Economic and Political Weekly December 14, 2002 5003

2AHIFA?JELAI
GOPAL GURU
T
he recent debate involving some
sensitive scholars in the pages of
EPW has drawn attention to the
problems that surround the social science
discipline in the country. These interven-
tions cover various dimensions of the social
science malady. For example, Ramchandra
Guha underscores absent liberals in the
social sciences, while Partha Chatterjee
underlines the colonisation of social sci-
ence by certain metropolitan centres in the
country. These claims, particularly Guhas,
have been contested on nuanced grounds
by scholars [e g, Peter de Souza]. The
present paper argues that the introduction
of the egalitarian principle into the debate
seeks to extend and not undermine Guhas,
De Souzas and Chatterjees criticisms of
social science practice in India.
1
The
principle of egalitarianism, as we shall
spell out in greater detail in the following,
becomes relevant in the context where
the social sciences are divided into
inferiorised empirical social sciences and
the privileged abstract social sciences.
As 50 years experience shows, social
science practice has harboured a cultural
hierarchy dividing it into the vast, in-
ferior mass of academics who pursue
empirical social science and the privileged
few who are considered the theoretical
pundits with reflective capacity which
makes them intellectually superior to the
former. To use a more familiar analogy,
Indian social science represents a perni-
cious divide between theoretical brahmins
and empirical shudras. This pernicious
dichotomy indicates the lack of egalitar-
ian conditions in social science practice
in the country.
This essay is divided into four sections.
The first section deals with the justifica-
tion of the import of the egalitarian prin-
ciple for critiquing the practice of social
science.
2
This would of course include a
critique of the cultural hierarchies that
operate through certain academic and
institutional structures. In the second
section an attempt is made to discuss the
conditions that seem to adversely affect
the growth of reflective capacity within
the intellectually deprived groups such as
dalits, tribals and even OBCs. This section
addresses the question why certain groups
lack this reflective capacity as the primary
condition for doing social science at a
more abstract theoretical level. This would
include analysis of factors that have a
bearing on reflective capacity. In the third
section the argument is built around moral
stamina as the necessary condition for
doing theory. In the final section, an at-
tempt is made to critique the theoretical
claims that have been made on behalf of
dalits by non-dalits. In other words, a
moral critique of the intellectual represen-
tation of dalit issues in social science is
attempted.
I
Egalitarian Principle and
Social Science Practice
It is argued here that the egalitarian
principle provides the moral opportunity
and also the capacity to interrogate the
exclusionary (agrahara) nature of social
science practice in the country. Secondly,
it also provides normative direction to
suggest alternative modes of reorganising
the boundaries of social science so as to
make them more inclusive. The egalita-
rian principle is both interrogatory and
suggestive for the following reasons.
First, the egalitarian principle has a
capacity to bring out within the practi-
tioner of social sciences a sense of moral
responsibility which would force the latter
to offer a justification as to why she/he
is talking in a particular social science
language, say, of only theory. Thus egali-
tarianism would interrogate all kinds of
intellectual mores for their arbitrariness.
For example, the egalitarian principle in
social science would not accept the fol-
lowing explanations: one has an innate
ability to do only theory, doing theory
is a part of the natural order, one is
privileged to do only theory because one
has been born from the thinking head
(import from Manu) of pure bodies. Third,
the egalitarian import therefore basically
interrogates the hierarchical division
which suggests that some are born with
a theoretical spoon in their mouth and
the vast majority with the empirical pot
around their neck. The egalitarian prin-
ciple would also interrogate the epistemo-
logical imperialism that empowers non-
dalits/tribals to launch intellectual expe-
ditions to conquer newer epistemological
territories that belong to the dalit/adivasi
intellectual universe. The egalitarian
principle would puncture this modernist
(over)confidence by questioning on moral
ground the competitive element which
renders every field of knowledge as a
free zone of investigation that can be
taken over by anyone who follows the
ground rules, procedures and protocols
that are devised by the gatekeepers of
social sciences. Thus the egalitarian prin-
ciple undermines the competitive model
of doing social sciences. It would put
moral pressure on the modernist to keep
off some fields of knowledge that might
get better intellectual treatment from
others. The interrogatory dimension also
has a bearing on the suggestive dimension
of the egalitarian principle. The interro-
gatory character of the principle funda-
mentally opposes all forms and contexts
How Egalitarian Are the
Social Sciences in India?
Social science practice in India has harboured a cultural hierarchy
dividing it into a vast, inferior mass of academics who pursue
empirical social science and a privileged few who are considered
the theoretical pundits with reflective capacity which makes them
intellectually superior to the former. To use a familiar analogy,
Indian social science represents a pernicious divide between
theoretical brahmins and empirical shudras.
Economic and Political Weekly December 14, 2002 5004
of formal exclusion form the field of in-
tellectual inquiry.
