How oppression thrives globally
[Music]
the human beings
live in the world of interesting
contradictions
they cohabit the space with other human
beings but also
flora and fauna we also
rely on each other for survival and
depending
on what side of the curve you belong to
you’re also
harassing or pressing and eventually
trying to eliminate the other from your
site
if you are part of a safari of a jungle
probably then you are a weakest human
link
if there is a wild animal staring at you
however
if you are in a metro cities or urban
spaces
with your own technological advances
maybe you are a threat to the rest
and same goes with nature that cohabits
us
if it goes out of control then we face
the wrath
through its cyclonic as well as
earthquakes
that the humans are unable to control
growing up
as a child we have been always curious
people
we might have asked our parents one in
our life why are
things the way they are when we stay up
into the sky the blue blanket
must have inspired us then the running
moon through the clouds
must have also created a curiosity in
our mind
then when we looked into the soil the
ground
the mushiness and then when we went to
the sea
we marveled at the waves we were so
curious at child
that we didn’t stop asking questions
we looked at the sun sinking into the
sea
but also we were awake to see the sun
rise early in the morning each of its
ambiance the silhouette it created
created much of interesting
questions in our mind and so when we
asked our parents
why are certain people the way they are
mother why is there a beggar on the
street
mom why the maid cannot send her child
to the same school that i go
mom why is the driver uncle or
why is our servant unable to do the same
things that we
are able to our parents must have given
interesting responses depending on
what side of the curve they belong to
many a times unable to answer the
contradictions of society that we
currently inhabit they might have just
shut us down by saying
this is the way how things have been but
that might have left us a huge void
a gap in our mind as to why things exist
and you must have gone on to your own
journey
of finding out what exactly is happening
did our parents tell us about
a structure that is existing to harass
and eventually control us it is the
system
of oppression oppression is across the
world
it has different names it has different
shapes it has different sizes
and of course it has evolved into a new
lingua you and me when we have
a conversation as human beings we
predicate
on the principles of mutualities which
are respect
dignity justice and equality
these are uncompromising principles and
unwritten laws that we have established
between us human beings but what happens
when there is no equality when there is
no space
for justice when there is no occasion to
establish
a dignity and there is no norm to
recognize
the respectability of the other person
that is a system that is culturally
rooted
and historically inspired that is
oppression
oppression is something very personal
very local as well as it is impersonal
and international and school depending
on
what side of the prism you are looking
at
and looking through you will be able to
recognize
the notions the norms as well as the
designations of oppression
you might be a person belonging into a
society
where you are oppressed by your own
status
by your own class by your own gender by
your own sexuality
by your own preferences of religion and
so forth
however your identity as an oppressed
person
might not really reflect in other
society but you might be in a majority
so essentially the paradox of oppression
exist within a political democratic
framework
of majoritarian versus minoritarian
however majoritarian not necessarily
as a majority of a group of people with
majority
as a culture majority as a hegemonic
enterprise
and minority as a space of non-existence
for example if you are a muslim
in a country that is majority non-muslim
you are a minority and you might be an
oppressed
subject in that space however if you are
a country
dominated predominantly muslim then the
non-muslim population
could be the subject of oppression
oppression
has various ways to find into our own
curriculum
into our own attitudes and into our own
personal relationship often times it
transcends into our own houses where
oppression just becomes
a language for us to establish a certain
supremacy now if we think about
oppressions and the oppressed subjects
what does it take
what does it make and why would it do
the oppression to survive what does it
take
it takes two subjects and two objects
always interrelating with each other
there has to be one who is an oppressor
and there has to be two who is oppressed
but then
for oppression and for the oppressed
to have a conversation with each other
there has to be a system
where oppressor establishes the rules
and the oppressed has to follow if
oppressed
refuses to follow then starts the
question
of pounding on much more layered
oppression
for example we are living in a country
where
a person is belonging to a dominant
let’s say color
cast or the race if you
are a black person in america you are
the lowest
in the chain of human existence be it
education be it health sector be it
sector
of education and as well as the field
of where you go to schools from
primary from higher education
to the status of you getting job
you are still oppressed because the
system of oppression is predicated
on exclusion oppression requires
a mandate of exclusion and violence
african-american people in america
remain oppressed
irrespective of their status in the
society
irrespective of them being billionaires
or also
them being for example lying on the
streets as homeless people
you for example go to africa and then
there exist
a continent of black people yet
oppression exists
let me take you to nigeria for example
in ibu land
there are a group of people called ohu
and also
education rate amongst these people like
african-american
be its primary or higher education or
the experience of this
is almost complementary yet
this group was sinned this group was
considered impure
and they were banished from the cotydian
mainstream society
the ovu and usu were oppressed by the
diallas
over several centuries they
grouped together the outcast ohu and osu
and formed an interpersonal economy of
each other they
supported each other and became
relatively economically prosperous
