Good work by Banta Singh. I did not know that there was still casteism in Punjab. Maybe even after becoming Sikhs those who came from dalit families have continued to face ill treatment from those who came from landholding - uppercastes. Even Bihari laborers in farms suffer there.
Umesh
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dalit Singer
Dalit Dignity: Bant Singh after the amputation of his hands and a leg
in PGI, Chandigarh
Bant Singh is a revolutionary Dalit singer from Mansa, Punjab. He is
a supporter of the CPI (ML-Liberation), an overground Naxalite
organisation. He became active in 2000 when his minor daughter was
raped: therein begun the protracted struggle of the dalits for self
dignity and human rights against Jat landlords, in this case, backed
by the ruling Congress regime in the state. Punjab's huge dalit
population has been fighting a running battle for land, wages and
fundamental rights against the landlords, who control land and
political power. The rapists were given life sentence in 2002. On
January 5, 2006, Sarpanch Jaswant Singh and former Sarpanch Niranjan
Singh of Jhabbar village allegedly conspired a brutal attack on Bant
Singh as revenge, according to the CPI(ML). The party has alleged
that a critically injured Bant Singh was left for 36 hours in the
Mansa Civil Hospital, while the hospital authorities, influenced by
Congress leaders, refused him treatment. Eventually, he was taken to
the PGI in Chandigarh, where both his arms and one leg had to be
amputated because gangrene had set in. He is still fighting for his
life, but says, "I have my voice, they can't stop my songs."
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Umesh Sharma
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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