The many faces of Dalit politics
The Last Straw
'We plan to triple aid to Pakistan'
Inquiry report into March 3 attack on Sri Lankan cricket team:
Sri Lanka minority 'threatened'
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by Paul Collier (Author)
Wars, Guns, and Votes, Paul Collier investigates the violence and poverty in the small, remote countries at the lowest level of the world economy. An esteemed economist and a foremost authority on developing countries, Collier argues that the spread of elections and peace settlements in the world's most dangerous countries may lead to a brave new democratic world. In the meantime, though, nasty and long civil wars, military coups, and failing economies are the order of the day—for now and into the foreseeable future.
Through innovative research and astute analysis, Collier gives an eye-opening assessment of the ethnic divisions and insecurites in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, where corruption is often firmly rooted in the body politic. There have been many policy failures by the United States and other developed countries since the end of the Cold War, especially the reliance on preemptive military intervention. But Collier insists that these problems can and will be rectified. He persuasively outlines what must be done to bring peace and stability: the international community must intervene through aid, democracy building, and a very limited amount of force.
Groundbreaking and provocative, Wars, Guns, and Votes is a passionate and convincing argument for the peaceful development of the most volatile places on earth.
http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061479632/Wars_Guns_and_Votes/index.aspx
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If these are the fruits of democracy, then isn't it time we looked at our democratic systems?
Constitution KILLED.
Parliament Bypassed!
Economy manipulated to FEED the KILLER Money Machine.
Sovereignity Handed over.
Production system DESTROYED.
Rural INDIA made STRATEGIC market.
IT and OUTSOURCING take over AGRICULTURE and Natural Livelihood as all NATURAL RESOURCES Captured!
Nature associated PEOPLE targetd for MASS DESTRUCTIONS
BUT We NEVER do realise that WE VOTE always in a WAR ZONE in War Circumstances!
Terror rules!
Muscle power always sttles the SCORE!
Penultimate phase of Indian Loksabha Poll may or may not SUGGEST the Social realism but the fact remains.
We know the VOTE results after the OIL War in the Middle East!
We always DESPISE the Military Hegemonies in the Third world countries and boast ourselves as SECOND Largest Democracy after UNITED STATES of AMERICA justifying the STRATEGICAL COUPLATION with the Corporate Zionist Illuminati Imperialism!
We behave habitually with VEDIC Mind set and pracctice UNTOUCHABILITY in accordance with Great Indian graded caste System to lookdown other Geopolitical bodies around us Nepal, Afganistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Srilanka and Pakistan and easily detect the INFINITE WAR ZONE engaged in Civil War!
The question is UNANSWERED whether we breathe out of the WAR ZONE?
Waht about AFPSA Umbrella in NORTH EAST as well as Jammu and kashmir?
In fact, we are habitual to live in Gas Chambers, Death Chambers and are Predestined for Ethnic Cleansing or Mass Destruction with INHERENT INEQUALITY and INJUSTICE under Manusmriti Apartheid zionist Illuminati Rule and it is all in the NAME of democracy!
Until recently, the BEST Tools for Demographic adjustment and Votebank Mobilisation had been RELIGIOUS Polarisation followed by Communal Riots! Since Indian society is divided in more than SIX Hundred Hindu castes and MICRO MINORITY Brhmins rule the Nation, divide in graded caste system , the Aboriginal Indigenous people have been BONDED and ENSLAVED to be used as REGIMENTED CADRES of HINDUTVA Gestapo of differnt COLRS including marxist RED as well as Shaffron!
Not to mention the CHOROLOGY of communal riots in India, even not quoting SACCHAR REPORT, we all know how DEMOCRACY is made BLOOD BATHED every time.
THE RIVERS and all WATER RESOURCES are FLOODED with BLOOD and the BLOOD SPILLS all over!
Babri Mosque Demolition, Gujarat Genocide, Sikh Genocide, Mumbai Blasts, Anti Resrvation Riots, every thing created WAVES in favour of one or another RULING BRAHAMNICAL EQUATION every time in India!
Our people are MURDERED, Sacrificed, Injured inlacs in this UNDECLARED WAR where POWER comes from GUNs! Our WOMEN ware RAPED, Molested and Kidnapped. our Children lose EVERY Opportunity!
We lose Home, land and Livelihood! We are deprived of Citizenship, Human and Civil Rights!
What is a WAR, friends?
Now the INDO US Nuke Deal and Strategic Realliance in US and israel lead have formally shifted the WAR zone from Middle East to right into our Heart, indian Ocean.
No part of this divided Geopolitics is SPAREd as we are the partners in War against Terror.
USA has taken over the Nations,Their Polity as well as Economy, Freedom as well as Sovereignity!
We have to FEED to CORE ECONOMY of Zionist Imperialism on MONOPOLISTIC aggression with Human as well as Natural Resources!
But still we REMAIN BLIND to see the WAR and its Guns despite we are SIEZED by FOREIGN forces, FIIs, MNCs, FDI, IMF, GATT, WTO, ADB, World Bank and so on.
Super slaves dare not to violet the dictates of washington and we the INDIAN VOTERS just DECIDE the RATIO of the SHARE of Power and KICKBACKS!
SEZ, NUCLEAR Parks, Chemical Hubs and PCPIR, Indiscriminate Land Acquisition, Urbanisation, Inflated Satyam Asatyam India Incs, Toilet Newspapers and Media with TRANSSEXUAL Heads, Retail Chain, Disinvestment and Large scale Job loss, closures and Lock outs, privatisation of social sector including Banking, Insurance, Savings, Pension, Education, Employment, transport, Electricty and telephones, Post and Railway, Oil and Minerals, Steel and coal, Medical care and medicines, Vaccination .. EVRYTHING HERALDS the INFINITE War!
We are in the WAR and do expect to be kept out of it!
The vertical DIVIDE in bengali INTELLIGENTSIA as well as Civil Society focuses well the DILEMMA and ESCAPISM Unprecedented!
I respected UTPAL DUTT very much but lost the Love for kallol hero while he wrote the DRAMA titled CHAKRANTO, the Plot to JUSTIFY MARICHJHANPI Genocide!
I never missed a FILM directed by Mrinal Sen but with AWE and DISAPPOINTMENT I have to see him as well as SHOUMITRA CHATTERJEE, the writer of TEESTA PARER BRITTANTO, DEBESH ROY and the lot of the CREAM in the Camp of GENOCIDE CULTURE!
Not very long ago, GAUTAM GHOSH exploded before KRIPA SHANKAR CHAUBE and Me, while we met him in his GARIAHAT FLAT!
`Have a GUN and SHOOT!’ gautamda, the great film maker had exclaimed!
For whom do you use your GUN, Gautamda?
I would not like to quote, but some one very IMPORTANT in the PARIVARTAN Camp informed me another day just after the Nandigarm Massacre on 14th march that SHUBHO PRASANNO and RUDRA PRASAD SENGUPTA were RELUCTANT to sign a PETITION against the Genocide hegemony!
I was shocked.
I have some ideas about Somnath Hore, Hussain, Nanda Lal Bose, Amrita Shergil and so on.
But I am not an expert in the Genre! Though I am fortunate to enjoy the favour of some well known artists as ASHOK BHOWMICK and PANESARJI! But, I don`t understand Colors! But I knew SUBHO PRASANNO and his works!
