Thursday, July 15, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji murders: Dalit killers escape death

 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Khairlanji-killings--HC-commutes-death-penalty-of-6-to-life/646432

Khairlanji murders: Dalit killers escape death

Agencies Posted online: Wed Jul 14 2010, 15:09 hrs
Nagpur : The Bombay High Court on Wednesday commuted the death
sentence of six convicts in the infamous Khairlanji Dalit killings
case to 25 years imprisonment and fixed a similar sentence for two
others serving life term.
Justice Lavande of Nagpur bench of the court held that all the eight
convicts will undergo 25 years of life imprisonment including the
period they have already spent in jail.

The case pertains to the brutal murder of four members of a Dalit
family - Surekha Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, her daughter Priyanka, sons
Sudhir and Roshan - by an angry mob in Khairlanji village on September
29, 2006.

Justice A P Lavande pronounced the judgement while Justice R C Chavan,
who is on an assignment at the High Court in Mumbai, joined him via
video conference here.

This is for the first time that a judgement has been pronounced by a
division bench through video conference.

Pronouncing the operative part of the verdict, Justice Lavande
disposed of appeals of defence as well as prosecution.

CBI had appealed for enhancing the sentence of two convicts, who were
sentenced for life. The convicts had also appealed against the
sentence by the trial court at Bhandara.

The death sentence awarded by the trial court had come up before the
High Court for confirmation.

The bench had heard the matter on a daily basis from March 29 and
reserved it for judgement before the summer vacation.

In view of sensitivity of the matter, a tight vigil was maintained in
and around the high court.

A trial court of S S Dass, on September 24, 2008, awarded capital
punishment to six persons. Two others were given life imprisonment.

The six convicts whose death sentence has been commuted to life are
Sakru Binjewar, Ramu Dhande, Shatrughan Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande,
Jagdish Mandlekar and Prabhakar Mandlekar. Gopal Binjewar and
Shishupal Dhande were awarded life imprisonment.

The CBI had also filed appeal against acquittal of all the eight under
the Prevention of Atrocities on SC/ST Act as the victims belonged to a
Dalit family from Khairlanji.

However, the High Court did not consider the CBI plea and upheld the
trial court's judgement dropping the charges under the Prevention of
Atrocities Act.

CBI Counsel Ejaz Khan demanded enhancement of sentence for two accused
who were sentenced to life. He argued that trial court ought to have
considered evidence which pointed out towards sexual abuse of Surekha
and Priyanka.

"By dropping the atrocities charges against the accused persons, the
gravity of crime has been substantially diluted," CBI contended.

The defence lawyers pointed out several discrepancies and omissions in
the evidence produced on record. Political pressure and biased
investigation has resulted in miscarriage of justice, they claimed.

The defence lawyers charged the prime witness Siddarth Gajbhiye with
falsely implicating innocent villagers of Khairlanji. Even Mukesh
Pusam, another prime witness, was not present in the village on the
day of the incident, they argued.

The accused challenged their conviction and supported the decision of
special court to drop charges under the Prevention of Atrocities Act
and also charges of sexual abuse.

Counsel Khan represented CBI in the High Court while Special Public
Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam had conducted the trial before the special
court at Bhandara. Advocates Neeraj Khandewale and Sudeep Jaiswal
defended the accused in the trial court as well in High Court.

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[ZESTCaste] Khap panchayats conceal caste issue by bringing up gotra, says Brinda

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article515828.ece

PUNE, July 15, 2010

Khap panchayats conceal caste issue by bringing up gotra, says Brinda

Amruta Byatnal

The Congress leader who eats in Dalit houses should also take care
that the Dalit people are allowed to live, CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat said
at the Kalindi Deshpande Memorial Lecture here.

She was speaking on the 'Women's movements and confronting
contemporary challenges.'

Referring to the recent incident of a Dalit boy eloping with a Brahmin
girl in a village near Delhi and his family getting threats from the
police and the Brahmins of the village, Ms. Karat said caste and
citizenship were the biggest challenges in front of the women's
movement.

"We are living in an India today where democracy is being subverted in
many ways," she said.

Launching an attack on the khap panchayats, she said they were
bringing up the gotra issue only to conceal the bigger question of
caste.

