[ZESTCaste] No Dalit cook for students in this UP school
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/no-dalit-cook-for-students-in-this-up-school-37033 No Dalit cook for students in this UP school NDTV Correspondent, Updated: July 12, 2010 15:46 IST Lucknow: Another shameful incident has brought the caste inequalities in an otherwise modern India to the fore. Parents rioted outside a school in Uttar Pradesh after discovering that the cook who prepared food for their children under the mid-day meal scheme was a Dalit. The Government middle school in the newly created Ramabai Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh has 191 students, nearly half of them who belong to so-called upper castes refused to eat food cooked in school. Shanti, the Dalit cook was hired by the school 3-4 days ago. When children found out she was a Dalit, they complained to their parents. Furious parents came out to ensure the school does not forget the age-old caste divisions. Fearing trouble, the school principal fled from the spot. These children will go out to study in other schools like even if they get food there or not, but they will not study here, said Biru Dubey, an angry villager. Villagers have even forced the district administration to toe their line and attacked the police jeeps with stones. We have not received many application forms that is why we are giving them 3 more days. If there are any more women who want to apply, they can send in their applications, said Govind Raju, District Magistrate, Ramabai Nagar. In Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, Dalits comprise over 20% of the population and it's shameful that such an incident has occurred in a state ruled by a Dalit chief minister.
[ZESTCaste] 'Reserved category docs harassed at MU'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Lucknow/Reserved-category-docs-harassed-at-MU/articleshow/6152963.cms 'Reserved category docs harassed at MU' TNN, Jul 11, 2010, 01.37am IST LUCKNOW: Another group of members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have written to chief minister Mayawati against the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU). In their letter to the chief minister, the MLAs have alleged that the teachers who come from from the reserved category are harassed in the university. The MLAs who have written to the chief minister are Rajesh Gautam, Meeta Gautam, Birju Ram, Ghoora Ram, Radhey Lal Rawat, Bhagwan Das, Tribhuvan Dutt, Rajendra Prasad Choudhary and Jitendra Kumar. The MLAs, in a combined letter to the CM, alleged that CSMMU administration is deliberately blocking the promotional avenues for the reserved category doctors. A fortnight ago, MLAs Narendra Verma, Bhagely Ram and BJP leader Vinay Katiyar had written to the chief minister stating that CSMMU doctors were violating the ban on private practice. Meanwhile, the university authorities said they didn't have any information about any such letter.
[ZESTCaste] SP tries to wean brahmins from BSP
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/sp-tries-wean-brahmins-bsp-012 SP tries to wean brahmins from BSP July 12th, 2010 The war over brahmin votes in Uttar Pradesh is intensifying. The Samajwadi Party has decided to hold conventions in all districts of the state to “awaken brahmins and make them aware of the anti-brahmin policies being pursued by the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party”. According to Mr Manoj Pandey, state president of the SP’s Brahmin Mahasabha, the Mayawati government has been deliberately sidelining brahmin icons and leaders while it has been promoting dalit icons through various parks and memorials. “The BSP talks of ‘Sarvjan’ but has it installed even one statue of any brahmin icon? In fact, statues of upper caste icons like Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwiwedi, Pandit Suryakant Tripathi Nirala and Chandra Shekhar Azad are crying for maintenance and upkeep. This proves that the BSP government wants to take brahmin votes but ignore the community and its icons,” he said. The SP Brahmin Mahasabha will be holding conventions in Sultanpur, Barabanki, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat — now Ramabai Nagar, Haidergarh, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda and Mirzapur this month and other districts will be covered over the next two months. The Samajwadi Party obviously wants to cash in on the reported disillusionment of brahmins with the BSP. “Brahmins close to one particular leader may have benefited in the Mayawati regime but the community, as a whole, has been humiliated and neglected. Even in the bureaucracy, it is only one set of brahmins officers who have got key postings while others languish in the wings. This indicates that the BSP has not been able to shed its anti-upper caste mentality and all this talk of Sarvjan replacing Bahujan is only designed to mislead the people,” says another brahmin MLA of the party. The BSP, on the other hand, has been going out of its way lately to keep the brahmin community in good humour. Though the party has also been making an all out effort to woo the Thakurs and Vaishyas and expand its vote base, it is taking all care not to irk the brahmins who had helped it form government in UP in 2007. “No matter how hard the SP tries, it will not be able to make inroads into our brahmin vote base,” says a brahmin minister in the BSP government. Everyone in the community knows how SP has treated its brahmin leaders like Janeshwar Misra and Rama Shankar Kaushik and no one will be fooled. We are also trying to consolidate our base among brahmins so that there is no erosion,” says a brahmin minister in the BSP government. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Caste divide follows dalit Christians even in death
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/caste-divide-follows-dalit-christians-even-death-608 Caste divide follows dalit Christians even in death July 9th, 2010 DC Correspondent June 8: Humiliating discrimination on the basis of caste does not spare some even in death. In the heart of Tiruchy city, a huge wall separates the burial grounds of dalit and non-dalit Christians at the Warehouse Cemetery in Palakkarai. Though they are all Roman Catholics, the mortal remains of dalit Christians from areas like Uppuparai, Sengulam Colony, Mallikaipuram, Kemps Town, Kooni Bazaar and Kajapet are buried on the left half of the burial ground while upper caste ‘Pillai Christians’ are buried in the other half. “We have appealed to the authorities to raze the obnoxious wall but there has been no action yet,” said Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam president Kolathur Mani. “We will lock the office of the civil rights protection wing in Tiruchy on August 15 to protest against the inaction.” While the state police maintains that untouchability is not prevalent in the state, the PDK has co by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Mayawati statues row: SC asks EC to take decision in 3 months
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Mayawati-statues-row-SC-asks-EC-to-take-decision-in-3-months/articleshow/6146283.cms Mayawati statues row: SC asks EC to take decision in 3 months TNN, Jul 9, 2010, 11.24am IST NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to decide in 3 months maintainability of complaints against Mayawati and BSP on installation of elephants as well as her statues in Uttar Pradesh. The Election Commission had complained to the SC that Uttar Pradesh government was not giving details of the number of statues installed. The SC has asked the EC to decide the maintainability and place the order before it for further direction.
[ZESTCaste] Bail for advocate in SC, ST case
http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/10/stories/2010071066000600.htm Andhra Pradesh Bail for advocate in SC, ST case Staff Reporter RAJAHMUNDRY: A senior criminal lawyer Madduri Siva Subba Rao was arrested on charges of abusing by caste East Godavari Joint Collector Kona Sashidhar here on Friday. He was later released on bail by the court. He was remanded to custody by the magistrate following a petition filed by Mr. Sasidhar for allegedly abusing him by his caste when Siva Subba Rao and others met him over an issue connected to Nannayya University's land on Thursday night. The advocate was sent to jail immediately but he obtained bail by the evening. Earlier, Collector M. Ravichandra and SP G. Srinivas reached Rajahmundry from Kakinada and met RDO Challa Vinaya Mohan, who was an eyewitness to the incident. Meanwhile, several Dalit organisations, Revenue Employees, Joint Action Committee held demonstrations in support of the Joint Collector.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit Woman humiliated and victimised in Uttar-Pradesh
http://www.mynews.in/News/Dalit_Woman_humiliated_and_victimised_in_Uttar-Pradesh_N69584.html Dalit Woman humiliated and victimised in Uttar-Pradesh Posted On: 09-Jul-2010 03:03:04 AM By: Vidya Bhushan Rawat Dalit Woman humiliated and victimised in Uttar-PradeshHer one eye is completely turned red at the moment as the upper caste goons threw slippers at her. The entire body bears the brunt of the brahmanical violence on July 3rd, 2010 at the Sheetalpur Tikari village under Tharwai police station in Allahabad. Her cloths were torn and the goons tried to pee on her mouth but the police kept her in the police station for 24 hours and try to deny anything like that happened. This is the story of Lalli Devi, 45, who was constructing a house allotted to her under the Indira Awas Yojna when Devi Sharan Mishra, a local money lender and well connected person came along with some other members and demolished the house. As Lalli tried to reason with the man, she, her husband Gulab and her son aged 12 years were beaten mercilessly by these goons. Her huts where she used to sleep and cook were completely razed to the ground. It was the incident at around 8 am on Saturday when I was cleaning my chulha, said Lalli. ‘ Eight members lead by Devi Mishra just entered in with lathis and thrashed me after beating my husband and son. Sir, they put me on ground, put their feet on my chest and tried to pee on my mouth. I resisted but they torn my cloths, hit at me and threw slippers at me which hurt my eyes. It is aching now and has turned red. I am still not able to breathe properly’, said Lalli when I visited her. There is no place for them to sleep. Its rainy season and given the nature of our villages, Lalli and her family has no way to save them from the fury of nature. According to police officials, there was a land feud between the two which was in the court and there was a stay on it. When Lalli Devi was constructing her house given to her under Indira Awas Yojna, Devi Mishra and his gangsters demolished it and also razed her other huts to ground, beat up her husband and thrashed her when she reacted. She was humiliated and her body bears the mark of the thrashing. This incident happened about 30 kilometers from Allahabad town on July 3rd, 2010 in the morning hour around 8 am. This nondescript village resembles the old structural villages of India which Baba Saheb Ambedkar described as ‘den of feudalism, nepotism and corruption’. The village in darkness. The village has 5 families of Yadavs, 10 families of Patels (OBCs), 25-30 families Passies (Dalits) and nearly 20 families of Brahmins. Nearly 10 families belong to Telis i.e. Guptas and one family belong to Dhaikar, a Dalit community which is engaged in bamboo weaving work. They make bamboo baskets and other related things. And see the tyranny of the caste system in the village, none of the communities coming to her rescue. The Brahmins, as master manipulators are using all techniques to disturb her. They are in power structure every where. She is alone. The Kurmis near her do not feel for her, the Pasis are known to resist yet not a single person is ready to speak. The terror of these Brahmin is so high that a Dalit woman says, ‘why do you speak to us. Are you not able to see our faces and judge as what is the situation here’? Lalli Devi know this situation as she says, ‘ Most of the people saw me being dragged on the ground and my cloths torn but no body want to speak as they fear the powerful’. A police Jeep is picketing in front of her house. She went to police station to lodge her complaint but she was not only hounded but kept at the police station for 24 hours. Daily Amar Ujala and Hindustan reported it on July 6th and later the local news channels started running the story on their prime time which suggested that Lalli Devi was attacked and her cloths were torn but police deny she was paraded in the village. However, the question is whether hiding things make the grave incident less grave? For the police officials, it is like any other land dispute. They term it as a fight between two leaders for lording over the Dalits and other communities in the region. The Brahmin politics of Allahabad is well known to be explained here. But for the information of the readers, the Member of Parliament is a former pracharak of BJP but now his ‘heart’ is changed and hence is a man of ‘social justice’ in the BSP, though his brother’s heart still beat for BJP and hence he is MLA from that party. The other brother has just achieved victory for MLC on BSP ticket. None of them had visited so far. But the leaders from other political parties are also visiting her. I do not know but Lalli Devi tells that she was given support of Rs 3000/- by one politician and Rs 1000/- by the other. That is the cost of the dignity and respect of a Dalit woman in India. The police officers on duty are mostly agreeing that she was beaten up and ‘sab kuchch galat hua’ but they are not
[ZESTCaste] 17 held in dalit woman murder case
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/17-held-in-dalit-woman-murder-case/articleshow/6144323.cms 17 held in dalit woman murder case TNN, Jul 8, 2010, 10.58pm IST TUMKUR: Tumkur police on Thursday arrested 17 persons accused in the alleged murder of a dalit woman, Honnamma, at Gopalapura village. Nanjundaiah, Thimmaraju, Nagaraju, Rajappa, B C Hanumanthaiah, Gangadhar, Chandrashekar, Dasappa, Bulle Hanumanthaiah, Rangaraju, Srinivas along with six others were arrested. SP P S Harsha said that the police are keeping a strict vigil in the village. The district police formed two squads to investigate into the incident. We have arrested 27 members in this case so far, he added. Honnamma was stoned to death at Gopalapura village on June 28th.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit girl raped
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Allahabad/Dalit-girl-raped/articleshow/6150194.cms Dalit girl raped TNN, Jul 10, 2010, 10.55pm IST BAHRAICH: A dalit girl was raped by two persons on Friday morning. A case has been registered. The victim has been sent for medical examination. A 14-year-old dalit girl, resident of Gangajot under Bisheshwarganj police station had gone out in the field on Friday morning. Manna, a resident of Hardahi village and his accompliance raped her. The girl narrated the incident to her family members. On her statement, the Bisheshwarganj police registered a named FIR under SC/St Act. No arrests were made.
[ZESTCaste] Congress walkout in West Bengal House on SC, ST certificate and reservation
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_congress-walkout-in-west-bengal-house-on-sc-st-certificate-and-reservation_1407511 Congress walkout in West Bengal House on SC, ST certificate and reservation PTI Friday, July 9, 2010 17:52 IST Kolkata: The opposition Congress today walked out of the West Bengal assembly alleging irregularities in distribution of SC, ST and OBC certificates. Backward classes welfare minister Jogesh Burman earlier said that there was no instance of harrassment to candidates on distribution of SC, ST and OBC certificates in the state. Steps had been taken by his department for distributing the certificates through specially set up camps in districts, he said. Congress member Nepal Mahato moved an adjournment motion in the House demanding discussion and a statement by the minister after stating that the reservation policy for SC, ST and OBC was flouted in the state for recruitment of primary teachers. When deputy speaker Bhaktipada Ghosh, asked the minister if he would give a statement, he did not. Congress members then rose on their feet in protest demanding a statement by the minister, who stuck to his decision. The Congress members then walked out in protest.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit girl paraded naked in Mumbai
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Mumbai/Dalit-girl-paraded-naked-in-Mumbai/articleshow/6149090.cms Dalit girl paraded naked in Mumbai TNN, Jul 10, 2010, 01.22am IST MUMBAI: Cases of attacks on dalit women aren’t confined to rural India: last month, a young dalit girl was stripped and paraded in a southern Mumbai locality. The local police has arrested 10 women and two men and slapped them with cases of atrocities. However, Sharada Yadav, the main accused, is out on bail. Said senior police inspector Rajan Bhogale: All the suspects named by the victim, including Sharada Yadav, were arrested in the case. We charged them under the Prevention of Atrocities Act. But Sharda Yadav was granted bail by the court. The 22-year-old dalit girl Mita Kamble (name changed), who was stripped and dragged out of her house at Darukhana, Reay Road, by a mob of mostly women, said: They all shouted that dalits like me should not live in this area. They kept hurling abuses on me. What led to the incident was rape of a five-year-old child, allegedly by Mita’s brother, a watchman at the ship-breaking yard, on June 16. Vijay Kamble (34) was arrested by the Sewri police. While stripping me, Sharada Yadav and another woman kept shouting that I would have to pay for my brother’s crime, said Mita. On the other hand, the five-year-old girl who was raped returned home on Friday after she underwent two surgeries in J J Hospital. Several organisations and social workers recently held a rally and demanded the police to hold some counselling sessions for the residents. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Land-shark gobbles up Dalits ‘free land’
http://expressbuzz.com/states/tamilnadu/land-shark-gobbles-up-dalits-%E2%80%98free-land%E2%80%99/188251.html Land-shark gobbles up Dalits ‘free land’ V Gangadharan Express News Service First Published : 09 Jul 2010 03:49:22 AM IST Last Updated : 09 Jul 2010 09:25:21 AM IST CHENNAI: Cheating the Dalits of Vellathukottai village in Tiruvallur district, a local influential man has usurped land given to them free by the State Government in 2007 under the Free Land Distribution Scheme, and the area is being converted into residential plots. The villagers have given a memorandum to Tiruvallur District collector T P Rajesh who has ordered a probe by the District Revenue Officer. According to Vellathukottai villagers and local councillor Padma Gnanamuthu (Poondi Panchayat Union), approximately 11 acres of grazing land (meichal poromboke) was equally divided and given to 15 families on September 11, 2007 by the Government under the 2 acre free land scheme. A local bigwig lured the villagers with false promises of good monetary compensation and got their pattas (title deeds). He sold the land to a promoter who is converting it into residential plots, Gnanamuthu said. Enquiries made by Express disclosed that the man appropriated the title deeds by simply giving the villagers a quarter kilo of sweets and savouries besides Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 in cash. We believed what he told us. He said we could lawfully sell the land and make money. Not only did he pay us nothing, he has used our lands for commercial purposes, a person who lost his land to the man said. When asked about the issue, Collector Rajesh said, It (the villagers' allegations) appears to be true, adding that he had asked for a report from the DRO, and would take appropriate legal action based on it. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Poll panel asked to decide on complaint against BSP
http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a149929.html Poll panel asked to decide on complaint against BSP (Lead) New Delhi, July 9 The Supreme Court Friday asked the Election Commission to decide on a complaint that seeks the freezing of Uttar Pradesh's ruling Bahujan Samaj Party's elephant election symbol as erecting statues of elephants and Chief Minister Mayawati in public places contravened the poll panel's notification. A bench of Chief Justice S.H.Kapadia, Justice K.S.Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar said that the commission, after deciding on the maintainability of the complaint, would place its decision before the apex court. Thereafter, the court will examine the decision and if required, more powers will be given to the Election Commission for further action. The poll panel has been given three months to decide on the complaint made by advocate Ravi Kant. The complainant alleged that the state government was spending huge amounts of public money to erect statues of elephants and of Mayawati all over the state. Appearing for the Election Commission, senior counsel Ashok Desai told the court that the BSP government in Uttar Pradesh was not co-operating with it in completing the inquiry into the complaint, and was asking under what authority the commission was seeking information from it. Desai said that initially the state government sought more time for collecting information sought about the number of statues of elephants and Mayawati installed in the state, but later made a U-turn, and questioned the jurisdiction of the commission in seeking the information. He noted that the poll panel was conducting the inquiry on the apex court's direction. You passed an order and under that order we sought more information from the state government, Desai said. At this, the court said: First decide the issue (of maintainability of the complaint) and if the decision is good and valid, then we would empower you to seek more information from the state government. The apex court by its order of Feb 22 this year, had directed the Election Commission decide whether the installation of the statues of the BSP's symbol all over the state at the cost of the exchequer was in contravention of the election law. Last updated on Jul 9th, 2010 at 20:54 pm IST
[ZESTCaste] Yet another 'battle' waged over Dalit cooks
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Kanpur/Yet-another-battle-waged-over-Dalit-cooks/articleshow/6144329.cms Yet another 'battle' waged over Dalit cooks Faiz Rahman Siddiqui, TNN, Jul 8, 2010, 10.20pm IST KANPUR: Even persuasion by senior district authorities yielded no result when nearly 85-odd students of Jasapur primary school in Sandalpur block, Jhinjhak village, refused to eat mid-day meal and boycotted class on Thursday as the two newly appointed cooks were `Dalit'. The 'strike' ended with the ousting of the two cooks. We have replaced both the cooks, a senior district official informed. We tried to arrange a meeting between the parents and the senior officials, but there was no positive response from upper-caste villagers. As of now, NPRC incharge Maan Singh Sengar has been suspended with immediate effect and district magistrate Saroj Tewari has directed adverse entry against additional basic shiksha adikari (BSA) Anil Rawat, he added. For the past three days, district administration and education officials have been visiting the Jasapur primary school to persuade students to eat the meal. On Thursday, the issue took a new turn when parents of the students threatened to withdraw their wards from the school. The school is located 25-km from Ramabai Nagar (Kanpur Dehat) district headquarters. On Thursday, TOI discovered that out of total 135 students, hardly 50 students- mostly Dalits and OBC-- were eating the meal that comprised daal, chapati, rice and kheer. The remaining 85 students, mostly Thakurs and Brahmins refused to eat the food or boycotted classes, a practice that started on July 1, 2010, the day the school authorities appointed two new Dalit cooks. There are two upper-caste cooks in the school as well. The upper-caste villagers, who were protesting against the issue, said their children would not eat food prepared by Dalit. Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), Ramabai Nagar, Sanjay Shukla, who was present at Jasapur primary school on Thursday, told TOI that the matter had been sorted out and food would be prepared by upper-caste cooks only. We have sought a status report from the school, which has some 135 students, the BSA said. However, parents were adamant on their stand. Us school mein hum apne bacchon ko nahi padhayenge jahan par `achooton' se khana banwaya jata hai (We will not let our wards study in a school where Dalits prepare food), said a villager, Lalla Bhadauriya. What is shocking is to see that the sentiments of their elders have rubbed into the young children as well. I will not eat anything cooked by them. My father has told me that both the cooks are of low caste. So, I bring my own lunch box, said Shivam, a student of Class IV. Sheetal, also a student of Class IV, questioned precociously: When the school already had upper-caste cooks, why did the school authorities appoint two new Dalit cooks? School authorities claimed parents were totally responsible for the decision and the cooks had been appointed by a village-level committee, comprising the village pradhan, Anganwadi teachers and parents. When contacted, district magistrate, Ramabai Nagar (Kanpur Dehat), Saroj Tewari said: Senior district officials have been asked to visit the school and I have also asked my subordinates to find out who had instigated the villagers and their children in the first place. The person or persons responsible will be punished severely.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit groom forced to alight from horse
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Dalit-groom-forced-to-alight-from-horse/articleshow/6144948.cms Dalit groom forced to alight from horse TNN, Jul 9, 2010, 12.21am IST AJMER: A Dalit groom was forced to alight from the horse during his baraat at Sinodiya village. The groom, who objected to the order of the youth belonging to another community, was badly beaten up. The bride's family was shocked over the incident and after the marriage, mustered enough courage to register a complaint against the culprits. The matter is under investigation. According to the complaint lodged by Jathuram Bodhuram Raiger, father of the bride, during the baraat, some youths interrupted it and asked the groom to alight from the horse. When my son-in-law protested and showed courage to take the baraat on the same road, he was forced to come down and beaten up badly, he mentioned in the complaint. Raiger also alleged that Jagdish Jat, Rang Lal, Ramesh Kumar, Suda Ram, Bhanwar Lal and few others were involved in the incident. According to sources, the heads of the Dalit community, who witnessed the ceremony, asked the family to forget the incident and forced not to register the complain. It was reported that heads of other communities also put pressure on the bride's family not to register any complaint. It was insulting and against the law. We felt ashamed and sorry to the family of groom and decided to register the complaint, said brother of the bride. Sources said that there was also a pressure from the heads of other communities. Deputy superintendent of police (Kishangargh range), Pawam Kumar Jain, said a complaint has been registered under SC/ST Atrocities Act. We are investigating the matter and recording the statements of witnesses. Four months ago, an incident of Dalit atrocity came to light in Masuda village when a body of a Dalit was not allowed to cremate in the village and the family took the corpse to Beawer for last rituals. On the complaint of Dalit Adhikar Kendra, the National Human Rights Commission has initiated an inquiry into the matter.
[ZESTCaste] Students refuse food cooked by Dalits, principal suspended
http://sify.com/news/students-refuse-food-cooked-by-dalits-principal-suspended-news-education-khjpOdfcijh.html Students refuse food cooked by Dalits, principal suspended 2010-07-09 15:50:00 The principal of a government-run school in Uttar Pradesh's Ramabai Nagar district was suspended for inaction and negligence after students refused to eat the midday meal prepared by two Dalit cooks, officials said Friday. A probe has also been initiated against Jasapur Primary School principal Maan Singh and district education officials, including senior official Anil Rawat, as they knew that several upper-caste students of the school were not eating the meal prepared by the Dalit women. They neither took any step to solve the case nor informed other senior officials about it. 'It's a serious matter. They should have acted timely. Preliminary enquiry indicates that the principal, and education officials tried to cover up the matter,' Sanjay Kumar, official in-charge of primary education, told reporters in Ramabai Nagar. 'We have suspended the principal and will take strict action against other officials also,' he said. 'During an inspection Thursday, it came to the fore that students belonging to upper castes were not eating the midday meal that was prepared by two Dalit women, who were appointed as cooks recently at the school,' he added. The Jasapur primary school is in Sandalpur block, some 300 km from Lucknow. About 150,000 schools are covered under the midday meal scheme in Uttar Pradesh, officials said. The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, also known as Mid-Day Meal Programme, was launched as a centrally-sponsored scheme on Aug 15, 1995. Its objective is to boost universalisation of primary education and improve the nutritional status of the food being given to the children, the officials added.
