Monday, May 17, 2010

[ZESTCaste] 'Buta Singh's allegations are motivated'

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_buta-singh-s-allegations-are-motivated_1383657

'Buta Singh's allegations are motivated'
DNA Correspondent / DNASunday, May 16, 2010 10:41 IST

Gandhinagar: The Narendra Modi-led state government has sharply
reacted to the comments and criticism put forth by Buta Singh,
chairman of the National Schedule Castes Commission, regarding the CM
and the status of Dalits in the state. Singh, who was on a two-day
state visit, heavily criticised the CM, saying that he allegedly
called the Dalits 'mandbudhi' (mentally retarded). He also lashed out
at the state administration for the poor state of affairs of the SC
community in Gujarat.

State government spokespersons Jaynarayan Vyas and Saurabh Patel, and
two SC ministers Fakir Vaghela (social justice & empowerment minister)
and Ramanlal Vora, in a press statement, said Singh is being motivated
by Congress agenda, and this does not suit a constitutional authority
like the chairman of the SC commission.

Vaghela said, "Due to the state government's good performance, the
government of India has named the Gujarat SC Development Corporation
as the best SC Corporation in the nation. The figures of Dalit
atrocity given by Singh are also misleading. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan
and MP have, as crime rates against SCs, 20.5%, 13.9% and 13.7%
respectively, while Gujarat has only 3.5%. It's lower than even the
national average. Gujarat has been announced as scavenging-free since
1992 and the state government has adopted a policy of giving Rs2 lakh
as compensation to the families of dead manhole workers, which was
earlier only 1 lakh.''

Several ministers critised Singh for his allegations, and said that
this behaviours is simply indicative of Singh's and the Congress'
mentality.

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[ZESTCaste] Goddess English of Uttar Pradesh

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/opinion/16joseph.html

Op-Ed Contributor

Goddess English of Uttar Pradesh
By MANU JOSEPH
Published: May 14, 2010

A FORTNIGHT ago, in a poor village in Uttar Pradesh, in northern
India, work began on a temple dedicated to Goddess English. Standing
on a wooden desk was the idol of English — a bronze figure in robes,
wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding aloft a pen. About 1,000
villagers had gathered for the groundbreaking, most of them Dalits,
the untouchables at the bottom of India's caste system. A social
activist promoting the study of English, dressed in a Western suit
despite the hot sun and speaking as if he were imparting religious
wisdom, said, "Learn A, B, C, D." The temple is a gesture of defiance
from the Dalits to the nation's elite as well as a message to the
Dalit young — English can save you.

A few days later, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers, a body that oversees domain names on the Web, announced a
different kind of liberation: it has taken the first steps to free the
online world from the Latin script, which English and most Web
addresses are written in. In some parts of the world, Web addresses
can already be written in non-Latin scripts, though until this change,
all needed the Latin alphabet for country codes, like ".sa" for Saudi
Arabia. But now that nation, along with Egypt and the United Arab
Emirates, has been granted a country code in the Arabic alphabet, and
Russia has gotten a Cyrillic one. Soon, others will follow.

Icann calls it a "historic" development, and that is true, but only
because a great cliché has finally been defeated. The Internet as a
unifier of humanity was always literary nonsense, on par with "truth
will triumph."

The universality of the Latin script online was an accident of its
American invention, not a global intention. The world does not want to
be unified. What is the value of belonging if you belong to all? It is
a fragmented world by choice, and so it was always a fragmented Web.
Now we can stop pretending — but that doesn't mean this is a change
worth celebrating.

Many have argued that the introduction of domain names and country
codes in non-Latin scripts will help the Web finally reach the world's
poor. But it is really hard to believe that what separates an Egyptian
or a Tamil peasant from the Internet is the requirement to type in a
few foreign characters. There are far greater obstacles. It is even
harder to believe that all the people who are demanding their freedom
from the Latin script are doing it for humanitarian reasons. A big
part of the issue here is nationalism, and the East's imagination of
the West as an adversary. This is just the latest episode in an
ancient campaign.

