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• Kambalapalli Carnage (and other struggles)

 

• AYYAN-KALI
• Ambedkar On Muslims
• Annihilation of Caste: One More Look
• Dimensions of Ambedkarism
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• DECLINE AND FALL OF BUDDHISM-TOC
• DECLINE AND FALL OF BUDDHISM-THE BOOK
• Dalit Poems
• Kambalapalli Carnage
• Untouchable politics and politicians since 1956

New force in Indian politics

http://business.theage.com.au/business/new-force-in-indian-politics-20080729-3mx1.html

http://www.jewishtimes-sj.com/news/2008/0801/Columns/008.html

(Extract)

Dimensions
International
. JOYCE S. ANDERSON Special to the Jewish Times

Lucknow, India — While we in the United States focus on the question of whether Barack Obama, a black man, will be elected president, halfway around the world in India a more startling event occurred last year. Kumari Mayawati, a woman from the lowest caste on the Hindu hierarchy, the Dalit "untouchables," was elected chief minister of the largest state in India, Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh, with 160 million people, holds the largest bloc of seats in India's 543 member Parliament. Neither of the two major parties - the governing Congress Party or its main opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party - is expected to win control in the up-coming national elections. Ms. Mayawati, who built a coalition that drew voters from all levels in the Hindu caste system, has emerged as a figure on the national scene who could become the first low-caste or Dalit prime minister of India.

Although caste discrimination is officially banned in India, the arena of politics has remained the last hold-out where each caste seeks to uphold and advance its own interests. Ms. Mayawati, 52 and unmarried, is a former school teacher and lawyer who entered politics full time. She drew from the Dalits,who represent 16 percent of the population , and attracted voters from all caste and class levels with her three-part agenda: an eight-lane highway, better policing and private investment to ease poverty. In a rare interview, she told two American journalists in June, "I prefer to be known as a leader for all the communities. In every community, there are poor and unemployed people." She added, "We cannot fight just as Dalits. I understand for centuries people have fought each other. It is not easy to bring them together. But we have done this in U.P." Uttar Pradesh, a large northern state that borders on Nepal is commonly known in India as U.P.

The traditional constituents of the Congress Party have been the Dalits, the privileged Brahmins and the Muslims. Leadership has usually come from the upper-caste Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and Rahul Gandhi went on a widely reported tour of the Uttar Pradesh countryside, eating and sleeping in low-caste homes. Ms. Mayawati, attacked his tour and accused him of purifying himself later with a "special soap".

She clearly has national ambitions and sees herself in a strong position when either national party seeks her support to form a ruling coalition.

"She is an original," said Ajoy Bose, author of a sympathetic biography published by Penguin Books India. "She obviously is going to play a major role in our lives." A less sanguine opinion came from Mrinal Pande, chief editor of the Hindi-language daily newspaper, Hindustan. He predicted that Ms Mayawati could join any party and receive a high price in return, calling her a "predator with little ideological baggage." When Ms. Mayawati was asked where she sees herself in the future, she said she aimed to do across India what she has done in Uttar Pradesh. "Now, people in the rest of the country are watching."

What are they seeing in Uttar Pradesh? There have been large scale arrests of notorious organized crime bosses, as well as a few known criminals in her own party. Her aim is to send a strong message that the police are empowered to do their job. She has put up giant statues of Dalit icons, including one of herself in the capital city. She is proposing a nearly 600 mile, $7l5 billion highway, stretching across the state to enhance commercial traffic as well as private travel. Funded with private money, critics warn that it could be come an easy source of graft.

Corruption is the most serious criticism of Ms. Mayawati. The Central Bureau of Investigation accused Ms. Mayawati and her relatives of having illegally accumulated $2.4 million in property including a villa in the diplomatic section of New Delhi and $1.2 million in bank accounts. Ms. Mayawati denounced the charges as politically motivated. In contrast, Ms. Mayawati is called "a goddess" by her Dalit loyalists. Many say they are proud that a Dalit's daughter governs their state. Rajpal, 50 and a sweeper by caste, said, "The chief minister is our own kind. Now we are not afraid of the police. We are not afraid of the Gujjars (middle caste villagers). We are not afraid of anyone."

Untouchable Citizens - Dalit Movements and Democratisation in Tamil Nadu by Hugo Gorringe, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2005; pages 397, Rs. 750.

Refer Dalit saga in Tamil Nadu

Dalits in Dravidian Land - Frontline reports on anti-Dalit violence in Tamil Nadu (1995 - 2004) by S. Viswanathan, ; Navayana Publishing, Pondicherry, 2005; pages 318, Rs. 300.

