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Friday, August 13, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Modalities of caste census to be worked out: Centre

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Modalities-of-caste-census-to-be-worked-out--Centre/659499/

Modalities of caste census to be worked out: Centre
Political Bureau
Posted online: 2010-08-13 23:29:13+05:30

New DelhiA day after the group of ministers (GoM) gave a go-ahead for
caste enumeration in the ongoing census exercise, the government told
the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the timing and the mechanism will be
worked out by the Cabinet.

Finance minister and leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, who headed
the GoM, made this announcement to restore normalcy in the House after
the Opposition members forced an adjournment without taking up
Question Hour.

As Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House till noon, Mukherjee and
home minister P Chidambaram met with several leaders—Sharad Yadav of
the JD(U), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP), Lalu Prasad Yadav (RJD), Gopinath
Munde (BJP) and Sameer Bhujbal (NCP)—to sort out the issue. Sources in
the Opposition said the ministers indicated to them that the
government was inclined to go in for a caste census, but it could not
publicly state how it would be done on the floor of the House without
the Cabinet having taken a formal decision.

As soon as the House met, Mukherjee could be seen trying to catch the
attention of deputy Speaker Karia Munda to make the government
position clear. Congress president Sonia Gandhi was also seen
gesturing to Munda to let Mukherjee speak. Munda, however, started off
with paper-laying, making Mukherjee wait for a while.

He told the Lok Sabha: "The GoM wrote to all the political parties and
we have received the response from the political parties. The GoM met
on Wednesday and they considered the written response of all the
political parties. The decision taken by the GoM is that caste will be
converged in the census without affecting the integrity of the
head-count. How and when this should be done is under consideration.
Some suggestions have been made by the leaders today. All these will
be kept in view and an appropriate decision on the mechanism will be
taken shortly. As the decision will have to be taken by the Cabinet,
only after the Cabinet takes the decision, I will be able to inform
the House."

Earlier, the three Yadavs, Munde and Dara Singh Chauhan of the BSP
held up Question Hour on the issue. Sharad Yadav said the Election
Commission had not been able to prepare photo identity cards for 15
years.

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[ZESTCaste] congress leader honours chanakya

A statue of Chanakya was installed by India's Finanace Minister, Pranab Mukerjee at Academi of Direct Taxes office Nagpur. Chanakya was for the caste system to remain and brahmins should be above the King. arthashastra- the book on his name is said to be guide even today Brahmins. But His arthashastra is nothing but economics of Chaturvarnya The fourfold division of castes. By honouring Chanakya Mukherjee upheld the dictum of Brahmin supremacy.

Many bahujan, dalit organisations have condemned the act of installing chanakya's statue. Chanakya was a Manu before Manu; He was prime minister and guide in Chandragupta Mourya's rule. From thence it is established that Brahmnis are above kings/rulers. That dictum is true even today because living chanakyas are real rulers above rulers. They still control the policy of the indian state.

Manu's statue is erected at Jaipur highcourt building nad now Chanakya at Finance depptts. offices. The costitution maker is not real guide still.

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Dalits scared to contest, SC seat becomes General

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Dalits-scared-to-contest--SC-seat-becomes-General/659148

Dalits scared to contest, SC seat becomes General

Kautilya Singh Posted online: Thu Aug 12 2010, 23:44 hrs
Kanpur : With none of the Dalit residents of the Thakur-dominated
Malasa village mustering enough courage to contest elections for the
gram pradhan's post, the district administration of Ramabai Nagar has
now included the seat under the General category.
In August 2005, Malasa gram pradhan seat was reserved for SCs. In the
same year, bypolls for the seat were held on seven occasions but
neither the assurance from the local police nor that of the district
authorities could motivate the Dalits to contest the polls. All the 15
gram panchayat seats of Malasa also remained vacant as none from the
other communities contested the election in protest against the
reservation of the top post for SCs.

