopted by one of the leading scholars

on nationalism, Partha Chatterjee seems to

be performing the function of characteris-

ing nationalist thought in India. Accord-

ing to Chatterjee (1986: 41), the national-

ist thought in India is essentially a deriva-

tive in the sense that it fashions itself on

the modular form of nationalism as deve-

loped in the west. However, Chatterjee

qualies this argument particularly in

two respects. First, he does not suggest

that nationalist thought in India indulges

in wholesale borrowing from the west.

It is quite selective in such borrowings.

Chatterjee rightly points out that the

nationalist thought, at least for political

reasons (my expression), needs to assert

its autonomous character. Thus, for him, a

nationalist thought would not constitute

as nationalist if it is absolutely imitative

(my expression) of the west (Chatterjee1986: 8). He makes an indirect reference

to the moral dimension of nationalist


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Economic & Political Weekly EPW september 10, 2011 vol xlvi no 37 37

thought, which according to his own read-

ing is internal to the derivative character

of this thought. This is clear from the fol-

lowing observation that Chaterjee makes

in his widely referred work. He says, Na-

tionalist discourse is historical in form but

apologetic in substance (Chatterjee 1986:

9). Thus, the nationalist problematic inIndia is replete with a dilemma willing

to keep distance from the west but unable

to retain the autonomy.

The Derivative and the Desi

It is true that the derivative as character-

ising category plays an important role in

foregrounding the dilemma that the na-

tionalist thought confronts particularly

within the colonial conguration of power.

It suffers from a dilemma in the sense that

while it has a will to carve out for itself an

autonomous epistemological space well

outside the inuence of western discourse,

at the same time it is unable to escape the

epistemological grip and gaze of the western

discourse. However, the logic of such rather

innovative methodological moves does

not necessarily exhaust all the reference

points that may bring into focus the

hidden dimension of nationalist thought.

Thus one needs to cast the net of methodo-

logical language a little wider so as tocapture within its range some other cate-

gories that can throw some light on the

hidden character of nationalist imagina-

tion. The central argument of this essay,

thus, is this: derivative as a methodolog-

ical language is necessary but not suf-

ciently capacious so as to unfold to us the

differential nature of nationalist thought

in India. Thus, at the methodological level,

it becomes necessary to add to derivative

two other categories desiand beyond.

This semantic extension, in my opinion, is

necessary to bring out what could be

called a distinct character of nationalist

thought in India. Let us therefore examine,

to what extent and in what context, the

desiacquires a character which is different

from the derivative.

I would like to argue that both desi and

derivative are different from each other in

the following respects. First, taking a cue

from the very instructive insights provided

by Sudipta Kaviraj (1995) it could beargued that the desi seeks to reverse the

logic of orientalism thus making the west

an object of not only its own inquiry but

also for establishing both autonomy from

and superiority over the west. Second, as

a corollary to the rst, a particular strand

of Indian thought could be characterised as

desi precisely because it is self-referential.

It is self-referential to the extent that it

develops itself within the intellectual con-ditions that are historically available in

the specic territorial context of India.

However, in this regard it is necessary to

qualify this argument by making two other

additional points.

First, the claim for self-referentiality

emerges in the context of a desi response

to colonial epistemological challenge that

in fact shakes the desi out of its intellec-

tual complacency if not slumber. Second,

desi for its self-denition requires the west

as an epistemological shadow as charac-

terised by Uday Mehta (1998). To put it

differently, the desi for its own authentic

articulation requires the west as a negative

reference point. Finally, desi, like the

derivative does not suffer from a dilemma

as mentioned above. The desi mode of

thinking does not have a desire to follow

the west and at the same time remain au-

tonomous. On the contrary, it acquires its

intellectual condence whereby it does

not allow the western vocabulary to oatinto the minds of the desi thinkers who

drawing on Bhikhu Parekhs (1989) classi-

cation could be characterised as either

traditionalists or critical traditionalists. The

desi thought articulates supreme condence

to the point that it, as mentioned above,

becomes self-referential, or a source of

reference for the other. It acquires the

status of a classic having timeless essence

and relevance. One could interpret the

element of condence in the desi thinking

as a moral source, which therefore chooses

to operate on its own without necessarily

making any association with other con-

tending thoughts.

