Latest News Update: Apr 17, 2010

Saturday, April 17, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Global casteism, a reality

http://beta.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article401267.ece

Published: April 17, 2010 18:32 IST | Updated: April 17, 2010 18:32
IST April 17, 2010

Global casteism, a reality

The Hindu Protesting caste: Dalits against social discrimination.
Photo: Suresh Bhat
On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (April
14 ), ARVIND SIVARAMAKRISHNAN reflects on caste and international
discussions on the issue.

If major civilisations make contributions to world history, then the
Indian civilisation's contributions include caste, caste
discrimination, caste segregation, and caste-motivated brutality; the
anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's birth, April 14, provides an
occasion to look at some of the ways governments respond to caste
discrimination.

It appears too, that wherever substantial numbers of people of Indian
descent settle, caste discrimination appears. Even the British House
of Lords was sufficiently exercised about caste discrimination in the
United Kingdom to debate it for specific proscription when the new
Equality Bill, now the Equality Act 2010, recently came before them.
Although this time the House of Lords did not include caste
specifically, the government's earlier statement that the Equality and
Human Rights Commission had been asked to research the issue drew the
peers' rebuke that the Commission in fact said they had not been asked
to do the relevant research; the government were also accused of
consulting only with upper-caste groups of British Hindus.

My former tutor, a distinguished British professor of philosophy,
would not have been surprised by the government's reluctance to
include caste in its anti-discrimination laws. I recall his saying,
"The British and the Indian ruling classes understood one another
perfectly." His father had been in the Indian Army between the wars,
and he himself only rarely revealed how much he knew about India.

Another British friend told me once of an involvement he had had with
a girl at his college. Well into the relationship she suddenly told
him she would never marry him, as he was of a low caste. They had
parents from the same region of India, they spoke the same South Asian
language, and they were both young Britons. But she drew the shadow
line.

Many apartheids

I recall too, listening to an acquaintance in the Oriental Plaza in
Johannesburg as he savaged the now-extinct apartheid régime, raising
his voice for the benefit of a couple of stone-faced Afrikaner
huisvrouwen who were browsing along the shelves. The young man's aunt,
the shop manager, said quietly, "We have our own apartheid, with caste
and religion and family." That reminded me of an earlier conversation
with a relative, in which I remarked that in some industrialised
countries it could be difficult to tell people's class or occupation
from their dress, manner, or speech, especially outside working hours.
My relative froze, terrified that his children, destined for U.S.
doctorates and gadget-filled mortgages in acceptably white-majority
American suburbs, would get involved with 'unsuitable' people during
their studies abroad. That particular relative might have problems if
asked whether President Obama's daughters were 'unsuitable'.

The Government of India, for its part, tries to prevent international
discussion of caste. At the UN World Conference Against Racism in
Durban in 2001, Indian representatives insisted that caste is not
race, that India has legislated against caste discrimination, and that
caste as an internal matter must not be discussed at such conferences.
The conference adopted the phrase "discrimination based on work and
descent."

India's intransigence, however, continues. In response to the
Strategic Management Plan prepared for 2010-11 by the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the Government of India notes
the Plan's references to caste and adds that as the document was not
negotiated the Indian mission in Geneva has been instructed to take
the matter up with the UNHCHR. The 160-page document contains only
three references to caste. One is a general comment that caste is one
form of discrimination in the Asia-Pacific region, another is the
inclusion of caste among UNHCHR's thematic priorities for the year,
and the third is the observation that caste discrimination is endemic
in Nepal.

Furthermore, at the 2009 Durban Review Conference, India rejected a
comment on descent, saying it "lacked intellectual rigour" and ignored
the drafting history of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD). The Convention's history, however, shows that
when it was first drafted in 1965 India's representative both
suggested the term "descent" and said the Convention would apply to
scheduled castes. In 2009, India succeeded in getting the term
"discrimination based on work and descent" removed from the conference
outcome document, though an earlier U.N. statement that caste is
covered by CERD presumably still stands.

India's position is at best incoherent. The government's periodic
report to CERD for 2006 reconfirms its opposition to any equation of
caste and race by saying the Indian Constitution distinguishes between
the two, and that race had been included in the Constitution because
of the "moral outrage of the world community against racism" after the
Second World War. This outrage, however, was not shared at the highest
levels of government. A former civil servant has publicly described
the way the then External Affairs Minister Y. B. Chavan and an aide
violated India's own sanctions against South Africa by allowing Indian
trade with the apartheid state through the Bank of Bermuda in the
mid-1970s.

Domestically, Indian government statements, including replies to MPs,
often list the legislation prohibiting caste discrimination as though
that eo ipso proves effective action. A single example serves to
undermine that. The National Crime Records Bureau's records for the
period 1995-2007 show that under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, the police registered 441,
424 crimes, but field-survey estimates suggest that the recorded
figure is about one third of the actual figure; for Scheduled Tribes
it is about one fifth.