I was rather CLOSE to RUDRA PRASAD Sengupta!
I respect the man and always trace his latest works. His wife SWATI LEKHA, the ACTRESS, has been the student of dr Manas Mukul Das in ALLAHABAD Unversity. Their daughter SOHINI, herself a reputed ACTRESS in Theatre as well as bengali cinema is the wife of Gautam Haldar,my dear friend.
I have an intimacy with the family as well as NANDIKAR!
But RUDRA PRASAD SENGUPTA did not support the MARXIST Hegemony either as SUNIL GANGOPADDHYAYA, the SAHITYA ACADEMY Head, Shoumitra, Mrinalda, Gautam Ghosh did.
I am happy to rediscover SHUBHO PRASANNA in the PARIVARTAN Hoardings!
Today, SHUBHO PRASANNA`s write up in reply to SHRIJAT, is published and I am happy to see that SHUBHO PRASANNA enjoys the STATUS of a GIRAFFE for joining the RESISTANCE! He has questioned the COMMITMENT and SOCILA LIABILITY of a poet, an artist.
I am also very GLAD to see SUPRIO SEN, young and talentd Film Maker, a friend writing a PARIVARTAN Write Up in Dainik Statesman.
SUPRIYO documented the RETURN of a REFUGEE couple to their Home land in East Bengal and DIRECTED his parents as ACTORS in the EXCELLENT DOCU FEATURE, ABBAR AASIBO FIRE!
Elections alone can’t make India proud to call itself a democracy
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: At the April 2, 2009 G-20 summit in London, whenever the BBC referred to India it was called the “world’s largest democracy”. BBC like all Western institutions is also anti-China. And to spite China, they praise India. May be they get a vicarious pleasure out of it. Fine.
But we the Untouchables of India (20%) know what type of democracy is practised here.
The recent parliament election in April — and the periodical elections to state legislatures and other sundry elections — are India’s only argument to claim that India is a democracy.
CASTE AS SOLE CRITERION
Elections have become a big business. We have many elections to a variety of bodies: zilla parishad, panchayat, taluk board, legislative council, Rajya Sabha, cooperative institutions etc.
We found a very sound argument to discredit Indian elections as a barometer of democracy in the just published book, Wars, Guns & Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, by Paul Collier, an academic economist (Harper Collins, 2009, pp.277, $30).
The recent parliament elections proved that every party selected candidates only on the basis of caste which became the sole criterion for selection, plus the candidate’s ability to spend money. Can this be called democracy?
Many parliament elections have been held — one worse than the other. Genuine people’s representatives can never get elected. They lack the right jati and the strength of money. Plus the right political connections.
Our Khatri Sikh PM, Manmohan Singh, is called a “good man” by the upper caste rulers. But even such a “good man” cannot get elected even to the country’s lowest elected post: a panchayat. The masses of people of India simply do not know him.
Even if you have the right jati and the Big Money, when your supporters go to the polling booth, your votes are already cast by the rowdies employed by your opponent.
In the words of G.K. Galbraith India is a “functioning anarchy”. It is not a functioning democracy.
PERMANENT UPPER CASTE RULE
In Karnataka, the Lingayats and Vokkaligas — the two dominant upper castes — permanently rule. The overwhelming majority of “lower castes” have no say.
“If democracy means little more than elections, it is damaging to the reform process”, Paul Collier says. He is right. Elections in India is nothing but caste power and money power — plus gangsterism. Such elections can retard rather than advance a country’s progress, he warns.
The worst sufferers are the Muslims (15%) and Christians (2.5%) who can never get elected. These two sections have suffered under this great Indian “democracy”.
Dalit representatives can get elected only from the “reserved constituencies” in which only the puppet of an upper caste landlord is set up. A Dalit who challenges the upper caste hegemony will never be selected. And if he contests as an independent he will be put down.
Every candidate, irrespective of his party, concentrates his attention mainly on the densely populated urban slums — where the poorest Indians, Dalits and Muslims live — but always ignore the fashionable upper caste localities. But once a candidate gets elected he never visits the slums but always found in the company of upper caste rich who never go to vote. How can this be democracy?
Indian electoral system is totally corrupt and loaded against the over 85% of the oppressed castes and communities.
Still India is praised as the “world’s largest democracy” to spite China which has better democracy than what it is in India, according to Jaya Prakash Narayan (JP).
Cultural movement to fight Brahminism launched
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: A “Balijan Cultural Movement” was launched from Delhi to fight Brahminism after a group of scholars met for three days (March 9 to 11, 2009),headed by Dr. Kancha Ilaiah of Osmania University and one of the rare intellectually honest persons of the country.
Dr. Gail Omvedt, noted social scientist, has sent the following communication to the Editor of Dalit Voice :
A question was raised about the connection of the “Balijan cultural movement” with “Truthseekers”. The connection is simply that “Truthseekers” has hosted the initial meeting of the movement and will continue to provide support. Otherwise there is no connection and the “Balijan Cultural Movement” is a new beginning.
It was noted that as written in Hindi the word “Balijan” has different meanings: with short “i” it means “we ourselves have to be sacrificed; with long “i” it means strength: we must have our dignity. There was a general consensus that the meaning of “strength” should be stressed.
Who is Bali: There is a familiarity with the radical use of “Bali Raja” in some areas of the country. For example, in Maharashtra “Bali Raja” is looked on as a “peasant king” and there is a common saying, ida pida javo, Balica rajya yevo — “let sorrow and exploitation go and the kingdom of Bali come”; in Kerala, Onam or the return of “Mahabali” is a joyous festival of the year. In other parts of the country, part of our work will be to stress our interpretation of the term.
It was pointed out that “culture” is a broad term; that some local cultures are dying; and that there is a need for documenting these – documenting folk stories, songs, art, and having projects to preserve local and indigenous cultures. For example, a dictionary of the Dom language could be made.
It was emphasized that the purpose should be to fight Brahmanism and the caste system and work for equality.
Brahmin domination: We feel a concern about language: the Constitution does not recognize linguistic diversity; it superimposes one language over others.
Our “Indian culture” is dominated by Brahmans; so Brahmanic culture has become synonymous with Indian culture to most people.
Since the common link between various groups or cultures is oppression, we have to struggle against the various forms of oppression: caste, class, race, linguistic, religious.
This cultural activism also has to be synchronized with or /linked to the developmental aspirations of the people.
Definition of culture: In the discussion on culture, the question was raised of the need to define what we mean by “culture.” What is culture itself, what is included in the term “culture” and what are the special characteristics of Indian culture?
Following the equalitarian culture of the tribal period, there has been in every human society a cultural, political and economic conflict between the elite and the masses, which has included a conflict between the culture of the people and the culture of the elites. In every human society also this has included a conflict between patriarchy and the more gender-equalitarian culture of the masses.
The term “culture” includes the norms, values, and practices of the people of a society. Thus a society can be “multicultural.”
Sanskrit not ancient: It was also stressed that it is not true to say that Brahmanism (or “Hinduism” as it is called by most people today) arose first and that others followed as a reaction; or that Brahmanism was an “orthodoxy” and the others were “heterodoxy”.
If anything, the shramanic traditions could claim a greater antiquity than Brahmanism, since there is some evidence that they can be traced as far back as the Indus Valley Civilization, before the entry of the Vedic Aryans.
