The Funeral Pyre | Dalit Politics

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[{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1489629216821","data":"As Rajni Krish\u2019s suicide soars on the airwaves we\u2019re standing in front of another conundrum for ourselves yet, again. The conundrum of whether this was just another suicide by student because of societal pressures, or was this a product of casteism and institutional violence. How much is the role of the institution? What can we do for bringing about changes? These are questions that we cannot answer through examinations of a corpse, yet, these are questions we need to seek an answer to as the suicides have increased in number in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/cities\/Madurai\/suicide-by-dalit-students-in-4-years\/article2425965.ece\" target=\"_blank\">recent years<\/a>. From my point of view, that institutional casteism exists despite representational politics, even in liberal spaces. I have seen supposed left members who vehemently oppose cultural standards beings used as a part of representational affirmative actions because according to their analogy these things are \u201cjust cultural\u201d and don\u2019t play into the trope of class war. The General students are usually angry at these students as well, because they seem as people who take away the chance of other \u201cmore deserving\u201d General students. We have seen those memes everywhere, the General student presented with huge hurdles, the SC\/ST students getting a free pass.<\/p> <img class=\"stumagz-image\" id=\"img1489629457674\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.stumagz.com\/images\/58c9f1543f285stryimg\" style=\"display: initial;\" width=\"403\" height=\"279\"><\/p>So, why does this institutional violence exist. What stands in the way of heterogeneity when it comes to our understanding of our fellow students? What are the ideas that drive these principles? Whenever we try to drive into these things, the issue of reservation crops up, and here we can discuss that actually, is representation killing Dalit students? Why not a meritocracy? Why not something that gives representation to lower income strata? <\/p>Why not Meritocracy?<\/b><\/p>The meritocracy question is difficult to answer perhaps in terms of society. Our society is not homogeneous, we cannot treat them to a similar sort of experiments and receive the similar output every single time. This is because we are not only ourselves, but, also products of the society that surrounds us. However, this changes as we move from the villages to the city. <\/p>To the rosy-eyed teenager, everything looks similar in the city. The people are all having the same privilege. What escapes us that the opportunities we get are not shared with a lot of other people. And again, a Dalit student brought up in a family of people who got into job as soon as they could, would be more likely to do the same, no matter their potential, or what the job is? Our drive to do anything is influenced by the society we live in. Thus, you are more likely to seek government jobs if your parents are government servant. <\/p>Herein, general students, with a long lineage of parents who have had academic qualifications and other things have an advantage. Their instinct is towards studying more, their stability is defined by higher education, versus, the Dalit student who only sees the working class people around him and does not think or is motivated by anything else. <\/p>Class Based Representation<\/b><\/p>In a huge strata of society, every worker is not equal, except in the perhaps their oppression by the higher classes through institutional means. The society finds new ways to oppress them, no matter the way it is created. The life of black student in America cannot be equated with that of a white student, the life of a Dalit student cannot be equated with that of a Brahmin one. <\/p>There is a problem though, this representational politics seems to be only helping the higher paid Dalits. However, that is not the fault of these people themselves, but, of individual gain that drives most of our work these days. So, the richer offspring does not pass information onto the poorer strata of Dalits, and their institutional oppression continues while, we see the rosy pictures of SC\/ST students getting a scots free education. <\/p>However, grouping together of an entire class into a bracket creates a problem. We can see the statistics of how regional politics drives school and higher education enrollment, we can see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/281440281_Inter-Regional_and_Inter-Generational_Differentials_in_Education_in_India\" target=\"_blank\">how it changes. <\/a><img class=\"stumagz-image\" id=\"img1489629849565\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.stumagz.com\/images\/58c9f2dde2b76stryimg\" style=\"display: initial;\"><\/p>Does Representation Kill?<\/b><\/p>It doesn\u2019t. <\/p>We need to examine the fact that our educational system derives this unheard of joy from the oppression of students in the name of respectability. This respect itself is a product of society, and the society here is tilted badly for the Dalit students. So, when it comes to people who are Dalits, their inability to grasp English (due to never being educated in the medium), their inability to grasp some concepts (never being introduced to the things first hand), all play a part in this.<\/p>It appears that the promise of representation is a hollow one, it creates a space for faces, but, it does not give room for those faces to improve. The false dichotomy between what is respectable for a student and what is not, itself creates a divide, and hence, the last argument comes into play. That of hate increasing due to reservation<\/b><\/i>, this is true. Hate does increase in any case of representational politics. <\/p>However, this needs to be followed up too, the problem isn\u2019t affirmative action but, our assumptions themselves, which are inevitably coming from a space of bias. This needs to be worked out in terms of society . <\/p> <\/p>For now, I can only plead, see your neighbor and respect and love him. Do not play into the hands of society, though you inevitably will. Understand the problems, understand where we stand before playing a flute that oppresses your fellow man, you know you\u2019re better than that. Do not create another suicide. <\/p> <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1489629849565","data":"58c9f2dde2b76"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1489629457674","data":"58c9f1543f285"}]

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