Blessed are those who are awakened

Hidden Apartheid : Dalit meaning oppressed or ground down
Blessed are those who are awakened
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
"You must have firm belief in the sacredness of your mission. Noble is your aim and sublime and glorious is your mission. Blessed are those who are awakened to their duty to among those whom they are born."
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
For 3,500 years, Hinduism's caste system has enslaved a majority of its people calling them "untouchables." Today, these nearly 300 million are calling themselves by another name - Dalit meaning oppressed or ground down.
Despite Nandigram Singur Uprising, there in virtually no breakthrough for a real initiatve of dalit movement in West Bengal. Mahashweta Devi was the first among the Intelligentsia who rcognised Nandigram Insurrection as Dalit Movement. Ironically, the Intelligentsia Bengal is more than cooperative to close all those windows for National Dalit Movement opend during Dalit Muslim United Revolt. CPIM Brahmincal mechanism has covered all doors of the dalits, minorities and OBC for coming out. Thus, Nandigram remains in Nandigram and singur in Singur. These zones have become separated and seem to have no impact on rest of the Bengal. WWF show in beteen Ruling and Opposition Brahmincal forces supported by FDI fed Media and MNC sponsered Intelligentsia, continues. The Dalit and Muslim masses happen to be the integral part of helpless, entertaing audiance. Reading daily Newspapers, indulging in pseodo intellectual debate, seminaring and lunch dinner parties go on Economy, society and Politics.
Little mags publish special issues, mind blowing literature. Political parties are busy to mobilise respective Vote Bank.But no one seems to be interested to toe the historical line of Dalit Muslim unity to enforce Social Change in West Bengal! British Rulers left India only after transferring the statepower to merciless Brahmins. If, hypothetically we visulise the near impossible overthrow of the Marxist Regime In West bengal, the question remains unanswered what next! The Left has , at least an ideological historical background which emerged as dominating State Power only after a series of pro people mass movements! What record Mamta Bannerjee has? And other Brahmins. They never recognise either Class or Caste! You have to chose on among different tools of Hindu Zionist Galaxy Manusmriti Order!
I am isolated from rest of Bengali Intelligentsia and Dalits in particular as I am continuously writing and talking about the dream of a National dalit movement to be initiated from Bengal. Brhminical opposition is understood. But the dalit detachment should be only explained as seer opportunism or terror of Gestapo culture. Nothing else!
Thus, I am focusing on Dalit and Refugee issues these days. nandigram and singutr updates remain irrelevent until there is a positive initiative to launch a real mass movement.I am afraid that neither mahasheta Devi nor Medha patekar would agree!
By Hindu tradition, Dalits are the lowest of the low. The only jobs available to them are as sewage and sanitation workers and other menial tasks. The public educational system has ignored them.
Yet they have never rebelled against their poverty and oppression because Hindu teaching held them in bondage: they were taught from birth that God hated them and had doomed them to suffering. If they tried to better themselves, they were inviting more punishment from God!
Across India, Dalit leaders are urging their people to quit Hinduism and the culture of oppression that enslaves them!Dalit leader Udit Raj has galvanized the Dalits by courageously telling them that they are free to abandon Hinduism and the horrible birthright of the untouchables.He organized a public demonstration to personally renounce Hinduism, and the response was overwhelming! Two hundred thousand Dalits converged on the scene, over 400 bus and trainloads were turned away by government forces.
Maoists blow up forest office in West BengalHindustan Times, India - 6 hours agoMaoist guerrillas blew up a forest office on Saturday in West Bengal's West Midnapur district to apparently avenge the destruction of a "martyrs' memorial" ...Maoists blow off police beat office in a West Bengal district Times of IndiaMaoists blow up police office in West Bengal DailyIndia.comMaoists blow up forest office in West Bengal Monsters and Critics.com
'Bengal should focus on branding'Times of India, India - 2 hours agoKOLKATA: West Bengal should focus on branding and its core competence to draw investments to the state, a US official said on Saturday. ...
West Bengal tea workers demand reopening of gardensDailyIndia.com, FL - 3 Aug 2007Kumargram (West Bengal), Aug 3: Tea workers in West Bengal have called for the reopening of tea gardens, and said their protests will go on till August 9. ...
