Latest News Update: Aug 18, 2010

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

[ZESTCaste] The reading life: Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru

http://akhondofswat.blogspot.com/2010/08/bs-column-reading-life-gandhi-ambedkar.html

The BS column: The reading life: Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru

(Published in the Business Standard, August 17, 2010)

As another August 15 passes by, here's a thought: what would our
country have been like if the leaders of the freedom movement had not
been readers?

It's easier to see them as writers. Mahatma Gandhi's autobiographies,
letters and other work have provided gainful occupation for thousands
of scholars. Pandit Nehru, incarcerated in jail, bereft of reference
books, set pen to paper and produced The Discovery of India, Glimpses
of World History and Letters From A Father To His Daughter. BR
Ambedkar's Who Were The Shudras, Castes in India and the
autobiographical Waiting For A Visa still hold the attention of
readers.

And it is their progression as writers that historians and thinkers
like Ramachandra Guha and Sunil Khilnani have written about. But to
study the libraries of India's leaders is to realize how relentlessly,
and sometimes restlessly, all of them, from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to
Sarojini Naidu, read as a way of understanding the values by which
India would be formed.

Gandhi came to English uneasily; the alien tongue made him a virtual
prisoner of silence on his shipboard journey to England. In South
Africa, as a lawyer who had got over his initial fear of speaking in
public, he put together a formidable and eclectic library.

Even a partial list of books on Gandhi's shelves makes fascinating
reading. He read extensively on religion, from Syed Amir Ali on Islam
to Moulton on Early Zoroastrianism, and read and re-read the world's
great religious texts. Tolstoy, Thoreau (on the duty of civil
disobedience), Max Mueller and Patanjali share companionable space on
his shelves.

There is the personal—a book on obstetrics, purchased and read before
the birth of his first child, several works on naturopathy, The
Vegetarian Messenger, hydrotherapy. In his first year in South Africa,
he read "quite eighty books": most of them on religion. The local
histories he read remained influential—an education inspector's report
on Basutoland, for instance, played a key role in Gandhi's
determination to have Indian languages taught in Indian schools.

Nehru was the quintessential privileged reader, with tutors and
libraries at home, and later, the libraries of Harrow and Trinity,
Cambridge, open to him. His early experiences with the Theosophical
Society taught him to read widely—and perhaps skeptically, given his
abjuration of organized religion: "an empty form devoid of real
content". Nehru rarely mentioned or quoted the writers he read so
voraciously, though one of the books that left a lasting impression on
him was Trevelyan's biography of Garibaldi.

He would, today, be classified as a disciple of Richard Dawkins, the
scientist and flagbearer of atheism, and would probably have enjoyed
The God Delusion greatly. Long after Nehru had left Trinity and his
Tripos in Natural Sciences behind, he continued to read, and
enthusiastically recommend, the study of science: "I realized that
science was not only a pleasant diversion and abstraction, but was of
the very texture of life, without which our modern world would vanish
away…"

Ambedkar may have been the most passionate reader of the three. Denied
the study of Sanskrit because of his Untouchable status, he had the
opportunity to explore his love of books—and the world of empowering
ideas they promised—as a young student at Bombay University and then
at Columbia. He had mentors in John Dewey and Professor Muller, who
lent him books, bought him books and perhaps most crucially,
recommended the best of political and socioeconomic thinkers to him.
His personal library ran to a vast 50,000 books, representing the
range and depth of his interests, from the history of political
struggles to Buddhism.

Ambedkar did, according to some scholars, read black protest
literature while in America, though he made little direct reference to
their works. But here's an interesting footnote to his history. He
wrote to WEB Du Bois, the redoubtable civil rights activist, who took
note: "I have on my desk a letter from Dr BR Ambedkar of the
Untouchables of India…" Ambedkar made use of his experiences in
Slavery Or Untouchability?, arguing that untouchability was far worse
as an institution.

But WEB Du Bois had an unusual Indian connection—aside from his
friendship with Lala Lajpat Rai, he had penned a romance, Dark
Princess, which combined politics and eroticism with admirable
economy. In this astonishing work of fiction, Matthew Townes, a doctor
discriminated against for his skin colour, meets Princess Kautilya,
the beautiful head of an organization of people of colour who plan to
overthrow Western imperialism. It ends with the birth of a messiah, "a
palpitating bubble of gold", in tribute to the love between the
princess and the idealist.

Whether or not Ambedkar read Dark Princess is, unfortunately, not a
matter of historical record. His reactions to a book that included the
Ku Klux Klan and a Maharajah of Bwodpur would have been priceless.

