Monday, September 6, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Seer to campaign against untouchability

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/Seer-to-campaign-against-untouchability/articleshow/6502171.cms

Seer to campaign against untouchability

TNN, Sep 5, 2010, 11.02pm IST

MYSORE: Vishweshwarateertha Swamiji of Pejawar mutt on Sunday said he
will continue his crusade against untouchability and is planning to
convert his visits dalit colonies in the state into a movement. At a
press meet here, he said he will involve even the seers of others
mutts in the state who are inclined to join him. "I will start staying
in villages and this will begin from coastal districts," he added.

The swamiji said he will build a free hostel at Mysore for poor
students of all communities and castes and preference will be given to
dalit and OBC students during admissions.

The seer said he will visit Naxal-affected areas of Orissa and
Chhattisgarh next month and meet both victims of Naxal attacks and the
Naxalites. "I will try to assuage the feelings of the victims'
families and appeal to the Naxals to join the mainstream," he said.

When asked about keeping the dalits and OBCs from mass-feedings done
at Brahmin mutts in the state, the seer said: "Not only Brahmins even
the other vegetarians will not like to eat meals with non-vegetarians.
We cannot compel the people to sit together and have a meal," he
added. But this does not mean that there are no mass feedings
involving all castes and communities at Brahmin mutts, he added.

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[ZESTCaste] 'There is need for Brahmins to change too'

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/interview_there-is-need-for-brahmins-to-change-too_1434050

'There is need for Brahmins to change too'

Published: Monday, Sep 6, 2010, 10:33 IST
By M Raghuram | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

He has been known as a crusader for the unification of the Hindu
sects. He is renowned for breaking old customs, and opening the doors
of temples to dalit devotees who were earlier barred entry.

As the senior swamiji of Udupi Pejavar Math, Vishwesha Thirtha,
celebrates the Chaturmasya at Mysore, DNA had a word with him.

Is conversion of Hindus to other faiths a matter of worry for you? You
have been campaigning for the unification of the Hindu sects since
1952; and you have courted the wrath of hardliners by opening temple
doors to dalit worshippers.
A major portion of Hindu society has been alienated from mainline
Hindu culture. Dalits have been marginalised for centuries.

This discrimination has led many dalit worshippers to other religions,
where they have been promised greater dignity. My endeavour is to
empower the dalits, so that they do not, anymore, need to seek
recourse to any other religious group.

I am a sanyasi, and I have no means of politically or economically
empowering anyone. I hope that the people who hold the reins of power
will understand the need for granting the dalits greater dignity.

How will you integrate the dalits into mainstream Hindu society, when
political parties have been using dalit issues just to garner votes?
I have no illusions about being able to usher in changes in the
political culture.

But I do have a clear vision of what is possible for me to do. I will
take up padayatras in every dalit colony in the country. We will go
and appeal to them to come to the temples. I will appeal to them to
actively take part in every temple festival, and so ease dalits into
the mainstream. The upper castes too should be part of this process.

How would you respond to the issue of whether dalits need to be forced
to accede to a Brahmin viewpoint?
The dalits should retain their own identity. They have a religious
identity that is integral to the larger Hindu social structure.

Brahminism is one aspect of Hinduism, which is itself part of a larger
entity. There is need for the dalits to feel better integrated into
the Hindu religious and social fabric, and for upper caste Hindus to
look at dalits with a changed heart.

What are your views on cow slaughter?
The framers of our constitution, headed by Dr BR Ambedkar, who
championed the cause of dalits, enshrined the need for banning the
slaughter of milch animals for meat. Those who advocate the slaughter
of milch animals should understand the religious sentiment of the
majority community. If there is a livelihood issue here, I would
appeal that other animals be slaughtered for meat instead.

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[ZESTCaste] Absence of vettiyans pose problem to residents

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/absence-of-vettiyans-pose-problem-to-residents/204265.html

Absence of vettiyans pose problem to residents

U Tejonmayam

First Published : 06 Sep 2010 03:04:59 AM IST

Last Updated : 06 Sep 2010 09:14:13 AM IST

CHENNAI: It is not an easy end, both for the dead and their relatives
who arrive at the graveyard located at Ambedkar Nagar in Tambaram as
there is no employee or vettiyan to do the final rites there for many
years.


The graveyard, located in the 20th ward at Tambaram, is more than five
decades old and is under the control of the Tambaram municipality
catering to the needs of both Hindus and Christians.

Absence of a vettiyan had raised many problems among the residents as
the relatives have to make the pyre or bury the body themselves that
sometimes leads to improper cremation or burial.

Residents claim that the bodies were cremated in odd hours especially
between 4pm and 1 am, as there is no one to maintain the yard or
question the people.

The five-acre site is used for cremation by over 10,000 families of
Ambedkar Nagar, Bharathi Nagar, Avvai Nagar, MGR Nagar, Indra Nagar
and Rajaji Nagar.

According to the residents, at least two to three bodies were cremated
a week there.

"There has been no vettiyan or a watchman to maintain the graveyard
for more than 20 years. We should bury the bodies ourselves and cannot
obtain a burial certificate.

The worst is, at times, stray dogs drag parts of bodies even as it is
in the pyre," said 40-year-old Prakash, a resident.

"Sometimes, we won't even know if the person being cremated had a
natural death or committed suicide," the resident quickly added.

Many local youth offer to cremate the bodies and take Rs 2,000 to Rs
3,000 but they don't stay there till it burns completely, complain
people.

Repeated requests to the municipality to come up with halls to perform
final rites and meditation have not been yielded any result.

"We have invited applications for both watchman and vettiyan job, but
none approached us. But another ground with all facilities for funeral
rites is under construction at West Tambaram.

That will solve the issue once it's ready," said Lion E Mani,
President, Tambaram Municipality.