[ZESTCaste] Life sentence for 4 confirmed in Dalits murder case
http://thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/article504763.ece Published: July 8, 2010 00:47 IST | Updated: July 8, 2010 00:47 IST MADURAI, July 8, 2010 Life sentence for 4 confirmed in Dalits murder case Staff Reporter The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday confirmed the conviction and life sentence imposed on four Caste Hindus for murdering two Dalits at Sennagarampatti near here on July 5, 1992 and acquitted 22 others. Wrongly convicted Partly allowing criminal appeals filed by 26 people against the trial court verdict, a Division Bench of Justices M. Chockalingam and M. Duraiswamy held that the trial court had wrongly convicted all the accused though the prosecution had proved the case only against four appellants. The judges found M. Ramar (41), S. Devadas (51), K. Chokkanandi (39) and N. Asaithambi (38) guilty of waylaying a bus in which the Dalits – Ammavasi and Velu – were travelling and attacking them with deadly weapons owing to enmity between them over taking a temple land on lease. It set aside the conviction and the double life imprisonment imposed on 22 others, including C. Krishnan alias Veeranan (72), V. Andichamy (68), V. Sivanandi (65), A. Ambalam (59), T. Ayyavoo (56), M. Nagendran (50), R. Sethu (50), J. Sanmargam (50) and M. Ayub Khan (38) for want of sufficient evidence. The Bench said the trial court had rightly acquitted all the 26 persons of charges under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act because the police had included these charges ten years after the murder by obtaining additional statements from witnesses. It was also pointed out that one of the prosecution witnesses had filed a petition in the Principal Seat of the High Court in Chennai in 2002 to include the provisions of the SC/ST Act. Consequently, the High Court directed the police to reinvestigate the matter and include the provisions, if necessary. One other prosecution witness had filed a petition before the Madurai Bench in 2007 to transfer the case that was pending trial before an Additional Sessions Court here to some other district on the ground that the accused in the case were trying to win over the witnesses. Case transferred Allowing this petition too, the Bench transferred the case to a Sessions Court in Karur on August 31, 2007. The Karur court on August 4, 2008 imposed double life sentence, to be undergone concurrently, on 26 people apart from one who died pending trial and hence the present criminal appeals. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Ambedkar’s first biography in Sanskrit
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article509336.ece Published: July 10, 2010 09:47 IST | Updated: July 10, 2010 16:21 IST Pune, July 10, 2010 Ambedkar’s first biography in Sanskrit PTI Battling a visual handicap, an 84-year-old Vedic scholar here has composed “Bhimayanam” , the first ever biography of the architect of Indian constitution and icon of the underprivileged Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in Sanskrit verse. The exceptional feat of Prabhakar Joshi, who lost his sight completely while still working on the biography undertaken in 2004, stands as a testimony to his unflinching determination and will power that saw recent publication of the book containing 1,577 Sanskrit ‘slokas’ covering the life span of Dr. Ambedkar unfolded in 160 pages with 21 ‘Sargas’ (chapters). A victim of glaucoma, Mr. Joshi who has an illustrious background as a teacher of Sanskrit in schools and colleges, was immensely influenced by Dr. Ambedkar’s mission to uplift the downtrodden. When he started studying Dr. Ambedkar’s life, he came across certain facts that inspired him to take up the unique project of his Sanskrit biography titled ” Bhimayanam“. “Not many people know that it was an ardent desire of Ramji, father of Dr. Ambedkar, that his son should learn Sanskrit. When Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar opted for the subject after being enrolled in the Elphinstone High School in Mumbai, he was in for rude shock as the teachers there refused to allow him to study Sanskrit because he was a Dalit. Imparting knowledge of Sanskrit to ‘lower caste’ students those days was something to be frowned upon”, Mr. Joshi said. After pondering over this episode, Mr. Joshi thought of an “atonement of sorts” by way of versifying in Sanskrit, the life of Ambedkar whom he reverently calls ‘Mahamanav’. A progressive glaucoma started affecting the vision of the octogenarian even as he persisted with his writing, at times overlapping words as a result of poor eyesight. “I was losing my vision fast but my resolve to complete the work was getting firmer notwithstanding the visual handicap. My wife read the lines I had written and made them legible for further processing. Many times, I got up in the middle of night to write the words that came to my mind without knowing that ink had dried,” Mr. Joshi who has retained all his faculties at the ripe age recalled. Explaining his method that led to completion of his work, he said “I first summarised important milestones in Ambedkar’s life and then got it taped. Then I kept listening to the audio again and again, pondering over my next verse“. According to Mr. Joshi, who taught Sanskrit at Fergusson College here and was a guide at Pune University for many students doing their doctorates in Sanskrit, Dr. Ambedkar was a great supporter of the language which he regarded as mother of most of the regional tongues in the country. Despite his strong opposition to the Brahminical dominance in the society and social discrimination that led him and his followers to embrace Buddhism, Dr. Ambedkar himself had mastered Sanskrit, which was identified with the upper cast, he said. “Bhimayanam” was published under “Sharada Gaurav Granthamala” series by Pandit Vasant Gadgil after six years of dedicated work by Mr. Joshi, a recipient of Maharashtra government’s ‘Mahakavi Kalidas’ award. Maharashtra Governor Shankarnarayanan is expected to formally release the biography. As Mr. Joshi spoke, his unseeing eyes stared in a fixed gaze. But the words came gushing lighting up his face as he dealt on the towering personality so dear to his heart — Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar who bestowed dignity on those who suffered from injustice. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[ZESTCaste] Children refuse food from Dalits
http://english.samaylive.com/nation/676467927.html Children refuse food from Dalits 09/07/2010 15:58:00 Font size: Children in a primary school at Jasaura village of Sandalpur block in Kanpur refused the food cooked by a Dalit woman named Shanti Devi. There are 135 students and most of them belong to high caste. When mid-day meal began to be served to the students, none of them agreed to eat the same. Not only had the children opposed to food cooked by dalit women even their parents think on similar lines and are supporting their wards. Confused as how to react to this social ill, District administration only said that that it will look into the matter and find a solution soon.
[ZESTCaste] Vedic scholar pens Ambedkar's first biography in Sanskrit
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Vedic-scholar-pens-Ambedkar-s-first-biography-in-Sanskrit/Article1-570156.aspx Vedic scholar pens Ambedkar's first biography in Sanskrit Press Trust Of India Pune, July 10, 2010First Published: 10:14 IST(10/7/2010) Last Updated: 10:20 IST(10/7/2010) Battling a visual handicap, an 84-year-old Vedic scholar here has composed the first ever biography of the architect of Indian constitution and icon of the underprivileged Dr B R Ambedkar in Sanskrit verse. The exceptional feat of Prabhakar Joshi, who lost his sight completely while still working on the biography undertaken in 2004, stands as a testimony to his unflinching determination and will power that saw recent publication of the book containing 1,577 Sanskrit 'Shlokas' covering the life span of Ambedkar unfolded in 160 pages with 21 'Sargas'. A victim of glaucoma, Joshi who has an illustrious background as a teacher of Sanskrit in schools and colleges, was immensely influenced by Ambedkar's mission to uplift the downtrodden. When he started studying Ambedkar's life, he came across certain facts that inspired him to take up the unique project of his Sanskrit biography titled Bhimayanam. Not many people know that it was an ardent desire of Ramji, father of Ambedkar, that his son should learn Sanskrit. When Bhimrao opted for the subject after being enrolled in the Elphinstone High School in Mumbai he was in for rude shock as the teachers there refused to allow him to study Sanskrit because he was a Dalit. Imparting knowledge of Sanskrit to 'lower caste' students those days was something to be frowned upon, Joshi told PTI. After pondering over this episode, Joshi thought of an atonement of sorts by way of versifying in Sanskrit, the life of Ambedkar whom he reverently calls 'Mahamanav'.
[ZESTCaste] 1,000 honour killings in India every year
http://www.southasianpost.com/news/topnews/article/1000honourkillingsindiaeveryyear 1,000 honour killings in India every year By Mata Press Service Nineteen year old Asha was tortured to death along with her 20-year-old boyfriend Yogesh Kumar in north Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar area. When police found the couple, they had multiple stab wounds. Police have accused Asha’s father, her uncle, her cousin, her aunt and her mother in the murders. The family told reporters they “have no regrets whatsoever”. Not too far away from where this couple lived, cousins Shobha and Monica grew up walking to school together and sharing their secrets. Monica, 23, fell in love with Kuldeep Singh, 26 and married him with the help of Shoba four years ago. Shoba also helped her sister Khushbu, a model, to elope with a man from another caste. Shobha, Monica and Kuldeep were each shot twice in the head on the evening of June 20. Their suspected murderers are Shobha’s brother, Mandeep. The other was Monica’s brother, Ankit. The third was a local boy known to them both. Earlier in Delhi, 22-year old Nirupama Pathak wanted to marry another fellow journalist who was her batch mate but hailed from a lower caste. She was found stangled. Her mother has been arrested. Last week in Haryana’s Fatehabad district, a teen boy and a girl were found dead under mysterious circumstances and police arrested the two maternal uncles of the girl for killing the couple. Shyam Mohammed and Reena, around 17 to 18 years of age, were also found dead in the open fields in Smain village of the same district. According to police, Shyam and Reena wanted to marry but their families and the local village council was against the alliance. Belgium-based Amritpal Kaur had fallen in love with Lakhwinder Singh, who belongs to a lower caste, and her parents didn’t approve of the relationship. So they lured her to the Sikh holy city of Amritsar and poisoned her last week. These are just some of the 20 cases of honour killings reported in Northern India over the past three months. In addition to brothers gunning down sisters, mothers strangling their daughters and uncles orchestrating the murders of their kin in the cities of India, village councils or khap panchayats from Jharkhand, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are also enforcing the age old practice of gotra which prohibits intermarriage within the clan and in many cases the same village. All in all, experts believe that more than 1,000 young people in India are murdered every year in honour killings Chandigarh-based legal experts Anil Malhotra and his brother Ranjit Malhotra said recently at the International Child Abduction, Relocation and Forced Marriages Conference organised by the London Metropolitan University. In a joint paper, they said: “Forced marriages and honour killings are often intertwined. Marriage can be forced to save honour, and women can be murdered for rejecting a forced marriage and marrying a partner of their own choice who is not acceptable for the family of the girl….honour killings are basically ‘justified’ as a sanction for ‘dishonourable’ behaviour.” Stung by international criticism and shocked by the recent spate of killings, India’s political parties of various stripes have all called for specific legislation to curb this social menace. But village elders and members of the khap panchayat have warned that any such legislation will only make matters worse. In an Indian media report, Rajkumar Numberdar, a khap panchayat leader of Narnoud village was quoted as saying: “It is not as if girls and boys did not fall in love earlier. But, of late, it is becoming difficult to control them because they know they just need to elope and ask for police protection. If politicians want to foist their warped ideas on us, why don’t they first kill off village elders?” Another village councilor, Rajveer Dhanda said: “If the government sends these elopers to jail instead of giving them police protection, the malaise will be taken care of in no time.” Fabian Dawson, deputy editor-in-chief of The Province newspaper in Vancouver, Canada, said these so called honour killings not only shame India but also its vibrant and powerful diaspora around the planet. “On one hand we have post-modern India signing nuclear deals and on the other we have a tribal system that kills young people because they fall in love, giving the impression that India is still in the medieval era,” said the veteran journalist of South Asian descent, who exposed the sensational honour killing of British Columbian beautician Jaswinder Kaur in news stories and documentaries. (see justiceforjassi.com). Veteran Bollywood actor Om Puri, who plays a village head against same-clan marriages in his next film “Khap...A Story of Honour Killing”, agrees. “This is a very grave topic. It is so disturbing when you see that these honour killings are not happening in any remote area, but in the heart of the country. It is creating a bad impression
[ZESTCaste] Govt divided on khaps
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Govt-divided-on-khaps/Article1-569491.aspx Govt divided on khaps Nagendar Sharma Saroj Nagi, Hindustan Times New Delhi, July 09, 2010 Sharp differences among ministers on Thursday forced the union cabinet to defer a decision on how to rein in the caste panchayats (khaps) and check the growing incidents of honour killings in the country. A group of ministers (GoM) will be formed to look into the issue and the government will also seek the views of all the states. The suggestion to consult states came from PM Manmohan Singh, prompting other ministers to speak up. Though the cabinet was unanimous that the menace of “honour killings” has to be dealt with, at least five ministers present in the meeting did not agree with Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s proposal to amend existing laws and wanted more stringent measures. Wondering what prevented one from acting within existing laws, Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal reportedly suggested incorporation of fresh provisions in the law to curb this menace. Sources said Sibal was of the view that the government should consider a new-stand alone law (like that on sati) to deal with such killings, as the existing laws faced enforcement problems. Road and Transport Minister Kamal Nath and Telecom Minister A. Raja supported him. Sports Minister M.S. Gill is learnt to have pointed out that since khaps do not have legal status, the government should not dilute the issue of honour killings by trying to make all members in such assemblies culpable for murder. Kamal Nath and Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh also favoured inclusion of views from all the state governments. Chidambaram is understood to have stressed that strong measures were required. The government, however, downplayed the differences. “There were no differences, we want wider consultation. There is not only social and media pressure, but within our own Cabinet and party, we feel ‘honour killings’ have to be brought under the ambit of the law,” said IB Minister, Ambika Soni. She said the government hopes to move the amendments during the Monsoon session of Parliament, beginning July 26. Chidambaram said consultations with states would be completed before conclusion of Parliament session. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Bangladeshi dalits struggle to make ends meet
http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/bangladeshi-dalits-struggle-to-make-ends-meet Bangladeshi dalits struggle to make ends meet 08 July 2010 In Jessore, a village eight kilometres from the main town in Bangladesh caste system rages on and dalits are forced to live in isolation. Restaurants, shops don’t attend them branding them as untouchables, while children are not allowed to mix with anyone outside their caste. The din inside the dark tea stall stopped suddenly. All eyes were set on the silhouette of a figure standing by the doorway. The Dalits are not allowed in this shabby restaurant in Monharpur village of Jessore/ Photo credit: Emran Hossain Someone coughed nervously. Another tapped uneasily on the table with his knuckles. At the cash register, the salesman looked sideways to avoid eye contact with the man standing there. Give me a jilapi, the man said. Inside the bamboo-fenced shop, the words sounded like a bombshell. Go away, the salesman said in his clipped voice, without bothering to look at the man. You know we don't sell to the Dalits. We don't have plates and glasses to serve the Dalits. Why bothering us, Robi? Robi Das, the Dhopa (washer man), nods knowingly and walks away without protest. When you are a Dalit--the untouchable--you don't mind being shooed away. You just can't afford to mind. In Monoharpur, a dust-bowl village in Jessore, only eight kilometres from the town, the caste system rages on and the untouchables live in the twilight of existence. The Dalits--the muchis (cobblers), the dhopas, the methors (sweepers) and the napits (barbers)--live a life of social exclusion. Restaurants don't serve them; those that serve keep separate plates and glasses. We are not allowed to even touch any vegetable or chicken or anything for that matter in the market, Robi Das explains, as he comes out of the tea stall empty-handed. They say if we touch anything, it is spoilt. In Jessore, about 5,000 Dalits live in about 50 villages. Throughout the country there are about 55 lakh. They are the low caste Hindus, and the caste system that started in India ages ago--the exact time and how it was introduced is still debatable--keeps the children of the Dalits secluded in schools. Nobody sits next to them. Nobody plays with them. They just live like shadows, as Robi Das does. Football was my life, Robi Das said. The smell of the leather football, the sound of ball bouncing off the ground… ahh. I had to leave that too. When he was 16 or 17, his playmates one day told him to stay off the ground. They said football required physical contact and they can't do it with an untouchable. Robi's passion for ha-du-du also had to end for similar reasons. I was not even allowed to watch football matches standing by the ground, he said. I tried badminton, but again nobody would play. No Hindu or Muslim would take me for a carrom game or even chess. At 45, Robi feels aged twice. An excruciating burden of existence weighs heavy on him and his family. He feels numbed when he finds his 17-year-old son going through the same grinding machine of the caste system. He can't play with anyone outside the caste. He has to receive anything he buys from the shop wrapped in banana leaves specially kept for the Dalits. I watch him grow in the same wilted society that I was born into, Robi says, as he walks away from the tea stall. Source : The Daily Star INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] GoM to look into ‘honour killings'
http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/09/stories/2010070963400100.htm Front Page GoM to look into ‘honour killings' Smita Gupta Differences in Cabinet on tackling the issue NEW DELHI: United on the need to deal with the pernicious practice of “honour killings,” but facing division in the Cabinet on how to tackle the issue, the Centre on Wednesday decided to consult the States and set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to suggest changes in the law to deal with the matter. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said after a Cabinet meeting: “We do feel the pressure to bring amendments [to the law] in the monsoon session of Parliament. There is not only social pressure [and] media pressure, but within our own Cabinet and party too; we feel the so-called honour killings have to be brought under the ambit of the law of the land.” At the Cabinet meeting, there was agreement on the fact that the current laws simply cannot deal with such killings. But that was it. Home Minister P Chidambaram's fervent plea to expeditiously amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act and the Special Marriages Act in the monsoon session did not find favour with many of his Cabinet colleagues. Mr. Chidambaram's point was that the government could not afford to waste time in more discussion, unless it was prepared to see many more girls summarily killed. But his colleagues felt that it was too complex an issue to be dealt with hastily, especially as ‘khap panchayats' — which exerted pressure to act against the marriage of young men and women of the same ‘gotra,' village or outside the caste — often had social sanction. Minister for Youth and Sports M.S. Gill pointed out that there could be problems in implementing any changes in the law, given that the Centre was dependent on the States to do so. He wanted to know whether when a whole congregation of villagers was involved in issuing orders to kill someone, all of them could be held accountable. Others who spoke of the need to exercise caution included Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who suggested some changes in the law to deal with such killings specifically. Sources in the government told TheHindu that the crux of the changes proposed focus on placing the onus of proving innocence on the “khap panchayat” members — and this includes not just the charge of murder, but of being an abettor, or having instigated any other sort of humiliation, including stripping, social boycott, etc. The amendments, if made into law, would also make all ‘khap panchayat' members associated with a death accountable. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Bangladesh: Society lacks heart for untouchables
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=145837 Thursday, July 8, 2010 Front Page Society lacks heart for untouchables CASTE STILL CASTS ITS SPELL…The Dalits are not allowed in this shabby restaurant in Monharpur village of Jessore. Emran Hossain, back from JessoreThe din inside the dark tea stall stopped suddenly. All eyes were set on the silhouette of a figure standing by the doorway. Someone coughed nervously. Another tapped uneasily on the table with his knuckles. At the cash register, the salesman looked sideways to avoid eye contact with the man standing there. Give me a jilapi, the man said. Inside the bamboo-fenced shop, the words sounded like a bombshell. Go away, the salesman said in his clipped voice, without bothering to look at the man. You know we don't sell to the Dalits. We don't have plates and glasses to serve the Dalits. Why bothering us, Robi? Robi Das, the Dhopa (washer man), nods knowingly and walks away without protest. When you are a Dalit--the untouchable--you don't mind being shooed away. You just can't afford to mind. In Monoharpur, a dust-bowl village in Jessore, only eight kilometres from the town, the caste system rages on and the untouchables live in the twilight of existence. The Dalits--the muchis (cobblers), the dhopas, the methors (sweepers) and the napits (barbers)--live a life of social exclusion. Restaurants don't serve them; those that serve keep separate plates and glasses. We are not allowed to even touch any vegetable or chicken or anything for that matter in the market, Robi Das explains, as he comes out of the tea stall empty-handed. They say if we touch anything, it is spoilt. In Jessore, about 5,000 Dalits live in about 50 villages. Throughout the country there are about 55 lakh. They are the low caste Hindus, and the caste system that started in India ages ago--the exact time and how it was introduced is still debatable--keeps the children of the Dalits secluded in schools. Nobody sits next to them. Nobody plays with them. They just live like shadows, as Robi Das does. Football was my life, Robi Das said. The smell of the leather football, the sound of ball bouncing off the ground… ahh. I had to leave that too. When he was 16 or 17, his playmates one day told him to stay off the ground. They said football required physical contact and they can't do it with an untouchable. Robi's passion for ha-du-du also had to end for similar reasons. I was not even allowed to watch football matches standing by the ground, he said. I tried badminton, but again nobody would play. No Hindu or Muslim would take me for a carrom game or even chess. At 45, Robi feels aged twice. An excruciating burden of existence weighs heavy on him and his family. He feels numbed when he finds his 17-year-old son going through the same grinding machine of the caste system. He can't play with anyone outside the caste. He has to receive anything he buys from the shop wrapped in banana leaves specially kept for the Dalits. I watch him grow in the same wilted society that I was born into, Robi says, as he walks away from the tea stall. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Stand alone law needed for 'honour killing' cases: Brinda
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Stand-alone-law-needed-for-honour-killing-cases-Brinda/Article1-570003.aspx Stand alone law needed for 'honour killing' cases: Brinda Press Trust Of India Greater Noida, July 09, 2010First Published: 22:32 IST(9/7/2010) Last Updated: 22:35 IST(9/7/2010) Demanding a stand alone law to tackle 'honour killings', senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat today termed the government's decision to constitute a GoM to suggest changes in the law to tackle such incidents as a worst example of vote bank politics practised by the UPA. Her comments came after a visit to two villages here after a panchayat ordered that all girls belonging to Dalit communities would be picked up from their homes if Priyanka, a Brahmin girl who had eloped with Sanjay, a Dalit boy, did not return home immediately. This is unfortunate. The government should have come out with a comprehensive law to deal with the issue. They have now come up with a GoM. The GoI (Government of India) has become GoM. They say they will consult states. They don't have a draft and what are they going to consult, she told PTI. This is the worst example of vote bank politics of UPA, she alleged. On her visit to the houses of Sanjay and Priyanka along with other women leaders, she said it appeared that the girl's family was not being aggressive against the boy's family but other villagers were. I went there to plead to them to allow the couple to lead a normal life. They were not that aggressive. It is the other villagers who are, she said. She said Sanjay's father had to mortgage his land for Rs 1.5 lakh to try and trace the couple. He is facing pressure from his village as well as the girl's village. Locals of the Dalit village are pressurising him to locate the couple, she said. Villagers of the Dalit hamlet apprehend that the locals from Priyanka's village will carry out the threat that they will take away their women if Priyanka does not go back to her home, she said.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman elected sarpanch in open seat
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dalit-woman-elected-sarpanch-in-open-seat/articleshow/6141224.cms Dalit woman elected sarpanch in khapland Bhaskar Mukherjee, TNN, Jul 8, 2010, 05.53am IST HISAR: Caste may have split Mirchpur — where two dalits were burnt alive in a caste violence blamed on Jats about three months back — but hardly 40km away, a Jat-dominated Serhada village has done something unbelievable: it unanimously elected a dalit woman as its sarpanch. Rani Devi, wife of Raju Balmiki was among 24 candidates for the post, which was reserved for a general category woman. In a break from the prevailing trend in caste-ridden state, representatives of all castes sat together and decided to elect Rani Devi as the village sarpanch. Our decision is a reply to the political leaders with vested interests in the Mirchpur incident. We have set a positive example, said Master Abhay Singh Lathar, a village elder, who chaired the proceedings to elect Rani. Wife of a poor shepherd, Rani, who is in her early 30s, was surprised when she was informed about the decision taken by the village khap. I am daughter-in-law of this village, and now I have the responsibility towards each family living here. Though we were a part of their families on all occasions, this would further strengthen our bond, said Rani. She got 1,384 votes out of 1,702 from this block. There were 24 women candidates left after the withdrawal of nominations. In a panchayat held two days before the election, under the leadership of Lathar, all the 36 communities presented in the meeting decided unanimously to vote for a dalit woman. The government should declare our village as a model village. We all want prosperity for everyone. We have full faith in Rani Devi, said Raghuveer Lathar and Jagbeer Poonia, panchayat members. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Should honour killing be dealt as murder?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Khap-compromise/articleshow/6150868.cms Should honour killing be dealt as murder? TOI Crest, Jul 10, 2010, 11.11am IST Though north India acquired notoriety for the spate of honour killings in recent weeks, the first major judicial response to this violent conflict between modernity and feudalism came in Mumbai. The trigger was the elopement in 2004 from a Mumbai chawl of a Brahmin girl from Uttar Pradesh, Sushma Tiwari, with a low-caste Malayali neighbour. A fast-track trial court imposed death sentence on Sushma's brother, Dilip, and his two accomplices for killing her husband and three other of her in-laws. The judicial system however flattered to deceive. After the Bombay high court confirmed the death sentence in Sushma's case, the Supreme Court set the clock back. Last December, a bench headed by Justice V S Sirpurkar reduced the capital punishment to life sentence. Reason: Since Dilip became the victim of his wrong but genuine caste considerations, it would not justify the death sentence. Conferring a measure of legitimacy on honour killings, the apex court said: It is a common experience that when the younger sister commits something unusual and in this case it was an inter-caste, intercommunity marriage out of (a) secret love affair, then in society it is the elder brother who justifiably or otherwise is held responsible for not stopping such (an) affair. Thankfully, despite such a retrograde signal from the Supreme Court to go easy on honour killings, a trial court in Haryana imposed exemplary punishment in another case. Only that the provocation for this instance of honour killings was not an intercaste marriage. Instead, a khap panchayat, a caste collective assuming state powers, annulled the marriage between Manoj and Babli on the grounds that they were from within the same gotra (mythical patrilineal ancestor) and from the same village. On 30 March, trial judge Vani Gopal Sharma awarded death to five persons: Babli's brother, two uncles and two cousins. Breaking new ground, Sharma also gave a life sentence to khap panchayat chief Ganga Raj, for conspiring with Babli's family. Without mincing any words, the trial judge said, The khaps have become a law unto themselves. They have ridiculed the Constitution. These unlawful acts of khaps should be stopped. The Haryana government evidently did not share the trial court's outrage. Far from cracking down on khap panchayats, the state gave a respectful consideration to their brazen demand that the Hindu personal law be amended to prohibit intra-gotra marriages. As if that were not bad enough, it brushed aside the demand made by Manoj's heroic mother Chanderpati that the police be held to account for abandoning the runaway couple on that fateful day in 2007 despite a protection order from the high court. While Congress netas from Haryana visibly wilted under the pressure of khap panchayats, their central leadership, much in the same spirit of compromise, desisted from taking on those extra-constitutional entities. The central government, on its part, staged a somersault on whether there was a need for a special law to deal with honour killings. Only a year ago, Home Minister P Chidambaram rejected the populist demand in Parliament saying, The answer is not to make another law. Whatever law we make, honour killing is murder. It would have to be dealt with as murder and tried as murder. But the recent escalation of honour killings by khap panchayats prompted Chidambaram to resort to the time-tested ploy of enacting a new law as a substitute for enforcing the existing law. The home ministry has drafted a Bill containing a mixed bag of amendments. The most significant proposal is to widen the definition of murder to make khap-dictated honour killings a distinct offence so that all those who participate in the decision are liable to attract the death sentence. Other reported changes include the proposal to remove the 30-day notice period for the solemnisation of civil marriage in a bid to cut down legal hassles faced by runaway couples. Given the alleged sensitivity of the draft Bill, and given the differences within Congress, it seems unlikely that the government would muster the courage to push it through in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. It has already prepared the ground for postponement by referring the draft Bill to a group of ministers and seeking feedback from states.