Widespread

The proposition that caste is solely an internal matter for India is
untenable. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem
Pillay, has said publicly that globally, caste discrimination affects
260 million people; about 170 million of them are in India. In
contrast to India, Nepal, until 2007 a Hindu state by constitution,
regards caste discrimination as indistinguishable from racial
discrimination, and has confirmed that it will work through the U.N.
to counter caste discrimination; the European Union has made a similar
commitment. The pity is therefore all the greater that India is so
dismissive of international cooperation and so unwilling to take the
lead over what the Prime Minister himself has called a blot on
humanity.

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

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[ZESTCaste] RBI against using garlands made of currency notes: Centre

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/RBI-against-using-garlands-made-of-currency-notes--Centre/607665/

RBI against using garlands made of currency notes: Centre

Press Trust of India Posted online: Saturday , Apr 17, 2010 at 0358 hrs
New delhi : In the backdrop of the controversy generated over
garlanding Chief Minister Mayawati with currency notes of Rs 1,000
that is estimated to be worth between Rs 21 lakh and Rs 15 crore, the
Centre on Friday told the Lok Sabha that the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has advised people not to use garlands of currency notes to
honour personalities, though there is nothing in law to prevent such
misuse.
"The RBI has made an appeal to the members of the public not to use
currency notes for making garlands, decorative pandals and places of
worship or for showering on personalities in social events," Minister
of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply.

The Minister, however, added that the current laws do not have
provisions to prevent such misuse of currency notes.

"The RBI has informed that there is no specific provision under the
Banking Regulation Act, 1949, or under RBI Act, 1934 to check/prevent
such misuse of currency notes," Meena said.

The issue of honouring Mayawati with a huge garland of currency notes had

earlier disrupted the Lok Sabha proceedings with members of the
Samajwadi Party demanding a probe into the matter.

The Income Tax department had already stepped in to investigate the
source of the money for the garland presented to Mayawati at the
party's 'maha rally' in Lucknow last month.

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[ZESTCaste] It is time for introspection for Dalit leaders, says MLA

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/15/stories/2010041553060300.htm

Karnataka

It is time for introspection for Dalit leaders, says MLA

Staff Correspondent

'People in top positions have failed to help their people'

Minister recalls Ambedkar's work in bringing about social equality

'Don't take petty issues to public forum'

Best wishes:Revenue Minster and district in-charge, G. Karunakara
Reddy handing over a cheque to a couple who had an inter-caste
marriage, in Chitradurga on Wednesday.

Chitradurga: S.K. Basavarajan, MLA, has called upon politicians,
Ministers and officials of the Dalit community to introspect on their
contribution to the development of their people.

Speaking at the 119th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar at the Ranga
Mandira here on Wednesday, the MLA regretted that many Dalits in top
positions had failed to work for the welfare of their own people.

Petty issues

Referring to the increasing clashes among backward classes in the
district, he said people were resorting to violence over petty issues.

"Issues which should be confined to two families end up in fights
between two communities. People should refrain from taking
insignificant matters to a public forum," he said.

It was not possible for the district administration to deploy the
police in every village, Mr. Basavarajan said, adding that people from
the backward classes should learn to live in harmony and avoid
divisions in their own communities.

Rights

Delivering a lecture on the life of Ambedkar, Dalit Sangharsha Samiti
leader M. Jayanna said that reservation for Dalits was not an act of
charity; it was their right.

Blaming political parties for the status of Dalits, Mr. Jayanna said
that if the successive governments had been sincere, the lot of Dalits
would have improved long ago. He also demanded quota for people of the
backward classes in the Women's Reservation Bill. The Bill in its
present form will not serve its objective, he said.Earlier,
inaugurating the function, Revenue Minster and district in-charge, G.
Karunakar Reddy recalled Ambedkar's contribution in bringing about
social equality. To mark the occasion, he distributed cheques to five
couples who had inter-caste marriages.

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[ZESTCaste] Huge backlog in SC/ST recruitments in State

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/16/stories/2010041657770100.htm

Front Page

Huge backlog in SC/ST recruitments in State

Girish Menon

1,160 vacancies to be filled as on January 31; largest number of
vacancies in Health Department

The figure may be even more after March 31

The backlog is despite special recruitment drives

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government is grappling with a huge
backlog in the appointment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe
candidates to various vacancies in the government. The total number of
vacancies to be filled from among these communities is 1,160 as on
January 31 this year. The number is likely to be even bigger after the
introduction of uniform retirement age.

The government has been making appointments to the reserved posts
through special recruitment drives for the Scheduled Castes and the
Schedule Tribes. In addition, a special recruitment drive exclusively
for the Scheduled Tribes is also currently on. Every month, the
department concerned evaluates the progress reports submitted by 82
government departments and takes appropriate corrective action.