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[ZESTCaste] Untouchability still practised in Gandhi's land

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Untouchability-still-pratised-in-Gandhis-land/articleshow/6502937.cms

Untouchability still practised in Gandhi's land
Radha Sharma, TNN, Sep 6, 2010, 05.50am IST

AHMEDABAD: Rajniben, a village panchayat member from Ahmedabad
district, does not have a chair to sit in the panchayat office. Unlike
the other members, who all have a chair, there is a gunny sack
reserved for Rajniben which she uses to sit on the floor when the
panchayat meets. This is because Rajniben is a dalit and is not
allowed to sit on par with panchayat members belonging to upper
castes.

The untouchability factor remains high in Gujarat, the land of Gandhi.
A survey on discrimination in offices has revealed that nearly 65 per
cent dalit sarpanchs report they have separate cups to drink tea or
water in their own office. About 40 per cent are not allowed to sit on
chairs.

The survey, Dalit Women's Right to Political Participation in Rural
Panchayati Raj', has been conducted on 200 dalit women sarpanches and
panchayat members in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Carried out by an NGO,
Navsarjan Trust, in Gujarat 100 dalit women of these, 86 were
sarpanchs, while the rest were nominated for the office but could not
contest the elections following political or social pressure were
studied.

The survey was released at the women's tribunal, organised by Waada Na
Todo Abhiyan along with other members here where nearly 200 women from
marginalised sections like tribals, dalits and Muslims have
participated.

The survey revealed that assuming office did not mean an end to
discriminatory practices for dalit women. A good 64.5 per cent dalit
women reported that they were not able to drink tea from the same cups
used by other representatives and 38 per cent said that they could not
eat food or snacks in the same plate or utensils used by others.

"A dalit woman may become the sarpanch, holding the highest office in
the village, but is still forced to drink from a separate cup because
of her caste," said Manjula Pradeep, director of Navsarjan Trust.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit kids not attracted by scholarship

 

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Dalit+kids+not+attracted+by+scholarship&NewsID=256771

Dalit kids not attracted by scholarship

Added At: 2010-09-06 4:30 PM
Last Updated At: 2010-09-06 4:30 PM
The Himalayan Times -

Parents are spending the money that comes from scholarship on their
household works.
KHOTANG: Dalit children of Litchkiramche VDC in Khotang stay at home
even after getting scholarship at a local school.

More than 30 children at Ward No. 6 of 13 households are receiving
scholarship without going to school, said Chandi Prasad Sapkota
Principal of Litchiki-based Laxmi Secondary School.

Parents are spending the money that comes from scholarship on their
household works, he said, adding that they were present in the school
at the time of scholarship distribution along their parents.

Lack of awareness about education among children as well as their
parents and due to poverty, children are spending their crucial time
in cutting grass, grazing cattle, fetching fodder and assisting their
parents in other ways.

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[ZESTCaste] Proud to be a Dalit

http://ww.telegraphindia.com/1100905/jsp/7days/story_12898243.jsp

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Proud to be a Dalit
A quiet revolution is underway in the Dalit world — assertiveness is
replacing defensiveness. Many Dalits, buoyed by prosperity, are
flaunting their caste on their sleeves and celebrating it in rap and
pop albums. Seetha and V. Kumara Swamy look at how Dalits are changing
the way the world looks at them

STANDING TALL: Cars with a defiant chamar or chamar da munda scrawled
on windshields are common in Jalandhar; (below) P. Nagrare started an
engineering college along with other Dalits; (bottom) H. Bhaskar, who
set up Kota Tutorials, says he is proud to be a Jatav


Sons of chamars are six feet tall
Riding bikes at the speed of bullets
And making headlines everywhere

Upcoming Punjabi singer Lovely Bhatia's Chadadh Chamaran Di (Rising
Chamars) is a big hit in parts of Punjab. That's not surprising, for
the song is the anthem of the young Dalit.

You can be imprisoned, under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, for using the word chamar — a
term for a scheduled caste community that traditionally worked with
leather — as an abuse.

In parts of Punjab, though, rap and pop albums celebrating the chamar
identity are the new rage. Cars and scooters sporting a defiant chamar
or Chamaran da Munda (son of a chamar) stickers are a common sight in
Jalandhar.

"When I was young, I feared saying that I was a chamar, thinking that
my colleagues would look down upon me. But now I say that I am proud
to be a chamar," says Sriram Prakash who, after retirement from the
Punjab police, has been working with a Dalit religious group, the
Ravidasias.

It isn't just in Punjab. Agra's Harsh Bhaskar, 32, who set up the
multi-city Kota Tutorials and the Edify Institute of Management and
Technology, outside Agra, declares he is "proud" to be a Jatav. J.S.
Phulia, who runs a Delhi-based shipping and logisitics firm, says: "We
don't want to be servile."

Alongside atrocities by upper castes in villages and discrimination in
the work place, another chapter is being written in the Dalit story —
assertion is replacing defensiveness. In Punjab, the assertion is in
your face; in other parts of the country, it is quieter, but palpable.

"Dalits are sick of taunts about their poverty, their so-called
unclean habits and their dependence on reservations for education and
jobs," says Dalit writer and activist Chandrabhan Prasad. "They want
to change these impressions."

What is more, Dalit entrepreneurs are expanding, and even have their
own apex body — the Pune-based Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (Dicci), which has over 400 members.

Dalits are also setting up schools and colleges — often as an avenue
for helping the community. Pradeep Nagrare, secretary of the
Nagpur-based Nagarjuna Institute of Engineering Technology and
Management , says the idea for the institute, where 60 per cent of
students are Dalits, came from the Babasaheb Ambedkar National
Association of Engineers, a group of scheduled caste engineers. "If we
have to take Babasaheb Ambedkar's mission forward, it can only be
through education," he says.

Dalit movements seeking to change lives have taken various forms, says
S.S. Jodhka, professor of sociology at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Delhi. Political mobilisation saw the rise of the Bahujan
Samaj Party, human right struggles focused on atrocities and
discrimination while socio-economic development dealt with education
and business. Religious movements have ranged from Dalits embracing
Buddhism to the recent Ravidasia assertion in Punjab, spearheaded by
followers of Ravidas, a 15th century saint who belonged to the chamar
community.