Narrating her visit to the families of the Dalit boy and the Brahmin
girl, she said the Dalits had been threatened by the Brahmins that if
they didn't return the girl, they would 'take' one of the Dalit girls.
The father of the boy had spent Rs. 1.5 lakh and sold his land to
search for the couple. The police had even picked up another Dalit
youth from the village to threaten the others.

Vulnerability
Ms. Karat, who demanded a separate law on honour killings earlier this
month, said the fear was so large that it showed 'the vulnerability of
the Dalit boy, who was only one and a half hours away from Delhi and
yet couldn't point a finger at the police and say they were wrong.'

Stating that fundamentalism is a major challenge to democracy, Ms.
Karat said France's ban on the burqa in public spaces will only
strengthen fundamentalism.

"The concept of what constitutes freedom should be clear. Claiming to
be right under the pretext of secularism is wrong," she said.

Women's freedom
There is no difference then, between countries who force the veil on
their women and countries who force them not to wear it. Either way,
the freedom of the woman is not respected, she said.

On the issue of food security, she said the government's decision to
start a targeted PDS with selected districts and then expanding it to
the rest of the country to make it universal is a poor compromise.
"This selective method will do more damage than good. The partial
universalisation should not end up being sham universalisation," she
said.

She said the kind of work that women are being offered in the
neo-liberal system is another challenge that has to be overcome.

In the 65 MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act) sites that she had visited, she found that women are made to lift
approximately 1500 kg of soil everyday and get paid Rs. 100 whereas
their male counterparts who are industrial workers get Rs. 350 for the
same amount of work.


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[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji case: Dalit leaders want death for killers

 

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/646489/

Khairlanji case: Dalit leaders want death for killers

Agencies Posted online: Wed Jul 14 2010, 17:45 hrs
Nagpur : Expressing dissatisfaction over the Bombay High Court verdict
in the Khairlanji killings, Dalit leaders of Maharashtra today asked
the state government to appeal in the Supreme Court to seek death
penalty for the convicts.
The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court today commuted the death
sentence of six convicts in the Khairlanji Dalit killings case to 25
years imprisonment.

"The government should approach the Supreme Court against the
verdict...I will speak to Chief Minister on this issue," Dairy
Development Minister Nitin Raut said.

The court verdict is unfortunate and the government should appeal in
the apex court, Raut, who is a prominent Dalit leader from Vidarbha
region, said.

Former minister Sulekha Kumbhare said she would speak to Home Minister
R R Patil and ask him to approach the Supreme Court immediately to
appeal against the HC ruling.

"We don't accept the HC verdict. Injustice has been heaped on Dalit
community. We demand death penalty for the accused," she said.

Former MP Prakash Ambedkar said the state government needs to take the
verdict seriously and appeal in the apex court to assuage feelings of
the Dalits who have been hurt by the HC ruling.

The Khairlanji verdict has come as a shocker to the Ambedkarite
movement, former MP and RPI leader Ramdas Athawale said.

"I will meet Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Home Minister R R Patil
to demand immediate appeal by the state government in Supreme Court,"
Athawale said.

"Instances of injustice against Dalits are on the rise all over the
country. Dalit masses should organise an agitation against such
injustice," he said.

Survivor too demands capital punishment

The lone survivor of Khairlanji dalit killing incident, Bhaiyalal
Bhotmange on Wednesday said he was unhappy with the High Court verdict
which commuted the capital punishment of six accused to life
imprisonment and demanded that Maharashtra government file an appeal
in this regard.

"The court decision was unexpected. The Maharashtra Government should
now go in for appeal against the HC order to give me justice,"
Bhotmange told reporters outside the court.

Not a single person has been confirmed death sentence which was
unfortunate, he added.

Defence lawyers Sudeep Jaiswal and Neeraj Khandewale were extremely
happy over the judgement.

"Our stand has been vindicated for the second time, first at special
court in Bhandara which awarded death sentence to six accused and gave
lifer to remaining two. And now today at the HC," they said.

Counsel for CBI, Ejaz Khan said prima facie, the court has upheld the
guilt of the accused and the quantum of punishment is the prerogative
of the High Court.

"We are happy, at this stage," he said.

Four members of Bhotmange family were brutally murdered by an angry
mob in Khairlanji village on September 29, 2006.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit cook held captive

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Dalit-cook-held-captive/articleshow/6168732.cms

Dalit cook held captive
Faiz Rahman Siddiqui, TNN, Jul 14, 2010, 09.53pm IST

Kanpur: A group of upper caste villagers held captive a cook and
school teachers after they came to know that the woman who was
preparing food for their children was a Dalit.