In fact, desi thought is epistemologically

inegalitarian inasmuch as it seeks positive

dissociation from other contending intel-

lectual traditions. It does not nd it neces-

sary to exist as a contending and compet-

ing intellectual tradition. At another level

of its intellectual existence and in the

need to remain hegemonic both acrosstime and space, it seeks to assimilate those

intellectual traditions that are heterodox

in character. Assimilation of one strand of

Buddhism in brahminical Hinduism is one

such example in the premodern period

and the Gandhian attempt to assimilate

the dalit discourse within its hegemonic

framework is another attempt in modern

time. However, there is a striking difference

between brahminical Hinduism and theGandhian project. While the former was

successful in its mission the latter was not.

The desi, unlike the derivative, thus seeks

to avoid the charge of being apologetic.

Finally, the desi thinking in India

acquires its autonomy from the west pri-

marily because it has privileged access to

the Sanskrit language which provides the

necessary vocabulary for developing an

alternative theoretical thinking. The ex-

clusive access to Sanskrit by denition

questions the claim of desi thought as be-

ing complete and universal. For it can

claim to be complete only in the absence

of that thought which developed with

the marginal support of Sanskrit or even

without it. The dalit and shudra thought

developed by Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule

and Periyar E V Ramasamy Naicker

respectively is a case in point. It is in this

sense that the dalit shudra thought could

be considered as beyond the framework

of desi which is exclusively based onSanskrit. However, this idea of desi is

certainly different from the idea of desi as

developed by one of the leading Marathi

literary novelists and critics, Bhalchandra

Nemade. He would call all the silenced

but subaltern or little traditions like

saint traditions as desi. Although the

subaltern as desi warrants critical atten-

tion, here for the sake of convenience I do

not propose to assign full treatment to

that perspective.

However, it is important to mention

here that such a thought falling outside

the framework of both desi and to some

extent derivative has a strong moral

signicance. It has emerged and devel-

oped in adversarial intellectual conditions

where thinkers like Ambedkar and Phule

did not have resources to fall back on and

hence were forced to draw on those pro-

duced by the collective cultural and intel-

lectual practices of the shudra-atishudra

communities. It is the experience andnot the already available text that led to

the reective intellectual consciousness


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among the thinkers from the shudra-

atishudra community.

Thus, within the Indian tradition of

thought, there is an intellectual trend,

which goes beyond both the derivative as

well as the desi. In the following section, I

would like to argue that the category be-

yond, that can function through the con-ceptual language is more sensitive in

terms of capturing the historical form and

normative substance of sociopolitical think-

ing which emerged in India despite heavy

odds. It faced heavy odds in the sense that

it was pushed both beneath and beyond

the desi as well as the derivative.

The Category of the Beyond

I argue here that the category of beyond

is distinctive from both the desi and

the derivative inasmuch as it seeks to

characterise the nationalist imagination

radically differently. It is also different

from the other two in the sense that it

suggests the possibility of a parallel prob-

lematic of nationalist thought. I will explain

what is a parallel problematic, but before

I do this let me explain the underlying

characteristics of the category beyond.

First, the category beyond seeks to

render the thinking that otherwise is

pushed beneath and beyond the publicimagination. Such rather coercive seclu-

sion and separation of a particular think-

ing is analogous to the dalit literary imagi-

nation which in its self-description claims

that its poems belong to what is called in

Marathi, gao kusa baheril kavita (poems

from beyond the margin). The category

beyond, however, is the result of the

intellectual practice of those who were

privileged to have been involved in such

practice. Scholars and commentators of

political thought in modern India seem to

have either completely omitted (Mehta

1996 for example) or rhetorically accom-

modated (Pantham and Deutsch 1986)