A decade ago I met Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson, Tushar Gandhi, a
jolly, endearing, meat-eating man. He was distraught that the Indians
who were creating Web sites were choosing the dot-com domain over the
more patriotic dot-in. He was trying to convince Indians to flaunt
their nationality. He told me: "As long as we live in this world,
there will be boundaries. And we need to be proud of what we call
home."

It is the same sentiment that is now inspiring small groups of Indians
to demand top-level domain names (the suffix that follows the dot in a
Web address) in their own native scripts, like Tamil. The Tamil
language is spoken in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where I
spent the first 20 years of my life, and where I have seen fierce
protests against the colonizing power of Hindi. The International
Forum for Information Technology in Tamil, a tech advocacy and
networking group, has petitioned Icann for top-level domain names in
the Tamil script. But if it cares about increasing the opportunities
available to poor Tamils, it should be promoting English, not Tamil.

There's no denying that at the heart of India's new prosperity is a
foreign language, and that the opportunistic acceptance of English has
improved the lives of millions of Indians. There are huge benefits in
exploiting a stronger cultural force instead of defying it. Imagine
what would have happened if the 12th-century Europeans who first
encountered Hindu-Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3) had rejected them as a
foreign oddity and persisted with the cumbersome Roman numerals (IV,
V). The extraordinary advances in mathematics made by Europeans would
probably have been impossible.

But then the world is what it is. There is an expression popularized
by the spread of the Internet: the global village. Though intended as
a celebration of the modern world's inclusiveness, it is really an
accurate condemnation of that world. After all, a village is a petty
place — filled with old grudges, comical self-importance and imagined
fears.


Manu Joseph, the deputy editor of the Indian newsweekly OPEN, is the
author of the forthcoming novel "Serious Men."


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[ZESTCaste] Atrocities against dalits highest in UP

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/655331_Atrocities-against-dalits-highest-in-UP

Atrocities against dalits highest in UP

STAFF WRITER 16:36 HRS IST
Bhopal, May 16 (PTI) The cases of atrocities against dalits were
highest in BSP-ruled Uttar Pradesh followed by Bihar and Madhya
Pradesh, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) said today.

The Commission would submit its final report to President Pratibha
Patil by May 26, NCSC Chairman Buta Singh said.

"Uttar Pradesh tops the list of the states followed by Bihar and
Madhya Pradesh in atrocities against scheduled caste," Singh told
reporters here.

At times, Bihar surpasses UP, and some times MP goes to the second
place in connection with the atrocities on the dalits, he said, adding
that first three positions keep changing among these three states.

"We will submit our final report after visiting different states to
President Pratibha Patil by May 26," he said.

He said Punjab, Harayana, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are not lagging
behind in offences against dalits.

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[ZESTCaste] Were Dalits in temple just an act?

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Were-Dalits-in-temple-just-an-act/Article1-544222.aspx

Were Dalits in temple just an act?


HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times


Jait, May 15, 2010
First Published: 23:55 IST(15/5/2010)
Last Updated: 23:58 IST(15/5/2010)

Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Buta
Singh was in for a surprise when he visited Jait village.

Dalits were happily singing devotional songs inside a temple that
earlier didn't even allow them to enter.

Singh was on a fact-finding mission to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan's native village after HT published a report titled 'Temple
apartheid at Shivraj village' on May 6.

The report said Dalits were not allowed entry into the three temples
at the village in Sehore district, 100 km from Bhopal.

The turnaround seems to have happened after administrative and police
officers visited the village on Friday to enforce "law and order" in
preparation for Singh's visit.

Vaijantibai, who lives opposite the CM's ancestral house in Jait and
had earlier complained of discrimination, was sitting along with the
team of bhajan singers when Singh arrived. He was accompanied by
member of National Human Rights Commission Mahendra Boudh.

