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Sunday, October 3, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Maya's U-turn on Mahatma Gandhi

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Maya-s-U-turn-on-Mahatma-Gandhi/Article1-607473.aspx

Maya's U-turn on Mahatma Gandhi

Vikas Pathak, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, October 02, 2010First Published: 23:08 IST(2/10/2010)

It may be, ironically, Mayawati's tribute to the Mahatma. Known for
its criticism of Mahatma Gandhi in relation to his policies vis-à-vis
Dalits, Mayawati's BSP has suddenly taken a U-turn. Advertisements
placed in newspapers by the Department of U.P. Information and Public
Relations on Gandhi Jayanti say: "Gandhiji's fundamental philosophy is
embodied in 'Sarvajan Hitay and Sarvajan Sukhay', which is the policy
of the Uttar Pradesh government."

Thus, the Uttar Pradesh government has accepted that the BSP's
Sarvajan (conveying that the party represents all, and not just
Dalits) discourse — which brought it to power in the state in 2007 —
is the same as Gandhi's policy of reaching out to all.

The Dalit movement from the days of Ambedkar has, however, maintained
that Gandhi was primarily a "caste Hindu leader" who was just
patronising Dalits through his Harijan — a term meaning children of
God, that Gandhi coined for Dalits — campaigns so as to prevent them
from taking up the Ambedkarite line of an autonomous Dalit movement
against the Brahmanical social system.

Till now, Mayawati had followed this line.

Last year, while attacking Rahul Gandhi over his visits to Dalit
homes, she had extended her criticism to the Mahatma, dubbing him a
"natakbaaz" (one who puts up an act). This had earned her criticism
from the Congress, BJP and the Samajwadi Party in the state.

In 1997, Mayawati had attacked the coinage of the term 'Harijan' by
the Mahatma. "If Dalits are children of God, was he the son of Shaitan
(the devil)?" she had asked.

Her attacks drew from the belief of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar and BSP
mentor Kanshi Ram that the Gandhian approach to Dalits was patronising
and in fact reinforced their social subordination.

Through the 1980s, too, both Mayawati and Kanshi Ram attacked Gandhi.

"Gandhism, Kanshi Ram felt, was the modern version of Brahmanism,"
political scientist Sudha Pai has written in her book Dalit Assertion
and the Unfinished Democratic Revolution.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit man's custodial death leads to protests in Vizag

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Dalit-mans-custodial-death-leads-to-protests-in-Vizag/articleshow/6674080.cms

Dalit man's custodial death leads to protests in Vizag

TNN, Oct 3, 2010, 02.07am IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: A dalit man's custodial death led to strong protests
outside the Kancharapalem police station here on Saturday. While the
cops claimed that 30-year-old Nakka Suresh died of a heart attack in
King George Hospital (KGH) late on Friday night, his family members
alleged Suresh was beaten up black and blue by the cops, which
resulted in his death.

Suresh's father, Nakka Satyam, a retired head constable, alleged that
his son was taken into custody by the police on September 30 for
allegedly cheating unemployed youth by promising them jobs in the
revenue department.

A native of Achyutapuram village in the district, Suresh was
physically challenged. He posed as a special tehsiladar and allegedly
set up an office and plied five 'government' vehicles at Muralinagar
in the city. He allegedly collected Rs 80 lakh from the youth on the
promise of providing them jobs. As Suresh did not deliver the jobs,
some of the youth who had paid huge amounts to him, reported the
matter to the police. Police later took possession of his office and
seized all the vehicles, besides taking him into custody. They
reportedly recovered an amount of Rs 20 lakh and 15 tolas of gold.

Kancharapalem circle inspector Kinjarapu Prabhakar said the accused
reported pain around 10.30 pm while at the police station on Friday
night and was immediately shifted to KGH at 10.50 pm. He died at 11.15
pm while receiving treatment. Kancharapalem police said they informed
his family members about the death through Achyutapuram SI.

The matter came to light on Saturday morning. The victim's father
threatened to commit suicide outside the police station. Family
members and members of dalit organizations staged a demonstration in
front of the police station demanding the suspension of station CI
Kinjarapu Prabhakar, brother of former MP Kinjarapu Yerrannaidu and SI
Paidapu Naidu.