Refer Dalit saga in Tamil Nadu 

Behenji: A Political Biography Of Mayawati

(Buy the book at)

http://www.flipkart.com/behenji-ajoy-bose-political-biography/0670082015-k3w3f9kk1b

(Hardcover - May 2008)
by

Behenji: A Political Biography Of Mayawati

Ajoy Bose

Behenji: A Political Biography Of Mayawati Mayawati has changed the face of politics in India, turning old assumptions upside down and restructuring power equations entrenched for centuries, if not millennia. The path she has blazed through the Byzantine political system of Uttar Pradesh has been a unique tour de force. Not only has she been the chief minister four times, but she has done so by overturning the established electoral traditions of a state that virtually invented modern Indian politics. With her in-your-face political style, unabashed display of accumulated wealth and mercurial nature, she is, perhaps, the most enigmatic Indian politician for decades.

How did Mayawati, a studious, diffident Dalit schoolteacher, the summit of whose ambitions was to be an IAS officer, become the iconoclastic, combative politician, universally known as ‘Behenji’ today? Her trajectory is all the more impressive not just because her modest background has no previous connection to politics, she has also had to bear the burden of being a Dalit and a woman. Possibly her greatest achievement has been to forge, with the help of her mentor, Kanshi Ram, a completely new context for Dalit politics. Bypassing both the slogans of victimhood, as well as those of street-level activism, she has negotiated from within the system to create new alliances with lower backward castes, Muslims and now, surprisingly, upper-caste Brahmins as well.

Eminent journalist Ajoy Bose brings his in-depth experience of covering Indian politics for over three decades to this pioneering political biography of Mayawati. He explores the background of her meteoric rise and examines the growing national clout of this unique woman who could, quite possibly, determine the shape of the next Indian government, and even be the country’s prime minister one day.


'Those who tend to rubbish Indian democracy and get impatient with its indubitable flaws should ponder whether there is a historic parallel anywhere else where a woman belonging to the most crushed community known to mankind has risen through the heat and dust of elections to rule two hundred million people and may well reach further to guide the destiny of a billion more in the not too distant future.'

“Make education must for Dalits”

http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: Education has been a distant dream for many a Dalit child whose everyday life is a struggle and the government should make it compulsory under the law that every child gets good education, said Lourdunathan, professor, Government Arts College, Melur.

Addressing a ‘training and consultative’ meeting for Dalit teachers here at the De Nobili centre by Network for Dalit Empowerment, Tamil Nadu on Sunday, he said that necessary information about the higher education should be easily available for Dalit students.

Speaking on the topic ‘Education and Dalit Women,’ Diana Christie, lecturer, Lady Doak College said that measures should be taken to make sure that Dalit women, who were the most marginalised, get education till the university level without dropping out.

Stating that education was the only panacea for the problems of Dalits, she said that getting better education and employment would not alienate Dalit students from the rest of the society as it would help them cope with changing conditions in these times of globalisation.

About 150 teachers from southern districts attended the meeting, which was chaired by M. Edward Arockiadass, organiser, Network for Dalit Empowerment, Tamil Nadu.

The resolutions passed at the meeting included free education to all students till Tenth Standard for which the State government should provide assistance and an amendment brought in the Constitution and opportunities created in such a way that Dalits themselves conducted special category schemes for their upliftment.

BJP to protest against UPA move to grant

SC status to converts
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/BJP_to_protest_against_UPA_move_to_grant_SC_status_to_converts/articleshow/3290797.cms

27 Jul 2008, 1937 hrs IST,PTI

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP SC Morcha on Sunday chalked out a nationwide campaign against the UPA government's move to grant Scheduled Caste status to dalits who has converted to Christianity and Islam.

A national office-bearers meeting of the morcha here decided to hold state-level conventions on the issue from August 16 to 31 followed by a national rally in New Delhi on September 26. About four lakh members from various SC and ST communities are expected to attend the rally, SC Morcha leader Ramnath Kovin told reporters here on Sunday.

He alleged that a move was afoot to grant SC status to converted Christians and Muslims based on the recommendations of Justice Rangnath Commission on Religious and Linguistic Minorities.

The morcha said granting SC/ST status to converts is discriminatory and against the Constitution. If the status is accorded, the converted people would enjoy double benefit of SC as well as minority status.

Blind Republic

http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=458354&sid=ZNS

By: Saurabh Kapoor

In the dead of the night, a blind man carrying a lantern bumped into another visually impaired gentleman clutching a lantern. Dazed by the incident the bloke shouted at his perpetrator: “Are you blind or something, even with all this light you can’t see me.”

