Latest News Update: Oct 21, 2011

Friday, October 21, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Caste in India

http://www.economist.com/node/21533458

Caste in India
Touchable
Could caste politics give way to something more sophisticated?

Oct 22nd 2011 | NOIDA | from the print edition

Untouchable but not intangible

PINK sandstone elephants stand to attention on granite plinths.
Fountains leap, as more elephants squirt jets of water. Within a huge
dome stand sculptures of prominent dalits, formerly known as
untouchables. Most striking is a hefty bronze of the woman who ordered
the place built: Mayawati, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP), shown
clutching a giant handbag.

A young visitor, craning his neck, suggests tourists will crowd from
afar to see all this. Many already have. Ms Mayawati herself visited
on October 14th, hurling purple rose petals to inaugurate the dalit
tribute park in Noida, near Delhi, in UP's western tip. She brought
40,000 supporters for the night to celebrate their identity.

Opponents carp at her splurging 6.8 billion rupees ($139m) on a few
acres of grass, some saplings and walls of self-aggrandising
stonework. She retorts, with some justification, that upper-caste
Indian leaders, such as the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, have parks and
museums aplenty. And, she says, since dalits have been abused by their
countrymen for centuries, there is immeasurable value in gestures to
lift their caste pride.

In four spells as chief minister she has done plenty of that. Several
thousand statues have gone up, mostly of herself, of former dalit
leaders and of elephants—the symbol of her Bahujan Samaj Party. Her
backers are largely the lowest-caste,who vote by identity and relish
success achieved by one of their own. With over 40m dalits in UP
alone, Mayawati's political strategy has looked shrewd.

But her opponents, sensing a recent shift away from voting by caste in
neighbouring Bihar state, are hoping otherwise. They see the lives of
many dalits changing fast, especially for those flocking to urban
areas like Noida to do casual labour, shedding jobs as sweepers or
tanners that once defined them as outcasts. Such economic mobility may
weaken their caste identity, as could better education. And more than
half of dalit families in some poor parts of UP depend for their money
on remittances from urban migrants. So plenty of voters may yet come
to care more about development, misrule and corruption than about
dalit solidarity.

If so, they have much to grumble over. The state, home to huge numbers
of poor, runs a big deficit, has wretched roads and public services.
While Ms Mayawati partied in the park, television news showed
underfunded health workers in eastern UP struggling to combat an
outbreak of encephalitis that has recently killed several hundred
people, mostly children. Now the Central Bureau of Investigation hints
that it will at last prosecute Ms Mayawati for corruption over
evidence of huge growth in her personal assets.

Voters will soon have their say, as Ms Mayawati must call state
elections within months. Since UP is huge—with 200m people, it is as
populous as Brazil—these are treated as test-runs for national
elections, which must follow by 2014. The UP vote is wide open. Ms
Mayawati vies to be a national figure, perhaps even India's first
dalit prime minister. Rivals seek to split off dalit sub-castes. Rahul
Gandhi, a Congress Party scion, campaigns among all the state's
castes, including dalits.

Beneath the changes and the politicking, caste still has a firm hold
on politics. Harsh Mander, a social activist who has surveyed ongoing
untouchability, talks of "dismaying" caste divisions. He cites a study
of ten states which found dalit children fed separately from their
peers in over a third of rural schools. Statistics suggest dalit
poverty, infant mortality and illiteracy are much worse than the
average.

There are more hopeful studies, though. One of them, designed and run
by dalit researchers including Chandra Bhan Prasad, who works for the
University of Pennsylvania, suggests "huge" changes in dalit social
life in UP. The researchers tracked stark new consumer, dietary,
grooming and work habits among dalits in two districts. In one, where
only 3% of dalits had used toothpaste in 1990, 82% did so by 2007.
Those who ate tomatoes rose from 3% to 57%. In another area only 23%
of dalits reported sitting with guests of other castes at weddings in
1990, but, by 2007, 91% did so. The studies are now being repeated in
five more areas,

Seemingly trivial, such trends in fact describe a rapid weakening of
caste identity, says Mr Prasad. He praises the arrival of
"caste-neutral" jobs such as delivering pizzas, and says visible
consumerism that shows wealth is quickly becoming more important as a
sign of status than caste. "You can be any caste you like, but if you
don't have a mobile phone you are nobody", he says. If so, pink
elephants and bronze statues may prove less effective in getting out
the dalit vote.

