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Sunday, July 17, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Dalit youth roughed up by caste Hindu students

http://expressbuzz.com/states/tamilnadu/dalit-youth-roughed-up-by-caste-hindu-students/294269.html

Dalit youth roughed up by caste Hindu students
Prince Jebakumar

Express News Service
Last Updated : 15 Jul 2011 10:23:20 AM IST

MADURAI: A Dalit youth from Melur was recently roughed up and attacked
in public by fellow college students when he tried to square off an
altercation over the playing of songs between caste Hindu students and
Dalits.

Selvam, a Dalit from Indra Nagar of Manapatti village in Kottampatti,
is a third-year DEEE student of a college in Sivaganga. To get to his
college, he has to commute to Melur to take a connecting bus. On
Tuesday, students from a caste Hindu community started playing songs
relating to their community leader. Not to be left behind, Dalit
students began playing some songs simultaneously on their mobile
phones. The resulting cacophony attracted the wrath of the bus
conductor, who scolded them.

According to eyewitnesses, Selvam tried to pacify friends from his
community and asked them to stop playing songs. But, he was
intercepted by caste Hindu students and an altercation followed.

When the bus reached Melur, a group comprising caste Hindus, which had
been told to gather by those inside the bus, roughed up Selvam.

The following day, the caste Hindus openly discussed in the bus
tackling Selvam if he voiced a protest against the playing of songs.
The Dalit youth was soon forced to alight at a bus stop, roughly 2 km
ahead of Melur, and was attacked by the caste Hindu students in
public. He was stripped of his shirt and suffered internal injuries.

Later, Selvam lodged a complaint with the Kottampatti police and was
admitted to the GH in Melur.

Anand, EDof Equal Rights, an NGO, demanded a case to be registered
under Section 3 (1) (3) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

When contacted, Superintendent of Police Asra Garg said the complaint
and a counter-complaint were received and investigations were on.

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[ZESTCaste] Hope for India's Dalits

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1387808

Hope for India's Dalits
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 7/17/2011 3:35:00 AMBookmark and Share

K.P. YohannanGospel for Asia (GFA) founder K.P. Yohannan has written a
new book called No Longer a Slumdog. The title is a spin-off of the
2008 movie, Slumdog Millionaire, which is about children who are
kidnapped or taken off the streets of Mumbai, India, for human
trafficking. Some of their owners even blind or maim them so that they
can turn them into beggars and enslave them for life.

Yohannan tells OneNewsNow the Dalits of India are heavily affected by
this practice.

Book cover - No Longer a Slumdog - by K.P. Yohannan"We realize there
are 162 million child laborers and 15 million born to child laborers,
and they are the kind of slumdogs, the least and the lost and the
dying, and these are the children," he laments.

His book recounts the story of hundreds of children found and rescued
by Gospel for Asia. Yohannan uses No Longer a Slumdog to tell what God
is doing for and through the Dalits, who are known as the
"untouchables" in India's traditional caste system.

"In the New Testament, we find God is a God who is so concerned about
the suffering and the needy to the extent Jesus said, 'What you did
not do for the least of these' -- clothing and giving food and giving
shelter -- 'you did not do it for me,'" the GFA founder references
(Matthew 25:45). "So particularly, I think God's heart is very, very
concerned for the children who are helpless."

He concludes that the problem in nations like India is the absence of
the living God. However, he notes, many rural villagers are now
opening their hearts to God.

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[ZESTCaste] Maoist ideologue Kobad Gandhy speaks from Tihar

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/176762/maoist-ideologue-kobad-gandhy-speaks.html

Maoist ideologue Kobad Gandhy speaks from Tihar
New Delhi, July 16 (IANS)

A petite Mumbaikar, Anuradha Shanbag, captured the fancy of a tall,
lanky, bespectacled young man, who had returned to Mumbai from London
after a stay in jail.

The man was an affluent Parsi youth, Kobad Gandhy, an alumnus of
Mumbai's St Xavier's College. The two married in 1977 and 'Anu', as
Shanbag was called, became Gandhy's wife of 35 years, until she died
of sclerosis.

"Anuradha's simplicity and total lack of ego or arrogance and her
innate attitude to see all others as her equal drew her to the issue
of caste in her early college days," the jailed Maoist ideologue
Gandhy reminisces in the book, "Hello, Bastar", by journalist-writer
Rahul Pandita. The release of the book coincides with the third death
anniversary of Gandhy's wife.

Anuradha began "studying the caste/Dalit question at a time when the
issue was an anathema to most shades of communists and by 1980 she had
presented extensive analytical articles," Gandhy says in an essay,
"Comrade Anuradha Gandhy and the Idea of India". The essay is one of
the 11 chapters in the book.

It was written by Gandhy in April from his cell in the Tihar Jail
here. He was arrested in 2009. The 63-year-old leader headed the South
Western regional bureau of the Communist Party of India-Maoist before
his arrest.

The essay is a tribute to his wife, who had sown the idea of a perfect
India into his head, early in life with her pro-Dalit and pro-poor
outlook.

The Mumbai girl inspired Gandhy into Maoist ideology and to work on
the ground in states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and
Maharashtra.

"It is an occasion to remember her monumental contribution to the
understanding of caste, the Dalit question in India and the
significance of its resolution for the democratisation of individuals
and with it the society. In a society, where a small percentage of
people consider themselves superior to others due to birth, there can
be no democratic consciousness," Gandhy writes.