The second aspect of egalitarian import
into understanding social science practice
in India is suggestive for the following
reasons. First, it would not approve of
arguments like one cannot demand
equal treatment in all fields of intellec-
tual pursuit. Similarly, it would not
approve of the intellectual position that
some fields of inquiry must be left free for
the specialists. Secondly, the egalitarian
principle would not approve of those rigid
kinds of ground rules, procedures and
protocols which are restrictive in nature.
Further, the egalitarian principle, at least
at the theoretical level, offers a promise
to those cultural groups whose entry into
the intellectual field has been historically
prohibited by social forces in India. For
example, one of its epistemological vari-
ants can render the field of knowledge
(both theoretical and practical, as episte-
mology of social action) communicable
across cultural borders with persons of
any cultural background in principle
capable of utilising it.
3
Thirdly, this kind
of egalitarianism presupposes a possi-
bility of a common stock of concepts
and categories which are equally available
for use and even misuse by a person from
any caste or social origin. It only suggests
that the epistemological field in itself
does not establish a copyright of certain
cultural groups to control categories.
On the contrary, it would question the
politics of naming categories or assign-
ing boundaries to intellectual practice in
an arbitrary manner. It is in this sense that
the egalitarian principle promises to un-
dermine the dominant epistemological
practices which are not only exclusionary
but also authoritarian in their intention
and tend to become a force that seeks
to discipline, denigrate and even deny
epistemic status to certain concepts and
categories that do not fall in line with the
intellectual discourse which feeds on
cultural hierarchy as a hegemonic neces-
sity. In other words, without the egalitarian
principle, hegemonic social science prac-
tice might make a lot of negative differ-
ence to cultural groups like dalits and
advisis. As an intellectual force this kind
of hegemonic practice would lead to cari-
caturing of the dalit/bahujans as episte-
mologically dumb, push them into
empirical ghettoes or confine their in-
tellectual/theoretical ambitions to the
dominant methodological modes to a sig-
nificant degree. Thus the lack of a genuine
egalitarian principle within mainstream
social science practice, as we shall argue
later, would crush the confidence of the
marginalised (dalits/adivasis), lower
their self-esteem and humiliate them
through epistemological patronage or
charity. In this context it is necessary to
ask the question whether we have fol-
lowed the egalitarian principle in the
practice of the social sciences. The answer
to this question cannot be given in the
affirmative. One would give a very mixed
answer.
Scholars have failed to address this
question squarely. Instead they have la-
mented the falling standards of social
science practice, particularly its theo-
retical components.
4
Thus it is suggested
that there is poverty of political theory
in India. While these are valid observa-
tions, they do not comment on the authori-
tative and intimidating character of social
science practice in the country. What is
ironical is that the lamentation has been
about the shrinking social base of political
theory in India, not so much about the
content and form of theory. The authori-
tarian character did not attract scholarly
attention even in the recent report on
social science research in India. This
paper argues that social science practice
in India is still terribly exclusive, if not
brahminical, and undemocratic in charac-
ter. It is self-serving and self-satisfying
as well. It lacks a genuine egalitarian
character.
Social science discourse in India is
being closely disciplined by self-ap-
pointed juries who sit in the apex court
and decide what is the correct practice
according to the canons. These juries
decide what is theory and what is trash.
It is a different matter that these canons
lack authenticity as they are borrowed from
the west unreservedly. The apex court in
social science with its full bench in Delhi
keeps ruling out subaltern objections as
absurd and idiosyncratic at worst and
emotional, descriptive-empirical and po-
lemical at best. Among other things,
bridgehead methodology is deployed by
the juries to silence dissenting voices which
are questioning this cultural hierarchy and
are threatening to offer alternative ideas
of social science.
5
Most dalit/bahujans
have developed only stunted ambitions
that are historically and socially struc-
tured. In other words, dalits have not
been able to develop the ambition for ideas
and theory because of certain structural
and socio-historical reasons that have
provided an unprecedented advantage to
the twice-born in this country.
II
Social Context of Intellectual
Hierarchies
Any discourse, including the social
sciences, emerges within a specific mate-
rial and social context. In other words, it
is the material context with appropriate
conditions that shapes reflective abilities
among individuals or groups. What was
the material context that would have
prompted dalits to go for experiment,
innovation and imagination? Skilled oc-
cupations do facilitate a certain degree of
the innovative element among their mem-
bers. Generation of knowledge takes place
basically in the labour process.
6
It is the
labour process that creates the concrete
possibilities for such epistemological
abilities. But reflective abilities develop
only in certain kinds of labour processes.
For example, if the labour processes are
imaginative, innovative and interesting
then they provide sufficient scope for the
agent to reflect continuously on the tools
of production. The progressively trans-
forming labour process unfolds umpteen
opportunities for reflective capacities. The
intellectual history of the west is proof
enough in this regard. In India social
groups, particularly the artisan castes, who
were forced if not privileged to handle
labour processes with innovation could
produce innovative knowledge systems.
