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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

[ZESTCaste] The burden of proof

http://www.hindustantimes.com/The-burden-of-proof/Article1-602673.aspx

The burden of proof

Varghese K George, Hindustan Times
September 21, 2010First Published: 01:27 IST(21/9/2010)
Last Updated: 01:29 IST(21/9/2010)Share more...1 Comment
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Religious conversions are a political action in many cases – sometimes
a revolt against restrictive social situations; sometimes a shot at
relatively better material surroundings. In many cases, conversions
are prompted by extraneous influences –where the convert is a docile,
ill-informed participant. And at least in some cases, conversions
happen due to allurement.

The circumstances may differ, but many cases, the issue turns into a
political hot potato – leading to bad blood, litigation and, in
extreme cases, to violence and loss of lives.

So what happens if a Dalit who had converted to, say Christianity,
returns to the Hindu fold? Under what conditions can he/she claim
reservations again? Though the matter had been thought to have been
settled by the apex court over the last decades, the fine print of
conversions and the burden of proof remain unresolved.

Since many Dalits are renouncing Christianity -as Christians cannot
claim reservations, and reconversions to Hinduism is part of creating
a Hindu political identity - the SC judgment of September 7 has
implications for policy and politics. "Legal and social situations
prompt Dalits into adopting a dual identity. They may participate in
rituals or caste festivals to claim entitlements. They may also attend
church for spiritual succour," says Paul Diwakar, general secretary of
National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights.

What the Supreme Court said: A 1950 presidential notification under
Article 341 of the Constitution says, "No person who professes a
religion different from the Hindu, the Sikh or the Buddhist religion
shall be deemed" scheduled castes. The SC judgment emphasised on the
word "profess" to interpret who is eligible for reservations.

"…if a public declaration is made by a person that he has ceased to
belong to his old religion and has accepted another religion he will
be taken as professing the other religion…The way we understand the
order 1950…in order to claim the benefits of reservations…a person
must establish that the caste to which he belongs is notified in the
Presidential Order and he is not professing a religion different ….
from the Hindu, the Sikh or the Buddhist," the SC said.

Therefore, M. Radha, born a Christian, but 'professed' Hinduism and
lived by her caste, was eligible to be elected from a constituency
reserved for SCs, ruled the apex court.

Whether one is professing a particular religion would be decided by
her acceptance in the community, said the apex court, overturning the
judgment of the Madras HC, which had disqualified her.

Kerala HC's view: Weeks before the SC judgment, the Kerala High
Court, in the election petition against five-time MP Kodikkunnil
Suresh, interpreted the provisions along the same lines, but put the
onus of proof on Suresh.

Suresh, too, was born a Christian, but had converted to Hinduism. The
HC concluded that evidence presented before it did not prove that
Pulaya/Cheramar community had accepted Suresh as one of their own.
"Usually, the onus of proving the allegations is with the petitioner,
but since Suresh's school records showed him to be a Christian, the HC
shifted the onus to him," said K Harialal, Suresh's lawyer.

In the Radha case, the Madras HC had put the onus on her to prove her
caste and religion, but the SC ruled that it was for her opponents to
prove that she was still a Christian.

In other words, the person who charges another with not being a
scheduled caste must prove that point, and not the person who is
charged.

So, who's a Hindu?

In the absence of a central religious authority or codified, universal
religious practice, the legal definition of being a Hindu has been
subject to various interpretations.

In its latest judgment, the SC has suggested an answer. "The
determination of the religious acceptance of a person must not be made
on his name or his birth. When a person intends to profess Hinduism,
and he does all that is required by the practices of Hinduism in the
region or by the caste to which he belongs, and he is accepted as a
Hindu by all… persons around him."

A matter of interpretation

"...On reconversion to Hinduism, a person can once again become a
member of the caste in which he was born and to which he belonged
before conversion to another religion, if the members of the caste
accept him as a member. A Mahar or a Koli or a Mala would not be
recognised as anything but a Mahar or a Koli or a Mala after
reconversion to Hinduism and he would suffer from the same social and
economic disabilities from which he suffered before he was converted
to another religion." — Supreme Court order dated September 7, 2010
quoting from its own 1976 judgment.