The hub of the Ravidasia movement is Dera Sachkhand, near Jalandhar. A
huge Ravidas temple is being built in Jalandhar, young men sport
T-shirts and headbands with the Hari symbol of the Ravidasia
community. Dalits in Punjab — Sikhs and non-Sikhs — are being
encouraged to list Ravidasia as their religion in the 2011 census.

The movement grew as a reaction to years of discrimination. Dalits,
who tilled the fields of Jat Sikhs, were not allowed inside the
latter's gurdwaras. So small gurdwaras mainly for Dalits cropped up.
"The Jats of Punjab have been asserting their identity for long; it's
our turn now," says Manohar Lal Mehey, an industrialist who proudly
displays the Ravidasia symbol on his Mitsubishi Lancer. The movement
got a fillip after the killing of a sect leader by upper caste Sikhs
in Vienna, Austria, last year led to widespread violence.

The trigger wasn't so specific in the case of Dalit entrepreneurship,
which is mainly a post-1990s phenomenon. The shrinking government
sector, after liberalisation was launched, reduced regular job
opportunities. Simultaneously, as companies began outsourcing
activities to become more competitive, avenues opened up for
non-business communities.

Phulia, for instance, started as a typist at a logistics firm in Delhi
but now runs a Rs 4-crore company. The son of a foreman in the Haryana
state electricity board started Signet Freight Express Pvt. Ltd in
2004 with Rs 900 from his savings and Rs 12 lakh borrowed from friends
and relatives.

He remembers how a colleague in an office where he once worked asked
him his caste. "When I said I was a chamar, he thought I was joking.
Why should I joke, I asked? Why can't I be a chamar?"

The earlier generation, he says, felt "inferior" because it didn't
know its history. "Now people are aware that a scholar such as Sant
Ravidas was from our community, that our tradition is also rich. So
there is pride in our caste," says Phulia, whose three children study
at a public school in Gurgaon.

Many young Dalits see business as a way of proving to themselves and
the world that they are capable of earning a living with dignity as
well as generating employment for others.

In a March 2010 study, Dalits in Business: Self-employed Scheduled
Castes in North-West India, Jodhka found 80 per cent of the people he
surveyed were in the 20-40 age group and most were first generation
entrepreneurs.

Reservation in education and jobs has given a leg up to the community.
But there is a reluctance to continue depending on quotas.
"Reservations created a neo-middle class," says Jodhka. "The children
of those sections, who have grown up proud in middle class localities,
are uncomfortable with parents wanting benefits based on quotas."

Devanand Londhe, the son of a retired soldier who worked as a farm
labourer and a watchman, studied civil engineering in Kolhapur
University as a quota student. After graduating, he refused to
register himself with the employment exchange. He worked as a
consultant at various international organisations and then set up an
export-oriented unit once he had enough money. "Yes, reservations are
still important for many, but a lot of young people want to make it on
their own," he says.

Help has also come from the prosperous Dalit non resident Indians
(NRIs). The Ravidasias were among the first communities to migrate to
the West, points out Ronki Ram, reader, political science department,
Panjab University. The deras, the sect's sprawling complexes, have
largely been funded by NRI Dalits. The diaspora has also helped spread
the message of Dalit capitalism. "Dalit entrepreneurs say they want
connections, not concessions," says Prasad.

Dicci, says founder-chairman Milind Kamble, was set up in 2005 because
mainstream business chambers couldn't understand the problems Dalits
faced. Dalits, he stresses, need communication and marketing skills as
well as networking opportunities. So, in early June, Kamble and Prasad
arranged for 10 Dalit entrepreneurs to make presentations to Tata
Motors on how they could be part of the automobile major's supply
chain.

There is a frank acknowledgment that Dalits will have to look out for
their own — 42 per cent of the respondents in Jodhka's study admitted
that they faced discrimination in business (63 per cent said they
faced it in their personal lives). "We feel discriminated as Dalits
even today," says Nagrare.

But Bhaskar has a different take. "Failures always look for excuses.
If I have not succeeded in something, I will look within myself for
weaknesses. I will not blame my caste."

Sushil Kumar, a school dropout who is now the managing director of
Ghaziabad-based Simlex Engineers Pvt. Ltd, agrees. "We as a community
are victims of discrimination even today, but I don't believe in
looking back. I know that I can make a difference and I am trying it
here."

Could the multiple strands of Dalit movements come together and help
the community realise its potential? And give rise to more Bhaskars
who refuse to be burdened by their caste? "I don't want to prove
anything to anyone," he says. "I just want to look at myself with
respect when I see myself in the mirror."


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[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman's plea alleging rape dismissed

http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/05/stories/2010090553460300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Dalit woman's plea alleging rape dismissed

Staff Reporter

Court says she filed case with mala fide intention

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

She had signed agreement that she would not interfere with life of rape accused

Police had conducted probe following complaint by petitioner and
matter was settled: judge
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed a petition
filed by a Dalit woman post-graduate from Madurai seeking a direction
to register a rape case against an employee of the Police Department.

Justice R. Mala refused to entertain the case on the ground that the
petitioner had approached the court, with a "mala fide" intention, a
month after signing an agreement that she would not interfere with the
life of the rape accused.

The judge pointed out that the police had conducted an enquiry
following a complaint lodged by the petitioner and the matter was
settled by signing the agreement in the presence of a Dalit leader, a
notary public and an advocate.

"Even though the petitioner belongs to a depressed class, she is well
educated and an M.A. graduate and knows the consequences of the
agreement. The occurrence is alleged to have taken place in 2007, but
she has come forward with this complaint only after a lapse of three
years. Hence, I do not find any merits in the petition and the same
deserves to be dismissed," the judge said.