Vaijantibai promptly retracted her statement when Singh spoke to her.
"I have no problem here. No one stops us from entering the temples,"
she told Singh, and maintained her stand despite repeated questions by
Singh and Boudh.

Singh appears to have seen through the stage-managed act. "I am
surprised. The scene itself tells the whole story. I will submit my
report to the President."


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[ZESTCaste] Sonia prods people to ask Mayawati about funds utilisation

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Sonia-prods-people-to-ask-Mayawati-about-funds-utilisation/Article1-544777.aspx

Sonia prods people to ask Mayawati about funds utilisation

Indo-Asian News Service
Lucknow, May 17, 2010
First Published: 14:15 IST(17/5/2010)
Last Updated: 14:39 IST(17/5/2010)


Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who on Monday began a three-day trip
of her constituency Rae Bareli, has asked people to seek an account
from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on the utilisation of
central government funds for development, party officials said.

"Soniaji said the people should come forward to know about the
utilisation of funds being released by the centre for various
developmental and public-welfare schemes," Akhilesh Pratap Singh,
party spokesperson in the state, told reporters in Rae Bareli, about
80 km from Lucknow.

"Soniaji believes that once people start seeking an account of the
developmental funds from the state government, they would themselves
realise how the state government is misusing the central government's
funds that are meant for an all-round development of the state," he
added.

After arriving at Rae Bareli around 11 am, Gandhi inaugurated the new
building of a Sub Post Office in Saraini town and held a small public
meeting.

During her three-day tour, Gandhi will meet party activists and could
make surprise inspections in several villages to see how central
government-funded developmental projects were doing, party officials
said.


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[ZESTCaste] 400,000 deployed for census in Uttar Pradesh

 

http://sify.com/finance/400-000-deployed-for-census-in-uttar-pradesh-news-default-kfqwEdfjjah.html

400,000 deployed for census in Uttar Pradesh

2010-05-16 22:40:00
Over 400,000 personnel have been engaged for carrying out census in
Uttar Pradesh, where the enumeration exercise was launched by Chief
Minister Mayawati Sunday.

The bulk of the work has been entrusted to school teachers.

According to an official press release, 'About 300,000 primary school
teachers were engaged in the exercise, besides several thousand
revenue and municipal officials and junior engineers'.

Mayawati has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to include caste as
one of the key components in the census exercise.

In a letter to the prime minister Saturday, she alleged that
'exclusion of caste from the census operations in the past was
apparently the result of a conspiracy to prevent an authentic count of
the other backward classes (OBCs)'.

'Inclusion of caste of every citizen in the census was extremely
important with a view to ensuring that OBCs remained in the mainstream
of the country's development process,' she said.

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[ZESTCaste] Violence related to caste system is tragic: Kumari Selja

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/violence-related-to-caste-system-is-tragic-kumari-selja_100365072.html

Violence related to caste system is tragic: Kumari Selja

May 17th, 2010 - 4:54 pm ICT by IANS -
Chandigarh, May 17 (IANS) Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja Monday
termed various incidents of caste-related violence in Haryana as
"unfortunate and tragic" but said that the whole Jat community could
not be blamed for the incidents.
When asked about the recent incident of arson attack on Dalit families
in Mirchpur village in Hisar district by members of the Jat community,
Selja said: "These incidents, which are related to caste system, are
very unfortunate and tragic. The social fabric here is so strong that
so far many people have not come out of it."

A 70-year-old man and his 18-year-old physically challenged daughter
died after sustaining burn injuries and at least 18 houses were
damaged in the April 21 attack suspected to have been led by the rival
but dominant Jat community in the area.

"On one hand we have many government-run schemes to uplift the poor
people but I think that still there is a long way to go. Until we are
able to uplift every citizen the situation cannot improve. Besides
instilling a sense of security among people, government has to ensure
that law and order situation should prevail," said Selja.

Selja, who is an MP from Ambala constituency in Haryana, was in this
union territory to inaugurate some tourism-related projects.

