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Monday, April 12, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Why India's Dalits Dont Trust The Maoists

http://www.countercurrents.org/mountain100410.htm

Why India's Dalits Dont Trust The Maoists

By Thomas C. Mountain

10 April, 2010
Countercurrents.org

India's Dalits really, really distrust the Maoist movement of India
and Nepal. As the Maoist movement begins to challenge for state power
in Nepal, and has struck a serious level of alarm in the ruling elite
in India, this question has important ramifications for the future of
south Asia.

The Dalit movement in India is the largest and fastest growing threat
to the status quo, followed at some distance by the Maoists.
Interestingly, almost all the Dalit leadership I know, mostly mid
level cadre in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), India's third largest
national party and main force in the Dalit liberation movement, are
ex-Maoists.

When asked why they distrust the "Naxalites", the common term for the
Maoist movement, they point out, to start, the fact that almost all
the rank and file fighters in the Maoist movement are Dalits or
tribals and that almost all the leadership are "high caste". The
Dalits I know have had first hand experience with just how casteist
the "Naxalite"/Maoist leadership is.

When delving into the "political line" put forth by the Maoist
movement in India and Nepal, it is rare to find mention of
caste/varna, let alone any attempt to address caste/varna(color) in
any sort of historical perspective. It would seem that the Maoist
leaders would prefer to blend class with caste and avoid any dealing
with such a potentially divisive question.

The Dalit movement exemplified by the BSP cadre I know is firmly
rooted in organizing Dalits into community collectives and focused on
mobilizing Dalits in exercising their voting rights. When it is
pointed out that no ruling class has ever peacefully relinquished
their priviledges, i.e; through elections, my Dalit comrades point out
that 85% of India Dalits still believe in the one, unifying tenent of
Hinduism, varna/caste/color. Simply put, most Dalits believe they are
being punished by God for sins in a previous life and their lot as
"untouchables", Dalits, is Gods Will. If God willed your punishment
today with the promise of a better re-birth in the next life , than
trying to lift yourselfs and your childrens lot above that of cleaning
the communal toilets is going against Gods Will. Sounds like a
brilliant scheme for social control using a religion, Hinduism, in the
opinion of all the Dalits I know.

Taking into consideration just how mentally enslaved most Dalits
remain, moving the masses of Dalits from being so crushed and broken
to real liberation might take a series of steps instead of one giant
leap, or so my Dalit comrades seem to feel. Dalits may have to see for
themselves that casting a vote is not going to midwife any real
liberation for the rank and file. While acknowledging that a series of
trial and error may mark their struggle and that the Maoist scorn such
an approach, Dalits feel that if the Maoist movement continues to
ignore varna/caste while still dependent on Dalits to win power,
Dalits are doomed to see their struggle for equal rights and justice
betrayed by the new Brahmins, the leaders of todays Maoist movement.

One fact remains utterly non debatable and that is that India and
Nepal remain overwhelmingly a society of villages. Equally non
debatable is that in India and Nepal's villages, caste rules . How the
Maoist movement can hope to succeed without even addressing this issue
in any real way bodes ill for any hopes the Maoist movement offers any
real solutions to the most barbaric, inhumane system of human
oppression in the world, Apartheid in India and Nepal.

In a previous life Thomas C. Mountain was the publisher of the
Ambedkar Journal and a founding member of the Phoolan Devi
International Defense Committee
thomascmountain at yahoo dot com

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[ZESTCaste] Lucknow : Coming soon: Mayayug

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Lucknownama/604999

Lucknownama
Express News Service Posted online: Monday , Apr 12, 2010 at 0210 hrs
Lucknow : Coming soon: Mayayug
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has turned editor. In fact, she is
the chief editor, printer, publisher and owner of Mayayug — the
official mouthpiece of the party. Dummy copies of the magazine
recently reached select partymen. As could be expected, it is Mayawati
all over, with very little other reading material. Even the editorial
is on Mayawati — Sarva samaj kee asha kee ekmatra kiran (The only ray
of hope for Sarva Samaj). It's going to be a quarterly publication,
though initially it was planned as a monthly magazine, said a BSP
leader. It will come out soon after legal formalities — like getting a
registration number — are completed.