But proving conversion still remains a grey area. Sample this:
CASE 1
On July 27, 2010, Kerala HC set aside the election of AICC secretary
K. Suresh "Prove your SC status" : The Kerala HC set aside the
election of AICC Secretary Kodikkunnil Suresh to the current Lok Sabha
from Mavelikkara constituency, reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC). The
court said Suresh had failed to prove that he was an SC
Pulaya/Cheramar as claimed in his caste certificate. School records
showed his religion as Christian. Suresh argued that his parents'
religion, Christianity, was thrust on him and after coming of age, he
had converted to Hinduism and announced it through a notification. He
said his parents had been SC before conversion and so, he should also
be considered an SC on conversion to Hinduism. The HC asked him to
prove his claims, by shifting the burden of proof from the petitioner
who challenged Suresh's SC status.

CASE 2
On September 7, 2010, SC upheld election of M. Chandra of AIADMK "What
you practice is your caste and religion": On September 7, the SC
upheld the 2006 election of M Chandra of AIADMK from Rajapalayam
assembly constituency in TN, which was set aside by Madras High Court.
Her schools records showed her as Christian, but Chandra claimed she
converted from Christianity to Hinduism and claimed that she was a
Pallan Scheduled Caste. The Madras High Court said she failed to prove
her claims. The SC ruled that the burden of proof should not have been
on her. The petitioner who challenged her SC status and alleged that
she continued to be Christian should have been asked to prove his
claims.

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Brahmins need a deeksha to awaken empathy’

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/brahmins-need-a-deeksha-to-awaken-empathy/

'Brahmins need a deeksha to awaken empathy'

By churumuri
As the caste and communal cauldron gets nicely stirred up in Karnataka
by the competitive padayatras of Hindu and Dalit seers, the noted
Kannada writer, Devanoor Mahadeva, turns the mirror on Brahmins, in an
important intervention at a seminar held under the auspices of the
University of Mysore on Saturday.

***

By DEVANOOR MAHADEVA

I vividly remember an interview that Alanahalli Krishna did with
Kuvempu many years ago.

Alanahalli asked Kuvempu: "Do you really believe that the Madhwa
philosophy is a mean one?"

Kuvempu replied: "Mean? Most mean."

Alanahalli had a hearty laugh over that, and the waves of that
laughter still reverberate in my ear.

Kuvempu's impatience with the Madhwa philosophy can be understood in
the context of his broad humanist position. The "Nithya muktha, nithya
samsaari, nithya naraki" ("One who is forever free, forever involved
in worldly affairs and forever goes through the torments of hell")
philosophy of Madhwacharya holds that the human being and the world do
not change.

It renders society static, devoid of dynamism, and makes a philosophy
of hellish hierarchies.

Vishvesha Teertha is born in this context and is the head of a mut
that propagates this philosophy. He seems to be trying to move out of
the inertia, struggling to break the confines of the philosophy. It
strikes me as the struggle of a little sparrow caught in a net and
desperately fluttering its wings.

There are times that I feel that he ought to be with us, not out
there. But when I ask myself if his struggle is truly from the heart
and born out of a deep religiosity, I cannot confidently answer in the
affirmative.

We begin to wonder if Vishvesha Teertha's padayatra is a matter of
religious faith or religious politicking when we juxtapose him with
the vachanakaras who said "Keelingallade hayanu kareyadu", implying
that there is no redemption without defeating the ego, and moved
closer to the lower castes with this deeply felt faith.

When asked if a man from the Kuruba community would ever be made the
head of his mutt, Vishwesha Teertha lost patience and retorted: "You
ask this only to Brahmins. Would you ask the same question to a
Christian or a Buddhist institution?"

In fact, any man belonging to the Christian or Buddhist faith can ask
his religious institution why he cannot head it. Those religions allow
it. But is such a thing possible in a Hindu caste-religion? Did a
Kanaka Dasa, who stood outside the door of the temple, not belong to
your religion? Or is each caste a religion by itself?

What then is dharma or religion? It is, in fact, the hierarchy of
higher and lower castes and practices associated with it. This is why
we do not think it is petty when Vishwesha Teertha is not allowed to
perform puja in Tirupati.

This is also why we fail to see the hypocrisy of a man who will
command people not to convert to other religions without a hint of
moral dilemma, but will never declare: "Do not covert to other faiths,
I am willing to make you the head of my mutt."