The incident took place in Mairakhpur village in Akbarpur police
station limits in Ramabai Nagar (Kanpur Dehat), when a group of upper
caste villagers stormed inside a primary school, ransacked and locked
the kitchen, where a Dalit woman, Chandrawati, was preparing food for
the students under mid-day meal scheme.

The Wednesday incident came close on the heels of the violence
reported from Kannauj district, where the villagers had created a
ruckus outside the primary school in Majgaon hamlet under Bahadurpur
gram sabha to register their protest against a Dalit cook, who was
preparing food for the 47-odd children of the school on Saturday last.

The Mairakhpur primary school has a total of 45 students. Out of
which, nearly 35-40 students, mostly belonging to upper castes,
refused to eat food here on Wednesday.

According to reports, the upper caste villagers not only misbehaved
with the Dalit cook but held her as well as the school teachers,
including the headmaster of the school, Anil Kumar, captive for
several hours in protest against the appointment of a Dalit cook to
prepare MDM.

The situation was, however, brought under control when a police team
from Akbarpur police station and officials of the district education
department reached the village and convinced the villagers.

"Angry villagers assembled in front of the primary school after they
came to know that a Dalit woman was preparing mid-day meal for their
children. Later, they went inside the school's kitchen where she was
preparing mid-day meal and locked it from outside. They also
misbehaved with school teachers before holding them captive, when they
tried to intervene,'' a Dalit villager, on condition of anonymity,
told TOI.

The police, however, said, no action has yet been initiated against
the persons who created the ruckus.

When contacted, basic shiksha adhikari, Ramabai Nagar district, Sanjai
Shukla, however, said, "We have visited Mairakhpur primary school and
those responsible for inciting the students have been identified. They
had apparently bolted the school kitchen from outside, where the Dalit
cook was preparing `kheer' for schoolchildren under mid-day meal
project. They further forced the children to boycott the meal. We
would inquire into the incident and those responsible for it would
face serious action,'' he said.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit cooks replaced by upper caste cooks

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Dalits-replaced-by/articleshow/6168731.cms

Dalits replaced by
Faiz Rahman Siddiqui, TNN, Jul 14, 2010, 09.53pm IST

KANPUR: In order to pacify the growing resentment against Dalit cooks,
the government, reportedly, on Wednesday, asked such primary schools
where upper caste villagers are boycotting the mid-day meal scheme to
appoint upper caste cooks.

"We are identifying such schools where upper caste children have been
boycotting MDM scheme following appointment of a Dalit cook. To
counter the situation, now they (Dalits) would not be involved in
cooking the food and instead be assigned other tasks, like cleaning
and washing of the utensils, besides other odd jobs at the school,"
said a senior official, on condition of anonymity. "School authorities
have assured the upper caste villagers that there would be no
caste-contamination," he added.

Most of the students belonging to the upper castes were not ready to
eat food cooked by Dalits in majority of the primary schools in Rama
Bai Nagar district since the beginning of the new academic session in
2010. "Now that the schools have been asked to appoint upper caste
cooks, we hope the students would accept the mid-day meal,'' said a
senior official in the district.

The villagers have been told that the head cook, belonging to an upper
caste, would supervise the cooking. The head cook is more than willing
to go along. "I would do anything they ask me. After all, my own
children also study in the same school," an upper caste cook told TOI.

Nirmala Devi, headmistress of one such school in Jhinjhak block of the
district, said that upper caste children were not eating mid-day meals
but now with the appointment of upper caste cooks, the school has
started witnessing a good presence of upper caste students, who were
boycotting their classes earlier over the issue. "Their parents were
responsible for unnecessarily raking up the issue but now as an upper
caste cook has replaced the Dalit cook following a meeting of
village-level committee, comprising village pradhan, Aanganbadi
teachers as well as parents, we are expecting that the situation would
improve gradually," she said.

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[ZESTCaste] Verdict will set bad precedent: Dalit leaders on Khairlanji verdict

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_verdict-will-set-bad-precedent-dalit-leaders-on-khairlanji-verdict_1409845

Verdict will set bad precedent: Dalit leaders on Khairlanji verdict
Neeta Kolhatkar / DNA

Thursday, July 15, 2010 0:43 IST

Mumbai: Dalit leaders have reacted sharply to the Bombay high court's
decision to reduce the punishment awarded to the six convicts in the
Khairlanji massacre.

