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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Jats go on rampage in Hisar over quota

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Jats-go-on-rampage-in-Hisar-over-quota/articleshow/6556387.cms

Jats go on rampage in Hisar over quota
TNN, Sep 15, 2010, 03.05am IST

ROHTAK/CHANDIGARH: A day after a protester was killed in police
firing in Hisar on Jat community members demanding OBC quota in
government jobs, Haryana was on the boil on Tuesday with angry mobs
torching vehicles, business establishments and a police post.

Hisar bore the brunt, where curfew has been imposed in parts of the
city and the Army called in. Traffic on the Hisar- Delhi National
Highway 10 has been suspended.

In Chandigarh, CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, while appealing to the Jat
community to end the stir, announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to
the family of the youth killed in police firing, job to a member of
his family and registration of a case against Subhash Yadav, who was
last night removed as superintendent of police, Hisar.

While Hooda claimed the stir has been called off, the All-India Jat
Sangharsh Samiti (AIJSS), spearheading the agitation, reiterated its
threat to disrupt the Commonwealth Games. Sit-ins and road blockades
were suspended till the 'teravi' (thirteenth day) ceremony of the
youth, who was killed on Monday, according to AIJSS spokesman Om
Prakash Mann. "Protests would resume if the Centre fails to announce a
quota for Jats by October 3," said Mann.

Tuesday's violence was sparked off when two protestors were killed
while trying to stop a goods train at Uklana railway station in Jind
district in the morning. The protestors tried to set the railway
station on fire. Soon, the agitation spread to Rohtak, Jind, Bhiwani,
Sirsa and Fatehabad with mobs blocking several roads connecting the
affected towns.

Violent protests began on Monday after the death of the Jat youth in
Hisar in the wake of a clash between Jats and police following a
public meeting called by AIJSS in Mayyar village to press for their
reservation demand.

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[ZESTCaste] India revives colonial-era caste count

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/10/india.caste.count/

India revives colonial-era caste count

By Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN
September 10, 2010 -- Updated 1055 GMT (1855 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Prime minister approves a bid to hold the count after the general census
The last time India collected comprehensive caste data was 80 years ago
Proponents of caste-based classifications say the exercise will help
groups get their legitimate claims
Critics argue it jeopardizes national integration.

India
New Delhi, India (CNN) -- India plans to hold a full count of its
citizens and their castes, the country's first since 1931.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet on Thursday approved proposals
to hold the count separately next year after the ongoing general
census is over, a government statement said.

The move largely aims to enumerate low-caste groups called Other
Backward Classes (OBCs), which a government-appointed commission in
1980 reported makes up 52 percent of the population.

The last time India collected comprehensive caste data was under
British rule, almost 80 years ago.

After gaining independence in 1947, India picked only two of its most
disadvantaged communities in its decennial population calculations
instead of listing all of them from Hinduism's complex caste
hierarchy.

This year, regional political parties drawing support from
marginalized communities mounted pressure on Singh's government to
expand the current census to cover all groupings.

Proponents of caste-based classifications say the exercise will help
the downtrodden -- also referred to as the Dalits -- get what they
call their legitimate claims.

"Besides, a comprehensive government data on such communities will
also eventually determine the share they deserve in the overall
establishment, be it jobs or governance," said Balbir Madhopuri, a
Dalit scholar and writer.

India's constitution outlaws discrimination on the basis of castes,
which date to thousands of years.

The country has launched numerous schemes to uplift low-caste groups,
including reservations in government jobs.

Critics, however, argue that a caste-based survey would jeopardize
national integration.

"It is extremely distressing that now, after 60 years, the government
appears to be inclined to revive the old British colonial practice of
caste enumeration," a campaign called Meri Jati Hindustani, or My
Caste is Indian, says on its website.

"Inclusion of caste in the census will cause deep fissures and
divisions in the society, and weaken the sense of Indian nationhood,"
it adds.

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[ZESTCaste] Breaking boundaries (Chandrabhan Prasad)

http://www.dailypioneer.com/265241/Breaking-boundaries.html

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Breaking boundaries
September 15, 2010 3:13:46 PM

Chandrabhan Prasad

One of the supreme blockages Dalits face in breaking boundaries comes
from stereotypes woven around them. Typecasts around Dalits dampen
their self esteem, which limits their self belief. Some time back, I
had written that of the top ten Dalit owned businesses in Agra, eight
were in the non-leather segment, and five in the hotel business. On
that count, Agra Dalit businesses should be known for hotel industry.
But, in popular public imagery, Agra Dalits are known for their
specialisation in leather trade. This is what I call the Dalit
stereotype as this goes on to suggest that Dalits are expected to do
well in occupations associated with their social identity.