No more Ansari blues
Bahujan Samaj Party MLA from Dildar Nagar, P N Rai, is a relieved man
after the government sent don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari from
Ghazipur to Mathura jail. Rai's constituency Dildar Nagar has ceased
to exist after delimitation, and he had been eyeing Mohammadabad,
which Mukhtar's brother and SP legislator Sibgatullah Ansari currently
represents in the Assembly. Rai had even told Chief Minister Mayawati
that he would like to contest from Mohammadabad in 2012. Mayawati had
reportedly assured him, but Rai still had doubts in view of the clout
of the Ansari brothers. In the Lok Sabha elections last year, the BSP
had fielded Mukhtar from Varanasi and his brother Afzal from Ghazipur.
In spite of being an SP legislator, Sibgatullah had campaigned for
Mukhtar. The talk in the political circles was that, as part of the
one-in-three deal, Sibgatullah had been assured of BSP nomination from
Mohammadabad in 2012. The shifting of Mukhtar to Mathura jail shows
that Mayawati no longer needs him. Rai can now relax.

Where is the money?
The Samajwadi Party has announced a series of programmes for the next
three months to strengthen the organisation and woo the most backward
among the OBCs. It begins with party conventions in every Assembly
constituency from April 15, followed by a OBC convention in Kanpur on
April 19, and then similar meetings at divisional level across the
state. The SP leaders from districts are asking for financial
assistance from the party headquarters for organising these
programmes. They say they had mobilised resources at the local level
for the fortnight-long cycle yatras in March, but can't do it again.
The SP headquarters is asking them to take the help of MLAs and MPs.
But how much money can the MPs and MLAs of an Opposition party raise?

All for media space
The Rashtriya Lok Dal has decided to take out torchlight processions
at district headquarters on April 13 to protest against inflation and
corruption prevailing in welfare schemes of Centre and the Uttar
Pradesh government. The party chose April 13 because it's the eve of B
R Ambedkar's birth anniversary. But why not Ambedkar's anniversary?
Well, that day, the Congress will launch its statewide yatras in
Ambedkarnagar, while the BSP will hold a big rally in the town around
the same time against the Women's Reservation Bill. Between these two,
any programme organised by a small party like RLD that day will get
squeezed out for media space. So, the best slot was the eve of
Ambedkar's birth anniversary, reasoned party general secretary Munna
Singh Chauhan.

An unhappy lot
The government decision to transfer 1989-batch IAS officer Sanjay
Bhoosreddy from Lucknow to Allahabad has not gone down well with IAS
officers. Bhoosreddy is honorary secretary of the Uttar Pradesh IAS
Association and there has been a tradition that the government
generally does not transfer the association president and secretary
out of Lucknow. Once even a government order was issued against
shifting these office-bearers outside the state capital, claimed an
officer. The IAS officers see in Bhoosreddy's transfer an attempt to
weaken the association which, in any case, is not very active. About a
year ago, the government had transferred Chandra Prakash — secretary
of the IPS Association — to Allahabad. The IPS Association had then
appointed another officer, Renuka Mishra, in his place.

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[ZESTCaste] Nitish shows Paswans the Mahadalit carrot

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Nitish-shows-Paswans-the-Mahadalit-carrot/604983

Nitish shows Paswans the Mahadalit carrot
Vandita Mishra Posted online: Monday , Apr 12, 2010 at 0848 hrs
New Delhi : The setting was apt and, by itself, the announcement was
hardly controversial. At a Dalit conference in Patna on April 4 to
mark the birth anniversary of Baba Chauharmal, revered among the
Paswans, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar declared that the state
government would begin distributing three decimals of land to landless
Paswans, a promise it has earlier made to the newly minted category of
Mahadalits in the state.
Yet Kumar's announcement has touched off an extraordinary question: If
every Dalit group in Bihar has been officially designated as
Mahadalit, or will be treated as such by the government, who is a
Dalit in Bihar? Or conversely, if all Dalits are now Mahadalits, or to
be treated as such, who is a Mahadalit?