Haryana khap panchayats (community councils), which are also dominated
by Jats, have been demanding an amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act
and a complete ban on marriages within the same 'gotra' or lineage.

However, Selja said that it was not appropriate to blame all Jats for
the incidents of violence.

"We have myriad of cultures and traditions in our country. But for all
this we cannot blame the whole Jat community just because of some
people," said Selja.

When asked about her personal opinion over the demand of amendment in
the Hindu Marriage Act, Shelja said: "Congress party is clear about
its stand and I will stick to it. We cannot go against law and only
want that law should prevail in the country."


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[ZESTCaste] Samajwadi Party joins the Brahmin wooing race

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/samajwadi-party-joins-the-brahmin-wooing-race/619777/

Samajwadi Party joins the Brahmin wooing race

Express News Service Posted online: Mon May 17 2010, 03:36 hrs
Lucknow : Section of party leaders unhappy with such meetings as they
feel the party is digressing from its main agenda-breaking the caste
system
Samajawadi Party joined the race to lure Brahmin votes in the state by
organising a meeting of "Samajwadi Brahmin Sabha" at the party
headquarters on the occasion of Parshuram Jayanti on Sunday.

Addressing the gathering, party state president Akhilesh Yadav, who
was the chief guest on the occasion, said the Brahmin Samaj has always
taken a lead role in any movement in our country. He appealed to the
Brahmins to fight against corruption prevailing in the state.

He informed the gathering that party national president Mulayam Singh
Yadav could not attend today's meeting as he was unwell.

According to him, the party has always ensured proper respect for
Brahmins. He recalled that his father had declared "Parshuram Jayanti"
as a public holiday during his tenure as the chief minister of the
state. He also reminded the gathering that the party had given
important positions to Brahmin leaders within the organisation.

According to sources in SP, with such meetings, the party wants to
avoid a complete loss of Brahmin votes to the BSP and Congress. "The
party wants to communicate to the Brahmins that they have the option
to join SP," said a party source.

A section of SP leaders was, however, unhappy with the party's
decision to hold a meeting in the name of "Samajwadi Brahmin Sabha".

According to such leaders, this indicates the frustration within the
Samajwadi camp. "I had opposed the idea of holding a meeting of
Samajwadi Brahmins. It gives a clear message that the party has got
diverted from its main agenda to break the caste system," a senior SP
leader said.

Party national vice-president Brijbhushan Tewari, however, denied that
SP is promoting caste politics by holding such meetings.

"Caste is a factor in state politics. It is a way to create political
awareness among various castes," he added.


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[ZESTCaste] Made in heaven, tied by caste

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Made-in-heaven--tied-by-caste/619345/

Made in heaven, tied by caste
Kiran Yadav
Posted online: May 16, 2010 at 2332 hrs

4 well edu boy Mumbai based 20.03.81/5'8" (Chandravanshi Kahar)
Bihari, US MBA wkng MNC seeks well edu girl….

An oxymoron, that's what most Indians who really believe in 'caste no
bar' would think on reading the classified above. Why must a
28-something young man, educated in a multicultural society (in the US
at that) still be caught up in the web of caste? There is no answer
really. The profiles in matrimonial classifieds are replete with caste
specifications… Rajput (gotra Vats), Gangwar (Kurmi), Basnaal (Bisht).
Incidentally, most of them stem from 'urban' India, a section of
society that loudly condemns the decrees of the khap panchayats and
rampant honour killings in rural India, but subliminally treads the
same line of discrimination! It is a paradox not easily resolved or
reconciled.

"When it comes to arranged marriages, the head rules over the heart,"
says Rohit Manghnani, business head, JeevanSathi.com, a marriage
portal. Behavioural mapping of over 40 lakh people by the portal
reveals that less than 1% of the people choose to not mention their
caste. "To claim to be 'modern urban Indians with no hang-ups about
caste' is the done thing, but as fact indicates, a very heavy bias for
same caste exists across India," adds Manghnani. He shares that 85.3%
of the Banias and 89.7% of the Nairs first prefer a match in their own
caste. Same-caste bias was found to be strongly correlated with mother
tongue. For instance, 90% of the Malayalees were found to prefer
Malayalees.

