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Data and content policy of Globethics.net Library repository see https:// repository.globethics.net/pages/policy Item Type Book Authors Razu, John Mohan Publisher Globethics.net Rights Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Download date 28/09/2021 17:27:37 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/169302 Readers 6 ETHICS OF INCLUSION AND EQUALITY Politics & Society Volume 1 John Mohan Razu Ethics of Inclusion and Equality Politics & Society Volume 1 Ethics of Inclusion and Equality Politics & Society Volume 1 John Mohan Razu Globethics.net Readers No. 6 Globethics.net Readers Series editor: Prof. Dr. Obiora Ike, Executive Director of Globethics.net in Geneva and Professor of Ethics at the Godfrey Okoye University Enugu/Nigeria. Globethics.net Readers 6 John Mohan Razu, Ethics of Inclusion and Equality, Vol. 1: Politics & Society Geneva: Globethics.net, 2018 ISBN 978-2-88931-189-7 (online version) ISBN 978-2-88931-190-3 (print version) © 2018 Globethics.net Cover Photo: ‘Women at Farmers Rally, Bhopal, India’ (2005) by Ekta Parishad Managing Editor: Ignace Haaz Assistant Editor: Samuel Davies Globethics.net Head Office 150 route de Ferney 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland Website: www.globethics.net/publications Email: [email protected] All web links in this text have been verified as of September 2018. The electronic version of this book can be downloaded for free from the Globethics.net website: www.globethics.net. The electronic version of this book is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY- NC-ND 4.0). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. 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TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations .......................................................................................... 7 Dedication ............................................................................................... 9 Introduction ........................................................................................... 11 Politics & Society Dalits and the Changing Contours of the Political Economy of India ... 27 Same Law, Different Yardsticks! .......................................................... 65 In the Wake of Modi’s Utterances ......................................................... 79 BJP and RSS’s Politics of ‘Cow’—Backfired ...................................... 89 Tensions Beneath .................................................................................. 95 Government versus Non-Government ................................................ 103 Modern Day Apartheid in the Republic of India ................................ 111 Rainbow Republic Under Scanner ...................................................... 119 Four Varnas of BJP ............................................................................. 127 Racism, Casteism & Classism Looms ................................................. 133 Hindutva + Moditva = ‘Ghar Wapsi’! ................................................. 141 RSS Questions Mother Teresa ............................................................. 149 The Status of the Children Reflects the State of the Nation ................ 157 6 Ethics of Inclusion and Equality: Politics & Society Towards Cultural Homogenization ..................................................... 163 BJP + RSS = PM Modi’s India Clashed with Other’s India................ 167 Politics over Suicide – Caste in New Avatar – 21st Century India ..... 171 Nagasaki Remembered ........................................................................ 183 Hiroshima—A Reminder and a Warning to the Present and Future ... 187 Ambedkar and Gandhi ........................................................................ 191 Commonalities in the Dalit and the Palestinian Struggles................... 215 Dialectics between Shrinking Globalization and Rising Nationalism ......................................................................................... 241 Essentializing Humanity Amidst Pluralit ........................................... 267 Fallacy of the Concept of ‘Majoritarianism’ ...................................... 287 Inter-Facing Democracy, Governance and Development ................... 309 India’s Shame ...................................................................................... 327 Labour Power Garment Workers’ Protest in Bengaluru: Venting Ire! ......................................................................................... 341 ‘Manufactured Rebellion’ or ‘Spontaneous Resistance’ ..................... 365 Le Pen is Mightier than the Sword ...................................................... 373 NGOs VS Government Transparency or Crackdown? ........................ 379 Reconfiguring Manithaneyam ............................................................. 395 UK Inquiry on Iraq War ...................................................................... 415 Who is at Fault? Judiciary or Legislature! ......................................... 423 Dalit Resistence and Assertion ............................................................ 435 ABBREVIATIONS BJP Bharatiya Janata Party CNI Church North India CSI Church of Southern India GDP Gross Domestic Product GNP Gross National Product HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus IMF International Montary Fund LPG Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization PM Prime Minister RSS Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Parent organization of BJP) TINA There Is No Alternative VHP Vishva Hindu Parishad WB World Bank DEDICATION To Amnu, precious lifelong lover and friend. To two splendid children—daughter, and son, Amarantha and Swithin, and Grandson Avishai. Whom I love beyond measure and who teach me daily the wonders of on this good Earth. To my mentors—Professors James Massey, Hunter Mabry, Max L. Stackhouse and George Ninan who taught me how to enter into critical inquiry. To my parent—Jeya Rao and Ratna Bai, spirited givers of steadfast love. INTRODUCTION ‘I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.’ — Deuteronomy 30:19 ‘If the imagination is to transcend and transform experience it has to question, to challenge, to conceive of alternative, perhaps to the very life you are living at the moment.’ — Adrienne Rich ‘There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.’ — Michel Foucault Since the beginnings of time, Homo sapiens have organized their so- cieties in a variety of ways. For societies to survive they should get involved in production, consumption and distribution. Apart from these, others things that cover their culture and belief systems kept evolving and refining as the years passed by. In due course of time, as the socie- ties progressed, their needs and necessities too keep growing such as cultures and other paraphernalia. So, it becomes abundantly clear that human beings have always been progressive and innovative and tend to move on from one stage to another leading to higher forms. Over the last 400 years, particularly in the last 200 years there have been fundamental alterations and stupendous transformations both in the base and super structures. 12 Ethics of Inclusion and Equality: Politics & Society Since the last decade of the 20th Century, we have been witnessing massive expansion in productive capability and an important dimension of this appears in the development of Science and Knowledge about how, why and what things work, and the application of such knowledge to trade and in the production of goods and services. Flight of capital takes place by pressing a few buttons across the world; goods are pro- duced in many countries and assembled in centres wherever desired; distribution of goods takes place at the fastest possible time. Undoubted- ly, for all these developments science and technology has been playing a major role. Nonetheless, this new knowledge is also being used to wage war, to exploit natural and human resources, to produce more food and to combat diseases. As a consequence, over this short period of time, we have ravaged the natural resources and keep exploiting the human la- bour for selfish ends. These changes that we see and part of it are called by different names such as ‘development’, ‘progress’, ‘industrialization’, ‘moderni- zation’, ‘urbanization’ or ‘growth’ that implies and indicates more in terms of GNP and GDP. The process that brought all changes