11/19/13 Dalit Symbolism and the Democratisation of Secular Spaces - Mainstream Weekly www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1950.html 1/6 About Mainstream Archives (2006 on) 2013 Contact us MAINSTREAM, VOL XLVIII, NO 12, MARCH 13, 2010 Dalit Symbolism and the Democratisation of Secular Spaces Harish S. Wankhede Introduction In the recent past, wider discussion and debate have been built over the issue of mega-construction works undertaken by the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government. Intellectuals and social activists were worried that public money was being drained out in such a big way to build something which blatantly represents the political symbols of a particular political party. In the media also we have noticed severe criticism against these construction works by describing them as ecologically dangerous or political gimmick over a petty emotional issue which the current government has undertaken. The critics argue that the Mayawati Government indulged in excessive immaterial symbolism without understanding and prioritising the need for deeper social changes required for the empowerment of the Dalits and other sections of the poor. The criticism of the intellectuals and the media represents an exclusivist middle class artificiality without taking into cognisance the value of these symbols and the way in which the statues and symbols have spread historically. They negate the meanings and stakes involved for the people who are mobilised around these symbols. I believe that the main motive behind such quasi-moral and selective attack against the UP Government is not as simple as is explained by the critics; otherwise there are multiple other examples in which wastage of public funds is starkly visible but these never become an issue of contestation in public debates. I would like to argue that the core of the problem is located within the standards of aesthetics and the subjective interpretation of cultural history, shaped and put forward by the social elites. The symbolism crafted under Dalit aesthetics deconstructs these given standards and provides new meanings to the public spaces. The Usage of Dalit as Objective Appendage Dalit as a socio-political concept appears frequently in the contemporary discussions on Indian politics. Most of the social scientists have positively valued it as a particular and alternative perspective of some caste groups and has targeted the hegemonic domination of the modern ‘universal’ model of social