But certain groups like the dalits who did
not form part of the organic labour process
ultimately failed to develop an intellectual
capacity to reflect. By and large they were
always kept out of such a social context.
Generation after generation, they were
pushed into occupations that were com-
pletely devoid of any possibility of inno-
vation and imagination and hence were not
impregnated with any possibility of know-
ledge. For example, they were pushed
regularly into occupations like scaveng-
ing, sanitation and other types of manual
labour which had inherent limitations in
prompting them to do anything extraordi-
nary in terms of creating knowledge. Until
the arrival of modernity in India, particu-
larly with independence, dalits were not
included in the differentiated spheres of
production that offer the context for imagi-
nation. In other words, ghettoisation into
inferiorised manual spheres, reflecting the
closed character of society, resulted in loss
of the confidence that is so important in
Economic and Political Weekly December 14, 2002 5005
developing the theoretical potential in the
social sciences.
7
In the Indian context these
occupations were more alienating and
humiliating and stalled any possibility of
imagination or innovation within the dalit
communities. Thus before independence,
the dalits lacked both the context and the
conditions. But after independence labour
processes did offer differentiated spheres
for the dalits but they did not create suf-
ficient conditions that make reflectivity
possible. We shall discuss this point in
greater detail later. Suffice it to say that
lack of conditions stalled the growth of any
reflective faculty among dalits. Dalits who
may have had reflective capacities could
not develop them. They were denied the
conditions that are necessary for the de-
velopment of reflective faculties. One
of the crucial conditions of reflectivity is
the availability of freedom. Freedom from
the immediate context that can become
quite constraining is absolutely necessary
for making sense of the immediate at an
abstract general level. It is necessary in
order to make connections through the vast
number of details that are embedded into
the immediate.
Freedom is also necessary to seek de-
tachment from the immediate for illumi-
nation at the general level. If one does not
enjoy that freedom and is completely
trapped in the ceaseless struggle for sur-
vival, one is completely handicapped in
developing any reflectivity. Ultimately it
is those with economic security who can
pursue philosophy and theory in the formal
sense of the terms. The rest are forced to
do only the empirical side of social sci-
ence. Ambedkar himself had realised the
need for such freedom and took time off
to detach himself from the immediate
chawl life in Bombay and went to dif-
ferent places of high learning abroad. But
he was not as fortunate as others to enjoy
steady support from the intellectual circles
that existed during his time. His reflectivity
flourished almost like Ekalavyas. What
are necessary are feedback from liberal
interlocutors, support from institutions with
strong traditions of solid theoretical re-
search and financial support that would
help the scholar to pursue the academic
agenda at a more abstract level and on
more meaningful and dignified terms.
Scholarship programmes are not enough
to provide material security for dalits for
two reasons. First, they are so meagre and,
second, they do not guarantee the jobs that
are so crucial for any reflectivity. Along
with these conditions, the resources of the
community with historically accumulated
intellectual resources assure a congenial
cultural context, making ones choice of
theoretical research look natural. Mem-
bers of the twice-born communities are
fortunate to enjoy these conditions both in
India and abroad. The dalits lack these
community resources. The Ford Founda-
tion deserves credit for coming forward to
create some enabling conditions for dalit
reflectivity.
III
Hierarchical Past Survives in
the Cultural Present
There are historical reasons that gave a
structural advantage to the top of the twice
born (TTB) in consolidating its privileged
position in doing theory. Historically ac-
cumulated cultural inequalities seem to
have reinforced dalit epistemological clo-
sure. This in effect left the realm of
reflectivity entirely free for the TTB. Such
closure has its sanction in Manus think-
ing. The shudras are born from the leg and
hence are deficient in terms of the capacity
to think. Manus code denied dalits and
women access to formal education, which
is necessary to achieve the capacity to
speak in an abstract universal language.
This division with religious sanction be-
hind it was conveniently naturalised within
folk consciousness, as is evident in the
Marathi ditty:
Brahmanchy ghari lihina (at the brahmins
you write and learn)
Kunbay ghari dana (at the tillers you
thrash)
Mahara ghari gana (at the dalits you
sing)
8
The privileged location of the TTB was
further legitimised through the writing of
both Indian and foreign scholars, Promi-
nent among them are P V Kane who argued
that brahmins were the founders of Indian
philosophy.
9
In the same vein, Louis
Dumont also mentions (with reservations)
that brahmins as the renouncers were the
creators of value and of different branches
of knowledge.
10
It has been also argued
by some scholars that brahmins have
always pursued theoretical/pure reason
with the help of intricate arguments, while
Buddha was always following practical
reason in order to tackle practical prob-
lems like maintaining peace in society.