Similarly, it is not true to say that Sanskrit is the oldest language of India; even aside from the language of the Indus Civilization, we can trace evidence of popular speech much earlier than Sanskrit. The language of the Jains (known today as “Ardha-Magadhi”) and of the early Buddhists texts (“Pali”) derived from languages spoken in the area of the earliest kingdoms (Magadha) and central India (an important center of the Ashokan empire). The term “Prakrit” should be avoided since it is also a Sanskrit term. Early Dravidian literature and the languages known today as Munda/Ho/Santhali (including perhaps the earliest language of the Bhils) from a “tribal” belt stretching across central India can also claim priority over Sanskrit. Religion or spirituality is a crucial part of human culture, and whatever our personal feelings are, we should recognize and respect the opinions of other religions.
(We do not consider “Brahmanism” a religion but as a purely exploitative ideology).
The following were suggested to fill as: national chairperson: Kancha Ilaiah;convenor: Sunil Sardar; secretary: Braj Mani; spokesperson: Victor Paul; treasurer: Dinesh Kumar.
Steering committee members are: Dr. Rama Panchal, Dinesh Kumar, Dr. Bharat Patankar, Dr. Ghawade, Than Singh Josh, Dr. Raj Kumar, Neela Lodhi, Cynthia Stephens, Waharu Sonavane, Leela Kumari, Shamim Ahmad, P. Surendran, John Dayal.
BJP’s Brahminism: It was decided that there should be no formal political sharing of platforms with Sangh Parivar organizations and individuals in these. For instance, all political parties may have some Brahmanism in them, but the BJP is openly Brahmanic and communal. There should be no dealing with organizations which openly profess religious fundamentalism and Brahmanism.
Brahmins hate Mayawati despite her all-out support
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: Any amount of pouring milk to serpent and worshipping it will not stop the poisonous reptile to bite you. We had given this warning in our Editorial of July 16, 2005: “In defence of Brahmins: Mayawati’s new caste equation in UP”. Here is yet another example of how much the vaidiks hate Mayawati despite her support:
As the leader of an essentially one-state and one-caste party, Mayawati’s vision cannot but be circumscribed by her political instincts. By first announcing and then rescinding her choice of a Dalit legislatore as her successor, she confirmed her whimsical streak. This cannot enhance her prime ministerial claims. Nor can the evidence of her paranoia, as reflected in morbid expressions of the fear of being killed. Or her attempts to scuttle a railway project in Sonia Gandhi’s constituency. In any event, her earlier selection of a Dalit as the next party chief showed that she remained trapped in a clastrophobic word of caste prejudices which undermined her claim to be prime minister of a country as diverse as India. (Times of India, April 6, 2009).
Look at the venom in the Bengali Brahmin Amulya Ganguli article.
DV Edit Feb.16, 2009: “Mayawati may become king maker”.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/may2009/reports.htm
Even in Pakistan Hindus persecute Dalits
IMTIAZ ALI, KARACHI
Dr. Khatumal Jeewan, who has become Pakistan’s first Dalit Senator, was born in a remote village near the historic town of Umar Kot , the birth place of Mughal emperor Akbar, and the commercial centre of desert zone communities. Jeewan received his medical degree from the Dow Medical College (DMC). When he joined the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), it was probably these attributes which inspired leadership, and he was awarded a ticket to contest elections several times (traditionally, Hindu families would get ticket for elections). He was elected a Member, National Assembly (MNA) more than once, and worked for the well-being of the deprived Scheduled Castes in the province.
He was elected MNA for the first time in 1988 and re-elected in 1990, 1993 and 1997 on a reserved seat.
He was against the joint electoral system (introduced by former President Musharraf) which helped Hindus under this system. Previously, there were four seats for Hindus/Scheduled Castes, four for Christians, one for Parsis, Budhists and Sikhs, and one for Ahmedi/Qadiani. As per the last census, there are 2.4 million Hindus in Pakistan of which 80% are Scheduled Castes. When the Hindus are not ready to tolerate the Scheduled Castes.
Even in the Islamic state of Pakistan, the minority Hindus are discriminating against Dalits.
Hindus insist that their animals should drink water first from the wells, and then Dalit women are allowed to fetch water. Dr. Jeewan has provided separate wells to about 300-400 villages in Thar and schools to each village in Mirpurkhas.
COMMUNICATION
Hinduism obstructing Budhism
Dr. MARK ROGOW, 23 - DURANT PLACE, FAIRPORT, NEW YORK - 144 50, USA
Rev. Tsuchiya wrote me that his friend, the priest Ven.Shurei Sasai, has been making efforts to revive Budhism in India for 40 years. It has also been for liberating Dalit from human discrimination. To save Budhists, Ven. Sasai was a member of National Commision for Minorities, Govt. of India. Rev. Tsuchiya believes the problem of Dalit should not be a fight against the govt. because there is no law on the books to discriminate against the Dalit in India. It is the terrible religious custom and practice of the Hindus that is the problem.He says that only one book of The Lotus Sutra in digest form in Hindi remains and he has already distributed 10,000 books in India together with Ven.Sasai. He will send the last book to you. If possible, he wants to reprint the Hindi version. He is going to negotiate with the Honda Nissho foundation of the Kempon Hokke in the middle of March about this matter.
Media is against Ven. Sasai
We have been very close to Ven. Sasai. In fact it was he who converted us to Budhism at Patna (Bihar) some 20 years ago. When we were in Nagpur (March 15) at the headquartes of Ven Sasai, we met him and spent sometime discussing all these things. Even a person of the stature of Dr. Ambedkar could not convert even a fraction of Dalits to Budhism because the Brahminical opposition, if not obstructions both legal and otherwise, is appaling. Budhism could liberate the peoples of entire Eastern Asia including China and Japan but failed in its very land of birth because the Brahminical enemies killed it reosrting to largescale violence. Dr. Ambedkar has written volumes on that. Even today the same people are keeping the Dalits as slaves. Ven. Sasai is struggling and he is the only Budhist monk with the largest following because he is a Japanese. Yet he is not able to make much headway because the media controlled by the enemy, is against him — EDITOR.
DV as the vanguard of Dalit thought
DR. DENNIS WALKAR, 1/1 - EDNEY COURT, NOBLE PARK, MELBOURNE -3174, AUSTRALIA
Brother V.T. Rajshekar, you have much to be proud of the numbers of Dalit Voice in the early 1980s were at the cutting vanguard of Dalit thought. Your early pioneering thoughts then was adopted ten or more years on by Dalits in general throughout India. This is well illustrated by the calls in Dalit Voice in the early 1980s for Dalits to exit from the rural areas and migrate to the bigger cities of India. After a decade, the Dalit press in Hindi was repeating and developing the suggestions of DV. Take your call in the Editorial, “Landless people should leave the villages and migrate to cities”, reproduced in Patna’s Ambedkar Mission Patrika of September-October 1998. This Editorial took up exactly the same points that you and other Dalit Voice writers had been arguing in the early 1980s more than a decade before. This Editorial depicted the life of landless people who continued to live in the country-side without any hope. They had no any source of income. They are just the slaves of the Hindu land-owners upon whom they were dependents for happiness or sorrow. They had no choice for any other profession that would give them independence. Rural Dalits live in extreme hardship with no hope of economic improvement. The only source of livelihood in rural India is land. Their offspring too had no hope of getting land. The moment they migrate to cities, their slavery ends. Your Editorial showed considerable sophistication in projecting what the effects of the migration to cities would be on both the rural and urban economies. Dalits and low castes in villages who owned a few acres each would not be affected. They would continue to cultivate, subsist. But the migration of Dalit workers to the cities would force the landowners to pay higher wages to the fewer day laborers who stay.
