Teacher's Day is celebrated in India on 5th September every year. It is celebrated in the memory of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as he was born on 5th September in 1888. He was an eminent teacher and academic philosopher. Since he was elevated from a teacher to become the President of India, therefore, in order to mark his achievement his birth date is celebrated as Teacher's Day in India.
Though I as a teacher remain extremely heartened to receive good wishes on the Teacher's Day however it is difficult to appreciate the underlying logic of it. Why should we celebrate as Teacher's Day the birth date of someone who became the President of India from being a teacher. One would wish to celebrate Teacher's Day when a President would step down from his presidency and start to teach. How can someone who has left the teaching so as to hold the presidency be an ideal for teaching profession. Is it celebration and elevation of teachers or presidents!
It seems that we are so dissatisfied with teaching as a profession that the only great moment for teachers can be when they become presidents! Alas, We hope for a day and a nation which will celebrate teachers day when someone from the highest post would resign in order to become a teacher...That would truly be a moment to celebrate for all the teachers. I bid adieu and leave you with these immortal words of Sufi poet Omar Khayyam:
Ah love! could you and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits - and then
Re-mould it nearer to the heart's desire!
OMAR KHAYYAM, Rubiyat
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Anna Hazare Movement: Some Reflections
The Anna Hazare campaign against corruption in favor of the Lokpal Bill finally came to an end with the Parliament debating the Bill and seemingly accepting to consider some of the major demands made by 'Team-Anna'. In the post-protest scenario it becomes important to reflect upon this event and learn the lessons for the future.
The Indian left has branded the movement as typically "middle class" as it's definitional limits remains confined to corruption only as governmental one. What about the corruption of Global Capital/ Corporate sector, NGOs and Media itself asks Arundhati Roy in her critique of the movement. Partha Chatterjee in his article AGAINST CORRUPTION = AGAINST POLITICS argues on similar lines as he believes that the movement of Anna is a movement of Neo-Liberal Capitalist class which has emerged post 1991 and therefore the issue of corruption in public sector (which no more remains to be the most coveted sector for middle class Indians in the neo liberal era of corporatization). The less reflective thinkers have simply branded the movement as proto-fascist or even compared it to Kar seva type RSS oriented movement.
Marxists have defined the movement as one which leads us away from REAL issues of class struggle and thus is a part and parcel of ruse of bourgeoisie politics. The dalit activists are also all too unhappy with the 'vande matram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' slogans and indeed they are, sadly, having a demonstration at Jantar Mantar tomorrow, 5th September 2011 against the Anna campaign!
So much so. But let us begin with asking certain basic questions. What is the role of Middle Class in India? Are we naive enough to fool ourselves into believing that Middle Class will help to strengthen the struggle of the working classes? No middle class in the world has ever done that...Middle class can only represent the anger felt due to a system which is tilted towards ruling classes. Of course, middle class remains imbued in an aspiration to be like the ruling classes. The point is that middle classes of India are having a struggle in its own manner so why not be a part of it and then critically give some direction on the lines of our heart's desire rather than boycotting it.
When the left says that the movement is taking us away from the real issues the it is pertinent to ask if there is any movement in India which is closer to addressing the REAL issues? Which is that movement? Then why can't Arundhati had joined the movement (as her erstwhile comrade Medha Patkar did) and appealed to include the issues of Global Capital? The left intellectuals are behaving in an ultra elitist fashion. As someone described them as eating cashew nuts and sipping tea when masses are on roads. This cashew-nut-intellectualism does not even recognize the fact that Anna-movement, though limited in scope, signals towards to hidden potential in people against the establishment which is required to be given a proper direction.
Women with children participated in this movement which predominantly remained without any destruction of public property, riot or other forms of obscenity. It is sad to even compare something like this to Kar Seva of Babri Demolition! What if the left intellectual class had joined the campaign and infused their critiques so as to use the mass support to further their agenda. This is an opportunity missed by the Left again. History is testimony to the fact that even BJP and Left parties fought the battle together in 1975 Emergency against the establishment. And left swept Bengal in 1977 when in 1971 there was Congress government in Bengal.