However, people like Bhandarkar and
Phule, Ambedkar and Sharad Patil may not
accept this claim and would argue that the
Buddhist philosophical tradition is the
thinking tradition based on the dialogical
mode which was much more democratic
than the brahminical mode. Members of
the TTB have consolidated cumulative
advantage over dalit/bahujans for the
following reasons. First, the TTB were
fortunate to receive modern education
from the imperialists. Many of them did
not mind migrating to western countries
even though that went against the spirit of
their religion. They were also the recipi-
ents of different kinds of fellowships that
were showered on them by both several
princely states and the colonial state. Even
after independence they received the
attention and appreciation of the rulers.
For example, a member of the TTB served
as adviser to the Maratha chief minister
in Maharashtra. Many prominent brahmins
led intellectual-cultural bodies in the state.
They have been the major beneficiaries of
intellectual opportunities that are avail-
able in India and aboard. They do not mind
migrating abroad, leaving the dalit/bahujan
to take over the empire of empirical re-
search. Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and
several other universities abroad and
privileged institutions and premier uni-
versities at home are monopolised by the
TTB. The doors of certain premier insti-
tutions in the country like NMML in Delhi,
and Institute of Advance Studies in Shimla
were completely closed to the dalits. It is
only in recent years that dalits are accom-
modated in these institutions, of course at
the lower levels of the fellowship
programmes. As far as Cambridge, Harvard
and Oxford are concerned, it will take ages
for the dalits to enter these educational
institutions which are known for their
theoretical orientation. There is no doubt
that these institutes, including the Indian
ones mentioned above, have promoted
quality research. But these institutions
obsession with modernity undermined
the egalitarian principle which, as seen
earlier, requires equal access to intellec-
tual resources. Many urban-based scholars
hold fellowships simultaneously at differ-
ent places in India and abroad, seriously
violating the Rawlsian justice principle
that would not allow such monopoly that
leads to the exclusion of a number of
persons qualified for these positions. In
any case dalits are the latecomers to
such opportunities. They were excluded
from the benefits as they could not pass
the modernist test. When they are ready
to compete for entry, the rules of entry
have been changed from the modern to
the traditional and the parochial at the
Economic and Political Weekly December 14, 2002 5006
NMML and more prominently at the Shimla
institute.
Dalits are thus denied the intellectual
conditions that are necessary for develop-
ing more reflective capacities. It is frus-
trating, if not tragic, for dalits to languish
in raw empiricism. In the absence of such
opportunities, the only alternative that is
available to dalits, adivasis and OBCs is
to approach central bodies like the UGC
and the ICSSR for help. It would be inte-
resting to know how many tribals and
dalits have been the beneficiares of various
national and international fellowship
programmes that are offered by these
bodies. In the absence of reliable evidence,
one can hazard a guess and say that dalits
and tribals are by and large out of the
fellowship programmes. One of the pri-
mary reasons that can explain this exclu-
sion from the opportunity structure is that
there is active discouragement at both ends
of the opportunity structure. Dalits find the
UGC and ICSSR functioning more bu-
reaucratic and hence intimidating and
actively discouraging. We have several
examples that show that dalit students were
forced to give up more attractive UGC
fellowships in favour of less attractive
ICSSR ones.
11
On the other hand, there
is a constant flow of opportunities to the
TTB. The Shudras have been, as remarked
earlier, left with the earthen pot full of
empirical details that are thoroughly de-
spised by the TTB as inferior. The pot
overflows in seminars and in magazines
and government offices as and when it is
required to overflow. (The earthen pot
imagery has a grim history. During Peshwa
rule in Pune the TTB forced dalits to hang
earthen pots around their necks so that they
could spit in it so as to avoid pollution.)
Apart from the monopolisation of in-
stitutions to maintain the historical lead in
epistemological status, the TTB deployed
different strategies like canonising the
discourse with the help of well-defined
ground rules and procedures and protocols
and compartmentalisation of institutions
around chosen themes. For example, the
high priest in theory seeks to canonise the
social science discourse around ground
rules that are often inhibiting, protocols
that are discouraging, language that is
definitely frightening and procedures that
cause anxiety among those who want to
move away from the empirical to the
theoretical. This kind of TTB profession-
alism strikes fear among the dalits/bahujans
who then do not dare to enter the theo-
retical agrahara. The failure to elevate
the discourse to higher levels of complex-
ity and formulation and approximation
of experience results in displeasure dis-
played by these gatekeepers of social
science against the dalits, tribals and OBCs.