Progress report

According to official figures available with the General
Administration Department, the number of vacancies remaining to be
filled through special recruitment from among the Scheduled Castes and
the Scheduled Tribes was 548, including 110 gazetted posts, 253
non-gazetted posts, and 185 last grade posts. The total number of
vacancies to be filled through special recruitment from among the
Scheduled Tribes exclusively was 612, including 155 gazetted, 332
non-gazetted and 125 last grade posts.

According to the General Administration Department's progress report,
the departments of Agriculture, Fisheries, Homoeopathy, Higher
Secondary Education, Industrial Training, Public Instruction, Tourism
and Treasuries had failed to submit status reports on time about
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe vacancies.

The largest number of vacancies for the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes was reported from the Health Department at 172
(mostly last grade posts), followed by the Higher Secondary Education
Department and the Agriculture Department at 91 and 65 respectively.
In the case of the HSE Department, 55 gazetted and 36 non-gazetted
posts were lying vacant. Among the vacancies reserved exclusively for
the Scheduled Tribes, the Health Department accounted for 111
vacancies, all of which came under the last grade category. This was
followed by the Department of Public Instruction, under which 101 of
the 103 vacancies came under the non-gazetted category.

Practice

The usual practice is to compile these vacancies and report them to
the Public Service Commission for special recruitment. Official
figures show that there has not been much progress in recruitment to
these vacancies for some time now. Official sources said the backlog
would grow unless the State government paid more attention to the
process.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati expels Ansari brothers from BSP

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mayawati-expels-ansari-brothers-from-bsp/113436-37-64.html

Mayawati expels Ansari brothers from BSP

IANS

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
supremo Mayawati on Friday expelled criminal-turned-politician Mukhtar
Ansari from the primary membership of the party.

"Ansari's involvement in criminal activities led our party president
to take the decision to expel him," a BSP press release released here
said.

His elder brother Afzal Ansari, who was earlier a BSP MP, also has
been expelled while the party has decided to distance itself from
their cousin Sibtainullah Ansari, who had been extending his support
to the BSP despite being a Samajwadi Party legislator.

Both Afzal and Mukhtar are currently in jail in connection with the
murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Krishnanand Rai, who
was gunned down in a broad daylight ambush near Allahabad a few years
ago.

According to the press release, Mukhtar Ansari "had failed to live up
to the expectations of the BSP where he was given entry on the promise
that he would mend his ways".

According to the release, a raid by the police on Ghazipur jail
earlier this month revealed that Mukhtar Ansari and his brother were
continuing with their criminal activities even from behind the bars
and hence the party leadership decided to throw them out as "they were
giving BSP a bad name".

Justifying the party's earlier decision to take in the Ansari
brothers, despite their criminal antecedents, the release added:
"Mayawati admitted Ansari into the party on the plea that past
governments had implicated him in criminal cases simply because of his
crusade against affluent and powerful landowners to uphold the cause
of the poor and the downtrodden."

Mukhtar and Afzal Ansari were the official BSP nominees for the
Varanasi and Ghazipur seats respectively in the April-May Lok Sabha
elections, but both lost.

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[ZESTCaste] Paswan demands dismissal of Modi government for ‘failure’ to protect Dalits

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Paswan-demands-dismissal-of-Modi-government-for--failure--to-protect-Dalits/607565

Paswan demands dismissal of Modi government for 'failure' to protect Dalits

Press Trust of India Posted online: Saturday , Apr 17, 2010 at 0135 hrs
Ahmedabad : The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) on Friday demanded dismissal
of the Narendra Modi Government for its 'failure' to protect Dalits in
the state, where some Scheduled Caste members were "thrown out of
their own village".
"When we got the reports that 145 Dalit families were treated as
outcast and thrown out of their own village in Gujarat, we could not
believe that such kind of incident was possible in Mahatma Gandhi's
land," said LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan.

"But when we went to Vanthal village in Viramgam taluka of Ahmedabad,
we were surprised. There were locks at all Dalit homes."

"We will be meeting the President on this issue and also request the
Union Government to interfere in the matter. The Modi Government has
been anti-minority, and now it has also started opposing the Dalits,"
he alleged. The Centre should take appropriate action and dismiss the
Gujarat government, he demanded.

The LJP chief said he met Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal who was also
surprised to hear about the incident. "The Governor said this was a
shameful incident and needs to be condemned. She said she would write
to Chief Minister regarding this incident and ask for details," Paswan
said.

"The Governor even said this could be the first incident of its kind
in the country after Independence wherein Dalits were thrown out of
their village," he claimed.

Paswan said he and his party members had visited Vanthal village on
Thursday and reinstated many Dalit families who had fled to Jetpur in
Rajkot following harassment by upper-caste members in the last 11
months.