[ZESTCaste] Govt dragging its feet on caste count: Sharad Yadav
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-dragging-its-feet-on-caste-count-Sharad-Yadav/articleshow/6149544.cms Govt dragging its feet on caste count: Sharad Yadav TNN, Jul 10, 2010, 03.22am IST NEW DELHI: With the monsoon session of Parliament round the corner, the politics over caste census intensified further on Friday with JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav castigating the government for dragging its feet over the issue. Yadav, who played a key role in mobilising support from political parties in Parliament in favour of caste census, said that he had written to Congress leader and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to explain the government's reluctance even in the face of, as he said, political consensus over the need for such a census. By dragging its feet on inclusion of caste in census, the Centre is showing its lack of commitment for a just society because without proper caste data we cannot remove caste disparities and caste system, he said. Mukerjee heads the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the caste census. I have said in my letter that I would not like to repeat what transpired between us when Parliament was on. I just want to remind you that there was an agreement on caste census, Yadav said, as he further elaborated on how the government had developed cold feet after initially almost committing to caste census. Terming the formation of GoM as unwarranted, Yadav said it was meant only to waste time. This is yet another delaying tactic by the government. Almost all political parties have given their views in the Lok Sabha, he said. Indicating that the issue will be raised in the monsoon session of Parliament, Yadav said there was no scope for further deliberation on caste census and that he was shocked at the attitude of the government. However, Yadav also demanded setting up of a commission to eradicate caste system in the society. He brushed aside suggestions that there was a contradiction in his stand saying that inclusion of caste in census would actually help in eradicating caste bias in society. He said that the government seemed to be under the influence of conservative elements, which do not want a just society in India.
[ZESTCaste] Stand alone law needed for 'honour killing' cases: Brinda Karat
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_stand-alone-law-needed-for-honour-killing-cases-brinda-karat_1407175 Stand alone law needed for 'honour killing' cases: Brinda Karat PTI Thursday, July 8, 2010 22:24 IST New Delhi: Demanding a stand alone law to tackle 'honour killings', senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat today termed the government's decision to constitute a GoM to suggest changes in the law to tackle such incidents as a worst example of vote bank politics practiced by the UPA. Her comments came after a visit to two villages here after a panchayat ordered that all girls belonging to Dalit communities would be picked up from their homes if Priyanka, a Brahmin girl who had eloped with Sanjay, a Dalit boy, did not return home immediately. This is unfortunate. The government should have come out with a comprehensive law to deal with the issue. They have now come up with a GoM. The GoI (Government of India) has become GoM. They say they will consult states. They don't have a draft and what are they going to consult, she told PTI. This is the worst example of vote bank politics of UPA, she alleged. On her visit to the houses of Sanjay and Priyanka along with other women leaders, she said it appeared that the girl's family was not being aggressive against the boy's family but other villagers were. I went there to plead to them to allow the couple to lead a normal life. They were not that aggressive. It is the other villagers who are, she said. She said Sanjay's father had to mortgage his land for Rs 1.5 lakh to try and trace the couple. He is facing pressure from his village as well as the girl's village. Locals of the Dalit village are pressurising him to locate the couple, she said. Villagers of the Dalit hamlet apprehend that the locals from Priyanka's village will carry out the threat that they will take away their women if Priyanka does not go back to her home, she said.
[ZESTCaste] Vested interests and musclemen rule khap panchayats: Swami Agnivesh
http://sify.com/news/vested-interests-and-musclemen-rule-khap-panchayats-swami-agnivesh-news-national-kguokdhgecb.html Vested interests and musclemen rule khap panchayats: Swami Agnivesh 2010-06-20 14:10:00 Calling honour killings diabolical, social activist and former Haryana minister Swami Agnivesh says khap panchayats must end violence unleashed in the name of ancestral lineage. He admits that he was backed by caste councils in the past, but at that time these 'were credible bodies'. The Arya Samaj leader said khap panchayats should 'realise the exigencies of modernity and stop interfering in the private lives of villagers using violent tactics'. 'I was also backed by the khap panchayats in my political career in the state in the 1970s,' Agnivesh told IANS in an interview. 'But then, the khap panchayats were credible and influential bodies with a social outlook.' The Arya Samaj leader alleged that the khap panchayats lost direction in the past 10 years or so. 'They have been highly politicised. Vested interests and musclemen are holding sway. These panchayats have become highly male-dominated. Forget about women, even young men have no say at the khap meetings,' he said. Agnivesh condemned the effort by khaps to defend and glorify people sentenced to death for honour killings in the Karnal case in which a young couple from Kaithal district in Haryana had been brutally killed in 2007 for marrying in the same 'gotra', or sub-caste. Khap panchayats should instead cooperate in ensuring the rule of the law and strive for social reforms, he said. Agnivesh pointed out that honour killings have become an all-India phenomenon. 'Recently, disturbing reports of honour killings have come from Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Worst, in the national capital, a couple was tortured throughout the night and electrocuted last week. If this happens in New Delhi, one can imagine the situation in remote rural areas,' he said. However, he said the 'epicentre' of such killings remains Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. 'Nowadays, no village is a completely isolated entity. Villages are not cocoons. The divisions and boundaries between a city and the villages have been blurred as several villagers go to city for work,' he said. 'Like that, many city people have strong links with the rural areas. So, the ban on marriages among people from the same village is neither logical nor practical,' he argued. While emphasising that honour killings were no answer, Agnivesh said there was some merit to the objections to same gotra marriages. 'Medical science is against marriage between close relatives. Arya Samaj founder Dayanand Saraswati advocated marriage between people belonging to distant places. But this does not mean an Arya Samaj priest has the right to refuse to conduct a same-gotra marriage. Nor is killing the answer to a same-gotra marriage,' he stressed. Will the Arya Samaj initiate steps to create social awareness in khap-dominated regions? Agnivesh claims moves are afoot. He has already addressed 600 college girls in Rohtak in Haryana, calling upon them to strive for social reforms. Agnivesh said he could understand why political leaders of the region were adopting a 'meaningful silence' or indirectly supporting the khap panchayats. 'As far as khap panchayat leaders are concerned, I am ready to meet them without any fear at any place or time they propose. I am confident of convincing them to stop causing social tension in the name of honour of the gotras,' Agnivesh said. (George Joseph can be contacted at georg...@ians.in )
[ZESTCaste] Cabinet sends bill on khaps to GoM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cabinet-sends-bill-on-khaps-to-GoM/articleshow/6144531.cms Cabinet sends bill on khaps to GoM Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Jul 9, 2010, 01.25am IST NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Thursday referred a standalone law to deal with honour killings to a group of ministers, after several members found fault with the proposal to amend the existing law to deal with the menace. The GoM will submit its recommendation after getting inputs from states in the next 3-4 weeks so that a bill designed to deter honour killings can be introduced, as planned, in Parliament during the month-long monsoon session beginning on July 26. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to refer it to a GoM after several ministers questioned the efficacy of the home ministry-drafted bill, which proposed slapping murder charges on all those participting in khap panchayats' decisions to kill couples marrying against social norms. The objections raised by ministers with sound legal background were not about the desirability of treating connivance and support for khap's sanction for honour killings as murder, liable to be punished with death penalty. The resistance was more because of doubts that the objective could be best served by amending Section 300 of IPC to include participation in khap's calls for honour killings as an additional criterion of what constitutes murder. Members of the Cabinet like HRD minister Kapil Sibal, highways minister Kamal Nath and sports minister M S Gill expressed doubts that the proposal in the draft Indian Penal Code and Certain Other Laws (Amendment) Bill was the best way to go about the task. However, as the PM acknowledged the need for wider consultation and decided to send the matter to a GoM, his colleagues like information minister Ambika Soni, urban development minister Jaipal Reddy and telecom minister A Raja stresssed that government could not afford to be seen as doing nothing in response to a problem that has, while revulsing many sections, threatened to become a trend and could inspire copycat crimes. Talking to media, Soni talked of the presence of public opinion as she stressed that the task of bringing a bill would be accomplished during the mosoon session itself. The emphasis was necessary in view of the impression, generated by support for and ambivalence over honour killings by those like Congress MP Navin Jindal, that sections of the political class may be sympathetic of khaps viewing inter-caste and intra-gotra marriages as dishonour to the community. In the meeting of the Cabinet, ministers with a legal background, like Sibal, questioned the desirability of the home ministry's proposal to add fifthly clause to Section 300 saying that the most it could achieve was to make the participants in a honour killing decision liable as conspirators or abettors of the murder. Sibal, according to sources, pointed out that this was redundant since the IPC already provided for roping in a person as a conspirator or an abettor if he had played some role in planning and/or facilitated execution of the murderous plan. Gill termed it as impractical, Kamal Nath said all options needed to be explored and the approach should be cautious, pointing out that while people may turn out for a meeting of the caste panchayat, they may not have any role in the decision taken by the body. He also cautioned that a law that was loosely defined could be misused and, hence, could prove to be counter-productive. Sibal, according to sources, said for the social menace of honour killings to be stopped, it would be better to have a specific law on the lines of Prevention of Corruption Act or Dowry Prohibition Act -- which were brought in to deal with crimes which were not expressly mentioned in the IPC. It was also pointed out that even existing laws could be strong enough a deterrent, if state governments had the necessary will -- an argument made outside also by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh. Why not make a law that would punish a politician if he participated in khap panchayats or supported their views -- was one of the arguments that was put up during the discussions to drive home the point on the political will of the state governments to deal with the social evil. Since law and order is a state subject, the Cabinet felt the bill should be referred to a GoM which would consult state governments and take their suggestions on the need for a specific law. The preparation to draft a bill to amend IPC to make honour killings distinct from ordinary murders gained speed after attorney general G E Vahanvati gave an opinion answering in the affirmative the home ministry's query `whether legislative intervention was necessary to make honour killings a specific offence'. The push for the possible amendment of IPC to make honour killings a separate offence and make it distinct and wider from ordinary murders came from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which in the recent
[ZESTCaste] Dalits under the upper caste heel in Siraha
http://www.ekantipur.com/2010/07/07/most-popular/Dalits-under-the-upper-caste-heel-in-Siraha/318001/ Dalits under the upper caste heel in Siraha BHARAT JARGHAMAGAR LAHAN, JUL 07 - Unable to face constant discrimination meted out by so-called upper caste villagers, four Dalit families of Ruwale at Chandrodayapur-4, Siraha, are planning to leave their village. The ban on the use of a public water well for the Dalit households by the elite-caste villagers forced Dalits to find every possible ways to lead a normal life being free from social prejudice. Here we don’t get drinking water even when we are thirsty. So it’s better we move out, said Kanchan Mijhar, a Dalit who has faced injustice at the hands of people who have self-proclaimed themselves as upper caste. Located at the foothills of the Chure Range, Ruwale has 17 households, largely dominated by the Magar community. The well built by District Development Office, Siraha, more than 20 years ago is the only source of water for Ruwale residents. However, Dalit families are not allowed to go to the well whenever other villagers are around. The prohibition was enforced from last month, according to the Dalit families. The other village members occupy the well for an entire day, Durga Mijhar said. Even if we’re dying for drinking water we are forced to keep distance from the well, she lamented. The worst is they have to face retribution for just getting too close to the well. Dalits should pay the fine in the form of utensils and other household objects to the non-Dalit families. Only recently, people from the Magar community beat up Ganesh Mijhar and Aitlal Mijhar for tainting the water by merely coming in the contact of the well. Since they belong to the lower caste we do not allow them to use the well when we are there, said Tej Kumari Ruwale Magar. Though caste-based discrimination was outlawed in the country some 47 years ago, Dalit families here still face discrimination. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Magars ban dalits from using well
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_detailsnews_id=20722 Magars ban dalits from using well MITHILESH YADAV SIRAHA (DHARAMPUR), July 6: The Magar community in Chandrodayapur-4, Dharampur of Siraha has banned dalit families from using a public well. The dalits have lodged a formal complaint of untouchability against the Magars with support from the Crime Vigilance Center. Siraha district police chief Ramesh Bhattarai has assured that action has been initiated in the case. Representative of the center, Radheshyam Ram, said the Magars have stopped the Mijars from filling water for the last one month. The ban came following a dispute between the communities after two Mijar kids were thrashed for trying to drink water from the well when Magars were filling water. Local Tej Kumari Ruwa had thrashed five-year-olds Ashok and Subhash when they went to the well to drink water on their way home from school on June 9, according to Rishi Maya Mijar, a local. “When we went to drink water from the well, she thrashed us saying untouchables should not touch the well,” Ashok recalls. “Our kids are still terrified to go near the well since the incident,” Rishi Maya rues and adds, “We will have to leave the village if we are prevented from filling water from the only well in the village.” The four Mijar households in the village are having torrid time after the ban as they require more water to drink during the summer heat. “We don´t get water to drink even in such hot weather. The police administration also is not sensitive to our plight and has done nothing despite our complaints,” Kanchan, the mother of thrashed Mijar kid Ashok, says. The well dug by Siraha District Development Committee around 22 years ago is the only means of drinking water for 17 households, including 11 of Magars and two of Halwais, in the Ruwale Tole. The Magars, however, claim they have not banned Mijars from filling water. “We have let them use the well at other times. They cannot fill water with us as they are from a lower caste,” argues Tej Kumari, who thrashed the Mijar kids. Untouchability has been banned by the law since 1963. Published on 2010-07-06 19:42:51 INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Maya’s cultural jaal (Maya’s cultural jaal)
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/op-ed/maya%E2%80%99s-cultural-jaal-707 Maya’s cultural jaal July 7th, 2010 By Kancha Ilaiah When the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms Mayawati, changed her ideological position from Bahujan Samaj formulated by her mentor Kanshi Ram to Sarvajan Samaj there was elation among the upper caste intellectuals and sadness among the dalit-bahujan intellectuals. Delhi-based intellectuals, who usually hate Ms Mayawati, started praising her for her accommodative approach and for leaving behind the confrontational approach of Kanshi Ram. In fact, many were surprised how a militant anti-manuwadi woman leader could compromise with the Uttar Pradesh brahmins against whom she had been fighting so virulently. When she worked out a formula for roping the Uttar Pradesh brahmins into the fold of her votebank by repositioning her party’s slogan itself, from Bahujan Samaj to Sarvajan Samaj, several dalit-bahujan scholars thought that this would be the end of Ambedkarism in Uttar Pradesh, even north India. Kanshi Ram’s death had led to depression in the dalit-bahujan political circles of the nation. Kanshi Ram was an inspiring and uncompromising political and intellectual leader and Ms Mayawati was not seen as a leader in her own right then. I too was very sceptical of her abilities to lead the Bahujan Samaj Party in a manner that could help it survive — leave alone coming to power as it did later. Once she came to power there was also speculation that she would serve the brahminical interests — leaving Kanshi Ram’s legacy behind. However, it has now become evident that in the cultural realm she is simply dalitising the whole state. This was something unexpected. Not only are districts being renamed after dalit-bahujan icons, but the very ethos of Uttar Pradesh is undergoing a revolutionary change now. Ms Mayawati has built many monuments on the Navayana Buddhist theme (navayana is Pali for new vehicle). Navayana Buddhist refers to the idea that a Buddhist movement may represent a new yana. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: “I will accept and follow the teachings of Buddha. I will keep my people away from the different opinions of Hinyan and Mahayan, two religious orders. Our Bouddha Dhamma is a new Bouddha Dhamma, Navayan”. The Buddhist and Ambedkar parks that Ms Mayawati is building will inevitably reduce the spiritual significance of Ayodhya, Kashi-Benares, Mathura and so on. By renaming districts after Ambedkar, Phule, Sahuji Maharaj, Rama Bai (the illiterate first wife of Ambedkar), the dalit-bahujan icons of Maharashtra and the birthplace of Navayana Buddhism, she has changed Uttar Pradesh’s cultural atmosphere itself. Of course, Kanshi Ram and Ms Mayawati herself have been elevated as icons in the process. In Uttar Pradesh, they are not only names of districts but their statues are being worshipped in Ambedkar parks. Ms Mayawati’s decision to transform the cultural realm of Uttar Pradesh would certainly have all-India implications. I do not think that the brahmins of Uttar Pradesh are in a position to resist this transformation. She has put it on an irreversible course. The Congress cannot stall this course either. Wherever the Congress is in power, they have named institutions after Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. But they do not have any culturally transformative implications. Buddha, Ambedkar, Phule, Sahuji Maharaj, Periyar, Kanshi Ram and so on are not like that. They have serious anti-Hindu cultural implications. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) knows this but is not in a position to do anything because it burnt its hands in Ayodhya and Gujarat. Further, the BJP cannot say that these are anti-national icons. Likewise, the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav cannot reverse or stop the trend because he has no alternative of his own to offer. His party is now competing for power for the sake of power, without constructing any socio-cultural agenda of its own. Its icons, Ram Manohar Lohia and Charan Singh, do not have much impact in the cultural realm, unlike Ambedkar. The fact is that unless icons are associated with alternative spiritual culture they do not create a following that lasts long. In the modern period only Ambedkar did that and Kanshi Ram brought that icon into unbelievable achievability. And Ms Mayawati’s dalit common sense captured that imagination very well. Even if the Congress, the SP or the BJP come to power they will not be able to dismantle the Ambedkar parks or rename the districts. Earlier, Ms Mayawati was in power only for six months each time — that too with the BJP’s support. But now she will be there for full five years and the chances of her getting re-elected are very high. If she is in power for 10 years, Uttar Pradesh’s cultural history will change beyond recognition. Not many know that Kanshi Ram had a vision of constructing the biggest Ambedkarite Buddha Vihara in Uttar Pradesh along with a massive international airport in
[ZESTCaste] Boycott of Dalits raised in Council
http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/07/stories/2010070756420400.htm Karnataka - Bangalore Boycott of Dalits raised in Council Special Correspondent BANGALORE: The Legislative Council on Tuesday expressed concern over the alleged social boycott of Dalits in Ankanahalli village of Kootagal hobli in Ramanagaram district by “upper caste” people. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, R.V. Venkatesh (Congress) alleged that the Dalits had been facing boycott over the last fortnight. This was proof that untouchability was still prevalent in society, he said. . Leader of the Opposition Motamma expressed shock over such boycotts and demanded that the Government should immediately act against it. Council Chairman D.H. Shankaramurthy joined the members in condemning the incident and described it as a “serious issue”. He said he would allow a separate discussion on the issue in a bid to send a strong message against such inhuman practices. Teachers' salaries Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri assured the Legislative Council that the Government would soon provide salaries to teachers of aided private schools whose grants had been stopped by the Government for the last 10 months in the wake of the austerity measures enforced as a fallout of the flood havoc in the northern districts. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Mayawati takes oath as member of UP Legislative Council
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Mayawati-takes-oath-as-member-of-UP-Legislative-Council/Article1-568725.aspx Mayawati takes oath as member of UP Legislative Council Press Trust Of India Lucknow, July 07, 2010First Published: 13:35 IST(7/7/2010) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati on Wednesday took oath as member of the state Legislative Council after being elected for the second consecutive term. Chairman of the Council Ganmesh Shanker Pandey administered the oath to Mayawati at Tilak Hall of Vidhan Bhawan. Ten other newly elected members, including Athar Khan, Rishipal, Ram Kumar Kreel, Lalchand, Veerendra Kumar, Satish Chand and Subodh Kumar, all BSP, Yashwant Singh of SP, BJP's Hriday Narain Dixit and Naseeb Pathan Congress also took the oath. Two more newly elected members Balram Yadav and Ramsunder were not present on the occasion. Thirteen members were elected to the Upper House on June 3 for seats which fell vacant on Tuesday.