"The reversing of the death penalty and not considering the case under
the atrocities act is absolutely unjust," said Bhalchandra Mungekar in
a written note. "The ruling will encourage the perpetrators of the
crime and this would render the act meaningless."

Renowned American-born Indian scholar and Dalit activist Gail Omvedt
told DNA that the verdict was proof that special Indian courts should
tackle cases of atrocities separately. "Most of the courts in India
are not sensitive to instances of atrocities on Dalits, women and
other minorities. There is a need for reservation of courts to tackle
these issues. Here was a case where a Dalit family was massacred by
members of the upper caste, and yet the verdict was not just," said
Omvedt.

The popular perception is that the police aren't open to filing
complaints under the atrocities act. In fact, after the massacre, it
came to light that the district committee which should have been set
up in Bhandara to assess the complaints filed by Bhotmanges, never
existed.

Opposition members say that even after this incident, the state
machinery is not in place. "Look at the facts before the massacre and
thereafter," said Neelam Gorhey, spokesperson of Shiv Sena.

"The local district and state machinery was not in place. Bhotmanges
only hadthe atrocities act as their means of support, but the police
refused to lodge a complaint. This was before the killings."

Gorhey said the incident reflected on the political insensitivity,
violation of human rights and the deprivation of right to live.

According to academicians, the court's verdict would send out a wrong
message to society. "Dalits are bound to feel isolated with such a
verdict," said Surendra Zondhale, head of political science
department, Mumbai University.

"They have no political representation and the government has let them
down every time. Their only hope had been the judiciary, but this
verdict has dashed all their hopes for justice."


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[ZESTCaste] ‘TN caste wall down, but Dalits still untouchables’

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/-TN-caste-wall-down--but-Dalits-still-untouchables-/646643

'TN caste wall down, but Dalits still untouchables'
Express news service Posted online: Thu Jul 15 2010, 01:13 hrs
Chennai : When its existence was exposed to the world bringing infamy
to Tamil Nadu, the government took only a day to raze the 20-year-old
'untouchability wall' that separated Dalits from others at Uthapuram
village in Madurai.
However, two years hence, the situation on ground has not improved,
says the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, a rights group.

On Monday, the front members organised a protest in Madurai to urge
the district administration to give Dalits the right to worship at a
temple in the village, allow them to use a common pathway and permit
construction of a bus shelter under the MP Local Area Development Fund
— all of which were promised to them when the wall was brought down.

The members alleged that the police tried to disperse them, which led
to further protests, including one in Chennai on Tuesday.

The 'caste wall' was built after a clash broke out between the Dalits
and Pillaimars, a dominant BC community, in 1989. After the clash that
reportedly claimed five lives from each side, elders of the 18
neighbouring villages decided to erect a wall to stop interaction
between the two communities. The wall largely restricted Dalits from
access to public roads.

"When we brought the case to light, there was much furore among the
civil society, media. The state government was forced to act. Though
it has been two years since that happened, nothing has changed," said
P Sampath, front convenor and CPM state secretariat member.

A Marx, a noted human rights activist who led a fact-finding mission
to Uthapuram recently, said, "The ground situation at Uthapuram has
not improved at all. The reopening of the road was a mere token
gesture. The police thrash the Dalits whenever there is an altercation
between communities. Only a month ago, 14 of them were arrested. After
they were released on bail, they were rearrested ."

District Collector C Kamaraj denied the allegations, while
superintendent of police M Manohar said the CPM was politicising the
issue.


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[ZESTCaste] Counting Castes: Advantage Ruling Class

http://www.countercurrents.org/teltumbde140710.htm

Counting Castes: Advantage Ruling Class

By Anand Teltumbde

14 July, 2010
Countercurrents.org

The debate over whether caste should be included in the decennial
census 2011, which has actually begun, has provoked the government to
constitute a Group of Ministers (GoM), the magical invention of the
UPA government that yields decisions on any vexatious issue. The
shrill arguments both in favour and against the proposition, with an
amazing degree of embedded confusion, coming from all conceivable
corners (caste, class, individuals, parties, and so on) is making it
difficult to guess what the magical decision of the GOM would be. But
if it comes in favour of enumeration of castes in the census, it will
be the second biggest blow to the emancipation project of the
oppressed people, the first being the Mandal reservations.

