Opinion What Mayawati means

What is interesting is the manner in which Mayawati has chosen to communicate this shift,both to the Dalit community and others. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the two mega-events she has recently presided over. Both events reflected a preoccupation with the notion of time as history in the making,but in a totally contrasting manner,based on divergent aesthetic grids. Yet in their very contrast,they created a large terrain for the symbolic play of political meanings.

On October 14,2011 — the day Ambedkar converted to Buddhism in 1956 — the chief minister inaugurated a grandiose national Dalit heroes’ memorial in Noida built on the lines of Buddhist architecture. The aim of the Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal: to celebrate Dalit icons across ages who have worked for social transformation. At the centre,against a backdrop of Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram’s statue and the lofty image of Ambedkar stood Mayawati’s statue,as sole inheritor of the mantle. Constructed in stone,the veritable material of history,the memorial revived an old link between architecture and political ideology. The Sthal signified an attempt to inscribe into collective memory the presence of the Dalit in history — mediated through Mayawati’s persona and vision. The sheer solidity of the structure,conveying its intent to stand the test of time,communicated the message that the Dalit presence was here to stay.

Sixteen days after unveiling the Dalit Prerna Sthal,the UP chief minister graced the first Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix event in Greater Noida. At the freshly minted Buddh International Circuit,speed and acceleration held sway on asphalt,proclaiming a smooth entry into a gilt-edged global sport.

Playing upon the notion of time,these two landmarks created a range of associations. The Sthal’s architecture seemed to push back the lineage of Mayawati’s present-day politics by a couple of thousand years. Meanwhile,the Buddh International Circuit literally inaugurated the fast track. It conjured images of a scorching mobility,the prime attribute of modernity.

The memorial and the F1 race track have altered the physical landscape of Mayawati’s Uttar Pradesh. To what extent will these structures change the field of perception of the people —Mayawati’s core constituency as well as other sections?

Many Dalit ideologues see the memorial as part of an ongoing task of contesting the Hindu caste system — the creation of a contemporary landscape swathed in Buddhist hues to counter the entrenched iconic landscape of an Ayodhya or Varanasi. (Buddhism,after all,was the earliest creed in India to articulate an ideology through artistic monuments.)

Here,the accent is on challenging an oppressive tradition through a “national” Dalit identity,via Maywati’s brand of electoral politics in Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand,the Formula 1 event communicated different message. That it was the first ever Indian Grand Prix meant that Mayawati had created an inclusive national “tradition”,as it were,for others to follow.

The visual jugalbandi of memorial and race track affords an entire range of ways in which Mayawati can position her politics. One sends out a message of consolidation of collective identity and confrontation; the other holds out the lure of a personal choice to effect a speedy exit from stifling historical contexts of a given identity. These messages can potentially address different sections,from the Dalit at the bottom of the scale to the emerging urban middle class within the community as well as others.

As Mayawati knows all too well,a journey to the centre of electoral politics is all about deploying the power of symbolism and the symbolism of power.

The writer is editor of the children’s website http://www.pitara.com