The creation of language becomes
another effective weapon to restrict the
entry of dalits into academic circles which
are based on a particular syntax, mostly
Anglo-American. Some of the more nasty
guards of these circles would point out the
grammatical mistakes of the dalits pub-
licly, not just for crushing the intellectual
confidence of the dalits through humili-
ation but also for hiding behind the lan-
guage game. This restricted exchange
ultimately leads to the creation of mutual
admiration societies (Delhi is full of such
societies). Such societies certainly achieve
a certain kind of height but hardly any
depth in the social sciences. Due to their
shared habitus
12
they lack imagination to
invent new conceptual instruments. Thus
they keep producing more of the same. We
will deal with this a little later. Such
societies cause the epistemological isola-
tion to the dalits. The strict observance of
a language code, protocols, body language
and ground rules effectively converts
seminar halls into a hostile structure that
very often inflict humiliation on the dalits
who then feel nervous or intimidated to
enter such structures. Ultimately, dalits are
denied access to knowledge and its articu-
lation. They are also denied the critical
faculty to interrogate the dominant mode
of thinking. For example, the dalit may
have a genuinely insightful point that might
challenge the big boss in social science,
but the moment the dalit questions the
premise of the big boss, immediately loud
laughter full of crushing derision is col-
lectively produced in such gatherings. Does
not this kind of institutionalised exclusion
show the dent in social science confi-
dence? Let us look at another example, one
that involves the humiliating exclusion of
dalits from the established discourse in
social science. If some dalits were speaking
about Gramsci, suddenly the champions of
Gramsci would raise objection. Aj kal koi
bhi aira gaira nathu khaira Gramschi ke
bare me bol raha hai. Poor Gramsci must
be turning in his grave.
13
In fact Gramsci
would rest in peace in his grave seeing his
thought being resurrected by the right kind
of subaltern who is ridiculed as aira gaira
by the defenders of Gramsci. The so-called
defenders of Gramsci are actually offend-
ing Garmsci and holding social science
hostage to their intellectual fanaticism.
However, the high priests of theory do
not mind dalits doing empirical studies.
Some of them base their theoretical pre-
mises on data collected by dalits. Social
science practice therefore lacks moral
standing. Theory does not attract the dalit
also because the latter lack internal moral
reasoning based on the notion of sacrifice
and endurance. Doing theory is a moral
responsibility based on sacrifice that the
dalit have to make in terms of pursuing
spiritual rather than temporal power. It
requires that one be not moved by imme-
diate success or solution or glamour or
charm. Let us see how this affects the
doing capacity of reflectivity.
IV
Moral Conditions of Reflective
Capacities
Doing theory demands enduring moral
stamina for successfully resisting the temp-
tation for temporal gains that have the
capacity to de-motivate a person from
pursuing the spiritual. Doing serious theory
also demands that one should overcome
the sense of anxiety that involves an ele-
ment of compulsion to perform. Perfor-
mance, whether on the stage or in seminar
rooms, is aimed at getting immediate
recognition from the audience. In such
performances what become important is
body language, speech and sound and
speed of words and not so much the care-
ful arrangement of the content. Doing
theory requires discipline, patience and
endurance that go into making a theoretical
statement that is made carefully and not
superficially or polemically. Doing theory
does not therefore bring you immediate
recognition. Ambedkars sociological,
economic and jurisprudence work took a
long time and Rawls spent 20 years on his
theory of justice. Against this, the tempo-
ral fetches immediate here and now
recognition.
Most dalits are vulnerable to the attrac-
tion of temporal power that does not flow
from theoretical practice but from what are
considered to be the more glamorous and
easy spheres of mobility. This might in-
clude formal politics and networking with
institutions that demand that intellectuals
always be ready with data. When ambi-
tions for the temporal grow out of propor-
tion to the theoretical consciousness, then
theoretical concerns get completely driven
out from the cognitive map of the dalits.
Practical reason takes precedence over
theoretical reason. Along with the state,
Economic and Political Weekly December 14, 2002 5007
dalit politicians from both the NGO sector
and formal politics promote such practical
reasons because in the case of the former
the empirical details come in handy to
impress donor agencies, while in the case
of latter the data help in constructing the
self-serving rhetoric that serves very well
the everyday forms of dalit petty politics.
Like the figures of atrocities are converted
into such rhetoric and later are parroted by
dalits in national and international forums.
One can mix some emotion to make the
details more interesting.
In such an intellectual atmosphere, pro-
moting theory requires transcending emo-
tions to rationality and is considered a big
danger and anybody offering theory looks
like a stranger to this brand of dalits who
have a stake in maintaining the collective
theoretical inability. The logic of the tem-
poral dominates the academic agenda of
the dalits. Thus many of them go in for
soft options rather than tough courses like
philosophy and theory that do not promise
temporal power. It is this professionali-
sation of dalit interest that makes them
more individualistic in their attitude and
is responsible for their casualness if not
callousness towards doing theory. Dalits
try to compensate for theoretical deficiency
by doing brilliant poetry. It is this sense
of compensation that has led to the cre-
ation of brilliant poetry in Maharashtra
from this class. In this regards it is really
interesting to note what a dalit poet has
to say about intellectual relations reversing
the traditional positions of the dalits and
the TTB. The poet says,
When we were tearing you were tearing us
Now we tear you while you tear.