The story so far: In 2007, the Bihar government set up the Mahadalit
Commission to identify the Mahadalits, that is, the most deprived of
the deprived, ostensibly for better targeting of schemes for their
uplift and development. According to the Commission, there were three
criteria of inclusion: literacy rates, placement in services and
social stigma.

To begin with, the Mahadalit Commission identified 18 of Bihar's 22
Dalit castes as Mahadalit. That is, all Dalit groups except four:
Jatavs and Paswans, the two most numerically dominant groups, together
accounting for more than 60 per cent of Bihar's SC population, and
Dhobis and Pasis, the two groups considered relatively better off in
terms of development parameters among Dalits.

A year later, in 2008, Pasis and Dhobis were also included in the
Mahadalit list. In 2009, the Jatavs followed them into the burgeoning
Mahadalit ranks, leaving out only the Paswans. And now, Nitish has
promised to Paswans that the government would extend to them the
special schemes it has designed for Mahadalits. So is Nitish setting
the stage for the formal induction of the Paswans into the Mahadalit
category, in the process abolishing the very distinction his
government was responsible for creating with much political fanfare in
2007?

"That situation (of all Dalits becoming Mahadalits) will not arise.
Leaders of the Paswan community have said they do not want to be
included in the Mahadalit list. They consider it a term of abuse,"
says Babban Rawat, member of the Mahadalit Commission. "There is no
question of including anyone in Mahadalits now," says K P Ramaiah,
secretary of the Commission.

But Ramaiah admits that "the facilities that are being given to
Mahadalits will also be given to Paswans". These include, apart from
the three decimals of land, job training, toilet and health
facilities, distribution of uniforms to school-going children from
Class I to V, and formation of self-help groups.

According to sources in the Commission, all the benefits to Mahadalits
will eventually be extended to Paswans "in one form or another", "with
a little variation". For instance, the Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Mission
pledges to "enrol and ensure retention of students from Mahadalit
families" by the appointment of a "Local Resource Person (Vikas Mitra)
who will be in direct consultation with the Mahadalit families and
will also ensure the implementation of other schemes". For the
Paswans, the plan is to appoint the Vikas Mitra by another name — he
will be called the Suraksha Mitra.

Sensing his opportunity, Ram Vilas Paswan, the leading claimant of the
state's Paswan vote bank, throws down a challenge: "If the Paswans
also get three decimal land, like the Mahadalits, then why create the
separate category? Will Nitish Kumar tell the people this: which of
the benefits given to Mahadalits will be denied by his government to
the Paswans?"

According to Paswan, the creation of the Mahadalit category was a ploy
to divide the Dalits. But as the groups left out of the Mahadalit
circle mounted pressure and agitations — with Paswan's own Lok
Janshakti Party taking the lead — Nitish buckled under the pressure,
and included more and more Dalit groups till only one remained outside
the boundary. On April 3, Paswan points out, he had called a Dalit
Sena Sammelan in Patna, in which a decision was taken to launch a
statewide agitation against the Nitish government. A day later, Nitish
announced the three decimal land benefit for Paswans.

Ali Anwar, a JD(U) MP and the party's chief in the Upper House,
explains the inexorable expansion of the Mahadalit category in Bihar
by drawing a parallel with the JD(U)'s "flexibility" on the Women's
Reservation Bill after Nitish publicly urged his party to reconsider
its oppositional stand. "Just as we showed flexibility on the issue of
women's reservation, we are doing the same vis-a-vis demands for
inclusion in the Mahadalit list. We are open to new facts and figures.
Why should the poor among the Paswans be discriminated against?" he
says. "We are not snatching away from one to give to the other, we are
only reaching out to more groups."

As Dalit versus Mahadalit becomes the new political battle in Bihar's
election year, the state's misfortune is specially amplified by this
tug-of-war of the deprived. While Dalits lag behind the other castes
on all socio-economic indices all across the country, Bihar's Dalits
uniformly lag behind those in other states.