According to the woman, the accused, a caste Hindu, came into contact
with her when she was undergoing her second-year in the post-graduate
course. He had a physical relationship with her on the promise of
marrying her by convincing his parents. However, he did not keep up
his promise and married another girl.

A complaint was lodged with the Superintendent of Police to register a
case against the accused under Sections 376 (rape), 313 (causing
miscarriage without woman's consent), 506 part II (criminal
intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, besides a few other provisions
of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The complaint was referred to T. Kallupatti police station but no case
was registered and hence the present petition.

Filing a status report before the Bench, the police claimed that both
the victim as well as the accused had entered into an agreement in the
presence of C.M. Periyasamy, the State president of Ambedkar Jana
Sakthi, on June 3 stating that they would not interfere in each
other's life.


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[ZESTCaste] Towards caste majoritarianism? (S Anand)

http://www.himalmag.com/Towards-caste-majoritarianism_nw4672.html

Towards caste majoritarianism?

September 2010
By: S Anand


With the Census of India set to count caste for the first time since
the colonial era, the focus shifts to the ramifications of doing so.

I was recently forced to overhear a conversation between strangers,
two Indian women, who met on the Bhopal-Delhi Shatabdi Express. They
quickly zeroed in on each other's caste. One was a Kayastha (a
privileged non-Brahmin) and the other, the younger woman, a Brahmin.
Both were happy to discover that they had a Kayastha connection – the
Brahmin woman revealed that she had married a Kayastha man. Then they
dwelt briefly on the many subcastes and hierarchies within the
Kayasthas – Mathur, Sinha, Saxena, Nigam and Shrivastav. The Brahmin
woman, employed in the information-technology department of an
insurance company, stated with distinct pride that, when all is said
and done, Brahmins had 'sharper minds' and were born more
'intelligent'. To substantiate, she talked of how her Brahmin brother
always outwitted her non-Brahmin husband in decision-making.

The Brahmin brother, it seems, could always convince his Kayastha
brother-in-law of his point of view, whether on a financial matter or
where to go on holiday. The quieter Kayastha woman did not protest any
of this. Even when the diminutive Brahmin woman later concluded – with
her own theory of caste eugenics – that her children had developed a
'better physique' owing to the Kayastha father, she underscored that
she did not compromise on a vegetarian diet. Now, what would be the
caste of the children of this Brahmin-Kayastha marriage, with its own
power dynamics? Surely, given an option, it is unlikely they would
register as 'no caste' in the forthcoming Census of India – the first
to include a section on caste in nearly seven decades. Even in such
mixed-caste offspring, the importance of caste in their minds would
not be discounted.

That caste inflects almost every aspect of life in India, and large
parts of Southasia, is a fact, as highlighted in Himal's April 2010
issue on its pervasiveness. In a society where caste is an
overwhelming reality, it would seem that counting castes would have
begun long ago. Surely it is not as though India will now become a
caste society when caste is, finally, counted; but when every caste
does get counted, there would be official recognition of what
post-Independence India has been trying to ignore for decades, seeking
to present a homogenised identity to the rest of the world. So far,
since only the Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes have been getting
counted, debates around caste have tended to focus on issues of
reservation and atrocities against Dalits. For long, questions of
ameliorating the disabilities forced upon people owing to the practice
of caste or its utopian annihilation (which someone like B R Ambedkar
dreamed of) have been jettisoned. Among the Brahminical castes, the
question of caste has been reduced to a skewed debate around quotas –
wherein the incursion of the Dalits and Backward Classes into
hitherto-reserved public spaces is equated with the loss of 'merit'
and therefore lamented. While maintaining the ideological bulwark, a
majority of urban Brahmins also deny the very existence of caste, and
behave as if they have 'exited' caste.

While conceding the need to count castes, what might be the political
fallout of such an exercise – especially in terms of how it might
affect the polarisation between Dalits and the 'Backward' and 'Other
Backward' Classes (BCs and OBCs, as a bulk of the Shudra castes are
designated by the Indian Constitution)? For the moment, let us set
aside what could be characterised as the Brahminical objections to
counting castes – represented by a medley of both liberal and neo-con
voices that includes Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Barkha Dutt, Dipankar Gupta,
Nandini Sundar and Gopalkrishna Gandhi, among others. That 'empirical'
need for this ostensibly comes from the fact that in 2007 the Supreme
Court of India stayed the order against the admission of OBCs to
educational institutions citing lack of 'reliable data'. The demand
for this, however, predates the reservations-related recommendations
of the Mandal Commission, of 1980, or more recent debates around the
issue.

Calculus of backwardness
It is often believed that Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian
Constitution, was opposed to reservation for the Backward Classes, and
he limited himself to being concerned with Dalits and Adivasis (the
Scheduled Castes and Tribes, in official parlance). However, while
resigning from Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet in October 1951 (primarily
over the failure of the Hindu Code Bill), he referred to 'another
matter' that had left him 'dissatisfied' with the government of the
day. 'It relates to the treatment accorded to the Backward Classes and
the Scheduled Castes,' Ambedkar said. 'I was very sorry that the
Constitution did not embody any safeguards for the Backward Classes.'

Subsequently, the first Backward Classes Commission, under the
chairmanship of Kaka Kalelkar, was constituted in January 1953. It
submitted its report two years later, preparing a list of nearly 2400
backward castes or communities for the entire country, of which 837
had been classified as 'most backward'. Its major recommendations
included undertaking a caste-wise enumeration of the population in the
census of 1961; deeming women as a class as 'backward'; and reserving
70 percent of seats in all technical and professional institutions for
qualified students from the backward classes. The report was partly
rejected by the government of the time, on the grounds that it had not
applied any objective test for identifying the backward classes.