14
This particular ditty suggests that while
the dalits were skinning dead cattle the
TTB were tearing off the personality of the
former through humiliation and intellec-
tual exclusion. Now the TTB skin hides,
maybe in sophisticated tanneries, and the
dalits are deploying knowledge to tear the
TTB through social auditing and intellec-
tual intervention at various levels.
But poetry cannot be a substitute for
theory. Most poetry, including dalit
poetry, is based on aesthetics and meta-
phors and this no doubt makes things
interesting. It is true that dalits have de-
veloped a good sense of aesthetics but it
by definition belongs to the particular,
though it is based on rich experience and
therefore has the potential to become the
guiding standard for the universal. Be-
sides, it also generates inwardness and
tends to keep some things hidden from the
public imagination. But poetry has no
conceptual capacity to universalise the
particular and particularise the universal.
It does not have that dialectical power. By
contrast, theory demands clarity of con-
cept and principles and the open exami-
nation of ones own action to see whether
it is justified. Poetry helps the dalit in
making connections through metaphors,
but not through concepts. It is theory that
is supposes to do that. It makes connec-
tions through concepts and also helps in
illuminating the meaning that is embedded
in complex reality. However, Gadamer
would ask the question is it right to reserve
the concept of truth for conceptual know-
ledge? Must we not also admit that the
work of art possesses truth? This is a
serious question.
However it is not entirely true that dalits
turn towards either poetry or empirical
research out of compulsion. On closer
observation it is found that they also make
a very conscious choice for doing empiri-
cal research for the following reasons.
They would argue that their lived experi-
ence is rich enough and can stand on its
own authentic terms so that it does not
require any theoretical representation.
Experience for them is a sufficient con-
dition for organising their thought and
action and for ignition of everyday expe-
rience into resistance. Second, dalits argue
that since they have privileged access to
reality they can capture it with a full view
without any theoretical representation. This
claim is obviously based on ontological
blindness. The assumption in such a claim
is that non-dalits have an innate inability
to comprehend dalit reality because of
their different social location. Thus though
dalits do not generate any theory, their
research can always contain some valuable
theoretical insights, their experience alone
can illuminate aspects of human relations.
Third, in defence of empiricism some of
the dalits still argue that doing theory is
undesirable because it makes a person
intellectually arrogant, egoistic and so-
cially alienated if not irrelevant. In this
regard it is interesting to note that the
critique of abstract thinking goes back to
the 14th century in Maharashtra. The fore-
runner of the non-brahmin tradition, Sant
Tukaram, criticises this intellectual tradi-
tion for its egoistic implication in the
following abhanga (form of folk or
devotional poetry):
It is all to the good! O God! That you made
me kunbi
Otherwise I would have been done to death
through Brahminical cant and hypocrisy.
As a Brahmin. I would have floated full
of arrogance and ego
And would have been led to the lowest of
the lowest Naraka (hell).
15
This particular reaction of Tukaram is
too self-explanatory to require any further
elaboration.
These are some of the reasons that are
advanced by the dalits to defend their
empiricism. The question that still remains
to be answered is should the dalits, tribals
and the OBCs be forever lost in their unique
experience? Should they not look at theory
as a moral responsibility to accord respect-
ability to their experience that otherwise
is caricatured by both the snobbish theorist
and politicians from TTB? Should they not
move from the immediate to the abstract
and restore subjectivity? Should they not
stop making guest appearances in some-
body elses formulations and restore to
themselves the agency to reflect organi-
cally on their own experience? Thus doing
theory becomes a social necessity fore the
dalits.
V
Dalits Need Theory as a Social
Necessity
It is argued here that moving away from
the empirical mode to the theoretical one
has become a social necessity for dalits,
tribals and OBCs. It has become a social
necessity for the following reasons. First,
they need theory as a social necessity to
confront the reverse orientalism that treats
dalits, tribals and OBCs as the inferior
empirical self and the TTB as the superior
theoretical self. The descriptive mode is
often deployed by the TTB in order to wrap
insult and derision that is inflicted on the
dalits. Thus description of the body lan-
guage of the dalits and the OBCs becomes
an erotic need for the cultural and political
satisfaction of the TTB. It is due to this
reason that the TTB did not find it nec-
essary to offer theoretical treatment to the
theatrical language of the OBC chief
minister from Bihar or the dalit CM from
UP. The theory of theatrical language offers
a unique opportunity for dalit/bahujan
scholars to fight this derisive description
of cultural symbols. It is in this sense that
doing theory becomes a social necessity
in order to fight reverse orientalism. This
should become a social necessity in order
to become the subject of their own think-
ing rather than becoming the object of
Economic and Political Weekly December 14, 2002 5008
somebody elses thinking. To put it more
crudely, the asymmetrical relationship that
characterises reverse orientalism seeks to
caricature dalits, tribals and OBCs as
amusing objects. Dalits have been por-
trayed as amusing objects in several stud-
ies that were initiated by UGC and ICSSR
on dalits and tribals and now women
through separate study centres. These stud-
ies of dalit and tribal communities seek to
museumise the latter as amusing objects.
