Articles by K Balagopal

The economic relation between the adivasis and the Muslims in rural north Gujarat is of the kind that most radical analysts have deemed to be sufficient to justify a violent class struggle. And that is just how the VHP is likely to project it as in the coming days - an explanation for adivasi participation in the violence that could be quite embarrassing for radical analysts. It is time for radical analysts to give up simplistic assumptions and modes of analysis, not for the sake of the VHP, but for possible progress in human affairs.

The state that has enacted a fresh law to control crime syndicates in Andhra Pradesh is not an innocent victim of such syndicates nor a beleaguered administration frustrated by mafia gangs beyond its control. It is itself a major patron and protector of a variety of crime syndicates, notwithstanding the air of injured innocence it puts on when asked to explain its latest legislative adventure.

The conflict between two dalit communities of Andhra Pradesh - the malas, who have had the lion's share of the scheduled caste quotas of jobs and educational opportunities and the madigas, who have agitated for castewise division of the quotas - could perhaps have been resolved socially. But thanks to the recourse taken to executive fiat and legislation a tangled web, involving not only the two communities and the state government but also the higher judiciary, the central government and the national commission for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, has been woven.

In a country like India where extreme social stratification and increasing social turmoil are likely to sharply affect the ideas and opinions of people, including judicial officers, putting in human hands the discretion to take life can be quite dangerous. Conflict and turmoil apart, the very deep stratification of Indian society makes even-handed dispensation of justice a problematic thing in the best of times. We live in times of severe social turmoil and the ascendance of the extremely illiberal politics of the Hindu fanatics. As this mood catches on we are going to find the courts silently handing out more and more harsh punishments, bending backward to look at evidence from the policemen's point of view and sending more and more people to the hangman. It is in this context that the debate on capital punishment must be conducted.  

K Balagopal NOW that cynical realism believes it has won some sort of a victory in Kashmir, it is time to talk of some principlesprinciples pertaining not only to the way the rulers of India have been dealing with Kashmir, but also the way progressive and democratic- minded Indians have been responding to Kashmir, and to the problems stemming from the mode of expression of the cause of Kashmiri self-determination. Criticism of the rulers is easy and uncomplicated, at least in principle, if one has no material or ideological interests vested in the matter. The others are less easy, less familiar and less comfortable, but unless we learn to formulate such critiques, the cause of progress and democracy will remain stuck at 1989.