Farmers would’ve benefited more from direct selling’ Express News Service Kolkata, August 3: Advocate Arunava Ghosh today alleged that the government has not disclosed the details of the agreement signed between the Tata group and the state regarding the small-car project at Singur. Ghosh made the comment before a Division Bench of Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose of the Calcutta High Court.
Appearing for the Food First Information Action Network, West Bengal, Ghosh submitted before the bench that West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation had taken a loan of Rs 200 crore from West Bengal Financial Corporation at ten per cent annual interest for financing the small car project of Tata. As a result, the WBIDC would have to pay Rs 20 crore as interest and Tata, a company worth Rs 56,000 crore would enjoy the financial benefit. He added that the petitioner was entitled to the information about the deal according to the Right to Information Act.
Bride Groom18 - 24 25 - 30 31 - 35 36 - 45 46 - 50 50+India USA United Kingdom UAE Canada Australia Pakistan Saudi Arabia Kuwait South Africa On the other hand, he submitted before the bench that DLF, a real estate company, purchased land at Dankuni from the land-owners shelling out Rs 54 lakh for an acre of land. But the state government offered only Rs 9 lakh for one acre of land to owners at Singur which was just 15 km away from Dankuni. He argued that the land-owners of Singur should have got at least Rs 29 lakh against an acre of land. The land owners, he said, had been deprived as the state acquired land on behalf of Tata. He added that if Tata purchased land directly from the farmers the latter would have enjoyed the benefits they are entitled to.
Mainstream, Vol XLV, No 30
Social Justice for the Muslim Community—Panacea for Upliftmentby Syed Shahabuddin
Saturday 14 July 2007
COMMUNICATIONTHROUGH EMPOWERMENT, PARTICIPATION AND INVOLVEMENT Shri Chaturanan Mishra, in his article "Basic Causes of Muslim Backwardness" (Mainstream, June 2, 2007), has failed both to diagnose the social malaise of which the Muslim Indians are the prime victims, the communal bias, and suggest appropriate remedial measures.
A noteworthy conclusion of the Sachar Report is that the Muslim community as a whole, with regional and intra-community variations, normal in any country of continental dimensions, is more or less at the same level of backwardness as the SC/ST. It is no use, nor the appropriate approach, trying to inspire the revival of the community by recalling memories of Muslim contribution to the expansion of human knowledge and its movement from one end of the earth to another, while, at the same time, demoralising it by reference to the contemporary backwardness of the Muslim world as a whole. Both are irrelevant to the objective in view, that is, to uplift the Muslim Indians who form 15 per cent of the national population and also of the world Muslim population, educationally, economically, politically and socially within the framework of the democratic and secular state, committed to equality and justice among various social groups who profess different religions, speak different languages, have different ways of life and freely assert their ethnic or cultural identity as communities and sub-communities, castes and sub-castes. The Indian society is not only hierchical but segmented. So is the Muslim Indian society.http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article216.html
But then UCH elite have long used their domination of the judiciary and the bureaucracy as mechanisms of passive resistance in their continuing battle to retain control over socio-economic levers of power. Consider two examples of radical public policy initiatives, the successful implementation of which might have altered the trajectory of India's socio-economic growth: the implementation of land reform and the SC/ST quota both of which were a part of the socio-economic compact that led to the birth of the Indian republic in 1950. Whereas zamindari was successfully abolished, the distribution of land declared surplus (beyond legally permissible holdings) was effectively stymied as land transfer got caught up a maze of litigation, bureaucratic obfuscation and lack of political will.
Similarly as a response to Ambedkar's mobilization and Gandhi's insistence, the UCH elite acceded to constitutionally guaranteed quotas for SCs and STs. However by ensuring that these quotas did not get filled, particularly in the higher echelons of the bureaucracy, judiciary and the public sector (including colleges and universities), the UCH elite ensured that any transformative potential was snuffed out. And rather than a debate why quotas remain unfilled, UCH elites, under the garb of equality, removed the 'creamy layer' from within the purview of the quota, effectively snuffing out the possibility of the formation of a countervailing elite.