certain social and political thinking parti-

cularly that has originated from the subal-

tern intellectual traditions. An alternative

mode of thinking from the margin has

been actively pushed beyond both the

derivative and the desi which have been

treated as the hegemonic terrain of public

inquiry characterising argumentativeIndia. Thus, according to this particular

reading, thinkers like Phule and Ambedkar

fail to t into the denitional framework

of political thought. Second, the thought

which is made to exist in the beyond is

different both in terms of style and sub-

stance. It is different in style as it expresses

dissonance, difference and deance. The

assertion of no and an element of anti-

scepticism that is so prominent in suchthought creates interruptions in the con-

ceptual stability and universal validity of

the hegemonic thought. Third, sociopoliti-

cal thought seems to exist beyond both the

desi and the derivative to the extent that

the concepts that inhibit this thought play

an important role of recasting the real

(largely un-thought) into reection.

The experience of untouchability forms

the part of un-thought as it fails to get

fully accommodated in or fails to become

the part of conceptual vocabulary of the

desi as well as the derivative. Its systematic

articulation had to wait till the arrival of

Phule and most particularly Ambedkar

into the intellectual imagination in the 19th

and 20th century India. Thus, in Ambedkars

thought one nds several concepts and

categories like bahishkrut Bharat, untouch-

ability as lokvigraha, broken men, de-

pressed classes, pad-dalit, hinatva

(servility), and vital (ritual pollution) that

receive intellectually sophisticated treat-ment from him. Thus, in Ambedkar the

concept ofhinatva is different from the

concept of durbalata (weakness). For

him the former is the state of being of

a particular self while the latter is the

condition that has a limited impact on

this self.

Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar as reec-

tive thinkers seek to recast a particular

reality into reection thus elevating it

from mere description to its universal

abstraction. For example, the concept of

bahishkrut in Ambedkar is the reection

of the real, i e, mal-apportioned untouch-

ables. As is evident from the conceptual

vocabulary mentioned in the preceding

sentences, the concepts and categories

constitutive of the discourse beyond access

this ideal only through the reection on

the real.

Fourth, the thought from the margins

also acquires the character of going

beyond the derivative and the desi to theextent that for its articulation it adopts a

vocabulary, which might appear to be

negative or grotesque to the latter. This

might appear to be negative to both the

derivative and the desi thought which

claims to be articulating itself through the

canonised language of self-rule,swadeshi,

home rule andswarajya. The thought from

the margins looks much beyond identical

and afrmative language for its expressionas mentioned in the preceding sentence.

We will talk more about the role of nega-

tive language in shaping the thought in the

discourse of the beyond later.

Fifth and nally this particular thought

not only goes beyond the derivative and

the desi in terms of its style and substance

but it also goes beyond itself particularly

in terms of its search for an alternative

normative ideal. The category beyond

does not suggest that the thought from the

margins does not have its own ideal. In

fact, it does have its own idea of ideal

(Guru 2009). For example, Phule moves

from gulamigiri (slavery) to sarvajanik-

satya dharma (religion based on universal

truth) and Ambedkar moves frombahish-

krut Bharat (India of the ostracised) to

prabuddha Bharat (enlightened India)

or from lokvigarha (untouchability) to

loksangraha (annihilation of untoucha-

bility). This particular thought also adopts

an afrmative language for the articulationof this ideal. But the intellectual project

of subaltern thought aimed at preparing

the masses for the realisation of a norma-

tive ideal becomes discernible through a

particular dialectic. It chooses to operate

through the negative language as an ini-

tial communicative condition. Negative

language as the grotesque form of expres-

sion makes both the derivative and the

desi as an object of its criticism. It thus

seeks to undercut the signicance of

canonised language as the only legitimate

form of expression.

Negative Language

The thought hailing from the beyond

seeks to challenge this canonised language

by deploying the negative language. For

example, this invokes the language of un-

touchability in order to undercut the political

signicance of the afrmative language of

loksangraha mooted by Sri Aurobindo.2

The negative vocabulary seeks to challengethe mechanical language of unity as

proposed by the nationalist thinkers.