OUR EDITOR’S THESIS IS HISTORICALLY TESTED
“Caste identity” is the only right road to “caste war” & revolution
S. SINGHA CHOWDHURY, RAMAKRISHNAPALLY, VIA CHANDAMARI ROAD, DS LANE PO, HOWRAH - 711 109
Whether you agree or not with his views, there is no denying the fact that Neerav Patel is a good soul. His questions are genuine, honest and pointed (DV Nov.16, 2007 p.15).
As a born teacher, a devout reader of the Dalit Voice, I think Dalit Voice is also a forum, a workshop to enlighten the members of the Bahujan family to awaken them from slumber in which they are laid by the Brahminic mantra. Hence this reply to Neerav’s questions on “caste identity”:
(1) Do you want caste without casteism? Brahmin without Brahminism? (2) Do you want to establish a casteless society without abolishing the castes? (3) Is not your (DV Editor’s) “caste identity” theory contradictory to your aim of casteless society?
SPIRIT OF HINDUISM
Q.No.1: Neerav is right, very right.
Answer: The casteism of the upper castes (Brahmins) are not the same as the casteism of the “lower castes”. The Brahmin casteism is the hatred for the lower castes by the higher castes as unalloyed dogma of their faith. It is because the Brahminic casteism is based on hierarchical view of the society based on caste. The lower the caste, the more is the hatred heaped on it. This is the spirit of Brahminic casteism, which is the spirit of Hinduism, diversified in many forms of harvests reflected through Brahminic way of life initiated by Hindu down the hierarchy.
But the casteism of the lower castes is their hatred for the Brahminic theory of caste system as a hierarchical order of society. It is based on hatred and thus the whole penumbra of “Hindu society” is stinking with the stench of hatred. But the lower caste casteism is based on love. As such it is based on equality. Love cannot be hierarchical. It does not admit of degrees of comparison. Love is based on equality, justice, morality etc. Or, in other words, love must, of course, entail equality, fair-play, justice, charity etc.
CASTEISM HELPS BRAHMINS
The Brahminic casteism, being based on hatred cannot establish a just society. It has to be hierarchical in order to have ascendant hatred for the descendant castes: the lower the caste, higher the hatred. But how to abolish Brahminic casteism which is hatism? Who will abolish this cancerous casteism which eat into the vitals of the people, and spoils the brain of all people including the haters?
The Brahmin will never come forward to abolish it. The Brahmins are the gainers of this system. Therefore, they would try, solemnly, shrewdly, surreptitiously and if necessary, by application of brute force to preserve this system.
NEHRU LOVE FOR VEDAS
The Brahmins through their “independence movement” stealthily anointed Nehru, an orthodox Brahmin at core masquerading as liberal, as Prime Minister, by observances of all rites and rituals as prescribed by the Vedas. Nehru himself enjoyed them.
It is a very common conclusion that the sufferers, the Dalits, the lower castes, who are the victims of the Brahmin casteism would, therefore, have to come forward to abolish it. But how? How to abolish the existing system dominated by the Brahmins? “Caste identity” theory is a pointer to the direction.
REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT
It is a tool to fight the Brahminic evils. In this, the theory is a renovation. It is revolutionary in consequence. Had there been no “caste identity theory” to abolish casteism the Brahminic spirit of hatred of one low caste by another low caste by hierarchical spirit would eternally continue. Again in hierarchical way. Low castes, the lower castes and the lowest castes, would have hatred in ascending order of hatred and they descend down the caste scale. Consequently the enmity among the low castes would be eternal. The Brahmins by creating hierarchical order of society, of which they occupy the head, virtually create a two-rank society: the Brahmins and others, who are all under their heels.
BRAHMINS AS OUR COMMON ENEMY
Broadly, “caste identity” theory wants to affirm that all low castes are one and the same in their suffering under the clutches of the Brahminism. And therefore the Brahmins are their common enemy.
Suffering of one caste may be more than that of another caste. But suffer they must under the heels of the Brahminism. Together and only together they must fight back in challenge.
The hierarchical order is the shrewdest kind of Brahminic cunning. It is constructed on the principle of hierarchy of the military order where one rank spies over the lower rank successively in order to crush any sign of dissatisfaction anywhere.
So low-lower-lowest castes must act together now, or never. This stigma of low-lower-lowest order must be swept away in one hatchet. You cannot fight the evil in phase-by-phase way.
LOW CASTES ASHAMED OF THEIR IDENTITY
There is a psychological barrier against launching the fight together. In the caste-ridden society, under the Brahminic cunningest stroke of strategical hue, you, the low castes, are ashamed of your own castes — as chhota logs of Bengal are. You can heroically fight among yourselves. But you are ashamed to unite by crossing the barrier of shame to unite with each other.
So “caste identity” theory is a clarion call to all lower castes to be conscious of their own castes as caste which is in no way inferior to any higher castes strategically posted over you. You have only to see through the Brahminic cunning. And your blinks will automatically fall off. Your caste suffers as a conquered caste. That means or entails a meaning that you were once responsible and respectable people. So you have to find out your caste history by probing through history, religion, your culture and contribution to human history, all of which the Brahmins have carefully distorted and destroyed. That is the meaning of “caste identity”.
We have one single enemy
Such an effort will promote “caste consciousness” which is nothing but “class consciousness”.
“Caste identity” asserts your dignity. With sense of dignity the “low castes” together can valiantly fight with enthusiasm. Their slogans to expose Brahminic misdeeds will silence the enemy, Brahminic voice, to shame. They would find their enemy, one single enemy — the Brahmin, Brahminism and Brahminised, those victims of Brahminism, the philosophy of casteism, communalism and regionalism — in one word the narrow-mindedness, the Brahminic exclusiveness as unique caste.
Intercaste differences among the “low castes” once removed there will be all too easy unity among the “low castes”, the proletariat, on caste-basis to rise up against the Brahminic varnashrama.
HOW BRAHMINS SOLVED THEIR CASTE DIFFERENCES
Remember, the Brahmins too had hundreds of castes — each hating the other. Two sects among the Iyengar Brahmins of Tamil Nadu went up to the Privy Council in London, before “independence” fighting over the shape of the tilak on the head of their temple elephant. The case dragged on for over 100 years. How did they resolve all their caste differences and today stand solidly behind the RSS-BJP? The answer is caste identity.
“Nationalism” means becoming conscious of one’s own nation, the national identity being no less honourable than other nations, the “caste identity” theory is aglow in like manner.
“Caste identity” is a tool to fight — social, ideological and political.
So long caste is there, there cannot be any human identity. Before being human you are sub-human in your existence in a caste. In a caste-based society the caste is prior to human being.
I am open to questions and answer as far as I am capable.
Questions 2: You want to establish casteless society without abolishing castes?
