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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Archbishop Chinnappa puts onus of Dalit liberation on Christian leaders

http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/11/stories/2010091152590400.htm

Tamil Nadu

Saturday, Sep 11, 2010
Archbishop Chinnappa puts onus of Dalit liberation on Christian leaders

Special Correspondent

Condition of Dalit Christians five times worse than other Dalits, says
Ashish Amos

LUCID ANALYSIS:(From left) Felix Wilfred, Professor, ICCR Chair,
University of Dublin, Ireland; A.M. Chinnappa, Archbishop of
Madras-Mylapore and chairman, Tamilnadu Bishops' Council; Ashish Amos,
general secretary, ISPCK; and S. Lourdusamy, CBCI Commission for
SC/ST, New Delhi, at a seminar in Chennai on Friday.

TAMBARAM: Speakers at a two-day seminar on Christianity and Dalit
Liberation here pointed out that Dalit Christians faced a lot of
opposition from non-Dalit Christians.

The two-day seminar on 'Reimaging the Relationship between
Christianity and Dalit Liberation,' was held at the Asian Centre for
Cross Cultural Studies (ACCS) at Panayurkuppam near Sholinganallur off
East Coast Road on Friday. It was organised along with New Delhi-based
Indian Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge.

A.M. Chinnappa, Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore and chairman, Tamil Nadu
Bishops Council, said the effect of casteism in India was
marginalisation, poverty and oppression among Dalits. "We must set a
vision for their liberation and must be able to work together."

Poor state of Dalits

Pointing out that the poor state of the Dalits was a result of
casteism, he said, "Unless Christian leaders work among the people,
Dalit liberation is not possible."

Delivering the inaugural address, Ashish Amos, general secretary,
ISPCK, said that there had been "enough of rhetoric, academia, writing
and thinking process," which had resulted in the "Great Indian Dalit
Dream."

"I can say with conviction that the condition of Dalit Christians is
five times worse than other Dalits," Mr. Amos said, adding that the
Church and the community had completely let down the Dalits and the
oppressed.

In his keynote address, S. Lourdusamy, former executive secretary,
Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) Commission for SC/ST, said
a majority of Christians in India belonged to SC and ST communities,
but their representation in the clergy and hierarchy was minimal. He
pointed out that among the 24 million Indian christians, Dalits
constituted the chunk with a population of 18 million.

However, in earlier years of struggle seeking justice for the Dalits,
there was very little support from non-Dalit Christians.

Mr. Lourdusamy said among the 170 Catholic Bishops in India, the
representation of Dalits was meagre and added that their role in
clergy, hierarchy and policy-making levels was negligible. He
concluded that unless non-dalit Christians came forward in support,
there was no ray of hope for the Dalit Christians.

Dr. Chinnappa also launched a book, 'Asian Public Theology' written by
Felix Wilfred, founder-director, ACCS.

------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] Caste census: Mere tokenism won’t do

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/view-point/Caste-census-Mere-tokenism-wont-do/articleshow/6543871.cms

13 Sep, 2010, 05.26AM IST, Surendra Kumar,
Caste census: Mere tokenism won't do

So, the Union Cabinet has approved the caste-based census. Those who
oppose it argue that it will be divisive and rekindle and strengthen
caste consciousness which is supposedly getting forgotten otherwise.
However, isn't their opposition largely ritualistic, at best mere
tokenism ? Can deep-rooted caste consciousness and prejudices be
wished away by processions and fiery speeches? If they are genuinely
interested in helping in dilution, if not total elimination of caste
prejudices, they should embrace the following Ten Commandments.

Most of English dailies and papers in regional languages earn more
from matrimonial advertisements than from their subscriptions. These
advertisements clearly highlight the irrepressible desire for finding
suitable brides and groom of various castes. Mind it, this search is
by millions of highly educated, well employed and professionally
trained individuals. The opponents of the castebased census should,
through a PIL to the Supreme Court, demand a ban on such divisive
advertisements . Simultaneously, they should urge the owners
/publishers of these newspapers/magazines to refuse to carry such
caste-based advertisements even if it meant considerable loss of
revenue.

Our elected representatives across the country, from the panchayat up
to Parliament, supposed protectors and custodians of our democracy,
must lead from the front and set up example of a casteprejudice-free
society. Ask them and all the ministers , governors and CMs to take a
vow that they will strive to see, at least, one daughter in the family
married to a groom from a lower caste. There will most probably be
coldness and awkwardness initially but if not in the lifetime of the
couples so married, in the lives of the offspring's of such mixed
marriages, filial feelings and emotional bonding will result in
weakening of caste prejudices if not their complete disappearance.

Untouchability was legally abolished decades ago, but it is alive and
kicking in thousands of villages , practised most brazenly under the
eyes of official machinery with total impunity (a Dalit girl committed
suicide as she was made to clean toilets in the same school she was
studying to get free education ). Demand strict action against the
practitioners of untouchability under the anti-untouchability Act. It
is shame that more than sixty years after Independence millions of
lower caste Hindus can't draw water from the common well and their
entry in temples can still trigger off bloodbath. In Haryana, in
several villages Dalits can't ride a bicycle ; in Karnataka many
barbers won't cut their hair, in Tamil Nadu breasts of Dalit women
have been chopped off for drinking water from the pond which was meant
for cows/buffaloes!

