THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- January 5, 2018 - Topic 1
State of conflict
On the Bhima-Koregaon violence
The speed with which tension spread from Bhima-Koregaon, a village on the outskirts of Pune, on Monday to bring
cities across Maharashtra to a shutdown by Wednesday, is a pointer to multiple
failings. It appears that the police had failed to anticipate the potential for
trouble breaking out in Bhima-Koregaon and then ensure that normal life
continued in the days after.
Every year on January 1, a large number of Dalits
visit a memorial in Bhima-Koregaon to mark an 1818 battle in which the East
India Company, with Mahar soldiers prominent in its ranks, had defeated the
Peshwa. From being a battle lauded in colonial times only to be forgotten by
the British, over the years Bhima-Koregaon came to be marked as a site
of Dalit valour and repudiation of caste stereotypes.
With a visit by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in 1927, it got invested with political and
spiritual meaning beyond the specifics of the original battle and in a
forward-looking politics. This year being the 200th anniversary, the
commemoration was always going to be larger and more high-profile. The police
should, therefore, have increased security. But there were also indications of
tensions brewing after a vandalisation attempt in late December near the samadhi of
a Mahar who it is said had performed the last rites of Sambhaji, Shivaji’s son.
This is not far from Bhima-Koregaon and the administration was aware of the
incident and its potential for causing trouble. The pent-up anger, which
resulted in widespread incidents of arson and vandalism, ended with the bandh
that brought Mumbai and other places to a halt.
The judicial inquiry promised by the
Devendra Fadnavis government must determine who
provoked the violence, how it spread, and to what extent right-wing Hindu
groups were responsible for fomenting it. Law and order may have been restored
in Maharashtra, but there is a political failing framed by the caste tensions
that have bubbled over in the State. These are the result of many factors
ranging from contested histories, at a more abstract level, to economic
insecurities about jobs and livelihood, on the ground. The tensions of this
past week have come against the backdrop of neo-reservation movements, such as
by the Marathas in Maharashtra over the past couple of years. This and demands
by Marathas to dilute the provisions of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act may be borne of economic and social anxieties —
but they, in turn, have created understandable anxieties among Dalits about
being left adrift to wage the political battle for their protection on their
own. This time the Dalit assertion appears to have resulted in a degree of
consolidation as well. The country’s politics must bridge differences by
addressing anxieties holistically — instead of nurturing new polarised
constituencies by widening these fault lines.
Vocabulary
Spread: the extent, width, or area covered by something.
Example: The male's antlers can attain a spread of six feet
Synonyms: span, width, extent, stretch, reach
Antonyms: unprepared, unextended, concentrated, pull
together, collect
Outskirt: a part of the city far removed from the center
Example: They built a factory on the outskirts of
the city
Synonyms: outer boundary, periphery, fringe, interference
fringe
Antonyms: center
Anticipate: regard as probable; expect or predict.
Example: She anticipated scorn on her return to the theater
Synonyms: expect, foresee, predict, be
prepared for, bargain on
Antonyms: assure, calculate, demonstrate, determine, establish, insure
Prominent: projecting from something; protuberant.
Example: A man with big, prominent eyes like a lobster's
Synonyms: protuberant, protruding, projecting, standing
out, sticking out
Antonyms: inconspicuous, invisible
Laud: praise a person or their achievements highly,
especially in a public context.
Example: The obituary lauded him as a great statesman and soldier
Synonyms: praise, extol, hail, applaud, acclaim, commend, sing
the praises of
Antonyms: abuse, aggrieve, damage, defame, defile, disparage, harm
Commemoration: remembrance, typically expressed in a ceremony.
Example: Solemn ceremonies of commemoration
Synonyms: memorial, remembrance, commemoration, memorialization
Arson: the criminal act of deliberately setting fire to
property.
Example: Police are treating the fire as arson
Synonyms: pyromania, incendiarism, torching
Vandalism: action involving deliberate destruction of or
damage to public or private property.
Example: He called on the public to report any instances of
criminal damage or vandalism
Synonyms: malicious
mischief, hooliganism
Abstract: existing in thought or as an idea but not having a
physical or concrete existence.
Example: Abstract concepts such as love or beauty
Synonyms: theoretical, conceptual, notional, intellectual, metaphysical, ideal, philosophical
Antonyms: objective, applied, concrete, representational, tangible
Dilute: make a liquid thinner or weaker by adding water or
another solvent to it.
Example: Bleach can be diluted with cold water
Synonyms: weaken, water down, thin
out, thin, doctor, adulterate, cut
Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease,
typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
Example: He felt a surge of anxiety
Synonyms: worry, concern, apprehension, apprehensiveness, uneasiness, unease
Antonyms: apathy, assurance, calmness, carelessness, confidence, ease
Adrift: floating without being either moored or steered.
Example: A cargo ship went adrift
Synonyms: drifting, unmoored, unanchored; lost, disoriented, confused
Antonyms: purposeful, aground
Consolidation: the action or process of integrating.
Example: Economic and political integration
Synonyms: integrating, integration, desegregation
Holistic: emphasizing the organic or functional relation
between parts and the whole
Example: If so, a paradigm shift to the holistic approach might be
managed
Synonyms: comprehensive, overall, integral, wholistic, global
Antonyms: atomistical, atomistic
