Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism

O Mother Lachumamma, your blouse is torn/ Your hair is soiled, your sari in rags/ You have no money to buy new ones./ Even in that condition what have you done? You planted saplings, walking backwards like a bull/ In order to produce food from the mud. Kancha Ilaiah translates these words of the Telugu poet, singer, activist Gaddar to emphasize the productivity of the ordinary people, the Dalit-Bahujans of India, who receive so little in return, deprived of the gains of development and globalization but not of the losses in their wake. Arguing forcefully for social justice, this book contains a selection from Kancha Ilaiah's columns in popular newspapers like The Hindu, the Deccan Herald, the Deccan Chronicle, the Hindustan Times among others, and journals like Mainstream and the Economic and Political Weekly. Strongly advocating the Dalitization of Indian society that will undo its moorings in spiritual fascism, which refuses equality or freedom to the majority, he commends the positi