[ZESTCaste] Khap Panchayat near Delhi 'orders killing of eloped couple'
http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/khap-panchayat-near-delhi-orders-killing-of-eloped-couple-35803 Khap Panchayat near Delhi 'orders killing of eloped couple' NDTV Correspondent, Updated: July 06, 2010 15:22 IST Greater Noida: A Khap Panchayat in Greater Noida has ruled that a Dalit boy, who apparently eloped with a Brahmin girl from another village, will have to face the consequences if the girl does not return home. The boy's family in village Daula has alleged that the Khap Panchayat has ordered the killing of the couple. His family members also claim that the Panchayat has threatened other women of the village against committing such things. The Greater Noida police said the residents of the boy's village will be given protection.
[ZESTCaste] As revenge, panchayat orders Dalit girls’ kidnap
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/revenge-panchayat-orders-dalit-girls%E2%80%99-kidnap-791 As revenge, panchayat orders Dalit girls’ kidnap July 7th, 2010 DC Correspondent Lucknow, July 6: In a bizarre turn of events, a village panchayat in Greater Noida has ordered that all girls belonging to Dalit communities would be “picked up” from their homes if Ms Priyanka, a Brahmin girl who had eloped with Mr Sanjay, a Dalit boy, did not return home immediately. As a result of the panchayat diktat, Dalits in the village have started fleeing and over two dozen families have already left the village. “We are poor and cannot prevent the panchayat from carrying out its orders since this village is dominated by a Brahmin population. To save the honour of our girls, we are leaving the village,” said a senior member of a Dalit family. According to reports reaching here, the incident took place in Daula village in Greater Noida. Mr Sanjay and Ms Priyanka eloped on June 24 and have remained untraceable ever since. The two fell in love while they were studying in a college in Dadri two years ago. The two completed their graduation from the college and started teaching in a private public school. They were sacked from the school when the school management came to know about their love affair and the opposition from their respective families. On June 24, Ms Priyanka went missing and it was assumed that she had eloped with Mr Sanjay. When the two did not return, the village panchayat ordered that all Dalit girls in the village would be “picked up” from their homes as a “revenge”. The SP of Greater Noida, Mr S.K. Verma, said that security in the village has been beefed up to ensure the safety of Dalit families. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Panchayat threat to lovers in Greater Noida
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Panchayat-threat-to-lovers-in-Greater-Noida/articleshow/6131666.cms Panchayat threat to lovers in Greater Noida IANS, Jul 5, 2010, 08.17pm IST GREATER NOIDA: Some rural areas of Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida township were tense on Monday after a village panchayat issued shoot-at-sight orders against two lovers belonging to different castes, police said, adding that security in the village had been beefed up. The panchayat of village Daula-Razpura has issued the orders against Sanjay and Preeti, both in their mid-20s. Panchayats of a few villages nearby have also supported the diktat. We have information that the boy and the girl were not allowed to marry so they had fled the village. The Dalit community men are under fear since the village is dominated by Brahmins. We shall provide them security, said Superintendent of Police (Greater Noida) S.K. Verma. The lovers are untraceable since June 24, police said. Sanjay, a Dalit, and Preeti, a Brahmin, fell in love while they were studying in a college in Dadri two years ago, police said. They completed their graduation from the college and started teaching in a private public school there, police said. They were sacked from the school when the school management came to know that both were in love but had not married so far on account of facing a bitter opposition from the girl's family, police said. According to police, the girl reportedly took shelter in her maternal uncle's house in Sehatpur while the boy remained untraceable. But the girl had to leave the village after her hide became public. In the meantime, the village panchayats of Maycha, Azalpur and Singhawali have also endorsed the ordered to shoot them.
[ZESTCaste] Now, honour killing rocks TN: Father attacks daughter
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/-Now-honour-killing-rocks-TN-Father-attacks-daughter/articleshow/6136096.cms Now, honour killing rocks TN: Father attacks daughter Shalini Umachandran Padmini Sivarajah, TNN, Jul 7, 2010, 01.41am IST Shocking case of honour killing in ChennaiCHENNAI/MADURAI: If you thought honour killings are confined to northern states, here’s a reality check: a Tamil Nadu girl, who eloped with her boyfriend after she was married off to a man 15 years older to her, paid a heavy price for it. She lost her lover and was brutally attacked and ostracized by her family and community. Megala decided to follow her heart. And paid a heavy price for it, losing her lover and being attacked and ostracised by her family and community in Manamadurai. The latest in a series of such attacks on women in the state, the Megala case dispels the popular notion that 'honour killings' are confined to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the north; southern states such as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh too witness similar incidents periodically. Many of them are sparked off when educated single women walk out of their homes and choose their own partners, sometimes from another community or caste. Honour crimes and killings take place when young people challenge accepted norms of marriage, according to a study commissioned by the National Commission for Women (NCW). Megala, 20, and Sivakumar, 24, were told they couldn't marry as they were related. Her family married her off in June. Ten days after the wedding, she ran away with Sivakumar. Her family tracked the couple down and attacked Sivakumar with 'aruvaals'. Sivakumar died on the spot, and his killers, who included her father and brother, have been arrested. Megala, now in hospital, says that everyone in her village, including her mother, feels that the punishment is justified as she brought shame to her village and the Thevar community to which she belongs. The accusation against her are virtually the same as those made against victims in north India. The NCW study, still underway, shows that of the 326 cases of conflict surveyed so far nationwide, 72% were because the couple crossed caste barriers and only 3% were because the couple were from the same gotra. Women are making their own choices and in a patriarchal set-up this causes problems, says Ravi Kant, Supreme Court advocate and president of Shakti Vahini, the organisation that is conducting the study for NCW. Activists in Tamil Nadu endorse this view. Honour killings are not unheard of in TN. The basis is usually caste, more often than not a Dalit boy marrying an upper caste girl, says U Vasuki, general secretary, All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA). But there is no data available to indicate the extent of the problem, primarily because cases are registered as murder under the IPC without charges to indicate that it may be an honour killing. If the case involves a Dalit and a non-Dalit, it is registered under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Panchayat: Return our girl or we take yours
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/panchayat-return-our-girl-or-we-take-yours/643098/ Panchayat: Return our girl or we take yours Pragya Kaushika,Pragya Kaushika Posted: Jul 07, 2010 at 0101 hrs Greater NOIDA A caste panchayat in Greater Noida has threatened to abduct a girl and two boys from a Dalit village if a Brahmin girl, who allegedly eloped with a Jatav boy on June 24, was not sent back home. The panchayat issued the diktat after Priyanka Sharma (21), daughter of Rajendra Sharma of Mandaiya village, allegedly eloped with one Sanjay Jatav (24), of Daula village. Village elders from Mandaiya held a panchayat in at the boy’s house in Daula and decided that if the girl was not sent back, the Brahmin villagers will abduct a girl and two boys from the Dalit village. Sanjay’s father Kanchi Jatav claimed the girl’s family held him and his brother hostage for some time on Sunday. “When the police were informed, the Brahmins fled... but they threatened to abduct a girl. We have sent our women out of the village till the matter is resolved,” he said, adding that he had no clue where his son and the girl were. Gautam Budh Nagar’s SP (Rural) Surender Verma said the police have registered a case of attempt to murder and criminal intimidation against 40 villagers from Mandaiya. “We have warned the community against any unlawful action. The whereabouts of the couple are still unknown and we have assured that they will be protected when they return,” Verma stated. “An addition platoon of armed police have been deployed in the village. A Circle Officer and two inspectors have also been camping in the village,” he added. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Glitches in Babasaheb Ambedkar photo biography
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_glitches-in-babasaheb-ambedkar-photo-biography_1405382 Glitches in Babasaheb Ambedkar photo biography Alok Deshpande / DNAMonday, July 5, 2010 1:37 IST Mumbai: The photo biography Babasaheb Ambedkar published by the state government was supposed to be a great guide for students and researchers to the leader’s life. However, it has turned out to be a storehouse of factual and grammatical glitches. The 212-page book, brought out by the Babasaheb Ambedkar Source Material Publication Committee on April 14, carries some rare photographs depicting Ambedkar’s eventful life. But some of the pictures don’t carry basic information such as names of the people present, the date the photograph was taken and the event. “Just have one look at the book and you will find many mistakes,” Ramesh Shinde, aresearcher on Ambedkar, told DNA. Page 143 of the Marathi edition of the book says Ambedkar brought the Khoti system abolition bill in 1936. “How is it possible? The assembly elections were held on February 2, 1937. How could he introduce the bill in 1936 without getting elected? The bill was actually introduced on September 17, 1937,” Shinde said. Citing another major mistake on page 187, Shinde said the book does not mention the very important fact that after getting converted to Buddhism on October 14, 1956, Ambedkar himself converted the congregation of his followers to Buddhism by reciting 22 pledges to them. The book does not mention this at all. “This will misinform the reader as the book suggests that Mahasthavir Bhikku Chandramani converted the mass to Buddhism,” said Shinde. On page 25, the book says that Ambedkar had to return to Mumbai from Baroda after his father’s demise on February 2, 1913. But all the biographers of the leader have mentioned that he started his journey from Baroda after receiving the news of his father’s serious illness. He missed the train at Surat, but still managed to come to Mumbai where he met his father. His father died after the meeting. The publisher of Ambedkar’sthesis ‘The problem of the rupee’ was PS King and Sons Ltd, London, and not King and Company, London, as the book mentions. Moreover, page 27 and 28 mention two professors, JA Hobson and LT Hobhouse, from London School of Economics. “Who are these people? None of the biographers knows about these two,” tells Shinde. The book mentions the years of his visits to Sri Lanka and Rangoon as 1954 and 1955, which in reality are 1950 and 1954. There are a few misses inthe translation also. The first paragraph on page 151 of the English edition of the book is not included in the Marathi edition. A photo biography is meant to provide some exclusive and rare photos. Some of the photos in this book are without any caption. Page 116 and 118 carry the same photo. The quotations on top of the page are without context. There’s no information on the article or speech from where the quotations have been taken. This book is a government publication, which people consider as authentic. The wrong information could provide a twisted version of the leader’s life, feel activists and researchers. They want re-editing of the book by experts. When contacted, the editor of the book, professor Hari Narke, agreed that there could be some printing errors in the book. “If there are factual errors, then let us study them. We will try to correct the mistakes we detect,” said Narke. He emphasised that this was not a critical biography of Ambedkar but just a photo biography. “We will clear the mistakes, if any, in the next copy,” added Narke. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject
[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman assaulted over construction of house
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Allahabad/Dalit-woman-assaulted-over-construction-of-house/articleshow/6125931.cms Dalit woman assaulted over construction of house TNN, Jul 4, 2010, 12.29am IST Allahabad: Tension mounted in Seetalpur Tikri village under Tharwai police station on Saturday when a group of persons belonging to an upper caste allegedly assaulted a 35-year-old Dalit woman and ransacked her temporary house. The woman alleged that she was paraded naked in the village but the the police found this allegation as false. Superintendent of police, trans-Ganga, VK Mishra said that the woman was assaulted by one Devi Prasad Mishra and his family members. They also ransacked her temporary house and damaged the household items. Mishra is the owner of the land. His family had allowed the dalit woman to stay in the corner of the land. When Devi Prasad and his family members noticed that the woman was trying to construct a permanent house at the behest of the gram pradhan, they raised objections and asked the woman to desist from doing so. About a fortnight back, the woman made an attempt to construct a permanent structure. Mishra and his family members stopped her. On Saturday, the woman again started the construction work and the land owner raised tried to stop her. When she refused to stop the construction, Mishra and his family members allegedly assaulted her and ransacked the temporary structure. In the meantime, a group of villagers spread the news that the dalit was allegedly paraded naked. On receiving this information, senior police officials rushed to the spot and found that it was a dispute between Mishra and the woman over constructions. A case was lodged against Mishra under SC/ST Act. The police would also initiate action against the persons involved in spreading the rumour that a dalit woman had been paraded naked.
[ZESTCaste] Video-Bathukamma, A Backward Caste Festival says Kancha Ilaiah
Bathukamma, A Backward Caste Festival says Kancha Ilaiah http://www.game1010.com/video/video/eqkhBM5ynrQ/Bathukamma-A-Backward-Caste-Festival-says-Kancha-Ilaiah-flv.html
[ZESTCaste] Ambedkar’s complete works a bestseller
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/ambedkar%E2%80%99s-complete-works-a-bestseller/187006.html Ambedkar’s complete works a bestseller Express News ServiceFirst Published : 05 Jul 2010 12:40:26 AM ISTLast Updated : THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The writings of Dr B R Ambedkar are attracting book-lovers to the annual book fair organised by the State Institute of Languages at the VJT Hall here in the city. Among the 18,000 books exhibited in over 2,500-odd titles, ‘Dr. Ambedkar: The Complete Works’ is becoming one of the main attractions. The collection, which spans over 34 volumes, is the first of its kind in Malayalam. No other publisher has so far published the complete works of Dr Ambedkar for Malayalam readers. M Rajendran, the coordinator of the exhibition, told ‘Expresso’ that it was for the first time the 34 volumes of Ambedkar’s complete works were put for exhibition in Kerala. “The response from the public is very warm that by the third day of the exhibition, many volumes in the complete works have been sold out,” he added. The paperback edition of all 34 volumes together costs Rs 1,200 at the exhibition. Shamlal T A, a research aspirant from Kochi, was delighted to find the complete works of Ambedkar in the exhibition. He said that he had been searching for it in many other places, but he found it only here. The Institute has sold books worth more than Rs 1.5 lakh within three days, according to the coordinator of the exhibition. Apart from Dr Ambedkar’s works, the exhibition presents books ranging from science and technology, literature, history to folklore. Books on health, fisheries, agriculture, music, films and biographies of famous personalities are also kept for sale. The exhibition offers 20 to 60 percent discount on selected books for the visitors. It is on till July 10. trivand...@expressbuzz.com INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Dalits write to Hooda
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6080443.cms?prtpage=1 Dalits write to Hooda Deepender Deswal, TNN, Jun 23, 2010, 02.31am IST ROHTAK: At Bopara, around five or six youths assaulted Bhoop Singh with lathis on Tuesday. The victim, who is a Dalit and a relative of the newly-elected sarpanch, also named Bhoop Singh, was beaten up following a verbal duel on the ongoing controversy over the recently conducted panchayat elections. The sarpanch had triggered the casteist row by participating in the polls despite a call for boycott on the ground that all major panchayat and zila parishad posts had been reserved for Scheduled Castes. Claiming that certain elements from both the communities were trying to vitiate the atmosphere by engaging in casteist row, former zila parishad chairman Miterpal Singh told TOI, “The issue (caste conflict) is being raised without any reason as there has never been any rift between communities in our village. If the entire village is unanimous on a issue and a certain person prefers to disagree, then others, too, have a right to disagree or break ties with him.” Meanwhile, the Dalits have written to chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, asking him to ensure their security. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Amar claims life threat from Maya and Mulayam
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Amar-claims-life-threat-from-Maya-and-Mulayam/articleshow/6128974.cms Amar claims life threat from Maya and Mulayam TNN, Jul 5, 2010, 12.20am IST LUCKNOW: National president of the recently launched Lok Manch (LM), Amar Singh has claimed that he faces serious threat to his life from UP chief minister Mayawati and his former boss, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. In Lucknow on Sunday to inaugurate the state headquarters of Lok Manch, Amar Singh said: They cannot see me emerging as an independent leader. The threat was not limited to his life alone. If anything happens to me, my family or my fellow leaders of Lok Manch then these two leaders must be held directly responsible for it, Amar Singh said while talking to mediapersons. One doesn't know what is the basis of Amar's claim, but fellow politicians in the state are taking it with a pinch of salt. One of them even went up to the extent of saying that `Amar was most threatened politician' -- obviously not in the true sense of words. When asked to comment about Mulayam Singh Yadav's move to write to the Centre for removing the security cover that is provided to him, Amar Singh said: Mulayam Singhji koi Bharat sarkar ke grih mantri to hain nahi, (Mulayam is not the home minister of the central government). About his stance on a separate Poorvanchal state, Singh said that now on, only promising support to its formation will not do. He said Lok Manch was all set to launch a padyatra starting December 1 next from Allahabad to Gorakhpur to press for its demand for early formation of the new state.
[ZESTCaste] Celebrating Diversity And Inclusiveness In The Age of Consent
http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=19557 Celebrating Diversity And Inclusiveness In The Age of Consent Sunday, July 04, 2010 One year ago, on July 2nd 2009, a Delhi High Court division bench of Chief Justice AP Shah and Justice S Muralidhar said We declare that Section 377 IPC, insofar it criminalizes consensual sexual acts of adults in private, is violative of Articles 21, 14 and 15 of the Constitution. It upheld one of the primary principles of natural justice, 'right to consent' and restored the dignity and rights of millions of those whose existence in the society was not even acknowledged. Needless to say that while it was a result of a long struggle by a lot of people that a judgement of this kind came in, and that is not a mean achievement, however, implementation of this is important. Just having a law is not enough. In this one year we have seen many changes in the society and do hope this will go a long way in ending the life-long harassment and discrimination in schools, colleges, workspaces, homes, the streets and everywhere. The fight against the discrimination in the name of caste, class, patriarchy and religion has to be led at this front too and everybody will have to come to the fore of it. After all in this age of consent, the cardinal principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity has to be upheld not only by states but also by the civil society. We need to note that inspite of having a law to prevent the atrocities and discrimination against the dalits and tribals still they are being subject to all kinds of discrimination and face violence in everyday life. What is needed is a political will for enforcing the law and people recognising the value of dignity and a societal acceptance of these values. With dignity, the right to life and dignified livelihood of everyone has to be respected and that is why it becomes important that queer community joins hands with dalits, adivasis, farmers, workers, fisher folks, forest dwellers and others in their struggle for a better life. These struggles are not of one community alone but are linked and is a struggle of everyone. This would make the true rainbow alliance and ensure diversity and plurality within the movement. Justice shah and Muralidhar cited Dr. Ambedkar's notion of constitutional morality and Pt. Nehru's idea of equality, and recognized that: If there is one constitutional tenet that can be said to be underlying theme of the Indian Constitution, it is that of 'inclusiveness'. And further that, It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster the dignity of every individual. The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) joins hands with the queer movement in celebrating a year since this judgement and urges the movement to also come forward in tune with the struggle of millions for a dignified livelihood and to end continuing violence unleashed by the neo-liberal policies of the government on the people. The challenges are many and we have to spread far and wide and lend our shoulders with struggling people everywhere and take the movement to hitherto unreachable places in villages and smaller towns as well. As a movement let us make sure that round the year we are on the streets fighting the injustice everywhere not only when our individual freedom and rights are at stake. As a movement we have to stand with everyone and everywhere against discrimination, oppression and injustice. Celebrating diversity, plurality and for a rainbow of resistances against injustice and violence ... (CNS) Medha Patkar – CNS (The author is a noted social activist in India, leading the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) and is globally acclaimed for her absolute commitment to strive for human rights and social justice) INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to:
[ZESTCaste] Pray, it’s Goddess English
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/82/201007042010070401502576272ca721d/Pray-it%E2%80%99s-Goddess-English.html Pray, it’s Goddess English In Uttar Pradesh, ABCD has found an unmatched reverence with a temple being built in its name Vikas.Hotwani Posted On Sunday, July 04, 2010 at 01:50:25 AM When a Dalit baby is born in the Lakhinpur Kheri district of UP, someone from the family whispers ABCD in his left ear and 1,2,3,4 in the right. Amusing as it may sound, this is the newborn’s first brush with the ‘alchemist’ language. In a society where caste difference rears its ugly head every now and then, the language of science has risen to a level worthy of veneration. It’s not just a passport to success, but a ‘Goddess’ who stands witness to nuptials where couples pledge English education for their future children. The latest show of appreciation is an under-construction temple dedicated to the Goddess. “Once a mother starts worshipping Goddess English, her child will embrace the language too. And when there’s a demand (for English and education at large) from parents, the schools are bound to improve as well,” says Dalit activist and sociologist Chandra Bhan Prasad, the man behind this endeavour. In a country where Gods and Goddesses are seldom questioned, devotees feel that attaching a pious identity to the modern language is the easiest way to slip it into the realms of everyday life. Thereby, comes into play the meticulously scripted idol of the Goddess. Holding a pen in one hand and the Indian Constitution (crafted by a Dalit Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar himself) in the other, the two-and-a-half feet bronze idol stands atop a computer whose screen bears the Dhamma Chakra. The temple’s blueprint echoes the importance of technical knowledge to accompany the language of science. “The front two pillars will stand on computer-shaped blocks, the steps will replicate a keyboard and the roof shall unfold like a book,” explains Prasad. The construction that started a fortnight back aims to be completed by October 25, the birthday of late Lord Macaulay, the man who initiated English into India. Even as the temple comes up in the premises of the Nalanda Public School, the Goddess that rests in the principal’s office already has worshippers making a beeline for darshan. The success stories of those who were ‘blessed’ by this language are there for everyone to see. Each one wants a share of the aspired life. The veneration is visible in the humble donations that keep trickling in. “Some even donate small quintals of wheat,” says Prasad. In the presence of handful activists, scholars, teachers and many locals, the foundation stone of the 800 sq ft temple was laid with a simple ceremony. The women got together and sung praises to their new Goddess. “The idea is to not get caught in rituals. Not that they are any measures of devotion any way,” adds Prasad. The temple is slowly turning into a flag-bearer of awakening, a standing ‘instruction’ for the 500-odd children of the school (and their parents) of the tried-and-tested formula of success — study English. As Prasad sums it, “To us, native languages such as Hindi and Marathi are like night soil. We don’t want to carry night soils on our heads any more. After all, even the government has banned that practice.” Once a mother starts worshipping Goddess English, her child will embrace the language INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Keeping caste system intact
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/keeping-caste-system-intact-1.649296 Keeping caste system intact A visit through parts of Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh may tell you that Khaps are most cruel when a boy from a lower caste or poor family happens to fall for a girl from an upper caste or affluent family as such alliances threaten to dissolve the prevalent caste and social system. By Narendra Kaushik, Correspondent Published: 00:00 July 3, 2010 Villagers after attending a panchayat, or village council meeting, at Balla in Haryana. Growing economic opportunities have made 'love marriages' more common. Image Credit: Reuters New Delhi: The Khap panchayats are not just about medieval practices of the clans. They are as much an attempt to perpetuate caste hierarchies, oppression of the poor and disadvantaged and gender discrimination. A visit through parts of Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh may tell you that Khaps are most cruel when a boy from a lower caste or poor family happens to fall for a girl from an upper caste or affluent family as such alliances threaten to dissolve the prevalent caste and social system. There are villages where the panchayats have applied different yardsticks for identical cases. In Sasrauli, a village in Jhajjar district of Haryana State, the panchayat banished a blacksmith family when its ward Sunil eloped with Santosh, daughter of Gonsais, an upper caste in 2004. But it turned mute spectator to a similar match when a Brahmin (high caste) boy Naresh married Mukesh, a backward caste within the same village. Naresh belongs to an influential and educated family. Similarly in Kamashpur, a scheduled caste man Om Parkash was beaten up when he fell in love with a Punjabi girl from Sonepat even as at least a couple of Brahmin boys in his neighbourhood are married to the Punjabi girls. Jagmati Sangwan, president of All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) in Haryana, agrees that opposition of khap panchayats to inter caste marriages and honour killings are an attempt to keep the lower castes and the deprived at the lowest rung of society and denying freedom to women. The panchayats want to keep the caste system intact. The inter-caste marriages particularly the ones involving a boy from a lower caste and girl from a higher caste, will lead to an egalitarian structure which is not acceptable to the upper castes, she argues. Otherwise why is there no opposition to matches where the boy is from a high caste and the girl from a low caste? Sangwan also sees property rights to girls as behind the hullaballoo: If an upper caste girl marries a lower caste, she may demand her share of land from her family.
