06-03-2007, 01:49 PM
<!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo--> Analyses
The Gujar uprising is just the tip of the iceberg of social discontentment in our society despite all the contraptions applied by successive post Independence governments to assuage the aspirations of different communities. This because our politics is dishonest and survives on creating not removing inequities to gain purely from the advantage of the moment, a sign of renegade leadership material. The key to the problem lies in education. Ever since independence disparities have continued to widen in opportunities and income generating capacity entirely on account of inequity in education the only route to progress and mobility. This responsibility of the State to the people was cleverly circumvented first by relegating education as a state subject in a disparate regional makeup and then pursuing a dubious colonial policy of continuing with English language as a tool for progress selectively in favour of a small segment which had served the English masters well by running their machinery. This machinery was never overhauled but simply handed over to new Indian masters as other institutions were, with the same floor management. The rural which meant Gujars, Jats, Ahirs, Rajputs etc had been simply left to their devices and meant to provide cannon fodder and food for the realm. Learning was not in their itinerary in the British Raj. One reason was that it was these peasants who carried out the 1857 uprising and the British did not want this element to progress with education at their hands. There was no change after the British left. That English should remain under any guise was in interest of both who continued to run the establishments and the brand of politicians who took charge. Short sighted and feeble they simply sidelined the language question. The issue of the national language or even languages which should have replaced English and thus brought the rural in mainstream of learning and knowledge was actually jettisoned sowing the seeds of class war we see today. Nonetheless a national language had to be declared for self esteem and Hindi was. But Hindi remained confined to a mere declared status, a token gesture, saw no development but bogus lip service through statements, celebration days and sign postings in offices. Notional as Ministers would appear once a year over the radio and exhort people to use Hindi, an oddity for a people to be reminded about their national language not seen anywhere else on the globe. Even after six decades plus we have yet no professional or scientific/technological education in Hindi or regional languages to open opportunities for the rural. Today competitive competence building is exclusively in English thus confined only to the urban and acutely in hands of private operators making education out of reach for the common citizen. The reservation policy itself seems perfectly fitted to deflecting the ground effects of the language debacle by promising jobs selectively without competition and learning, thereby further nourishing conflicts and throwing merit by the board. The ramifications of this folly are only accentuated by globalisation as English gets entrenched to serve market economy reducing education to narrow band and rendering National language yet more redundant. In fact urban children seem no longer to have any mother tongue, being groomed in English a strange phenomenon for any nation. The manifestation of wrath by one after the other segment of rural classes is thus natural the cumulative effect of denial of equal and uniform education to successive generations of marginalised majority. The colonial formula of divide and rule becomes handy with our politicians, applied as in a snakes and ladder game. Those who have secured their reservations are unleashed against those threatening to cut their shares. The system must head for a glut as more communities hanker for reservations and jobs are saturated. Jobs are in any case getting scarcer in public sector with exponential increase in private sector which will not accept without merit. The final showdown is yet to come but is not far away as the farm sector is squeezed further and reckless SEZs dislocate the unskilled peasant classes. The trend and route are obvious. Ask for a climb down in caste hierarchy and get economic benefits. The long term effects of this will be snow balling inviting more cataclysm. But all seem to be missing the wood for the trees. In the long run there is no alternative to survival but equal and uniform education for all, in stages first with proportionate reservations for marginalized communities in all professional and academic schools of learning not in jobs. Education has to be mobilized on war footing dispersed across the rural hinterland. The private sector has to pitch in with reciprocity by training and absorbing dislocated peasantry or prepare for the worst. There can be no progress without peace and no peace without harmony. While Jats have already secured the ST status in Rajasthan why Mr Takhait should be backing the Gujars there. The answer is clear that Jats are readying to seek ST status in UP too. Not their fault, its every one on his own, the survival of the fittest, a failure in governance which has not been able to dispense justice its primary institutional role. Amidst the entire fracas the fear is about resorting to the army in aid to civil authority for a very unpalatable and avoidable role, an employment which could lead to alienating it from its own people. Gujars are a military community too with considerable representation in the infantry. We should give no cause for generating quiet resentment and angst among them and their comrades on account of what is clearly a political problem the consequences of which should be the responsibility of civil law and order machinery. The Army is virtually becoming a fire fighting outfit which should be worrying