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS IS CASTE CONSCIOUSNESS
Answer: (A) Yes, we want to establish a casteless society without abolishing the castes at the initial stages of our of our struggles, like marxism which aims to establish a classless society without jettisoning classes. The struggle to reach the aim by waging, in the class society a struggle of the proletariat, the poor class against the bourgeoisie, the rich class, the exploiter of the poor class await the opportune moment. It is not an impromptu moment but consciously created moment by the poor classes.
(B) In the class society, the class ridden society, the disadvantaged class must take up weapon against the advantaged class. You don’t import your weapons for waging struggle against the bourgeois from heaven. You have to seek and get weapons from your own society, the class society, you seek the weapons and get the weapons from your own class, the proletariat class, rather classes because the proletariat class is splintered in numerous divisions, subdivision and actually they fight among themselves and not against their enemy.
BRAHMINS ARE FULLY CASTE CONSCIOUS
So the aim to reach the classless society is achieved by forging the unity of the diverse classes of the poor in the class society, the capitalist society. In other words, the bourgeois society. The slogan is launched to create class consciousness (caste consciousness) among the poor classes.
The Brahmins in the caste society already have their caste consciousness, just as in the class society the bourgeoisie has its own consciousness. They create it by self effort among themselves, to protect their interests in the gurgling grievousness of the proletariat rising in the surroundings now mute then mighty in protest against their exploitation dimly lost in the confusion not knowing the historical causation of their lot.
The class consciousness means the consciousness of its separate existence, the consciousness of being exploited by the haves, the rich.
The consciousness of creating unity among the exploited classes in existence at variance with each others, so the low castes in the caste society must adopt conscious means to create their unity among themselves in the same process in order to ultimately launch war against the privileged in the caste society.
caste consciousness brings unity
In marxism, the class consciousness of the proletariat is a vital step forward in their advance to classless society. So also in a caste society caste consciousness of the low castes is. This is the “caste identity” theory, a strategic weapon to emphasise castes at the initial stages to achieve casteless society in the ultimate stage. Just as in the class society the spirit is obtained by stressing equality, unity and justice among the splintered classes of the poor, so among the proletariat castes the spirit of forging among the “low castes” of unity is to be conscious of their own lot as deprived castes.
Just as in the capitalist society, unity of and in the Nation is breathlessly pronounced by the National leaders equated with the capitalists. So in India’s caste society unity of the country is relentlessly stressed by the Brahminic leaders like Nehru and his Brahminic broods under the broad umbrella of the higher castes.
NEERAV GROPING IN THE DARK
They want unity between the capitalists and proletariats. They want unity of the “low castes” with the upper castes. Unity between masters and the slaves.
Brother Neerav wants abolition of castes without knowing the means of abolishing it. You grope in the dark.
You cite, recite, resuscitate the same slogan of unity in altered forms and infinitely without reaching the desideratum. You don’t know how you are entangled in slogan after slogan to tire yourself. You then curse yourself and condemn everything as futile to be intellectually imbecile and dumb; thereby you reach your doom and there you see how your enemies are all damn glad and go about in arrogant steps over your chests and you are on your back.
CASTE CARTEL OF THE UPPER CASTES
Question no.3: Is “caste identity” theory self-contradictory? Destroying its own aim?
Answer: No. An emphatic no. All for certain it is the most effective means to abolish castes.
The spirit of Brahminic caste is division of society in the high and low castes. It is hierarchy. If equality is established among the low castes altogether between SC/ST/OBC/minorities, the Brahminic casteism is lost, condemned. A new kind of casteism based on caste-equality descends on India to enlighten, to break out in joy of freedom, a freedom of games of Truths to forsake gloom which condemns us all in darkness of impenetrable depth.
Inequality among castes of lower order is more prominently, more openly accentuated than the inequality among the higher castes.
They have been able to create a caste cartel among themselves.
BENGAL’S CASTE STRUGGLE
In Bengal the cartel of castes among the Brahmins, Baidyas and Kayasths is a glaring example of caste solidarity, “caste identity” for protection of their caste interest. None of them accepts even a modicum of facility in the form of the quota system in favour of the deprived castes. The question of support does not arise.
The Bengali psyche of the higher caste is soaked with hatred for the lower castes and the hate as a consequence is more accentuated.
CASTE STRUGGLE IS LIKE CLASS STRUGGLE
As against this (the cartel of higher castes), the “lower castes” have as yet failed to create their own cartel. Unless there is a spirit of equality among themselves, they cannot create their own cartel.
This spirit of equality is exactly the “caste identity” theory of our Editor:
(1) The exploited castes in the initial stage vaguely feel in their subconscious level a nebulous awareness of being exploited individually as a caste. The more exploited the more is the subconscious stirring.
(2) India has a series of castes in existence, many centres of sub-consciousness similarly experiencing same or more or less sense of pangs of suffering in subhuman existence in literal sense (the castes of lower orders are shaped in human figure only but not in substance. The sudras, the Untouchables are exactly not humans). The psychological process of creation of consciousness from subconscious works to create a prodding, prone to burst out.
(3) This proneness gathers its own momentum in wordings of order in language, which silently again works. As next the call, the inner call, the slogans as the shortest form of direction burst out.
(4) The many centres of sentiments, similarly fertilised by suffering exist, ready and receptive to be inspired by the slogans for unity.
(5) Thus many streaks of resentment, the urge to revolt, join together, to make a mighty stream of revolution conscious for action.
BOGUS SLOGANS OF UPPER CASTES
This is caste consciousness, a consciousness of similar kind, colour and tinge, not at all tainted by caste hierarchy but sainted with sense of humanity, without depravity, division, despair and tragedy of individual caste desolation of silent suffering ends.
The caste is annihilated in caste struggle, as class is annihilated in class struggle.
Mere slogans are barren. Barren are the bourgeois slogans. Some specimen of the bourgeois (upper caste) slogan:
(1) Gandhian: I “dream of a future India after independence which would be free from poverty, illiteracy, diseases of any kind, without caste distinction and communalism etc.”. But the means of establishing such an India is never spelt out. New kinds of slogans are slapped abroad by the same leaders or their broods of higher castes.
(2) Slogans of exhortation: (a) produce or else perish. You produce and actually they (upper castes) eat your products. Even a crumb to be thrown over to you is denied. (b) This is philosophy of renunciation. Do not covert another’s riches, prosperity. (c) I am your prophet, I am your Mahomed — I will deliver you from your distress. In death you revive, you neo-brand of Jesus. Deliverance from life condemned to suffering in earth; Hinduism containing the seeds and offering of all fields/soils, so fertile for growth of fantasy — phantasmagoria, the Brahma.
HOW MUCH JINNAH IS HATED
(3) another kind of Nehruvian slogan: (a) Let us all close our distinctions among us and unite under the flag of the Indian National Congress. (b) The Congress is India; India is the Congress. (c) The Congress represents the interests, well-being and welfare of all sections of Indian people and is committed to bring prosperity to all sections of our people. You know in an unequal society there is no single means to usher in prosperity for all. (d) If the Congress is India and Nehru is the undisputed leader of the Congress, then he is the undisputed leader of the country. (e) To oppose Nehru, is ultimately, to betray the country.
WILL SLAVE OWNER ABOLISH SLAVERY ?
(f) If Jinnah aspires to draw even in the rank of leadership of India, he is a rank, rotten hated person. And hence untouchable. (g) Jinnah cannot claim leadership of the Muslims even as a consequence. Therefore, if Jinnah persists in his obstinacy, he should be jettisoned with his people from India.