[ZESTCaste] Maya's name game has paid poll dividends
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/104013/India/maya%E2%80%99s-name-game-has-paid-poll-dividends.html Courtesy: Mail Today Maya's name game has paid poll dividends Piyush Srivastava Lucknow, July 3, 2010 Whoever says what's in a name should take a closer look at the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) electoral history. It's not for no reason that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has renamed the district carved out of Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi as Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. A name, or names, may well have been behind the rise and rise of the BSP's political fortune. Whenever in power, Mayawati has created new districts and named them after Dalit reformers. The strategy, political analysts say, has given her electoral dividends in the long run. Her party leaders believe it has been a motivating factor for Dalit voters to gradually mobilise under her leadership. Mayawati created Ambedkar Nagar out of Faizabad in June 1995 after she became chief minister for the first time. Out of five assembly seats falling in the district at that time, her party had won only two - Katehari and Akbarpur. But she reaped the dividends of her strategy in the 2007 assembly elections when she also won the three remaining seats - Chanda, Gosainganj and Ambedkar Nagar. Significantly, the BSP chief repeatedly reminded the voters during campaigning that she had named the district after a Dalit icon for the community's pride. Analysts say a careful and strategic planning goes into selecting the areas from which new districts are carved out and named after Dalit icons. She is doing this in places where she is either strong or sees a possibility to gain substantially, said A.K. Verma, professor of political science at Kanpur's Christ Church College. This is part of an effort to gradually create high-visibility areas for the BSP. If she names the areas after the leaders of a particular community, she is bound to gain in future. It is long-term politics… it consolidates her vote bank, Verma said. Why the strategy is working for Mayawati is summed up by BSP MLA from Sisani, Gendalal Chaudhary. It is related to Dalit pride. Our leaders and iconic personalities have been ignored by all the political parties. The people gain confidence when she names an area after a thinker who is known for Dalit uplift, Chaudhary said. According to an estimate, the BSP has gained at least three dozen assembly seats in the districts named after Dalitthinkers. Sant Kabir Nagar was carved out of Basti in March 1997, when Mayawati was CM for six months. At that time, her party held only the Haisar Bazar assembly seat in the district. But in the 2007 polls, it won four out of the five seats Haisar Bazar, Khalilabad, Khesraha and Sant Kabir Nagar - falling in the district. The BSP also won four of the five seats in Basti district - Basti, Mahadewa, Kaptanganj and Ram Nagar. Gautam Buddha Nagar was created out of Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr districts in June 1997. At that time, the BSP had two seats there. Though the composition of the constituencies falling in the district completely changed after delimitation, the BSP now holds all the six assembly seats in the district - Jewar, Dadri, Noida, Greater Noida, Sikandarabad and Khurja. Similarly, three of the five assembly seats falling in the Jyotiba Phule Nagar district, which was mainly carved out of Amroha in April 1997, are now with the BSP. Earlier, the party had only one seat there. In 1997, the Hathras district was formed and renamed Mahamaya Nagar ( named after Gautam Buddha's mother). Mayawati's party, which didn't have a single seat there at that time, opened its account in the 2002 state polls with one seat and gained two seats - Hathras and Sisani - in the 2007 polls. A BSP leader said: She renames those areas where she sees great hope for the party. But she also changes the names of those areas where the BSP is in a strong position. Political observers pointed out that in April 2008, she created Kanshiram Nagar by dividing Etah district and has now renamed Kanpur Rural as Ramabai Nagar because she sees a potential to develop these areas as a BSP stronghold. The Samajwadi Party scrapped some of the decisions of Mayawati when it was in power. For example, it had withdrawn her earlier notification to create the Sahuji Maharaj Nagar district in 2003. Despite that, she has gained from these decisions. Now, Rahul's Amethi has become the ninth district to be renamed after a Dalit icon. Given her electoral success after renaming districts, Mayawati must be hoping to endear herself to the Dalits in his constituency. But it will take much more than just renaming Amethi to make inroads into the Congress scion's family bastion. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if
[ZESTCaste] Social tension between Dalits and Jats on the rise in Mirchpur
http://www.merinews.com/article/social-tension-between-dalits-and-jats-on-the-rise-in-mirchpur/15825204.shtml Social tension between Dalits and Jats on the rise in Mirchpur The dalits are demanding that they may be allotted land at Hisar stating that in the village they fear attack from the Jats who are pressing them to withdraw the criminal cases registered in connection with burning death of two Dalits. CJ: Pawan Kumar BansalSat, Jul 03, 2010 16:02:18 IST THE VISIT of Parliamentary Committee for welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes at Mirchpur village in Hisar district of Haryana to assuage the heart feelings of dalits recently has further widened the tension between dalits and jats which may have long term remifications on social fabric of the state. Mirchpur village has become epicentre of caste tension following clash between both the communities which resulted in burning of few houses of dalits by jats and burning alive of aged dalit Tara Chand and his polio ridden girl Suman. Jats were agitated as the committe members only listned to the viewpoint of dalits and when their repeated efforts peacefully to put their version failed they inluding a large number of females laid before their air conditioned bus in which they were going back to Delhi. Drama continued for about ten minutes and ultimately on persuation of a scribe D.Raja , member of the committee came down from the bus and received a memorandum from them. The committee members asked them to come to Hisar to to put their viewpoint which they refused .The thirteen members of the thirty member committee headed by Gobinda Chandera Nasker spent about three hours in the village meeting the victims . They visited the house of Tarachand where his wife Kamla told them that although they have got compensation and her three sons have got government job but even then they feel insecure in the village fearing attack from the powerful Jats. Earlier the committee members had refused to listen to jats on the plea that they have come to listen to victims. Many persons of the village belonging to both dalit and jat communities shared with this scribe that tension was easing in the village but the frequent visit of politicians is spoiling the atmosphere. Even Swrrop Singh president of the peace conmmittee constituted by the govrnment comprising representatives of both the communites did not turn up to meet the committee members as he was reprotedly advised by some politician who do not want that peace should prevail in the village. Jats complain that everybody be the Union Minister Kumari Selja , All India Congress Committee General-Secretary Rahul Gandhi or chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who had visited the village met only dalits. The police had tough job in keeping media at bay. Team members gave dressing down to Haryana, Director General of Police Ranjeev Dalal when he tried to reply their queries from the victims asking him to keep quiet and the victims shuould be allowed to speak. Later Dalal directed his team not to go so close to team members least they got offended. But the cops failed to keep media particularly electronic media at bay despite their best efforts. Hisar Deputy Commissiner Yudhavir Khayliya who has taken over only last fortnight was heard boasting before the committee members that after his taking over as reins of the district there is complete peace in the village and dalits are feeling secure. Jats also blamed media particularly electronic media for not giving their point of view and giving only one sided version of the incident. They are demanding C.B.I.enquiry into the incident whereas the Haryana Government has ordered judicial enquiry. Politial observeros feel that had Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja and chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda jointly toured the area then situation would have come under control. The dalits are demanding that they may be allotted land at Hisar stating that in the village they fear attack from the Jats who are pressing them to withdraw the criminal cases registered in connection with burning alive of Tara Chand and his polio ridden daughter Suman whereas jats allege that the Police has arrested several innocnet youth under pressure from the dalits. Kumari Selja during her visit to Mirchpur has added fuel to fire by promising dalits that they will be allotted plots at Hisar. In fact on her directions the district administration has even started the paper work . This demand was outrightly rejected by chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda . Haryana 's Health Minister Geeta Bhukal protege of Hooda and belonging to dalit community even publically fired Selja for advocating the demand of allotment of plots at Hisar. If this tension is not controlled then it may escalate causing major law and problem in the state. The committee chairman told this scribe that they have seen
[ZESTCaste] Why are we afraid of the caste census? (Opinion)
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article498535.ece Published: July 3, 2010 16:50 IST | Updated: July 3, 2010 16:50 IST July 3, 2010 Why are we afraid of the caste census? BHANWAR MEGHWANSHI The entire debate is centred on removing the caste column in the census questionnaire while the real problem is caste itself. Why is no one talking about annihilating caste? In rural India, even today, the first words uttered by way of introduction when two persons meet are — “what is your caste….?”; a piece of information people seem most enthusiastic to elicit from each other before anything else. Political parties have caste-based cells and caste arithmetic becomes the basis on which tickets are allotted. Every caste recognises jati panchayats, has its mahasabhas and often, caste-based armed forces (senas) are constituted. Thousands of publications are brought out across the country to invoke caste sentiments in people. Whether Haridwar or Pushkar, the bathing ghats are segregated on the lines of caste. Who can offer archana in temples, bridegrooms of which caste can sit on the horse — caste governs even such specifics practised till date in our country. Even today, khap panchayats based on castes, sub-castes and further, gotras,flourish and decree inhuman decisions. In our country, caste hounds us from the moment we are born to our death. Whether birth, marriage or last rites, caste dictates how all these rituals should be conducted. Every government document asks us our caste category. People are instated on jobs and reserved seats during elections based on their caste identity certificates. People's names are complete only with their caste names. Even the so-called big people hang on to their caste pride; making their achievements look small. In simple words, there is no escaping the fact that castes exist in our society today, and if they exist, what is wrong in counting them and bringing to light the true figures in front of the whole country? Just as there are houses, land, roads, schools, cows, forests, there are also castes – and just as how they are counted, so will be castes. Great opportunity Around 25 lakh employees are undertaking this massive exercise of our 15th Census. This is a historic opportunity and they will easily be able to collect information on caste along with other information from our entire population. Then these figures can be analysed to tell us what is the population of each caste and who has control to what extent over the country's resources? This very straightforward attempt has generated much noise across the country. Everyone from ministers in the ruling government to the media houses and intellectuals seem to be divided on the issue. Right-wing thinkers have put it down to a “ploy to deface the Hindu society” while some elites feel a caste-based census will halt India in the tracks of becoming a global superpower. Many others are being eaten up by the worry that this will lead to social fragmentation and increase caste enmities. The upper echelons of Indian society, which like to pretend that caste doesn't exist, are suddenly gripped with nationalistic fervour. They fear the demand for quota-based reservations will catch momentum and castes will get legal recognition. Reality is different There is another group which has started a campaign “Meri Jati Hindustani” of which prominent persons like Arif Mohammad Khan, J.C. Sharma, Ved Pratap Vaidik, Shravan Garg, Amitabh Bachchan, Alka Madhok and Ram Jethmalani among others are a part. These people are in favour of declaring their caste in the census as “Hindustani”. It is true it sounds good, like an ideal situation, but the country is not running on ideals but on realities. If they are indeed so proud to be “Hindustani” why have they not yet removed their caste names and replaced them with “Hindustani” instead?. Now let's talk about those fears revolving around the caste census and see how many of them are real. Was there never any discord between castes in the country before and if so what do we have to say about the dalit genocides at Gohana, Jhajjar, Mirchipur, Lakshmanpur Bathe, Kumher, Khairlanji and Kambalapalli? What about the thousands of cases of caste-based discrimination and crimes that are reported or never come to light in our country year after year? It is being touted as though the minute the caste column is introduced in the census the problems will explode. Then why is it that when the whole country has been partitioned on the basis of religion, we never forget to ask the question “which religion” in every single official paper or document, and there seems no opposition to this? Why are we not able to comprehend that the true problem is caste itself and not a census of castes, and if caste is annihilated, caste-based problems will self-resolve. But instead of searching out the deeper malaise, we are sweeping the dirt under the carpet to make a show of cleanliness which is illusionary. A good part
[ZESTCaste] Living in the Caste
http://www.nagalandpost.com/ShowEditorial.aspx?eid=UzEwMDM1Mzc%3D-36Qqbp0eI%2FM%3D EDITORIAL Living in the Caste Article published on 5/28/2010 11:21:34 PM ISTFont Size: It appears that contemporary India has yet to overcome the problems of the past, which instead, dominate the current wasting much time and resources in squabbles, since politicians have not progressed to the desired degree of rationality and congruence in seeing the larger picture. The issue of caste-based census, to the outside world, would seem to be an unthinkable proposition and an idea that betrays the progress that has been achieved in various fields. Even before the first phase of the ongoing census operations for 2011, the issue had cropped up with various political parties taking the cue for some statements, mainly to play to the gallery of electoral vote banks. Though taking pride in being a rising power of the current century, India’s mindset is still besot with the dreary past in an era of globalism. The issue is whether the current census should include caste as one of the criteria. Those against it have good reasons as casteism has been the bane of Indian society. They feel that caste-based census would only legitimize divisions among the people. Further, the caste business has led to violence in many parts of the country but for some vested interested politicians, caste is their source of getting attention and winning election.Anyway, the union cabinet, has referred the matter to a Group of Ministers(GoM)headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, to study and submit its report or recommendation. If the government finally agrees to include caste in the census, then the hurdles would prove to be one too many. There are far too many castes in India and trying to put them in order would be a Herculean task, which enumerators assigned with the current census operations, would not be able to undertake. This is because, enumerators have not been provided with required information and training to identify whom to include under what category such as Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes etc. Though there is a Central and state-specific lists of OBCs; yet while some states don’t have a list of OBCs, some have including their own sub-set termed as Most Backward Classes. There are also names that are found in both Scheduled Castes as well as OBCs and therefore, leaving it to the whims of the enumerators would only create another mess and consequent political furore. Those migrants from another state and status of children from inter-caste marriages would also pose a stiff challenge. Also those from the Scheduled Castes who became either Christians or Muslims and who have not been classified as Scheduled Castes would also pose problems. Given the fluid nature of caste as a social marker, trying to collect accurate data is unfeasible. According to the history of the Census, even the then British rulers who attempted to carry out a caste census, had to finally give up when it was found that the matter was not as easy as classification of plants and animals or identifying the race and religion of the people. Those in favour believe taking a caste-based census would enable a better delivery of benefits of welfare schemes. Such a populist concept only strengthens the caste-based reservations which parliament has been so divided on. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman allegedly stripped, beaten up in UP village
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Dalit-woman-allegedly-stripped-beaten/Article1-566963.aspx Dalit woman allegedly stripped, beaten up in UP village Allahabad, July 03, 2010 A Dalit woman was on Saturday allegedly dragged out of her house, stripped and beaten up by a group of upper caste people over a land dispute at a remote village of the district. The incident took place in Tharwai police station area in the district's trans-Ganga region, around 30km from the city, where Lalli Devi (50) alleged that a group of influential villagers, with whom her family has had a long-standing land dispute, barged into their house this afternoon, according to the police. The attackers vandalised her house and beat up Lalli Devi's husband and son and when the woman protested, she was allegedly pulled out, stripped and beaten up, police said. None of the woman's neighbours, however, has testified to the incident so far and no arrests have been made in this connection, police said.
[ZESTCaste] Tumkur Tragedy: 10 held for Dalit woman's murder
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Tumkur-Tragedy-10-held-for-Dalit-womans-murder/articleshow/6125684.cms Tumkur Tragedy: 10 held for Dalit woman's murder TNN, Jul 3, 2010, 10.56pm IST TUMKUR: Honnamma (45), a dalit woman and an upcoming politician, was murdered in Gopalapura of Tumkur district on Monday by alleged supporters of the JD(S). Honnamma had unsuccessfully contested the gram panchayat elections twice. Tumkur police arrested 10 JD(S) members on Friday, including JD(S) gram panchayat member and president of Choula Kattae panchayat Manjula, in connection with the murder. Ranganatha, Channamma, Rangaiah, Jayamma, Swamy, Ramaiah, Manju, Ramaiah and Satish are the others who were arrested. Two SIs have been suspended for dereliction of duty. Honamma incurred the wrath of a section of the villagers with her plans to construct a temple in Gopalapura village. On Monday night, the miscreants lay in wait for her when she was returning from Huliyar. Nearly 20 villagers of Gopalapura attacked her with stones and left her to die in the drain. When Honamma pleaded for water, the attackers realized she was not dead after all. They then picked her up from the drain, attacked her further and killed her. The police arrived on the scene an hour later but refused to move the body until the next day. Fearing for her life, Honamma had approached the police for protection 15 days ago. She submitted a memorandum to Handhnkerae police station, the SP, the CM and the chief secretary saying her life was in danger. SP P S Harsha has formed a special team to nab the other accused in the murder. Speaking to STOI, Harsha said the murder was a political and caste-based killing. He also claimed that the supporters belonged to the JD(S).
[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman stoned to death; 10 held
http://expressbuzz.com/states/karnataka/dalit-woman-stoned-to-death;-10-held/185729.html By Devaraj B Hirehalli 30 Jun 2010 05:10:23 AM IST Dalit woman stoned to death; 10 held TUMKUR: The police arrested ten people, including three women, for stoning a Dalit woman to death in Gopalapura village in Tumkur on Monday. An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) has been suspended for dereliction of duty. On Monday evening, a gang of around 40 people surrounded the victim, Honnamma, pushed her into a drain and dropped stone slabs on her, police said. The group, led by Chowlakatte gram panchayat president (JD-S) Ranganatha and his wife Manjula, was leaving the spot thinking Honnamma was dead, when the severely injured woman dragged herself out of the drain and begged for water. However, the assailants came back and dragged her to a dunghill and stoned her to death with boulders, police said. The grouse against Honnamma was fuelled by her rude domineering behaviour, but the murder was politically motivated too, a BJP leader said. While ASI Krishna Naika, attached to the Handanakere station, has already been suspended, similar action may be initiated against ASI Gangadharappa, said Chikkanayakanahalli Circle Inspector Ravi Prasad. BJP leader Kiran Kumar has alleged that Naika instigated the accused against Honnamma, Superintendent of Police P S Harsha said. On the morning of her death, Honnamma had an altercation with her assailants and the police took her opponents’ side, Kumar said. He said that Honnamma approached him saying that her life was in danger and that, in spite of being informed of an impending attack, the police withdrew security from the village early. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Murder of Dalit woman - Cong seeks probe
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcastbroadcastid=185903 Murder of Dalit woman - Cong seeks probe By Team Mangalorean Bangalore BANGALORE, July 1, 2010: The State Congress on Thursday sought a probe into the killing of Honnamma, a dalit woman, belonged to Gopalapura village in Tumkur district in Karnataka. H C Mahadevappa of the Congress raised the issue during the zero hour in the Legislative Assembly and sought compensation of the kin and kith of the woman, and action against the culprits responsible for the brutal murder of the woman. A gang of villagers had stoned Honnamma to death last Monday. The political rivalry is said to be reason for the killing of a woman in full public view. She was a BJP leader and had contested and lost in the recently held gram panchayat elections. The villagers, after dumping Honnamma in a drain, dropped heavy boulders on her when she cried for water. T B Jayachandra, deputy leader of the Congress demanded action against villagers who murdered the woman and suspension of police who failed to provide protection to the dalit leader. The BJP Government which came to power in 2008 has promised to take all steps for the welfare of dalits in the Steps. But it failed to provide justice to Dalit people in the State, he alleged. Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Jagadish Shettar, who provided the reply in the absence of Home Minister V S Acharya, said he would discuss the issue to Dr Acharya to take suitable action. Other Congress members too sought action against the police and persons for the murder for the woman. It is reported that the rivalry with local JD (S) leaders was a major reason for the crime. H D Revanna of the JD (S) spoke about the farmers’ stir and demanded suspension of Deputy Superintendent of Police Devaraj who thrashed one farmer with an iron rod when they were agitating against the arrest of their leaders for protesting against keeping them out of a meeting related to the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project. The JD (S) would move an adjournment motion to discuss the BMIC project and acquisition of farmers lands by the NICE. Mr Shettar said the farmers damaged the security rooms of the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises on BMIC road and blocked the movement of vehicles. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Mishra back in action
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Mishra-back-in-action/641316 Mishra back in action Sanjay Singh Posted online: Fri Jul 02 2010, 04:23 hrs Lucknow : The BSP’s national general secretary, Satish Chandra Mishra, is all set to return to the party’s political platform. Earlier, Mishra, the BSP’s Brahmin face, was asked by Chief Minister Mayawati to concentrate on legal matters. At a recent meeting with her party functionaries, the Chief Minister communicated her decision to re-assign the task of roping in Brahmins to Mishra. He has already discussed his strategies for the constitution of “Brahmin bhaichara committees” across the state with party leaders. Sources in the BSP said Mishra would undertake a tour of the state in September. Besides, Mishra has also started holding regular meetings of the State Advisory Council, which currently handles development projects in places which are considered to be of religious importance, including Mathura, Vrindavan and Varanasi. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Centre to write to political parties on caste census issue: Pranab Mukherjee
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_centre-to-write-to-political-parties-on-caste-census-issue-pranab-mukherjee_1404685 Centre to write to political parties on caste census issue: Pranab Mukherjee PTI Saturday, July 3, 2010 13:02 IST Chennai: Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the Centre will be writing to all political parties seeking their view on inclusion of caste category in the census. After meeting Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi at his residence in Chennai, Mukherjee told reporters that he had apprised the DMK leader of the deliberations of the group of ministers meeting on the inclusion of caste in the exercise. The group of ministers will meet further to take a decision on the issue, he said. On the direct taxes reforms, Mukherjee said all the states had been informed about tax reforms, goods and services tax and direct tax code. The states have to work in close coordination with Centre in finalising and implementing the reforms, he said.
[ZESTCaste] Caste count hits sub-quota hurdle
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Caste-count-hits-sub-quota-hurdle/articleshow/6121166.cms Caste count hits sub-quota hurdle TNN, Jul 3, 2010, 03.57am IST NEW DELHI: The proposal to include caste in the ongoing census seems to have hit a serious hurdle with concern being expressed that the exercise may not only set off jostling for quotas among sub-castes but may not be effective in changing the overall constitutional ceiling on reservation. As the government gets down to considering the cost-benefit of a caste enumeration, fuller implications of conceding the demand led by powerful OBC lobbies are being considered. The political agendas at work may not only be contentious, but prove to be unworkable as well. One of unsaid arguments behind the census demand is that a truer count of backward castes would establish claims for a greater share of the reservation pie. This means that caste enumeration may lead to political demands that the current Supreme Court-mandated 50% cap on quotas be breached in the future. Well-placed sources said the argument was flawed as even if the popular claim of OBCs accounting for 52% of the population -- though some surveys peg it at less -- was actually exceeded, it may not translate into an expanded quota. This was because the SC ruling was now part of the basic structure of the Constitution and not open to being amended by Parliament. The group of ministers (GoM) on enumerating caste on Thursday saw the point being made that caste numbers were not going lead to backward empowerment in the manner in which some votaries of the proposal felt it would. What would be the purpose of a caste count if the quota aspirations were going to prove to be non-starters, it was pointed out. A cautionary note was also held out on the sub-caste counts that would be a result of changing the census process. The sub-categorisation of backward and other castes could see demands for proportional representation. This would mean competing claims for entitlements on the basis of quotas within quotas, something the government may not be comfortable with. It is understood that none of the ministers who expressed their views were unequivocal in supporting a caste census though law minister M Veerappa Moily, a strong votary of the proposal, attended the GoM meeting briefly. Even ministers who spoke in favour of the move pointed to the political commitment of the government rather than the merits of the case. Home minister P Chidambaram spoke of his reservations about a caste census but said he would go along with the GoM's consensus. Defence minister A K Antony, often seen to reflect the Congress brass' thinking, made it clear he was offering his personal view that a caste census was not a good idea. Corporate affairs and minority affairs minister Salman Khurshed argued the government will have to go ahead with a caste count as it was important in terms of numbers in Parliament. He could have been alluding to the support extended to Congress by OBC-centric parties like Samajwadi Party and RJD. But the assessment in government seems to be that the caste census was not likely to be settled in a hurry. The decision to seek responses from political parties is a sure indicator of this as apart from Mandal-oriented parties, others are likely to ask Congress to spell out its stand first. The caste count demand is sure to gain momentum during the monsoon session, but with the first round of the census over, government has time till December.
