Maharashtra Bandh….. !!!!

Everybody is familiar what happened in Mumbai and throughout different parts of Maharashtra last week. Weekend and life has returned back to normalcy except for firey discussions on social media about the immortal problem of caste system in India. This is when one of my friend asked me to pen down what you had to suffer during the bandh and do u agree with the band was conducted. The questions we are trying to deal here is very narrow and before I come to the main topic lest dwell a little on the caste construct and Bhima Koregaon.

Lets first face the fact that caste is something that is here to stay in the Indian society for a long time whether we like it or not. Also a lot of people feeling agitated about the system are mostly from the upper caste not having any benefits to draw from the system currently. Let them all be reminded that only a few hundred years ago it was you who were the beneficiaries of that system and also resisted the change and inclusion as you enjoyed the privileges. Now that the tables have turned it looks uncomfortable. People who are refusing to accept that should have an honest reading of Dr Ambedkar it will help us bust a lot of myths in India. Also the thing that led to this agitation in India is the Bhima Koregaon battle about 200 years back. How does that hold true now. Whether it was really what happened and why do dalits celebrate now? Histories are complex and so are the legends created around it they bring with them the sentiments of the people around it and links it to ones self pride and thus Bhima koregoan stands as the battle for dalits where they defeated the upper caste Peshwas there oppressors. To draw parallels it is similar to the Rajputs pride around Padmavati and her sacrifice. Hence lets first settle the debate around whether Bhima Koregaon should be commemorated after 200 years? Yes it is should be and it is in fact there right to do so and if we want to create and hormones society people from the upper class should if they can participate in the event and by event here I don’t mean the bandh , which will go a long way in the honest reconciliation among the people and overcoming the differences. This also means that the dalits should also try and analysis the story now after 200 years and what was the real outcome of the battle , that history also remembers it as the 3^rd Anglo Maratha war and that after 1818 British formally consolidated the power in India and we all know that the British rule was not too rosy for anyone of us. Also some have pointed out that Peshwa Mahdhavrao tried to integrate the lower caste giving them privileges almost 50 years before the West abolished slavery. But we have to remember and honestly show there were gross injustice towards the dailts in yester years and they were not accepted  in the society and were treated inhumanly .Again very nuanced reading about history with a very open mind is required.  But the fact remains that a divide amongst us led to a foreign rule. Now that was a little long introduction but much required I thought.

Coming to the main topic the Bandh is all political construct. It is the result of the current vote bank politics in India which comes down to muscle flexing from different political parties who are away from the power. One think people from Maharashtra should understand  yes it is the Maharashtra of Shau , Phule, Ambedkar, and it will always remain but it is also a Maharashtra of Gokhale , Tilak , Ranade , Pranjpe and Savarkar and also bajorao peshwa I  all of whom thought us to rise above the caste politics and more importantly it is above all the Maharashtra of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj one of the greatest leaders of  India if not the greatest leader and all of them mentioned above are guided by his principals wanted to bring our society together and not divide it. In the new age democracies were you have constitutional provisions to place your right violence is not the thing you must resort to. What did you achieve by this so called bandh  nothing . People being terrified to travel to their offices , public property being destroyed , loss to  GDP that was caused because offices and shop being shut. When we all agree that we have to catch up to our neighbor China even one day loss of GDP is massive. People again nothing about the bandh is positive. Yes I agree it is the Maharashtra of Phule ,Shahu and Ambedkar but it is surely not  the Maharashtra of Jignesh Mevani and Umar Khalid and it is in the dalit interest the it never becomes one,because yesterday I heard Jignesh video saying he does not agree with Ambedkar and a person who does not agree with Ambedkar does not know dalit cause and is only here for political motives which should be defeated not by anyone else but the real dalit movement and the less I say about Umar Khalid  the better as he is who is an Afzal guru apologists and from bharat tere tukde honge camp has no place leave alone Maharashtra but India as well. The dalit movment should be very aware of such anti India people because none of the dalit cause is above India NONE. All of them Phule ,Ambedar and Shahu have placed India first. So the dalit movement should be very careful. I know I haven’t answered the topic whether the bandh has affected me, but it is a very complex question to ans that easily. Bandh has affected me more mentally than on my daily life, that do we have to take our countries future generations into this or do we have to focus on building a greater Indian society.

Having said that, the society has to be sensitive towards the dalit cause and there affections around Bhima Koregaon and let the heroes of Bhima Koregaon be commemorated each year as the legend goes the warrior heores who fought to liberate the society from the castiest oppressions but also the dalit society should come to accepting the fact and bursting the myth that not all Brahmins are Manu wadi bigots who have taken birth to oppress them and snatch their rights of a normal life specially in the modern construct of the society and a honest reconciliation from both parties and honest reading of histories and accepting its various versions will go a long way in constructing a robust modern society.

By

Kaustubh

Not mentioning surname because surnames always carries the baggage of caste.