Thursday, December 30, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability

 

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Date: Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 5:10 PM
Subject: Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability
To:

Available from 1 Jan 2011.

BHIMAYANA: Experiences of Untouchability - Incidents in the life of
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

art: Durgabai Vyam, Subhash Vyam; story: Srividya Natarajan, S. Anand

Four Colour | 108 pages | Rs 995 | 8 x 11 in | Limited Edition Hardback in
special paper | 9788189059170

Four Colour | 108 pages | Rs 395 | 8 x 11 in | Paperback in 130 gsm art
paper | 9788189059354

What does it mean to be an untouchable in India? Why do some Indians
despise the touch of others? Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-956), one of
India's foremost revolutionaries, recounts his experiences of growing
up untouchable and being routinely discriminated against: in school at
the age of 10, in Baroda after his return from Columbia University,
and while traveling. Battling odds, Ambedkar drafted the Constitution
of India and eventually embraced Buddhism. Experiences similar to
Ambedkar's continue to haunt a majority of India's 170 million dalits.
They are still denied water, shelter and the basic dignities of life.

In this ground-breaking work, Pardhan-Gond artists Durgabai Vyam and
Subhash Vyam interweave historical events like the Mahad satyagraha
with contemporary incidents. Defying conventional grammar, they infuse
fresh energy into the graphic idiom through their magical art mounted
on an epic scale.

Praise for the book:

'An extraordinary book. A conference of corporeal experience across
generations, full of pain and empathy.' John Berger, author of Ways of
Seeing.

'The story of the life of Bhimrao Ambedkar, one of India's most
important thinkers, has been deliberately sidelined for decades.
Bhimayana re-tells it in the most unusually beautiful way. It is
unforgettable.' Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things.

'The artists Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam have dropped most of the
West's and manga's typical comics conventions and boldly use of their
own artistic heritage, the Pardhan Gond tradition, to craft a
distinctive graphic biography of one of India's bravest and greatest
leaders, Bhimrao Ambedkar, an 'untouchable' and a fierce critic of
Gandhi. Heavy in symbolism and motifs, Bhimayana is challenging in all
the right ways and still conveys with flair who Ambedkar was and why
his revolutionary ideas about the caste system still matter so much to
the India of today.' Joe Sacco, author of Palestine.

About the artists:

Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam are Pardhan Gond artists belonging to
the same clan as the legendary Jangarh Singh Shyam. The artist-couple
lives in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Durgabai has won acclaim for her
paintings and for illustrations for several books. Subhash is an
accomplished sculptor and has worked with many media. This is their
first graphic book and their first book together.

A simultaneous DC Books-Navayana Malayalam edition is also being
launched. For other language rights write to anand@navayana.org

For bulk orders and discounts visit www.navayana.org

To avail the entire Navayana backlist and forthcoming titles at your
doorstep for free, please enroll in the Navayana Book Club:
http://navayana.org/?page_id=5.

Book Club Rs 10,000 membership closes 31 Dec 2010.

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Dr. Binayak Sens conviction highlights the tasks for 2011 clearer for the visit of the UN SR on HRD to India in January 2011. (fwd)

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shiva Shankar <sshankar@cmi.ac.in>
Date: Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 10:18 PM
Subject: Dr. Biayak Sens conviction highlights the tasks for 2011
clearer for the visit of the UN SR on HRD to India in January 2011.
(fwd)
To:

'... "All kinds of scamsters and mass murderers are all over the power
establishment and a man who lived and worked for the poor all this
life, he is charged with sedition. What utter nonsense is this," said
a JNU student. ...'

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Henri Tiphagne <henri@pwtn.org>
Date: Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 7:14 PM
Subject: [Arkitect India] Dr. Biayak Sens conviction

Dear Colleagues,

I have been wanting to wait for this judgement before mentioning
anything about Xmas this Year. It is so unfortunate to hear the
judgement of the Court on Dr. Binayak Sen. Let us only resolve as we
get ready to celebrate the spirit of Xmas that our struggle for
freedom and rights to human rights defenders have to continue.

Let me wish all of you a meaningful Christmas and challenging New Year 2011.

Let the visit of Ms. Margaret Sekagya , the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in January 2011 form 10th to the
20th be an occasion where thousands of HRds all over the country will
place sufficient pressure on the Government to ensure that Human
Rights Defenders are protected.