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The political thought residing in the

beyond as an hermeneutic space, thus,

performs an ethical function in as much

it causes an embarrassment to nationalist

thought and seeks to puncture the moral

condence of the canonised thought. At

another level, through the adoption of an

alternative afrmative language of self-respect and dignity it seeks to posit oppo-

sition within a person (in the present case

untouchables) who is otherwise immune

to the normative desire for self-denition.

The invocation of an afrmative lan-

guage in the subaltern thought leads to

reconstruction of consciousness whereby

every being existing at the margins be-

comes his/her own opposite. The recon-

structive process facilitated through sub-

altern thought thus involves, for example,

an attempt to overcome the state of servile

being and radically transform the servile

into a subversive entity. The redemption

of subversive entity becomes a possibility

primarily through the complex interplay

between the modernist dimension of

social thought and its corresponding

framework, i e, the local conguration of

power. The local conguration of power is

constitutive of brahminism and capitalism

in Phules language shetji-bhatji and in

Ambedkars language brahmanshahiand bhandwalshahi.

To put it differently, the redemption of

the subversive entity through the subaltern

thought or the thought of the beyond

takes place within the context of this local

conguration of power constitutive of

capitalism and brahminism. Ambedkars

thought entails modern vocabulary such

as equality, justice, self-respect and more

importantly dignity. The internal struc-

ture of nationalist thought as argued by

Chatterjee and endorsed by Kaviraj is

extremely complex because according to

these scholars it contains critiques within

critiques. While there is no problem in

accepting the validity of this reading of

nationalist thought, the associative problem

of this critique within the critique is

that it does not exhaust its logic in the

sense that it pays rhetorical attention

rather than offering substantive treat-

ment to the question of caste.

This language in its afrmative modeseeks to not only interrogate the local

conguration of power, but it also aims at

mobilising Indian society initially against

itself and essentially for its transformation

into the distant future. The derivative and

the desi, on the other hand, hesitate to

engage with the local but show an extra-

ordinary urgency to confront the imperial

State in the colonial conguration of power.

The derivative and desi, thus, make hugeconcessions to native capitalism and most

particularly brahminism that regulate lo-

cal congurations of power.

Postcolonial Critique

It is interesting to note that some of the

postcolonial scholars seem to have used

the much celebrated framework, i e, the

derivative discourse as a potent methodo-

logical resource to critique Ambedkars

modernist moves for political mobilisation

of the dalits (Ganguly 2005: 115). Some of

them obliquely critique Ambedkar for

having indulged in unconditional borrow-

ing from the western modernist para-

digm. But if Phule and Ambedkar borrow

it, what is wrong? They certainly have

incorporated the western in their thought.

One cannot object to such borrowing

particularly on moral grounds. They were

forced to borrow because they were

denied access to the desi category that

was locally available. For example, theywere denied access to learning Sanskrit

that arguably happened to be the potent

eld of conceptual vocabulary.

The postcolonial critique of Ambedkar

as mounted by scholars like Ganguly

needs to take into account the constrain-

ing impact of local conguration of power

that has produced the following predica-

ment for the dalit thinkers. It says in

Marathi, and I quote aai jeyaila wadat

nahi, ani bap usanwari karu det nahi. In

this context, aai is understood as a step-

mother. Sanskrit language is a stepmother,

and according to the proverbial under-

standing, exclusion, discrimination is in

her nature. Thus, Sanskrit as a stepmother

does not offer conceptual food (and cre-

ates conditions of intellectual starvation)

and the postcolonial theorist also does not

allow borrowing ideas from the west. In fact,

Chatterjees recent work on Babasaheb

Ambedkar certainly contributes to our

understanding of thought that exists onthe edge of thought corresponding to the

beyond. In his recent work on Ambedkar

(Chatterjee 2006: 83) he argues that

Ambedkar does not have a problem exist-

ing in the homogeneity of India but is also

reduced to suppressed heterogeneity.