District Magistrate Saroj Kumar Tiwari said: "As per the guidelines
issued by the Department of Panchayati Raj, we carried out a survey of
all 613 gram pradhan seats of the district and thereafter the category
of each seat was finalised. Caste-wise population in the descending
order and rotational system of reservation were the two major criteria
for assigning the categories." He said now the seat is under General
category.

The categories of all 613 gram pradhan seats of Ramabai Nagar were
announced on Tuesday evening. The local residents have been asked to
file their objections, if any, on any gram pradhan seat till August
17. "After checking all the objections, we will declare the final list
on August 19," he added.

Malasa has nearly 3,000 voters, out of which 134 are Dalits. Thakurs
form the majority of the vote bank, followed by the Brahmins.

Owing to the dominance of Thakurs, none of the Dalits turned up to
file their nomination papers in the August 2005 elections. In June
2008 bypolls, two Dalits, Chandrika Prasad and Lallai, decided to
contest the polls. Chandrika filed his nomination but withdrew his
paper, reportedly fearing backlash of the upper caste. Lallai could
not find anyone to propose his candidature. Since then not a single
nomination paper has been filed for the seat.

Reluctant to comment over the issue, Chandrika said: "There was a
strong resentment from my family, therefore I decided not to contest
the elections." He said being illiterate he was unfit for the post.
Lallai's wife Umakanti and daughter Meera refused to support his
decision. Lallai said: "My family members were against the decision,
there was no point contesting the elections."

The Thakurs, however, deny pressurising the Dalits. Rani Devi, a
Thakur who had won the seat in the 2000 elections, claimed: "The
entire village was transformed into a police fortress during the
bypolls and it was not possible for the Thakurs or Brahmins to prevent
any Dalit from filing nomination papers," she added.

Another Thakur resident of the village, Nathi Singh, said: "On several
occasions, we tried to motivate them but they were hesitant to contest
the elections." Singh appreciated the move of the district authorities
to place the seat under General category.

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[ZESTCaste] BSP

Mayawati allocates Rs.500 crore more for parks, memorials

Unfazed by criticism against 'overspending' on parks and statues,
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati once again allocated nearly Rs.
500 crores towards her dream projects in the Rs.5,461 crore
supplementary budget tabled before the state assembly Tuesday for projects underway to commemorate the contribution of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, the party's tallest icon.

Master Key to UP CM Bahen Ms.Mayawati to become PM PraBuddhaBharatha Maatha MahaMayawati

The entire people, i.e., Sarvajan will hand over the Master Key to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Bahen Ms.Mayawati to become Prime Minister PraBuddhaBharatha Maatha MahaMayawati for their own peace, welfare and happiness. To-day Uttar Pradesh ranks second- last in Crime listed in National Crime Records Bureau. It was 1^st before she became CM.

This comes as a surprise for those who see Uttar Pradesh (UP) grabbing headlines for mafias, crimes and bomb attacks. But UP ranks second-last on the list of 35 states (including six Union Territories) where worsening crime situation is concerned, as it is backed by the latest data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Statistics from the NCRB report gives a befitting reply to opposition parties, which together attacked UP government on the issue of law and order on the opening day of the assembly session on Monday.

The opposition, in a rare show of strength, disrupted the Vidhan Sabha proceedings accusing the UP government of complete breakdown of the law and order situation in the state.

Opposition parties were feeling uneasy as mafias and criminals were running for cover.

MAY YOU BE EVER HAPPY, WELL AND SECURE
MAY YOU LIVE LONG
MAY ALL SENTIENT AND NON-SENTIENT BEINGS BE EVER HAPPY
MAY YOU BE ALWAYS HAVE CALM, QUIET, ALERT,ATTENTIVE AND
EQUANIMITY MIND WITH A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING THAT
NOTHING IS PERMANENT

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Caste as social capital

Caste as social capital
http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_caste-as-social-capital_1387350

May 24, 2010, By R Vaidyanathan | Place: Mumbai

Caste is back. It is likely to be part of the 2011 census. It was part of the decennial censuses between 1881 and 1931.