[?ui=2&ik=be76deb0f0&view=att&th=12d1c04fde8a4d60&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw]

A Chhattisgarh court condemns the good doctor to life imprisonment.
Let this brazen injustice not go unchallenged, Amit Sengupta Delhi

The horrifying verdict of life imprisonment for Dr Binayak Sen,
accused of unimaginable crimes such as treason and sedition, has come
as a real new low in the dirty quagmire of a litany of injustices in
this fragmented and corrupt, largest democracy in the world. It will
immediately polarise the civil society with a collective howl of
protest against this brazen injustice and the recharged longing for
justice so brazenly denied to someone called 'the good doctor' all
over the world. The judgement will definitely sharpen the solidarity
of all sensitive, secular and democratic opinion in India and across
the world, and prove the brazenly undemocratic and fascistic character
of the BJP regime in Chhattisgarh, who went about concocting false
charges against Dr Sen, despite almost no tangible evidence.

Raipur District and Sessions Court judge BP Varma on Friday found Dr
Sen guilty on a variety of counts and also under the Chhattisgarh
Special Public Security Act.

According to the latest dispatch from PUCL General Secretary Kavita
Srivastava from Raipur: "By now you all must have got to know about
the conviction of Dr Binayak Sen u/s of 120(B), 124(A) of the IPC and
1,2,3,5, Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and Sec 39 (2) of
the UAPA (2004 amended). Binayak was taken away immediately into
custody. He was extremely equanimous. It was an emotional moment for
Dr Sen's daughters and brother Dipanker Sen. His wife, Professor Ilina
Sen, is upset but thinking ahead...

Said Prof Sen, "It is a sad day for me. It is a sadder day for Indian
democracy. They had no evidence, nothing to prove the charges. They
even termed me an ISI agent (ISI turned out to be the Indian Social
Institute in Delhi). This is injustice and it's for all to see."

"This judgement is really unacceptable and unconstitutional. After
all, two of the laws under which he has been convicted are themselves
being questioned as far as their constitutional validity is
concerned... We need to really build a campaign again. There was
really no evidence," said Kavita Srivastava.

Dr Binayak Sen will appeal in the High Court at the earliest, though
the court, in an uncanny timing of the judgement, will go on vacation
from December 25. The other two co-accused, Piyush Guha and Narayan
Sanyal, have also been convicted. Some extra sections have been
applied to Sanyal, accused of being a Maoist leader.

Most human rights activists, academics and even journalists who have
covered the long imprisonment of Dr Sen in the past have reacted with
utmost horror at the sheer injustice of the judgement, despite such
widespread public opinion and factual evidence against the false cases
against Dr Sen by the BJP-led regime in Chhattisgarh. "This is
bizarre, shocking, inhuman, unjust, absolutely incomprehensible. How
can the judge do that? How can they so publicly demonstrate such
irrational behaviour? Such brazen injustice?" - this is the kind of
remorse and anger flowing out of all over the country after the
shocking judgment.

From university campuses to newspaper offices to middle-class homes
and power corridors across India, this is a judgement which is seen to
be clearly destroying the last edifices of the public perception of
the Indian justice system, the faith in the judiciary and the idea of
justice, and the faith which the civil society has on the edifices of
democracy. "All kinds of scamsters and mass murderers are all over the
power establishment and a man who lived and worked for the poor all
this life, he is charged with sedition. What utter nonsense is this,"
said a JNU student.

Said Thomas Kocherry, leader of the National Fishermen's Federation,
in a bulk email from Cochin: "Let us send out protest letters to the
Chhattisgarh court and the state government and send out this to the
whole world. It is unjust. An innocent man is arrested again. Is there
any justice in this country? We have to keep protesting till Binayak
Sen gets justice. We cannot keep quiet. We have to fight for the
rights of the people. We cannot organise the people. This is the
character of the BJP government in Chhattisgarh. Another Emergency is
in the making in MP."

Dr Sen is currently a professor at the prestigious Christian Medical
College (CMC), Vellore, of which he is an eminent alumni. The entire
alumni of CMC had petitioned for his release during his imprisonment.
At least 22 noble prize winners from all over the world had sought his
immediate freedom and lauded the exemplary work Dr Sen had in the
medical sciences, in popularising it among the poorest of the poor,
and in providing the best of treatment to the impoverished adivasis in
the Hindi heartland. Distinguished artists, academics, filmmakers and
writers like Sudhir Mishra, Noam Chomsky, Romila Thapar, Arundhati
Roy, Sumit Sarkar, Tanika Sarkar, Dilip Simeon, Praful Bidwai, Sanjay
Kak, among others, had campaigned and petitioned for his freedom. Even
Sri Sri Ravishankar had visited him at Raipur jail and sought his
release, even as singers like Rabbi and Indian Ocean, and students
from all across India and the world, organised protests, campaigns and
concerts demanding freedom for the good doctor. In fact, the website
www.binayaksen.net became an international forum for a vigorous and
relentless campaign.