"Those who have been reinstated are still under fear. They should be
protected and those found guilt of atrocity should be punished as per
the law," he said.

The LJP chief also claimed he has come to know of 26 other villages in
the Viramgam taluka where, according to him, Dalits were being
discriminated and harassed.

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[ZESTCaste] Caste discrimination against India's 'untouchables' is an international issue

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7597109/Caste-discrimination-against-Indias-untouchables-is-an-international-issue.html

Caste discrimination against India's 'untouchables' is an international issue
The caste system may be outlawed in India, but legislation is poorly
implemented, and the country's 200 million Dalits continue to suffer
appalling forms of discrimination, writes Rikke Nohrlind.

By Rikke Nohrlind
Published: 10:49AM BST 16 Apr 2010

For years, the Government of India has opposed efforts to place the
issue of caste discrimination on the agenda of the international
community. This attitude is counterproductive as it would be to
India's advantage to support such efforts and take the lead in the
global struggle against a form of discrimination which affects an
estimated 260 million people around the world.

The caste system may be outlawed in India, but legislation is poorly
implemented, and the country's 200 million Dalits – formerly known as
'untouchables' – continue to suffer appalling forms of discrimination.
Murder, rape and other crimes against them are mostly committed with
impunity, while many Dalits experience forced prostitution and other
forms of modern slavery.

Indian leader faces jail after call for rival to be 'raped'India has
much to gain from encouraging international involvement in this issue.
Its endorsement of a UN framework to eliminate caste discrimination
would set an example to other countries and strengthen its own
unsuccessful efforts to end this human rights problem. Such a
framework exists in the form of the draft UN Principles and Guidelines
to eliminate caste discrimination, which have been published, but not
yet adopted, by the UN Human Rights Council.

Recently, civil society activists and an Indian MP have urged the
government to stop opposing the inclusion of caste discrimination in
the international human rights regime, and to become a champion of the
draft UN Principles and Guidelines in the UN. However, government
officials continue to reject such claims based on misguided
interpretations of caste discrimination in the context of
international human rights law.

Some officials claim that caste is not part of the existing
international human rights regime and oppose the adoption of a new and
specific framework to address this form of discrimination in the UN.
IDSN believes that caste discrimination warrants separate and
distinctive treatment in the UN human rights system because of its
unique nature, the vast numbers of people affected and the severity of
the associated violations.

Since 1996 the Government of India has also argued that caste falls
outside the scope of the International Convention for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). However, the draft UN Principles and
Guidelines make completely clear that caste discrimination is
prohibited by international human rights treaties, to which India is a
party, including ICERD.

Such misconceptions now permeate the media debate on the draft UN
Principles and Guidelines. These guidelines do not equate caste with
race; they provide a specific definition of discrimination based on
work and descent (the official UN terminology for caste
discrimination) as "any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or
preference based on inherited status such as caste, including present
or ancestral occupation, family, community or social origin, name,
birth place, place of residence, dialect and accent."

A recent and unprecedented move towards making caste discrimination a
criminal offence in the UK through an amendment to the Equality Bill
may provide additional impetus to the adoption of the guidelines.
Mounting evidence of caste discrimination in South Asian Diaspora
communities in the UK has prompted this initiative.

The international community is increasingly concerned with India's
opposition to the consideration of caste discrimination as an
international human rights violation that warrants attention by UN
bodies. This position is in deep contrast to India's own binding
treaty obligations. It is based on the underlying assumption that
caste is an internal affair and not a matter of international concern.

Allowing caste discrimination to persist is shameful. We believe that
affected governments in South Asia ought to take the lead in
eliminating one of the largest and most serious human rights issue in
the world today. India's support for a UN framework would improve the
country's unimpressive human rights record and give hope to millions
of victims of caste discrimination – not only in India itself, but
around the world.

Rikke Nohrlind is the Coordinator of the International Dalit Solidarity Network

The International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) works globally to
end caste discrimination. Read more about this issue on www.idsn.org.

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[ZESTCaste] Contemporary relevance of Baba Saheb Ambedkar

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/04/contemporary-relevance-of-baba-saheb.html

Saturday, April 17, 2010
Contemporary relevance of Baba Saheb Ambedkar

"Ambedkar's Buddhism was a Buddhism of a minority trying to liberate
the entire nation. Ambedkar opposed separatism but always kept in mind
the unique nature of the oppression of the Dalits."

By Basil Fernando

(April 17, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) Baba Saheb Ambedkar's memory
was celebrated by large numbers of admirers and followers in India and
outside once again this week. Perhaps no other modern contemporary
leader of India is as much remembered by such large numbers of (mostly
much oppressed) people throughout India as Ambedkar is. One-time
untouchables, who now called themselves Dalits, a name that was given
to them by B.R. Ambedkar, remember him as an inspiration in their own
struggles to regain their dignity. Perhaps no people have been put
into such a degraded position in society anywhere as the untouchables
of India. The millions of people who belong to these groups have
fought a battle to re-emerge as people with dignity, and to that
revival Ambedkar has contributed greatly.