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

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[ZESTCaste] Take up caste census now: OBC leaders

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6303164.cms

13 Aug, 2010, 08.00AM IST,ET Bureau

Take up caste census now: OBC leaders

NEW DELHI: The Opposition and OBC parties on Thursday mounted pressure
on the Manmohan Singh government to take up the caste headcount in the
second phase of the census exercise, instead of the biometric stage.

After an uproar led by the members belonging to the OBC in the Lok
Sabha, leaders of BJP, SP, JD-U, RJD and BSP met finance minister
Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P Chidambaram. They told the
ministers that taking up caste census in the biometric stage would
defeat the purpose as it would be a long-drawn process.

According to sources, the two leaders said that they will place the
proposal of caste enumeration during the second phase before the
Cabinet. The Opposition is confident that the government will find it
difficult to turn down its demand on the premise that it cannot afford
to anger 'Backward Classes'.

While responding to members' allegations in the House that the
government was trying to "befool" the people, Mr Mukherjee said that
the modalities of caste enumeration had not been decided. He said the
Group of Ministers (GoM) looking into the demand for a caste-based
census had agreed to go ahead with it, but the final decision on "how
and when" will have to be taken by the Cabinet.

The members of the 'social justice' parties were on their feet as soon
as Speaker Meira Kumar finished reading obituary references after the
House met for the day. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, SP supremo Mulayam
Singh Yadav, BSP MP Dara Singh Chauhan and RJD leader Lalu Prasad
alleged that the government was trying to delay the caste headcount
exercise by including it in the biometric phase, which was a
"long-drawn" process. "This exercise cannot be completed in 100 years.
The decision to hand out voter identity cards was taken 15 years ago
and has not been implemented completely," Mr Sharad Yadav said.

Despite repeated pleas by the Speaker to take up the issue during zero
hour, the members continued with the uproar and started approaching
the well of the House. The Speaker adjourned the House till noon.

When the House was reconvened, Mr Mukherjee, who headed the GoM, said
it was decided that caste will be canvassed without affecting the
integrity of the headcount. "The decision on the mechanism will have
to be taken formally. The decision will be taken by the Cabinet. When
the Cabinet meets and takes a decision, we will inform you," he said.

The ministerial panel had on Wednesday recommended that caste
information can be recorded in the last stage of Census 2011 when
biometric information will be gathered. The biometric parameters
include photographs, fingerprints and iris-mapping of citizens which
will be collected for the NPR to create a multi-purpose unique
identity card. The first stage of the census — the household and
family survey — which began on April one is nearly over and the second
phase has begun.

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

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[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Dalit disgrace

http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2010/08/13/FromtheNepaliPress/17359

Dalit disgrace

Manika Jha in Rajdhani, 11 August

FROM ISSUE #515 (13 AUG 2010 - 19 AUG 2010) | TABLE OF CONTENTS

Janakpur: The people of the Dom community of Hariharpur-3, Dhanusa
district, are prevented from using water sources as they are
considered lower caste. Surprisingly, they are not discriminated
against by non-Dalits but other Dalit communities.

The Chamar and Mushahar communities consider Doms to be lower caste
and have prevented them from accessing water sources in the village.
This has made the life of the Dom community very difficult.

There are two wells here, but Doms are beaten up if they even touch
them, says Surendra Malik, a member of the only remaining Dom
household in the village. Two years ago, there were five Dom
households in the village. Members of two households died due to lack
of water and two households were displaced. The sole household left is
also planning to migrate soon.

Birendra Malik recalls how his father died due to lack of water. "It
is unfortunate that villagers still do not have pity on us," he says.

Dhaneshwari Malik, the eldest member of the family, said she went to
Janakpur and complained to officials about how they were being
deprived of water from the public wells. "Later, officials came to the
village and instructed people from other communities to give us access
to wells," she recalled. Since then, the villagers have started giving
Dhaneshwari two buckets of water every day, for cooking, cleaning,
bathing, and drinking.

Bhola Sada, a member of the Mushahar community, claims that they
cannot allow the Dom community to touch the wells because it
contaminates the place and angers the gods.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits against quota for converts

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/89508/dalits-against-quota-converts.html

There is already competition among Scheduled Castes for schemes'

Dalits against quota for converts
Kolar, August 17, DH News Service:

Dalit organisations have opposed the Central Government's decision to
give reservation for the dalits who have converted to other religions.