With 93.3 per cent residing in rural areas, Dalits in Bihar are
overwhelmingly rural. According to the 2001 Census, the sex ratio of
Bihar's Dalit population is 923 females per 1,000 males, lower than
the national average of 936 for all Dalits. The overall literacy rate
of Bihar's Dalits is 28.5 per cent, nearly half of the 54.7 per cent
recorded for all SCs. More than three-fourth of the total Dalit
workers in Bihar are agricultural labour, far higher than the national
average of 45.6 per cent.

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[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Relief eludes Bardiya victims' kin

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=17323

Relief eludes Bardiya victims' kin
KALENDRA SEJUWAL

HARIHARPUR, Surkhet, April 10: Families of three Dalit women shot dead
by Nepal Army (NA) personnel inside Bardiya National Park (BNP) on
March 10 are yet to receive crematory expenses.

Earlier, the chief district officer (CDO) of Bardiya and Warden of BNP
had assured families of the killed villagers that the latter would
receive crematory expenses by April 7.

On Friday, Krishna Bahadur BK, whose wife Devisara and daughter
Chandrakala were killed by NA personnel, went to BNP office in
Thakurdwara of Bardiya to get the money. But Krishna Bahadur had to
return empty-handed.

"I got nothing despite the written agreement," he lamented.

Earlier, the local authorities had provided Rs 20,000 to the victims´
families after they refused to receive the dead bodies for ten days.
The authorities had promised to provide an additional Rs 55,000 for
crematory expenses.

The final rites of the three women killed in the incident have already
been performed. However, the victims´ families are facing hardships
after they spent all their money to perform the final rites for their
dead relatives.

"We have not gone out to work since the tragedy," Krishna Bahadur´s
brother Durga Bahadur said. "We have run out of food grains. We have
been surviving with the food lent by our neighbors."

Meanwhile, the BNP administration has admitted that the killed Dalit
women were not poachers. The BNP administration and the families of
the victims have struck another nine-point deal.

According to the deal, the victims´ families will be provided with
crematory expenses within seven days. Besides, both parties will
withdraw their cases filed against each other.

Published on 2010-04-10 22:17:17

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Preparations for Ambedkar Jayanti afoot

http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=32192

Preparations for Ambedkar Jayanti afoot

Posted On Saturday, April 10, 2010
By Our Staff Reporter
Indore, Apr 10:
Preparations are afoot to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr
Bhimrao Ambedkar on April 14. The main function will be organized at
Mhow, the birth place of Dr Ambedkar. The dignitaries who are likely
to grace the occasion include former BJP president Venkaiyah Naidu,
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, State industry and commerce
minister Kailash Vijayvergiya, state tribal welfare minister Kunwar
Vijay Shah, besides a dozen of ministers from the Madhya Pradesh
cabinet.
In this regard, state industry minister Kailash Vijayvergiya had
already taken a meeting of the officials concerned at Maheshwar
Vidhyalay Mhow on Thursday. Another meeting to review the progress and
take stock of the preparation works was organized at Residency Kothi
here on Saturday under the chairmanship of state tribal welfare
minister Kunwar Vijay Shah.
Over one lakh followers of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar are expected to turn at
his birth anniversary in Mhow on April 14 from various parts of the
country. Preparations for the say of the people are being made on
war-footing. Pandals for the stay and programme will be erected at as
many as six places. PFE department will construct 400 temporary
latrines for the people at the programme venue.
Arrangements have also been made to provide food to one lakh people by
the district administration. Indore municipal corporation has been
vested with responsibility of making water arrangement at the venue
and as per the preliminary state, a total of 50 water tankers will be
made available by the IMC. Besides, the district administration, State
Bank of Indore, social and voluntary organizations are also
coordinating and offering their services to make the occasion a great
success. State government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 50 lakh for this
mega event.
To mark the occasion, an `asthi kalash yatra' wil be taken out in Mhow
on April 14. The yatra which would be attended by thre heads of Baudh
religious, after passing through various parts of Mhow town, will
culminate at Ambedkar Memorial.
Steps have also been taken to ensure the event from any politics. In
this regard, Cantonment Board has issued prohibitory orders from
putting up any posters, banners and hoardings by any political party.