Ambedkar's political thought is still very relevant to not only to the
politics of India but also to politics in South Asia in general. South
Asian countries are today facing deep crises, unable to develop
political and social institutions to guarantee stability to their
societies primarily because of centuries of oppressive and social
political systems that were their heritage due to the caste system.
The caste system essentially was a system of domination by a small
group, called Brahmins, who developed most sophisticated forms of
cunning into the social control systems of their time in a way that
even for centuries they could maintain their dominance. The damage
that was done in the process of repression that accompanied the
creation and the maintenance of the caste system have become the
obstacles to the development of the intelligence the creativity and
the capacity of all the people to deal with contemporary problems.
Their past holds them in their bondage. The bonds are so deeply
engrained into the very nervous systems that generation after
generation people are reproduced with mentalities that prevent them
from realizing the capacity for freedom and capacity for deeper social
communion in each other in their social context. Deep divisiveness
inbuilt into the South Asian culture was created by these centuries of
subtle of social control. Methods of control were formulated as rules
of religion and rituals to which the individual life was so deeply
tied up.

The idea of the individual freedom is so alien to this cultural
heritage. The intricate mechanism that entraps people emotionally and
psychologically by various kinds of mythical beliefs got so engrained
in the minds of all due to this past.

"Ambedkar's political thought is still very relevant to not only to
the politics of India but also to politics in South Asia in general.
South Asian countries are today facing deep crises, unable to develop
political and social institutions to guarantee stability to their
societies primarily because of centuries of oppressive and social
political systems that were their heritage due to the caste system. "
.................................

A few great leaders in India understood the depth of the internal
bondage of the Indian mind created by this history. Some saw it purely
as philosophical problem, like for example Sri Aurobindo. Sri
Aurobindo devoted the later part of his life trying to influence the
younger generation to break away from the mindset that has entered
into their society, retarding all, from one generation to another. He
said that the great creativity that India once was had been
devastatingly destroyed at sometime point of time.

It was B.R. Ambedkar that identified the cause of the retardation of
the Indian creativity, which is also the source of the retardation of
the mindsets of people of other South Asian countries. He saw that
purely by way of mental exercises this bondage cannot be broken. What
needed to be broken were the social the social linkages which had tied
up the minds of the people over centuries. To this he gave and for the
understanding of this processes he devoted his time. And his way of
understanding was not by reading into the text of the past but into
the lives of the ordinary folk of India spread in that vast country.

In the poverty of India was the evidence that was necessary to look
into in order to discover the methods by which people lives are
destroyed by this terrible heritage.

Jawaharlal Nehru in the Discovery of India tries to talk about the
glories of India in the past. Ambedkar on the other hand tries to
demonstrate how the glory was lost and how the bondage of the Indian
minds and the Indian spirit and as a result the Indian way of life was
come to what it is today. It is this discovery that has the capacity
and the liberating effect that not only the masses but the entire
country is in need of in order to face the challenges of the modern
times.

Ambedkar was well-versed on history and the political theories which
have been produced in the process of struggles for democracy. He was
also deeply aware of the history of minority problems in the world. He
understood that if a minority problem is not properly resolved entire
civilizations can be destroyed in conflicts which not only destroy the
minorities but entirety of society.

Ambedkar needs to be studied much more by the younger generations who
are in search of solutions to the kinds of problems that they very
often which they feel that there are no solution to. The easy
solutions many have sought have not worked. There is a depth that
needs to be explored in order to be able to explore all the
possibilities of getting over these severe problems. In the work of
Ambedkar there are great insights that are yet to be explored and in
that exploration the real glories of the past of the sub-continent
could reemerge. Pseudo respect for Buddhism today was challenged by
Ambedkar who himself became a Buddhist by trying to rediscover the
actual history of Buddhism in India. The destruction of Buddhism in
India was a result of the caste struggles in India and in that
struggle the certainties that the Brahmins had developed to get
victory and to win back their dominance were also constantly exposed
by Ambedkar.

Without doubt, Baba Saheb Ambedkar is the greatest political leader in
modern South Asian history, with regard to his understanding of the
linkage between social controls exercised by religion and its
influence in the contemporary history. While Mahatma Ghandi saw the
meaning of freedom in terms of getting rid of the colonial power and
passing the power to local elites, Ambedkar saw freedom of Indians
from the point of view of getting rid of cultural inhabited bondage of
created by the caste system. He saw centuries old practices in which
social control of the masses has been done mainly by the use of
language, rituals and 'ethical codes' reinforcing the caste domination
over the masses.