OBC quotas have been resisted much more strenuously, in part because UCH elites have always seen OBCs, as compared with the SCs and STs, as being a much more serious threat to the continued control over the socio-economic levers of power. UCH elites have been successful in using passive resistance as a blocking strategy because there was insufficient grass-roots political mobilization around these issues. It can hardly be a coincidence that the states where land reforms (e.g., Kerala and West Bengal) or SC/ST/OBC quotas (e.g., Tamil Nadu) have been successfully implemented are states where there has been political mobilization around these issues.A Passive Resistance To Equality
By Mritiunjoy Mohanty
13 July, 2007Economic Times
Officials told to restore peace in Surpur http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/03/stories/2007080358220400.htm
BANGALORE: The State Government has issued strict instructions to the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police of Gulbarga district to take measures to restore peace in Surpur taluk where Dalits are living in fear because of frequent atrocities against them.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj S. Horatti, who replied on behalf of Home Minister M.P. Prakash, told the Legislative Assembly on Thursday that the Government had taken the matter seriously. It had directed the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police to take measures to restore normality and also to ensure that such incidents did not recur.
Earlier, raising the issue during zero hour, G.V. Sriram Reddy (CPI-M) said the district in-charge Minister had not visited the affected village though a large number of Dalits were gripped by fear. He urged the Government to organise peace meetings in the taluk to restore normality.
Now, Bharti to train SC/ST engineersNEW DELHI: Bharti Enterprises is set to train and employ engineers from the SC/ST bracket on preferential basis, in the process becoming the second big player embracing a voluntary affirmative action plan.
The social justice ministry and Bharti Enterprises are joining hands in an endeavour that was set rolling by Infosys last year. The IT giant had trained 88 engineers at its Bangalore premises of which 79 have found work in top industrial houses. The social justice ministry has sent a list of 170 SC/ST unemployed engineers to Bharti after its CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal wrote that his business house be given names of persons who could be trained for absorption. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Now_Bharti_to_train_SCST_engineers/articleshow/2249684.cms
CII to sponsor 50 pc fees of SC/ST candidatesTuesday July 31 2007 13:14 IST BHUBANESWAR: In keeping with its commitment to the development of the SC & ST community under its affirmative action plan, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), would be sponsoring 50 per cent of the tuition fees of SC and ST candidates preparing for the competitive examinations in the State.
The programme would pick up 20 meritorious students from the community who have secured over 60 per cent,?? said CII State-coordinator Suparna Nanda. Talking to this paper here on Monday, she said the part funding would be subject to the evaluation of the students every three months. The body has tied up with NM Tutorial for the purpose.
According to the coaching centre, SC & ST students usually constitute 25 per cent of a batch.
Nanda was participating at the valedictory session of a month-long training programme on ?micro enterprise development? for SC & ST candidates. About 27 candidates underwent the training. It was implemented by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), regional centre, in association with CII.
The objective was to introduce them into the nuances of entrepreneurship and infuse an entrepreneurial spirit in them. It was hosted by the Institute of Hotel Management, ITER.http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070731025324&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0
Nodal agency for SC, ST sub-plans soon
HYDERABAD: A nodal agency headed by the Chief Minister will be constituted shortly to monitor the implementation of the sub-plans of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.
Announcing this in the Assembly on Tuesday in response to a consistent demand made by the CPI (M), CPI, Telangana Rashtra Samiti and BSP, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy said the agency will meet once in six months to ensure that the funds earmarked for these sections in various departments were spent.
Earlier, the CPI (M), CPI, TRS and BSP members squatted in the podium in support of their demand. They alleged that the Government had failed to implement the Special component plan for SCs and STs.
Replying to a query by Paturu Ramaiah (CPI M), Social Welfare Minister P. Subash Chandra Bose said a high-powered committee comprising legislators and officials had been constituted to study the implementation of welfare programmes for the weaker sections. It would visit Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh before submitting its report. Not convinced with the Minister’s reply, the Opposition members raised slogans demanding constitution of nodal agency. On Monday, 22 SC/ST legislators belonging to the Congress, CPI (M), CPI and TRS resolved to seek the establishment of the nodal agency. Convened by Dara Sambaiah, Congress MLA from Santanutalapadu (Prakasam district), the meeting called for separate enactment on the plans. http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/25/stories/2007072560880500.htm
Norms violated to deny SC/ST techies Government jobs?Monday July 30 2007 13:11 IST BHUBANESWAR: The Unemployed SC/ST Degree Engineers? Forum (USDEF) has alleged that many government departments are violating the selection norms and adopting stringent procedures to deny the community members government jobs.