(4) We should congregate all, without distinction between castes class, religions etc. under our national flag.
In our Republic Day assemblies or “independence” day rallies all over India, I have never seen presence of a single known sweeper class people anywhere, in any such gathering, in any part of India.
(5) Still the constitution of India calls: “the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, etc...” Who cares and how? “Untouchability abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden”. Will the master legalize abolition of slavery sincerely, honestly and seriously?
Radicalism is born and dies in mere slogans.
(6) India is a subcontinent of diverse caste, class, community, religion, language etc. But our national flag is eminently Hindu in its colour-design of Hindu religious ideals.
AMBEDKAR’S MEANING OF CASTE ANNIHILATION
But Dr. Ambedkar’s philosophy calls for a radiant, radical, fundamental changes. When he says (a) “Educate”, he does not mean flailing of new-born brats in the voids. He means “Educate” through “Agitation” — to “Agitate” for basic tenets provided by him and those basic tenets can best be permented by “Organisation” — to “Organise” into permanent institutions, the state. You seek the tenets in Annihilation of Castes, the caste system of which the spirit is casteism, the hierarchy of castes. The Brahminic casteism is protected by untouchability which oozes through hierarchy of hatred up the caste scale.
IF CASTE SYSTEM GOES HINDUISM IS DEAD
You abolish this casteism, the caste system is dead. The death of caste system means the death of Hinduism. Our Editor has very laboriously cleared this point.
If all castes below the Brahmins stand on the spirit of equality as all classes below the capitalists do, and wage a struggle, the Brahminic casteism stands abolished. And Brahmins are decapitated. The castes with their casteism falls dead.
The consciousness of being exploited must naturally generate a spirit among the exploited classes to cement unity among them on the basis of equality to wage a struggle (Agitate) against the exploiters together. Similarly the conscious of being exploited as lower castes in a caste society, compounded with hatred for them, pouring amid, humiliation to burn the festering soar goes afire to consume all of the lower castes to incense of unity among them all. This is caste consciousness of exploited castes.
This is the meaning of “caste identity” — the identity of the lower castes, the same and similar in the pit of fire burning to incineration together. Their unity is cemented more than anything else through suffering than enjoyment. The upper caste unity breaks into pieces because of the solid show of unity of the lower castes. Their caste-cartel is drowned.
This is the meaning of “caste identity”.
WHEN BRAHMINS JOINED MUSLIMS
Whenever the upper castes (Hindus) face the prospective fall staring them in the face, in bitter bile of refraction, their jaws harden. They are ready to cajole and coax any sector/sectors of hitherto down-trodden people to join them to create fissures in the solidity of the unity of the “low castes” created by protracted breath-taking efforts of long period of time, by their traditional technique of drilling into the mind to divide, and to rule.
If they fail in their design, Brahmins do not hesitate to join those whom they regarded as their enemy, the Muslim, or any other forces at any cost to the country.
Patriotism they never had, and will not ever incline to have in order to save their Brahminic religious/privileges (note the fall of Nandas brought about by Chanakya, What were their fault? Recall enmity of Prithwiraj and Jaichand etc.. I have noted with dismay the diffident reaction of the learned men of the lower caste-elites including the veteran senior-most Ambedkarites.
PROBLEM OF “LOW CASTE” UNITY
Dr. Ambedkar formulated the ways to forge that unity. One such way is to Educate. But he did not give the syllabuses of details of study which primarily of course is his own writings. You Agitate when you are imbued with patriotism, and patriotism results said E. Burke, from intensive study of comparative history of diverse countries. For organise you depend on your own experience of the field.
The fools are never patriot, and the cunning are worse than fools and rogues. And Brahminic cunning is compounded with Hindu religion to make it more dangerous.
Many learned Ambedkarites, junior and senior, view the problem of creating unity among the hundreds of “low castes” as so formidable as useless to try. Their number is gradually growing as the number of useless herbs and trees pullulate with pulsating rate. It has to be noted that the caste system is so designed as to produce numerous low castes through its leaky bottom. The highest caste, because it is the highest, the supreme, cannot grow any new variety to be higher than the highest. The Brahminic sub-castes are all equal. It is the easiest for them to create a cartel. To create a cartel among themselves is the hardest of the hard for the shudras. So till the caste system is completely annihilated, the shudras would grow in number apace, the Brahminic ones won’t in growth of number they are tardy.
REVOLT OF GREEK SLAVES
There is another aspect of sordid existence in our caste society patterned on hierarchy of castes whose role are respectively played sometimes in low-key politeness in normal day-to-day life-cycle in un-protesting society and the higher castes, whenever protesting lower castes dare to break the caste rules enacted to their advantage rise up in demoniac fury in hoarse rasp of poisonous snake. The West has experienced in classical Greek times repeated slave revolts, major and minor, taken together amount to more than 300-400 times waged in blind fury by the slaves and ruthlessly suppressed by their masters. These revolts were waged by racially discriminated slaves against their masters who presumed themselves racially superior White race to their Black slaves.
ARYANS DESTROYED DRAVIDA CIVILIZATION
The lower castes, racially distinct from the fair-skinned Aryans, were ruthlessly subjugated by the latter in South India. The Dravidas were Black people who built up the Harappa and Mohenjodaro civilisation, which were far superior to any in existence during contemporary times. The Dravida civilisations were urban, whereas the Aryans were barbarian rural hordes pillaging and plundering about indiscriminately.
The Upanishads delighted in description of ruthless destruction of cities of Dravida civilisations without compunction. It proves that the Aryans of the period had not arrived at the age of moral and ethical sense. The Mongols, who wanted to completely destroy the Chinese urban civilisation for pasteurisation of their huge droves of animals, were dissuaded by moral advice of the Chinese minister. The Aryans were stranger completely to the sense of morality and ethics.
The word “caste” in Portuguese means race and casteism is racism of which the full culmination bloomed in the arrogance of the Brahmins of the South in the various forms that repel human senses in disgust.
The “caste identity” theory of our Editor has to come in this context of the racial superiority of the Dravida people to demonise Brahminism.
Secondly, the deprivation of the “lower castes” perpetrated by the religious theory of diabolical Hinduism is absolute in all aspects. Bestial forces, Brahminic cunning which is the other name of meditation devoted to devise ways and means to subjugate the sudras absolutely, the theory of society and education all and sundry, were used openly and sensitively by shrewd compact of the Brahminic evil forces.
All castes individually and collectively must make all-out effort to lay bare the devilry of Brahmins and Brahminism. The enormity of their crimes, betrayal to India and her people, their absolute lack of patriotism will make all “lower castes” stand aghast and pull together to make an end of India of Hinduism.
Thirdly, Western people have reached the age of modernity through (a) Graeco-Roman rationality and laws, (b) Christian ethics, (c) Renaissance individualism and reformation and (d) revolution, all of which are now available for use by the sudras. The Brahmins had feigned acceptance of them and ultimately failed them.
Thus there is no renaissance in India. There is revivalism and reaction which is the end product of so many subterfuges and delirium of talks and tantrums.
The sudras must have to make a thorough study of India and world history, a comparative estimation, and reject Brahminic claims as assorted in void and as gone awry. The Brahmins are simply incapable of achieving good. They are the people fit to be in ignorance and crime.