Colonial Census of Castes

It is well known that the institution of census (with enumeration of
castes) came as a sequel of measures that were imperatively taken by
the British colonialists after the mutiny of 1857. The mutiny made the
government officials painfully realize that they were woefully
ignorant of local Indian customs and more. The knowledge of natives
would enable them to find local allies to provide insurance against
the possibility of a future uprising and more importantly, use
internal divisions among them for playing groups off one against
another.[1] The inclusion of questions about caste in the census,
entailing huge expenditure of time and money thus was not just for the
sake of 'intellectual curiosity'. There were political reasons for the
intensification of the British interest in the institution of caste.
"District-level manuals and gazetteers began to devote whole chapters
to the ethnography of caste and custom; imperial surveys made caste
into a central object of investigation; and by the time of the first
decennial census of 1872, caste had become the primary subject of
social classification and knowledge… By 1901, when the census
commissioner H. H. Risley announced his ambition for an ethnographic
survey of India, it was clear that caste had attained its colonial
apotheosis."[2]

Notwithstanding the crude formulation of Hindutva nationalists,
relying on some smart American historians that castes were the
colonial creation, it cannot be denied that the introduction of the
Census in particular 'transformed previously 'fuzzy' into 'enumerated'
communities'.[3] As Cohn points out, 'what was entailed in the
construction of census operations was the creation of social
categories by which India was ordered for administrative purposes'.[4]
The Census objectified religious, social and cultural difference. This
objectification later catalysed lower caste movement but as its
unintended by product, which could not be confused with the primary
aim of the colonialists to preserve their rule.

Politics of Castization

The ostensible need to include enumeration of the backward castes
(BCs) flows from the Mandal Commission recommendations, which mandated
monitoring of their progress after 20 years from their implementation.
Before the 2001 Census began, there was a demand made for such
inclusion in the census. But for whatever reasons this proposal was
turned down by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which controls the census
organisation.[5] This time although the government created turbulence
around the issue by referring it to the GoM, it will be under pressure
to accept it.

The core rationale for this caste census may thus lie in the technical
requirement arising from the acceptance of the Mandal Commission
recommendations to extend reservations to the OBCs. Mandal
recommendations and particularly their acceptance by the V P Singh
government in 1989 will be an ominous mark on the path of annihilation
of castes. It gave a new lease of life to castes. The entire caste
game was mischievously played in the name of the Constitution, which
rather had reference to class and individuals. The Constitution under
Articles 15 (4), 16 (4), 46 and 340 refers to "socially and
educationally backward classes" or "backward class citizens". In the
country in which peoples' politics is stuck on the unfortunate duality
of caste and class, the State as well as the judiciary coolly
interpreted class in the Constitution to be synonymous with "caste".
In order that an entire caste is considered socially, economically and
educationally backward, it needed to pass the test of homogeneity and
to formulate a policy for such castes there should have been objective
definability. However, there was none.[6]

Whither Caste Dynamics

The entire load of argument in favour of inclusion of castes in the
census is that it will help in targeting development efforts towards
the specific social groups. But can the social groups be viably
conceived on the basis of castes today? The entire argument smacks of
the colossal confusion in transposing the non-caste dalits and tribals
to others and the enormous ignorance about the contemporary caste
dynamics. It was the Nehruvian project of modernization, mapped mainly
by the land reform and green revolution in rural India that brought
about this change in castes structure as never before. The
displacement of the upper caste landlords from villages, enrichment of
a section of the shudra caste cluster (traditional farming castes)
through this programme, the consolidation of the populous shudra
castes by them into political constituency, has changed the entire
socio-political fabric of the country. Paradoxically, these castes
labeled as backward have full social control of the entire rural and
semi-urban India, dominate politics and significant part of the
economy of the country. The ritual caste differences between them and
dwija castes are no more extant because of these developments. This
caste dynamics reduces caste to the divide between Dalits and
non-Dalits. Although, many people constituting BC/OBC are as backward
as dalits and tribals, the idiom of caste binds them with their
powerful elements and prevents identifying with the dalits and
tribals.