The Gujar uprising is just the tip of the iceberg of social discontentment in our society despite all the contraptions applied by successive post Independence governments to assuage the aspirations of different communities. This because our politics is dishonest and survives on creating not removing inequities to gain purely from the advantage of the moment, a sign of renegade leadership material. The key to the problem lies in education. Ever since independence disparities have continued to widen in opportunities and income generating capacity entirely on account of inequity in education the only route to progress and mobility. This responsibility of the State to the people was cleverly circumvented first by relegating education as a state subject in a disparate regional makeup and then pursuing a dubious colonial policy of continuing with English language as a tool for progress selectively in favour of a small segment which had served the English masters well by running their machinery. This machinery was never overhauled but simply handed over to new Indian masters as other institutions were, with the same floor management. The rural which meant Gujars, Jats, Ahirs, Rajputs etc had been simply left to their devices and meant to provide cannon fodder and food for the realm. Learning was not in their itinerary in the British Raj. One reason was that it was these peasants who carried out the 1857 uprising and the British did not want this element to progress with education at their hands. There was no change after the British left. That English should remain under any guise was in interest of both who continued to run the establishments and the brand of politicians who took charge. Short sighted and feeble they simply sidelined the language question. The issue of the national language or even languages which should have replaced English and thus brought the rural in mainstream of learning and knowledge was actually jettisoned sowing the seeds of class war we see today. Nonetheless a national language had to be declared for self esteem and Hindi was. But Hindi remained confined to a mere declared status, a token gesture, saw no development but bogus lip service through statements, celebration days and sign postings in offices. Notional as Ministers would appear once a year over the radio and exhort people to use Hindi, an oddity for a people to be reminded about their national language not seen anywhere else on the globe. Even after six decades plus we have yet no professional or scientific/technological education in Hindi or regional languages to open opportunities for the rural. Today competitive competence building is exclusively in English thus confined only to the urban and acutely in hands of private operators making education out of reach for the common citizen. The reservation policy itself seems perfectly fitted to deflecting the ground effects of the language debacle by promising jobs selectively without competition and learning, thereby further nourishing conflicts and throwing merit by the board. The ramifications of this folly are only accentuated by globalisation as English gets entrenched to serve market economy reducing education to narrow band and rendering National language yet more redundant. In fact urban children seem no longer to have any mother tongue, being groomed in English a strange phenomenon for any nation. The manifestation of wrath by one after the other segment of rural classes is thus natural the cumulative effect of denial of equal and uniform education to successive generations of marginalised majority. The colonial formula of divide and rule becomes handy with our politicians, applied as in a snakes and ladder game. Those who have secured their reservations are unleashed against those threatening to cut their shares. The system must head for a glut as more communities hanker for reservations and jobs are saturated. Jobs are in any case getting scarcer in public sector with exponential increase in private sector which will not accept without merit. The final showdown is yet to come but is not far away as the farm sector is squeezed further and reckless SEZs dislocate the unskilled peasant classes. The trend and route are obvious. Ask for a climb down in caste hierarchy and get economic benefits. The long term effects of this will be snow balling inviting more cataclysm. But all seem to be missing the wood for the trees. In the long run there is no alternative to survival but equal and uniform education for all, in stages first with proportionate reservations for marginalized communities in all professional and academic schools of learning not in jobs. Education has to be mobilized on war footing dispersed across the rural hinterland. The private sector has to pitch in with reciprocity by training and absorbing dislocated peasantry or prepare for the worst. There can be no progress without peace and no peace without harmony. While Jats have already secured the ST status in Rajasthan why Mr Takhait should be backing the Gujars there. The answer is clear that Jats are readying to seek ST status in UP too. Not their fault, its every one on his own, the survival of the fittest, a failure in governance which has not been able to dispense justice its primary institutional role. Amidst the entire fracas the fear is about resorting to the army in aid to civil authority for a very unpalatable and avoidable role, an employment which could lead to alienating it from its own people. Gujars are a military community too with considerable representation in the infantry. We should give no cause for generating quiet resentment and angst among them and their comrades on account of what is clearly a political problem the consequences of which should be the responsibility of civil law and order machinery. The Army is virtually becoming a fire fighting outfit which should be worrying