We are never struck by the cruelty of a system that has accepted
exclusion as a tradition.

Vishwesha Theertha is all set to give "Vaishnava deekshe" (initiation)
to Dalits. There are already several Dalit cult traditions which have
long ago been initiated into the Vaishnava tradition. They follow the
purificatory rituals of "madi" and treat their shankha-jagates (conch
and cymbals) with reverence and do not allow others to enter places
where they are kept. They look for brides and grooms within their own
small community.

This has led to greater divisions rather than any coming together.

The seer's padayatra might increase the population of such dasas among
dalits, more people might blow conches and strike cymbals. People who
have done this have never moved from their position as untouchables.

When such is the case, the Pejavar seer would do well to re-think his
plans of giving "Vaishnava deekshe".

Instead, giving "thrija" (third birth) deekshe to the twice-born
Brahmins might be good for the unity, balance and health of our
society. The present dwija initiation is intellect-centric. The
Gayatri mantra that is central to dwija deekshe speaks of awakening
the intellect.

Intellectual activities could also lead to deceptions, discriminations
and a sense of superiority and inferiority. What the Indian society
today needs urgently is an awakening of a sense of compassion and
camaraderie. I request the seer to give this (the thrija deekshe),
especially to the Brahmins, to awaken empathy.

My request should not be mistaken for arrogance. (I am sure U.R.
Anantha Murthy would ask me to give him "thrija deekshe" if he were to
hear of this new concept!)

India has given birth to many things. In fact we are masters in the
business of giving births. We are people who have made rowdies of gods
to keep the hierarchies of the four varnas, and the discriminations
that come with it, intact. I am asking the Pejavar seer to inspire yet
another birth and awakening.

We are, after all, a nation that believes in births and re-births.

Let me add to this logic with another theory: Those who practiced
untouchability in their previous births are born untouchables in this
birth, in order to experience it first hand. Those who practice it now
will be born untouchables in the next birth. If there is any truth in
re-births, this could as well be happening.

The Indian mind which has killed itself thinking up logical arguments
to justify hierarchies, might as well indulge this logical argument
for once to bring about unity.

I am getting tired and weary, but there is no end to this. I am living
from time immemorial in the hope of finding love and equality. My
dream is that the Pejavara seer's padayatra would inspire at least a
few young dwijas to turn trijas, marry outside their castes, and
inspire the birth of a new humanity.

I hope my dream comes true.

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Untouchability wasn’t so much a sin as a crime’

http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/untouchability-wasnt-so-much-a-sin-as-a-crime/

'Untouchability wasn't so much a sin as a crime'
By churumuri
M.S. Prabhakara, longtime northeast and South Africa correspondent of
The Hindu, on the ongoing Brahmin-Dalit interaction in Karnataka:

"[The] demonstrative walkabouts by Brahmin leaders in areas one
shunned as literally dirty and polluting , and by Dalit leaders in
areas formally barred to Dalits, or the washing of the feet of a Dalit
guru by Brahmins, are driven by a fundamentally flawed perspective
that sees untouchability as a 'sin.' Thus the symbolic atoning by
those who provided the ideology, the 'upper' caste Hindus like
Brahmins — for it was the Brahmins who wrote the texts.

"These attempts to weld a common Dalit-Brahmin platform, united in
symbolic acts of unity and togetherness, also make those Dalits who
are going along with such a compact complicit in their historic
diminishment and exclusion.

"The problem with such gestures is that the practice of untouchability
was not so much a sin as a calculated crime, part of a social
structure constructed by those who controlled the resources to
facilitate the accumulation of surplus and profits in the process of
material production. However, it is easier and more comfortable to
everyone, even some of the victims of that crime, to give
untouchability the spin of being a 'sin,' for acceptance of moral
culpability costs nothing.

"If, on the other hand, one were to see the practice as a calculated
crime for which one has to eventually pay, those who have perpetrated
such crimes could, under a proper system of justice, be sent to
prison."