The dalith organizations charged that Suresh was taken into custody on
September 30 and that the police delayed showing his arrest. The body
was kept in the KGH mortuary for autopsy and the RDO was told to
submit a report on the cause of the death to the collector after which
a magisterial enquiry may be ordered and action initiated against the
cops, if found guilty.

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[ZESTCaste] The social revolution in Uttar Pradesh

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/the-social-revolution-in-uttar-pradesh

The social revolution in Uttar Pradesh

S A Aiyar

03 October 2010, 10:45 AM IST

Last week, this column highlighted major economic improvements for
dalits in Uttar Pradesh, based on a research paper by Devesh Kapur and
others (Rethinking inequality : Dalits in UP in the market reform
era). But the real dalit revolution has been in social status, far
more than economic.

In material terms, inequality (technically measured by the Gini
coefficient) in UP has always been low — less than in Kerala or the
national average. UP's problem has always been social inequality, not
consumption inequality. The good news is that social inequality is
being transformed. The practice of seating dalits separately in upper
caste weddings is down from 77.3% to 8.9% in eastern UP, and from
73.1% to 17.9% in western UP. The proportion of non-dalits accepting
food and water at dalit households is up from 1.7% to 72.5% in the
east and from 3.6% to 47.8% in the west.

Many dalits in eastern UP were locked into thehalwaha (bonded labour)
system, which Jagjivan Ram once called "a remnant of slavery" . This
has virtually disappeared : the proportion is down from 32.1% to 1.1%.
The proportion of dalit households doing any farm labour has plummeted
from 76% to 45.6% in the east, and from 46.1% to just 20.5% in the
west. Encouragingly , the proportion depending on their own land is up
from 16.6% to 28.4% in the east, and from 50.5% to 67.6% in the west.
Tubewell ownership is up substantially , but remains modest.

Dalits are leasing land from upper castes. Those who were once
labourers on upper caste land now insist on a share of the crop. The
proportion in sharecropping is up from 16.7% to 31.4% in the east and
from 4.9% to 11.4% in the west. In western UP, cases of dalits alone
lifting dead animals are down from 72.6% to 5.3%. Once dalits ploughed
the land of upper castes with bullocks . Today, they are getting their
own land ploughed by upper caste tractor drivers. Economic reforms
have created major new opportunities in urban areas, facilitating
dalit migration to towns and back. This has broken their dependence on
rural landlords and moneylenders. The resulting labour shortage has
raised the bargaining power of dalits.

The proportion of dalit families working locally as masons, tailors or
drivers — all non-traditional occupations — is up from 14% to 37% in
the east and from 9.3% to 42.1% in the west. Even more revolutionary
is the rise of dalit business families, from 4.2% to 11% in the east
and from 6% to 36.7% in the west.

Political parties shout themselves hoarse over job reservations. Yet,
the dalit family proportion in government jobs has actually fallen
from 7.2% to 6.8% in the east, and risen marginally from 5% to 7.3% in
the west. Clearly, job reservation has not been a key factor in UP's
social revolution.

Once, dalit babies were not midwifed equally by dalits and non-dalits
. The proportion equally delivered has shot up from 1.1% to 89.9% in
the east. Earlier non-dalit and government midwives rarely came to
dalit homes for deliveries, but the proportion is now up from 3.4% to
53.4% in the east, and from zero to 3.6% — still very low — in the
west.

Dalit households where most or all kids go to school are up from 28.8%
to 63.4% in the east and from 21.7% to 65.7% in the west. Girls'
schooling is up from 10% to 58.7% in the east and from 6.8% to 56.9%
in the west. As a form of social assertion, dalits are adopting elite
consumption patterns. Their use of toothpaste , shampoo and bottled
hair oil has soared. Earlier, only one-third of dalits in the east and
virtually none in the west used cars or jeeps for wedding baraats, but
today virtually all do. The proportion serving laddoos to baraatis is
up from 33.6% in the east and 2.7% in the west, to almost 100% in both
cases.