[ZESTCaste] Your Kabir and mine (Pratap Bhanu Mehta)
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/639844/ Your Kabir and mine Pratap Bhanu Mehta Posted online: Tue Jun 29 2010, 05:43 hrs Few figures embody the contradictions of modern India’s coming to terms with its own intellectual heritage as powerfully as Kabir. Over the weekend you might have noticed advertisements several chief ministers put out commemorating his customary birth anniversary, enlisting him as a political icon. But you cannot escape the sense that this enlistment comes precisely at the moment when a deep intellectual engagement with this extraordinary figure is receding. Except for a few homely lines, the number of people who could read his work is fast dwindling. It is often said that there is a crisis in Sanskrit Studies in India. Arguably there is an even deeper crisis in the study of those precursors of what we now call Hindi, khadi boli, braj, etc. Indeed it can be said without exaggeration that the number of people in Hindi-speaking areas who will be able to read significant figures of Indian culture and popular imagination like Tulsidas, let alone Kabir, will almost disappear by the next generation. This is the depth of crisis in Indian humanities. The institutional, pedagogical and cultural infrastructure that could engage with figures our politicians now iconically appropriate is fast vanishing. In a way arguments over Kabir are a perfect example of what happens when great intellectual traditions are reduced to historical pedantry to the point that their meaning becomes difficult to grasp. Everything about Kabir was subject to the kind of contention made possible only by the deep dissensus that characterises our history. His exact dates are contested, his exact origins remain murky, his beliefs remain subject to a bewildering variety of uses, and often each of the technical referents in his poetry subject to a variety of interpretations. These debates reveal more about those who engage in them, than they do about Kabir. Like so much of our intellectual history, he becomes a stratagem in our hobby horses, we learn from him what we want rather than what he can genuinely teach us. Kabir’s political salience of course stems from the fact that he is at the centre of two of modern India’s most important faultlines: communalism and caste. He is trotted out as the most important figure of Hindu-Muslim unity. His searing critique of caste has made him a canonical figure of an emerging Dalit consciousness; hence the political homage. But ironically, this political salience has obscured rather than deepened an engagement with his thought in two ways. First, while understandable, these are political attempts to house a life that was at its core original in its refusal to be trapped by any collective noun or pronoun. Kabir had, in a true sense, fashioned a character of extraordinary individuality, relentless in exposing the hypocrisies and abridgements of any group identity. The liberation he offered was of a deeper sort than our slogans of communal harmony or caste empowerment could even begin to imagine. The salience of the “social question” has had paradoxical effects on the engagement with Indian intellectual history. On the one hand, it has provided some impetus for creative reinterpretation. And it has to be said of Dalit critics that they may be the only ones who take this tradition intellectually seriously. But there is a danger that the landscape of humanities in India is flattened to the point that every figure and text is measured only by a preconceived political litmus test: which side can appropriate them in contemporary debates. Nationalists, Marxists, caste-based intellectuals of all stripes have been more interested in creating their advertising icons. But this approach has the consequence of making us tone deaf to both philosophical depth and aesthetic complexity, making the humanities moribund.In a way the history of Kabir criticism in modern Hindi is a perfect example of how identity has colonised scholarship in modern India. The first generation of 20th century scholarship and criticism, including the monumental Ramchandra Shukla, was characterised by a barely concealed attempt to diminish Kabir. Dalit critics have, not entirely without justification, seen this as a move to tame Kabir’s social radicalism. Though in hindsight what stands out is the tone deafness of critics like Shukla, to any depth. Hazari Prasad Dwivedi’s modern classic, that set a new benchmark in the study of Kabir, was intellectually radical in two ways. It tried to systematically engage with Kabir’s thought at a deep philosophical level and made the case for its incomparable depth and complexity. Second, it argued that like all great revolutionaries in thought, Kabir carried a deep stamp of the myriad traditions he was negating. It was marked with an engagement with Kabir’s technical vocabulary in ways that very few scholars are capable of. Whether Dwivedi got Kabir right or wrong is not quite
[ZESTCaste] Declare Dalit Muslims SC: Nitish
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Declare-Dalit-Muslims-SC--Nitish/641269 Declare Dalit Muslims SC: Nitish Express news service Posted online: Fri Jul 02 2010, 09:24 hrs Patna : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday demanded that the Centre include Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians in the Scheduled Castes category. Speaking at the national convention of All-India Pasmanda Muslim Mehaz (AIPMM) — a forum taking up the cause of poor Muslims — Nitish said: “Of the 90 Muslim-dominated districts covered by the Sachar Committee, seven are from Bihar. But save only Kisanganj, no other Bihar district has got any amenities from the Centre.” The Chief Minister said that the Centre is sitting on the recommendations of the Sachar Committee and Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission. “We keep sending reminders to Centre but without any results,” said Nitish, adding that discrimination on ground of religion is not fair. In Bihar alone, there are about 1 crore OBC Muslims, most of whom can press claim for Dalit status on basis of their weaker socio-economic condition. The Muslim conference assumes greater significance in wake of just-concluded BJP National Executive in Patna, projecting Narendra Modi at expense of Nitish Kumar's displeasure. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Maya gets Dalit name for Rahul's Amethi
http://www.indiablooms.com/NewsDetailsPage/newsDetails010710m.php Maya gets Dalit name for Rahul's Amethi India Blooms News Service Lucknow, July 1 (IBNS) A name-game started between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on Thursday as her government brought his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi under a new district named after Dalit icon Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati curved a new district called Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar out of Sultanpur and Rae Bareli districts on Thursday. Congress strongholds Amethi and Rae Bareli will be parts of the new district. “The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to restore the district status to Chattrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar, an official spokesman told reporters. The new district includes three Sultanpur Assembly seats and two seats of Rae Bareli. Back in 2003, the Congress wanted to name the new district Rajiv Gandhi Nagar after the late prime minister. But the BSP-led government wanted the district to be named after the Dalit icon from Maharashtra. However, the proposal was scrapped by Samajwadi Party that toppled BSP and came to power in the next election. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Maya names Amethi Sahuji Nagar district
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Maya-names-Amethi-Sahuji-Nagar-district/641267 Maya names Amethi Sahuji Nagar district Express news service Posted online: Fri Jul 02 2010, 03:09 hrs Lucknow : Seven years after it first attempted this and failed, the Mayawati government Thursday made Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency Amethi a district and named it Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. The new district also includes parts of Sultanpur and Rae Bareli districts. The move is being seen as a message to the people of Amethi that the BSP government cares for them. On May 21, 2003, during her previous stint as Chief Minister, Mayawati issued a notification to make Amethi a district, but her successor Mulayam Singh Yadav cancelled it on November 13, 2003. Mulayam government’s decision was challenged in the Allahabad High Court by one Umashankar Pandey. On March 26, 2010, the High Court asked the government to consider his request within three months. Subsequently, Pandey presented his case before a high-level committee headed by the Chairman of the Revenue board. The committee, according to an official statement, recommended “restoration of district status of Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar”, named after Sahuji, “one of the messiahs of social change who made arrangements for 50 per cent reservation in jobs for Dalits and exploited people under Kolhapur estate”. On Thursday, the recommendation was implemented although the government had earlier issued a notification stating that no change will be made in boundaries of any district, tehsil, block or village panchayat until the census was over. The government said creating the new district was necessary to ensure compliance with the court order and that the decision will be conveyed to the Registrar General of Census. Besides, it claimed, the move won’t affect census work. The new district, with Gauriganj as headquarters, will include five tehsils, 16 blocks and 17 police stations. Jagdish Prasad has been appointed the DM and Sugreev Giri the SP of the district. The government also renamed Kanpur Dehat district as Ramabai Nagar, “in memory of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s wife”, as existence of two districts with almost similar names, Kanpur Nagar and Kanpur Dehat, created confusion. Meanwhile, local Congress leaders said they are happy that Amethi has become a district but not so happy with the new name. It should have been named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was elected from here in 1981, 1984 and 1989, they said. “All we have to say is that it would have been better if the district was named after Rajiv Gandhi because of his long association with the area,” said state Congress chief spokesperson Subodh Srivastava. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Centre appeals against I-T relief given to Mayawati
http://www.ptinews.com/news/757572_Centre-appeals-against-I-T-relief-given-to-Mayawati Centre appeals against I-T relief given to Mayawati STAFF WRITER 20:5 HRS IST New Delhi, July 1 (PTI) The Union government has moved an I-T tribunal challenging the relief given to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati by an adjudicating body in cases relating to her sources of income and origin of donations during 2001-03. The Income Tax Department filed two appeals on June 25 in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal to contest the orders by I-T Commissioner, Appeals, (CIT-A) giving relief to the UP chief minister against any adverse assessment for years 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, finance ministry sources told PTI. Mayawati had declared in her tax returns that she had received gifts from her political mentor Kanshi Ram's sisters --Gurcharan Kaur, Kulwant Kaur and Swarn Kaur. I-T officials have countered this claim by saying that they had no capacity and creditworthiness to hand over gifts to Mayawati, and that the CIT-A had ignored this point.
[ZESTCaste] Mayawati strikes again: Robs Gandhis of brand Amethi
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_mayawati-strikes-again-robs-gandhis-of-brand-amethi_1404103 Mayawati strikes again: Robs Gandhis of brand Amethi Deepak Gidwani / DNAFriday, July 2, 2010 1:03 IST Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister Mayawati has taken her political battle against AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to a new level by renaming his Lok Sabha constituency. The new name is quite a mouthful, which Congress leaders here are finding difficult to digest. Amethi, the VIP borough of the Nehru-Gandhi family for several decades, is now a new district and would be known as Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar. The district includes Amethi and areas from Sultanpur and Rae Bareli districts. A government spokesman said the cabinet decided to “restore” district status to Chhattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar. Amethi was accorded district status and renamed after Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj by then BSP government in 2002. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was representing Amethi in Lok Sabha. The decision was scrapped next year, soon after the Samajwadi Party came to power. The decision was challenged in court and the case had been pending ever since. Shahuji Maharaj, a 19th century ruler of Kolhapur is an icon for BSP. He is the pioneer in granting job reservations. Mayawati got the chance to rechristen Amethi after the Allahabad high court recently left it to the government to reconsider its earlier decision of carving out new district. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Amethi now a district, named after Dalit leader
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/amethi-now-a-district-named-after-dalit-leader/641194/ Amethi now a district, named after Dalit leader Express News Service Posted: Jul 02, 2010 at 0156 hrs Lucknow Opening a new front of friction with the Congress, the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh converted Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency Amethi into a district on Thursday and named it Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. The new district is almost coterminus with Amethi constituency and includes parts of Sultanpur and Rae Bareli districts. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet, chaired by the chief minister herself in which the Kanpur Dehat district was also renamed Ramabai Nagar. It is clear the Mayawati government has revived a seven-year-old issue to create problems for Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and to send out a clear message to the people of Amethi that the present regime cares about them. On May 21, 2003, the then Mayawati government had first issued the notification converting Amethi into a district. The subsequent government of Mulayam Singh had overturned that decision on November 13, 2003. Later, one Umashankar Pandey challenged Singh’s move in the Allahabad High Court. On March 6, 2010, the court asked the government to consider his request within three months. Pandey then presented his case before a high-level committee headed by the Chairman of the Revenue Board. According to an official statement, this committee recommended that the district status be restored because it fulfilled the parameters for the creation of a district. In view of the ongoing census, however, the state government had issued a notification stating no changes would be made in the administrative boundaries of any district, tehsil, block and village panchayat until the the census is completed. But the government said it created the new district to comply with the court order. It will convey this to the Registrar General of Census. It also claimed the decision would not affect census work. The headquarters of the new district will be Gauriganj. It will have an area of around 3,070 square kilometres and will consist five tehsils, 16 blocks and 17 police stations. Within hours of its decision, the government posted Jagdish Prasad as district magistrate and Sugreev Giri as the new superintendent of police. The government renamed Kanpur Dehat as Ramabai Nagar, because of the frequent confusion that arises from two districts with nearly similar names — Kanpur Dehat and Kanpur Nagar. It named Kanpur Dehat Ramabai Nagar to honour the memory of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s wife. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] No decision at GoM on caste census
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article494928.ece?homepage=true No decision at GoM on caste census PTI AP In this April 1, 2010 photo, a census worker fills in information about a family as she conducts the national census at Ramsingh Chapori village, east of Guwahati. A Group of Ministers will meet today to consider the issue of inclusion of caste in census. BJP dispels reports of differences on caste-based census Pranab to head group on caste enumeration Caste: Chidambaram's proposal may be accepted Movement against caste-based Census launched Government firm on caste-based census: Minority Affairs Minister Congress leadership pulls up Maken for writing letter opposing caste census The Group of Ministers (GoM) on caste census on Thursday failed to reach any decision on the politically-sensitive issue and decided to meet again. Sources said the GoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, discussed the issue threadbare during the 90-minute meeting but no decision was taken. Among the aspects deliberated upon were the pros and cons of including caste in census exercise, they said. The GoM is also understood to have discussed modalities for undertaking such an exercise if a go-ahead were given. Government had last month decided to set up the GoM on the controversial issue after consensus eluded at two meetings of the Union Cabinet. Parties like SP, RJD and JD(U) are strongly in favour of including caste in census and disrupted proceedings of Parliament in the last Budget Session by pressing their demands. They are likely to raise the issue during Monsoon Session of Parliament expected to commence in the third week of this month. There are divisions even within Congress over the issue. Caste census was last conducted in the country in 1931. Besides Mr. Mukherjee, the GoM includes Home Minister P Chidambaram, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran. Of them, Mr. Moily, who has been the most vocal supporter of including caste in census, left soon after the meeting began. Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Pawar and Ms. Banerjee also did not attend the meeting. The issue of inclusion of caste in census has triggered a debate with a section opposing it saying that it would divide the society on caste lines while others advocate that it would ensure fairer distribution of resources to the backward and downtrodden sections of the society. Reports had it that Mr. Chidambaram had suggested that the caste-based census should be included in the second phase of the ongoing census exercise and clubbed with the biometric card data to ease the logistical constraints.
[ZESTCaste] Maya renames Amethi, makes it her own
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Maya-renames-Gandhi-bastion-of-Amethi-makes-it-her-own/Article1-565851.aspx Maya renames Amethi, makes it her own HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times Lucknow, July 01, 2010 Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati took her battle with the Congress to a new level: renaming Amethi - the Gandhis' pet constituency - after a Dalit icon. The Congress had wanted it to be named after Rajiv Gandhi. Maywati's Cabinet took the decision on Thursday to create the new district of Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar, which will include Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's Amethi parliamentary constituency. Amethi is the ninth district to be named after a Dalit icon. Mayawati's move is seen as another bid to endear herself to the Dalits, her party's key supporters, in the face of the Congress's efforts to woo them away. A miffed Congress did not mince words. In New Delhi, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said, Amethi was, is and will always remain intrinsically connected to the contributions of the Nehru-Gandhi family. UP leaders said they had wanted Amethi to be named after Rajiv Gandhi because of its long association with the family. Former PM Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandsons Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi, and Sonia Gandhi have represented this constituency. In 2004, Rahul was elected from here and re-elected in 2009. Though Amethi will remain the same till the Election Commission decides to change the name, the 72nd district of UP consisting of five tehsils - Amethi, Gauriganj and Musafirkhana of Sultanpur and Salon and Tiloi of Rae Bareli - will be known as Sahuji Maharaj Nagar for administrative purposes. In 2002, amid stiff opposition from the Congress, Mayawati had tried to rename Amethi as Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. The notification was issued in May 2003. However, the Mulayam Singh government, which came to power in August 2003, scrapped her decision in November 2004. This time, Mayawati used a Allahabad HC order to settle scores. In March, the HC, while disposing of a petition of an advocate, asked the state to decide within three months on creating a new district named after Sahuji Maharaj. The deadline ended on Wednesday.
[ZESTCaste] Caste census: GoM to hold crucial meeting on Thursday
http://sify.com/news/caste-census-gom-to-hold-crucial-meeting-on-thursday-news-national-kg4sOhfidid.html Caste census: GoM to hold crucial meeting on Thursday 2010-06-30 18:50:00 A Group of Ministers (GoM) formed to look into the possibilities of including caste in the ongoing census is holding a crucial meeting on Thursday. The GoM headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to take an expeditious decision as the second part of the census exercise is scheduled to begin in September. Other members of the GoM are Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah, Urban Housing Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee. A section of political leaders from all parties demanded that caste be included in the census. In May, the Union Cabinet formed the GoM on the issue after consensus could not be reached. The issue had figured prominently during the last Budget Session. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, had assured Parliament that his government would take the views expressed by the House into account before deciding on the matter. Inclusion of caste in the census was last done in the country in 1931.(ANI)
[ZESTCaste] Kandhamal riots: BJP MLA sentenced to 7 years RI
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/kandhamal-riots-bjp-mla-sentenced-to-7-years-ri/640026/ Kandhamal riots: BJP MLA sentenced to 7 years RI Debabrata Mohanty Posted online: Tue Jun 29 2010, 17:11 hrs Orissa : A fast track court in Kandhamal district of Orissa today sentenced BJP MLA Manoj Pradhan to 7 years rigorous imprisonment for his role in the 2008 Kandhamal communal riots. The judgement was pronounced by fast track court-I judge Sobhan Kumar Das while disposing of a case relating to murder of Parikhita Nayak, a Dalit Christian from Budedi village under Raikia police station limit on August 27, 2008. The two-month-long riot, triggered by the killing of VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati, claimed 43 lives and witnessed burning of about 4600 houses and over 150 churches and prayer houses along with large scale violence. Pradhan was also accused of setting on fire houses of people belonging to the minority community. Additional public prosecutor B Patnaik said Pradhan was convicted under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 326 of IPC. He was also asked to pay a fine of Rs 5000. Pradhan, the 36-year-old BJP MLA from G Udaygiri constituency, had 14 cases - half of them murder - lodged against him over his alleged link with last year's riot in Kandhamal. He was arrested in October 2008 and fought 2009 assembly election behind the bars of G Udaygiri sub-jail successfully after majority Hindu votes polarised in his support. G Udaygiri bore the brunt of 2008 communal violence as several Christians were killed and chased away from their homes by murderous tribal Hindus most of whom were allegedly led by Pradhan. Pradhan said he would appeal before the Orissa High Court against the order. I have the highest regard for the judiciary. I have faith in God, he told The Indian Express.
[ZESTCaste] GoM to consider logistics of enumerating caste
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/GoM-to-consider-logistics-of-enumerating-caste/articleshow/6111643.cms GoM to consider logistics of enumerating caste TNN, Jul 1, 2010, 01.41am IST NEW DELHI: The group of ministers set up to examine enumerating caste is expected to consider logistics and modalities of such an operation that was last conducted in 1932. The GoM will consider the process of enumeration as part of the ongoing national headcount. A caste census is clearly a done deal and the GoM is expected to now prepare a detailed proposal on its implementation. The census exercise will be confined to collection of responses from people and not deal with verification of claims. That may have to be dealt with at a later stage. The proposal will look at how the census form is to be altered for caste related entries and whether this should be limited to just an open question on the what-is-your-caste lines. The panel will also have to decide at what stage in the census process should caste be enumerated. This could be done at the biometric stage where the data will also be used to build the national population register linked to the unique identity number project.