“YOU must be blind. Can’t you see this lantern in my hand,” retorted the other, anguished at the ignorance of his fellow being.

This is precisely what is happening in Punjab these days. Herds of senseless blind men accusing each other of being sightless and flashing their respective lanterns have held the state to ransom.

The Sikhs today are a divided house. How can, otherwise, a God-fearing Sikh ever explain existence of separate Gurudwaras for Dalits Sikhs? How can a true follower of the ten Gurus, who would disallow sangat(religious congregation) before pangat (community meal) to all their followers, recognize the fact that caste divisions exist in their religion and accept reservations to Dalit Sikhs?

Harijan Sikhs or the Mazhabi Sikhs in Punjab form more than 30% of the state’s population. 80% of them stay in villages. So villages in Punjab are predominantly Dalit but are controlled by affluent Jat Sikhs. In sooth, the economy, politics, culture of the state is dominated by this powerful landowning class- the Jat Sikhs.

This is one of the major reasons behind mushrooming of around 9,000 deras in the state. Over three-fourth of the state’s population visits these deras. With their back against the wall the marginalized searched for separate cultural space in Punjab. It all started as a battle for self-respect and now the Sikh clergy see it as a threat to their religion.

They are a threat because they are asserting themselves politically, something the upper caste Sikhs can’t stand.

In recent times these deras put together have been used as a politico-religious tool by the Congress to counter SGPC support to the Akali Dal. (DSS with its 40 lakh followers supported Congress in the recent elections and helped it bag around 12 seats in Aklai dominated Malwa region.)

But calling for the closure of these deras is not a workable solution. The problem is not the existence of these deras but the reasons behind their inception and the support they enjoy.

Social boycott is not the answer, in fact, it’s a pointer towards the real problem and that is the explosive divisions in Punjabi society; the deep-rooted social, economic and caste inequalities.

Few years ago there was another insult to Guru Gobind Singh that had infuriated the Jat Sikhs in Punjab. In the sleepy village of Bhail in Taran Taran district, the Mazhabi Sikhs took out a procession to mark the birthday of the 10th Guru.

Traditionally the procession had been taken out by Jat Gurudwaras, four of them in the area taking turns to do so. But when Mazhabi Sikhs, who had built a Gurudwara of their own in the village, collected Rs 10,000 and expressed desire to take out a procession from their mud-floored Gurudwara, the Jats were outraged. It was an open challenge to the supremacy of Jat zamidars.

The procession went ahead in defiance and retaliation followed soon. Armed with sticks the Jats prevented the Mazhabis from entering their fields for three days.

60-year-old Hazara Singh was prevented from cremating his 22-year old daughter Binder at the village cremation ground. A dejected Hazara dumped the body into the river around 5 kms away from his village lugging it with two sacks of mud.

More cremations were denied and the Mazabis were asked to build a separate cremation ground.

A similar call for social boycott of the Dalits was given by the Jat Sikhs of Talhan near Jalandhar in 2003. Dalit Sikhs sought representation in the management of the Gurudwara at Talhan but were refused the same by local Sikh clergy. Clashes followed the decision and curfew had to be imposed to control the situation.

People outside don’t identify Punjab with such incidents. To a simple mind these tales don’t happen in the prosperous land of five rivers. The truth is that the manifestation of caste division in the Punjab society is not Brahmanical. It is incredible though that a society where Brahmins have been immensely marginalized and are even a subject of ridicule, still retains its Brahmnical character.

The Jats have always tried to culturally, socially, economically and politically marginalize the rest in Punjab. The movies, songs glorify them and not a Punjabi. Sikh politicians represent them and guard their interests in the name of the entire Sikh community.

But times in Punjab are changing and they are changing fast.

The Daltis in Punjab are looking for total emancipation. Immigration gave them economic independence and social status back home and now deras that earlier gave them spiritual solace are giving them political boldness.

Someone who otherwise would have worked for less than Rs 100 per day as a farm labourer in Punjab now earns over a lakh per month after immigrating illegally and looks a Jat, known for their stiff upper lips, in the eye when he meets him abroad or in his village.

Deras now hold sway over huge chunk of Punjab population and also pocket a much of the offerings in the state. This has made them precious for politicians in the state who come running for support turning these religious assemblies in political pressure groups.

So, is Sikhi under threat? Yes, it is. There is a threat for sure but it is from within. The Sikh society is as casteist as the Hindu society. Sikhs cannot just wish away this reality by shouting from roof-tops that Sikhi is in danger, where the only danger that exists is to the interest of the affluent landowners of Punjab.

More than eyesight, Punjabis today need commonsense to see the writing on the wall. But then again, there are none so blind than those who will not see.