Our Editor’s “caste identity” theory is historically tested and hence the only way to pave the way for a “caste war”.
How to make slaves enjoy their slavery ?
antiterror88@yahoo.com
A one page summary of the Protocols Of Zion by Rense.com A one page summary
Goyim are mentally inferior to Jews and can’t run their nations properly. For their sake and ours, we need to abolish their governments and replace them with a single government. This will take a long time and involve much bloodshed, but it’s for a good cause. Here’s what we’ll need to do:
* Place our agents and helpers everywhere
* Take control of the media and use it in propaganda for our plans
* Start fights between different races, classes and religions
* Use bribery, threats and blackmail to get our way
* Use Freemasonic Lodges to attract potential public officials
* Appeal to successful people’s egos
* Appoint puppet leaders who can be controlled by blackmail
* Replace royal rule with socialist rule, then communism, then despotism
* Abolish all rights and freedoms, except the right of force by us
* Sacrifice people (including Jews sometimes) when necessary
* Eliminate religion; replace it with science and materialism
* Control the education system to spread deception and destroy intellect
* Rewrite history to our benefit
* Create entertaining distractions
* Corrupt minds with filth and perversion
* Encourage people to spy on one another
* Keep the masses in poverty and perpetual labor
* Take possession of all wealth, property and (especially) gold . Use gold to manipulate the markets, cause depressions etc.
* Introduce a progressive tax on wealth
* Replace sound investment with speculation
* Make long-term interest-bearing loans to governments
* Give bad advice to governments and everyone else
Eventually the Goyim will be so angry with their governments (because we’ll blame them for the resulting mess) that they’ll gladly have us take over. We will then appoint a descendant of David to be king of the world, and the remaining Goyim will bow down and sing his praises. Everyone will live in peace and obedient order under his glorious rule.The Protocols of Zion (complete protocols & summary).
[The Zionist Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is nothing but the Brahminical Arthashastra. Photocopy available with Dalit Voice (pp.130. Rs. 85). ]
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/may2009/articles.htm
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"It is always a pleasure to discover Paul Collier's latest thoughts... always illuminating and grounded in rigorous social science... it's gripping stuff." --Literary Review, March 2009
By kernel32 (UK)
By C. J. SAVAGE "Footloose" (Bristol UK)
Ballots, bullets and blood
Misha Glenny salutes a scholar brave enough to tackle 'kumbaya' politics
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- The Guardian, Saturday 21 March 2009
- Article history
- The Guardian, Saturday 21 March 2009
When Paul Collier, professor of economics at Oxford, publishes something, it invariably contains some very important ideas. I realised this when I first encountered his paper about civil war and insurgency, "Greed and Grievance". Collier co-wrote it when head of research at the World Bank, where he developed a rare ability to merge his deep understanding of economics with sober analyses of a rapidly changing political landscape. Put simply, in "Greed and Grievance" he argued that armed rebellion had more to do with access to financial resources than with any deep commitment to ideology.
- Wars, Guns & Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places
- by Paul Collier
- 272pp,
- Bodley Head,
- £20
Among political scientists that particular paper was greeted by murmurs of approval and harrumphing in equal measure. Here was an economist treading on the keenly defended turf of political wonks, and many took umbrage. A few wonks, however, recognised the valuable contribution Collier's research had to make to the struggle against poverty and political violence.
I think some of the harrumphing that followed the publication of that paper might also be ascribed to Collier's liberal use of baffling mathematical formulae to prove his point. I confess I had to skip a raft of calculus in his earlier work. But I am pleased to report that since he started writing bestselling books, he has dumped the equations in favour of clear prose.
This strategy paid real dividends just under two years ago when he published The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It, a fresh and inventive look at chronic underdevelopment, its victims and its winners (the latter being few in number but abnormally powerful). The book was showered with praise as it offered many cogent explanations for the persistence of grinding poverty in a world which was until last September indecently rich. Wars, Guns & Votes carries on from where The Bottom Billion left off.
Apart from the fact that its author is not American, Collier's work is distinguished from the books of Tom Friedman, Bob Kagan, Fareed Zakaria and several other gurus of globalisation in that it is based on extremely thorough empirical research. This puts him in the same camp as real heavyweights such as the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. When Collier asserts that the bottom billion are much more prone to insurgency and civil war than the rest of the world, you can be confident this is not observational anecdote. The chances are that he and his indefatigable team of student minions will have exhaustively examined the data from every civil war since the dawn of time to back his thesis.
This aspect of Collier's books is powerful, making it hard to refute many of his conclusions, some of which are disturbing, iconoclastic or both. He is destined to upset a lot of people when he asserts at the outset that democracy is bad news for the countries of the bottom billion - it usually ends in tears, not to mention grand larceny, murder and even genocide. On closer examination, he argues that elections alone do not amount to a strong democracy. Without institutions that promote accountability, they are too easily exploited by cynical, greedy elites.
Unfortunately, the "kumbaya" politics of the 1990s held that voting was an end in itself. Western institutions became involved in an electoral circus which often absorbed huge sums. Self-selecting election "monitors" from America and Europe would travel to Armenia one week and the Ivory Coast the next to pass judgment on the validity of the process. By contrast, there was little or no investment in dealing with the consequences of the elections or building the institutions essential to ensuring that the resulting government did not abuse its power. In the former Yugoslavia, unscrupulous populists exploited the plebiscitary democracy in 1990 and 1991 to rip the place apart. And Collier saw this repeated in many countries in Africa, the continent where the great majority of the bottom billion states are found.
It is a brave scholar who asserts that democracy equals bloodshed, but Collier is not afraid of going against the grain. He gives very short shrift to the fashionable cause of self-determination or special status for minorities espoused by the Kosovo Albanians, the Luo in Kenya or the rebels in Darfur. He casts Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, and not President Kibaki as the provocateur in the country's last elections (in contrast to most foreign media covering the story).
But he mounts a very heartening defence of peace-keeping operations which, using hard facts, he is able to prove unambiguously are extremely good value for money. He then comes close to creating what on the surface looks like a surefire formula for stabilising the countries of the bottom billion, enabling them to begin economic development in earnest.
And this is where the problems arise with his thesis. He proposes a reduction of sales in weapons to governments and rebels in these areas - so far so good, although he skips over the issue of how to police such a regime a little too lightly. It is in his central assertion, however - that fragile democracies in Africa must be allowed to flower under the military guarantee of the United States, France and Britain - that the optimism of his economic modelling clouds the reality of global geopolitics. The "command centre" that the Americans are trying to establish in West Africa is motivated by a need to secure oil supplies, not by an altruistic project to nurture democracy. And his faith in the military strategies of the French in West Africa overlooks much of Paris's cynical manoeuvring in the region (including the promotion of arms sales and mineral exploitation).
One might argue that British, French and American motives may change; however, after Iraq, Rwanda and Afghanistan (to name but three), the political and moral space for intervention is extremely limited. But it is to Collier's great credit that he has really opened up a debate that we need to conduct with some urgency. Even as we dither about military strategies and aid for West Africa, for example, the entire region is being captured by Colombian and Venezuelan cartels who are turning Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia and even Senegal and Ghana into the new Mexico. In economic terms, even after the crash, the world still has more than enough money to raise the bottom billion out of the swamp they are forced to inhabit. As in so many challenges we face, it is political vision and political will that is lacking.