The above description thus involves

three claims. First, that the sociopolitical

thought which exists in the realms of the

beyond essentially suggests a possibilityof a parallel problematic of the idea of

India. Second, it adopts a negative lan-

guage for the articulation of the parallel

problematic. Finally, this thought does

not remain pathologically stuck in the

framework of negative language. On the

contrary it progressively transcends the

negative and develops an afrmative lan-

guage for fashioning out an alternative

conception of India. These claims make it

necessary to explain the nature of the

parallel problematic within which the

new questions implicating the idea of

India are framed and a non-identical,

grotesque language is developed for the

articulation of these questions.

The Parallel Problematic

The term problematic in the Althusserian

framework,3 designates the theoretical/

ideological framework, which puts the

basic concepts into relation with one an-

other, determines the nature of each con-cept by its place and function in this sys-

tem of relationship, and thus confers on

each concept its particular signicance.

Althusser further argues that the con-

cept of the problematic acquires its own

signicance by determining what it includes

within its eld, and thereby necessarily

determines what is excluded therefrom.

The concepts which are excluded and the

problems which are not posed adequately

or not posed at all are therefore as much a

part of the nationalist problematic as are

the concepts and problems that are present

in the nationalist thought. It could be

argued that the parallel problematic pro-

viding intellectual space for the emergence

of the subaltern thought in turn results

from the deciency that is internal and

endemic to the nationalist problematic.

The nationalistic problematic provides

a negative reference point that triggers off

a parallel problematic. Thus, the parallel

problematic seeks to bring into the fore-front questions relating to normative con-

cerns like justice, equality and dignity


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PERSPECTIVES


that get buried in the backyard of nation-

alist thought and hence the nationalistic

problematic which raises different order

of questions relating to self-rule and politi-

cal freedom. The nationalistic problematic

that emerged during the colonial times has

failed to either adequately pose the ques-

tion of annihilation of caste or sought tocompletely exclude these social questions.

The nationalistic problematic produc-

es sovereign concepts such as self-rule,

elite democracy and political freedom,

which is ne but these sovereign concepts

tend to crush under their weight certain

other conceptual vocabulary such as self-

respect or dignity, which seeks to pre-

serve the universal normative aspirations

of the untouchables. This silencing of the

alternative vocabulary has thus given rise

to the parallel problematic of the dalit

subaltern. The nationalist thought in India

tried hard to bury the dalit question, but

failed in its effort because the subaltern

thinkers did not allow it to happen. In

fact, thinkers like Phule and Ambedkar

dragged the social question from the

depths it had reached in public discourse.

The expression of dalit thinking as a

body of thought particularly in negative

language looks grotesque to the main-

stream nationalist thought which has beencanonised through the language that is

considered as the afrmative language.

The nationalist thinkers and leaders dur-

ing the colonial time and the modernising

elite in the post-independent period, did

not show any hospitality towards the

negative/grotesque language deployed by

Ambedkar and later on by other dalit liter-

ary gures. The nationalist leaders showed

deep resentment with this language used

by the dalit subalterns (Guru 2007). This

resentment about the negative language

did not go down well with the nationalist

imagination as it caused embarrassment

to the moral order of the nation.

Signicance

The negative language in dalit discourse is

signicant for the following reasons. First,

the principle of dalit thought seeks to gov-

ern the communicative use of language.

The language used by Ambedkar and

dalits assumes assertiveness inasmuch asit asserts that the nationalist thought is

not historically sensitive to the dalit

question. The words is not thus consti-

tute assertion. The assertive moves and

the negative language are based on the

distinctions between the nationalist

thought and the social thought that fore-

grounds dalit vision. The language also

brings out the distinctive character of

dalit thought by placing it in a differentconguration of power. The distinctive-

ness in thought particularly that in mod-

ern India becomes discernible in two

congurations of power the colonial and

the local.

The colonial conguration of power

produces and shapes conceptual language

that tends to subsume within itself other

conceptual assertions. For example, the

language of political freedom overshad-

ows the concept of social freedom or the

concept of self-rule as sovereign concepts

subsume in them the non-identical con-

cepts such as self-respect.