Citing the 2005-?06 employment notification of the Orissa Public Service Commission (OPSC) for the post of assistant engineers in Water Resources, Works, Urban Development, Industries and Agriculture departments, they alleged that there were strategies to ?dereserve? posts for general candidates through clauses like written examination, minus marking and cut-off marks.
Even in the past, candidates from general categories were unable to meet such strict criteria, said USDEF convenor Lankeswar Laguri and advisor Haladhar Sethi. They even alleged that at present the OPSC has no member from the SC/ST community hence the grievances of the candidates are not being addressed properly.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070730025005&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0
India Inc assures preference for SC/ST BS Reporter / New Delhi July 15, 2007 Indian Inc today agreed to follow the principle of ?positive discrimination? in employing scheduled caste and scheduled tribe candidates in their companies. Other things being equal, SC/ST candidates will be given preference in employment, an approach that industry representatives say, should result in sizeable increase in employment of these persons in the organised sector. This was the general agreement at the second meeting of the Coordination Committee to promote Affirmative Action in Indian Industry chaired by Prime Minister?s Principal Secretary T K A Nair. India Inc was represented by the heads of CII, Ficci, Assocham and other senior representatives of industry. The steps agreed to today would be reviewed after two months. Industry also reiterated that it was opposed to any move to legislate job reservations in the private sector. ?The discussion revolved around affirmative action. The government did not press for reservation either,? CII President Sunil Mittal told reporters after the meeting. India Inc also agreed to include reporting of data on the new employment for SC/ST persons created during the year in the Code of Conduct being prescribed for their members. However, FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra told Business Standard that reporting such data should be made voluntary. ?Forcing companies to disclose such data bears the risk of making it inaccurate,? he said. A government release said that FICCI has agreed to soon evolve a Code of Conduct on Affirmative Action for its members, after CII and Assocham said that they have already put such regulation in place. It was also agreed that that an Ombudsman with regional benches would be set up by each apex chamber to monitor the compliance of the voluntary Code of Conduct by its members. Industry chambers also agreed to top up financial incentives to ensure that the seats for SC/ST candidates in Industrial Training Institutes do not remain unfilled. In a presentation, Ficci said that it would adopt 50 ITIs in the current year and graduate 5000 SC/ST students in equal partnership with the government. ?We told the government that it should continue with its stipend and we will top it up with an additional Rs 500 so that the loss of wage of the SC/ST students could be compensated,? Mitra added. Another element of affirmative action was to develop entrepreneurial abilities amongst SC/ST persons. However, we have urged the government to bring out a legislation following the US model so as to allow banks to offer loans to SC/ST entrepreneurs. As such loans will come under high risk capital, so government has to give loan guarantee to banks,? Mitra said. Assocham President Venugopal N. Dhoot proposed a 1 per cent education cess on corporate annual profits to provide elementary education for SCs/STs and other backward classes and sought incentives to set up industrial clusters in backward districts to provide them employment opportunities. The suggested 1 per cent education levy should be disbursed to relevant institutions following recommendations from Chambers of Commerce,? he added. http://www.business-standard.com/compindustry/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu1&subLeft=1&autono=291171&tab=r
Letter to Prime Minister Singh of India from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights WatchRe: India?s submission to the Committee reviewing India?s compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial DiscriminationFebruary 14, 2007 Dr. Manmohan Singh Prime Minister's Office Government of India South Block New Delhi 110001 IndiaDear Prime Minister Singh: Enclosed is a copy of Hidden Apartheid: Caste Discrimination against India?s ?Untouchables,? a report produced by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch. It is a shadow report in response to India?s recent submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (the Committee) which monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (the Convention). The Committee will review India?s compliance with the Convention during hearings in Geneva on February 23 and February 26, 2007. Despite your recent strong and welcome condemnation of the plight of Dalits in India, official actions to address caste-based discrimination and violence have been wholly inadequate. For example, a 2005 government report found that a crime is committed against a Dalit every 20 minutes. This failure is also exemplified by India?s recent submission to the Committee, which does not contain any reference to caste-based abuses in India. This omission contradicts the Committee?s 1996 determination that caste falls within the Convention?s prohibition on descent-based discrimination. A lack of reporting on this pervasive problem, along with a lack of attention to the limited impact of laws in place to address caste-discrimination, are two key gaps that need to be addressed with urgency by the government to ensure that it is in compliance with its international human rights obligations. We believe that unless this issue is taken up with strong leadership at the highest levels of government, the more than 165 million Dalits in India will remain condemned to a lifetime of abuse simply because of the caste into which they are born. We hope that you will take up the matter urgently. Specifically, we urge your government to:
Take steps to ensure appropriate reforms to eliminate police abuses against Dalits and other marginalized communities.
