At a time when the subaltern population of India is dreaming of a new civil society beyond traditional political boundaries, the need of the hour is a new concept of the State, democracy, and power, the bishop of the Niranom diocese Geevarghese Mar Coorilos has said.
He was delivering the G. Rajeshkumar memorial lecture on the topic ‘Media and people's agitations' at the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club on Thursday.
The media, which has the power to make or break a movement, should ask itself which face of India it is projecting. Large sections of the media projected Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement as a never-before phenomenon. The hype and the hysteria generated on this was incredible. Similar was the treatment given to the agitation by Baba Ramdev.
“But which were the faces seen associated with such movements? Middle-class intellectuals, academics, and human rights activists. Most of them belonged to the upper castes. When a team was set up to draft a bill, there was no place in it for a Dalit, for the religious minorities, and there was no woman there,” he said.
The faces commonly seen in discussions on TV channels were the same. He asked where the faces and voices of the Adivasis, their women, the Dalits, and the fishermen were. “A fresh concept of a people's movement is needed; one from the perspective of the victims, the oppressed” he said.
Conventional political parties had failed the subaltern population of India. There was nothing left in the Left politics and there was nothing right with the Right, he pointed out.
“The CPI(M) views any new type of public movement with suspicion and tries to suppress it. Chengara is a good example,” Bishop Coorilos said.
“Why are mainstream political parties afraid of, say, a Gothra Mahasabha? Why is their sense of democracy not sought to be understood? What is wrong with a decentralised notion of power? Not the World Bank's People's Planning,” he pointed out.
Tools of Marxian analysis developed mostly for Europe could not be applied as such to India. If the Left parties continued to ignore the caste question in the country, they would remain confined to Kerala and West Bengal. It was time the Left took Ambedkar seriously. It had not so far accepted his critique of Marx.
Caste inequality should be tackled alongside economic inequality, he added.
Keywords: civil society, memorial lecture
@ Lakshmi, sorry for your poor understanding of the matter in whole. If H.G. Mor Coorilos was trying to fish in troubled waters, he should have tried to side with either left or right, regardless to his position in church, as a member of the society he have all the right to express his views. Even from the religious point of view he is called for liberating the people from their sufferings, if any one thinks that the assignment of a bishop is just confined in carrying out the sacraments it is their conceptual error about the position and Christianity in general. Also be informed that Mor Coorilos is not a person sitting in the comfortable room and make irresponsible statements, you must check his activities. Again with all respect to H.G and his thinking I must say that any apolitical movements should be approached with great caution as most of them are not transparent regarding their sources, most anti-politics movements are supported by
large corporates or other fundamental groups.
Fishing in troubled waters is a pastime for the uncouth politicians. What on earth is an ordained bishop of a religion doing that for? I hold no brief for Anna Hazare or Baba Ramdev but nobody was specifically invited nor was anybody prevented from participating in their anti corruption rallies.!! Sitting in their comfortable drawing rooms and pontificating on matters on common interests is a good pastime but hardly worth it. Let the Bishop confine himself to his religious duties and make his "Flock " a better group. Astne old saying goes "DOCTOR! HEAL THYSELF "
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