Governments come and governments go, their names may be different but
one thing doesn't change. In this incredible independent India, more
than 30.000 officially registered attacks of various descriptions take
place against lower castes each year (This was admitted by the home
minister in Parliament). Anyone familiar with rural India will vouch
that out of four crimes committed; on an average , only one gets
officially registered. Demand a time bound trial of such cases in
special courts and exemplary punishment to perpetrators to deter
repetition of such attacks.

It is a known fact that Dalit students in hostels of
universities/medical colleges/engineering colleges are routinely
harassed and humiliated; demand an immediate end to these despicable
practices.

Every week national dailies carry news of some Dalit woman having been
stripped of her clothes and paraded naked and unashamed bystanders
like Pandavas of Mahabharat remain impotent, dehumanised spectators of
such humiliations. Demand life imprisonment to perpetrators of such
crimes and dismissal of officials giving a blind eye to such
incidents.

------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] The writer who loses to his own argument

http://expressbuzz.com/books/the-writer-who-loses-to-his-own-argument/203381.html

The writer who loses to his own argument

Shibu Shanmughom

First Published : 05 Sep 2010 10:45:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 04 Sep
2010 10:32:06 PM IST

Post-Hindu India: A discourse on Dalit-Bahujan socio-spiritual and
scientific revolution by Kancha Ilaiah.

He wore leather jackets and chappals, ate pork and buffalo, and drank
toddy. He clears the path for 'others' to travel. And his lone voice
guides them through the wilderness. A signifier over the margins takes
us into different ethnoscapes or technoscapes. But his framework is
just a beginning, a harbinger of days to come. In sum, that is what
Kancha Ilaiah has in store for you in 'post-Hindu India'.

He starts his detour with a clear-cut deviation against the homogenous
route of dominant Hindu culture, a barefoot counter-journey through
the heterogeneous subways of post-Hindu India. He sets forth to set
the record straight and to deconstruct historiography, definitely on
the lines of Dalitism. As he said, "It is Dalitisation, not
Sanskritisation, that remains the best course for the development of
India in all fields."

Obviously a difficult task since Indian history, state and civil
society have so far been trained to do headstands under the
surveillance of the high priests of the ruling ideology: Hinduism,
alias Brahmanism. That position obliquely views "production as
pollution and consumption as purity, labour as ruggedness and leisure
as dignified." This is an intimidating shirshasana posture,
legitimised over the years as natural and normal.

To give proper names to a shifting sovereignty disguised and
reincarnated in various names and forms is itself a revolutionary act
in an inverted civil society. First, he uses the term Hinduism, and
then specifies it as Brahmanism, again tries to pinpoint it as
spiritual fascism and counters its intellectual goondaism and on the
way he even shows communism its true colour of Brahmanism.

At the end, Kancha Ilaiah predicts the imminent demise of Hinduism
and, in a single breath, proclaims the arrival of spiritual democracy
for Dalits; a promised land where "modes of singing and dancing would
be cut across castes".

Simultaneously, against the metaphysics of hope, he starts a paradigm
shift by politicising the bare life of Dalit-Bahujans, what they do
and the way they do it, the density of everyday life and the physics
of labour. These overlapping and crisscrossing currents of the social
collective run counter to the monolithic and segmentary logic of
Hinduism, nullify the libido of spiritual fascism.

Thus two Kancha Ilaiahs operate in the same realm, entangled and
caught up in each other. One is a spiritual socialist susceptible to
simple conventional models who inadvertently and innocently shares the
luxury accoutrements of the opponent in the same room.

The other is a subaltern ideologue who moves in the opposite
direction, liberates the political from its shackles and restores
thought to its functional continuum. Here he never hesitated to
partake in the ongoing civil war of position and nerves, which is
fought on various fronts in contrasting lines. If you describe this
dilemma in Deleuzean terms it goes like this, "two lovers, one of whom
dies suddenly in the other's room".

Nowadays, Hinduism with its adaptability operates in more subtle ways.
It uses bio-political cultural signs and technologies of self to
expedite its expansion. And its crypto-appearances are more dangerous
than its actual presences. Brahmanism in Dalit clothing is not a
remote reality; it is at your doorstep now. As Gayatri Spivak pointed
out, here starts the unification of homogenous dominant Hindu culture
at the village level and the ST culture in their lack of democratic
training.

At the same time Dalitism does not operate in stereotypical singular
lines, rather it is divided and sub-divided into opposing trends. Like
feminisms, Dalitisms act in multiplicities that are sometimes
contradictory but at other times interpenetrate between mass-lines.

Kanch Ilaiah often tends to think in terms of dichotomy and at times
is an avid follower of rigid binary machinations. He doesn't want to
break the border of black and white and the order of good and evil.
For him, Dalitism and Hinduism are fixed entities, other religious
minorities having their own fixed roles to play. And then, a shadow
war can be easily played out instead of fighting a real one.