Ambedkar also saw moments of liberation in Indian history. That was
the way he saw Buddhism. He called Buddha his guru. He said that he
didn't learn principles of democracy from Western philosophers but
from his guru, Gautama Buddha.

"My Personal Philosophy"

"Positively, my social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three
words: liberty, equality and fraternity. Let no one, however, say that
I have borrowed my philosophy from the French Revolution. I have not.
My philosophy has roots in religion and not in political science. I
have derived them from the teachings of my master, the Buddha. In his
philosophy, liberty and equality had a place: but he added that
unlimited liberty destroyed equality, and absolute equality leaves no
room for liberty. In his philosophy, law had a place only as a
safeguard against the breaches of liberty and equality; but he did not
believe that law could be a guarantee for breaches of liberty or
equality. He gave the highest place to fraternity as the only real
safeguard against the denial of liberty or equality or fraternity
which was another name for brotherhood or humanity, which was again
another name for religion.

"Law is secular, which anybody may break while fraternity or religion
is sacred which everybody must respect. My philosophy has a mission. I
have to do the work of conversion: for, I have to make the followers
of Triguna theory to give it up and accept mine. Indians today are
governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set out in
the preamble to the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality
and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion, denies
them." Dr. B.R.Ambedkar( From All-India Radio broadcast of a speech on
Oct. 3, 1954)

In this famous radio broadcast, he summarized the fundamentals of his
belief in democracy as having its roots in the teaching of Buddha. He
also devoted many years of his life studying Buddhism and wrote large
volumes on the teachings of the Buddha. In 1936, in a speech which now
remains as a political classic, entitled 'Annihilation of Caste', he
attributed the roots of caste to be based on the ideals of religion
created by Brahminism. He declared that though he himself was born to
that tradition, he will not die within it. Fulfilling this promise, 20
years later he converted himself publically to Buddhism, with over
500,000 followers in a public ceremony held in Nagaland, India.

Ambedkar's Buddhism was a Buddhism of a minority trying to liberate
the entire nation. Ambedkar opposed separatism but always kept in mind
the unique nature of the oppression of the Dalits. However, he
understood that unless the entire nation rejects the traditions which
keep its masses under oppressive social control, the minority cannot
find liberation. He was fully aware of his capacity to create
political chaos if he wished to do so. He consciously avoided that
path, despite of the difficulties involved. He was the only Indian
leader who openly opposed Mahatma Ghandi on his limited approach to
deal with the problem of Dalits. However, he shared the common burden
of Indian liberation from the British and even became the law minister
in Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. In fact, he was the chief draftsman of
the committee which drafted the Indian constitution. He understood
that the minority cannot win its right by destroying democracy. He
also understood that by suppressing the minorities' struggle, the
majority are ruining themselves also. How true, even in the modern
context of South Asian countries.

To the struggle for enlightenment in South Asia, Ambedkar has made a
lasting contribution. And this contribution needs to be understood to
further the process of trying to deal with the contemporary problems
within all South Asian nations.

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

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[ZESTCaste] Gujjar march: Stage set for Jaipur siege

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Gujjar-march-Stage-set-for-Jaipur-siege/articleshow/5814092.cms

Gujjar march: Stage set for Jaipur siege
Akhilesh Kumar Singh & Abhinav Sharma, TNN, Apr 16, 2010, 02.43am IST
JAIPUR: Haunted by past misdemeanors of persistent procrastination,
state government is now exploring possibilities to sort out the Gujjar
quota issue, as the agitating community members are inching towards
Jaipur and threaten to lay siege to the desert state capital within
the next few days.

However, going by the dilly-dally approach of the government and also
the rigid attitude of the community, the state seems to be heading for
yet another impasse, despite the fact the Gujjar agitations in the
past have witnessed loss of lives as well as property. However, under
given circumstances, Gujjar community's latest demand of exclusive 5%
quota, leaving aside their previous demand of scheduled tribe status,
seems to be a remote possibility.

State government has already given special backward status to the
community and accorded 5% quota and another 14% for the economically
weaker sections. But it exceeded the 50% limit and now Rajasthan High
Court has stayed its operations.

As the quota given by the government has fallen in legal tangles,
Gujjars have shifted from their previous strategy and now, they are
seeking exclusive 50% quota by truncating the existing OBC category
quota.

Although Gujjars are listed in the OBC category, along with 67 other
castes but they want specified and dedicated 5% quota for themselves,
a demand that has put state government on a sticky wicket, mainly at a
time when the quota given to the community is sub judice.

In 2007, the government of Andhra Pradesh had given 4% special
reservation to Muslim community which was in legal tangles for quite
some time. But a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan
and Justices J M Panchal and Justice B S Chauhan, allowed the state to
continue with it ad-interim, till the final verdict is pronounced by a
constitution bench.