Read the full article: Untouchability: a sin and a crime:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article699075.ece?homepage=true

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[ZESTCaste] Dalits launch 24-hour dharna

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article740108.ece

MANGALORE, September 21, 2010

Dalits launch 24-hour dharna
Staff Correspondent

The Hindu Dalits protesting in front of the Deputy Commissioner's
office, in Mangalore on Monday. Photo: R. Eswarraj
Dalits on Monday launched a 24-hour dharna in front of the Deputy
Commissioner's office here against what they described as the
"anti-Dalit attitude" of the officials of the Mangalore City
Corporation. It was staged under the banner of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist).

Commissioner of the corporation K.N. Vijayprakash also spoke and
accepted a memorandum from the protesters.

Krishnappa Konchady, member of the district unit of the CPI(M),
alleged that many applications with the civic body were pending action
for several months. He urged the corporation to process all
applications from Dalits for construction or repair of houses within a
month.

Demanding that the grants for the construction of toilets be increased
to Rs. 20,000 from Rs. 10,000, he said that Dalits in Mulky,
Belthangady and Sullia, had been given Rs. 15,000 for the purpose.

The memorandum demanded that the grants for the construction of houses
be raised to Rs. 3 lakh. Their another demand was to double the amount
of scholarships being given to Dalit students and to disburse it at
the beginning of the academic year.

Maruti Manpade, State secretariat member of the CPI(M), spoke.

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[ZESTCaste] Question of Caste

http://in.news.yahoo.com/columnist/ashok_malik/12/a-question-of-caste

Corner Plot Ashok Malik on that great Indian obsession - politics BY
ASHOK MALIK Mail A

Question of Caste

September 21, 2010

It is now official that the 2011 Census of India will include a
question on caste. For the first time since 1931, every Indian citizen
will be asked to self-identify his or her caste or sub-caste.

The option of saying "No caste" or "My caste is Indian" will perhaps
be available to conscientious objectors, but in the larger reckoning
this will serve little purpose. It is more likely that several people
from socially privileged backgrounds will try and present themselves
as belonging to one or the other of the Other Backward Castes (OBCs)
and attempt to get a slice of the reservation cake. A degree of
confusion and plain misrepresentation is imminent.

The reintroduction of the caste parameter into the Census process has
serious implications. Till 1931, the caste headcount was undertaken by
an imperial government that sought to categorise, sub-categorise and
thereby divide a subject people. This is not the intention of the
sovereign government of a free country. Rather, the India of 2011
wants to use caste data to fine-tune quotas and settle debates on
whether or not, say, the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in federal
government jobs and educational institutions is too low or adequate or
excessive.

It follows that the caste count - and the new legitimacy to the caste
system - will become self-perpetuating.

Several groups of Indians - sections of the Left, free market
advocates, naive idealists, the urban elite - have often argued that
caste quotas become such a hot issue and such an arena of dispute
because of an essential supply shortage. For instance, if there were
enough quality medical colleges in India, offering requisite seats for
would-be doctors, demand would be addressed and candidates -
irrespective of their caste background - would be satisfied. This
would make caste quotas irrelevant. The answer therefore lay in
promoting policies that would create more jobs and redress India's
shortage economy in higher education.

By accepting the validity of a caste Census - and make no mistake,
this is not a one-off; it with us for all times (and Censuses) to come
- the Indian political establishment is in a sense conceding that it
finds it more convenient to keep the caste-based quota system going
than to deal with any broader supply-side policy distortions.

Indeed, even when the government introduces legislation promising a
universal entitlement - that is, a facility available to every single
citizen - in practice it writes in caste and identity parameters as
well.

Take the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act -
better known as the Right to Education or RTE Act - which came into
effect on April 1, 2010. It guarantees free education to all Indian
children from the ages of six to 14 and eligible to study in classes I
to VIII.

Those who can afford it are at liberty to send their children to
private and semi-private schools. Those who cannot have been promised
by the government, as per the RTE Act, that their children will study
free of cost in government run or supported schools. In case of some
of these children, they can be admitted to private schools and the
government will reimburse the school management.

It sounds simple enough in theory. All it requires is for the
government to set up or facilitate the setting up of new schools. In
reality, the RTE Act is riddled with confusion and ambiguities. What's
more, education is a concurrent subject under the Indian Constitution,
which means both the federal government and individual state
governments have jurisdiction over it.

Each state government has to frame rules on how it plans to implement
the RTE Act and provide school access to every child in the six-14
years category. Since every child is being promised eight years of
school education, one would imagine that caste differentiation and
identity markers would not be necessary or kept to a bare minimum.