[ZESTCaste] A distorted study of India’s road to nationhood
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Contentpa=showpagepid=351page=21 Home 2010 Issues July 04, 2010 A distorted study of India’s road to nationhood By Manju Gupta The Weapon of the Other: Dalitbahujan Writings and the Remaking of Indian Nationalist Thought, Kancha Ilaiah, Pearson Education, Pp 192 (HB), Rs 695.00 THE author begins by voicing his grievance at finding plenty of literature on Nehru, Marxism and Gandhism but not on Ambedkar at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and it is this which prompts him to write a book on Indian nationalism from the Dalit bahujan perspective. In the introduction, he says that Indian nationalism has had a Western origin because of which and also because of the Brahmanic background of many scholars, Hindu religion has been perceived as a nationalist religion with caste prejudices set aside in nationalist discourses. He says that for Ambedkar the very history of Hindu religion is a terrain of war. Its birth is based on caste and untouchability and its death is also related to those structures. The book examines the Dalit movement that reconstructed the Dalit ideology and consciousness in Andhra Pradesh after instances of massacre of Dalits in Karamchedu and Chundur in the 1980s and 1990s. (Pearson Education, 7th Floor, Knowledge Boulevard, A-8 (A), Sector-62, Noida-201 309.) INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Lover turns cheat after 10 long years
http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=articlesectid=2contentid=20100630201006302304218655b249e09sectxslt= Lover turns cheat after 10 long years Dalit girl, who alleges she was sexually abused for a decade, files rape complaint against her upper-caste neighbour By Payal Banerjee Posted On Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 11:04:21 PM A decade of passion Accused Rahul Sudam Shelke of Wadgaon Sheri is absconding Complainant alleges Rahul backed out of his promise to marry her Complainant underwent three abortions Yerwada police probing into the charges A Dalit girl has lodged a complaint with Yerwada police alleging that her upper-caste neighbour sexually exploited her for a decade after promising to marry her and forced her to terminate pregnancy on three occasions. Now the girl has lodged a case of rape and cheating against Rahul Sudam Shelke, a resident of Wadgaon Sheri, after he refused to marry her. Narrating their relationship, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Khadki Division), Kalidas Suryavanshi, who is probing into the case said, “According to the complainant, Rahul and she were in a relationship for the last ten years. Rahul had exploited her physically on many occasions after promising to marry her. She stated that both would get into physical relationship in each other’s houses and used to travel out of the city. Whenever she raised the topic of marriage, the boy would give the excuse that he will marry her once his elder brother gets married. The complainant also claims to have underwent abortion on three occasions. However in the end, Rahul backed out of the relationship. As he refused to marry her, the victim lodged a case against him.” Suryavanshi added, “Rahul is absconding. His mother was aware of their relationship but no one else from the family seem to have know about their ties. As of now we only have the complaint of the girl. We are now probing into the charges. We are also taking out the details of the hospitals where she got her pregnancy terminated and talking to the doctors. We are in the look out for Rahul. As long as he doesn’t come to the fore, everything is under a cloud of suspicion. The investigation is on.” INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] The rise of 'Dalit lit' marks a new chapter for India's untouchables
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-rise-of-dalit-lit-marks-a-new-chapter-for-indias-untouchables-2014053.html June 30, 2010 The rise of 'Dalit lit' marks a new chapter for India's untouchables By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi As caste divides fade, a fresh crop of writers is emerging Ajay Navaria, a writer of novels and short stories, cannot help but laugh as he reflects on the nature of his other job teaching Hindu ethics and scripture at a leading university in Delhi. The 39-year-old is a Dalit, a so-called untouchable, and little more than a generation ago, for him to have even been discussing Hindu texts would have been an offence that could have cost him his life. The fact that he now teaches them brings a smile to his face. Fifty years ago it would have been a crime. I think about this and think that if I had touched those scriptures I would have been killed, he says, perched in a booth in a decaying coffee house in Delhi's once grand Connaught Place. But democracy has given me power. It has given power to the depressed classes and helped to make a more modern society. In his own way, Navaria is at the spearhead of a quiet cultural revolution sweeping India's literary establishment. Having long been confined to writing only in their own, local languages and largely ignored by the literary mainstream, Dalit authors are now being swooped on by some of the country's biggest publishers, such as Radhakrishna Prakashan which is translating their work into Hindi, the lingua franca of northern India and beyond. Novelists, poets and writers of short stories are receiving both exposure and opportunity in the market-place that they have never before received. There are Dalit magazines, Dalit literary forums (there are two competing groups in Delhi alone) and Dalit workshops. And as further proof of the rising importance and clout of Dalit lit, Mr Navaria was this year a guest at the influential Jaipur literary festival, an annual gathering and networker's paradise of Indian and international air-kissing types. Indian society can sometimes seem harsh or even brutal. Nowhere is this more evident than in its caste system, a centuries-old hierarchy of categorisation based on ancient Hindu teachings that groups people into one of four main castes (and thousands of sub-castes). Traditionally, the caste someone belonged to decided where they would live, what job they would do and even what they would eat. People outside of these groups were considered unclean and not true Hindus, fit only for tasks such as cleaning toilets, making leather and sweeping the roads. Dalits have suffered centuries of abuse and even today, despite legislation to protect them and an increasingly urbanised society, they are still the victims of widespread prejudice, discrimination and violence. A recent report by the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, a coalition of human rights groups in southern India, revealed a bewildering degree of discrimination, both in scale and form. Among the various abuses detailed by the authors of the report, Dalits were not allowed to use a mobile phone in the presence of upper-caste people. They were also prevented from having their clothes washed, permitted only to drink tea from coconut shells while squatting on the floor, barred from entering temples, forced to eat faeces, raped and burned alive. Yet Dalits total more than 150 million people - around 20 per cent of India's population - and the realisation has slowly come that with such critical mass, this community could have considerable leverage. In India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh, low-caste voters have on three occasions elected a Dalit chief minister, Mayawati Kumari. The size of the population has also been a factor in the emergence of Dalit literature as publishers have woken up to the potentially massive market. As Navaria says: They are doing their business, they are not missionaries. If they get a profit, they will do it. If they do not, then they won't. A key figure in the emergence of low-caste writing is Ramnika Gupta. She is not a Dalit but she produces a quarterly magazine, Yuddhrat Aam Aadmi, devoted to previously marginalised writers. She estimates that she and her team of just three full-time assistants have published around 1,500 Dalit writers from across India over the last two decades. Large publishers regularly go to her for information about new talent. She helps on the condition that the publishers agree to produce a paperback edition that is affordable for ordinary people, in addition to the standard hardback run. In the first-floor drawing room of her home, which also serves as her office, she noted that Dalit writers never lacked subject material. The highly influential writer and Dalit leader, B R Ambedkar, she explained, had said it was essential that low-caste people had their own literature and that they wrote about their own lives. Mrs Gupta, who has herself written dozens of
[ZESTCaste] Chunk of IIT OBC quota unfilled, thrown open
http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_chunk-of-iit-obc-quota-unfilled-thrown-open_1403159 Chunk of IIT OBC quota unfilled, thrown open Mihika Basu / DNA Wednesday, June 30, 2010 1:53 IST Mumbai: As many as 469 seats reserved for the other backward classes (OBC) remain vacant after the first allotment of seats in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Some candidates didn’t make it despite a relaxation in the cut-off mark; several also failed to prove their OBC status, according to the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) organising committee. The older IITs are implementing the last phase of the 27% reservation for OBC candidates this year. The eight new IITs have been implementing the quota at one go. “The IITs had set aside 2,570 seats for OBCs, but only 2,023 were filled. Some candidates could not establish their OBC status. Also, there were not enough qualified candidates. Further, many got the courses of their choice as general category students. The unfilled seats have therefore been transferred to the general category,” said TS Natarajan, JEE organising chairman and professor at IIT Madras. Of the 2,570 seats under the OBC category, 78 (around 3%) are reserved for students with physical disabilities. Of the remaining 2,492 seats, only 2,023 have been filled. Of the 1,27,760 OBC candidates who appeared for the JEE, only 2,357 could qualify. So, there was already a shortfall of over 200 candidates. And, of those who qualified, 868 candidates had to be selected by giving 10% relaxation, while the remaining 1,489 made it to the list on merit. “But, despite the relaxation, we couldn’t fill up all the seats,” said another JEE official. In 2009, 1,949 OBC students had qualified for 1,594 seats. But 51 OBC seats were converted to the general category. Similarly, for scheduled tribe (ST) candidates, 212 seats could not be filled this year. SC/ST candidates, along with students with physical disabilities, get 50% relaxation from the last general category candidate. A further 50% relaxation is given to those who do not qualify so that they can be sent for the one-year preparatory course. Of the 15,975 ST candidates who took the JEE this year, only 517 qualified to seek admission to 712 seats. Of these, 498 had to be selected by giving 50% relaxation. “There are 721 seats for ST candidates, but we haven’t been able to fill 212 seats despite so much concession. These will be transferred to preparatory course. For PD candidates, 90 seats couldn’t be filled and have been transferred to the preparatory course,” Natarajan said. In case of SC candidates, six seats are yet to be filled and the IITs are hoping to do so in the second round of allotment. In 2009, over 1,000 seats reserved for SCs and STs remained vacant and had to be transferred to the preparatory course and were filled after lowering the bar by another 50%. The exact picture will emerge after the second allotment on July 16. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Mayawati renames new district in Gandhi stronghold
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/mayawati-renames-new-district-in-gandhi-stronghold-34946 Mayawati renames new district in Gandhi stronghold NDTV Correspondent, Updated: July 01, 2010 15:44 IST New Delhi: With the Rahul Gandhi threat to her turf growing by the day in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Mayawati has fired the next salvo in the fierce battle for Dalit votes. She has resurrected a move to carve out a new district that includes the Gandhi strongholds of Amethi and Rae Bareli, and name it after a Dalit icon. The new district, carved out of Rae Bareli and Sultanpur districts, will be called Chhatrapti Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. It will include three Sultanpur Assembly seats and two Rae Bareli seats. The Parliamentary constituency will remain Amethi, which Rahul Gandhi represents and will not be affected by the new district being carved out. Congress President Sonia Gandhi represents the Rae Bareli Parliamentary constituency. The state cabinet in its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mayawati has decided to restore district status to Chattrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar, PTI quoted an official government spokesman as saying on Thursday. The BSP government of 2003 had accorded district status to the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, then represented by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, and renamed it Chatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. The Congress opposed this. It was not against a new district but wanted it named Rajiv Gandhi Nagar. The next government, that of the Samajwadi Party, revoked the notification. Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj is a Dalit icon from Maharashtra. (with PTI inputs) Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/mayawati-renames-new-district-in-gandhi-stronghold-34946?cp
[ZESTCaste] Mayawati announces nation-wide protest against price rise
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_mayawati-announces-nation-wide-protest-against-price-rise_1403509 Mayawati announces nation-wide protest against price rise PTI Wednesday, June 30, 2010 20:26 IST Lucknow: After announcing a state-wide agitation early next month against rise in prices of petroleum products, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati today said BSP will hold a nation-wide protest on July 15. Mulayam Singh manhandled as he unveils Lohia's statue in UP The party will stage demonstrations and dharna against deregulation of petroleum products at all the state headquarters across the country on July 15, Mayawati announced in a meeting of BSP leaders from different states. The BSP supremo had already announced that the party would stage demonstrations and dharna in all 71 districts in UP on July 6. Continuous hike in prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene and the Congress-led UPA government decision to deregulate petrol is completely against the interest of the common people, Mayawati alleged. During the two-day meeting which ended today, she reviewed functioning of the organisation in different states. Congress slogan of party's hand with aam aadmi has turned out to be a farce, Mayawati alleged. She said through demonstrations and dharna, party would demand that petroleum products be brought under government control again.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit groom hurt in clash
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Dalit-groom-hurt-in-clash/articleshow/6100134.cms Dalit groom hurt in clash TNN, Jun 28, 2010, 05.52am IST JAIPUR: A Dalit groom and his relatives were allegedly manhandled by youths of Rajput community when the groom tried to enter a Shiva temple in Basna village under Bansur police station of Alwar district. At least, 12 persons were injured in the clash. Later, the marriage procession was escorted by police. Bansur Police have registered a case and have started investigation. According to reports, Mohan Lal, accompanied by freinds and relatives, was on his way Badagaon village for his marriage. Trouble started when Mohan Lal wanted to visit a Shiva temple. When the procession reached Shiva temple, a group of people from Rajput community tried to stop them. This infuriated the Dalits and they clashed. SP Alok Vashisht told TOI that the situation was controlled and the injured were taken to hospital. The marriage procession was escorted to the venue and a case was registered later. Police said that four persons, including two women were hurt. District collector KL Meena said additional police force has been deployed in the area and senior administrative officials and policemen are camping in the village. Gopalji of Dalit Adhikar Samiti said eight persons, including the groom were injured. The samiti would agitate if no action is taken against the guilty. Even after decades of Independence, Dalits are not allowed to enter temples, he added.
[ZESTCaste] A survey recorded an astonishing 80-odd practices of untouchability—new, bizarre, vintage
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/untouchability-declassified 12 June 2010 Untouchability Declassified Discrimination is a dynamic industry in India. A survey recorded an astonishing 80-odd practices of untouchability—new, bizarre, vintage. BY Pallavi Polanki Two thousand years and counting. We must hold the record for perpetuating one of the worst crimes on humanity for the longest time running. The practice of untouchability has an unbroken history. A record the Indian state, in violation of its own Constitution, has become a collaborator to. Not hesitating to lie, even denying it at times, the state machinery stands guilty of turning a blind eye to this inhuman practice. A grave failure, seen most recently in Haryana, where the Supreme Court had to warn the government with “serious consequences” if it further delayed justice to the Dalit community in Mirchpur, where two citizens were burned to death and houses of 150 others reduced to ashes by the upper caste Jat community. To call the bluff on sanitised official reports that feign ignorance about an ugly social truth, the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front, an umbrella group comprising nearly 150 labour, Dalit and human rights movements, set off on a comprehensive survey three years ago. They started documenting all manifestations of untouchability, circa 2010. They visited 1,845 villages in 22 (of 32) districts in the state. A new village, a new can of worms. Exposing the rot of oppression and its myriad crippling ways. Discrimination is a dynamic industry in India. The survey recorded an astonishing 80-odd practices of untouchability—new, bizarre, vintage. It further recorded 22 atrocities committed against Dalits. The list, titled ‘Cruel Manifestations’ was released at the Front’s first state conference held in Pudukottai district on 28 May. Here’s an abridged version of that list THE LIST »Not allowed to speak on the cell phone in the presence of caste Hindus. (A practice reported in the Nilgiri constituency, a reserved Lok Sabha seat, the current incumbent of which is, ironically, Union Telecom Minister A Raja.) »Not allowed to keep male dogs. (Why? They might breed with female dogs from upper caste neighbourhoods.) »Separate work timings under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. »Refusal to rent houses to Dalits in certain neighbourhoods in urban areas. (Reported in Madurai, Tamil Nadu’s second largest city.) »No door delivery by postmen; postal department prevented from hiring Dalit postmen. »No access to the common crematorium, burial grounds. »Prevented from having their clothes washed or ironed, or assigned separate cupboards at the laundry for clothes of Dalits. »Refusal by barbers to cut their hair, or separate chairs for Dalits. »Separate ration shops, or queues, or timings for Dalits. »Offered tea in coconut shells which they can drink only by squatting on the ground. »Prevented from renting private marriage halls, public address systems. »Forced to cut out portion of the name that suggests respect (Madaswamy will be called Mada, Muniyaswamy Muniya). »Attacked if they call any caste Hindu as annan (brother). »Erecting walls (as was seen in Uthappuram) to deny Dalits access to common places. »Elderly members of the Dalit community addressed by children of the dominant caste as poda, vada (denoting lack of respect). »No access to temples, public streets, public taps (separate timings to collect water), public tanks, temples. »Sapparam (temple car) not driven through areas where Dalits reside. »Not allowed to participate in pookkuzhi (a ritual of walking on fire) during festivals. »Two, in some cases four, tumbler system in tea-shops, one set for Dalits and categories within them, another for caste Hindus. »Separate neighbourhoods for Dalits in villages. »Preventing the opening of milk dairy near Dalit neighbourhoods. »Dalit (Arunthathiyar) students compelled to clean bathrooms in schools. »Opposition to hiring Dalit cooks in mid-day meal school kitchens. »Engaging Dalits, Arunthathiyars especially, in conservancy work. »Dalit workers to bring their own food-plates while others need not. »Boycotting meetings held by Dalit Panchayat presidents. »Preventing the opening of panchayat office buildings in Dalit areas. NOT ALLOWED TO... »Wear shoes or chappals »Wear polyester dhotis »Ride bicycles or travel in bullock carts »Sit under bus shelters at village bus stops »Wear a cloth headgear or carry a towel over the shoulder (as is the local practice) »Sport a thin moustache »Sit on benches in hotels and tea stalls »Burst crackers during festivals »Rear cattle »Sing or speak at village functions or participate in auctions »Dine with caste Hindus OBLIGATED TO »Offer goats gratis to descendants of past andais (landlords in the feudal age) during festivals »Carry dead bodies »Work in crematoriums and at burial grounds »Sound the parai ( drums) »Carry message of
[ZESTCaste] 2012: BSP eyes reserved constituencies
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/2012-bsp-eyes-reserved-constituencies/639734/ 2012: BSP eyes reserved constituencies Sanjay Singh Posted online: Tue Jun 29 2010, 02:09 hrs Lucknow : In view of the 2012 Assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has started laying special focus on reserved Assembly constituencies. Wiser after the poor show in the last Lok Sabha polls, when the BSP won only two seats in the reserved category, Mayawati seems to be in no mood of taking any chances this time around. “Taking a lesson from her party’s defeat in most of the reserved seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the CM does not want to leave any room for Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, to grow further in these (reserved) constituencies. She has asked her trusted lieutenant and state PWD Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui to concentrate on party affairs in reserved constituencies,” said a BSP leader. The BSP had created a history of sorts in the 2007 Assembly polls after it clinched 62 of the total 89 seats that went to polls under the reserved constituencies. Party insiders said the CM has separated the party affairs of the reserved Assembly constituencies from the BSP’s main organisation. Siddiqui has been asked to constitute organisational committees at the booth, sector and Assembly levels, besides forming Bhaichara committees in these constituencies, said the leader, adding that Siddiqui not only has good knowledge of the demographic structure of the reserved seats, but is also a known face among party cadres. Besides, Siddiqui is one BSP leader who can ensure proper coordination among the party cadres and the caste-based “Bhaichara committees” of the party. Sources said the BSP’s top priority is to first strengthen its “social engineering formula” that, it said, had provided the thrust for its succcess in the 2007 Assembly elections. The party had then credited the same formula for its success in reserved constituencies, saying it was the voters from upper castes who made the difference in these constituenices. Mayawati has already asked the party’s “Brahmin mascot” and national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra to reconstitute the Brahmin Bhaichara committees across the state. “Mishra will start an extensive tour of the state in September. Besides the 10 Assembly constituencies, he will focus on at least two reserved constituencies each month,” the BSP leader said. The exercise is meant to counter the Congress’s possible growth in reserved constituencies. “The plan is to check Dalits tilting towards the Congress. If the BSP is successful in wooing the Brahmins and Muslims, it would be a clear indicator that the BSP will win these seats. It would then be difficult for Opposition parties like Congress, to target the BSP Dalit votebank,” said the leader. Mayawati has also started centralising her party’s old horses from different states to UP. Veer Singh, who was party coordinator in Maharashtra, is now handling party affairs in Agra zone. Similarly, Sewa Ram from Uttarakhand and Narendra Patel from Gujarat have been asked to expand the party’s base in Kanpur and Jhansi zones, respectively. BSP protest against fuel price hike on July 6 In protest against the recent hike in the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will hold demonstrations at all its district headquarters on July 6. The decision was taken at a meeting between BSP chief Mayawati and her party functionaries on Monday. Mayawati said the increase in prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene made it clear that the Congress had nothing to do with the common people. She alleged this particular step was meant to benefit those capitalists who enjoyed good relations with the UPA and its allies and who provided them with financial support to contest elections. She said the price hike would fuel the fire of inflation and the decision to free petrol prices from administrative control would lead to increase in the price of petrol at regular intervals. ENS INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to:
[ZESTCaste] Four BSP ministers face blasphemy charges
http://expressbuzz.com/nation/four-bsp-ministers-face-blasphemy-charges/185087.html Four BSP ministers face blasphemy charges Anand Raj Singh First Published : 28 Jun 2010 01:48:03 AM IST Last Updated : 28 Jun 2010 08:49:42 AM IST LUCKNOW: Four senior members in the Mayawati Cabinet, along with five others, face criminal charges in connection with an article published in a magazine last month, allegedly denigrating Hindu gods, goddesses and epics. T he order of Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohd Ashraf Ansari of Jaunpur district on Saturday came on a petition filed by Radhey Shyam Verma in connection with an article published in ‘Ambedkar Today’, brought out by the kin of a ruling party leader. The accused are ministers Swami Prasad Maurya, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Daddu Prasad, along with Backward Commission Chairman Parasnath Maurya, Sushma Rana, editor of the magazine Rajiv Ratan Maurya, bureau chief Ashok Anand and writer of the article Ashwini Kumar Shakya. The CJM directed the police to lodge the case under various sections of the IPC, including 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to wound religious beliefs), 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 505 (commencement and continuance of the right of private defence of property), and submit the investigation report. The state government denied that the CJM’s order contains names of the ministers. The government had earlier ordered a CB-CID probe into the incident. The editor of the magazine had apologised and the matter seemed to have ended. Swami Prasad Maurya, who is also the state president of the ruling BSP, said, he was yet to see the order of the CJM and would move superior court if necessary. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Hills show way forward for tribals
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/hills-show-way-forward-for?utm_source=twitterfeedutm_medium=twitter Hills show way forward for tribals S A Aiyar, 27 June 2010, 12:30 AM IST So you think that Indian tribals are utterly downtrodden, oppressed and bypassed by national economic development? You think activists are right to view Maoist insurgency as a tribal blessing and the only way forward for such an oppressed group? Think again. No less than 17.1% of tribals own colour TVs, 46.6% have bicycles, 20% have two-wheelers, 12.5% have life insurance and 8.5% have refrigerators. That is below the national average of course, but nothing like the stark deprivation painted by activists. These startling figures come from Caste in a Different Mould by Rajesh Shukla, Sunil Jain and Preeti Kakkar. The book draws on major household surveys by the National Council on Applied Economic Research, especially one in 2004-05. Its main finding is that caste matters much less than people think, while education and location matter much more. That is good news. The OBCs (other backward castes) show no sign of suffering from discrimination — their income and durables ownership shares are roughly in line with population share. The share of dalits and tribals is below the national average, but not nearly as far below as activists and Maoists would have you believe. India's average annual household income in 2004-05 was Rs 65,041. Upper caste households averaged Rs 86,690, higher than the national average but not dramatically so. Tribals averaged Rs 40,753, lower than the national average but not dramatically so. Cynics will say this is too good to be true. Academic Pratap Bhanu Mehta expresses surprise in an introductory chapter that inequality seems so low. Tribals account for 8% of the population and 5.2% of national income. This inequality is strikingly modest. In the US, the bottom quintile (bottom 20%) of the population gets only 3% of the national income. In India, the bottom quintile gets twice as much. Tribals and dalits account for 24.8% of the population and as much as 17% of national income, clear evidence that some are well off. One-third of tribals are in the lowest quintile, but as many as 4% of them are well off and in the top quintile. Differences between tribals are as great as all-India differences. Hence block benefits for all tribals (such as job reservation) are not warranted. Tribal households in hill states average an annual income of Rs 72,052, well above the national average. In other states, tribal income rises in line with state incomes. Tribals average Rs 30,939 per year in low-income states, Rs 44,533 in middle-income states, and Rs 53,176 in high-income states. Laws on reservation (and most analyses) make no distinction between tribals in different areas. That is a terrible mistake. Tribals in hill states are privileged, not deprived. The tribal north-eastern states have the benefit of low population, high literacy (boosted initially by Christian missionary schools), and extensive road networks built for defence purposes in these border areas. The north-east also benefits from huge infusions of Central money and substantial income from smuggling. Violent clashes are common in the north-east too, but these are not Maoist: they relate to secession (Nagaland) or inter-tribal tensions (Manipur and the Bodo territories). Hill tribals constitute a creamy layer, absolutely non-comparable with illiterate tribals in the central Indian jungles. Missionaries worked in the central jungles too, but the number of tribals there was infinitely larger, so the impact on literacy was correspondingly small. Tribals in low-income states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh earn slightly less than half the national average. This is a pity, but hardly represents a hopeless state of deprivation justifying violent insurrection. Like me, most readers will be astonished that tribals are not worse off in even the most inhospitable locations. Tribals in these locations can double their incomes by migrating to higher income states, and even more (to Rs 85,023 per year) by migrating to big cities. Illiterate upper castes earn 1.4 times as much as illiterate tribals. This suggests a modest degree of discrimination. But a graduate tribal earns 3.7 times as much as an illiterate one. Among upper castes, graduates earn 4.2 times as much as illiterates. Clearly education provides a way forward for everybody. This suggests the foundation of a proactive strategy to combat the socio-economic appeal of Maoism in tribal areas. First, roads and other infrastructure are needed to improve economic possibilities and migration opportunities. Second, education is needed to create skills and lift potential incomes. The combined effect of infrastructure and education can lift tribals above the national average, as has been achieved in the hill states. The task will be much harder in the central Indian jungles. But
[ZESTCaste] Dear capitalists, call the Telangana bluff (Kancha Ilaiah)
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/dc-comment/dear-capitalists-call-telangana-bluff-940 Dear capitalists, call the Telangana bluff June 25th, 2010 Kancha Ilaiah Dear Hyderabad capitalists, The city is as much your home as it is mine. I have been living here ever since I came to write my MA entrance examination in 1974 with a broken suitcase, bought from a local Sunday market of Narsampet by my late mother. Now I am a professor with status and salary. Some of you came to this city much earlier than me and some later than me, but by all means you are far richer than me or any average employee, doctor or engineer. You have made your money on the labour power of your employees and also from the profits you accrued in the market. You have accumulated your wealth by combining labour and capital. Yet that wealth is yours, no doubt. Now the movement for separate Telangana state is threatening your very survival in Hyderabad. Your response has been to pump money to the leaders of the Telangana agitation since they have been issuing threats to your economic interests. “We will not allow your business in Hyderabad”, they say. “We will not allow your cinema industry to run; we will not allow even your cricket match to take place”. You have pacified them by bribing them. Of course, you have also aided and abetted a united Andhra movement alongside. What worries me most is the way the leaders growing around such movements have become richer day by day. Thanks to this, your economic activity has been going on without hurdles. After each such threat, it is the threat giver’s wealth and health that is increasing. But the general health of Telangana — the economic health of its aam aadmi — has been deteriorating. In the late 60s and early 70s the Telangana movement was conducted mostly on legs and bicycles. The bigger leaders of the movement were moving in jeeps, and even the biggest ones could only boast Ambassador cars. Yet they conducted agitations that shook the Centre, inspired the youth to brave bullets and also won elections — 11 out of 14 parliamentary seats were in the pocket of Praja Samithi. Of course, that movement also caused loss of lives and disrupted education. Lot of public property that Telangana people would have used for their advancement was damaged. The agitations also pushed the region backwards in the field of education. And no great moral leader or intellectual emerged from the movement. And most importantly, Telangana did not become a separate state. But the fact remains that no leader made money out of that movement. Only Mr Chenna Reddy made political capital. Now look at the present Telangana movement and its drivers. All you see is money, money and more money. Where is it coming from? Obviously much of it is coming from you. You see this movement as an inevitable evil and want to handle it as carefully as possible. There is a saying that Capitalists like corrupt Communists. Not only can the corrupt Communist be bribed, his presence also gives a bigger moral licence to the capitalist to exploit workers more and more. Similarly you capitalists do not like the Telangana movement. But since it is a reality, you would rather deal with a corrupt leader, who asks money for everything. Whatever money you pay him you get from the sweat of the aam aadmi of the region. And as the wealth of the leader grows the resources of the aam aadmi dwindles in the same proportion. This is bad capitalist morality, to say the least. Now you have a Telangana tiger that needs red blood every day and a group of paper tigers who need some “white water” every day. The relationship is perfect. But where does that leave the ordinary people of Telangana? They are not given drought relief and their children do not get English education. For all the demands there is one answer — wait till Telangana comes. Meanwhile, Telangana’s brand ambassadors are moving around in brand new Innovas and Maruti Swifts. Should this be the quality of the movement? We are scratching our heads for an answer. Assume that you had spent the same kind of money to give English education to the children of the poor people of Telangana after the 1969 movement, perhaps by forming charity trusts or by establishing at least 10 schools in the villages. Do you know what would have happened? You would have produced a world class intellectual from this region. The whole region would have appreciated your culture of charity. Many of you praise Mahatma Gandhi but hate his trusteeship theory. Where did we get this capitalist culture from? That is the difference between Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and you. So long as you do not change your culture, any number of leaders and professional agitators will be squeezing money out of you. India cannot survive with this culture of capitalism and politics. It is time to start thinking. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in
[ZESTCaste] A Study on Dalit Women Movement in Tamilnadu
http://womenclub.tk/a-study-on-dalit-women-movement-in-tamilnadu/ A Study on Dalit Women Movement in Tamilnadu Even as we are in the 21st century, caste discrimination, an age- old practice that dehumanizes and perpetuates a cruel form of discrimination continues to be practiced. India where the practice is rampant despite the existence of a legislation to stop this, 160 million Dalits of which 49.96 percentage are women continue to suffer discrimination. The discrimination that Dalit women are subjected to is similar to racial discrimination. Dalit women are thrice discriminated, treated as untouchables and as outcaste, due to their caste, face gender discrimination being women and finally economic impoverishment due to unequal wage disparity, with low or underpaid labour. According to the Manusmiriti, women have no right to education, independence, or wealth. It not only justifies the treatment of dalit women as a sex object and promotes child marriage. Manusmiriti also promoted inequality between men and women. As other parts of country in Tamil Nadu also Dalit women are facing challenges because of their caste and gender discrimination. So, in order to improve and get due respect of Dalit women, the various womens forum and organization started as Dalit women movement to protect their rights. In this context, the present paper focuses on Dalit Women Movement in Tamil Nadu. This study also highlights the Dalit Movement in India and Role of Ambedkar for the rights of Dalits. Dalit Movement in India Dalit movement has a rich history of rationalism and humanism. In fact, the historical evolution took place with Buddhas revolt against Varnashram dharama. Buddha not only rejected supremacy of Bramins but also of the Shastras. After Buddha, Mahavir Swami rejected the notion of caste and violence in the brahmanical structure. In the 15th century Kabir talked of rejection of caste system and talked of one God. He attacked rituals and shastras and talked of a society based on equality. Yet the brahmanical system continued by hook or by crook. The brahmanical literature degraded Dalits and talked very cleverly about the pre- birth theory. While Mughal rule in India was a status quo one, the emergence of British power made a lot of difference for the downtrodden people. They brought a sense of liberty for the marginalized communities. Jyoti Ba Phule belonged to Mali community of Maharastra. Punes Chtpawan Bramin would not allow any Dalit and backward to join schools. Women and particularly of Dalit community could never dream of going to school. Phule realized that unless the community gets educated they would not be able to emancipate themselves. So he started a massive work of education by starting various schools in and around Pune. The Brahmins opposed education movement among Dalits which they had denied for years. Phule appreciated Christian missionaries for their noble work in school education. Dalit Movement today is at the crossroads. The early center of the movement was Maharashtra since the pre- Independence period. Ambedkar and the Maharashtra Movements were the source of inspiration for the dalit movements elsewhere. But, the dalit panthers of 1970s could not withstand for more than a decade. The Republican party (RPI ) has splintered into so many factions and the main faction led by Athauale is clinging on to the Congress apron strings. The BRP led by Prakash Ambedkar is still enjoying mass respect and influence, still, there is no movements worth the name. The dalit movement in Karnataka, symbolized by the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) was known for its agitational and movemental character. In Andhra Pradesh the Dalit movement showed some signs of revival in the mid 1990s when the BSP made an attempt to expand its wings to south India. Lakhs of people got mobilized in the inaugural rally. Ex-PWG leaders, prominent dalit leaders etc., joined the BSP in the presence of Kansiram. Kerala has the lowest proportion of dalits in south India. The 68 communities included in the list of S.Cs form a mere 9.8 percent of the population in a state dominated few major communities Muslims, (27.70%) Ezhavas, (22.91%) Chirstians ( 19.02%) and Nairs ( 12.88%) and S.Ts form a miniscule 1.1 percent. The dalits of Kerala are the most literate among the S.C. population in the country. Role of Ambedkar for the Dalits rights Taking inspiration from phule, Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar also talked the importance of education. But education must be rationalists and reasonable. Education agitates our mind. It gives us thought about what is good and what is bad. Hence, Education is root of every movement. Agitation on certain thing is uniting factor. It became the famous word of Ambedkar Educate, agitate and organise . Ambedkar was one of the tallest intellectuals of the country, a scholar who understood the crookedness of the Shastras. He was an iconoclast and questioned the very essence of Shastras. Ambedkar fought for
[ZESTCaste] Parliamentary Committee to visit Mirchpur on July 2
http://www.ptinews.com/news/753524_Parliamentary-Committee-to-visit-Mirchpur-on-July-2 Parliamentary Committee to visit Mirchpur on July 2 STAFF WRITER 16:53 HRS IST Hisar (Har), Jun 30 (PTI) Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of SC and ST will visit Mirchpur village on July 2, which had witnessed a caste violence in April, to take stock of the steps taken by the state administration to provide relief and rehabilitation to the victims. The 30-member Parliamentary team will meet the affected families, take stock of relief and rehabilitation measures taken by the state government and will suggest steps for resettling the victims in their own village, an official spokesman said here today. On April 21, a 70-year-old man and his teenaged physically challenged daughter were burnt alive and several others were injured when members of a particular community torched several houses belonging to dalits in Mirchpur. The incident was triggered when a dog barked at a youth, belonging to the pre-dominant Jat community, when he was passing by some dalits houses in the village.
