Saturday, August 20, 2011

[ZESTCaste] No Reservations. Literally

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=hub270811AARAKSHAN.asp

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8, Issue 34, Dated 27 Aug 2011
CULTURE & SOCIETY
SPOILERS AHEAD

No Reservations. Literally

The Plot
Khan is an angsty Dalit despite non-Dalit guru (and college principal)
Bachchan's years of sacrifice and tutelage. Padukone is Bachchan's
daughter. Babbar is their friend and the son of a college trustee.
Bajpai is a devious upper caste professor who bends rules to run his
expensive private coaching classes despite college's strict policies.
And then there's the circus. So when the Mandal verdict meteor shakes
the status quo, Bachchan and his family have to pay for his ideals.
Then? Then he makes a comeback that beats every "Aao padhein" public
service message. Ever.

By Mona J
Aarakshan
Aarakshan

AARAKSHAN
DIRECTOR
Prakash Jha

STARRING
Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali
Khan, Deepika Padukone, Prateik Babbar, Manoj Bajpai

Senti Meter
Aarakshan Score -7
The first half is about devious evictions. The second half is about
free tuitions. Wait, wasn't this supposed to be a controversial film
about reservations?

-3 Because The Forced Romance In The Plot comes in the form of two
songs picturised on Khan and Padukone, which (and minus three for
that) just decide to show up randomly.

-3 Because Act I is filled with spinelessly good people who obviously
were going to kick the man when he's down.

+4 Because Some Of The Big B-Bajpai Initial Scenes are powerful s**t.
Plus three for a tacky yet powerful-in-thought celebrations right
after the Mandal verdict.

-4 To Chhote Nawab because sirji, if you're a Dalit you should leave
the nawab at home. Plus four because *sigh* Saifu... Don't ever let go
of that moustache!

-5 For The Old Spice Theme Type music for the intense sequences. And
other random background tracks that include a Sarod version of
Vaishnav Jan. Worst. Score. Ever.

-9 Because The Dialogue Writer Watched One Too Many Vox Pop Segments
on TV news. How many soundbytes does it take to change a light bulb?

+10 To Hema Malini's Framebombing (a la photobombing). Her omnipresent
portrait's penetrating eyes keep us distracted from the bad dialogue.

+3 Because The Story Actually Has Potential Plus three for a
predictable but good we-build-up-our-heroes- to-tear-them-down
sequence.

-2 Because This Is Every 'Angry <Insert-adjective> Man' Big B Movie ever made.

-10 Because Who Needs A Good Story when three hours into it, we can
always use a Deus Ex to solve issues of national importance.

+5 To Hema Malini's Greying, Graceful And Predictable Cameo as someone
as rich as Kokilaben and as powerful as Soniaji.


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[ZESTCaste] Two Dalits killed for land in UP

 

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/two-dalits-killed-for-land-in-up/794640.html

Two Dalits killed for land in UP
PTI | 09:08 PM,Aug 19,2011

Deoria(UP), Aug 19 (PTI) Two persons, belonging to Dalit community,
were allegedly killed today in a property related dispute in Salempur
area of district, police said. The deceased, who had purchased a piece
of land from a family, were allegedly beaten to death by them when
they went to take possession, police said. Three others were also
injured in the incident and were rushed to Gorakhpur medical college
for treatment, police said adding that, senior officials have rushed
to the village.PTI CORR SAB PG

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[ZESTCaste] Hindutva And The Dalit Question

http://www.countercurrents.org/bhanwar190811.htm

Hindutva And The Dalit Question

By Bhanwar Meghvanshi

19 August, 2011
Countercurrents.org

Of late, the RSS has been making a tremendous hue-and-cry about what
it calls the 'social assimilation' (samarasta) of the various castes.
The curious fact, however, is that it has no intention whatsoever of
promoting the genuine 'assimilation' of, leave alone equality between,
the various castes. A clear indication of its attitude to the caste
question is that from the very beginning it has been strongly opposed
to reservations or any other form of protective discrimination for
Dalits, Adviasis, OBCs and religious minorities.

The truth is that 'samarasta' for the Hindutva camp means that the
varna system should remain, as should the different castes and the
hierarchies and inequalities that divide them. So, too, must
untouchability, and poverty and the enormous differences between the
rich and the poor. The Hindutva forces want that the present system,
wherein some people continue to have a virtual monopoly over resources
and power, while millions of others live in the most pathetic
conditions, continues unscathed. It wants, in other words, that the
status quo in terms of caste and class relations should continue and
that no one should in any way revolt against this. This is what is
meant by its jargon about samarasta, which Hindutva ideologues
constantly harp about. So that the oppressed Dalits and others do not
begin to assert themselves for their rights it is necessary for the
Hindutva forces to keep talking about the mirage of samarasta.

