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Daily Vocab Capsule 26 th December2019

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Daily Vocab Capsule

26th December2019

A Second Freedom Struggle?

Are we in the middle of India’s second freedom struggle, without realising it, much as Dr Johnson’s friend spoke

prose without realising it? These nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the

National Register of Citizens (NRC) force millions, who have been indifferent to politics, disdain for politicians

apart, to squarely confront unresolved question relating to identity, citizenship, individual and group rights,

including gender rights, and their role in creating substantive democracy.

At the first instance, the protests are against the government and its BJP-Sangh Parivar leadership. However, at a

deeper level, these protests challenge Indian society’s collective prejudices that divide people in terms of religion,

caste, language and region, and deny women equal rights.

Democracy Calls for…

We love to hail our freedom from the British. And imagine that the departure of the British also meant our

transition to democracy. True, we gave ourselves a Constitution that offers everyone equality, liberty, rights of

conscience, speech, profession and mobility, besides an opportunity to elect our leaders every five years, every

adult possessing the right to vote.

Europe convulsed itself in multiple revolutions to secure universal adult franchise, and women had to wait till

the 20th century to figure in that voting universe. Americans had their revolution, preceded by a tea party, to

secure for themselves the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

With reference to the highly unequal distribution of power in society as it existed in India at the time of

Independence, the Constitution was, and remains, a radical, revolutionary programme of reform and progress.

Any political party that focuses on transforming Indian society to align it with the values and norms upheld by

the Constitution would be a revolutionary force.

The Constitution prescribes gender equality. If gender equality is realised and women have the freedom to

choose their partners, many would marry outside their caste and corrode the caste system. The Constitution urges

equality and non-discrimination, both inimical to the institution of caste and to discrimination on the basis of

religion. It promotes a scientific temper, even as it protects the freedom to practice and propagate one’s religion

of choice. In other words, the Constitution seeks to overhaul traditional India’s value system and overturn the

caste system’s iniquitous hierarchy of social, cultural and economic power.

Nehru was alive to the need to move society, far removed from the democratic ideal, towards the Constitutional

goal. The vision of social reform dissipated from the political class, over time, as leaders pursued votes, offered

patronage to and sought patronage from the status quo, so much so that Narasimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi’s home

minister, famously declared, in the wake of the Shah Bano controversy, that if Muslims wanted to rot in the

gutter, denying their women the democratic rights the Constitution proffers and the court had enforced, he was

no one to dig them out.

…Addressing Social Schism

During the freedom struggle, nationalism was the rallying cry. This allowed leaders to paper over society’s

divisions in the struggle to throw the British out. Gandhi’s support for Khilafat, opposition to British

defenestration of the Ottomans, brought Muslims to the freedom movement, all right, but fed pan-Islamism. For

much of his life, Gandhi defended the Varna system, even as he fought untouchability. This led to his lasting

differences with Ambedkar.

When Kashibai Kanitkar, one of the earliest women writers in Marathi, wrote and published her first article, Bal

Gangadhar Tilak’s newspaper Kesri offered the material her patriarchal critics needed to haul her over the coals

for daring to learn to read and write, and, thereby, commit “treason against men”.

The Hindu Mahasabha, the Muslim League and the Communists — in the freedom movement, they were not the

marginal presence they are today — offered competing and different visions for Indian society after

Independence. But the vision of the Congress mainstream, led by Gandhi, prevailed, despite or, perhaps, because

of, its prevarications on how to resolve society’s internal divisions.

But now, the Sangh Parivar’s effort to redefine Indian nationhood as Hindutva has created a popular upsurge.

Yes, there are the recognisable political leaders amongst the protesters, intellectuals, artistes, actors and social

activists. But the most emphatic presence is of young people unattached to anything or anyone, apart from an

idea of India as a secular, democratic place where people of all faiths have an equal right to a place under the sun,

that equality recognising no boundaries of faith, caste, language or gender.

These youngsters, in effect, ask who we are, amidst the shimmering, diffracting, melding hues and shades that

constitute ‘us’, and about the meaning of construing a ‘them’ amongst us, even as an ill-remembered past, of

division of the popular imagination that culminated in the Partition, struggles to mouth a warning against

repeating that tragedy. Their passionate protest in defence of unity negotiates social difference to enrich

democracy.

The Economic Times (national)

1. Disdain (noun) Meaning: The feeling that somebody/something is not good enough to deserve your respect

or attention (अवहलेना)

Synonyms: Disrespect, Contempt, Scorn, Derision,

Antonyms: Regard, Admire, Esteem, Respect

Example: She turned her head away in disdain.

2. Corrode (verb) Meaning: Destroy or weaken (something) gradually. (क्षय करना या हो जाना)

Synonyms: Weaken, Emasculate, Undermine, Erode

Antonyms: Strengthen, Reinforce, Bolster, Fortify

Example: Politicians and journalists are corroding the foundations of justice.

3. Inimical (adjective) Meaning: harmful to something. (हाननकार; प्रनिकूल)

Synonyms: Harmful, Injurious, Detrimental, Deleterious

Antonyms: Beneficial, Advantageous, Favourable, Constructive

Example: Cigarettes have a proven inimical effect on the nervous system.

4. Overhaul (verb) Meaning: To examine every part of a machine, system, etc. and make any necessary changes

or repairs. (परूी जााँच करके मरम्मि करना)

Synonyms: Improve, Modernise, Recondition, Revamp

Antonyms: Damage, Ruin, Destroy, Impair, Mar

Example: The government plans to overhaul the health service.

5. Iniquitous (adjective) Meaning: very unfair or wrong. (अन्यायपरू्ण; बुरा)

Synonyms: Evil, Wicked, Sinful, Unjust

Antonyms: Good, Righteous, Virtuous, Upright

Example: It is an iniquitous system that allows a person to die because they have no money to pay for medicine.

6. Proffer (verb) Meaning: To offer something to somebody. (देना)

Synonyms: Give, Offer, Tender, Volunteer, Present

Antonyms: Refuse, Reject, Repudiate, Deny

Example: The solutions they proffer only come from the limited range of their own experience.

7. Paper over (verb) Meaning: To try to hide a problem or disagreement in a way that is temporary and not likely

to be successful. (गलिी निपाना)

Synonyms: Hide, Conceal, Disguise, Mask

Antonyms: Expose, Divulge, Reveal, Disclose, Uncloak

Example: The unions tried to paper over their differences.

8. Prevarication (noun) Meaning: the act of not giving a direct answer to a question in order to hide the truth.

(वाक् िल)

Synonyms: Falsehood, Equivocation, Fabrication, Fib

Antonyms: Truth, Veracity, Verity, Truism

Example: The report was full of lies and prevarications.

9. Emphatic (adjective) Meaning: Expressing something forcibly and clearly. (जोरदार)

Synonyms: Forceful, Firm, Wholehearted, Categorical

Antonyms: Weak, Equivocal, Hesitant

Example: A U.S. Congressional delegation made an equally emphatic statement in late August.s

10. Construe (verb) Meaning: To understand the meaning of a word, a sentence or an action in a particular way.

(अर्ण लगाना)

Synonyms: Understand, Interpret, Decipher, Fathom, Make Out

Antonyms: Misunderstand, Misconceive, Misapprehend, Mistake

Example: He may construe the approach as a hostile act.