A strong indicator of caste bias is also evident from the fact that
Brahmins are the most preferred community outside ones own community.
"If a Kshatriya doesn't find a match in its own community, it looks
for a Brahmin option. Similarly, 25% of the Patels too prefer
Brahmins." The findings were the same for profiles posted by parents/
guardians and those posted by the girl or boy.

However, the rise in inter-caste marriages in metros cannot be ignored
either. "The number of inter-caste marriages involving Dalits
increased from 4,205 in 2007-08 to 4,750 in 2008-09. It is expected to
go up to around 6,000 marriages in 2010," says Vivek Pahwa, CEO,
secondshaadi.com. But he cautions against believing that the
perceptions have changed completely. So, are people as rigid about
caste even when it comes to marrying a second time? "Not really.
However, over 80% of the registered members on our portal mention
caste in their profiles and around 20-25% individuals are still
obstinate in choosing spouses of their same caste."

Shades of Shaadi, a partner preference survey conducted recently by
Shaadi.com, also found that 56.07% male respondents and 54.73% female
respondents said caste does not matter to them as much as the person.
"India is opening up to the idea of mixed marriages, as people realise
that compatibility does not come necessarily by virtue of being of the
same caste," says Gourav Rakshit, business head, Shaadi.com. In the
survey of 12,000 respondents, interestingly, Kerala, India's model
state for literacy, came across as the most conservative state when it
comes to caste, with over 57.29% respondents saying they'd prefer to
marry someone within their own caste. Rajasthan follows Kerala's lead
with a little over 50% respondents sticking to their belief of
intra-caste marriages.

"While I am not against any particular caste, I do feel that it
practically makes more sense for me to marry in my own caste. It will
help me integrate easily into the new family as culturally we'd be
alike," reasons Shreya Agarwal, who is "trying to settle down in
life". Point taken.

Despite the constitutional call for equality and urban India's
apparent support to merit, clearly the average urban Indian is not
still convinced that caste is an outdated concept. Ironically, birth
still continues to determine destinies in 21st century India.


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[ZESTCaste] Are Indians really in love with statistics? Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

 

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2010/May/opinion_May95.xml&section=opinion&col=

Are Indians really in love with statistics? Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

16 May 2010 Indians love crunching numbers. Before live coverage of
cricket, statisticians were regulars on sports pages of newspapers.
They have moved to TV channels — proving that Indians don't tire of
cricket statistics. When MSD is run out, statisticians dig up
instances of former Indian captains also being run out.

If a No 11 batter enters double digits when chasing an ODI target –
statisticians are ready with details of the number of times this has
happened in the past. Electronic Voting Machines abbreviated counting
of votes in India almost a decade ago. Earlier, ballot boxes were
opened over a couple of days when TV channels ran live programmes for
60 hours or so. Results trickled in and anchors, pundits and reporters
impressed viewers with in depth knowledge of the Indian 
social maze.

They used shock and awe tactics flooring viewers with numbers about
psychological regions and constituencies. They had numbers for
everything – economic profile, schools and colleges, households with
electricity or access to clean water in each constituency. But more
importantly, all knew the caste profile right down to the smallest
administrative unit.

People became familiar with caste names like Ahir, Vanniyar and Kolu.
They learnt Marathas were a community while Marathwada a region in
Maharashtra and the two had little in common. People were also told
that caste profiled in different regions in states differed thus
exhibiting different political behaviour. Election analysis on TV and
newspapers ensured Indians becoming amateur sociologists 
and
demographers.

Caste was traditionally significant in India. Its significance
increased after 1990 when recommendations of the long-forgotten Mandal
Commission were implemented. The decision of job reservations for OBCs
also spawned a new power elite dominated by OBC leaders. Upper Castes
leaders who hitherto dominated politics were forced on the backseat in
every political party.

