Monday, November 8, 2010

[ZESTCaste] 'Indian media has been beyond shameful...'

 

http://www.timescrest.com/opinion/indian-media-has-been-beyond-shameful-3915

'Indian media has been beyond shameful...'
Srijana Mitra Das | November 6, 2010

Your journey, from an artist who acted, designed and writes, to
someone who engages with violence and destruction, is remarkable. Have
you changed along the way?

Of course. I'd be a ghoul if I hadn't. The journey itself has been
profound. It's been painful to see people live in a system that seems
designed to pulverize them. It's been exhilarating to stand with those
who fight back.

Has the journey changed your writing?

It must have though it intrigues me that even when I wrote The God of
Small Things, I was politically in the same place, dealing with the
same themes;the orthodox left, Naxalites, caste. In my last essay, The
Trickledown Revolution, I borrowed a sentence from my architecture
thesis on postcolonial Delhi! My instincts are the same but I've
delved deeper into those political fault-lines over the years.

Does India offer sufficient space for its artists to comment on public
affairs? Or is there an attempt to 'box' people into predictable
roles?

It's natural for society to box people into roles. It's up to the
writers, artistes and filmmakers to un-box themselves. But that might
make them un-viable in the 'market'. That keeps most on a leash. Of
course, when moving into genuinely radical politics, it's hard to
predict what they'll throw at you - the law, the godsquadders,
book-burners or a speeding truck.

How do you deal with people focusing on your personal life instead of
what you say?

It comes with the territory. I cannot expect to write what I write and
have everybody stand up and applaud. What's dissent without a few good
insults? Gandhi set impossible standards. Now, unless you're celibate,
wear a loin cloth and eat goats' curd, you've had it with the critics
- unless you agree with them about everything. I cannot complain about
what happens to me - see what people go through in Kashmir, Manipur,
Nagaland, Chhattisgarh - tortured, raped, summarily killed. It's
chilling what's going on and how the upper classes look away.

Does the Indian media offer sufficient space for dissenting voices?

Much of the mainstream media has been captured by a small clique of
columnists, editors and TV anchors, an incestuous little coterie with
shows on each others' channels and interviews in each others'
newspapers. Even the guests on the TV shows are the same old people.
Day in and day out, they chatter away, saying things that comfort each
other even when they appear to be shouting at one another. It's
amusing and grim at the same time. Sometimes, it's like watching an
interminable cocktail party. But all is not lost. There are good
editors, good journalists, people who are very uncomfortable with
what's going on.

Can something positive be gleaned from hostile media reactions?

Yes. It's great entertainment once you've decoded it and don't take it
personally.

Does the Indian media have ideological or class interests? Is it a
gendered space?

The mainstream media is the lynchpin of the corporate project, how can
it not have ideological and class interests? It's not apparently
gendered but if the person refusing to toe the line is a woman, heaven
help her. . . they will drum up a lynch mob.

How does the Indian media compare to other societies?

How many countries have as many 24-hour news channels as India does?
It's viral here. Completely out of proportion.

Does the Indian media want to understand dissent? Has it even explored
the Kashmir 'freedom' argument without bias?

The Indian media has been beyond shameful about Kashmir.

Does the Indian public really know what's happening on the other side
of our screens?

The general public knows a lot. It doesn't come from the media
necessarily but from the difficulty ordinary people encounter in their
daily life. The middle-class does not really want to know. But TV is
making zombies out of everybody. A police SP in Dantewada seriously
told me the solution to the uprising in the forests was to put a TV in
every adivasi home. It would turn them into slugs, with no sense of
community. Once they were addicted, they could just be rolled out and
herded away before they knew what had happened. TV hypnotises people,
making them easier to control. It is the government's most potent

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[ZESTCaste] Nitish awaits mandate of Mahadalits

 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/119214/India/nitish-awaits-mandate-of-mahadalits.html

Nitish awaits mandate of Mahadalits

Giridhar Jha
Patna, November 8, 2010
Updated 09:38 IST

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Mahadalit politics will be put to
a test in the final two phases of the ongoing assembly polls.