May be it is true that all those who joined the Anna campaign were not well-versed with the technical legal provisions of Lok Pal Bill. However, should that make us callously ignore the reality that so many people participated in the campaign against establishment with HONESTY? Because this to me is the key to understand the Anna movement. Intelligentsia should not not be blinded towards this fact unless it has become incorrigibly dis-topic. Anna movement represents a non-violent move of the middle classes against the establishment and every serious minded person who can dream for a change should not oppose it. The question is not that we support Anna or not the question is should we recognize the spirit of 'We, the people...' and find ways to transform it for a more meaningful struggle against establishment.
Those who are against the masses involved in this process seems to be echoing the old sarcastic phrase of Bertolt Brecht that if people can't be trusted to vote properly "let us change the People!" If that is what is the standpoint of the post-modern intelligentsia I leave it to the reader to decide as to what would be the revolutionary future of India!
The Indian left has branded the movement as typically "middle class" as it's definitional limits remains confined to corruption only as governmental one. What about the corruption of Global Capital/ Corporate sector, NGOs and Media itself asks Arundhati Roy in her critique of the movement. Partha Chatterjee in his article AGAINST CORRUPTION = AGAINST POLITICS argues on similar lines as he believes that the movement of Anna is a movement of Neo-Liberal Capitalist class which has emerged post 1991 and therefore the issue of corruption in public sector (which no more remains to be the most coveted sector for middle class Indians in the neo liberal era of corporatization). The less reflective thinkers have simply branded the movement as proto-fascist or even compared it to Kar seva type RSS oriented movement.
Marxists have defined the movement as one which leads us away from REAL issues of class struggle and thus is a part and parcel of ruse of bourgeoisie politics. The dalit activists are also all too unhappy with the 'vande matram' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' slogans and indeed they are, sadly, having a demonstration at Jantar Mantar tomorrow, 5th September 2011 against the Anna campaign!
So much so. But let us begin with asking certain basic questions. What is the role of Middle Class in India? Are we naive enough to fool ourselves into believing that Middle Class will help to strengthen the struggle of the working classes? No middle class in the world has ever done that...Middle class can only represent the anger felt due to a system which is tilted towards ruling classes. Of course, middle class remains imbued in an aspiration to be like the ruling classes. The point is that middle classes of India are having a struggle in its own manner so why not be a part of it and then critically give some direction on the lines of our heart's desire rather than boycotting it.
When the left says that the movement is taking us away from the real issues the it is pertinent to ask if there is any movement in India which is closer to addressing the REAL issues? Which is that movement? Then why can't Arundhati had joined the movement (as her erstwhile comrade Medha Patkar did) and appealed to include the issues of Global Capital? The left intellectuals are behaving in an ultra elitist fashion. As someone described them as eating cashew nuts and sipping tea when masses are on roads. This cashew-nut-intellectualism does not even recognize the fact that Anna-movement, though limited in scope, signals towards to hidden potential in people against the establishment which is required to be given a proper direction.
Women with children participated in this movement which predominantly remained without any destruction of public property, riot or other forms of obscenity. It is sad to even compare something like this to Kar Seva of Babri Demolition! What if the left intellectual class had joined the campaign and infused their critiques so as to use the mass support to further their agenda. This is an opportunity missed by the Left again. History is testimony to the fact that even BJP and Left parties fought the battle together in 1975 Emergency against the establishment. And left swept Bengal in 1977 when in 1971 there was Congress government in Bengal.
May be it is true that all those who joined the Anna campaign were not well-versed with the technical legal provisions of Lok Pal Bill. However, should that make us callously ignore the reality that so many people participated in the campaign against establishment with HONESTY? Because this to me is the key to understand the Anna movement. Intelligentsia should not not be blinded towards this fact unless it has become incorrigibly dis-topic. Anna movement represents a non-violent move of the middle classes against the establishment and every serious minded person who can dream for a change should not oppose it. The question is not that we support Anna or not the question is should we recognize the spirit of 'We, the people...' and find ways to transform it for a more meaningful struggle against establishment.
Those who are against the masses involved in this process seems to be echoing the old sarcastic phrase of Bertolt Brecht that if people can't be trusted to vote properly "let us change the People!" If that is what is the standpoint of the post-modern intelligentsia I leave it to the reader to decide as to what would be the revolutionary future of India!
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