The apex court had cautioned against any disproportionate use of
"reservation", saying it would prove counterproductive and only help
perpetuate casteism, in M. Nagraj versus Union of India case in 2006
itself. However, the bench had also said reservation beyond 50%
ceiling is permissible provided there are circumstances to justify
representation of those communities to which the excess reservation is
proposed.

The above observations of the apex court renders a glimmer of hope in
favour of the Gujjars provided the state government treads the issue
in right earnest. Although Government had appealed in Rajasthan High
Court seeking vacation of the stay but court denied it.

Interestingly, the state has not shown any interest in going in appeal
in the Supreme Court against the Rajasthan High Court order, unlike
Andhra Pradesh, which got relief from the apex court in the Muslim
quota case, which had also been stayed by the Andhra High Court.

Rajasthan state advocate general, G S Baphana, said that the state had
no plans to appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the Rajasthan High
Court order.

"We had pleaded that the act provisioning quota for the Gujjars was
valid, but High Court refused to vacate the stay and we have no option
but to comply with it," he said. Queried further, he said, "I have no
information if state has any plans to go into appeal in the Supreme
Court."

The observations of the Supreme Court bench in the Nagaraj's case that
the reservation beyond 50 percent ceiling limit is permissible
provided there are circumstances to justify the representation of
those communities also gives the state an opportunity to think beyond
political permutations and make efforts for the community, who remain
to be extremely backwards even after 60 years of independence.

Gujjar population in Rajasthan is over 6% of the state population
(over 5million) but there are only 14 gazetted officers, six
university teachers, 10 college lecturers, 30 doctors, 20 engineers
and over 2000 in other government services. There are hardly any
Gujjar in trade and business and in Karauli and Sawai Madhopur, 40.18%
and 37.47% Gujjar families are classified as BPL families. There are
only five RAS officers from the community but none has made it to the
all India services till date.

Although Gujjars in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal are classified as
Scheduled Tribes they could not make it to the category in Rajasthan
mainly due to political considerations. On the other hand, Meenas in
eastern Rajasthan come from the same background but have been listed
as a scheduled tribe have been reaping the maximum benifit of the ST
quota not only in Rajasthan but across the country. Meena candidates
constitute a majority in the all India services and they are far ahead
of other tribes in the country. At present, over 250 Meena people are
in all India services, to say the least about the state services.

Experts say that Gujjars felt envious of Meenas' growth through
services as the community live in the neighbourhood in the eastern
Rajasthan but the inclusion of Jat community on the OBC category was
the biggest damage to the community and they are fighting for separate
quota since then. The OBC reservation was introduced in Rajasthan in
1994 and Gujjars were the most dominant in the listed OBC castes.

But in 2000, the NDA government included Jats in the OBC category
after which Gujjars got only peripheral benefits of the OBC quota.
Jats, who constitute over 10% of the Rajasthan population, are the
most effluent among the Rajasthan castes and their inclusion in the
category did the maximum damage to Gujjars. "Since then, Gujjars are
left to fend for themselves but their demand is rightful as they
remain to be the most backward in the state," says Narain Barith, a
journalist from eastern Rajasthan.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits keen to learn Manusmriti

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india/Dalits-keen-to-learn-Manusmriti/Article1-532523.aspx

Dalits keen to learn Manusmriti

HT Correspondent/Rajesh, Hindustan Times

Lucknow, April 17, 2010
First Published: 16:59 IST(17/4/2010)
Last Updated: 17:01 IST(17/4/2010)

Call it an impact of the social engineering effected by Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP) or just plain coincidence, dalits are showing an eagerness
to learn - as much from the Manusmriti as they do from the Sacchi
Ramayan.

On Wednesday, on the occasion of the Ambedkar Jayanti, both the books
sold like hot cakes at the temporary book stalls put up at the
Ambedkar Memorial premises.

The owner of the bookstall Ravi Kumar Mehta said within few hours the
copies of Manusmriti and Sacchi Ramayan vanished from the stall. Mehta
is in the business of dalit literature for over a decade says "since
years Sacchi Ramayan was among the top dalit literature on the
popularity chart. The demand for Manusrimiti started only two years
back", he said.

"Orders of Manusmriti have been placed by dalit as well as upper caste
readers he said and added the high rate of the book ( Rs 150) was no
bar on its popularity", he said.

Shiv Kumar, a resident of Ranipur village near Bakshi-ka-Talab said
the dalits hated Manusmriti since it was considered the text of
oppressors. The political empowerment has led to spread of the
education among dalits, these days there was eagerness among the
community especially the youths to read the book.

Not only Sacchi Ramayan and Manusmiriti but also Chamcha Yug penned by
Kanshi Ram, Bhagwan Buddha aur Dhamma written by Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar,
Buddha Charitra Chandroday by Vineet Vikar Baudh, Main Bhangi Hun by
Bhagwan Das, 1857- role of dalits by Satnam Singh, Dalit Dastaweg by
MR Vidrohi were in demand at the fair.

