From varna to jati : political economy of caste in Indian social formation : commemorating scholar and revolutionary martyr Yalavarthi Naveen Babu

160 Pages·2012·0.747 MB·English

by  B. Ramesh Babu (editor), Yalavarthi Naveen Babu

Yalavarthi Naveen Babu
29-05-1964 to 18-02-2000

From Varna to Jati
Political Economy of Caste
in Indian Social Formation
Commemorating Scholar and Revolutionary Martyr
Yalavarthi Naveen Babu
Edited by
B. Ramesh Babu
With contributions from:
Yogendra Singh
Manoranjan Mohanty
Vara Vara Rao
and many others
Responsibility for contents and opinions expressed rests solely with the authors.
Portions of this book may be freely reproduced or translated duly acknowledging the
source
From Varna to Jati: Political Economy of Caste in Indian Social Formation
was fi rst published in India in September, 2008 by
Daanish Books
26 B, Skylark Apartments
Gazipur, Delhi-110 096
Ph.: 011-2223 0812, 22235819
E-mail: [email protected]
ISBN 978-81-89654-58-6 (Hb)
ISBN 978-81-89654-59-4 (Pb)
Production Assistance: Pankaj Kumar Sinha
Cover Design: Pravin Mishra
Published by Dhruva Narayan for Daanish Books
Printed at Print-Ways, Delhi, Tel:
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xiii
M. Nadarajah
I. Academic Contribution of Naveen Babu
Reinterpreting Caste and Social Change: A Review 1
Ramesh Babu and M. Nandarajan
Conceptual and Methodological Issues 7
Yogendra Singh
From Varna to Jati: Transformation from Pastoral to
Agrarian Social Formation 11
Yalavarthi Naveen Babu
II. Commemoration of Naveen Babu
A Biography of Y. Naveen Babu 111
B. Ramesh Babu
Remembering Naveen Babu 123
Manorajan Mohanty
A Life Dedicated to the People’s Cause 126
Vara Vara Rao
Naveen, Friendship’s Gift to Me 132
M. Nadarajah
My Friend, Naveen Babu 136
S. Samuel Asir Raj
Pleasant Radical: Yalavarthi Naveen Babu 139
Bhupendra Yadav
V

List of Contributors
B. Ramesh Babu
Managing Director, Targeted Cancer Therapeutics Inc.,
Little Rock, AR 72201, USA
Bhupendra Yadav
Reader, Deparment of History, M.D. University,
Rohtak, Haryana.
M. Nadarajah
Asian Public Intellectual (API) Fellow and Independent Researcher,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Manoranjan Mohanty
Professor (retd) of Political Science,
University of Delhi, Delhi.
Samuel Asir Raj
Sociologist and Reader, SPK Centre for Environment Sciences,
Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu.
Vara Vara Rao
Revoultionary Writers Association,
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.
Yoginder Singh
Professor Emeritus, Centre for the Study of Social Systems,
School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
VII
Silence !
Here sleeps my brother.
Don’t stand by him
With a pale face and a sad heart.
For, he is laughter!
Don’t cover his body with fl owers,
What is the use of adding fl owers to a fl ower?
If you can,
Bury him in your heart.
You will fi nd
At the twitterings of the bird of the heart,
Your sleeping soul has woken up.
If you can,
Shed some tears.
And -
All the blood of your body
( Written on the walls of a cell in Presidency Jail, Calcutta, probably by
a student during the Naxalbari uprising)
Acknowledgements
Any commemorative volume such as this one, is diffi cult to put together,
as it involves dealing with a lot of different people and their inputs. This
is perhaps one of the reasons why it took many years to concretize, even
though the idea of commemorating Naveen Babu and his contributions
has been discussed by many of his contemporaries and friends off and
on, ever since he was martyred in 2000. Eventually, when I fi rst fl oated
the concrete idea of publishing Naveen’s M.Phil dissertation as a book
among some of my closest friends — Raghu, Madhavi, Manoj and Bala,
their instant support and enthusiasm convinced me to proceed. My com-
plete naivety about how much work it involved was a main deciding fac-
tor. I thought it would be as simple as digitising his dissertation, adding
some reminiscences and sending it to print. In the end, it took almost one
year of non-stop struggle with seemingly insurmountable hurdles and
roadblocks. But as I went along and persisted with the project, the enthu-
siastic support and involvement of many more people over the last one
year made this volume possible. From the beginning, I was inundated
with suggestions and offers of help from Kishore Reddy, Naveen’s child-
hood friend introduced to me by Suryanarayana Reddy, Manohar Rao,
Krishna Reddy, Laxminarayana and Nadarajah. In a sense, this group has
been held together by a person not with us anymore, Naveen Babu him-
self. All those involved in bringing out this volume have been associated
with Naveen in some way or the other.
The project was actually took off when Raghu obtained a copy of
Naveen’s dissertation from the JNU library with the help of Srikant
and passed it on to me. I depended on him for many other kinds of
help and coordination thoughout this project, including suggesting
IX
X (cid:122) FROM VARNA TO JATI
contributors and publishers. My nephew Kiran helped us in digitizing
the dissertation and converting it into editable text. Then started the
more difficult job of writing to various people to write their remi-
niscences of Naveen for the commemorative section and coordinat-
ing with them. Dr. Vara Vara Rao sent the first ever reminiscence of
Naveen, a touching tribute in Telugu, which was kindly translated
into English by Kolli Sambasiva Rao garu, the father of Bala. I am
particularly grateful to Prof. Yogendra Singh (Naveen’s M.Phil guide)
and Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty for enthusiastically supporting
our project with their blessings and sending in their reminiscences.
Nadarajah Manickam, Naveen’s classmate and closest friend in JNU
sent us his memories, the best photograph of Naveen that anyone had
and also helped us in many other ways, including editing my review
and organizing the contents of the book. He was brought into this
project by Samuel Asir Raj, another close friend of Naveen and a co-
founder of “Students Forum.” My close friend Bhupendra Yadav also
responded with his reminiscences at the shortest notice. Rona and
Ritupan helped us in copyediting and compiling the photographs and
images for this book. I also Manohar Rao, thank Adapa Satyanarayna,
Tankasala Ashok and Haragopal for their suggestions and help regard-
ing releasing the book. Many of the friends also came forward enthu-
siastically with financial help, which is gratefully acknowledged.
So many people provided invaluable feedback and advice, such as,
Sri Meka Ravindra Babu, the maternal uncle of Naveen Babu. Most of the
details of Naveen’s family background and how he conducted himself at
home were obtained when I spoke to his sister Smt. Siva Parvathi, mother
Smt. Satyavathi and father Sri Ram Mohan Rao.
Initially, my brother Srinivas who has some experience and contacts
with publishers in AP took up the project, invested a lot of time and
effort to fi nd some publishers who were willing to publish it on a buy-
back basis, but eventually we decided not to go through that route, as we
wanted to ensure that the book reaches far and wide through a publisher
with professional marketing and distribution mechanism. The enthusi-
asm of Dhruva, the publisher of Daanish Books, Delhi, introduced to us
by Naya, who also knew Naveen in their own way, made the publishing of
this book possible at a short notice. I also thank Daanish Books for edito-
rial support and printing at such short notice.