Of the 1929 castes aggregated in the 1881 census, 1126 [58%] had population of less than 1000; 275 less than ten. A large number of them were single member castes. The British had created a social "hierarchy" on the basis of caste in that Census.

The alienated metropolitan rootless wonders (AMROWs) and other assorted experts are upset since they have concluded that caste is bad. They want to be counted in the censusas "Indian".

Every Indian is expected to feel guilty, whenever caste is mentioned and talked about. In international fora, caste is used as a stick to beat anything connected to Indian religions, customs, and culture. In other words, caste for Indians has been turned into what "holocaust" is for Germans and Austrians.

We have an uncanny ability for self-flagellation. But more tragic is our enthusiasm to convert all our strengths into weaknesses since some white men and missionaries started denigrating Indians on the issue of caste.

We fail to recognise that it is a valuable social capital, which provides cushion for individuals and families in dealing with society at large, and more particularly the State. The Anglo-Saxon model of atomised individuals in a contract-based system and forcing him to have a direct link with the State has had disastrous effects in the west where families have been destroyed and communities have been forgotten.

Every person is standing alone, stark naked with only rights as his imaginary clothes to deal directly with the State.

The State also does not have the benefit of concentric circles of cushions to deal with individuals. Caste has been made a curse by our intellectuals based on the half-baked knowledge and acceptance of the Euro-centric individual-based model, which is based on rights and contracts rather than relationships and duty.

At a basic level, caste promotes heterogeneity. Heterogeneous and distributive systems are more stable and long-lasting than homogeneous and centralised systems. Caste is a major bulwark against homogenisation tendencies of systems like Marxism, Maoism or Savarkarism or the Semitic faiths. We should realise that "our strength is our diversity" and acceptance of the "other". It is much more than "multicultural tolerance".

It is also assumed that caste is a rigid hierarchical system which is oppressive. But as observed by the renowned sociologist Dipankar Gupta that "In fact, it is more realistic to say that there are probably as many hierarchies as there are castes in India. To believe that there is a single caste order to which every caste, from Brahman to untouchable, acquiesce ideologically, is a gross misreading of facts on the ground" The truth is that no caste, howsoever lowly placed it may be, accepts the reason for its degradation"(Dipankar Gupta in Interrogating Caste; pp1; Penguin Books 2000)

History does not support the thesis of caste discrimination. If it were as oppressive as it is portrayed then there should have been massive and regular caste wars in the last thousand years. There have not been any. If it has survived thousands of years then there is some inherent strength in it. The renowned Gandhian, Dharampal has demonstrated that data for Madras, Punjab and Bengal Presidency for 1800 to 1830 shows that the majority enrolled in the schools were from OBC and SC categories.

Caste has played an important role in the consolidation of business and entrepreneurship particularly in the last fifty or so years. The World Bank suggests that the remarkable growth of Tirupur is due to the coordinated efforts of Gounders, many of whom not even matriculates. "(World Development report, 2002 pp175; The World Bank). In a financial sense caste provides the edge in being a risk taker since failure is recognised and condoned and sometimes even encouraged by the group.

We have the exhaustive Economic Census of 2005, conducted by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) which covers 41.83 million enterprises engaged in different economic activities.The survey finds that more than 50 per cent of the enterprises are owned by SC/ST/OBC categories.

As MN Srinivas, doyen of sociologists, pointed out that "An important feature of social mobility in modern India is the manner in which the successful members of the backward castes work consistently for improving the economic and social condition of their caste-fellows. This is due to the sense of identification with one's own caste, and also a realisation that caste mobility is essential for individual or familial mobility"(Collected Essays; pp196-197, OUP2005).

Caste should be counted in 2011 census for all religions since every religion has caste even though we pretend it does not exist. It is required for policy planners and experts to work on a road map to calibrate changes based upon the census. We may have to enumerate a new caste called "Indian" consisting of the AMROWS mentioned above.