"This campaign will become national and global soon. This is certain.
We start with a list of all those who have not been given life
imprisonment for sedition and treason, including scamsters, criminals
and mass murderers who call the shots in the Indian power
establishment. We all know their names. Their names will be put up on
the website. And the mass protests all over the world against the
brazen injustice will start from now, right now, at this moment," said
Satya Sivaraman, journalist, filmmaker and activist, who was one of
the key catalysts in the campaign last time. This, when news is still
trickling in, and a global and national web and sms campaign is
already underway. Indeed, TV channels are already moving in with the
news.

'Free Dr Binayak Sen.' 'Freedom for the good doctor.' Surely, the old
slogans are coming back

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Andhra Jyothy Editorial on MRPS agitation

 



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Panthukala Srinivas <seenanna@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 1:52 PM
Subject: Fwd: Fw: [dsu_hcu] Andhra Jyothy Editorial on MRPS agitation [1 Attachment]
To: DIET <dalit-information-n-education-trust@googlegroups.com>


On Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:22:01 +0530 sirapangi santhi swaroop ssanthiswaroop@yahoo.co.in wrote
[Attachment(s) from sirapangi santhi swaroop included below]


Dear Friends,

In today's Andhra Jyothy online edition, I have found its editorial on MRPS current agitation, demanding for the implementation of Sub Classification of Scheduled Castes Reservations, by initiating required legislation/constitutional amendment at National level. The editorial opined that though it is a difficult process, to implement sub castes reservation at national level, denounced Congress Government for showing interest in this genuine issue. I felt, you some of you may like this editorial. Please see attachment for the same.

This editorial is also posted on our sitehttp://www.dalitstudentsunion.multiply.com

Yours.

Santhi Swaroop Sirapangi,
Doctoral Fellow,
Department of Political Science,
Treasurer,
Dalit Students' Union
University of Hyderabad.





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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: Scholarship to Deserving Indian Women from Financially Weak Background - deadline for application 31 January 2011

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Panthukala Srinivas <seenanna@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Subject: Fwd: Scholarship to Deserving Indian Women from Financially
Weak Background - deadline for application 31 January 2011
To: DIET <dalit-information-n-education-trust@googlegroups.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: vaibhav pagare <vaibzi.t...@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 22, 12:06 am
Subject: Scholarship to Deserving Indian Women from Financially Weak
Background - deadline for application 31 January 2011
To: Bahujan Students Network

Jai Bhim to all
Kindly circulate this information to the needy candidate

  *Scholarship to Deserving Indian Women from Financially Weak
Background -
deadline for application 31 January 2011*

Janshakti (Forum for Enforcement of Civil Liberties - India) a
voluntary
social action forum in India with international membership is devoted
to
human rights, civil rights, administrative reforms, good governance,
environment, consumer interests and women and child empowerment.

The Forum offers 3rd annual scholarship to deserving women from
financially
weak background ( Family income less than Rs 1 lac per year) for
pursuing
any self employment oriented (vocational) or a professional post
graduate
degree course including PhD programs (no MPhil please) to be pursued
in any
recognised Institute of repute in India, for a maximum term of 3
years.The
condition is that the program should have potential for professional
career
and/or self employment.The amount is available towards any or all of:
tuition fees, study material and B&L charges like hostel facilities
and
transportation fees.

The scholarship amount is maximum Rs 72,000 per year payable quarterly
in
advance based on progress of candidates certified by the concerned
Institution.

The award is based on strict scrutiny of genuine need, merits and
financial
background of candidate (financial gap). There is no discrimination on
any
ground. The only condition is that candidate will have to complete the
course successfully or otherwise refund the scholarship amount paid,
back to
the forum.

Candidates from any place in India are welcome.

Candidate should have completed a graduation program or be in final
year of
graduation in a recognised institute in 2010-2011 academic year.

This is a purely voluntary scheme of forum and not binding in any
manner on
the forum organisers. Forum has right to reject all or any application
without assigning any reason. The scholarship is subject to
availability of
funds with the forum and can be withdrawn at any point of time.

Currently forum is providing aid to two girls who are in final
semester
session of their courses.

The maximum candidates that can be accommodated in next session are 4,
at
present.

The names and identity of beneficiary is not disclosed to anyone to
ensure
protection and privacy of the candidate. It is known only to forum
organisers and direct mentor/patron of the candidate (donors), if any.

The interested candidate may please send complete details by email to:

Presid...@indiaforce.org with a copy to liberties_fo...@rediffmail.com

By 31st January 2011.

Members are requested to circulate this call to maximum number of
deserving
persons for wider publicity in India and also come forward to
participate in
the scheme by extending their financial help.