Altogether 61 constituencies spread over 12 districts will go to the
polls in the remaining two rounds on November 9 and November 20.
Polling in these two rounds will determine whether Nitish's efforts to
win over the Mahadalits - who constitute around 15 per cent of the
state's population - will pay him dividends in the elections.

There are 13 seats reserved for the scheduled castes in the final two
phases. They are: Rajauli, Makhdumpur, Agiaon, Rajgir, Bodh Gaya,
Phulwari, Masaurhi, Rajpur, Mohania, Chenari, Kutumba, Imamganj and
Barachatti (map). But there are 17 general constituencies - Kargahar,
Arwal, Bhabhua, Ramgarh, Bikarm, Harnaut, Asthawan, Barbigha, Nawada,
Hisua, Govindpur, Gurua, Sherghati, Tekari, Belaganj, Atari and
Wazirganh - in western and southern parts of the state where the Dalit
population is over 20 per cent.

In the majority of constituencies in Gaya district, Dalits constitute
24 to 30 per cent voters while in Nawada, it is between 20 and 26 per
cent. In Rajauli constituency of the district, the Dalit population is
29 per cent (Census 2001).

The Bihar poll results in these seats will be an indicator of the
success or failure of the efforts by the Nitish Kumar government in
improving the conditions of the Mahadalit community. In the middle of
his term, Nitish had set up a Mahadalit Commission to suggest measures
for the betterment of the most deprived sections of the 22 Dalit
castes.

The commission recommended that all Dalit castes, except Dusadhs
(Paswans), should be categorised as Mahadalits since their
socioeconomic status needed special attention.

In its interim report, the commission included only 18 Dalit castes
and left out Paswan, Dhobi, Ravidas and Pasi from its ambit but it
went on to include Dhobi, Ravidas and Pasi later, leaving only Paswan
as Dalit.

Bihar was the first state in the country to have set up a commission
to uplift those Dalits lagging behind others in social, financial,
educational and political fields.

Nitish had said there was a need to bridge the gap between the
Mahadalits and others. His government has announced a slew of sops for
the Mahadalits in the past couple of years, which was seen as his
attempt to win over these voters in the state.

The government launched a Mahadalit Development Mission to dole out
sops worth Rs 300 crore among the Dalits in three years.

The state government has also decided to give three decimals of land
each to Mahadalit families.

Nitish's move was also seen as an attempt to weaken the base of Lok
Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan, who was the undisputed
leaders of the Dalits earlier. His decision to create a separate "
Mahadalit vote bank" sparked a row in the state.

Paswan said that Nitish was playing divide- and- rule politics in the
name of Dalits and Mahadalits.

He alleged that the Nitish government was duping Mahadalits by
promising three decimals of land.

"But his move will not pay any dividend in the elections," Paswan said.

Nitish has always maintained that his government's decision on
Mahadalits had nothing to do with vote bank politics. But political
observers believed he was trying to consolidate his base among the
Dalits through welfare measures.

In the November 2005 assembly polls, the Janata Dal-United and its
coalition partner BJP had won 15 and 11 seats respectively out of the
total 39 seats reserved for the scheduled castes. In contrast, the RJD
had won seven, while the LJP and the Congress had bagged two each. The
CPI ( ML) and the CPI had won one seat each.

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[ZESTCaste] An open letter to President Obama introducing him to Ambedkar

http://www.merinews.com/article/an-open-letter-to-president-obama-introducing-him-to-ambedkar/15834330.shtml

An open letter to President Obama introducing him to Ambedkar

Martin Luther King Jr visited India when Dr Ambedkar was alive but met
only the then Prime Minister Nehru and seems to have been kept in the
dark about his civil rights counterpart in India and perhaps never
came to know about him.

CJ: Ravikiran Shinde Thu, Nov 04, 2010 13:09:00 IST
Views: 24 Comments: 1Rate: 4.0 / 1 votes DEAR MR President,

I hope you are doing great. I am delighted to hear that you are coming
to India. The last time I saw you at OSU rally in Ohio battling out
against belligerent Ms. Clinton. I have moved back to India since.


