Buddha is Smiling

Tags: caste, resistance, state | 1 comment | 1,078 views

The assistant police commissioner of Kozhikode district in north Keralam has been reprimanded by the State for not sticking to the stipulated code language while speaking of the visiting celebrity Rahul Gandhi. The policeman, it seems, quipped over the wireless about the wayward itinerary of the king-in-waiting. Ironically the very day in south Keralam the police has found that some people who are not even supposed to speak ‘good’ Malayalam are conversing in code language – Dalit Human Rights Movement activists a.k.a the ‘Dalit extremists’ of Varkala.

One cannot but think of those numerous coded registers through which generations of Dalits had subverted the brutal worlds of their upper caste lords, but in this case the guilty party is Buddha’s own Pali. The extremists, newshounds inform us unquoting their police pals, were planning to “take apart the social structure with rationalism, sexual anarchy and casteism” using the Buddhist tongue. As customary the crack team comprising of police and media are looking forward to accomplice extremists from outside. Since the past favorite LTTE won’t be qualifying this time for obvious reasons, maybe they would call up Mr.Rajapaksa and ask. (In Pali or Sinhalese?)

October 10th, 2009 | Category: just One point | (3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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