Second, the use of negative language

like untouchability or bahishkrut or hinatva

brings into focus the relationship between

the formation of concept and the construc-

tion of physical space. In this regard, it is

interesting to note that Michel Foucault

seeks to endorse the role of space in

producing and shaping the conceptual

language. Foucault (1989: Preface), says,the thought that bears the stamp of our

age and our geography. For example, the

concept of untouchability or bahishkrut

comes up in Ambedkars social thought

because it reects the experience of repul-

sion and exclusion that emanates from

the space that is stigmatised. One cannot

imagine the emergence of the category of

hinatva in Savarkars (2003: 113) idea of

India as holy land.

Let me further argue that in the case of

Ambedkar and even Gandhi the space deter-

mines the emergence and the efcacy of

thought. The social location of Ambedkar

a social ghetto that is historically pro-

duced and reproduced would awaken

Ambedkar only to the language of dis-

crimination, humiliation and segregation,

inequality and injustice. Hence at the cog-

nitive level, the conceptual vocabulary in

Ambedkars thought seeks to organise

social relations around contradictions and

to motivate dalits to offer much sharperresponses to these contradictions. It is in

this sense, that a body of thought exists

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PERSPECTIVES


beyond and entails concepts and catego-

ries related to struggle and that acquires

meaning and signicance in the realm of

social struggle.

However, in Gandhian thought, the

concepts, due to their moral orientation

acquire a non-cognitive character. This in

effect, tends to shape social relationsaround the idea ofseva (service),sahanub-

huti (compassion) and care; not struggle

or contradiction. Since Gandhis political

existence operates through a seamless

spatiality, it tends to create only corre-

sponding concepts like seva or trustee-

ship. In the Gandhian case it is seamless

because for Gandhi, every space becomes

quite hospitable and receptive. That is to

say Gandhi can move in and out of any

space, even the Bhangi colony. This

choice to walk in and out has a bearing on

Gandhis thought. It changes the character

of his thought thus making it more placid.

Ambedkar, on the contrary, does not have

a choice and hence has to open up spaces

that are not only hostile but are also frag-

mented around social stigma. Thus physi-

cal spaces which are otherwise empty get

constructed through negative or positive

meaning depending upon who is assign-

ing this meaning. In India, it was the so-

cially powerful who till the arrival of colo-nial modernity assigned meaning to the

spaces they inhibited (agrahara) and also

to the spaces that they did not reside in

but held in deep repulsion (cherry, hulgeri

and maharwada or chamar tola). But the

enabling aspect of colonial modernity em-

powered the untouchables to seek new

meaning for their physical space (Bhimna-

gar, Buddhawada, Ramabainagar and Sid-

dhartanagar). The politics of acquiring

new names to social spaces assumed the

possibility of producing cognitive categories

that sought to interrogate and then under-

mine what could be described as the

patronising and hence non-cognitive cate-

gory such as harijanwada the name

given by Gandhi.

Political Freedom Alone?

These cognitive categories suggesting the

oppositional imagination in turn seeks to

expose the discursive character of nation-

alist thought. The nationalist thoughtacquires a discursive character to the extent

that different strands of thought (liberal,

Marxist, Hindu) however, tend to rally

round the single concept of political free-

dom. They rally round this single concept

for intersecting purposes. The cognitive

categories that are internal to dalit thought

seek to deate this discursive character

of nationalist thought. It connects the

production of thought to the productionof spaces, which in turn affect the herme-

neutic capacity of thought. As a result

Ambedkars thought nds its audience

basically in the dalit bastis (ghettos). The

cognitive categories also dene themselves

and acquire salience against the use of

non-cognitive categories that are consti-

tutive of Gandhian thought. The dalit

thinking seeks to polarise the discursive

eld of nationalist thought and chooses to

exist in the heterogeneous time with the

negative intention to question the homo-

geneous time within which the national-

ist thought seem to be operating. It then

acquires potency in terms of the cognitive

and hence it becomes deeply political

rather than moral.