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

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits from two villages boycott elections

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/Dalits-from-two-villages-boycott-elections/articleshow/10435572.cms

Dalits from two villages boycott elections
Padmini Sivarajah, TNN | Oct 21, 2011, 05.19AM IST

MADURAI: While the second phase of polling was in full swing
throughout Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, voters in the villages of
Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar preferred to keep away as their
demands had not been heeded to.

The people of M Pacheri in Mandalamanickam panchayat near Kamudhi in
Ramanathapuram district did not vote en masse, protesting the murder
of a plus two student on September 9 and also the Paramakudi shooting.

Selvam (name changed) said that the Paramakudi firing incident proved
that dalits had no protection in this society.

T Palanikumar (17) was hacked to death by a gang when he was returning
after participating in a village festival in the neighbouring
Virudhunagar district on September 9. "Throughout our lives we have
lived with people looking down on us as untouchables and now
atrocities against us are on the rise," he said.

These villagers including Thangavel and Bhuvaneswari had demanded a
CBI enquiry into the murder where non-dalits had allegedly murdered
the boy for his derogatory remarks about their leader Pasumpon Thevar.
The Mandalamanickam police apprehended five persons, but the people
want justice by having everyone involved being arrested.

None of them turned up from the first ward of the Mandalamanickam
panchayat, which has a total of 859 voters, including 439 women.
Agents and booth officials waited till 5 pm before wrapping up the
ballot boxes.

Rajan another villager, questions why they should vote when the
non-dalits who dominate Mandalamanickam are the deciding force as far
as the panchayat is concerned. "The place where we (dalits) reside is
easily recognizable by its bad road and drainage conditions, when
compared to the other parts," he said.

Meanwhile, in the reserved panchayat of Kilavikulam in Virudhunagar
district, the people of Muthanadhi village decided to stay away. Out
of the 847 voters, only three voted, with 844 of them staying away.

Though the lack of basic amenities was said to be a reason for this
boycott, some people say that the internal caste issue is the problem.
They said that the panchayat was dominated by the Thevar voters of
about 850, who were constantly making a man from the Arundhadiar
community the panchayat president and preventing the other schedule
castes to head the panchayat.

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[ZESTCaste] If the Gandhi family can have statues, why not Mayawati?

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/if-the-gandhi-family-can-have-statues-why-not-mayawati-112297.html

If the Gandhi family can have statues, why not Mayawati?

Oct 20, 2011

by Anirudha Dutta

Earlier this year, I was in a village in Medak district of Andhra
Pradesh witnessing one of the group meetings of a micro-finance
institution (MFI). After the meeting I spoke to a woman in one of the
groups and asked her who she would vote for if elections were to be
held soon. I was half expecting the old woman to say YSR, the former
chief minister who had died last year and was the architect of many
pro-poor and pro-women schemes. I was stunned when she said, "Indira
amma". Yes, I did hear her correctly. The old woman still 'voted' for
Indira amma, who had died in 1984. The Gandhi family magic at work.

I have since wondered what gives the "first family" of India such an
enduring hold over the imagination of a large cross-section of the
Indian population. My eureka moment came about a month back, when I
was in New Delhi. As I was criss-crossing the city, I saw a large
number of tourist buses parked in front of various tourist attractions
— most of them memorials to various members of the Nehru-Gandhi
family. So, for 365 days a year, tourists from far and wide come to
the capital city, and apart from seeing historical monuments, the only
must-visits are the odes to various members of the Nehru-Gandhi
dynasty. Is it surprising, then, that the family is held in such high
esteem by millions across the country?

The family realizes it; that is why no leader other than one with the
Gandhi surname is allowed such monuments and shrines in the capital
city. We do not see such monuments, roads, parks, or airports named
after P V Narasimha Rao. The poor guy – who, along with Vajpayee, was,
arguably the best Prime Minister India has ever had – did not even get
a burial in the capital city of the country, let alone a memorial.

But there is one person who has grasped this truth and is not willing
to play by the dynasty rules – Mayawati. She is ensuring that her
legacy will endure in the Dalit pantheon, alongside Ambedkar, Kanshi
Ram and others. This is why she has built innumerable parks honouring
various Dalit leaders, including herself. I heard a Dalit woman on one
of the news channels say that each time she takes her children to this
park, they will feel proud that their leaders have come of age; that
they are now able to build such monuments dedicated to Dalits. While
the glitterati and the chatteratti may not like Mayawati's brazen ode
to herself and her seeming lack of taste and aesthetics, Dalits
support her, saying they need such symbols in a country where there
are monuments honouring everyone except them. Mayawati understands
this psyche.

