1) Caste discrimination & atrocities
2) Caste based inequality in education, land, housing/other assets, income, health, etc.
3) Social structure based on Varna & Jatis

As social movements/activists, how do we prioritize & how much time & energy we devote to each of them? 1/n

In a society with inequitable social structure and caste based inequalities of above kind, discrimination might be -& as ex-untouchables like us know-it is every day affair.

So where do I put my head and heart on? 2/n
Do I shout & cry every day when I see discrimination or with a 'cool' head strategize & work for changing social structure & removing/reducing those inequalities?

At a societal level, who should do what? 3/n
If I don't shout, cry & protest, I might be seen as insensitive & perpetrators might take it for granted but if I keep doing it, where do I stop because discrimination of various kind in any geography internet society is every day affair & like happening in my own house 4/n
Why I am speaking loudly on these issues is being active on Twitter/FB for some time, I got an impression that what matters most or perhaps what is made more visible is discrimination than the root causes. Is my impression wrong? 5/n
In the Phule-Ambedkarite brick & porter type ideological movements I worked, we always tried to prioritize change in social structure over discrimination & even inequality. & that often was a contested decision as it alienated some people who wanted to work on discrimination 6/n
I'm not sure if there is clear cut answer abt prirotisation & allocation of time & energy as there are pluses & minuses on both sides. To me discrimination needs immediate attention, inequality could be addressed in medium term & change in social structure is a long term work 7/n
And I am wondering if there are individual (preferring immediate vs long term results), class (middle vs working) & mode of working (virtual vs on ground) differences in priroritization & allocation of time, energy & resources 8/n
Jyotiba Phule was thrown out of the wedding procession in Pune, so was Babasaheb Ambedkar from the houses in Baroda. Both decided to work almost entirely in their life on the inequalities & social structure: discrimination acting as trigger for long term changes in structure 9/n
For ex. will/did George Floyd moment trigger long-term changes in racial & economic relations & structures? Will farmers protests lead to similar changes in agri/economic, land, caste relations in rural & urban society or shall we keep going through the cycles of protests? 10/10

More from Economy

True that all the people cherishing the support of IMF or WTO for farm reforms need to cool it down a bit, because that is a model we do not want to emulate to the t in India here.

But here are some issues that deserve to be better discussed by all:


1. People who say we are emulating the Western model of agriculture are way off with this assumption. The process of primitive accumulation, the alienation of their people from their land and the way these 'first-world' countries have pushed their people into Industrial sector +

+ was a merciless phase.
But the same assumption won't work for India, because we have always had a large workforce in agriculture, agri subsidies have always run high, protection has been the hallmark of agriculture and rural representation in the parliament has always been+

+ high. Still, it is our utter failure from the beginning that we have not been able to incentivize the movement of our people to other lucrative sectors.

2. This brings us to the another point of providing MSP on all the commodities and the demand side of the issue that we+

+ conveniently ignore. Here's the thing, Food prices in India have about 65-70% weight in calculating the Consumer Price Index and 25-30% of wholesale price index. These indices affect the general price level in the economy i.e. the inflation. If MSP is offered on all the+

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