The Hindutva forces have always been opposed to social equality. When
two brothers cannot be the same, Hindutva ideologues often argue, how
can there be equality in society at large? That is why, they say,
equality is impossible, and the most that one can seek is samarasta,
as they understand the term. In other words, for them the 'high' and
the rich must remain high and rich, the 'low' and the poor must remain
low and poor, but society must somehow 'assimilate' the two categories
harmoniously, as if this were possible.

It requires no great intelligence to understand that this defence of
the status quo by Hindutva forces in the name of samarasta brilliantly
serves the interests of the exploiting classes, such as capitalists,
the feudal class as well as the priestly class, and that is why these
three classes are among their most staunch supporters. This trio of
classes faces the greatest threat from social equality. The priests
want that they should be left to monopolise their profession so that
they can continue to fleece people, exploit their faith and
comfortably live off their donations. The former rajas and maharajas
still want to fancy themselves as rulers of this land and the rest of
Indians as their subjects. The Banias want to maintain their hegemony
in the economic sphere, and they want no change in the system wherein
a tiny class owns almost all the wealth, while the rest are landless,
poverty-stricken labourers. For these three classes, the slogan of
samarasta serves to maintain the iniquitous system that favours them.
To maintain this grossly unequal system in the guise of samarasta,
these days Hindutva forces are now trying to woo the Dalits and
Adivasi and fool them by presenting themselves as committed to their
welfare. Their activists tour Dalit and Adivasi localities, and try to
win them over by eating with them or by setting up religious centres
for them. In this way, they are trying to create and reinforce the
completely fallacious notion that there is no one so committed to the
Dalits and Adivasis as they themselves.

But the real face of the Hindutva forces, their true stance on Dalits
and other oppressed castes, is easily understood from their position
on reservations for these communities. This brutal reality strips the
masks under which they seek to hide. From time to time, Hindutva
leaders, including top bosses of the RSS, issue confusing statements
about reservations for the oppressed castes, but, overall, these are
calculated to negate their importance and seek to do away with them.
Some years ago, Sudarshan, the then head of the RSS, issued a
statement that such reservations had become a tool to mobilize votes.
Indresh Kumar, another important RSS leader, declared that
reservations on the basis of caste had divided India against itself
and had even, so he had the gumption to claim, threatened its unity
and integrity and the love and harmony between its different classes.
Devendra Swaroop, a key RSS ideologue, also stridently opposed
reservations as allegedly undermining democracy and as promoting
advancement through greed and by means of crutches. Moreover, he
condemned reservations as supposedly divisive and anti-national. He
contended that students who believe in 'merit', 'all intellectuals',
the media, the industrialist class, the judiciary and other
'Constitutional bodies' 'have stood up in opposition to this divisive
and anti-national reservation policy. A massive movement [against the
policy] is beginning to emerge throughout the country.'

Another top Hindutva boss, Pravin Togadia, General Secretary of the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, once infamously declared that by providing
reservations to the Backward Classes, the government was 'fulfilling
the incomplete task of Khilji and Ghazni'—this being an allusion to
medieval supposedly anti-Hindu Muslim invaders, whom the Hindutva
forces regard with horror. 'Through reservations, a conspiracy is
being carried out to divide the country', he announced. Summing up the
Hindutva stance on reservations for the oppressed castes, BJP leader
Murli Manohar Joshi quipped, 'It is wrong to provide reservations on
the basis of caste.' The Shiv Sena, a key member of the Hindutva
combine, is notorious for its consistent opposition to reservations
for the oppressed castes. It is said that the almost defunct Hindu
Mahasabha, at one time in the recent past began showing signs of being
revived in order to oppose such reservations. Himani Savarkar, top
Mahasabha leader, and daughter-in-law of one of its key founders, VD
Savarkar (she belongs to the Godse family), announced, 'The Hindu
Mahasabha has always been opposed to reservations. Even before
Independence, the Mahasabha, at its Karnavati and Bhagalpur
conventions, had opposed reservations based on caste and religion.'