Some examples of course are given hereunder:

Examples of courses:
---------------------
Medical lab technician
Nursing
Physiotherapist
Medical doctor
Engineering of any branch
MSc/M tech computer sciences
Hardware/networking engineer
Beautician
Textile and garment designing
Catering and hotel management
Classical music and singing
Musician
Gemology
Tourism and travel management
Air hostess(restricted eligibility criteria)
Fashion designing
Insurance adviser and insurance certificate programs

Prof R K Gupta
Hon. President
Indian FORCE (Janshakti)
9413782645www.indiaforce.orgwww.groups.yahoo.com/group/janshakti

Regards,

Vaibhav Pagare

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[ZESTCaste] History in Stone and Metal (Shivam Vij)

http://kafila.org/2010/12/30/history-in-stone-and-metal/

Posted by: Shivam Vij | December 30, 2010
History in Stone and Metal

A prominent Dalit academic once told me that when a Dalit entered the
seminar room, the rest of them should feel uncomfortable. Given the
monumental oppression Dalits face, this should be the least
consequence of Dalits getting a voice.

I am reminded of this when I think of Mayawati's gigantic Dalit
memorials that have changed Lucknow's landscape.

When Mayawati first came to power in 1995, she began building an
Ambedkar memorial that was heavily criticised for wasteful
expenditure. When other parties interrupted her three successive
stints in power, they simply ignore the Ambedkar memorials, and built
memorials of their own. When the people of Uttar Pradesh gave her a
rare majority in 2007, they did so despite knowing she will make large
monuments to Dalits. It is as if Mayawati wanted to say, 'You are
comfortable now about the Ambedkar memorial? Let me give you this. Ten
new memorials, with statues including my own!'

Mayawati's monuments would not serve their purpose if they did not
cause us discomfort. Question is: what would happen to them when she
goes out of power? Mulayam Singh of rival Samajwadi Party, seen as
antithetical to Dalit interests, said in 2009 that he would demolish
these monuments when he becomes chief minister again. But he won't
become CM again, said the BSP smugly, and warned of "law and order
problems" if any demolition took place. Digvijay Singh said the
Congress was not in favour of "this culture" of demolition of
monuments erected by an elected government. The BJP, too, said they
didn't believe in bulldozers.

There were those who compared her statues to those of the Communists,
and of dictators such as Saddam Hussein, which the people brought
down. This, they said, is what will happen to Mayawati's statues, her
own and those of Dalit icons from north and south she has put up. In
response to such fears the Mayawati government has raised a special
force to protect the monuments. The force will obviously be disbanded
by whoever succeeds her.

Mayawati's monuments are all in stone, and the statues all in bronze.
Bronze will last the longest, said her advisors. At least 300 years.
Mayawati wants to produce a history.

What could such a history be like, and what could these monuments do
to history? I got a hint of the answer when I recently visited the
Lucknow zoo. The Uttar Pradesh State Museum is inside the zoo. For
decades, twenty odd statues and a few busts lay out in the open. It
was only in 2006 that a large display room was built for the statues.
The room is called "Foreign Sculptural Art Gallery". They are large,
awe-inspiring majestic statues carved in marble. Ten of them are of
Queen Victoria, once the Empress of India. In one of them, the nose is
missing. She always has a globe in her hand, a cross over the globe.
The sun never sets on the Empire! Three are of George V. The rest are
of English officers or governor-generals. Some are missing – perhaps
Sotheby's knows where they are.

At the entrance of the "Foreign Sculptural Art Gallery" is an
apologetic note in impossibly shuddh Hindi. It begins by saying that
Indian culture has always been appreciative of art, be it Romani
(Roman) or Unani (Greek). It goes on about this at some length –
appreciating art without discrimination and so on. Then it comes to
the point, acknowledging that displaying these statues is not a good
idea from a nationalist point of view, but we can 'appreciate' them
for their art and history.

Most were placed in public squares in Lucknow, but some in Gorakhpur
and Allahabad. It was only in 1955 – eight years after independence –
that they were removed to protect them from the Lohiaite socialites
who wanted to destroy them as part of the anti-Hindi movement.
Colonial statues in Delhi, too, were removed and placed at 'Coronation
Park'. They changed Calcutta to Kolkata but Victoria's statue is still
there at the Victoria Memorial. King Edward's statue in Lahore was
taken to the museum, replaced at a public square by a copy of the
Qu'ran..

So think whatever you want to of Mayawati's statues and monuments,
whether you want them demolished or not, removed or not, placed in a
museum or a park – a board will one day tell you to appreciate them
for their art and history. Already, the UP government plans to promote
them as a tourist attraction. That's how history is made, cast in
stone and metal.

(Appears in this morning's Economic Times.)


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

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