Dr B R Ambedkar Development Corporation President A R Krishnamurthy,
speaking at an event in Kolar on Monday, said that the dalits should
stand united against the reservation policy recommended by the
Ranganath Mishra Commission. The Commission has recommended the
reservation for the members of Scheduled Castes converted to
Christianity and Islam.

He said there is already a fierce competition among the 101 scheduled
castes for various schemes and projects rolled out by the governments
for their welfare. Now, if more number of people are brought under the
reservation lakhs of dalits will be deprived of
their share. Though the ruling party is endeavouring for the welfare
of the minorities and the scheduled caste and tribe, the Opposition
parties are criticising the party as 'communal'.

He said of the total 224 legislators 24 belong to scheduled caste and
nine to scheduled tribes. The Government has allocated Rs 2,916 crore
for 2009-10 and Rs 3,358 crore for 2010-11 for the welfare of the
scheduled caste; Rs 167 crore in 2009-2010 and Rs 207 crore for
2010-2011 were allocated in the budget.

He said the corporation has ensured power supply to the borewells sunk
under the Ganga Kalyana Scheme in 2005-06 and the corporation has also
sanctioned Rs five crore for the electrification.

"I'm aware of the groundwater available below thousand feet in Kolar
and Chikkaballapur districts," he said.

Absenteeism irks president

There was none to welcome Dr B R Ambedkar Development Corporation
President A R Krishnamurthy when he visited the Corporation's district
office. Neither the manager nor the taluk development officers were
present. They had not even signed the attendance registrar for the
last three years. Krishnamurthy wondered: If this is the plight of the
office, what will be the state of the scheduled caste? The empty
office kept mum.

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

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[ZESTCaste] Goddesses of politics

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=4627

Goddesses of politics

August 17, 2010, 7:34 pm

by Jayita Mukhopadhyay

The Statesman/ANN

India is a land of improbable diversities and inexplicable
contradictions. For the past 60 years, we have had a secular,
republican constitutional framework at work with all the trappings of
a modern and functional democracy. Yet our political culture and
practices continue to be enmeshed in such primordial sentiments as
religion, caste, community and deification of popular leaders.

The Bill that proposes 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament
and state assemblies is awaiting the Lok Sabha's approval. If the
political parties succeed in breaking the logjam and the Bill is
approved, it is expected to make women more visible in the political
arena. But unfortunately till now, very few women politicians have
been able to carve a niche for themselves in Indian politics. Still
more bewildering is the fact that most of them seem to be the product
of a weird personality cult, an anomaly of our democratic system.
Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee, the three most prominent
female faces in the political spectrum, enjoy the status of
demi-goddesses in the eyes of their followers. In a patriarchal social
set-up, the political parties also display the same gender bias. This
often relegates women leaders to such positions where they handle
relatively minor issues. As this blocks their ascent to the
decision-making position, women leaders find in personality cults the
only way to reach the higher echelons of political authority.

Charisma is their key to electoral success. Their collective image is
not that of intelligent, professional politicians capable of taking
rational decisions, but of super humans with extraordinary qualities
to emancipate their followers from injustice and oppression and lead
them towards well-being and prosperity.

The concept of charismatic authority was popularised by the noted
sociologist, Max Weber. It was identified as one of the three forms of
authority, the other two being traditional and rational-legal. A
tribal chief, a village headman or a patriarchal head of a large
extended family's claim to authority is based on tradition. In modern
states, those in power exercise authority by virtue of the fact that
their power and position have legal sanction. Charismatic authority
has been defined by Weber as "power legitimised on the basis of a
leader's exceptional personal qualities or the demonstration of
extraordinary insight and accomplishment, which inspire loyalty and
obedience from followers". But charisma may be shortlived as the
popular perception about a leader's ability may change abruptly if and
when he or she fails to fulfill the expectations of the followers.