Gandhy explains the plight of the Dalits in 21st century India with an example.
In Chief Minister Mayawati-ruled Uttar Pradesh, a 16-year-old Dalit
girl was attacked by three upper caste youths Feb 5... They dragged
her away in an attempt to rape her; but when she resisted and shouted
for help, they chopped off her ears, part of her hands and injured her
face, the Maoist leader says.

This single incident brings out three facts, Gandhy says.

"First: the intolerance to any form of Dalit assertion, even if it is
an assertion to resist rape. Second: the impunity with which Dalits
can be attacked even in a state ruled by a Dalit leader which stems
from the confidence that the state will not touch the culprits. And
third: it brings out the arrogance of the upper caste youngsters,"
Gandhy says in the book.

Gandhy argues: "Major sections are seen as inferior (and nearly 20
percent people treated as untouchable), merely due to birth results.
It is a society that is hierarchical, not democratic."

"Caste consciousness supersedes national consciousness, identity,
loyalty - and everything," Gandhy says.

Gandhy attributes his wife's fiercely independent thinking as a great
help to a rational understanding of events, people and issues. "There
was no other person with whom I have had as vehement debates. This
normally brought a balance to my often one-sided views," he says.

Anecdotes such as these abound in the book, which weaves the story of
Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh's Bastar.

The book comprises accounts, interviews and analyses based on
reportage by Pandita for over a decade. The writer traces the growth
of Maoist insurgency in Bastar in the context of the greater Left
insurrection movements in south and central India.

"I have been going to Bastar since 1998 as a young reporter. In the
course of my visits, I got an idea that it would turn out to be one of
India's biggest internal security threats," Pandita told IANS.

He said: "The problem has become very big because of the policies of New Delhi."
"The thin line between the ordinary tribal and the Maoist has blurred.
They have more weapons to attack the paramilitary forces and more
support in the villages. The focus of Left insurgency has also shifted
from traditional hotbeds of Bihar and Jharkhand to the Andhra
Pradesh-Orissa border and Bastar," the writer said.

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[ZESTCaste] Land belonging to Dalits encroached; Thasildar issues notice to 25 members

http://www.dakshintimes.com/dakshina-kannada/sullia/news/11072830795/land-belonging-dalits-encroached-thasildar-issues-.html

Land belonging to Dalits encroached; Thasildar issues notice to 25 members

July 12, 2011
Dakshin Times Spl Correspondent Ganga Kallapally

Sullia : Revenue Department has issued a notice to 25 residents who
have illegally encroached the Government lands earmarked for the
Dalits.

This notice was isssued based on the complaint received by the dalits.
The dalits had submitted a complaint to the District Administration
and Civil Rights Enforcement Directorate stating that the government
land meant for them had been taken over illegally by people belonging
to other castes and religions and commercial complexes have also come
up there.

The revenue department, in its notices, has asked these people to
produce documents if any to prove their ownership on their holding, or
vacate the land within seven days.

Land measuring 7.3 acres in survey No. 276/1E1B located by the side of
the Gandhinagar school ground here, has been earmarked for scheduled
caste families. About 60 dalits live in this land at present. This
place is known as Navoor Colony, and residences of people from some
other communities and commercial complexes have also come up there.

The Tahsildar has also issued an order to collect relevant reports
from the taluk surveyor and revenue inspector and probe proper action
against illegal encraochers.

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[ZESTCaste] Paswan laments attacks on Dalits

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5290950

15/07/2011
Paswan laments attacks on Dalits

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan
today lamented the rise in attacks on Dalits and minorities in the
country and said the government had failed to take effective steps
against it.

At his party''s National Executive Meeting, Paswan said the nation is
passing through "very critical and difficult times," with crucial
issues of price rise, corruption and attacks on vulnerable people
shattering hope of the common man.

"There is a continuous rise in attacks on minorities and Dalits
throughout the country, but it is highly shocking that both the Centre
as well as the state governments have not taken any effective measures
to control the situation," Paswan said on the sidelines of the
meeting.

Citing the Mirchpur incident in Haryana, and that of Banthal and Dhada
in Gujarat where Dalits have been "forcibly evicted", he called it a
matter of grave concern and national shame.

He said that in Uttar Pradesh where a Dalit chief minister was in
power, attacks on the community, rapes and murder had become the order
of the day.
Paswan also used the occasion to raise the issue of land acquisition
and support the creation of smaller states.

He said policies being worked out on the issue of land acquisition
must take into consideration the concerns of farmers, share croppers
and all interested parties.

He said his party stands for making right to employment a fundamental
right and also supports reservation for women in Parliament and state
Assembly but with provision of quota within for scheduled castes and
tribes, backward classes and minorities.

"We support the cause of creation of Telangana and also for the demand
of creation of other smaller states. We also support the demand for
creation of new states in western UP, Central Uttar Pradesh,
Purvanchal and Bundelkhand," Paswan said.

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Sunday, July 17, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Dalit youth roughed up by caste Hindu students

[ZESTCaste] Hope for India's Dalits

[ZESTCaste] Maoist ideologue Kobad Gandhy speaks from Tihar

[ZESTCaste] Land belonging to Dalits encroached; Thasildar issues notice to 25 members

[ZESTCaste] Paswan laments attacks on Dalits

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