Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

The global ascendance of far-right extremism has been mainstreamed through political parties and public policies. In Aotearoa, this far-right extremism takes the form of anti-Māori racism, seeking to undo the globally recognized hubs of academic excellence that have emerged from Māori struggles within academia, in community life, and in public spaces.  I will begin by noting that one of the distinguished features of scholarship generated from Aotearoa that is globally recognized for its scholarly and social impact is the scholarship on/of decolonization, that directly emerged from Kaupapa Māori theories and methods, from the transformative work of scholars such as Professors Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Graham Hingagaroa Smith, Mason Durie, Joanna Kidman, and Jacinta Ruru (I am only naming a few of our Māori colleagues from a stellar constellation of names with global impact and recognition). This formative scholarship has not only dismantled the hegemonic theories and methods of producing...

For a large cross-section of the Indian diaspora bred on caste privilege, colonial tropes of Indigenous communities on dole hold a great deal of appeal.  These colonial tropes are layered over a deep-seated anti-Indigenous attitude embedded in the ideological infrastructure of caste.  One needs to closely look at the historic and systemic abuse of Adivasi (Indigenous) communities in India to understand the threads of historic racism toward Indigenous communities that flows through the Indian diaspora.  The casteist underbelly of racism turns into hate and is often mobilized as violence. Consider the historic uses of sexual, physical and material violence by upper castes to hold power and control over Adivasis across India.  Consider similarly the number of incidences of caste atrocities directed toward Dalits and Adivasis reported in India and across the diaspora. It is no surprise therefore that one sees the preponderance of racist tropes of the "lazy Māori" an...