From: "Tariq Mahmood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 23:03:35 +0500
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [mobilize-globally] Urgent situation indig. people in India
Dear Rahul and Rodney Bobiwash,
Assalamo-alaikom. [It means peace be upon you.] I realise the gravity of the
story you have narrated. I come from Pakistan and there are a comparatively
smaller number of Bhil and Kholi people in Thar Desrt of Sindh. Their
condition is equally miserable. They are very poor living upon their cattle
and goats. They move from palce to place in search of water and grass a
number of times in a year. foe the last few years things are more deplorable
due to sever drought that is affliciting the region.
In 1964 I had the opportunity to see Bhils and Kholis in their traditional
area for the first time. These people are very robust,extremely hospitable
and honest. In one crude restaurant in village Islamabad [not the Pakistani
cpaital] I noticed a number of wooden laddles [spoons] with handles of
varying lengths. On enquiry I was told that as people of different caste
were permitted to get closer only up to a certain distance. So there is the
need for laddles with handles of different lengths.
Bhils and Khlis are the original people of the South Asian Sub-continent.
They were here when the Aryans entered from the NW and the Mongols from the
NE. The two races soon over whelmed the area, killing, pushing to mountains
and jungles or subjugating the real owners of the land. those who stayed
back are the outcaste or untouchables of India.
The plight of these unfortunate people is the most miserable when compared
to other persecuted groups. They are very large in numbers [15% of India
population], have suffered for the longest 4000 plus years and meted the
worst treatment. To avoid the miseries these people have tried conversion to
the faiths of the conquering nations but to no avail. The leading and
dominant class the Brahmans have got it written in their religious books
that these people deserve their fate. The persecution by Nazis, the Zionists
and Apartheid people pale into insignificance when compared with the
treatment meted to Bhils.
I fully endorse your contention and would like to help as much as possible.
I am going to pass this story to print media in Pakistan.
Yours,
Tariq Mahmood,
Hassan garhi, Peshawar, Pakistan
............................................................................
..............................................
From: secr(MG!) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2000 6:39 PM
Subject: [mobilize-globally] Urgent situation indig. people in India
Dear friends,
I apologize for cross-postings. I am forwarding an urgent appeal for help
from the Bhil people of India. Please pass on through your networks and
respond if you can.
Chi Meegwetch,
Rodney Bobiwash
Director - The Forum for Global Exchange
Center for World Indigenous Studies
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dear friend,
The Bhil indigenous people of western Madhya Pradesh in India have been
organising themselves to secure their constitutional rights for the past two
decades. There are a number of mass rganisations of the Bhils active in the
many districts of the area. The government and the
> administration instead of responding positively to the legitimate demands
for social and economic justice being raised by these mass organisations
have resorted to the misuse of the powers
> given to them to maintain law and order to falsely implicate members of
these organisations and then physically and mentally chastise them.
Especially targetted are the activists who provide guidance to the Bhils who
are mostly illiterate or semi-literate and so not aware of the intricacies
of the modern systems which govern their lives. There have been many
instances of repression. However, the Bhils or the activists advising them
have not been deterred by this and so to the
> consternation of the state authorities the struggle for justice continues.
In the latest such illegal harassment of the Bhils the activist Rahul was
arrested from a bus in which he was travelling with some Bhil people on
11.9.2000. They were going to the city of Indore to file a writ petition
against the administration of Dewas district for not having paid the legal
monetary compensation to the
> dependents of one Roopsingh who was murdered by forest department staff on
23.9.99. The
> murder of Roopsingh was itself a grossly unwarranted act of illegal
repression of a Bhil farmer. The administration should have suspended the
accused forest department staff but it has not done so.
> On the other hand it has not paid the legal compensation due to the
dependents of the deceased. When after repeated representations the
administration refused to pay the compensation then the mass organisation
Adivasi Morcha Sangathan of which Roopsingh was a member decided to approach
the High Court for legal redress. The reaction of the administration was to
arrest the activist Rahul who was arranging this court action and try to
intimidate him. This did not succeed,
> however, as Rahul went on a hunger strike in custody and threatened to
take the administration to court. He was released unconditionally after
twelve hours of illegal detention. Eventhough the Bhil mass organisations
all adopt peaceful means of civil disobedience to press their demands the
administration continuously labels them as being prone to violent criminal
activities and adduces the many false criminal cases that it has lodged
against them and which have never led to any conviction in courts of law as
evidence. The administration has even dubbed the peaceful celebration by the
Bhils of the anniversaries of their brave martyrs as preparations for a
violent struggle. This and the tendency to harass the activists is of
serious concern to the mass organisations because an excess of this will
surely lead to the dissipation of the non-violent struggle of the Bhils that
is under way. The
> recent arrest of Rahul is a case in point. There is every possibility that
the administration may crack down on these organisations which are preparing
to celebrate the martyrdom of the the great Tantia Bhil on 4.12.2000. Thus
we request you to send a flood of protest messages yourself and
> from as many others as possible to the following so as to build up
pressure on them not to act in this illegal manner in future:
1. Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
fax no: 755-551781
2. Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
fax no: 755-551521
3. District Magistrate Dewas email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
fax no: 7272-52444
4. Superintendent of Police Dewas email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
fax no: 7272-22666
yours sincerely
Rahul
Rahul, vill.& p.o.Machla via Kasturbagram,Indore,Madhya Pradesh,
India-452020
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