Today, the demand for inclusion of caste in the census, for the first
time since the colonial 1931 census, has been led by the dominant
castes within the Backward Class and OBC groups – the Yadavs of the
Hindi heartland and the Vanniyars in Tamil Nadu. Reiterating the need
for a caste count, S Ramadoss, the founder-leader of the Pattali
Makkal Katchi (representing Vanniyar interests), has even pointed to
how the minority community of Isai-Vellalars, to which Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister M Karunanidhi belongs, has managed to corner important
jobs and resources despite having around just 10,000 members in the
state. The Vanniyars, on the other hand, are not getting a
proportionate share. In Tamil Nadu, the Vanniyars' grouse is that they
are clubbed with 108 other communities in the state's Most Backward
Classes (MBC) list, and hence lose out. Currently, Ramadoss's party is
leading an agitation demanding a clear and separate quota for
Vanniyars, seeking to be delinked from the MBC club.

Meanwhile, in the north, the Jats are also in a mood to agitate,
seeking inclusion in the national OBC list. They demonstrated their
power earlier in June by blocking water supplies to Delhi, and have
threatened disruption of the Commonwealth Games in October. A caste
census would offer demonstrable proof to Ramadoss, and the 'oppressed'
Jat and Yadav politicians, to bolster their cases for proportionate
share for their castes in all resources.

Within the Congress, Law Minister Veerappa Moily says that the party
in many states had lost OBC support because it was seen as opposed to
the implementation of the Mandal report, and that the mistake should
not be repeated. The caste count is thus being seen as some kind of a
corrective action being taken by the Congress party to address this
lost support. This is happening even while education is being
increasingly privatised, public-sector undertakings are being sold and
there is a freeze on government recruitment. When combined with the
brazen non-implementation and subversion of the policy of reservation,
the neoliberal state can be seen to be shrinking the space for social
justice, while simultaneously offering the illusion of proportional
quotas by counting every caste.

Let us briefly look at how Tamil Nadu has fared in its policy of
reservation for Backward Classes. This is a state with the legacy of a
non-Brahmin movement (since the 1920s), where the Backward Classes
have seen social, educational and political empowerment owing to 69
percent reservation. In a state with a population of 19 percent
Scheduled Castes and one percent Scheduled Tribes, as of 1999 the
share of Dalits and Adivasis employed in Group A and B posts (the
higher-grade white-collar jobs in government service) stood at 7.2 and
12.8 percent, averaging 10 percent. The Backward Classes, on the other
hand, accounted for 57.5 percent of the posts – nearly double their
actual share in population, an estimated 30 percent. A recent
persistent effort under the Right to Information Act by a Dalit in
Tamil Nadu revealed a backlog of 19,530 vacancies for Dalit-reserved
posts across 98 government departments. The Dalits of the state seem
to be at the receiving end of Backward Class dominance, a pattern
likely to extend itself to other parts of the country.

Caste over religion
The implication of counting castes, however, is not just in extending
the scope and rationale for the benefits of reservation, but also to
stake a claim to political power on the basis of numbers. Crucially,
counting castes will be a serious blow to the idea of being 'Hindu'.
As Ambedkar once said, 'Hindu Society is a myth. The name Hindu is
itself a foreign name … Hindu society as such does not exist. It is
only a collection of castes. Each caste's … survival is the be-all and
end-all of its existence.' When the census factors in caste as an
identity, the so-called Hindu will be forced to acknowledge his or her
primary identity as a caste identity, not a religious one. In many
ways, the imminent inclusion of caste in the census brings to a head
the battle between the forces of Mandal and mandir (Hindutva's
penchant for a temple in Ayodhya) that began in the mid-1980s. In this
battle, OBC power was on the rise even within the rightwing Hindutva
brigade, but finally it is the Mandal brigade that seems to have won.

Should the apparent success of the Mandal (OBC) brigade then be read
simply as a 'secular' victory, where the forces of religious
majoritarianism – of Hindutva – have been defeated? Is not just the
governing logic of Hindu majoritarianism – that the Hindus, as a
numerical majority, must be the ruling class and that other minorities
must acknowledge this and make way – being redeployed by Backward
Classes and OBCs to argue for representation and stake in resources
according to their share in population? What will be the implications
of the logic of such 'caste majoritarianism' for social minorities?
Will not a caste census unwittingly pave the way for displacing Hindu
majoritarianism with caste majoritarianism – or will it be argued
that, since castes and subcastes are so numerous and region-specific,
caste majoritarianism is not possible?

Ultimately, any kind of majoritarian logic can be detrimental to
democracy, especially to social minorities. In this case, OBC
majoritarianism could directly impact Dalits, since the two groups are
pitted against each other in a battle for resources, especially in
rural India; and ever so often, we have seen the Dalits bearing the
brunt of BC/OBC power. In most areas, the dominant Shudra castes do
not fight amongst themselves or try to maim, rape or kill one another.
We have not in a long time heard of Yadav-Kurmi antagonism in Bihar, a
Gounder-Naicker clash in Tamil Nadu or a Maratha-Brahmin fight in
Maharashtra.

The implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations in 1990
was preceded by the introduction of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act in 1989. Spurred by the
awakening created by the centenary of Ambedkar's birth, in 1991, when
Dalit assertion led to attempts to file cases under this Act, the
backlash from the Backward Classes was strong. While the urban Dalits
supported Mandal in principle and opposed the overall 'meritocratic'
critique of affirmative action, at the rural level the blows suffered
by Dalits at the hands of the Backward Classes saw a sharp increase.
Those Brahminical and liberal voices that are opposed to any kind of
reservation and are reluctant to forfeit any traditional privilege
have gleefully pointed to these contradictions. But that does not mean
we turn away from this picture.

It would be useful to remember here Ambedkar's suspicions on the
limitations of democracy in a caste context. In India, he had warned,
the majority is not a political majority. 'In India the majority is
born; it is not made,' he said. 'That is the difference between a
communal majority and a political majority.' Ambedkar also argued that
majorities are of two kinds, communal and political:


A political majority is changeable in its class composition. A
political majority grows. A communal majority is born. The admission
to a political majority is open. The door to a communal majority is
closed. The politics of a political majority are free to all to make
and unmake. The politics of a communal majority are made by its own
members born in it.
Despite India's system of parliamentary democracy, Ambedkar noted, the
overriding role of caste and community ensures that 'a majority
community carries the seat by sheer communal majority'. So, he
wondered how a communal majority could run away with the title deeds
given to a political majority to rule.

