00:00 On August 14, 1931, B.R. Ambedkar said to Gandhi in a meeting at Manibhawan in Bombay,
00:06 "Gandhiji, I have no homeland.
00:09 How can I call this land my own homeland and this religion my own, wherein we are treated
00:13 worse than cats and dogs, wherein we cannot get water to drink?"
00:18 The Independence Day issue of Outlook looks at Dalit movements across the country.
00:22 In that, the issue analyses what freedom means for Dalits in our country.
00:27 Ambedkar collaborated with scholar Suraj Yengde to put together the issue.
00:31 Chronicling the Dalit Panthers by Scholar Suraj Yengde
00:35 The year is 2023 and we are elaborating on the concepts of freedom and independence.
00:41 The one sponsored by the state defines it as a moment of arriving, the period, Kalyug,
00:46 of the Amrit, nectar kind.
00:48 This is defined in all government advertisements and celebrations.
00:52 This practice is not unique to the present government.
00:55 For the last 20-25 years, the citizens of the republic are called to stand up for their
00:59 nation.
01:00 The logos of the patriotic celebration changes.
01:03 The rest remains pretty much sacred.
01:05 Any intervention to that settled narrative is costing people and earning them the label
01:10 of villainous actors of treachery and harm.
01:13 As a nation, we started off bankrupt and empty-handed.
01:16 Such is the story we needed to tell.
01:18 And we told it promptly.
01:21 Then came the blame game.
01:22 The obvious target was white British man.
01:24 Whiteness was the first identity that the colonial regime injected into the diverse
01:29 caste of many nations.
01:31 This inadvertently provided a form of cultural unity to the dangerous cleavages of the pre-colonial
01:37 divided society.
01:38 The colonial administration governed with relative ease in India, thanks to the hierarchies
01:43 of society divided by caste, religion and language.
01:47 The only difficulties a white man and his women and children had were the equatorial
01:52 heat, endemics, diseases and spicy food.
01:56 Not the one they came here hunting for.
01:58 The common enemy ideal is set in popular culture, academic textbooks, national lore and the
02:05 nation's objectives.
02:06 Once set, it is propagandized amongst the citizens and they commit to the nation.
02:11 In doing this, the citizens make a pact with the past.
02:15 This in turn keeps haunting the new republic that doesn't offer a refuge to the models
02:20 of the future and commitments to modernity.
02:23 Citizens are enamored with the past because it offers them a venue to vent their frustration.
02:28 They remain there and cuss out their contemporary life by blaming the past.
02:32 The state finds this narrative appealing because it is unable to offer any justifications for
02:37 the newfound independence of the country.
02:40 When the hungry masses demand food and shelter and the state is unable to provide it, then
02:44 nationalistic zeal is alternated between hunger and national symbols, flags, cows, religion,
02:51 culture and so on.
02:52 The subaltern mass still adhere to the state narrative by giving it a chance.
02:57 The second time, it is not heavily invested in the relics of the historic cliches as it
03:02 was in the last time.
03:03 Over time, and a couple of generations later, the mass demands accountability from the state.
03:09 To avert this attention, the state comes down heavier.
03:11 It now calls its own citizens terrorists of the society.
03:15 They are accused of declaring an act of disgruntled mass treason.
03:19 The mass is foisted upon with the might of the law and favors the ruling class.
03:24 With the power of the legislature, the executive is called to serve the taxpayers with force
03:29 and violence.
03:30 The third time, the mass choose alternative methods to seek justice.
03:34 They organize and hit the streets to show their power.
03:37 The government operates like a bully in disguise, unable to attend to the necessities of the
03:41 masses and their desires.
03:43 They fail to develop new strategies to divert attention.
03:47 Media is resorted to in order to create fake narratives and give the masses emotional fodder
03:51 than jobs.
03:53 The state calls its citizens lords, naxals or vandals.
03:56 The frustration of the poor and downtrodden is seen through a clear prism.
04:01 The oppression in society and by the state machinery demands scrutiny.
04:05 Each state has its own dirty secrets that are hidden.
04:08 The deep state phenomena works through a chain of conspiracies, but the script of squeezing
04:13 the last drop of sweat of the people for their labor and creating a surplus to bail out the
04:18 rich continues.
04:20 The outcasts suspect the state as they continue to be bullied, raped and murdered.
04:24 The state is called to action.
04:26 Pressure is mounted on the state as well as the social actors in cahoots with power players.
04:32 A panther is born to find justice on its own.
04:35 It is very powerful and it knows, but it is also someone who prefers to wait for the right
