Dalit Identity and Conflict Resolution for Peace

(From being towards Death to being in commiseration with Others as thinking otherwise)
S. Lourdunathan

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Abstract Dalit refers primarily refers to the people who are treated as no people, the so called untouchables due to the unjust caste social structure in India. The cognitive and cultural pattern of Indian caste system situates the Dalits as outcaste and thereby Indian society is deprived of being as social and hence Indian society is not capable of being social. 1.1 Dalit refers to Deus who have given their sweat and toil the giver of life 1.2 Dalit refers to deprivation 1.3 Dalit Dalit Identity is Plural, hence a conflicting and a continued contested Ambivalent 1.1. Being is Being, the Aristotelian way of seeing is a misnomer with reference to Dalit Identity 1.2. Being with ref. to Dalits is either as Lesser Being or No(n)-Being, as No People this understanding is stagnated in Indian Social History and in Philosophical Constructs 1.3. Dalit Identity as Conflictual: High Caste Perception of Dalits as Lesser Being and low-caste perception of Dalit Identity as Stratified Being Mapping Indian Social History: Violence & Atrocities against Dalits Assertions for their social living and thereby to their identity Inference: Identity and Dalit Identity, the Philosophical Problematic 3.1. Dalit Identity as Continuously Denied Identity, the everyday living of death of the Dalit-other, as SELF-LEGITMISED CULTURAL REPRODUCTION that Call for Approaches to Dalit Problematic: 3.2. Metaphysics of Domination or dominant presence (Derrida): The Ontological Centrality/Priority of Being Vs. The non-centrality of Non-Being, For eg. The Self as the ONE, IDENTICAL (Measure of All) Singular Substance Substantial, the athour, the creator & Destroyer, Self-Subsistent, Devoid of any attributions (plurality), a Pure Gaze, Eidos, Cogito, Self Consciousnes, suigeneris, arche or episteme (plato), pure form (Aristotle), non-dual(Advaita), the cogito (Descartes), perceiver (Berkeley), the ever eternal (scholastic), the absolute (Hegel) the conquerer, the colonizer, the evangelizer, the kingdom, the invader Panoptican propel a metaphysics of presence. 3.3. Aesthetics of Torture: Violence against Dalits is deeply embedded through these self-imposed, repetitave ideological metanarrative of both hierarchical monopolization of the ruling centality of the SELF and Value-Bipolarization

Paper for National Conference on Philosophical & Religious Approaches to Peace & Conflict Resolution, 1315March 2013, org at MCC Philosophy Department. Head, Dept of Philosophy, Arul Anandar College, Karumathur, Madurai, nathanlourdu1960@gmail.com ((0)9566477696)

(Non-Dalit vs. Dalit) is but an aesthetic of Torture like that of the aesthetics of the Cross. 5.0 Discussion for a Radical Departure? (Dominant Dialogue-Polemic/ritualistic), Quasi Critical Dialogue- apologetic,& Radical Dialogue) 5.1 Return to the Past 4.2. Reform the Present 4.3. Radically Revisit the Past & Present to re-construct towards the future o Radical Departure as the possible way out towards any thing called Peace Resolution projects o Religious/philosophical ethos as Dominant structures of Thought is not sufficient / viable to promote Conflict Resolutions for Peace If So, What is the alternative? o The power of the dominant structures of thought action can only be resisted with the power of a different type of ethics, an ethics which precedes ontology o Incredulity towards grand narratives to sensitize towards the broken particular... Casteism and other cultural narratives of Supramacy are Self Legitimizations by Repetitive Performances (Lyotard)... o Meaningfulness as matter of arbitariness simulteneous presence of the Other intersubjectivity calls for an ethic of critical pluralistic relationality (Ferdinand de Saussure) o Rotry) : By guarding himself against any conceptual subjugations or assimilation and by mentally remaining free from any conversion to any ontologisms the Dalit world\Claim opens up the possibility of fragility openness for relation = INTERSUBJECTIVITY o Beyond the binaries means a Call against vulnerability of ideological imprisonment not Relativism o The Dalit identity is a call for the release of the clutches of binaries (to be or not to be/) o A re-look into our own belief-systems -the cultural/ideological constructions- to unmask their pretensions, to become aware of our cultural-self in-and-through which we are enchained, and to unchain the process of caste=cultural-self consciousness. o In this sense, the Dalit voice is not a disguised enemy but a prophetic voice against the clutches of its binaries/structural logistics/ideological imprisonments of the very same society in which every one is part-taker. o A thinking about the Other is necessary primordial condition of human existence because the Other is precisely is that which is denied in any dominace forms of thought & Structure. o The Other is the world in/through/because of which ones Identity is conditione d. (ex) Mother Child Identity o Not Dos & Donts activities but a redical departure from the ontology of Dominance towards ehtical metaphyises of responsibility/recipocity towards & for the Others. o The respect for oneself (Self-respect) gains compliance if and only if there is the practice of respect for the Other. The Other presupposes any moral act that conditions ones own being and not the other way about. The other as Other is present in our everyday life not as Individual but it is that which conditions ones own identity. o The Other is the world in, through and because of which ones identity is conditioned.

o The face of the Other, which is subjectivised in the dominant structures of violence and thought, turns out to be the non-transferable that affirms me or oneself. o Therefore, The Other is the condition of my original identity. Thank You & Good Wishes