This book is an amalgam of everyday and utopia or actual and virtual.
In the grey areas hides a Dalit fundamentalist in spiritual-democratic
clothing. "Effect of the real" is sometimes emancipatory, but for the
"effect", the "real" often have desires for fantasy.

— shibushanmughom@gmail.com

------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] Seer’s Padyatra to Dalit colony to prevent religious conversions

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=362&page=7

September 19, 2010

Seer's Padyatra to Dalit colony to prevent religious conversions
By R Guru Prasad, Bengaluru

SHRI Vishwesha Theertha Swamiji, the seer of Pejavara Adhokshaja
Mutha, Udupi, has set an example by choosing a divine route to
preserve Hindu culture and nurture spirituality and harmony among all
the sections of the society. He was in Mysore observing a 72nd
chaturmasya vrata and visited Devaraj Urs Colony slum predominated by
pourakarmikas (Sweepers) on August 27.

His visit brought a festive mood in the entire locality and dalits
extended a warm reception to him by cleaning the roads, adorning with
rangolis and flower decorations. This is the first time a religious
leader has visited their houses and women in traditional saree, men in
dhoti and children in the colony showered rose petals on him. The
seer's visit aimed at ensuring social harmony and protecting Hindu
Dharma is considered to be a magic weapon to stop religious
conversions and encourage dalit communities to join the mainstream.
Before addressing a meeting at the Pattaaladamma temple premises and
worshipping Godess in the locality, he went inside the dalit's houses
belonging to Kuppuswamy, Subramani, Mara and others to lit an oil lamp
in the small pooja altar in a corner of their tiny houses and offered
them prasadam.

He later said he is ready to offer Vaishnava Deeksha (initiation into
Vaishnawa way of life) to dalits in order to shun dangerous practice
of untouchability which is the root cause for the exploitation in
Hinduism. He told them to continue worship Hindu Gods, follow the
rituals, mass pooja prayers and all sections of the Hindu society will
not refer to them as dalits any more. He assured them that he will go
on a hunger strike as a token of protest and come to their rescue
whenever they face any hurdle from the rest of the society. Dalit
leaders expressed gratitude for the Swami's padayatra and said they
are extremely happy to hear from him that a Hindu should not
discriminate against another Hindu.

Swamiji while addressing a media on September 5, said he will keep a
week's time every month in future to visit dalit colonies across
Karnataka to create a favourable atmosphere for them to stay back in
the Hindu culture and not to get converted to other religions. He said
soon after his Chaturmasya vrata he will go on a 'Spiritual
Padayathra' in all taluks, villages and towns in the State and try to
ensure that dalits can enter any temples of their chice by removing
the existing restrictions for them at few temple. His future
padayatra's is aimed at becoming a platform for canvassing Hindu
Dharma by teaching basic principles of Hinduism, educating them about
religious practices (Dharma Sanskaras), organising camps of all
sections of the society, distributing books , arranging bhajans and
cultural programmes and creating brotherlyhood. It can be recalled
that few Hindu temples had banned dalits entering into their premises
and this provoked them to leave the Hindu religion and other religions
took this opportunity to get them converted into their religions by
offering monetary benefits and social status.

------------------------------------

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[ZESTCaste] Khap tells Haryana couple to live like siblings

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Khap-tells-Haryana-couple-to-live-like-siblings/680819

Khap tells Haryana couple to live like siblings

C B SINGH Posted online: Mon Sep 13 2010, 03:21 hrs
Chandigarh : The khap panchayats have done it again.
In yet another bizarre order, a khap panchayat of Bainsi village in
Haryana's Rohtak district has allegedly declared the marriage of a
Dalit couple illegal and ordered them to live like brother and sister
for the 'usual' reason — they belong to the same village and gotra.

The panchayat also ordered the couple's parents to honour the diktat
in five days.

Bainsi village is dominated by the Jat community. The panchayat
meeting was held on Sunday night and presided by sarpanch Daleep
Singh.

On May 5 this year, Sumer, 28, and Viky Rani eloped and married in a
Shiv Mandir in Delhi without the consent of their family members.

Later, they informed their families and neighbours about their
marriage and showed the photos of their wedding and the certificate
issued by the temple management. This led to the khap panchayat
meeting in which their marriage was declared illegal and they were
asked to treat each other as brother and sister.

One of the local residents said the girl's mother belonged to the same
village because of which the marriage cannot be honoured as per
traditions.

Police said the girl's parents were offered protection but they
declined it. Neither the boy's nor the girl's parents have filed any
complaint.

Rohtak Deputy Commissioner P C Meena said action would be taken
against the village panchayat sarpanch if he was found guilty of
issuing such an unconstitutional order and forcing the couple to break
their marriage.

------------------------------------

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Archbishop Chinnappa puts onus of Dalit liberation on Christian leaders

[ZESTCaste] Caste census: Mere tokenism won’t do

[ZESTCaste] The writer who loses to his own argument

[ZESTCaste] Seer’s Padyatra to Dalit colony to prevent religious conversions

[ZESTCaste] Khap tells Haryana couple to live like siblings

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