Aastha - Week 8

Aastha Bhardwaj
Reflection Paper 7
28th April, 2020

Dalit Achitecture Readings 

In his article “Learning the use of symbolic means: Dalits, Ambedkar statutes and the state in Uttar Pradesh” Nicolas Jaul zeroes in on what meaning can be attached to political symbols, doing so in light of the increasing number of statues of B.R. Ambedkar in India. One of the main focal points that comes across is how within the Dalit communities in UP, these statues stand as a means of empowerment and a symbol for acceptance while also bearing the emblem of the Dalit struggle.
One of the major contentions of the political party in Uttar Pradesh, namely BSP’s (Bahujan Samajwadi Party) has been to build memorial parks and statues of Kanshi Ram, Ambedkar and Buddha across the entire state since their establishment as the party in power. Whether or not it has had the underlying intention of a vote bank is certainly an important narrative however it is also important to note that it has definitely had, somewhere or the other, the intention of building a political conscious within the Dalit community which has met and end as well as seen over the years and it has given significant light to the Dalit activists. 
Coming back to the narrative of a vote bank, while the statues has played a significant role in putting a light on Dalit culture and history, they have also been heavily criticized and rightfully so, taking into account the number of lower caste and class communities in Uttar Pradesh, the public money that has gone into the construction of those statues could have been invested in economic, educational and an overall upliftment of those communities in the State which in turn would have ultimately lead to social recognition of the Dalit culture and struggles.

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