How has it turned out? While formulating the RTE Act, the Union Human
Resource Development (HRD) Ministry framed template rules that the
state governments could adopt or borrow from. One of the controversial
clauses it suggested was the setting up of a School Management
Committee (SMC) in government and government-aided schools.

At one level, an SMC that brings together all stakeholders in a school
- parents, teachers, administrators and so on - and works for the good
of the institution is a noble idea. However, there are concerns that
the presence and composition of such an oversight committee will lead
to non-specialists dictating how the school should be run and how
teaching should take place.

In the case of government-aided schools - which are likely to be
governed by independent trusts that have contributed capital to the
setting up of the institution - it could impinge on the autonomy of
the management.

Who will be part of these committees? Consider the draft rules
released by the Andhra Pradesh government. They say: "The committee in
case of a primary school shall be a 27 member committee. Of them 24
members shall be from the mother/father or guardian of the children
enrolled in the school. One member shall be the elected
representative; one member may be the nominee of the mahila smakhyas
of the village concerned. The head teacher or the in-charge head
teacher of the school shall be ex-officio member/convener of the
committee."

Such a lopsided committee is fraught with risk. It gives 24 parents -
who may know nothing about pedagogy or the running of a school - the
right to bully the headmaster and, through him, the teachers. That
apart, it politicises the management of neighbourhood schools by
giving the "elected representative" - who could be the local member of
the municipal corporation or of the gram panchayat, as the case may be
- a place in the SMC of every single government and government-aided
school in his constituency.

An "elected representative" is a euphemism for a politician. A
politician's primary interest is to win elections. Twenty-four parents
make up more voters than one headmaster. No wonder educationists fear
the politician will back the parents and convert the SMC into a
populist or, worse, political, body.

Yet, that is not the entirety of the story. How will the 24 parents be
selected? This is what the good Education Department bureaucrats in
Andhra Pradesh say:

Mother/father or guardian of each of such child who has secured
highest percentage of marks in the annual examination of the preceding
academic session in class I, II, III, and IV
Mother/father or guardian of each of such child who has secured lowest
percentage of marks in the annual examination of the preceding
academic session in class I, II, III, and IV
Mother/father or guardian of children one each belonging to Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, and Muslim
minority categories who have secured highest percentage of marks in
their respective category in the annual examination of the preceding
academic session in classes I to IV taken together, thus taking four
parents of the categories noted above from each class
It is easy to guess that the School Management Committee will become a
community power centre in many villages and small towns of Andhra
Pradesh (and India) where there is scarcity of private or in fact any
schools. It will dictate terms, recommend candidates for admission,
suggest names of friends and relatives for teaching and non-teaching
jobs. It would be a nice gravy train to ride on.

As such, if a parent wants to become a member of this SMC, he has to
ensure one of three things:

His child comes first in class
His child comes last in class
In case he is a Muslim (or a Dalit or ST or OBC), his child has to
beat all other Muslim (or Dalit or ST or OBC) children in class, never
mind what his overall rank is
In Afrikaans, the word "apartheid" means "separateness". As a
philosophy, it calls for segregation of various categories of
citizens, arguing white should only compete with white and black
should only compete with black.

In Malaysia, ethnic minorities such as the Chinese and Indians have
had an uneasy relationship with the Malay majority who make up 60 per
cent of the population. Analysts have often pointed to the built-in
biases of the Malaysian government school system. The roll number on
an answer sheet tells the examiner which race the candidate belongs
to. In effect, Indian only competes with Indian, and Malay only
competes with Malay.

Is Andhra Pradesh - and is India - headed that way? The angularities
brought into the roll out of the otherwise well-intentioned RTE law
must leave us wondering.

Ashok Malik is a journalist writing on, primarily, Indian politics and
foreign policy, and inflicting his opinion on readers of several
newspapers for close to 20 years. He lives in Delhi, is always game
for an Americano and can be contacted at malikashok@gmail.com.

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

[ZESTCaste] The burden of proof

[ZESTCaste] ‘Brahmins need a deeksha to awaken empathy’

[ZESTCaste] ‘Untouchability wasn’t so much a sin as a crime’

[ZESTCaste] Dalits launch 24-hour dharna

[ZESTCaste] Question of Caste

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