Do the three goddesses of Indian politics also face the possibility of
diminishing return to their charismatic appeal? Sonia Gandhi's
ascendancy to the leadership of the Congress in 1998 through the
ouster of the democratically-elected leader, Sitaram Kesri, was solely
premised on the fact that only she could be the rightful inheritor of
the cult of leadership associated with the dynasty. It was felt in
Congress circles that only a person belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi
family, even if she was a videshi bahu, with no political experience
or acumen till then, could have the charisma to command an all-India
appeal that could restore order among squabbling Congressmen and
resuscitate a rapidly decaying party. Sonia has been considerably
successful in reviving the political fortunes of the Congress and the
aura of the Gandhi family associated with her is the secret of her
success. It can hardly be claimed that she has brightened the
possibility of women in politics to move to the higher levels of
decision-making unless they have illustrious male relatives with
prominent political credentials. The party's support base is dwindling
and it manages to stay in power through a complex and risky game of
keeping its regional allies in good humour.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister and the self-styled Dalit queen,
Mayawati, was catapulted to prominence by the Dalit leader Kanshi Ram.
She nurtures a personality cult, thereby creating a culture of
sycophancy, without which she may be unable to retain power. Her
penchant for erecting her own statues and those of other Dalit leaders
and even of elephants, the symbol or her Bahujan Samaj Party, are
perhaps attempts to bolster her iconic status among the historically
oppressed and marginalised Dalits. Critics have described her actions
as signs of narcissism and megalomania; it may actually be a clever
ploy to project herself as the messiah of the hungry and dispossessed
Dalits. Undeterred even by court objections, she proceeds to raise a
special police force for protecting the statues and her followers
felicitate her by presenting a garland made of hundreds of Rs 1000
notes. There are indications that her appeal is on the decline. There
has been no substantial improvement in the standard of living of the
Dalits during her dispensation.

Bengal's stormy petrel, Mamata Banerjee, has made inroads into the Red
bastion, riding high on her charismatic appeal as a passionate leader
who has the grit and determination to take on the organised might of
the CPI-M. Her image is that of a feisty leader who is prepared to
take risks even at the cost of personal safety. Her populist style of
conducting violent street protests, her frugal lifestyle and her fiery
speeches have somehow impressed the poor farmers and the urban lower
middle class, increasingly marginalised by the Left's neo-liberal
agenda. As Kolkata's roads were cleared of hawkers to impress foreign
investors, slums demolished to make room for modern housing and
shopping complexes and agricultural land grabbed in Nandigram and
Singur to set up a chemical hub and car factory, the dispossessed
found in Mamata a "deliverer". Her detractors branded her as "mad",
"impulsive" and "irrational" primarily for switching her political
affiliation at the Centre ~ from the BJP-led NDA to the Congress-led
UPA-II. This was done to get a firmer foothold against the Left in
Bengal. Nevertheless, her burgeoning supporters consider her to be a
phenomenon in Indian politics, someone whose charisma is of her own
making and is not linked either to dynasty or to the backing of a male
mentor. Mamata, on her part, has displayed the political sagacity to
undergo what Weber called a process of "routinisation of charisma",
with the focus on institutionalism. She has strengthened her party's
base by inducting new leaders, so that it does not remain a one-woman
show.

The noted American feminist thinker, Gloria Steinem, once observed: "A
pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space."
Charismatic leadership is not only shortlived but fraught with danger.
For the leader, it creates a compulsion to satisfy the masses through
populist measures. Charisma can restrict the scope for taking hard
decisions which may cause short-term irritants but may prove to be
beneficial in the long run. As more women are poised to enter the
political fray, leaders would serve the cause of women's empowerment
better by displaying rational faculties, professionalism and
administrative competence instead of trying to whip up popular
sentiment by projecting super human capabilities of bringing about
miraculous prosperity.

The writer is Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Women's
Christian College, Kolkata

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[ZESTCaste] Land row triggers group clash

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/18/stories/2010081858930100.htm

Front Page

Land row triggers group clash

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Row over land spilled over into a clash between Dalits and
Reddys in Janthagondanahalli in Anekal taluk, forcing the police to
open fire in the air on Monday night.

Six persons, two of them women, were injured in the rioting.

The Sarjapur police arrested eight men on the charge of damaging five
vehicles and four houses.

The injured are Ravikumar, Rajendra, Muniyellappa, his wife, Gowramma,
Prameela and her sister Kamalamma, said the police.

Simmering tension

Tension had been brewing between the two communities for years, the police said.

The latest hostility was triggered when a Dalit farmer allegedly
constructed a house on land belonging to one Bhaskar Reddy. A month
ago, the villagers held a meeting where the Dalit farmer was told to
compensate the other man.

On Monday night, Lokesh Reddy, who is said to have a track record in
rioting, allegedly organised his henchmen and attacked Dalits, hurling
stones on their houses and vehicles, the Sarjapur police said.

As the news spread, Dalits gathered in front of Lokesh's house and
shouted slogans against him.

At this, Lokesh and his supporters damaged the signboard of the local
Ambedkar Sangha, triggering the clash and the warning shots by the
police.

A large posse has been deployed in the village.

Inspector-General of Police (Central Range) Kamal Panth,
Superintendent of Police (Bangalore Rural) B.A. Mahesh, Additional
Superintendent of Police Subhash Gudimani and Deputy Superintendent of
Police Shankarappa visited the village.