Political subjectivity
The data that might be thrown up by the counting of castes could
possibly lead to trans-caste unity across BC/OBC groups to the
detriment of Dalits. The already beleaguered PoA Act is likely to be
further weakened, and might even be scrapped. Ironically, while many
Dalits, as individuals and groups, were at the forefront of supporting
the Mandal recommendations (and today they largely seem to support the
need for factoring caste into the census), the other non-Brahmin
groups have rarely supported Dalits. For instance, various castes that
belong to the powerful, politically dominant Maratha cluster in
Maharashtra went on a rampage against Dalits in 1978, when the
government sought to rename Marathwada University after Ambedkar.
Today, the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party's antipathy to the
Dalit-led Bahujan Samaj Party and Dalits is well known. In 1997, after
the I K Gujral United Front government assumed power, it was the turn
of a Dalit, Mata Prasad, a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
officer, to be the nation's top bureaucrat. Prasad would have made
history as the first Dalit cabinet secretary, but Mulayam Yadav
threatened to bring down the government if that happened.

It is worth comparing the Indian government's attitude to caste in the
census with its attitude on the issue vis-à-vis the United Nations.
Whenever Dalits, as the worst victims of the caste system, have sought
to get caste discrimination recognised on par with racial
discrimination, the state has resolutely argued against such a move.
(Notably, most OBCs and Backward Classes have not supported Dalits in
their efforts to internationalise the issue of caste discrimination.)
Irrespective of the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being
in power, India has claimed that caste is an 'internal' matter; it is
a non-issue, officials in New Delhi suggest, and there are enough laws
within India to deal with it. This is an old script that even Ambedkar
had to battle with when he spoke of caste discrimination at the Round
Table Conferences in London, in 1930-32, and the Congress and Mohandas
K Gandhi opposed him on 'nationalist' grounds. Yet when it comes to
counting castes – and thus internally acknowledging an inescapable
social reality – there seems to be today an all-round political
consensus. In other words, when the Dalit-led discourse posits caste
as discrimination and violence, the state opposes it; but when
non-Dalit non-Brahmins highlight caste as a source of gaining
(eventual) political advantage, the state seems to embrace the idea,
albeit with some reluctance.

A headcount of all castes in 2011 is not going to be a benign
exercise. It would be naive to simply harp on how such data will be
useful for sociologists, anthropologists, policymakers and editorial
writers (the caste census issue having elicited perhaps the largest
number of editorials and commentaries in India in recent times). The
data will unleash social energies whose power we, as yet, have no idea
about. Ambedkar had always argued that caste and democracy cannot
coexist; that the democratic spirit is antithetical to caste. But we
have seen how successfully – if not very peaceably – caste and
democracy have coexisted in an India that boasts of six decades of
parliamentary democracy. While holding a fascinating mirror to the
complex diversities that caste produces, this census could also lead
to several castes falling in love with their self-image.

Powerful, resource-rich castes that are educationally and socially
backward will lay compelling and competing claims to victimhood, much
to the detriment of Dalits. Unless the state shows a willingness to
fight caste head-on – something about which there has not been an iota
of proof over six decades – the caste census might uncork the
discourse of caste majoritarianism, the implications of which could be
far more dangerous than religious majoritarianism.

The author would like to thank Ravikumar for his inputs.


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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati Vs Rahul: Amethi likely to get a new name

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Mayawati-Vs-Rahul-Amethi-likely-to-get-a-new-name/articleshow/6477764.cms

2 Sep, 2010, 04.38AM IST,ET Bureau
Mayawati Vs Rahul: Amethi likely to get a new name

NEW DELHI: The Mayawati government's efforts to 'erase' the
Nehru-Gandhi family's 'imprint' on Amethi got a big boost when the
Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the go ahead for the creation of a
district carved out of Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency.

UP CM Mayawati wants to rename the district after Dalit icon
Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj.

SC decided the issue in favour of the Mayawati government on the
ground that a similar petition was dismissed by the HC on August 11. A
Bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and H L Gokhale said the HC
Bench, which passed the interim order on August 18, should have
considered the order of August 11 of its own bench. "Judicial
propriety demanded that the high court should have considered the
final judgement of August 11. It could not have taken a different
stand," the Supreme Court Bench said.

UP had moved the apex court, challenging the August 18 interim order
of the Lucknow Bench of the HC which stayed restoration of the new
district till March 31 next year or till further orders.

The new district is being carved out of three tehsils of Sultanpur
district, Amethi, Gauriganj, Musafir Khana, and two tehsils of Rae
Bareli, Salon and Tiloi. The Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency,
which is represented by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, along with
Amethi and Sultanpur constituencies form the famous Gandhi bastion.

In December 2002, when BSP controlled the state, Ms Mayawati had made
the first attempt to rename the district. Addressing a rally in
Amethi, she announced her government's decision to rename the
constituency, then represented by Sonia Gandhi. The district came into
existence with Gauriganj as its headquarters six days after Ms
Mayawati made the announcement. However, her successor Mulayam Singh
Yadav scrapped the decision in his very first cabinet meeting.

A writ petition challenging Mr Yadav government's move was filed in
the Lucknow bench of the HC by Uma Shankar Pandey. The court in March
2010 directed the petitioner to submit his case before the state
government, which was asked to take a final view on the issue within
three months. This paved way for the Mayawati government's latest
action.


