Thread by @saaf_oxforduni

The keynote address for the 2nd day of the #CasteCensus Conference begins now!
Keynote Speaker: Bharat Patankar - Activist, President Shramik Mukti Dal
He will speak in the loving memory of Gail Omvedt.

@PatankarPrachi
#ShramikMuktiDal
#CountingCaste
#CasteCensus

@PatankarPrachi Bharat Patankar- Today we cannot decide on a program of caste annihilation. The information from the census will be useful only if it liberates people from caste mode of production.
@PatankarPrachi
#ShramikMuktiDal
#CountingCaste
#CasteCensus

@PatankarPrachi Mahatma Phule proposed an alliance between stree, shudra and ati-shudras, overcoming the division of labourers.

@PatankarPrachi Thackerays are CKP, once claiming they were Kshatriyas, now claiming they are brahmins, a higher caste. Most of the people who call themselves Marathas now were originally Kunbis till the early 20th century, and belong to exploited castes.

@PatankarPrachi Sonars or goldsmiths, started calling themselves brahmins. Suthars or carpenters, started calling themselves higher than what they were.

@PatankarPrachi After the Bhima Koregaon war was won, the majority were Mahars. Some young people started saying that they are superior caste, forgetting that they are Buddhists, even though there is not supposed to be any division within us.

@PatankarPrachi We should go back to Phule’s thinking, that the majority of population in any state in India should come together as a united front. Kanshi Ram is the only one who came closest to organising on this.

@PatankarPrachi Hindutva is a recent phenomenon. Hindu religion never hid caste hierarchy. Those cmng from exploited backgrounds started saying that ‘we are Hindu, i.e. why we are great’, under this new phenomenon of Hindutva. Hindutva is a philosophy that tells Hinduism is the dominant culture.

@PatankarPrachi How are we going to integrate the caste exploited people in other religions, other than Hindu religion. Christians and Muslims face as much caste exploitation. This makes the task more broader, caste is not imposed just by Brahminism but by Hinduism.

@PatankarPrachi What Hindutva is doing is using caste exploitation to bring fascist rule, especially in the absence of a strong anti-caste movement. Caste has become vote banks, even bourgeois democratic framework consolidates caste identity, votes are bargained as caste groups.