In 2006, the National Sample Survey suggested that percentage of OBCs
was much lower than 52 per cent as given by Mandal Commission. Figures
of NSS were corroborated by another survey – National Family Health
Survey, which pegged the non-Muslim OBC population at 29.8 per cent.

It was clear that India's caste matrix needed a fresh look.

No significant debate preceded the 2011 Census launched in April. Now,
due to demands by political leaders across the spectrum, government
will take a call on whether or not to add caste enumeration when
physical counting is done in February next year. If government decides
in the affirmative, it will set in process an exercise whose outcome
will be the most keenly anticipated in recent times. No one knows
which way the dice will roll. OBC leaders think their numbers will
swell and silence whispers that the 52 per cent figure
 is inflated.

Upper Caste leaders, less boisterous in demanding caste-based
enumeration, see a chance to reverse the belief of a tiny minority
lording over a huge majority for centuries thereby making them
eligible for 
positive discrimination.

In India identity-based politics has a stranglehold but several
contentious issues can get a quick burial if a scientifically
enumerated picture of social composition is available. But the ongoing
census does not generate great confidence. The fear of the State as
Big Brother is a colonial remnant. Governments have done precious
little to earn confidence of people – especially in rural areas.
People are wary of parting with personal information to the unknown.
There are 2.5 million of such unknown enumerators who are not trained
in eliciting information from the skeptical.

Enumerators also have not been taught how to prevent inflation of
figures and suppression or distortion of information on employment,
education and economic status in the event of caste enumeration.

The government cannot opt for caste enumeration because it is
politically expedient without adequate planning. Slipshod caste
enumeration will cause fresh fissures because the numbers will be
contested when the pack of those entitled to government benefits is
shuffled. The Pandora's box can be opened only if proper insulation is
in place. Indians' love for numbers 
notwithstanding!

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is a political analyst based in India. For
comments, write to opinion@khaleejtimes.com

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[ZESTCaste] Being Muslim in India means Syeds spit on Julahas in an 'egalitarian community'

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Being-Muslim-in-India-means-Syeds-spit-on-Julahas-in-an-egalitarian-community/articleshow/5935797.cms

Being Muslim in India means Syeds spit on Julahas in an 'egalitarian community'

Mohammed Wajihuddin , TNN, May 16, 2010, 12.45am IST

There is no escape from caste in India. Even the Indian Muslim
practises it. Mohammed Shabbir Ansari of Jalna, Maharashtra, should
know. He founded the All-India Muslim OBC Front, which is leading the
battle against Ashraaf or upper-caste discrimination against Ajlaaf or
lower-caste Muslims.

Ansari recalls how the "Jamaat-e-Islami and other Muslim bodies would
attack me when I said casteism existed among Muslims a decade ago." He
says even highly-educated Muslims practise caste. "A syed family from
Hyderabad called off my second daughter's marriage proposal once the
boy's mother learnt that I belonged to the julaha (weaver's
community)," Ansari says.

Ansari's experience illustrates the basic truths in the seminal study
"Hindustan Mein Zaat-Paat Aur Musalman" (Casteism in India and
Muslims) written by the Lucknow-based scholar Masood Alam Falahi in
2008. Falahi traced the origin of caste practices among Muslims and
named the noted ulema who winked at it. He said the caste system took
root among Indian Muslims after Qutbuddin Aibak founded the Delhi
Sultanate in the 13th century. Sultanate scholars divided Muslims into
Ashraaf and Ajlaaf.

The Ashraaf are Syed, Shaikh, Mughal and Pathan and the Ajlaaf are
Qasai (butcher), Nai (barber), Julaha (weaver). The very lowest
Ajlaafs were Arzaals (sweepers, shoe-makers, etc). Hundreds of years
later, the Sultanate's categorization would be given extra legitimacy
by respected 20th century clerics such as Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi,
who extolled the supremacy of Syeds.

