Dalit Human Rights activists accused in murder case
Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 29. Four suspected activists of a Dalit organization, Dalit Human Rights Movement in Kerala have been taken into custody in connection with the murder of a 60-year old man in Varkala. Acccording to police, Ashokan, a young lawyer and Das Cherunniyoor are suspected to be the main conspirators. The others arrested are Subhash and Jayachandran who are accused to have carried out the operation. The police says they have solid information that DHRM workers who had camped at a colony in Kannankodu travelled to Varkala on the night before the day of the murder. The police team is interrogating those who were taken into custody. Earlier to the killing, there had been some tension between Dalits and Ezahavas in Varkaa. The issue was about the desecration of a statue of Sree Narayana Guru, a reformer mostly revered by the latter. However, the killing lead to mass interrogation and police combing in the poorest dalit colonies around the arrea (Varkala, Kundara, Chathanoor, Kadakkal ). The police said they will also enquire dalit organizationt's link with any other extremist groups. However, the Director General of Police (DGP) in Kerala, Mr. Jacob Punnoose on Monday said that the Kerala Police had not received any Central Intelligence input on the existence of terrorist organisations in the State. He was one of the key note speakers on a consultation programme hosted in Kochi by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative on "police reforms". According to press reports, The DHRM was registered in North Paravoor in 2007 as a human rights organisation with 25-year-old Selvaraj, a firebrand activist, as its chairman. Das Cherunniyoor near Attingal, headed its operations in the south while the north was headed by Shaji. The DHRM workers seems to have conducted awareness classses among dalits to attain their political goals. For the past 3 years, DHRM was actively engaged in Dalit issues in Varkala area. Earlier, they were mostly aligned to communist movements. The organisation was stronger in the south and had a presence in almost all the Dalit pockets in the state. The DHRM also participated in the last general elections by launching its own candidate. However, the sangh parivar organizations started wider membership campaign in the area by offering protection from police torture. Nearly 200 dalits from Charum moodu and Injayil Konam village joined BJP within two days time. Dalits have been asked by RSS lcal leaders to show their BJP membership card to police as a preventive measure from interrogation. The Hindutva organizations are planning to expand the strategy to other DHRM pockets in southern Kerala and exploit dalit victimization in mass. Kerala had the most oppressive caste system in India, which for a long time in its history was a hurdle to social progress and reinforced divisions in the minds of its people. Only the Namboodiris, the Malayalam-speaking Brahmins who read the Vedas and were at the top of the hierarchy, had any real immunity from this oppressive system. Dalit women weren’t allowed to cover their bosoms, their ears were cut off if they didn’t wear stone ornaments (markers of caste identity), not to talk of sexual atrocities on them. The tools-down agricultural revolts launched by Ayyankali, the intrepid leader of the Pulaya masses of south Travancore, for access to public roads and admission of Pulaya girls in government schools, and the `Upper Cloth Riots' by the Channar community, which fought for its women's right to clothe themselves above the waist, are well-known examples of early Dalit rebellion in Kerala. Ayyankali and his followers refused repeated christian missionary promptings to convert and displayed amazing political consciousness even in the early part of the 20th century. They insisted that they wanted to fight and win and yet keep their Dalit identity intact. Dalits' social integration in Kerala started with their participation in Communist-led struggles against landlordism and caste discrimination. Even 70 martyr’s of the communists agraian struggle about 50 or more were from Dalits. Land reforms initiated by E.M.S Nampoodiripad Ministry was a major factor in dalit empowerment in Kerala. But, The dalit representation in communist leadership of Kerala is very less compared to the caste hindu representation. However, 70 % of dalit votes are still goes to communist parties. Currently, the Dalits of Kerala are the most literate among the S.C. populations in the country. The Dalit population is distributed all over the State, although its concentration is high in some districts such as Palakkad, Thrissur, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram. Dalit representation in government jobs in Kerala is 7.6 per cent, which, though not on a par with their percentage in the population, is a better proportion than that of Muslims (who have only 11.4 per cent of government jobs even though they form 26.9 per cent of the population). DHRM managed to develop a cadre-like structure in the organization and seems to be fighting for social respect in society than reservation in government jobs. DHRM asked its cadres to shun the religious practices of the Hindus, particularly during marriages, funerals, and other personal and community ceremonies which caused major worry to hindutva forces in Kerala. Further, the organization advocated dalits of the poverty ridden colonies to approach the organization for settling the disputes and quarrels among them, which caused a major concern to corrupted civil servants. Despite the reservation and the relative prosperity, Dalits still face social stigma in Kerala. This is evident in Kerala's rural areas, but the stigma is as strong, though not as visible, in the cities as well. It is expressed in snide remarks about the appearance, accent, and manners of Dalits and in the reluctance to co-operate with them in social functions and personal gatherings. In villages, upper-caste women rarely participate in the marriage functions of Dalits. Even those who go there usually do not take the food (a dinner is an integral part of all marriage functions here). "In Kerala, Dalit men are labour bare-bodied. In that parochial, sexually inhibited community, you see bare, male Dalit bodies all the time. They are beautiful. But to upper caste people, men as well as women, those bodies don’t exist. They are no threat to anybody. They don’t see Dalits as physical, leave alone sexual beings. It’s as though in that society caste-prejudice overcomes human biology and desire." says booker prize winnerr, Arundhathi Roy ( courtesy : http://out-caste.blogspot.com/) Dalits in kerala are also often derogatorily labeled with nick names even in visual media and public places. There are many subtle aspects against Dalits, which has been handled down through language and customs. A pretty nasty expletive word in malayalam language, “pulayadi mon” – refers to someone who’s mother has done “pulayattom”. The expletive is a reference to some dalit custom. The expletive means something like a ho’s son. Upper castes who controle the major share of land are also worried about the lack of availability of lower-caste people for household works and agricultural labor. Most of the dalit youngsters are quitting their traditional work in order to attain better social acceptability. Dalit Leaders take their detention to Judiciary Sep 30, 2009. Two leaders of Dalit Human Rights Movement (DHRM), activists of which have been detained in connection with the murder case, today approached the Kerala High Court, seeking anticipatory bail. DHRM Chairman Selvaraj and Secretary K A Rajan submitted that they apprehended arrest in the case relating to the murder of a 60-year-old man at Varkala in Kollam. Both said that police was giving an "extremist character" to their organisation and that they had nothing to with the murder. Police yesterday detained 14 activists of DHRM for questioning in connection with the murder. Earlier police arrested two DHRM activists from Kannur. Next > Join NCHRO Web community ONLY Registered users can submit a violation of human rights or an article to be published at this web site. Username Password Log in # Forgot your password? -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