Anthropology and to some extent socio-
logy have taken the lead in caricaturing
dalits and adivasis. Huge funds are pro-
vided by ICSSR and UGC for promoting
this. This kind of social science practice
raises the issue whether social science in
India is not reproducing the same torment-
ing forms of orientalism against which it
had fought in the first instance? In what
way are the practioners of social sciences
morally superior to the orientalists?
In view of the complete lack of theoreti-
cal intervention from dalit/bahujan schol-
ars, some non-dalits messiahs have offered
to represent dalit/bahujans theoretically.
Their claim to fight this reverse orientalism
on behalf of dalits looks attractive. It is
argued by the TTB that they need to in-
tervene in the dalit situation at the theo-
retical level only to restore voice and
visibility to dalits and ultimately advance
the dalit epistemological cause. But this
also ends up producing reverse orientalism
in a very subtle way. The claim to offer
epistemological empowerment to dalits
involves a charity element which by defi-
nition is condescending. This epistemo-
logical charity has several implications for
dalits. First, speaking for the dalits or
anybody constitutes a jajmani relationship,
structurally involving the patron and the
client. In the present case, the muknayak
becomes the patron and the dumb be-
comes the client to define the patron. The
patron, in a very ironical sense, tends to
reproduce the brahminical mechanism of
first controlling knowledge resources and
then pouring them into the empty cupped
palms of dalits. It happens in the same
humiliating way the TTB still pour water
into the hands of the thirsty dalits. This
relationship makes the muknayak intel-
lectually indispensable and the dumb al-
most crawl before such messiahs for rhe-
torical appreciation and designated em-
powerment rather than real theoretical
elevation. We come across umpteen num-
ber of cases of such designated empower-
ment when dalits publicly bask in the
intellectual glory of their muknayaks.
This structured relationship creates legiti-
macy for the patrons existence in both the
dalit soul and dalit society. As a result the
patron does not find it necessary to exit
from the epistemological fields that are
specific to the dalit and bahujan situation.
This jajmani relationship also has a third
implication for the dalits. This represen-
tation tends to undervalue or underplay the
discursive capacity of such groups who in
favourable hermeneutic conditions can
develop an epistemic stamina. But the
muknayaks make a very smart move,
prompting the dumb to throw up more
interesting details so that the former can
use these details for either grand formu-
lation in a liberal mode or its post-mod-
ernist deconstruction. This by implication
contains the dalits to the empirical and
pushes them into the frozen essentialist
trap. This postmodernist construction of
dalits remains blind to the hegemonic
politics that would feel happy to celebrate
such a construction as it replaces the
need to make connections between several
local experiences that belong to the same
Economic and Political Weekly December 14, 2002 5009
logical class of collective suffering and
exploitation.
Finally, this epistemological enthusiasm
of the non-dalits also suffers from another
and rather serious malady. This intellec-
tual representation remains epistemologi-
cally posterior. That is to say, the discovery
of the dalit epistemological standpoint fails
to explain who has arrived whether the
object (dalits) or the subject (muknayaks).
This question becomes absolutely impor-
tant because such claims have been sus-
tained on the basis of throwing up com-
pletely new conceptual landscapes from
the dalit experience. This inability to either
recover or throw up an alternative concept
happens because these scholars choose to
theorise dalit experience standing outside
the dalit experience. This representation
thus remains epistemologically posterior.
In view of this posterior epistemology, its
standpoint remains a mere assertion which
feeds on the critique of the mainstream
marxist or feminist framework. This ex-
ternality hardly enables the dalits to secure
theoretical advance for their revolutionary
understanding and politics. To put it more
crudely, such epistemological enthusiasms
may turn dalit epistemology into an exegeti-
cal horizon of difference that may radically
undermine any possibility of the fusion of
epistemologies that are egalitarian in na-
ture. It is in this sense that the patronising
or posterior epistemology fails to belong
to the realm of social necessity. It comes
up as a choice to transcend the personal
intellectual frustration of those middle class
ex-radicals for whom the old frameworks
have ceased to be charming options.
It is true that the old liberal or marxist
discourses tried to tighten the conceptual
boundaries of social sciences in India,
almost pushing the social science disci-
pline into a state of suffocation. But these
discourses did compete with one another,
like the caste discourse vs class discourse
for deciding protocols, procedure and
ground rules for the social sciences. In the
process these discourse took over the
theoretical task of discovering concepts
and categories for dalits, adivasis and OBCs
and women. For example, the marxist
discourse introduced concepts like class,
exploitation, proletariat, labour and alien-
ation for everybody including dalits. In the
liberal discourse caste, nationalism, citi-
zenship and rights and multiculturalism
are the potent categories for everybody.