The recently concluded Pune Dalit Expo has expressively dealt with
many Dalit stereotypes. The participants in the Expo were expected to
be predominantly into leather industry. Many guest participants from
Delhi and elsewhere, who came to the Expo, were surprised to meet
Dalits builders, sugar millers, machine tool makers, and Dalits in
food and beverages industry. Above all, the Expo presented Dalit faces
who have successfully broken boundaries and entered into areas where
it was considered that only traditional players could shine. Dalits
are making their forays in the following areas:

n OICL: A software professional, Pratibha Kambale owns Oceanic
International Corporation Ltd, a BPO. Her clients are mostly British
companies. In her 100 plus strong workforce, she employs youth of all
castes. Pratibha is set to open an office in London. Pratibha comes
from an average Dalit middle class family with no previous business
history.

n Horizon: Vivek S Dolas owns Horizon, a Brain Development Academy
offering educational services. Brain Gym is one of their major
products. The Brain Development Program offers training in
concentration, memorising, insight, speed reading and information
processing. Highly technical and sophisticated, children of the rich
are Horizon's main client base.

n Krish: Inspired by the science fiction film, Satsul Sonawal started
this security equipment making company. With business operations
spread across India, Krish manufactures CCTVs, watches with spy
cameras, pens, neck , cameras, sunglasses and caps with spy cameras,
Biometric Door Access System, to name a few. Krish offers 40 highly
sophisticated electronic gadgets.

n Comsolve Mediatech Pvt Ltd: This Lalit Bansod owned company is a
service provider dealing in Internet Bandwidth, Internet Securities,
BPO, Video Conferencing etc. Maharashtra's major corporations are
Lalit's customers.

n Content: Sunil Mane's Content or Concept Communications Pvt Ltd is a
media solution company providing services such as Media Strategy,
Corporate Films, Public Relations, Media Management, Branding &
Promotions etc. Top corporate houses are Sunil's main customer base.

More than two dozen Dalit entrepreneurs I met at the Expo are in
businesses considered brainy and requiring soft skills. In all such
enterprises one need not inherit businesses from families, and neither
do such businesses require big capital. The most fundamental
requirement in these businesses is that the owner should be a
thoroughly skilled professional. Most of these Dalit entrepreneurs
come from humble families and none, to repeat, none has any previous
family history of business and enterprise. Also, most of the above
soft skill driven enterprises are non-traditional.

The Pune's Expo opened a new window to Dalit youth. The Expo proves
beyond doubt that Dalits too can succeed in intellectual areas. The
Expo also establishes that globalisation is bringing newer enterprises
in India which are free from social taboos. The Expo also establishes
that the new enterprises don't have any Caste monopoly. In other
words, no Caste can claim expertise in such enterprises as all are
new. Dalits can now claim their share on equal footing.

But, that's not enough. The dynamic and visionary Milind Kambale must
spread branches of DICCI all over India and organise Dalit Expos
everywhere.

More than anything else, the modern day Dalits bubbling with
aspiration need motivation. With limitless desire to make a point,
Dalits have enough talent to break all boundaries built around them by
the nasty casteist history.

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[ZESTCaste] There’s a case for burning all the holy books (Opinion)

http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_there-s-a-case-for-burning-all-the-holy-books_1438027

There's a case for burning all the holy books
Published: Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010, 3:06 IST
By Venkatesan Vembu | Place: Mumbai

There's an unintended irony about the (eventually aborted) campaign
last week by Terry Jones, the pastor of a fringe church in Florida, to
make a bonfire of copies of the Koran on the grounds that it was an
"evil book". Jones isn't the first man of Christian faith who was
broadcasting to the world his loathing of the Koran and, more broadly,
of Islam. Since the 8th century, when Islam spread across Europe, that
religion and its Holy Book have served as objects of hatred — and, on
occasion, fear — for Christians.

Christian clergymen and scholars branded the Koran the "work of the
devil" that was dangerous to Christian souls, and this revulsion was
immortalised in popular Christian
literature and hymns down the ages.

