– Vidya Bhushan Rawat
Minister Smriti Irani yesterday participated in a marriage programme in Deoria. It was a combined marriage in which about 340 couples got married. BJP’s big leaders and ministers were present except for the chief minister. Smriti Irani said that now BJP MPs, MLAs, DMs and other officers are giving invite for the marriage ceremony of the daughters of the poor.
One need not be amused here. The marriage of the girls is the biggest ceremony for a family in India and politicians have found the best way to ‘reach’ the communities through this. Whether there is any developmental work or not, whether new employment are generated or not, people are not bothered but if a neta participate and offer some money for the marriage of your female ward then he or she is the ‘greatest’.
Yesterday, Ministry of culture in Delhi said that it want a vision document for 2024 and that festivals like Karwachauth, Bhaiyadooj and Rakhi Bandhan will be placed as ‘India’s heritage at the UNESCO. I thought may be they can also place Sati, a special ‘love’ of a woman to her husband as she does not ‘really’ ‘want’ to live with any one else and in Rajasthan we still have glorification for her. Political leaders across the spectrum cant condemn it. A ‘brahmin’ ‘secular’ like Prabhash Joshi and his Jansatta openly supported it and so was Vijaya Raje Scindia.
So what is the difference now. Those were the days when people would just not fight too much or defend it ‘ideologically’. Today, the brahmanical elite has justification for everything including Manusmriti and they have contempt for the others even a majority of the children of these elite enjoy ‘western luxuries’ of democracy and freedom.
If anybody has any doubt then please try to understand the ‘chronology’. The inter-caste marriages will be resisted and it will be only done through love marriages. The inter caste or inter religious marriages will be opposed because they will then dilute the ‘purity’ of the caste which is more important than the religion itself. They cant openly deny ‘inter-caste’ marriages hence they created a new term ‘love jehad’ to suit the interest of every one. So, a few of us might be upset with the leaders and their fulminations but most of the public in our societies love that and dont want to cross the caste boundaries. We dream that these will be broken but the work is going on to keep them intact as that will be the only to keep brahmanical hegemony over culture and knowledge.
And the ‘garibs’ are happy with this ‘charity’ to give it to his daughter during the marriage. So our campaign against dowry dilute and is nullified when the government itself is giving and this in equal marriage ceremony has now officials participating in it. Now, the next neta or the government will never do away with it and the only thing they will do it is to increase the amount or change the name according to the first families of their political ideologies. This is terrible. Netas are not Periyar who changed the marriage culture in Tamilnadu and brought the whole issue of self respect. Our marriages have nothing to do with self respect or equality of girls. They are just a social gathering of the parents of the boys and the girls and now BJP is using that socialisation for its benefits as gifts had photographs of Modi, Yogi, Smriti and all. Cant these gifts be given in a more sober way. Do we give gifts in the similar way in our homes or families, with our photographs which look as charity and not as a gift.
Today, we are witnessing that Air India is being sold, BPL is sold, BSNL is on its way out. Everything that has sound infrastructure and huge possibilities is being sold to cronies. Railways is privatised clandestinely and the ministers say that it is not government’s job to run hotels and companies. I was just thinking that what is government’s job. It does not want to create job. it is selling our assets. It does not want to own Railways and Airlines so what the work for the loyal officers
Give it a thought dear friends. Government want to withdraw from everywhere and then perhaps the only work for the governments will be to ‘distribute’ wedding cards and organises weddings in masses. It will serve multiple agendas. One, the money ‘should’ only be given to those who get married through ‘rishta’ and parents sanctions who will not dare to cross their caste boundaries and it suits the interests of those in power that every caste remain in their own ghettos. Then, we continue to impose new festivals like Karwachauth which was not heard in Poorvanchal or Bihar are becoming popular hear. In fact, new initiative can be launched where Minister should invite women to join ‘Karwachauth’ festivals and I can bet they will have thousands of women coming. You will not need ‘developmental’ agenda and work as netas, mantris and people are happy in their festivals and tyohars all the years. India is the most suited country for non developmental agenda, yes, all in the name of culture as it help maintain status quo and isolate and ostracise the changemakers. Who need them now when the government is taking over the cultural guardians of the people.
Unfortunately, those who could have challenged this cultural hegemony of the brahmanical castes are not even read and follow Periyar or Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar honestly. I have always said that India need a cultural revolution and it can only happen when we understand how political hegemony is maintained through cultural hegemony. The cow belt netas are not ready for this and want to acquire the hegemonic symbolism to be relevant in politics and not to challenge them. The need for a Bahujan cultural revolution is more than ever at this moment but will our political and intellectual class rise upto the occasion ?