This by implication suggests the dalit failure
of historical imagination to do theory.
Although such rendering does pose a huge
theoretical challenge to provide alterna-
tive sets of categories, this is a challenge
that is worth taking. Dalit theory in order
to become a social necessity has to be
vertically critical of the limitations of
marxist and liberal methods and horizon-
tally be sensitive towards those dalit/
bahujan critical impulses which may be
still present in the methods as mentioned
above. Thus it would be unfair to dispense
with everything from marxism or liberal-
ism for their epistemological deficiencies.
In fact doing theory is also an inner ne-
cessity for the dalits.
VI
Dalits Need Theory as
Inner Necessity
There seem to be different factors that
become the preconditions for the realisation
of this inner necessity. These are the moral
conditions. For dalits to realise doing theory
as an inner moral necessity, they must
make a conscious moral choice to use their
sense of freedom for understanding and
reflecting on the dalit experience. They
should treat this freedom to walk out from
the dalit experience as the initial condition
for achieving theoretical heights in their
reflections. They may go to Oxford and
Cambridge for achieving height to their
experience, they should also make a
moral choice to walk back into the dalit
experience in order to accord depth to their
reflections. The becomes an essential
condition for doing theory. Thus the
modernist theorist who is driven by
individualised intellectual triumphalism of
conquering newer epistemological territo-
ries becomes a morally undesirable option
for the dalits. This kind of epistemological
imperialism is one-sided as it shows com-
mitment to scholarship and not to the cause.
For dalits theory comes as a double com-
mitment both to scholarship and also to
the social cause. As a part of this moral
commitment the dalits should avoid walk-
ing into pure empiricism or experiencialism
which come as alternatives in the competi-
tive forms of tokenism in the realms of
both academics and politics. Thus for dalits
theory should not begin and end with
Oxford or Cambridge or the Shimla institute
or the NMML. Their theory should not be
caught in the self-serving professionalism
and stupefaction adopted by the TTB in
the country. Dalits should test the tenacity
of their theory not with the certification
of juries of social sciences, howsoever
attractive that may be, but on the basis of
how much influence these theoretical
formulations enjoy in the popular mentality.
It is a Gramscian project that demands
impeccable commitment on the part of the
theorist to translate technical content into an
ordinary idiom and common speech so that
it becomes accessible to the common people
and does not remain confined to seminar
rooms only. In fact it should be practised
from the Red fort in Delhi. That would, by
the way, resignify the fort by dispelling the
deceitful rhetoric of interested parties ritu-
ally on every 15th of August. Dalits are
expected to take the initiative in giving
moral lead to doing theory in the country.
This orientation would thus remove the
cultural hierarchies that tend to divide social
science practice into theoretical brahmins
and empirical shudras. Ultimately social
science in India would fulfill the fondest
hopes by expanding the social base of its
conceptual landscape.
Address for correspondence:
[email protected]
Notes
[This paper is the revised version of an inaugural
lecture that was delivered on the March 15, 2002
at the University of Delhi. I thank the committee
for permitting me to publish the lecture in EPW.]
1 Ramchandra Guha, Absent Liberals: Politics
and Intellectual Life in India, EPW, December.
15, 2001; Peter de Souza, Intellectuals and
Their Domain, EPW, March 2, 2002; Partha
Chatterjee, Institutional Context of Social
Science Research in South Asia, EPW, August
31, 2002.
2 Isaiah Berlin, Concept and Categories, edited
by Henry Hardy, Hogarth Press, London, 1978,
pp 87 and 102.
3 Dhruv Raina, The Present in the Past in
Romila Thapar (ed), India: New Millennium,
Penguin, Delhi, 2000, p 25.
4 Many political theorists share this lamentation.
More particularly, Bhiku Parekh has written
about the poverty of political theory in India.
5 This is the forum called Dalit Intellectuals
Collective based in Mumbai.
6 Sharad Patil, Satyashodhak Marxwadi
(Marathi), Vol 5, July 1982, p 17.
7 Ernest Gellnar, Relativism and Universalism
in Martin Hollis and Steven Lukes (eds),
Rationality and Relativism, Basil Blackwell,
London, p 182.
8 This saying is very common in Maharashtras
cultural life.
9 Sharad Patil, op cit.
10 Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus, Oxford,
1980, p 275.
11 This is the story of a dalit who is doing PhD
in social work in Chennai.
12 This is a cue from Bourdieu.
13 This is from a collection of poems by P I
Sonkamble from Aurangabad in Maharashtra.
14 H G Gadamar, Truth and Method, Sage Books,
London, 1987, p 39.
15 Sadanand More, Collection of Writings of
Tukaram, Philosophy Department, Pune
University.
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