04-16-2005, 09:08 PM
Comrade Parshad..
http://www.zmag.org/prashaddurban.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> Dalit rights activists have, naturally, been eager to raise the question of caste discrimination on the international stage, particularly since this government (in power since 1998) has been the first to block discussion of caste in international forums. Martin Macwan, national head of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, reminds us that <b>"in earlier international forums, notably the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Government of India had successfully taken up the issue of caste-based discrimination. Why is it insisting that caste is an 'internal' matter?"</b> The idea that caste is an "internal" matter is specious, mainly because "caste" as we know it today is decidedly fostered by a combination of Indian social relations, European-driven colonialism, and global capitalism. These three factors produce what we know as caste today, since the practice cannot claim to be an ahistorical reflection of what one reads in Sanskrit texts. Caste, then, is not "internal," but a form of social discrimination that is in conversation with similar forms elsewhere. It is in this spirit that most Dalit rights activists want to hold the international discussion.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> The main platform for the liberation of oppressed castes in India is land reform, a remedy that would make no sense in the western European context. While we seek to be internationalists in our vision and to fight against the occlusion of oppression by <b>cruel nationalism</b> (often in the service of imperialist globalization), we should be very keen to the political platforms that our analysis produces. <b>Politics is, after all, not just about our gut instincts, but principally about the platforms we produce to engender struggles.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.zmag.org/prashaddurban.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> Dalit rights activists have, naturally, been eager to raise the question of caste discrimination on the international stage, particularly since this government (in power since 1998) has been the first to block discussion of caste in international forums. Martin Macwan, national head of the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, reminds us that <b>"in earlier international forums, notably the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Government of India had successfully taken up the issue of caste-based discrimination. Why is it insisting that caste is an 'internal' matter?"</b> The idea that caste is an "internal" matter is specious, mainly because "caste" as we know it today is decidedly fostered by a combination of Indian social relations, European-driven colonialism, and global capitalism. These three factors produce what we know as caste today, since the practice cannot claim to be an ahistorical reflection of what one reads in Sanskrit texts. Caste, then, is not "internal," but a form of social discrimination that is in conversation with similar forms elsewhere. It is in this spirit that most Dalit rights activists want to hold the international discussion.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> The main platform for the liberation of oppressed castes in India is land reform, a remedy that would make no sense in the western European context. While we seek to be internationalists in our vision and to fight against the occlusion of oppression by <b>cruel nationalism</b> (often in the service of imperialist globalization), we should be very keen to the political platforms that our analysis produces. <b>Politics is, after all, not just about our gut instincts, but principally about the platforms we produce to engender struggles.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->