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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: A Report on Dalit & Adivasi Students and Foreign Universities (Insight Study Circle Meeting held on 22nd August)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: anoop kumar <anoopkheri@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Subject: A Report on Dalit & Adivasi Students and Foreign Universities
(Insight Study Circle Meeting held on 22nd August)
To:


Opportunities for Dalit and Adivasi Students for Higher Education in
World's Premier Educational Institutions: A Report

Insight Study Circle Meeting  held on 22 August 2010 (Sunday) at
Indian Social Institute, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

Speakers

1. David Vumlallian Zou (from Manipur) teaches at History Department,
Delhi University and did his doctorate from Queen's University,
Belfast with full scholarship from Academic Planning Grant (Northern
Ireland).

2. Abhay Xaxa (from Chhattisgarh) is currently working with Indian
Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi and did his Masters in Social
Anthropology from University of Sussex, UK  (2008) as one of the
recipient of International Ford Fellowship Programme.

3. Bhawani Buswala (from Rajasthan) is currently in the country for
his field research. He is pursuing his PhD in Anthropology from Brown
University, Rhodes Island, USA on full university scholarship.

4. Rama Devi Hansraj (from Andhra Pradesh) completed her Post
Graduation in Human Rights from University of London (2004) as one of
the International Ford Fellow. She is currently based in Kolkata and
is working with Catholic Relief Service.

Given below are the excerpts from the speeches from our panel of
speakers followed by a brief interaction session with our audiences.

Rama Devi Hansraj

I did my MA from University of Hyderabad, Department of Mass
Communication. I am the first generation educated person in my family.
After completing my studies in Hyderabad, I worked with some small
Human Rights groups in Andhra Pradesh.

Through that network I came to know about International Ford
Foundation Fellowship programme that was meant exclusively for
students from marginalised background.  I applied and was selected
after going through its rigorous selection process. With that
fellowship, I did my Masters in University of London in Human Rights.

As I was part of Dalit students' movement in Hyderabad University, I
was very conscious of caste discrimination that we all go through both
subtle and direct. Perhaps that made me to opt for my study in the
area of Human Rights.

Also I felt that articulation on the issues is a major problem. I have
heard many Dalit women who were able to articulate and share their
personal experiences in their vernacular language so well but doing so
in English was a big challenge. They are being represented by people
who are only good at articulating in English and so people coming from
the grass root realities could never talk for themselves at a bigger
platform like UN. These reasons led me to opt for a course in human
rights.

What I liked about Ford Foundation was their entire interview process.
The whole process was very comforting and gave us enough breathing
space and to remain confident as applicants. They appointed one panel
member to each applicant to interact at personal level. The one who
was interviewing me, later, in the interview actually spoke on behalf
of me which was very encouraging. This gave me lot of confidence and
helped me face whatever question they asked.

--
"Rosa sat so Martin could walk; Martin walked so Obama could run,
Obama ran so your children can fly"


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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Caste Discrimination roves in Chhattisgarh [1 Attachment]

<*>[Attachment(s) from Siddhartha Kumar included below]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Goldy George <goldymgeorge10@gmail.com>
Date: 2 September 2010 18:46
Subject: [INDELHI:484] Caste Discrimination roves in Chhattisgarh
To: dalit-movement-association-
<dalit-movement-association-@googlegroups.com>,
indiancurrents@gmail.com, editor <editor@countercurrents.org>,
guddudalit@gmail.com, bharat-chintan
<bharat-chintan@googlegroups.com>, Sudha Bharadwaj
<advocatesudhabharadwaj@gmail.com>, indelhi@googlegroups.com,
justpeaceinasia@yahoogroups.com, adv sudha <advsudhacmm@yahoo.co.in>,
chhattisgarh-net@yahoogroups.com, hu_governance@googlegroups.com,
human-rights@uchicago.edu, ihro <ihro@yahoogroups.com>, PUCL CG
<pucl.cg@gmail.com>, puclcg@gmail.com, puclnat@yahoo.com, kavita
nirmalawaman <adv.kavitanw@gmail.com>, Rajendra Sail
<rajendrasail@gmail.com>, rajendrasail@rediffmail.com, vijendra Aznabi
<vijend@gmail.com>, Gerard Oonk <g.oonk@indianet.nl>


Dear all,
On 17th August 2010 there was an incident of mob violence in Balaudi
village near Palari tehsil of Raipur district. On 18th the newspapers
reported it as an issue between two groups in the village.  Followed
by this Dalit Mukti Morcha and People's Union for Civil Liberties,
Chhattisgarh jointly constituted a Fact Finding Investigation team to
investigate the entire issue.
I am herewith attaching the report of the fact finding team. The team
has come up with vital observations and recommendations. Please
forward it to groups and individuals concerned.
Looking forwards to your support and solidarity
Goldy
--
---------------------------------
Goldy M. George
PhD candidate
TISS, Mumbai

Founder
Dalit Mukti Morcha
Chhattisgarh

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<*>Attachment(s) from Siddhartha Kumar:


<*> 1 of 1 File(s) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/attachments/folder/2089169668/item/list
<*> Caste Untouchability and Discrimination led to the Balaudi Incident.doc

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[ZESTCaste] Will India Become a Caste Society if Caste is Counted? (K. Satyanarayana)

http://casi.ssc.upenn.edu/iit/satyanarayana

India in Transition
Will India Become a Caste Society if Caste is Counted?
K. Satyanarayana
08/02/2010
Why is there so much opposition and anxiety among some sections of the
Indian elite – particularly among its upper-caste intellectual class –
on the question of enumeration of caste in the Census of India 2011?
My answer is simple: India would legally become a caste society. The
formal recognition of caste as a national category implies that the
Indian state is going beyond the constitutional recognition of caste
as a category to measure disability (i.e., untouchability, atrocity,
and social backwardness). The Indian constitution views caste as a
source of disability or discrimination, and laid down a set of clauses
to root out these practices of inequality. It assumes that caste is an
exception to Indian social life and will fade away. In other words,
the constitution conceives the Indian citizen to be a casteless
individual and it bars acknowledgment of ascripitive ties. Though the
constitution is categorical about eliminating disabilities caused by
caste, it is vague about the status of the caste groups in Indian
social life. However, the decision to enumerate caste would mean a
legal acceptance of caste groups – especially lower caste groups such
as Other Backward Classes (OBC) – as legitimate political actors. This
implies that India would legally become a caste society; the Indian
elite are shocked by this implication and the larger social
transformations that might follow this legal acknowledgment of caste.

