The time is now ripe to try and attempt a conscious redefinition of the word, Dalit, to make it an all encompassing description of men, women and children who have been neglected and ignored during the many processes of change. These people remain the lesser privileged majority, and have waited patiently to enter the realm of equal opportunity and economic growth. In our society, such individuals and communities often belong to upper, middle and lower castes across all faiths. Therefore, it is imperative to stop discriminating on the basis of caste and faith in this new millennium.

With this changed mindset, the horror of caste -and-faith-based vote banks will gradually cease to be and a plural Hindustan will be able to renew and restore its myriad cultural strengths, which will rekindle pride in diversity, reinforce a sense of social security and lead to the rebirth of a tolerant, civil society. Our leaders need to commit their allegiance to the people of India and not merely to those who belong to their own caste. What a delicious political cleansing it will be when analysts and social scientists stop using insulting jargons such as the “Muslim vote”, “Hindu majority”, “Lesser minorities”, “Schedule castes and tribes”, “Woman voter”, the “Reserved vote bank” and instead try and examine deeply the failure of governance and the impact of that abject failure on the larger polity.

The government and the political class have one responsibility — to release the pent-up energies of all Indians in every sector of the economy, both rural and urban, and provide adequate infrastructure for the wondrous blossoming of new ideas and initiatives, institutions and commercial activities, all of which will come together to create intellectual and physical wealth and well being. That should be the fresh, internal mandate and this time, instead of manifestos and loud words that spell out dream sequences that never seem to materialize, a silent delivery of goods and services should fall into place and grow with every passing month.

Many questions

Why is it so difficult for village and small-town administrators to ensure garbage disposal, water and electricity for all, by adopting water-conservation practices, alternative energy solutions and other proven systems for household consumption and transferring the power from state grids to agriculture? Why can’t local and state administrators enforce environmental norms based on traditional knowledge on residential and commercial constructions? Why is every small town and big city a filthy mess and why isn’t the municipalities held accountable by statute? Why is corruption so widespread?

Perhaps parliament needs to issue a different kind of whip: one that will compel elected representatives to deliver basic amenities — a functioning primary school, health care centre, heritage museum, water conservation project, alternative energy, a workshop that imparts traditional skills, an open air amphitheatre to keep performing arts alive and so on. After all, it is this rooted strength that has prevented India from turning into an unruly banana republic.

An extraordinary civilization is, unfortunately, lying intellectually unattended to, one in which faulty judgements have periodically killed the best of indigenous traditions and replaced them with failed models from alien, Western cultures and economies. This crass, unintelligent, officious attitude and thereafter, the misguided dispensation of orders and hukams issued by administrative officers with shallow intellect, suppressed in their limited, conservative, insular world, insecure and envious of the energy of a world outside, have destroyed the inherent vitality of Bharat with the help of skewed priorities that have gone unchecked by lazy, self-serving politicians.