Udupi: Social activist Dr V Laxminarayan said that Dalit movement in Karnataka is under intellectual bankruptcy.
Speaking at a debate over documentary film maker Anand Patwardhan’s movie “Jai Bhim Comrade” organised to commemorate the 122nd birth anniversary celebrations of Dr B R Ambedkar by DSS and Jatimuktha Sambhandh Vedike in Udupi on Sunday, he said unlike in Maharastra, the Dalit movement in Karnataka is perceived as cultural movement and not political movement. The movement is into wrong path. The neo Brahmanism has resulted in highly qualified Dalit who has also started thinking like Brahmin. Dalit arguments are weak.
Stating that there is a need for modernisation and industrialisation for the upliftment of Dalits to which Gandhi was totally against, he said Gandhian ideology supported paternity approach in contrast to socialistic approach of Ambedkar. Gandhi was against untouchability and not against casteism. Gandhian principles are not the answer for the Dalits upliftment, he added.
He said the documentary exposed the monopoly politics. It is the chronology of Dalit movement that exists since many years. Meanwhile, Humanities Center Director Sunder Sarukkai said the vocabulary and concepts to attack caste structure should come from public. The basic question is how to theorise caste from Indian context and experience. It is difficult to speak about caste, he added.