In Gandhian thought the moralising lan-

guage like seva, care, harijan, and trus-

teeship seek to dissolve the contradiction

and eliminate the possibility of polarisa-

tion and oppositional imagination. It is

driven by an element of appeal rather thanassertion. Moral appeal nds its basis in

the language of duty, whereas assertion is

driven by the language of rights. Assertion,

as mentioned above, involves a rm nega-

tion rather than afrmation and conr-

mation of the established claims. The lan-

guage of seva essentially foregrounds duty

driven action that necessarily emanates

from the humble side of human nature.

The language of right, on the other hand, is

constitutive of assertion. Seva as a non-

cognitive moral category also possesses a

discursive character. That is to say, it is avail-

able to different social forces for intersecting

purposes. For example, it makes a guest

appearance in Hindu political thought. It

acquires a thick presence in Gandhian

thought and it is also available to the

native capitalist as well.

Finally, it is taken seriously by the

Christian missionaries who have been

active in India for a long time now. In fact,

the concept of seva genealogically be-longs to Christian religious discourse and

has been subsequently borrowed by the new

Hindu discourse. As has been argued by

some scholars, the category of seva, con-

nects with the new Hindu ethics. Those

Hindus who sought to defend Hinduism

in an event of a challenge from colonial

modernity and Christianity offered to

treat dalits decently. They showed some

degree of concern, care and an attitudetowards seva. Gandhi among all the

other Hindus, offered rather substantive

treatment to the category of seva. The

construction of dalit into harijan was

to invoke a sense of seva among the

orthodox Hindus. Seva thus connotes a

kind of passive revolution, which becomes

feasible because seva facilitates the re-

construction of Hindu ethics while pre-

serving caste Hindu dominance. Other

Hindus had only rhetorical association

with the category of seva. The native capi-

talist also supported seva as a hegemon-

ic device to pacify the dalit masses (Srivat-

san 2006: 107). It is for this reason, the

capitalists donated generously to Gandhis

Harijan Sevak Sangh.

Struggle and Self-help

As against the language of seva, the dalit

thought contains the language of struggle

and self-help, which promotes normative

aspirations among the dalits. Self-helpconnotes the idea of self-respect as a moral

good to be pursued by social groups that

are marginalised. Unlike the category of

seva, which suggests an asymmetrical

relationship and denies a sense of auto-

nomy to the dalit. In fact, it suggests a

dependence that presupposes the element

of patronage. The early efforts made by

dalits to start educational institutions for

the dalits show that dalit thought con-

tained the radical morality that brought

out a sense of agency that would keep the

notion of free riders away.

Third, the negative vocabulary plays an

important role in shaping the idea of dalit

self and the other. In the case of India it is

the twice born or the touchable who is

constructed as the other of dalit, through

deploying the negative language. The

deployment of negative language denies

the hegemonic language, for example, of

nationalism and secularism. For example,

the language of bahishkrut Bharat usedby dalits and Ambedkar would render the

description of modern multicultural


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PERSPECTIVES


India as incomplete. The negative lan-

guage also questions a dominant form of

identical language that constructs the

moral order of India as the nation which

is based on social harmony. In fact nega-

tive language seeks to historicise the

identical language, which seeks to avoid

the question of historical injustice. Theidentical language seeks to construct the

nationalist self. The negative language

constitutes the source of moral embar-

rassment precisely because the twice born

castes treat themselves as the constitutive

core of modern India. The reactions to

Ambedkar and Katherine Mayos Mother

India bring out this element of embarrass-

ment clearly.

Fourth, negative language at the onto-

logical level, seeks to unite the dalit, sub-

altern with herself or himself. It saves the

self from getting alienated from its au-

thentic experience that is given to it by

the structures that physically exist out-

side but seek to conne dalits within what

could be called a barbed wire. This con-

nement behind barbed wire is both from

inside and from the outside. It raises the

cultural walls around dalits by deploying

negative language in their discourse which

is quite unintelligible to the upper castes.