In fact, Muslims' caste-consciousness runs so deep Allama Iqbal
reprimanded them in a couplet: "Yun to Syed bhi ho, Mirza bhi ho
Afghan bhi ho/Tum sabhi kuchch ho batao ke Musalman bhi ho (You are
Syed, Mirza and Afghan/You are everything but Muslim)".

The paradox of Muslim casteism can give rise to extraordinary
situations. Falahi recalls Muslim speakers asking dalit Hindus in
Azamgarh to embrace Islam a few years ago because "everyone is treated
equally here. But a man stood up and said 'there might be no castes in
Islam, there are castes among Indian Muslims'. The speakers had no
answer to that."

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[ZESTCaste] Identity, Indian politics and caste census

http://twocircles.net/2010may15/identity_indian_politics_and_caste_census.html

Identity, Indian politics and caste census

Submitted by admin4 on 16 May 2010 - 10:57am.
By Asghar Ali Engineer,

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured the parliament that
caste will be included in the current census. This was after Yadav
leaders and OBC members of Parliament raised the issue and there was
heated debate. The question arises why is it or is not necessary to
include caste in counting people of India. Apart from caste even
religion has not been included which also raises doubts in the minds
of minorities. Maulana Madani, a Muslim leader and Rajya Sabha member
has threatened to launch an agitation if column of religion is not
included in the census form.

These are controversial issues. Some people feel why one should
include these caste and religion columns at all while counting people
of India. These are divisive categories and people should be counted
only as Indians. However, since there is reservation for Scheduled
Castes and Tribes only these two columns should be included. The last
caste census had taken place in 1931 during the British period.


In independent India the Constitution abolished caste and hence caste
as a category was not included in subsequent censuses. The question of
caste again became important when the recommendations of Mandal
Commission were implemented in 1990 by V.P.Singh Government. The exact
number of OBC was disputed. The Mandal Commission arrived at 52 per
cent figure for OBC through interpolation of 1931 data and the Supreme
Court also, in one of its judgments, had expressed its doubts about
Mandal Commission's figure of 52% in the absence of counting.

First let us throw some light on the need for counting or not counting
on the basis of caste. It is true caste is an anathema in a secular
democracy and must be abolished and our constitution rightly abolished
it. But what is reality? India is highly stratified, multi-layered,
multi-cultural and multi-religious society. This stark reality faces
us all in the society. The stratification has not diminished even a
wee bit. On the contrary it has been intensified several folds.

Inter-caste marriages lead to brutal murder, of all the people by
parents themselves or other members of the family. Even today, many
dalits cannot fetch water from village well; a low caste person cannot
contest post of Sarpanch and is murdered, if he does. For upper caste,
caste is not only an identity, it is a great prestige. This sense of
prestige increases if economic disparities increase, low caste people
continuously going down the scale.

Also, all our elections are fought on the basis of caste and communal
identities and castes and sub-castes come into play for political
aspirants. Tickets are given not on merit but on the basis of these
identities. Even those who were not aware of their sub-castes are
demanding their share on that basis. The case of Gujjars in Rajasthan
is a case in point. The Gujjars launched a prolonged agitation for
reservation in government jobs in which more than 40 persons lost
their lives and there was violence between Minas and Gujjars as Minas
with their tribal status were getting more jobs.

We are going to live with increasing stratification for a long time to
come. We can hide our head like ostrich in the sand of unrealistic
ideas or ideals we violate on every step. Our very culture is caste
culture and it is being reinforced by our ethos, our status symbols
and above all our politics. Despite our constitution having abolished
caste, in last sixty years no government can boast of a single
concrete step to mitigate, let alone abolish caste. And implementation
of Mandal Commission, tough a right step in the given political
condition, further enhanced the importance of caste in Indian
politics.

In view of all this not to count caste would indeed be defying our
socio-political reality. It would also help to find out exact number
of OBCs though by no means it is an easy task. The Census Commission
Report, reproduced by Indian Express in its Mumbai edition of May 9,
2010 shows, was quite a messy affair. Besides other factors, the
status of castes vary from region to region. But nevertheless counting
has to be done.