The media has been up in arms because Mayawati has spent Rs685 crores
on the Noida park. This money, they say, could have been better spent
on schools, colleges and hospitals. Sure. But the same can be said
about all the prime land that has been usurped by the Gandhi family in
the name of various family trusts to build memorials. What is the
value of the land and residences usurped by the Gandhi name?

Mayawati knows exactly what she is doing, although it may cause
resentment, mirth, and dismay among the rich, and in the English news
media.

The parks give Dalits a sense of pride, and motivate them and spur
them. There's nothing wrong in building parks – they've been part and
parcel of Indian politics. There will now be some respite from the
Nehru- Gandhi family parks, museums and statues we have been inundated
with as a nation.

I do wish that Mayawati was also building schools, universities,
vocational training institutes, hospitals and factories. But
politically it is not the same thing; tourists and visitors will not
go there to gawk at them, feel a sense of reverence or gain a sense of
identity because of them.

Hopefully those will come in the next five years.

Anirudha Dutta is a financial analyst with a global investment bank
and based in Mumbai. He loves to write on a variety of subjects and
hopes to get his clients engaged in them, even though some of the
topics would be at a reasonable distance from the stock markets. Like
all good bongs he loves his phish and phoochka, but unlike them he is
not passionate about phootball.

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

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[ZESTCaste] Not just idle worship (Opinion)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/RajdeepSardesai/Not-just-idle-worship/Article1-759697.aspx

Not just idle worship
Rajdeep Sardesai, Hindustan Times
October 21, 2011

At a time when Mayawati's Dalit memorials have sparked off a raging
debate, it might be instructive to consider what the original Dalit
icon Babasaheb Ambedkar would have done in a similar situation. What
is almost certain is that, unlike the Uttar Pradesh chief minister,
he would not have
ordered the construction of his own statues. A fierce rationalist,
Ambedkar disliked all forms of political idol worship. "In politics,
hero worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship,"
he said in a seminal speech before the Constituent Assembly in 1949.

Sixty-two years later, there is little doubt that Mayawati has emerged
as the great dictator of Uttar Pradesh, someone who controls India's
most populous state with an iron fist. Which is why she can insist on
having her own life-size statue alongside an Ambedkar, Phule, Shahu
and Kanshi Ram. Which is also why she can brazenly claim that the Rs
675 crore spent on the Dalit Prerna Sthal has come through party
donations when the fact is the UP government has budgeted a whopping
Rs 3,000 crore on Dalit memorials and parks across the state. This,
in a state where 38% Dalits have never attended schools, where 70% is
still the estimated school dropout rate among Dalits, and where
hundreds of children die of encephalitis every year because of a lack
of healthcare facilities.

Surely, Ambedkar, for whom education was the biggest weapon of
empowerment, would have chided Mayawati for her misplaced priorities.
He would have been equally critical of the personal wealth which the
CM seems to have acquired through questionable means, and might have
winced at reading that Mayawati spent Rs 51 crore of public money in
renovating her official bungalow, apart from acquiring prime
properties across the national capital.

Not that Ambedkar lived a frugal lifestyle. His wealth was acquired
through legal and scholastic prowess, not through treating the
political system as a vehicle for self-aggrandisement. As his
biographer Dhananjay Keer writes, "Ambedkar's house was not a detached
villa that gave you the appearance of seclusion. His vast library, his
rich clothes, his enormous pens, his grand car, the numerous varieties
of shoes and the rare collection of pictures were the living marks of
his conquering personality." Mayawati is unlikely to share Ambedkar's
love for books, but if handbags are her fashion accessory, then so was
the fountain pen in the case of Babasaheb. If for Gandhi the loin
cloth symbolised his asceticism, the three-piece suit was Ambedkar's
style statement to tell the world that his origins were no hindrance
to rising up the social ladder.

To those who are critical of the manner in which Mayawati celebrates
her birthdays, it needs to be stressed that Ambedkar's birthdays too
were occasions for public celebration with his followers taking out
processions with his pictures in palanquins. In a sense, the need for
such public ceremonies stems from a conviction that it is necessary to
show that if caste Hindus can have their own gods and ceremonies, then
so must Dalits. Ambedkar may not have been comfortable with idolatry,
but he did not entirely reject its symbolic value either on such
occasions.