Thus they protect the authenticity of theirdiscourse from outside. They are also

protected from within in the sense that

they are stuck in the historical question

that is produced and reproduced by the

logic of structure.

The question that needs to be answered

is that do dalits remain conned in the

negative? Or do they move out from

behind their barbed wired existence?

Language is not accidental but is integrally

involved in the form of life and thought

and it explains the negativity of percep-

tion whereby one organises ones experi-

ence. All experienced situations as repre-

sented in language are structured situa-

tions based on concept. Therefore, when

subordinated groups articulate their

experience, they use concepts derived not

from the positive or identical language

narratives but from commitments em-

bedded within their own language that

had hitherto gone unrecognised. The

negative language rst negates the xedcharacter of the identical language or

the categories of common sense. For

example, the concept of mother India

has been negated rst by Ambedkar and

later on by several dalit writers (Guru

2011). Negative language thus seeks to

reveal the limitations of the identical

hegemonic vocabulary that seeks to con-

stitute India as an epitome of glory and

incredibility. It shows the existence ofthings taken as isolated particulars that

are basically negative or incomplete.

Thus, the idea of bahishkrut Bharat

forms the logical part of the akhand

(socially) Bharat or insulated India of

untouchables as the part of incredible

India of the urban upwardly mobile upper

castes. Thus the negative language grasps

the true (and negative) real which universal

thinking seeks to avoid. This avoidance

can be explained in terms of moral reason.

Negative language causes moral embar-

rassment to both the derivative as well

as the desi.

Conclusions

Social and political thought which exists

in the sphere of the beyond has an epis-

temological capacity to make reality ade-

quate enough to t the concepts. For ex-

ample, the concept of freedom within the

nationalist problematic is adequate only

in the absence of social freedom. The con-cept of freedom becomes adequate only

in terms of its capacity to accommodate

within itself untouchability or caste ques-

tion as social reality. Thus, the concept of

freedom becomes more capacious when

propelled from the launching pad of the

discourse of the beyond. Thus, the

thought coming from this framework does

not treat concepts just symbolically but

offers them a more substantive treatment.

The derivative or the desi on the other

hand seek to avoid or rhetorically accom-

modate the dalit question in the margins

of the hegemonic terrain of its thought.

This rhetorical accommodation is moti-

vated by the need to protect the moral

order of Indian nationalism. The desi

does not feel morally embarrassed by the

existence of the dalit question as its main

target is the western modernity that asserts

itself within the colonial conguration of

power. Dalit thinking goes beyond both

the derivative and desi inasmuch as itforegrounds itself in the local congura-

tion of power, which is constitutive of the

shetji and bhatji (capitalism and brah-

minism). Dalit thought also goes beyond

itself in the sense that it transcends the

limits of its particularity in which it

expresses as an initial condition. It also

goes beyond its own negative language

from bahishkrut to the puruskrut. How-

ever, dalit thought articulates itself throughthe initially negative and essentially afrm-

ative language.

Notes

1 See two inuentia l works by Chatterjee (1986 and

2006), Kaviraj (1995), Kaviraj (1986: 209-35).

2 See Sri Aurobindo, The Ideal of Human Unity,

Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry, rst published

in 1919 and in 1998. In this regard also refer to

Parekh (1989: 21).

3 Western Marxism A Critical Reader, ed. New Left

Review, London, 1977, pp 244-45.

References

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Citizenship, V R Mehta and Thomas Pantham

(ed.), Political Ideas in Modern India, Thematic

Explorations (Delhi: Sage).

Foucault, Michel (1989): The Order of Things: An

Archaeology of Human Sciences (London:

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Ganguly, Debjani (2005): Dalit Literature and Their

Life World (Delhi: Orient Longman).

Guru, Gopal (2007): Social Justice: A 20th Century

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Mehta, Uday (1998): Liberalism and Empire (Delhi:

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idea of india_derivative, desi and beyond_gopal guru_epw 10 sep 11

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