Provide concrete plans to implement laws and government policies to secure the protection of Dalits, and of Dalit women in particular, from physical and sexual violence.
Take steps to eradicate caste-based segregation in residential areas and schools, and in access to public services.
Outline plans to ensure the effective eradication of exploitative labor arrangements and effective implementation of rehabilitation schemes for Dalit bonded and child laborers, manual scavengers, and for Dalit women forced into prostitution.
Ensure proper implementation and monitoring of Dalit development programs which have largely failed to reach target groups.
Combat hate speech and other actions inciting caste or religion based discrimination and violence.
Implement the recommendations of the 2004 National Human Rights Commission report on atrocities against Dalits.Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to learning what steps you have taken to address these important issues. Yours truly, Smita Narula Faculty Director Center for Human Rights and Global Justice NYU School of Law Brad Adams Executive Director Asia Division Human Rights Watch
Reservation Debate: A Great Opportunity To Restrengthen Dalit Bahujan Alliance
By V.B.Rawat
08 May, 2006Countercurrents.org
One need to give due credit to V.T.Rajshekar, editor of Dalit Voice, Banglore, for wonderfully explaining the issue of merit and reservation. Rajshekar himself faced threat when he was in Delhi during those heydays of anti Mandal agitation of the upper caste youths 1990-91. Mr Rajshekar has a sharp mind who understand well the brahmanical crookedness and has been really well ahead of his contemporaries in analyzing caste system in India.
He is quoted two excellent judgment of Justice Krishna Iyer and Justice Chinappa Reddy in his thought provoking article " The Myth of Merit and Efficiency Dalit Voice January 16th, 1987. I take liberty in quoting the wonderful judgment of Justice Krishna Iyer and Justice Chinnapa Reddy from the article for the benefit of readers.
Justice Krishna Iyer of the Supreme Court says in the ABSK Sangh case 1981)
"Trite arguments about efficiency are a trifle phoney. ... We are not impressed with the misfortune about the governmental personnel being manned by morons, merely because a sprinkling of harijans and Girijans happened to find their way into the service. The malady of modern India lies elsewhere, and the merit monger are greater risks in many respects than the native tribals, and slightly better off lower caste. .. The fundamental question arises, as to what's 'merit' and 'suitability'? Elitists, whose sympathies with the masses have dried up, are from standards of Indian people, least suitable to run the government and least meritorious to handle the state business. ... A sensitized heart and vibrant head tuned to the tears of the people, will speedily quicken the developmental needs of the country... Sincere dedication and intellectual integrity - these are some of the components of merit and suitability- not a degree from Oxford or Cambridge, Harvard or Simian. Unfortunately, the very orientation of our selection process is distorted and those like the candidates from Scheduled Castes whom from their birth, have a traumatic understanding of the conditions of agrestic India, have in one sense more capability than those who lived under affluent circumstances and are callous to the human lot of the sorrowing masses."
According to Justice Chinnappa Reddy of the Supreme Court :
"There is no statistical basis or expert evidence to support the assumption that efficiency will be impaired if reservation is continued or if reservation exceeds a certain percentage or reservation is extended to promotional posts."
Justice Chinnappa Reddy of Supreme Court said (in the Railways case 1881) "Therefore, we see that when the posts ... are reserved ... to members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other socially and economically Backward Classes it is not a concession or privilege extended to them, it is in the recognition of their undoubted fundamental right to equality of opportunity and ...and to secure to all its citizens, justice, social, economic and political and equality of status and opportunity ... to ensure their participation on an equal basis in the administration of the country ... Every lawful method is permissible to secure the duerepresentation of SCs and STs in the public services."
(The Myth of Merit and Efficiency- Dalit Voice January 16, 1987: the entire text is available on www.ambedkar.org)
What is merit?
