The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : His thoughts still burn bright

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His thoughts still burn bright

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The release of the second's edition of D.R. Nagaraj's iconic work on dalit movement, "The Flaming Feet", saw friends and fellow academics of the late culture critic remembering him as a man who could combine scholarship of high seriousness with wit and laughter in an inimitable way.

Speaking after releasing the book here on Sunday, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Jnanpith award-winning writer, described Dr. Nagaraj as a man with a rare ability to connect the seemingly divergent Indian, European, Gandhian and Ambedkarite streams of thought. Dr. Nagaraj gave a new dimension to the construct of the Dalit sensibility by interpreting it not just in terms of oppression, but as a repository of culture, he said.

Shiv Visvanathan, social scientist and a close associate of Dr. Nagaraj, recalled him as a "lovable scoundrel" who was a delight to be with as a friend and as an opponent. Dr. Nagaraj pushed the boundaries of scholarship by "using poetry to challenge sociology and history to challenge religion."

Extending the argument, Chandan Gowda, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion, National Law School of India, said that Dr. Nagaraj resisted the "seduction of academic culture." He fought the homogenised academic methods of the West and brought "critical intuitionism" into his works, he said.

Manu Chakravarthy, writer and professor of English, said that Dr. Nagaraj sought to "eliminate binary opposites" and underlined the need of the Dalit movement to "break out of its divided self". "The Flaming Feet", he added, made a departure from the left-centred, secular politics and spoke of the "politics of laughter and subversion" as opposed to the "politics of anger and hate."

Striking a different note, V.S. Sreedhara, professor of English and human rights activist, emphasised the need to adopt Dr. Nagaraj's own methods to pick quarrels with some sweeping generalisations and gaps in his argument. While Dr. Nagaraj emphasised the need to move out of binary oppositions in all other aspects, his construction of modernity itself was a monolithic, he said. He did not consider the possibility of "modernist critique of modernity", said Dr. Sreedhara.

Ramachandra Guha, historian, said that the way Dr. Nagaraj counter-posed Gandhian and Ambekarite thought was unique. As argued by Dr. Nagaraj, Dr. Ambedkar chose to stand away from the followers of Gandhiji because, at that point in history, the latter was the singular protagonist of the national movement. We have now reached a point when Dr. Ambedkar has himself become the singular hero, said Dr. Guha, arguing for the need for multiple heroes.

The volume, "Flaming Feet and Other Essays", edited by Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities, San Francisco State University, has been brought out by Permanent Black.

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