I witnessed jubilation back home among the Indians in general and the
downtrodden in particular seeing the highest office of the most
powerful country gained by someone lowest in the social strata – a
victory of sort for the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr,
your mentor.

Climbing of the ladder as an African American (if not as a son of the
Muslim) was not just notional, but it was indicative of the changing
times and changing thoughts of the common working
class Americans (or whites to be overt). 'Yes, we can' was the slogan
for your campaign and you indeed could phenomenally transgress gender
and religion to convince the nation that they could be safe and sound
even under a black man.

The euphoria is over now and you are facing with challenges both
within and outside USA and you are facing them very well, one would
imagine. Iraq withdrawal was your most important promise that the
Americans are seeing getting fulfilled.

Today, India is agog with stories of your upcoming visit. Reportedly,
you would be attending the Indian parliament session during your
visit.

This has enthralled us all – although the speaker of the lower house,
Meira Kumar might be feeling edgy a la school principal during a
supervisors visit unsure about the unruly crowd in the house. Leader
of world's oldest democracy will be watching how the world's largest
democracy functions in one of its pillars.


While roaming in the premises of the parliament garden or Parliament
photo gallery (I hope you will spare some time) you might stumble upon
the effigy of a middle aged person with glasses raising his index
finger indicating the direction towards the building. Amid the
traditional Dhoti and Khadi clad effigies, this distinct coat and
trouser clad image will be easier to identify.

The statue or image belongs to none other than the Chief Architect of
India's constitution Dr. Babasaheb Bhimarao Ambedkar (1891 -1956). He
was not only a Columbia University alumnus like you but also that of
London School of Economics. He was perhaps the highest qualified
figure of his times despite belonging to the lowest strata of Indian
social order.

He is the greatest civil rights activists India has ever produced,
who not only built the democratic values respected by the world but is
revered even today by millions in India. An economist, a lawyer, a
social worker, a professor, a politician, a journalist and a
philosopher - Dr Ambekar was a versatile figure. He single handedly
lead non-violent movement to give the downtrodden their rights during
the time when even shadow of untouchables was considered unholy. He is
considered as the father of the affirmative action in India.

He attacked the inequality in the Hinduism vociferously and argued and
won the case against Gandhi during the round-table discussions over
political rights of Untouchables before Independence. He finally
embraced Buddhism along with millions of his followers reviving the
age-old religion that took birth in this very nation.

He even modeled the secular, socialist, republic, democratic structure
after the Buddha's Sangha (assembly).
Today, Dr Ambedkar statues, from the length and breadth of the
country, easily outnumber those of Gandhi or Nehru demonstrating that
his legacy has lasted more than that of the latter in modern day
India. Books and collection of his writings and speeches sell like hot
cakes the day they are launched. And now we have one such statue in
Columbia University Campus itself, in case you haven't noticed it.

Dr Ambedkar in being elevated from the lowest echelon of society
compelled me to introduce you to this giant personality, who still
faces a bias from the upper caste dominated government agencies and
media. That's why they would limit your exposure to the Gandhis and
the Nehrus of the country and not Dr Ambedkar.
To juxtapose, imagine what the Fox news does to the African American
community or its heroes. As a sedate ritual I am pretty sure India's
establishment comprising of descendents of Nehru - Gandhi family would
take you to the Rajghat (Gandhi's memorial) in Delhi but they would
not talk to you about Dr Ambedkar.

Martin Luther King Jr visited India when Dr Ambedkar was alive but met
only the then Prime Minister Nehru and seems to have been kept in the
dark about his civil rights counterpart in India and perhaps never
came to know about him.

Please do what MLK couldn't. Get introduced to Dr Ambedkar and his
thoughts and contribution to India's democratic system. This will
definitely make your trip a worthwhile in the long run
notwithstanding the result of other agenda on your priority i.e.
Nuclear Liability Bill or Indo-US relationship or the Kashmir issue.

If you get too overwhelmed by your first trip to India, just Google Dr
Ambedkar when time permits!

Truly,
Ravikiran Shinde


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