If it is indeed 52% or more, as being claimed, the 50% moratorium on
reservation in government jobs, presently imposed by the Supreme
Court, may have to be revised upward as in some of the southern states
where reservation for various caste categories has reached 69 per
cent. Not counting caste would be not only unrealistic but would
result in ever mounting problems.

The political culture of our society is leading to more and more
social contradictions. On one hand, we aspire to become egalitarian
society and the caste cultured negates this very aspiration. And what
is ironical we cannot become egalitarian without the help of this very
caste culture, at least in economic sense. In order to pull the
backward castes up we must know their numbers thereby reinforcing
caste identity.

Thus we are in this bind: we must do away with caste system to create
egalitarian society and our caste ethos and caste culture requires
that we count caste to do justice to them in terms of government jobs
thereby reducing economic gaps and fulfilling aspirations of backward
castes. There is hardly a way out. Thus caste will continue to play
contradictory role in our society for quite some time to come. Our
caste culture is so deep rooted that even an egalitarian society
cannot be created without its help although caste leads to
in-egalitarian social structure.

Counting Religion

Similarly there is another sensitive question of introducing column
for religion for which religious minorities, especially Muslims, are
demanding. Today of course there is no religion-based reservations at
all and the Constitution does not provide religion-based reservations
either. Constitution has given this concession only to Sikhs and
Neo-Buddhists who are supposed to be offshoots of Hinduism.

However, Justice Rangnath Commission Report which was submitted
subsequent to Justice Sachar Committee Report has recommended 10 per
cent reservation for religious minorities especially for Muslims and
some political leaders are demanding implementation of Justice
Rangnath Commission Report. Of course this is highly sensitive matter
and the Congress Government is highly hesitant to implement the
Rangnath Commission Report. Not only that it is even hesitant to table
it in Parliament.

Thus today since there are no religion-based reservations one does not
feel need to introduce religion column in the census but if it is also
introduced it will be much better. With greater democratization and
increased awareness minorities will agitate for conceding religious
based reservations and then there will be need for knowing exact
numbers of religious minorities as we need to know today exact number
of OBCs.

In a multi-religious and multi-cultural societies number of
contradictions are emerging including in western countries which are
also becoming increasingly multi-religious and multi-cultural. Western
democracy is essentially based on individual rights and this can work
very well, if the society is homogenous or monolithic, but it creates
serious contradictions if it is multi-cultural society.

In India we always had highly diverse and highly stratified society
and so paid heavy price through partition as the two communities could
not come to agreed arrangement for power distribution and now in
post-independence period new contradictions are emerging which were
suppressed (except in case of dalits which was solved through
reservation) as religion became principal contradiction at the time of
partition.

In western society as it is becoming multi-cultural due to immigration
from various former colonies new political as well as social problems
are emerging and political tensions contradictions causing grave
problems. In western concept of democracy voting right is strictly
individual but in multi-cultural society it becomes both individual as
well as communitarian.

An individual remains conscious of the religious or caste community
one belongs to and his/her voting is affected by considerations of
his/her community, justices or injustices done to it and this bring
pressure on the system. Also, since democracy supposedly is imbued
with egalitarian ethos and communitarian inequalities militate against
this egalitarian ethos, these contradictions often becomes explosive.

In a way, one must accept the fact that India, with its bewildering
diversity has been able to manage these contradictions more smoothly
than many other countries and many countries take India as a model in
this respect. However, this is not to say that there are no serious
problems of governance. There are and thus challenges of caste and
communal identities are to be taken more seriously.

These identities will continue to play contradictory roles both
regressive as well as progressive and would not fit into any neat
logic as many of us expect. Contradictions would remain very much with
us for long time to come. The socio-cultural complex that we have
inherited is very much part of our psyche and would continue to
influence our political behaviour along with our socio-cultural
behaviour.


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