Myriad forms of humiliation
C. LAKSHMANAN
From 'walking carrion' to 'walking storm' — a telling comment on Dalit
struggle
HUMILIATION - Claims and Context: Gopal Guru; Oxford University Press,
YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 595.
"Humiliation is not so much a physical or corporeal injury; in fact,
it is more a mental/ psychological injury that leaves a permanent scar
on the heart." For Indian social scientists today, philosophy, logic
and theoretical explorations are a rare passion. A bold effort towards
theorisation of infernal feeling, this book deserves appreciation for
such an endeavour. Gopal Guru, who has edited the volume, is a
committed academic and a leading intellectual in theorising Dalit
epistemology. The book has, in three sections, 11 learned articles by
distinguished scholars.
Complexity
Bhikhu Parekh's 'Logic of Humiliation' is an insightful engagement
with the concept. Apart from analysing the complexity of the problem,
he identifies the 11 different real life cases of humiliation of
moderate to high magnitude. It is an amazing way of explaining the
theory of humiliation. Parekh probes the multiple definitions of
humiliation with varied notions/explanations, the dialectics of
institutionalised humiliation and remedial prescriptions and, finally,
citizenship and understanding of Kant's theory of [self-] respect. His
analyses are significant and, in a way, immensely useful to students
of political theory.
For Ashis Nandy, humiliation is directly linked to the asymmetric
power system that exists at the family, state and societal levels. He
argues that as long as a person does not understand the humiliation
meted out to him/her — one cannot say he/she is humiliated.
However, Nandy argues against third party intervention in situations
where people do not realise that they have been numb to their own
humiliation, But this is debatable. When a person lives in a state of
inhuman bondage, how could he or she realise that he is being
humiliated? And this goes for a group as well. As V. Geetha argues,
"the untouchable is associated in different ways, [with] waste,
trash…one which he bears for the well-being of a commonweal that has
no use for him." Parekh makes the pertinent point that "extreme
situations arise when the social structure so crushes their spirit
that they fail to develop even a weak sense of self-respect…"
Nandy's resentment towards renaming of the oppressed sections —
Negros, Blacks, and African-Americans, for example — is
understandable. Negro (or even the 'untouchable') has been associated
with resistance and protest against the oppression. His analysis of
the positive side of humiliation (Gandhi's humiliation at
Pietermaritzburg) is too emphatic.
Valerian Rodrigues explains the nature of public sphere/ space/domain
and civil society and its predominance. On the other hand, he raises
some basic questions to the scholars who are conditioned by their own
notions of colonial prescription of modernity and seeks to show how
they negate themselves when they engage with issues of public concern.
He critiques the viewpoints of two globally well-known scholars,
Dipesh Chakrabarty and Sudipta Kaviraj. For Chakrabarty, particularly
of public domain, public hygiene and health concerns, such an analysis
negates scavengers' humiliation. So are Supitha Kaviraj's concerns for
public parks in Calcutta(Kolkata) and elsewhere that suffer defacement
because of migrant workers. But Kaviraj does not address the flawed
bourgeois modernity.
The article on 'Protective Discrimination' by Neera Chandhoke is no
testimony to her declared pro-reservation stance. The volume should
have had a paper by a Dalit who is made to suffer humiliation while
availing himself of the caste-based benefits in school, college or
work place. Consider her factually incorrect statement: "A Dalit
university has been set up in the country." Can the name of a Dalit
icon prefixed to a university make it a 'Dalit university'?
She displays a penchant for drawing upon western studies in her
attempt to score a point on 'shameful revelation'. For instance,
Wolff's observation about how "demeaning" it must be to "admit to
oneself" that one lacked the qualifications for a job and had to "rely
on the state and its sanction" to get it. But she chooses to condone
the practice of dominant caste Hindus/Indians taking their caste names
as suffix, harping on their primordial supremacy. It must be clearly
understood that positive discrimination is a necessary correction to
the caste prejudice that reigns in public domain.
Dalit struggle
In his paper based on issues related to a common crematorium in Goa,
Peter Ronald deSouza highlights the complexities in the contemporary
caste milieu arising from religious conversions,
inter-caste/inter-caste marriages and so on. The concluding essay by
Guru is a powerful exposition of the need for universalising the
Dalits' struggle. Quite telling is his observation: "…he [Ambedkar]
along with his people sought to walk out from the given image of
'walking carrion' and went on to become the walking storm."
The other articles are equally meritworthy in comprehending the
various types of humiliation. The book should be of benefit to social
scientists and students of Indian political system. However, the fact
that the humiliation women suffer across the class, caste, and race
divides is hardly discussed — although it came in for some reference
in articles by Parekh and Rodrigues — is indeed a lacuna.
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