• Misha Glenny's McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime is published by Vintage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/21/wars-guns-votes-paul-collier
Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places
Paul Collier (New York, New York : Harper, 2009)Paul Collier is like a prolific visual artist who is committed to a single compelling idea and will do anything to get his audience to engage with that idea. The idea, in his case, is the fate of what he calls the "bottom billion": the billion or so people living in failed states in the developing world, most of them in Africa, whose living standards are falling further and further behind those of the majority of the world's people. In his writing (most notably The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, reviewed here) and frequent appearances, Collier describes these societies in stark demographic terms: life expectancy, 50 years; infant mortality, 14 percent; malnourished children, 36 percent. And, as we know, conditions in certain countries and regions are even more horrific.
Collier, an economist and expert on Africa, and currently professor of economics and director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, has identified multiple causes, or "traps," that have gotten these countries into such a dire predicament. And he's critical of the development assumptions and strategies, many going back decades, that have contributed to the situation. But Collier is nothing if not optimistic.
"The problem of the bottom billion is serious, but...fixable," he writes. "Change is going to have to come from within the societies of the bottom billion, but our own policies could make these efforts more likely to succeed, and so more likely to be undertaken. We will need a range of policy instruments to encourage the countries of the bottom billion to take steps toward change. To date we have used these instruments badly, so there is considerable scope for improvement."
Collier's newest book, War, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, benefits from a retrospective approach to his work and is very much a companion piece to The Bottom Billion, though the more demanding of the two. Indeed, it is thick with questions leading to other questions.
In a TED conference talk last year, Collier, referring to The Bottom Billion, said: "I wrote an economics book that you could read on a beach." Clearly, he succeeded, earning praise from economists, development professionals, and concerned citizens alike for the soundness of his research methods and findings. Like a good sequel, War, Guns and Votes deftly summarizes the earlier book while presenting a new and compelling story line. But where the earlier offered a broad view and trenchant analysis of the causes of and remedies for endemic poverty, the new book focuses on just one: conflict.
Conflict, according to Collier, is one of the four "traps" that keep countries mired in poverty. (The others are a dependence on the extraction and export of natural resources; limited trade opportunities caused by landlocked geography and uncooperative neighbors; and bad governance.) Current remedies used to address these traps include foreign aid; foreign military intervention in pursuit of greater internal security; democracy promotion and the application of international laws; foreign investment and greater budget transparency; and open-trade policies. While reasonable in theory, none of these approaches is working, says Collier.
Collier's solution to "breaking" the four poverty traps is to integrate and improve existing remedies. He argues, for instance, that foreign aid should be de-linked from foreign policy, refocused on the most dire situations, and complemented with other actions. These include longer in-country commitments by multinational security forces as a way to prevent recurrences of civil strife and directing more aid funds to development projects. At the same time, laws and charters should be tailored to the needs and capacity of the country in question and trade policies should prioritize growth (even if means subsidies and deficits).
Collier makes a compelling case for focusing on conflict prevention. His research on war in Africa, described in a taped lecture at the Royal Economic Society in 2006, found the risk of conflict breaking out in an African country to be an astonishing 34 percent in any five-year period over the last 40 years, compared to 4 percent in the rest of the world. Seventy-three percent of all bottom billion societies are currently embroiled in a civil war or have recently suffered one — a condition that significantly raises the chance for recurrence. And because countries wracked by civil war typically have three or more neighbors with larger economies, economic damage from the conflict is more likely to spread across a region. In a related paper on his Web site, Collier says each year of conflict lowers the growth rate of a country by more than 2 percent, and the chances are high that the conflict will resume within a decade after a cease fire.
| Related Readings |  |
Polak, Paul. Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2008. Collier, Paul. The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford University Press, 2007 Schramm, Carl J., Robert E. Litan, William J. Baumol. Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity. Yale University Press, 2007. Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006. | |
| For more on this topic refer to the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature. | |
Collier dismisses commonly held theories about the causes of conflict — political repression, the legacy of colonialism, ethnic strife. Rather, he argues that economic and demographic factors such as low income levels, slow or nonexistent economic growth, dependence on commodity exports, and the proportion of young men in the population are key factors. What's more, smaller nations are more vulnerable to conflict because they cannot achieve the economies of scale in security available to larger countries.
Unfortunately, mitigating the pernicious effect of these factors requires political change as well as better economic policies. In doing research, Collier discovered that "democracy" in bottom billion countries had a strong association with political violence — in part because it was "democracy" in name only (e.g., holding and manipulating elections to consolidate illegitimate power). Collier calls this "fake democracy protected by the sanctity of sovereignty," and, in his view, it is where the first step toward an integrated solution should be encouraged: "We need to dismiss the illusion that elections are the milestone and face the long haul of building the economy." Doing so will require a commitment by multilateral groups and developed countries to provide security for at least a decade following a civil war while democracy consolidates and infrastructure is rebuilt with donor assistance. Then, and only then, he says, will the conditions exist wherein democracy can be a transformative rather than destructive force.
Collier devotes several chapters to conflict-related issues. He deals insightfully, for example, with the issue of national identity, a positive "political construction" often forged from ethnic diversity. In one of the many stories in the book drawn from his personal experience, he describes how Tanzania did just that. He also offers a brief history of the formation of the European state — not as an admonition to bottom billion societies but rather as a reminder that achieving statehood requires an organic process that can neither be invented nor imposed.
Collier also addresses the issue of arms proliferation in Africa. He notes that bottom billion societies devote $9 billion annually to military expenditures — nearly half of that financed by donors through leakage from development aid. For insurgents, the Kalashnikov is the weapon of choice: cheap, simple to operate, and virtually maintenance free, it's ideal for inexperienced, poorly educated recruits such as child soldiers. The guns are ubiquitous in Africa because governments also use them and because porous borders are no obstacle to a thriving black market. As with other peacekeeping issues, Collier's solution to the problem is collective action by African states to curtail arms spending and budget restrictions on military expenditures either imposed by the international community and/or by donors willing to link aid levels to reductions in military spending.
Throughout the book, Collier argues that the enforcement of international rules and regulations are key to improving the lot of bottom billion societies, and he would "like to see America more supportive" of them. Multilateral organizations can set standards for free and fair elections, enforce discipline in public spending, and supply security — a need, says Collier, that today outweighs the principle of sovereignty. "Nowadays a civil war generates externalities for neighbors that are too large and too adverse to be dismissed." Because civil war threatens the economic and political stability of bordering countries, Collier recommends that a regional body such as the African Union or United Nations step in to protect and share sovereignty with post-conflict governments as long as is necessary.
There is, says Collier, a precedent for precisely this kind of behavior on the part of the international community, and it occurred after World War II: "The zone of prosperity was America and the region of insecurity was Europe. America was motivated by both charitable concern and enlightened self-interest." Today, he adds, this model can and should be applied to bottom billion societies. Moreover, because the global "zone of prosperity" is so much larger than it was after WWII, the burden of doing so will be much lighter on individual countries.
For an administration disposed to a new approach to diplomacy and international cooperation, the timing of Collier's book couldn't be better. One can only hope that it isn't so busy saving the global financial system that it loses sight of the billion or so people who really need saving.
Kathryn Smith Pyle
Washington, D.C.,
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