The "clash of civilisations" continued right up until the 16th
century, when the Ottoman Empire, expanding through conquest, was at
its apex. In the 16th century, however, German theologian Martin
Luther advanced an effort to publish Latin translations of the Koran —
in the belief that free dissemination of Koranic ideas among
Christians would refute "the abomination of Mohammed" and do "grievous
harm" to the Turks. Fighting efforts to censor and prevent the
translation and dissemination of the Koran, Luther wrote: "To honour
Christ, to do good for Christians, to harm the Turks, to vex the
devil, set (the Koran) free…"

In other words, the Florida pastor Jones' campaign against the Koran
only marks the continuation of a medieval-era Crusade mindset, except
that the denunciation of the Koran today finds expression in vastly
different ways. Where once Christian clergymen campaigned to have the
Koran translated and distributed in the belief that dissemination of
its ideas would damn it, today's 'man of the cloth' would rather
organise a bonfire of the scriptures!

There are countless precedents in history for calls to burn the holy
books — even in India, where it happened as part of a process of
'religious reformation' from within. For instance, when Dalits'
historic campaign in Vaikom in the early 20th century for the right to
enter temples met with opposition from orthodox Brahmins who cited the
Hindu scriptures in their defence, Dalit leader BR Ambedkar said that
if, indeed, the scriptures defended the practice of untouchability,
they ought to be burned.

At a later satyagraha led by Ambedkar for Dalits' access to public
water, the Manusmriti, which codified a caste-based social order, was
publicly burnt.

The Zen philosophical tradition exhorts practitioners to "burn the
scriptures" and "kill the Buddha". But this isn't a call to religious
war; it is, rather, an inspiration to reject tradition and the
"fundamentalism" of "doctrines" and, indeed, all external sources of
divinity — and instead make the inner journey into one's one
consciousness, which lies at the core of the Buddhist spiritual order.

An overly faithful abidance by the hardcore fundamentals of
established religious orders lies at the root of most religious
conflicts today. Not only is it building walls and hardening attitudes
all around, it also interferes with the process of interactions based
on humanistic principles.

To the extent that moving away from "ordained" and "revealed"
principles of religious orders can perhaps enable people to interact,
even if only occasionally, in the secular space of humanism, there may
well be a case for symbolically 'burning' all the scriptures by
breaking the constricting bonds of religious fundamentalism.

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[ZESTCaste] Demands met, Jat group halts agitation

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Jat-agitation-has-ended-in-Hisar-claims-CM-Hooda/Article1-600149.aspx

Demands met, Jat group halts agitation
HT Correspondents

Chandigarh/Hissar, September 14, 2010First Published: 21:31 IST(14/9/2010)
Last Updated: 00:35 IST(15/9/2010)

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Tuesday evening
that the Akhil Bhartiya Jat Sangharsh Samiti (All India Jat Agitation
Committee) had suspended its agitation in the state. The outfit had
resorted to a violent agitation to press for reservation for Jats in
state government related stories
Curfew in Hisar, Army help sought as violence intensifies
Police firing at Jat protest kills 1
jobs.

Hooda told mediapersons in Chandigarh that the committee had halted
the agitation after talks with state government officials. The
committee was given an assurance that the state would provide
financial compensation of R10 lakh to the family of the youth killed
in police firing on violent protestors on Monday.

Officials also promised to give one of the deceased protestor's family
members a job in the state government. "We have also registered a case
against the SP, as demanded by the victim's family,'' Hooda said.

The chief minister said the government would give financial assistance
to those injured in clashes with the police. Hooda said certain
miscreants had damaged and destroyed public property in the past 24
hours and that "the Samiti had nothing to do with it".

Regarding a job quota for Jats, Hooda said he had forwarded a
representation to the central government.

Earlier, the army was called in to quell violence in Mayyar village
and its adjoining areas in Hisar district. The places were also
brought under curfew following a violent agitation on Monday.

The protesters, who went on a rampage on Monday, had continued their
protest on Tuesday. A mob set on fire the SBI branch in Hisar
Cantonment in the morning. They also set ablaze a cotton mill, besides
torching two buses and damaging a petrol pump. Protesters set a
generator set on fire at the Uklana railway station and thrashed
security personnel who tried to stop them. They also looted several
trucks parked on the roadside.

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Jats go on rampage in Hisar over quota

[ZESTCaste] India revives colonial-era caste count

[ZESTCaste] Breaking boundaries (Chandrabhan Prasad)

[ZESTCaste] There’s a case for burning all the holy books (Opinion)

[ZESTCaste] Demands met, Jat group halts agitation

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