Perhaps those campaigning against reservation may not even know that Justice Krishna Iyer, one of India's most illustrious judicial reformists made such a scathing remark on the issue of merit. The fact of the matter is that upper Hindus, their masters in the media and business rarely read books. They are not bothered about human rights. Rarely would they feel apologetic about what their forefathers have done to the Dalits. The violence against Dalits, Adivasis and backward communities is still rampant. None of our brothers want to discuss on this and carry a campaign against the same.
They are equally not bothered about getting a seat through money and muscle power. Watch at any railway station they would like to book reserve seat for them. Why cannot they go in general category if they are so enamored with General. You oppose reservation where you feel others will damage your 5000 years hegemony. You support it where you can buy it.
The same upper caste Hindus are back in action after a long wait of useless sitting. They did not come in the street when Gujarat was burning. No doctor boycotted Praveen Togadia, a shame on medical profession who warned doctors not to treat the Muslims. They did not come to the street when Ayodhya's Babari Mosque was demolished 1992. They cannot come to the street when Hindus in Kashmir are massacred. They do not cry against the Sharmas who are involved in a majority of criminal cases for the last ten years. Beginning from the tandoor famous Sushil Sharma to Shivani murder case R.K.Sharma and then onwards hundreds of Sharmas are behind the bar facing criminal charges. No upper caste in the street come forward to condemn Sharmaisation of crime. During the British period the same upper castes with the help of their British bosses declared some of the Dalits and backward communities as criminal tribe. If one Mushhar was caught for stealing a piece of bread, the entire Mushhar community was branded as thief. Similarly, Gujars were declared as criminal tribes. Upper castes have no time to think over it, for they think it is not their issue. They are born to rule the country and therefore when the political system is Mandalised, they still feel they can still rule the country through media and bureaucracy. Sorry, their time has gone.
Debate on Merit therefore is gaining ground. We are hearing Trivedis, Chaturvedis, Malhotras, Guptas, Sanghvis, Chawalas on the virtue of a 'meritorious' society. One does not know what do they mean by meritorious society. Let us start to unravel some facts of merit. http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-rawat080506.htm
India: ?Hidden Apartheid? of Discrimination Against DalitsGovernment Fails to End Caste-Based Segregation and Attacks(New York, February 13, 2007) ? India has systematically failed to uphold its international legal obligations to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-called untouchables, despite laws and policies against caste discrimination, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. More than 165 million Dalits in India are condemned to a lifetime of abuse simply because of their caste.
Prime Minister Singh has rightly compared ?untouchability? to apartheid, and he should now turn his words into action to protect the rights of Dalits. The Indian government can no longer deny its collusion in maintaining a system of entrenched social and economic segregation.
Professor Smita Narula, faculty director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University School of Law, and co-author of the report. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/02/13/india15303.htm
India's Dalits: between atrocity and protest By Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch
Published in openDemocracy
Surekha Bhotmange, a Dalit (or so-called "untouchable") member of the Hindu caste system in Maharashtra, was cooking the family evening meal on 29 September 2006 when a group of upper-caste men surrounded her home. Surekha, her 17-year-old daughter Priyanka, and two sons, 23-year-old Roshan and 21-year-old Sudhir, were dragged out of the hut. The two women were stripped, beaten and paraded through the village. The young men were beaten up so badly their faces were disfigured. All four died. Almost all of Khairlanji village witnessed this spectacle of caste vengeance. No one did much to stop it.
Contribute to Human Rights WatchThe attack was a retribution for previous activism. The upper-caste farmers from the area were using the Bhotmanges' land as a throughway for their tractors. The family resisted, with the help of a Dalit rights activist. Siddharth Gajbhiye. Gajbhiye himself was beaten up. Surekha Bhotmange was a witness, identifying twelve perpetrators who were then arrested. On the day that the Bhotmange family was attacked, all twelve had been released on bail. They took their ghastly revenge. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/01/12/india15058.htm
Dalits and their future M V Kamath
The claim has been made that in the last seventy years, three 'great leaders' made dalits conscious of their rights in India's caste-ridden society, namely, Dr Bhimarao Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram and in more recent years, Kanshi Ram.
This is a poor tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and to many others like Jyotiba Phule (1827-1890), a Mali and Vithalrao Shinde (1973-1944) a kshatriya Maratha, both caste Hindus who in their own way fought for the rights of the dalits with just as much if not more, zeal. This is not to say that Ambedkar, Jagjivan Ram and Kanshi Ram did not serve dalits as much as many of our social refor