The data shows that despite major improvements , dalits are still far
from achieving equality in status or income. Caste oppression and
inequalities remain. Nevertheless, the changes constitute a social
revolution, sparked by both economic reform and the rise of the BSP.

In the survey, dalits themselves emphasized that their social
well-being had advanced even faster than their material wellbeing .
Self-respect and dignity are vital for the downtrodden. Mayawati's
statue-building spree is a form of status building.

Amartya Sen has talked of freedom as development . This means not just
more consumption but more voice, access to accountability , access to
influential networks and livelihood choice, access to good governance,
and physical security. The traditional castebound village in UP denied
all these to dalits. Those shackles are breaking apart.

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[ZESTCaste] Sathyambabu Mother Mariyamma Admitted in Hospital, this family needs our support, Please assemble at PMS on 6th Evening

Dear Friends

I am writing this mail to inform about the health condition of Mariyamma, she was upset with the judgement and fell down in the court hall on the day of judgement

Now her health became worst and is admitted in the Nandigama Government Hospital, Sathyambabu's father died in 2006, she is alone feeding her two children Sathyambabu and Sathyavathi ,

Now Sathyambabu in the jail, and sathyavathi discontinued her education due to financial problems, this family needs support from all of us

Also i remind all of you, we are meeting on 6th Evening in the Progressive Media Services in Hyderguda to plan our future activities, inside and out side the court for the protection of "Sathyam" Babu, please be present in this meeting

I would like to propose

1) Public hearing in the Hyderabad by inviting a retired Justice of Supreme court / High court

2) A representation to the Governor to hand over the case to Central bureau of Investigation for Re Investigation of the case and also requesting him to order to admit Sathyambabu in the NIMs Hospital immediately

3) Investigation in to the case of Ayeshameera Murder case by a private investigation team consisting Lawyers of Supreme court and High Court (George Goldy - Dalit Mukthi Morcha) from MP is ready to give his time for this

Tharakam Sir will explain us what are the possibilities in the court to protect sathymababu in the meeting

Please share your ideas, spread this message among your friends and colleagues

Also i request all of you to please put your signature on the online petition to protect the human rights of sathymababu here is the link please click - http://www.petitiononline.com/sathyam/petition.html

Regards

Karthik Navayan

Coordinator

Sathyambabu Ayeshameera Nyaya Porata Committee

--
B.Karthik Navayan, Advocate
H.No. 21-7-761,
Opp.High Court Post Office,
Gansi Bazar, Hyderabad,
PIN-500002, AP.
Cell:09346677007,
email:navayan@gmail.com
http://karthiknavayan.wordpress.com/
http://www.petitiononline.com/93466770/petition.html
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile.aspx?uid=10379805095932756525

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[ZESTCaste] Sathyambabu Mother Mariyamma Admitted in Hospital, this family needs our support, Please assemble at PMS on 6th Evening

Dear Friends

I am writing this mail to inform about the health condition of Mariyamma, she was upset with the judgement and fell down in the court hall on the day of judgement

Now her health became worst and is admitted in the Nandigama Government Hospital, Sathyambabu's father died in 2006, she is alone feeding her two children Sathyambabu and Sathyavathi ,

Now Sathyambabu in the jail, and sathyavathi discontinued her education due to financial problems, this family needs support from all of us

I would like to propose

1) Public hearing in the Hyderabad by inviting a retired Justice of Supreme court / High court

Tharakam Sir will explain us what are the possibilities in the court to protect sathymababu in the meeting

Please share your ideas, spread this message among your friends and colleagues

Regards

Karthik Navayan

Coordinator

Sathyambabu Ayeshameera Nyaya Porata Committee

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Sunday, October 3, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Maya's U-turn on Mahatma Gandhi

[ZESTCaste] Dalit man's custodial death leads to protests in Vizag

[ZESTCaste] The social revolution in Uttar Pradesh

[ZESTCaste] Sathyambabu Mother Mariyamma Admitted in Hospital, this family needs our support, Please assemble at PMS on 6th Evening

[ZESTCaste] Sathyambabu Mother Mariyamma Admitted in Hospital, this family needs our support, Please assemble at PMS on 6th Evening

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