A day will soon come when farmers and adivasis “who do not speak the language of liberation” will liberate themselves, as their recent mobilisation in Maharashtra testifies, said political psychologist and social theorist Ashis Nandy,
Farmers and adivasis are an “invisible and inaudible class” in the “world’s largest psephocracy” where people run from one election to another, said Dr. Nandy, at the U.R. Ananthamurthy Annual Memorial Lecture jointly organised by Jain Deemed to be University and Rujuvatu Trust here on Saturday.
Farmers and adivasis, who lost their voice and visibility, had in some instances turned out to be “floating mobs”, he observed.
“Charismatic” leaders heading the State learnt to bypass not only their party machinery but also the media, which helped them get their charisma. By directly talking to the electorate, they are able to attract the floating mob, said Dr. Nandy.
Dr. Nandy said those who tried to lend a voice to the silenced and offer visibility to the invisible are being labelled “terrorists.”
“The ideal citizen in this country is watching television channels and at the most writing letters to the letters column of newspapers,” he said, adding that some had opted to write blogs instead. “If somebody ventures out of these limits, they are being branded as anti-nationals,” he noted.
He underlined the urgent need to listen to artists, writers, social workers, who are providing voice to the voiceless. “The result of not doing so is clearly visible. Naxalites are products of the way the political system treated the adivasis,” he added.