The RSS keeps harping that 'All Hindus are Brothers', but when it
comes to reservations for the oppressed castes, it turns, as these
examples illustrate, against its supposed co-religionists—the
oppressed castes. Hindutva forces are also said to be campaigning
under the cover of various other outfits to end the system of
reservations, sometimes hesitating to reveal their true intentions for
fear of losing the support of the oppressed castes. So much for its
claims of being committed to the 'assimilation' of the different
castes and for its rhetoric about social 'harmony'.

Bhanwar Megwanshi is a noted social activist from Bhilwara, Rajasthan.
He edits the Hindi monthly 'Diamond India', a journal that deals with
grassroots' social issues. He is associated with the Rajasthan-based
Mazdoor-Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), and can be contacted on
bhanwarmegwanshi@yahoo.com

(Translated by Yoginder Sikand)


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[ZESTCaste] 'Anna Hazare's movement is anti-social justice, manuwadi'

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Anna-Hazares-movement-is-anti-social-justice-manuwadi/articleshow/9664784.cms

'Anna Hazare's movement is anti-social justice, manuwadi'

Avijit GhoshAvijit Ghosh, TNN | Aug 19, 2011, 09.53PM IST
NEW DELHI: The anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare has found
huge support across the country. But several prominent dalit
activists, intellectuals as well as those writing regularly on dalit
issues have severely castigated the movement. They say it is casteist
in nature and against representative democracy.

Dalit columnist Chandrabhan Prasad says Team Anna seems to have a
profound contempt for constitutionalism. "The Anna Hazare phenomenon
is leading us to the rejection of representative democracy itself. The
movement is an upper-caste uprising against India's political
democracy. That apart, vesting so much power in the Lokpal, a
non-elected person, could lead to a dangerous situation," he says.

Hyderabad-based dalit-bahujan thinker Kancha Ilaiah offers similar
views. "The Anna movement is an anti-social justice, manuvadi
movement. The Dalits, tribals, OBCs and minorities have nothing to do
with it. We oppose it," he says.

Dalit activists insist that corruption means much more than just
bribes and kickbacks. "For us casteism is corruption,
caste-discrimination is corruption, not filling up reserved seats as
per constitutional norms is also corruption. Is Anna and his team
willing to talk about all these?" says Anoop Kheri, coordinator of
Insight Foundation, that helps Dalit and adivasi students in higher
education.

Adds Rajesh Paswan, a JNU doctorate in Hindi, "The movement has raised
fears among Dalits, adivasis and minorities that similar methods can
be used to create laws against them in future."

Kheri feels that the idiom used by protestors has a distinct casteist
tinge. "The language, symbols used by the movement clearly reflects
its upper caste Hindu nature, a very rightwing Hindu patriotism is
being used to get the entire country against corruption. And as a
dalit, I have a problem with it," he says.

The activist also feels that rather than seeing corruption as a social
problem that needs comprehensive social churning and cultural changes
to fight against, those involved in the movement want everybody to
believe that only politicians are corrupt. "This is a false premise,
very escapist and also dangerous for our democracy," he says.

The activist is also sceptical about the efficacy of the Jan Lokpal
bill. "In a democracy we don't want anything that appears
extra-constitutional, someone whom the masses of this country have no
say in electing or disposing of. Democracy in India might be highly
flawed but it is the only weapon in the hand of the marginalized to
challenge the status quo. Whatever rights we have got, we got from
democracy, and not from any self-styled 'civil society', Kheri says.

D Shyam Babu, former fellow, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation offers a slightly
different perspective. He believes that the movement is not
anti-Dalit. "It is basically a mix of misplaced patriotism, ego and
total disregard for established authority," he says.

A positive outcome of the movement, he says, is that the government
can no longer take people for granted on the issue of corruption. "But
the flip side is that there is a thin line between 'popular unrest'
and anarchy. This is also habit-forming in the sense that whenever a
group finds a cause to highlight, it only has to enlist the services
of some 'Gandhian'. Don't forget Dr Ambedkar's caution against
'satyagraha' as the 'grammar of anarchy'," says Shyam Babu.

Many protesters have named the ongoing battle against corruption as
the second freedom struggle. Ilaiah differs. "This means they are
recognizing Jaiprakash Narayan's 1974 anti-corruption movement and VP
Singh's similar movement in 1989. Both these movements had ideological
basis of socialism and social justice," he says.

Prasad also counters Team Anna's claim of representing civil society.
He says, "The real question is: has India really evolved into a civil
society? Was South Africa a civil society in times of apartheid? Was
US a civil society in times of slavery? Was England a civil society in
times of serfdom? If the answer is no, then can India with the caste
system still in place, be called a civil society?"

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