Another bookseller Moti Lal (60) said "I joined BSP on the call of
Kanshi Ram in 1985. A resident of Shiyadih village located in
Allahabad district, Lal started dalit literature business in 1992.
Along with the books the CD of Chief Minister Mayawati carrying her
message and public meetings is in high demand".

The road located adjacent to the Ambedkar Memorial had virtually
converted into a dalit mela. Unmindful of the sweltering heat (42
degree Celsius ) hundred of BSP workers along with the family members
converged on the road and enjoyed the edible, ice cream and nimu
paani.

Large crowd was seen at the stalls selling the posters and stickers
of Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and Gautam Buddha. Its celebration time for
us said Akshya Lal a BSP worker the nation was observing the 119 birth
anniversary of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar who had shaken the consciousness
of the dalits and paved way for their empowerment

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

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[ZESTCaste] Re: Update on brave Gujarati girl (April 17 2010)

Dear donors and friends,
I am sure many must be looking for the updates on our aid to the brave Gujarati Girl. It was supposed to be finished by Mar 31, 2010, as I informed earlier.

But, due to some logistical issues, it is delayed and I am waiting for a new date from the organizers in Gujarat.

Right now, we got enrolled her in an English improvement course and she is doing great.

Thanks to Dr Raghu, Mr Kirit, and Mr Rao for helping her and trying to finish the task ASAP.

I will keep you posted when I have some info on it.

I am sorry for the delay.

With regards
Ben

----------------------------------------------------------
An educated man without character and humility was more dangerous than a beast. If his education was detrimental to the welfare of poor, he was a curse to society.
-Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar
Please visit www.friendsforeducation.org or www.ambedkarscholarship.org

________________________________
From: Benjamin Kaila <benjamin_kaila@yahoo.com>
To: Sent: Mon, March 8, 2010 8:32:39 PM
Subject: Update on brave Gujarati girl (Mar 08, 2010)

Dear donors and friends,
I am happy to inform that we were able to collect more than a lakh to help the brave Gujarati girl. You all know the story. She deserves our help for her intelligence, courage, and above all the will to survive and excel despite all odds against her.

First of all thanks to Prof Shiva Shankar who mooted this idea of helping her through donations when I brought her predicament to our forum's attention. Thanks to each one of the donors. We all at FFEI are immensely indebted to you for your generosity. Please check the list of donors and let me know if any discrepancies.

After hearing from the donors, we decided the following:
1.     Clear the remaining auto loan of Rs. 75,000
2.     Give the rest to her for her studies or in the form of fixed deposit certificate. Yet to decide.

Following is the update on the girl:
1.     I am waiting for some more information on her
2.     Thanks to Brothers Sam Paul, and Gedion, and Ms Vinaya. We were able to get her a job as a teacher in an English medium school near her village. But, she refused it stating that she is not convenient with teaching in English medium school.
3.     I have already initiated transferring money to India. Currently the exchange rate is about Rs. 45.75.USD. I took 45 as conversion rate and the total came to about Rs.1,40,000.
Please write to me if any questions.
Thanks
Ben

Donations to Gujarati girl
Donor USD Rupees
Ms Raj Kaul, US                   96.80
Ms Shilpa Raina, US                   96.80
Ms Santosh Raina, US                   96.80
Mr Sanjay Chauhan, US                   29.80
Dr Satinath Chowdhary, US                   96.80
Mr Mohammad Imran, US                   96.80
Dr Uma N Iyer, US                   51.00
Mr Gagan D Mall, US                 100.00
Anonymous rape survivor                 300.00
Mr Srikanth Voorakaranam, US                 750.00
Ms Sugam Tiku, US                 100.00
Ms Usha Shiralkar, US                 250.00
Prof Alladi Uma, Hyd     5,000.00
Prof M Sridhar, Hyd     5,000.00
Prof Alladi Sitaram, Hyd     5,000.00
Dr Ranghavan Rangarajan, Gujarat     1,000.00
Dr Ranghavan Rangarajan, Gujarat     5,000.00
Prof Shiva Shankar, Chennai 10,000.00
Ambedkar International Mission Inc, US                 250.00
Dr Venkata Pingali, US                   60.00
Donations total            2,374.80 31,000.00

Exchange Rate Rs/USD (Appx.)                   45.00

USD converted into rupees          106,866.00
Add Rupee donations            31,000.00

Total donations       137,866.00

----------------------------------------------------------
An educated man without character and humility was more dangerous than a beast. If his education was detrimental to the welfare of poor, he was a curse to society.
-Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar
Please visit www.friendsforeducation.org or www.ambedkarscholarship.org

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