The Hindu : New Delhi News : Centre for Dalit, Minorities Studies opened

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Centre for Dalit, Minorities Studies opened

By Our Staff Reporter

The Minister of State for Urban Employment & Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja, greeting the former President, K.R. Narayan, at the inauguration of Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies, in New Delhi on Monday. The Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Milli a Islamia, Mushirul Hasan, looks on. Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI, FEB. 7. Describing caste as a major feature of Indian society and politics, the former President, K.R. Narayanan, today remarked that in spite of a broadminded and liberated society, the problems of caste and minority issues continue to hound the country even today.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia here, the former President while narrating his personal experiences of dealing with caste prejudice during his young days said: "We cannot understand India without understanding the problems of Dalits and minorities.''

While welcoming the University's initiative in introducing the course, Mr. Narayanan said it was strange how the subject had been neglected in recent times. "I cannot understand how we neglected this social study for so long. The study of caste and community has got postponed for rather long."

Calling it the need of the hour, the Union Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, Kumari Selja, said: "It is not that the issues of politics and economy are less important or influential than those of caste and religion. Instead the latter are the very forms in which the former are sought to be fought out and resolved.''

Admitting that a political approach to the problem had its limitations, Ms. Selja said, "Though an advocate of unity, it basically envisages the preservation and perpetuation of these social groups as well rounded up and distinct entities entering into alliances on the basis of their political interests and rights.''

Describing the Centre as a positive first step, Ms. Selja said academics should explore the possibilities of reviewing the paradigm of fragmentation itself and suggest ways of redefining the problem of solidarity in public sphere in the specific context of the Subcontinent.

"The Centre would operate as a think tank generating academic debates and discussions, formulating them in a non-partisan and plural manner, within a framework of egalitarian social solidarity as the ideal,'' she said.

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