The view that Indian society is a caste society is not a new
perception. The Dalit and other anti-caste social movements asserted
the centrality of caste in Indian society. It was Phule and Ambedkar,
the two prominent voices in the colonial period, who argued that caste
determines status, wealth, knowledge, and power in Indian society. It
was again in the post-emergency period, that a new generation of dalit
writers, critics, scholars, and activists not only reiterated that
India is a caste society but also articulated a new notion of caste.
They critiqued and rejected the elite view of caste as a singular
entity that causes divisions in society and advanced a new concept of
caste as a source of everyday experience of violence as well as an
identity for mobilization. In fact, the tremendous pressure to
recognize caste as a national category begins with the rise of the
contemporary Dalit movement in the context of mass killings of Dalits
in the 1970s and 1980s. In the context of atrocities on Dalits, the
Congress Government enacted the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled
Tribes (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. This Act signaled an
important change in the legal view of caste. While the Untouchability
(Offences) Act, 1955 recognized "untouchability" – not caste – as a
cause of disability, the SC/ST Act, 1989 identified "caste" as a cause
of atrocity, and caste related atrocities as national crimes. The
Supreme Court also came under public pressure during the Mandal
agitation during the period of 1991 to 1993, and accorded legal
sanction to the category of caste as a national entity (Indra Sawhney
vs. Union of India, 1992). Therefore, the demand for enumerating caste
in the Census 2011 is a demand of the Dalits and the OBCs who are
consolidated as social groups and operate as a force in contemporary
society.

The Indian elite are defending the idea of India as a homogeneous
entity and neutral space beyond ascriptive identities. They represent
themselves as a special group of Indian citizens ("meri Jaati
Hindustani"). This group is a small minority of English-educated urban
elite – mostly upper caste intellectuals and some politicians – who
view caste as divisive and evil. This group includes yet another small
section of liberal and left-oriented intellectuals who advance the
view that enumeration of caste in the Census will prevent a meaningful
and complete transformation of India as a democratic society. They
view the debate on caste only as an issue relating to reservations or
other policy issues related to SC/ST/OBCs. Both of these sections of
the elite represent themselves as casteless people (i.e., true
Indians) and stigmatize Dalits and OBCs as caste people. They never
concede that the recognition of different castes and therefore, the
existence of different social groups in the country is an important
decision in and of itself.

One must take note of the Dalit critique of the dominant conceptions
of caste. The literary and activist writings and academic scholarship
of Dalits underscore the view that caste is a source of everyday
discrimination, brutal forms of violence, dehumanization, and
inequality. This scholarship, drawing on experience, simultaneously
brings to light the role of caste as a marker of privilege, caste
arrogance, social worth, and power, and dismantles the view that
secular/modern Indian citizens are casteless. It also challenges the
dominant singular view of caste as only an instrument of social
divisions and also the perception that caste identity is only an
identity of the lower castes. To the surprise of academic pundits,
caste is mobilized as an identity of assertion in the public sphere as
well as in the electoral domain. These innovative ways of invoking
caste raise the question of conceptualizing caste as a critical
concept and as a key category to comprehend and assess social change
in India.

The Indian Census is a key domain of representing Indian identity. The
Central Government claims that the Indian Census provides
comprehensive demographic and socio-economic data and is also the
"only source of primary data at village, town, and ward levels." This
data is the basis for delimitation/reservation of constituencies at
the levels of Parliament, Assembly, Panchayats, and other Local
Bodies. However, this significant data contains no record of caste
since 1931. The Census categories of population groups include only
religious communities, language groups, SC and ST population, and
male-female ratio; caste is only recorded as an exception which is
indicated by the SCs and STs. The other sections of the people have no
record of caste; the Indian Census remained truly "Indian."

Given the symbolic and political significance of a national census and
lack of data on caste, a demand for inclusion of caste was raised in
2001. The then-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government rejected
this demand. This time, the oppressed caste groups are determined to
challenge the homogeneous and monolithic view of India in our Census
and argue for recognition of the existence of diverse social groups in
India. The Census constructs aggregate national categories and
therefore, the production of caste as an aggregate category and the
redefinition of India as a caste society are politically significant.
The Dalit and other oppressed caste groups realized the importance of
engaging with the institutions of a modern liberal democracy like
India and therefore, the demand for caste census is a strategic
position. They would certainly welcome a revolution, a land
distribution program, or even a new paradigm of enumeration. But they
have no luxury to wait for these larger social transformation projects
nor do they have the power to completely restructure this whole
enumeration process right now.

The enumeration of "the caste of each member of the household" – not
only OBCs – in the Census would make India a caste society and open up
a number of new questions. The Census may provide data to make visible
the privileged status of certain caste groups and their numbers. The
comprehensive caste data may activate demands for increasing the
percentage of reservation to each category of the SCs, STs and the
OBCs, and the reservation percentage – currently at a ceiling of only
50 percent – may be challenged. The new caste groups may demand more
than reservations and welfare schemes and raise fresh questions of
redistribution of land, wealth, and power. There may be many Mayawatis
who master the game of numbers and change the national election scene
completely. The most significant process that the caste census would
churn out is the de-essentialization and politicization of caste
through a meaningful public debate beyond the academic domain. This
process may involve caste tensions, the rise of new ruling classes
(including the OBCs), and the total displacement of the existing
ruling sections of the Indian elite. This process of democratization
will be full of contradictions and surprises; the Indian elite are not
yet ready to experience this transformation.

K. Satyanarayana is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Cultural Studies at EFL University, Hyderabad, and is a CASI Summer
2010 Visiting Scholar.


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