Which is why the personality cult that Mayawati has built around
herself cannot be entirely scoffed at. The Indian super-elite - many
of whom will not think twice before spending crores on weddings - may
be contemptuous of Mayawati's millions, but there is a distinct method
in the seeming madness of the Bahujan Samaj Party leader. If the
fortress around Sonia Gandhi's personal life heightens her mystique,
then the imperious style of functioning of Mayawati gives her an
empress-like status among her followers. If there are dozens of
memorials in the name of the Congress's first family and freedom
heroes, then Mayawati appears equally determined to create her own
pantheon of Dalit legends. And if the Sangh parivar can aspire to
build a Ram mandir in Ayodhya as a symbol of religio-political
identity, then Mayawati, too, sees her Ambedkar parks as an assertion
of Dalit identity.

Seen from that competitive political perspective, it is possible that
Ambedkar may even have grudgingly approved of Mayawati's grand
projects. Ambedkar's great dream always was to acquire political
dominance for the Dalits even while seeking an end to caste
discrimination. But the keys to the gates of power remained firmly
locked during his lifetime. The Independent Labour Party that he
formed had only limited success and he lost the first general election
in 1952 as an independent. That he became the country's first law
minister was only due to the vision and generosity of Mohandas Gandhi,
but his political fortunes never matched his intellect. Indeed, it was
his frustration with an upper caste dominated socio-political system
that eventually led him to embrace Buddhism.

Contrast that with Mayawati who has clearly shown that it is possible
for a Dalit woman to make it to one of the most powerful political
positions in the country entirely on her own terms. If Ambedkar was
the ultimate constitutionalist, Mayawati, guided in her early years by
the equally redoubtable Kanshi Ram, has been the consummate
politician, breaking and striking alliances with ease. The ethical
standards employed in achieving power may be deeply troubling, but in
the political akhara of UP, norms and rules have been routinely bent
by the principal players. Which is why Mayawati's achievement of being
the daughter of a post office clerical employee who rose to becoming a
four-time chief minister of the state is quite remarkable. A Mayawati
statue next to the architect of the Constitution may seem
incongruous today. But many years later, it may well become a place of
pilgrimage and inspiration for millions of Dalits.

Rajdeep Sardesai is Editor-in-Chief, IBN 18. The views expressed by
the author are personal.

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[ZESTCaste] Madiga community seeks reservation

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/-Madiga-community-seeks-reservation/articleshow/10439367.cms

Madiga community seeks reservation
TNN | Oct 21, 2011, 01.19PM IST

CHITRADURGA: The Madiga Reservation Horata Samiti (MRHS) will hold a
state-level Dharma Yuddha convention to urge the government to
implement Justice Sadasiva Commission recommendations about
reservation. Other demands of the samiti include three per cent
intra-cast reservation and cancellation of outsourcing of civil
administration works.

Villagers of Challakere taluk led by K PBhutayya, leader of Karnataka
Rjya Rata Sangha (KRRS), staged a protest against illegal sand mining
in river Vedavati on Thursday. The protesters asked the government to
take stern action against those who violate laws. "The water level in
all villages in the taluk is decreasing due to rampant illegal sand
mining in the river," he said.

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[ZESTCaste] Maya & Ambedkar: Incongruous? May be not

http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/rajdeepsardesai/1/62828/maya--ambedkar-incongruous-may-be-not.html

Maya & Ambedkar: Incongruous? May be not

17 IBNLive IBNLive

At a time when Mayawati's Dalit memorials have sparked off a raging
debate, it might be instructive to consider what the original Dalit
icon, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, would have done in a similar situation.
What is almost certain is that, unlike the UP chief minister, he would
not have ordered the construction of his own statues. A fierce
rationalist, Ambedkar disliked all forms of political idol worship.
"In politics, hero worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual
dictatorship," he said in a seminal speech before the Constituent
Assembly in 1949.

Sixty two years later, there is little doubt that Mayawati has emerged
as the great dictator of Uttar Pradesh, someone who controls India's
most populous state with an iron fist - which is why she can insist on
having her own life-size statue alongside those of Ambedkar, Phule,
Shahu and Kanshi Ram. Which is also why she can brazenly claim that
the 675 crores spent on the Dalit Prerna Sthal has come entirely
through party donations when the fact is that the UP government had
already budgeted a whopping Rs 3000 crore on Dalit memorials and parks
across the state. This in a state where 38 per cent of Dalits have
never attended school, where 70 per cent is still the estimated school
dropout rate among Dalits and where hundreds of children die of
encephalitis every year because of lack of healthcare facilities.