When the so called progressive intellectuals take cudgels for the
'lower castes' they ignore this post-Independence developmental
dynamics. They certainly err in extending the social justice logic
applied to SC and ST to these castes. The rationale behind applying
exceptional measure of 'quota' for these communities was deep rooted
social prejudice against them through the practice of untouchability
(SC) and physical separation (ST). This simply cannot be replicated to
the shudra castes, lest one deliberately undermines the rationale
itself and ignore the structural forces that exploit them. The
backwardness of the BC/OBC is a part of the larger secular
backwardness of the country, depicted by a plethora of disgraceful
indices and statistics on poverty, health and such others. It is the
duty of the state to ensure distributional justice to these classes.
But to say that it should be done along caste axis is playing into the
hands of the ruling classes. It serves them best to tacitly support
caste issues as they deflect peoples' attention from their neoliberal
project, which is fast dispossessing people of even whatever little
they have. The root cause of peoples' woes lies here!

Flawed Arguments

The best of these arguments are perhaps presented in this very journal
by Satish Deshpande and Mary John (The Politics of Not Counting Caste,
June 19, 2010). They dealt with opponents' contentions -'logistcal
challenges' and 'political objections' in their own way. Logistical
challenges, may not be insurmountable if one is reconciled with the
tentative 'collective self portrait' the census provides. But the
question is to what avail? Recognizing the fluidity and polyvalence of
caste identity, they suggest some what clumsily the collection of
supportive synonyms for castes and using technology to resolve them.
Obviously, they belittle the logistical problems by imagining their
complexity and offering such a weird solution. The basic problem is
associated with the characteristics of caste itself. Caste, as one
sociologist puts it, has no precise definition, it is not an
"objective" measurable category like occupation, age, sex, education,
etc. and rather may be seen as "subjective" category related with
identity and perceptions which change from time to time.[7] They have
missed out one dangerous logistical characteristic of caste which is
that caste is essentially hierarchy seeking and hence infinitely
divisive. If with all, one still wishes to have caste data, with pile
of negatives associated with them, one fails to understand why.

The other point they deal with is political objections that caste
enumeration would promote 'divide and rule' and argue that 'subaltern
claims for power sharing' is always taken as divisive by the elites.
The basic point here is whether castes today are viable units to plan
sharing of power, privileges or any resources equitably. This takes us
back to rethink them away from the stereotypes. Today the Indian
political reality may be simply read in terms of rulers as a class
whereas the ruled are castes, whether by volition or by engineering,
as in colonial times. In defence of the caste census, their shadow
boxing reaches a profound pitch that "not counting caste has been one
of independent India's biggest mistake." One fails to know how in face
of the fact that the so called backward castes as a caste group have
done extremely well in coming to dominate political, social and
economic spheres. Why unlike the colonial rulers, the Congress under
Nehru and Gandhi, decided not to count castes is because they were
afraid it would indefinitely fragment their constituency. Despite it,
the state with all its apparatus has not been caste blind as claimed
by them. Any Dalit can vouch for it! But that did not deter the
progress of the BCs. As a caste group, the coalition syndrome, Mandal,
as well as the current demand for the caste census rather reflects
their empowerment, no matter it has resulted in disempowerment of huge
mass of their own members.

No, counting caste can never benefit people; it benefits only the
ruling classes.

References

[1] Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Politics and the Raj: Bengal
1872-1937 (Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Company), 1990: 29.

[2] Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of
Modern India, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), 2001, p. 15.

[3] S. Kaviraj, 'The Imaginary Institution of India,' in P. Chatterjee
and G. Pandey (ed.) Subaltern Studies VII (Delhi: Oxford University
Press) 1992.

[4] B. S. Cohn, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge, (Princeton:
Princeton University Press), 1996, 8.]

[5] A. Krishnakumar, "Caste and the census", Frontline, 17(18), 2-15.2000.

[6] G. Shah, 'Caste-based census will compound past blunders', Times
of India, May 22, 1998.

[7] G. Shah, Caste and Democratic Practice in India, (London: Anthem
Press), 2004, 27. Also, See G. Shah, 'Caste-based census will compound
past blunders', Times of India, May 22, 1998.


Dr. Anand Teltumbde is a political analyst and a civil rights activist
with CPDR, Mumbai E-mail: tanandraj@gmail.com


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[ZESTCaste] Death sentences dropped for mob murder of Dalit family

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10627073

14 July 2010 Last updated at 07:26 GMT

Death sentences dropped for mob murder of Dalit family

Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange watched helplessly as the mob slaughtered his
family A court in India has commuted to life in jail the death
sentences of six men convicted of killing four members of a
lower-caste Dalit family in 2006.