yet because of their economic status
they could get education and job
still in an oppressive society they are
considered low bond
because of their low bond status they
cannot marry into other
caste groups which are not uh non usu
and that invites oppression
similar forms of oppression can be seen
across the board
oppressed people are known by various
names
in mauritania they might be known as
haratin
in mali they might be known as bella in
kenya
they might be known as water in senegal
they might be known as nino
in europe they might be known as roma
and sinti in france they might be known
as kago
in india they might be known as dalits
or tribals or adivasis
in australia they might be known as the
indigenous people
in new zealand they might be known as
maori in canada
they might be known as first nations in
across the world wherever you go
in japan where they might be known as
barakumi
they are subjects who are oppressed
oppression exists
within the framework of governmentality
government
the state recognizes certain forms of
oppressions
and discards certain forms in 2001
the world conference against racism
hosted
a conversation on related forms of
xenophobia
and discriminations where to very much
similar to racism
in durban a newly country south africa
hosted world people governments as well
as non-government bodies
to contest and appeal for the human
rights of their people
oppression requires state support
the governments recognized certain forms
of oppression
be it color be it race and be
other forms of discrimination that were
recognized in the global context
however majority of the oppressions
especially
the one coming from the illusions
of caste the
derogatory forms of discrimination based
on decent
were discarded here what we see is
oppression is
recognized yet it is not recognized
government chooses what forms of
oppression to notice
and what form oppression to reject now
the government doesn’t
recognize immediately or had not just
woke up out of a sleep
to realize that race was a problem it
took
sacrifices of several generations and so
many
petitions and blood that has been shed
on the streets
that gave rise to the recognition of
color-based black oppression
in the world similarly the people who
are oppressed by their sexuality
by their lobby and persistent effort
although
undergoing the humiliations and
indignities
have now recognized a space
where state acknowledges the existence
of sexual minorities and also creates
provisions
for their protection welfare similarly
there are many forms of group across the
world
that have just mentioned who have not
been had
registers of notice they have been
buried under the
broader hegemonic identities of
oppression the way
the state wants us to that’s why today
we do not have
a space for caste based oppression
that harasses close to 820 million
people
across the world of them 300 million
former untouchables and 200 million of
them
considered as indigenous and and numeric
tribes
in indian context itself let me tell you
how oppression is
impersonal as well it becomes public
there is very little gap
if i am insecure about a space
if i’m insecure about the person i will
utilize the resources at my disposal
to harass other person so the person
doesn’t get recognized
and doesn’t receive the dignity they
deserve
i utilize the candles of prejudice
stereotype and as well as
historical notions of putting down other
person
it doesn’t take much for me to oppress
person
oppression is as simple as
calling someone’s name and
oppression can be channeled without
much state or structural support you can
still be oppressive
however when we want to enact oppression
on a
on a scalar much bigger than a personal
level
we require support of a structure that
is supported by
a policies of capitalism
and as well as structures of historical
discriminations
depending on the societies you come from
let’s call in this case cast
in hatress in india september 2020
a young woman and a mother who are
landless laborers
go into the field to do their job the
mother
waits for her daughter because she loses
her sight after some time she’d noticed
that the daughter is not around
19 year old daughter is not in her sight
she goes looking for her she calls her
name there’s no response then some
kids come and tell her that they found
her daughter lying on the street
this daughter is barely breathing she is
fighting
to her life mother sees her daughter
in such a disgusting space she tries to
cover her her private part
and tries to call out for help the
mother
and family take the take the daughter to
hospital the police
registers a case and then there is a
refusal to acknowledge that there was a
case of
sexual assault and rape four men
raped this talit woman of 19 year old
after fighting for her life two weeks
later
this 19 year old the little man dies
after her death the parents are not
allowed to see her
order the post-mortem report is not
allowed the examination
of that body is not allowed autopsy
the report of that is not disclosed
this is the ritual within the hinduism
where one doesn’t
burn the pyre in the night voiding
any form of laws codes and moralities
within religious codes
the body of the 19 year old landless
laborer
the little woman was burnt without their
parents
[Music]
this oppression starts with a personal
vendetta
to becoming a impersonal public appeal
where after this incident irrespective
of whatever caste one belongs to a
rupert belongs to
the humanity should descend to unite
about for such kind of existence such
kind of oppressions existing amidst us
yet the people from the dominant caste
were accused of rape
form a council to protest
against arrest of their four
men what we see is
oppression can exist on each
level but what it takes is an
entire mass of group to validate that
and if it gets validated it becomes law
today much of the fight against
oppression
is predicated on historical mischievous
acts
which are legitimized and eventually
finding its space into legislations
as something normal people fighting
against
oppression across the world are fighting
against poverty are fighting for dignity
fighting for justice fighting for
equality
are fighting for opportunity and are
fighting
for fair existence the forces
who do not want to give all of this to
other
other oppressors and that is why
oppression
though exists locally in different
context
it is connected globally because it is a
concern of human
with other human
you