Surely, Ambedkar, for whom education was the biggest weapon of
empowerment, would have chided Mayawati for her misplaced priorities.
He would have been equally critical of the personal wealth which the
UP chief minister seems to have acquired through questionable means
and might have winced at reading that Mayawati spent Rs 51 crore of
public money in renovating her official bungalow, apart from acquiring
prime properties across the national capital.

Not that Ambedkar lived a frugal lifestyle, but his wealth was
acquired through legal and scholastic prowess, not through treating
the political system as a vehicle for self-aggrandisement. As his
biographer Dhananjay Keer writes, "Ambedkar's house was not a detached
villa that gave you the appearance of seclusion. His vast library, his
rich clothes, his enormous pens, his grand car, the numerous varieties
of shoes and the rare collection of pictures were the living marks of
his conquering personality." Mayawati is unlikely to share Ambedkar's
love for books. If handbags are her fashion accessory, so was the
fountain pen in the case of Babasaheb. If for Gandhi, the loin cloth
symbolised his asceticism, the three-piece suit was Ambedkar's style
statement to tell the world that his origins were no hindrance to
rising up the social ladder.

To those who are critical of the manner in which Mayawati celebrates
her birthdays, it needs to be stressed that Ambedkar's birthdays too
were occasions for public celebration with his followers taking out
processions with his pictures in palanquins. In a sense, the need for
such public ceremonies stems from a conviction that it is necessary to
show that if caste Hindus can have their own gods and ceremonies, then
so must Dalits. Ambedkar may not have been comfortable with idolatory,
but he did not entirely reject its symbolic value either on such
occasions.

Which is why the personality cult which Mayawati has built around
herself cannot be entirely scoffed at. The Indian super-elite - many
of whom will not think twice before spending crores on weddings -
maybe contemptuous of Mayawati's millions, but there is a distinct
method in the seeming madness of the Bahujan Samaj Party leader. If
the fortress around Sonia Gandhi's personal life heightens her
mystique, then the imperious style of functioning of Mayawati gives
her an empress-like status amongst her followers. If there are dozens
of memorials in the name of members of the Congress' first family and
freedom fighters, then Mayawati appears equally determined to create
her own pantheon of Dalit legends. And if the Sangh Parivar can aspire
to build a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya as a symbol of religio-political
identity, then Mayawati too sees her Ambedkar parks as assertions of
Dalit identity.

Seen from that competitive political perspective, it is entirely
possible that Ambedkar may even have grudgingly approved of Mayawati's
grand projects. Ambedkar's great dream always was to acquire political
dominance for the Dalits even while seeking an end to caste
discrimination. But the keys to the gates of power remained firmly
locked during his lifetime. The Independent Labour Party which he
formed had only limited success and he lost the first general election
in 1952 as an independent candidate. That he became the country's
first law minister was only due to the vision and generosity of Gandhi
but his political fortunes never matched his intellect. Indeed, it was
his frustration with an upper caste-dominated socio-political system
that eventually led him to embrace Buddhism.

Contrast that with Mayawati who has clearly shown that it is possible
for a Dalit woman to make it to one of the most powerful political
positions in the country entirely on her own terms. If Ambedkar was
the ultimate constitutionalist, Mayawati, guided in her early years by
the equally redoubtable Kanshi Ram, has been the consummate
politician, breaking and striking alliances with ease. The ethical
standards employed in achieving power may be deeply troubling, but in
the political akhara of UP, norms and rules have been routinely bent
by the principal players.

Which is why Mayawati's achievement of being the daughter of a post
office clerical employee who rose to becoming a four-time chief
minister of the state is quite remarkable. A Mayawati statue next to
the architect of the Constitution may seem incongruous today, but many
years hence, it may well become a place of pilgrimage and inspiration
for millions of Dalits.

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[ZESTCaste] Three TV channel staffers booked under SC/ST act

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/hyderabad/Three-TV-channel-staffers-booked-under-SCST-act/325675.html

Three TV channel staffers booked under SC/ST act

Express News Service
Last Updated : 21 Oct 2011 09:46:08 AM IST

HYDERABAD: A case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was
registered against three employees of a private television channel on
Thursday following a complaint by a former cameraman. Ch Balaswamy,
cameraman, lodged a complaint with the Banjara Hills police against
input editor Vasudevan, principal editor Sai and reporter Shyam of the
TV channel. He told the police that he was being harassed by the trio
for the past two months. He was also abused in the name of his caste
by them.

Balaswamy also said he was beaten up by the trio for covering the
separate Telangana agitation. He said that when he had complained to
the management of the TV channel, it did not take any action against
the trio. Later, Balaswamy was removed from service without prior
intimation.

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