The six have now been sentenced for life "for a period of 25 years",
the court in Maharashtra state has ruled.

Eight men were found guilty in September 2008. Two were given life
sentences. Three others were acquitted.

The Dalits - a woman, daughter and two sons - were killed by an
upper-caste mob in a land row. The husband escaped.

The case led to widespread protests. Crimes against Dalits, formerly
known as untouchables, often go unpunished in India.

Discrimination against Dalits, who are at the bottom of the
centuries-old Hindu caste system, is a punishable offence in India.

But campaigners say violence against Dalits continues.

Raped and murdered

The brutal killings took place on 29 September 2006 in a remote
village called Khairlanji, in Bhandara district in the north-east of
Maharashtra, western India.

Surekha Bhotmange, her 17-year-old daughter Priyanka and two sons,
19-year-old Roshan and 21-year-old Sudhir, were at home when the mob
broke into their mud hut and murdered them.

The four were dragged out and beaten with bicycle chains, sticks and
other weapons.

The court heard that the mother and daughter were stripped and raped
by the mob. The women's bodies were found in a nearby canal the next
day.

Surekha's husband, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, managed to escape and hid
behind a tree from where he watched helplessly as his family were
killed.

He pursued the case with the support of several human rights activists.

The killings led to widespread protests across Maharashtra.

In the traditional Hindu caste system, Dalits were considered the
lowest of the low castes.

They were expected to do the most menial jobs in villages. They could
not share basic amenities, including drinking water, with upper-caste
people.

Such practices still exist in rural areas.

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[ZESTCaste] Forgive and forget now: Jats urge Dalits

http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/12/stories/2010071257230500.htm

New Delhi

Forgive and forget now: Jats urge Dalits

Vrinda Sharma

MIRCHPUR: In a desperate attempt to patch up with Dalits of Mirchpur
and ensure early release of the men convicted of arson and murder, the
Jats of the village held a panchayat here on Sunday and appealed to
the families of victims of recent caste-based violence to embrace
brotherhood and forget the past.

"We are all terrified by the events of that unfortunate day, lives
have been lost and homes have been destroyed but the Valmiki members
of the village must use their right to forgive and forget so that we
can all live in brotherhood," said Balbir Saab.

On the 21st of April this year a mob comprising upper caste Jats set
ablaze over 18 Dalit houses over a minor incident.

Seventy-year-old Tara Chand and his polio-stricken daughter Suman were
charred to death in their home as they could not escape. Police
arrested over 40 people.

While Dalits claim that some of the guilty Jat leaders were never
arrested, the Jats say that those who were innocent must be released
immediately. Asked about his opinion about the punishment for the
guilty, an elderly Jat man said on Sunday, "Brotherhood means no
grudges against anyone. When we all live as one family, we are all
assured of our safety and peace and the dark shadow of past events
will fade away. Village matters must not reach the police and courts;
those must be resolved by mutual understanding and cooperation."

The Dalits complain that they are under pressure to withdraw police
cases and strike a compromise. "We are living under absolute social
boycott. We are not sold milk and our children are scared to go to
school. The Jats want us to take our complaints back and befriend the
men who burnt down our homes without caring for women and children.
Half the Dalit population has already left the village and the others
have packed their bags and they want us to feel grand about ourselves
by forgiving!" said a Dalit, Satyavan.

The deceased Tara Chand's son Pradeep said that until all the guilty
men are punished there can be no compromise and that the panchayat
must stop pressurising the community to forgo their right to justice.

Meanwhile Tara Chand's sons have started working at the Hisar
Secretariat on the posts that the Administration offered them and a
compensation of Rs.5 lakh has been given to the family.


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[ZESTCaste] Survivor Bhotmange unhappy over Khairlanji verdict

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article515357.ece

Published: July 14, 2010 15:28 IST | Updated: July 14, 2010 15:28 IST
Nagpur, July 14, 2010

Survivor Bhotmange unhappy over Khairlanji verdict
PTI

The lone survivor of Khairlanji Dalit killing incident, Bhaiyalal
Bhotmange on Wednesday said he was unhappy with the High Court
verdict, which commuted the capital punishment of six accused to life
imprisonment and demanded that Maharashtra government file an appeal
in this regard.

"The court decision was unexpected. The Maharashtra Government should
now go in for appeal against the HC order to give me justice,"
Bhotmange told reporters outside the court.

Not a single person has been confirmed death sentence, which was
unfortunate, he added.

Defence lawyers Sudeep Jaiswal and Neeraj Khandewale were extremely
happy over the judgement.

"Our stand has been vindicated for the second time, first at special
court in Bhandara, which awarded death sentence to six accused and
gave lifer to remaining two. And now today at the HC," they said.

Counsel for CBI, Ejaz Khan said prima facie, the court has upheld the
guilt of the accused and the quantum of punishment is the prerogative
of the High Court.

"We are happy, at this stage," he said. Four members of Bhotmange
family were brutally murdered by an angry mob in Khairlanji village on
September 29, 2006.


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[ZESTCaste] 6 Khairlanji convicts spared the gallows

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/6-Khairlanji-convicts-spared-the-gallows/articleshow/6169511.cms

6 Khairlanji convicts spared the gallows
Vaibhav Ganjapure, TNN, Jul 15, 2010, 03.03am IST

NAGPUR: Nearly two years ago, in September 2008, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange
— the lone dalit survivor of the Khairlanji massacre of four dalits —
had flashed a victory sign and a smile after the Bhandara sessions
court sentenced six of the eight accused to death. But on Wednesday,
there were smiles on the faces of the six convicts saved from the
gallows after the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court commuted their
capital punishment to life terms. A nonplussed Bhotmange (55)
muttered, "This was totally unexpected."

A special division bench comprising justices Avinash Lavande and
Ravindra Chavan, via video conferencing, sentenced each of the six
convicts to actual imprisonment of 25 years (without remission),
including the time already served, for lynching four of Bhotmange's
family members on September 29, 2006, in Khairlanji village in
Bhandara district.

The case had reached the Bombay High Court in October 2008 for the
confirmation of death sentence. The accused had challenged the
verdict, while a plea regarding confirmation of death sentence was
filed by the state government, besides the prosecuting agency, CBI.
But the HC rejected the appeals, maintaining the sessions court order
— that the prosecution failed to produce evidence suggesting caste
hatred in the killing of the dalit family — was valid. The SC/ST
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act didn't kick in.


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[ZESTCaste] Dalits sore over Khairlanji massacre verdict

 

http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a150942.html

Dalits sore over Khairlanji massacre verdict

Nagpur, July 14
Dalit leaders have reacted sharply to the Bombay High Court's decision
Wednesday to reduce the punishment awarded to six convicts in the
massacre of a Dalit family in Khairlanji in 2006, saying it was a
failure on the part of the government.

Prakash Ambedkar, president of the Bahujan Maha Sangh, said that the
court had not even considered the cruelty committed against the
victims. "We will request the Maharashtra government to file an appeal
in the Supreme Court at the earliest," he said.

The high court commuted the death sentences of the six convicts in the
case and gave them life imprisonment of 25 years each.

Jogendra Kawade, president of the People's Republican Party, described
the verdict as "unfortunate", asking: "Has our law system also started
suffering from caste based politics?"

"I also fail to understand why the charges of atrocities were dropped
in this case. It has to be noted that this is not just a murder case.
The verdict is a failure on the part of the government," he added.

Kawade said that the verdict will only encourage people to commit more
such atrocities on Dalits. Kawade had resigned as a member of the
legislative council in December 2006 as a part of the protest against
the murder of the Dalits.

Former state minister and Dalit leader Surekha Kumbhare said that she
will approach Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Home
Minister R.R. Patil asking them to take appropriate steps for a review
of the verdict.

"The verdict clearly shows that the state government was not at all
serious in this case. We are not satisfied with this verdict and will
not accept it," she said.

"If the verdict is not reviewed and changed, we will launch
agitations," she added.

The verdict was given by a division bench of Justices A.P. Lawande and
R.C. Chauhan, which turned down a plea of the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) challenging the lower court's ruling giving life
sentence to two of the eight convicts while sentencing six to death.

In September 2006, a group of villagers attacked the Bhotmange family
in Khairlanji village in Maharashtra's Bhandara district.

They dragged out Surekha Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, 44, her sons Roshan,
23, Sudhir, 21, and daughter and assaulted them brutally. The victims
were paraded naked in the village, sexually abused and hacked to
death. The women were gangraped.

Surekha Bhotmange had lodged a police complaint in a land dispute
against some villagers, a few days before the incident.

Last updated on Jul 14th, 2010 at 15:21 pm IST--IANS

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