[ZESTCaste] Stripped Dalit girl says caste-hatred behind attack
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/stripped-dalit-girl-says-castehatred-behind-attack/639275/ Stripped Dalit girl says caste-hatred behind attack Sukanya Shetty Posted: Jun 28, 2010 at 0334 hrs Mumbai Even with round-the-clock police security, the 22-year old Dalit girl has not stepped out of her house for more than a week after she was stripped and paraded semi-naked in the bylanes of Mira Dargah Street in Reay Road area, a hub of warehouses in South Mumbai. “A mob of 23-30 women and a few men entered my house, beat me with bamboo sticks, kicked me, tore my gown, stripped me and dragged me to the street. I pleaded, but they hurled abuses at me,” Rajini Rajini Kamble (name changed) recalls. The mob attack on June 17 was ostensibly to “teach a lesson to the family” after her brother Vijay Kamble was picked up allegedly for raping a minor in a nearby warehouse where he worked as a guard, but the girl says caste-based hatred for the family runs a long way back. “The upper class women in the neighbourhood would always abuse us... They would not allow us to draw water from the community water pump. They waited for an opportunity to attack our family,” she says. In 2008, the girl’s mother had written to the local police station about death threats her family had received. “Neighbours would force us to cough up money to use a public water pump. When I didn’t give in to the demand, they threatened us. The only person they feared was my son and now he is in jail,” says her mother. On June 17, over 30 women and a few men assembled in the area on knowing she was alone at home, according to the girl who has registered a case with Sewree police station. “They stripped me and kept telling me my family is a disgrace to the area... A few men joined them. One recorded the drama on his cellphone,” she said. The drama went on for over 30 minutes before police reached the spot, she says. “The mob had planned it well in advance. The incident occurred 10 days after her brother’s arrest on June 7. It’s a clear case of atrocity,” said ACP Dilip Waghmare, Wadala Division. Waghmare said Rajini’s friend and next-door neighbour Sayeeda Qazi came to her assistance and wrapped a duppatta around her. “We have recorded statements of witnesses, especially Sayeeda’s,” says Waghmare. Twelve people identified by the victim were arrested and sent to police custody till July 1. “We are still looking for a few more women who fled from the spot. Security would be provided to the family until things calm down,” says Waghmare. All accused, including 10 women and two men are booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code for unlawful assembly, rioting, outraging the modesty of a woman along with section 3 (1), 3(10) and 3 (11) of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] MMRPS to agitate for SC classification
http://www.hindu.com/2010/06/28/stories/2010062857460300.htm Andhra Pradesh - Kadapa MMRPS to agitate for SC classification Special Correspondent We will stage protests in front of the houses of Ministers, MPs, MLAs: Devaiah Madiga KADAPA: Maha Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MMRPS) founder-president S. Devaiah Madiga asserted on Sunday that the samithi would not only agitate for achieving micro-classification of Scheduled Castes in the State, but would strive to ensure that the fruits of developmental programmes and welfare schemes implemented by the Central and State government reached Madigas and its sub-castes. MMRPS committees would exert pressure on the Central and State governments in a peaceful manner and stage protests in front of the houses of Ministers, MPs and MLAs in pursuance of their demand, he said. The problems confronting the Madiga community would remain unresolved until micro-classification was achieved, he asserted at a news conference here. There was no rift between the Mala and Madiga Communities and they developed on education, employment and political lines when the previous government enacted a legislation classifying the SCs, he stated. Development of Madiga community was hampered ever since the micro-classification was disapproved by Supreme Court, he added. The Central and State governments were apathetic in getting the micro-classification restored since two years, despite concerted agitations, Mr. Devaiah said. Mr.. Devaiah Madiga oversaw the election of office-bearers for MMRPS' Kadapa district unit and the district student wing. Chitti Sriramulu Madiga was elected honorary president of Kadapa District MMRPS, Ponnolu Subbarayudu as district president and G. Nagamuni as general secretary. Others elected were G. Brahmaiah and B. Palakondaiah as vice-presidents, S. Narasimhulu as joint secretary and G. Munaiah as State vice-president. S. Balu Madiga was elected president of Kadapa Maha Madiga Vidyarthi Samakhya, M. Venkataramana as district general secretary, S. Gangadhar as vice-president, S. Sriramulu as district secretary.
[ZESTCaste] Whither Reservations?
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article2166.html Mainstream, Vol XLVIII No 27, June 26, 2010 Whither Reservations? Sheetal Sharma As the final phase of the intake of OBCs quota in educational institutions—such as central universities, IIMs, IITs, AIIMS, institutions funded or managed under the aegis of the Central Government—is going to be accomplished in the coming session, there is a sense of satisfaction that another step has been taken for the upliftment of the socially backward sections of society. Hitherto, the backward castes and communities have been denied any attempt to rise socially; thus it is our obligation to ensure social justice and equality. It is purported that through means of affirmative action, such as reservation in educational and occupational opportunities, the backward castes and downtrodden communities (including Scheduled Castes and Tribes) can free themselves from the shackles of age-old discrimination. Although it would take some years before we can actually realise the consequences of these policy initiatives, it is appropriate time to reflect upon the process through which we are expecting to achieve a ‘desired’ product—a society free of caste-based discrimination. • CASTE defines the structural reality of the Indian society and constitutes the very fabric of the Indian social system. In Ambedkar’s words, “The Caste System is not merely a division of labour. It is also a division of labourers. Civilised society undoubtedly needs division of labour. But in no civilised society is division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into watertight compartments. The Caste System is not merely a division of labourers which is quite different from division of labour—it is a hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other. In no other country is the division of labour accompanied by this gradation of labourers.” (Section IV, Annihilation of Caste. Vol-I, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches) Access to opportunities and status is intrinsically rooted in one’s caste status. Conventionally, the birth in a particular caste predetermines and defines the status and profession of an individual. The caste identity precedes any other form of identity and in extremes of cases even the fact that an individual is a ‘human being’. In practice this reality creates caste consciousness among the practitioners of the caste system and governs his/her social interaction with other such identities. More often than not interaction between asymmetrically ranked caste identities results in social exclusion, lack of self-esteem, stigma, discrimination, and denial of equality in various spheres of life. The social and cultural sources of exclusion and inhuman discrimination are deeply entrenched in our institutions and social structure, and are established as reified reality. Poverty and penury are just economic manifestation of this subterranean structural rootedness. With few exceptions, for centuries the philosophers, leaders, enlightened intellectuals, and godmen could not, or chose not to, see any irregularity in the established order; perhaps their vision and perception was being myopic and blighted by their own position in the entire social arrangement. The task to change the character and characteristics of such an order was daunting, nevertheless, achievable. The much needed empathetic understanding from the perspective of the ‘oppressed’ could not take place until Ambedkar began to see caste-based discrimination as some kind of challenge to the extent that he placed social freedom precedent to political freedom. He saw restoration of dignity to fellow citizens as important, if not more, as freedom from foreign yoke. Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India and one of the leading advocates of civil rights, tried to turn the Wheel of Law towards social justice for ‘all’. After independence, it was realised that historical deprivation, continuing discrimination and persistent disparity call for state initiative or affirmative action. The state, through pronunciation of its normative prescription of secularism and democracy, took up to guarantee all its citizens equality, liberty, and freedom from exploitation. State sponsored mobility for backward castes and communities was perceived as a means of compensation for injustices, deprivation, and discrimination which these communities have suffered historically and in fact continue to suffer. For safeguarding their interests and accelerating socio-economic development it was realised that these communities need special provisions. A policy of reservations was instituted in order to combat social disability, economic backwardness, and other handicaps confronted by them in getting reasonable representation in elected offices, government jobs, and educational institutions. Article 46 of the Constitution of India states that “the State shall promote, with special care, the education
[ZESTCaste] Locals fear losing homes to Annabhau Sathe memorial
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_locals-fear-losing-homes-to-annabhau-sathe-memorial_1402156 Locals fear losing homes to Annabhau Sathe memorial Akshay Deshmane / DNAMonday, June 28, 2010 1:26 IST Mumbai: Even as social justice minister Sachin Ahir declared that the government has cleared all issues related to its plan of building a memorial for Marathi Dalit littérateur Annabhau Sathe at Chiragnagar in Ghatkopar, residents of the area are not in favour of the memorial. The locals complain that there was no public consultation by the government, and they fear that the memorial could leave them homeless. The memorial, if built, will force about 100 families from 3 chawls to look for accommodation elsewhere. “How can you expect families residing in the locality for so many decades to just leave? I have been staying here for the past 25 years,” said Juliana Brags, a resident of Chawl No. 5. The residents insist that Ahir once visit the area and clarify the government’s plans. “We thought the matter had been closed. But after Ahir’s announcement, we are worried. We were informed about the project in December 2009 when officials from the collector’s office and the surveyor’s office came to survey the area. They told us that a memorial was being planned,” added Brags. According to locals, in February 2010, officials forcefully conducted another survey. “On March 4, we wrote a letter to the chief minister and other officials, but didn’t get any response,” said Brags. Another local, Sheikh Aarif Hussain, who resides close to Sathe’s house in Abdul Pathan Chawl, said, “In April, officials from the collector’s office arrived with police bandobast. They took signatures and thumb impressions of those who objected to the construction of a memorial. And now they announce that they are going ahead with the memorial.” Caretaker of Annabhau Sathe’s home, Namdeo Sathe, who also organises events in memory of the writer throughout the year, said he does not know if the state will allot him a home or a job, if they do build a memorial. Namdeo is hoping that he gets a government job once the memorial is built. Even the daughters of Annabhau Sathe — Shantabai Dodke and Shakuntalabai Saptal — are in the dark about the memorial. “We have not been consulted by the government for the memorial. We came to know about the plans through newspapers,” said Dodke. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Class is the issue
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/06/27/stories/2010062750140400.htm Viewpoint Class is the issue HARI NARKE The OBC census is not a caste census and one that is necessary to formulate policies vital to their development. OBCs are not a caste but a socially and educationally backward class. While the demand for census of Other Backward Classes (OBC) is being criticised for promoting casteism, it was the Planning Commission's report on the Eleventh Five-year Plan ( Vol 1, pg 118, 120, 2008) which stressed the need for such a census. “Like SCs, STs, Minorities and persons with disabilities, there is an imperative need to carry out a census of OBCs now or in the next census in 2011. In the absence of exact assessment of their population size, literacy rate, employment status in government, private and unorganised sectors, basic civic amenities, health status, poverty status and human development and HPIs, it is very difficult to formulate realistic policies and programmes for the development of OBCs.” The Commission said that “State-wise, OBC-wise data on populations as well as vital and demographic variables are not available, which is the main hurdle in the formulation of policies and programmes for the development of the Other Backward Classes.” Before this, the Standing Committee on Social Justice, 2006, headed by Sumitra Mahajan and comprising 28 MPs, “strongly recommend that Ministry should vigorously pursue with the Registrar General of India to conduct a survey of OBCs and the persons living below double the poverty line in this category so that the Ministry could prepare its Action Plan so that the required amount of funds can be made available to the State Governments for effective implementation of National Backward Classes Finance Development Corporations various schemes for the development of backward classes”. In addition , the three Backward Classes Commissions in 1955, 1980 and 2004-05, apart from the National Commission for Nomadic Tribes, Semi Nomadic Tribes Denotified Tribes [Renke Commission], 2008, was in favour of an OBC census. Crucial distinction A major issue that needs to be clarified here is that the OBC census is a class census and not a caste census. It has to be pointed out that OBCs are not a caste but a socially and educationally backward class. Just as there is a special provision in the budget of the states and the Centre for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST), the OBCs also need a separate budget for their upliftment. They have a constitutional right to basic amenities, employment, and shelter and unless we know their exact population, it will be difficult to make plans for them. The OBC census is required for two reasons. While budgeting and planning for the OBCs is one aspect, the other crucial one is to silence the repeated attack, in numerous writ petitions, against reservation for OBCs on the grounds that their exact population is not known. The Supreme Court has on every occasion rejected this argument but it will pop up again and again. There is a misconception that SCs and STs are Constitutionally recognised categories but OBCs are not. This is not true. The Constitutional recognition of SCs and STs are articles 341 and 342 and for OBCs it is article 340. Only, there was gross delay in implementing article 340 at the central level till as late as 1990, though lists of OBCs were made in the peninsular provinces and princely states even before Independence. The total number of OBCs for all states in the central list is only 1963, not a formidable number compared to SCs and STs. There has been a religion-wise census for 140 years. India was divided because of religion, not because of caste, but the religion-wise census continues. There is a census of SC/ST without any objection. If SC/ST census is not opposed, why then is a classwise census of more than 52 per cent of the population being opposed? Even today, there is endogamy in this country. All castes have their organisations. Those organisations hold their conventions, they have their own banks, educational institutes etc but no one complains against them. Those who say that casteism will spread due to the OBC census forget that the caste system has been in existence for thousands of years and continues regardless of any Census. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar himself had insisted on an OBC census along with separate SC/ST census in independent India. This has been categorically mentioned in his book Who Were The Shudras?There were serious debates in the Constituent Assembly on this issue. Dr. Ambedkar played a seminal role for the rights of OBCs. Jyotiba Phule and Dr. Ambedkar have given the blueprint for caste annihilation in this country. Social justice to all, equality and adequate representation in the power structure are prerequisites in
[ZESTCaste] Centre steps in to reactivate SC, ST sub-plans
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Centre-steps-in-to-reactivate-SC-ST-sub-plans/articleshow/6098804.cms Centre steps in to reactivate SC, ST sub-plans Subodh Ghildiyal, TNN, Jun 28, 2010, 02.00am IST NEW DELHI: Fresh attempts are afoot to activate the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan, with social justice ministry raising an alarm with the PM over their non-implementation and the Planning Commission constituting a task force for their review. The SCSP and TSP stipulate that every government programme should have part of the budget earmarked for SCs/STs in proportion of their population. Sources said social justice minister Mukul Wasnik has written to PM Manmohan Singh that the sub-plan was lying in disuse and was in dire need for attention. The Plan panel's decision to constitute a task force to revisit the issue seems part of an attempt to get the sub-plans off the ground after a study found their implemention to be dismal. Planning Commssion member Narendra Jadhav told TOI that only 20% of the Union ministries had implemented plans for allocating 15% and 7.5% of their programme money for SCs and STs. The situation is no better with states as most of them either do not follow the guidelines or divert the allocations under SCSP and TSP to other heads. The task force, headed by Jadhav, will comprise the Union secretaries of tribal affairs and social justice, and secretaries of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Chandrapal, former adviser with the Plan panel who revised the guidelines for the non-lapsable, non-divertible sub-plan in 2006, said, The idea was to ensure that benefits of the welfare schemes go to SCs/STs. Special programmes funded by sub-plans should also be designed for them. The underlying reason behind creating the sub-plans was that systemic bias was preventing the weak groups from benefiting from welfare schemes. The new task force within four years of the revision of the guidelines and approval by National Development Council only shows that implementation has been poor. While indifference has been the bane of the sub-plans, a review by Centre, Plan panel and states may highlight the difficulties in dividing budgets along community lines. Sources said infrastructure-related ministries have expressed inability in making allocations for SCs/STs as facilities like roads and transport are used by people across communities. It may result in the Plan panel identifying programmes where SCSP and TSP can be implemented. We can introduce flexibility in guidelines. The idea is that sub-plans should work, a functionary said.
[ZESTCaste] One Indian village wins freedom with job program
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/26/AR2010062602159.html One Indian village wins freedom with job program By RAVI NESSMAN The Associated Press Sunday, June 27, 2010; 12:01 AM PIPARI, India -- For as long as anyone can remember, the people of Pipari have lived as virtual slaves. The wealthy, upper-caste landlord forced them to work his fields for almost nothing, gave them loans at impossible interest rates, controlled their access to government welfare and held the police in his pocket. They were dalits, the lowest caste, with houses made of cattle dung, clothing in tatters and barely enough food for a meal and a half a day. They were trapped below the bottom, serfs in an age-old system of exploitation that few in rural India dared question. Until, one day, with the help of the world's largest social welfare program, they did. The roots of Pipari's revolt lie in the latest effort to alleviate the devastating poverty that plagues India, amid an economic boom that brought luxury cars to city streets but left rural villages without running water. Earlier programs intended to empower the poor - giving them land and subsidized food, reserving posts for women and lower castes - often ended with upper-caste landlords and corrupt bureaucrats amassing even greater power. They distributed the cheap food, but kept a cut to sell at market rates. They used front men to obtain land meant for the destitute. Their servants and wives ran for reserved posts on their behalf. So legions of critics rolled their eyes when the government passed a new law in 2005 guaranteeing every rural family 100 days of work a year at a wage that is now pegged at 100 rupees ($2.10) a day. But the law was largely shaped by social activists with deep on-the-ground experience, who designed it as a vehicle for transforming rural India. The program - which has given work to more than 52 million families this year - pays the rural poor to build everything from roads to irrigation ponds. It also fights corruption by giving local grassroots groups oversight. It pressures rural employers to raise their wages to compete with the program's pay. It reserves one-third of the jobs for women. And, the government hopes, it will stem the flight from farms to cities. It's incredibly ambitious, said Jean Dreze, a development economist affiliated with the Delhi School of Economics. Over time, all of this could lead to quite a bit of social change. When corrupt officials siphoned off part of the villagers' wages, the government pushed the program's 90 million workers to get bank accounts so they could be paid directly - a revolutionary move that suddenly gave much of India's rural poor access to formal banking for the first time. When agents began gathering at the banks to help workers fill out forms for a hefty fee, the government mandated that all paperwork be taken care of at the job sites. The program has had an uneven impact across India. In some places, like Pipari, it has doubled or tripled local incomes and empowered villagers. In many others, villagers do not even know they have the right to request work, or if they do, are simply brushed off by local officials. Some states are barely implementing the program, Dreze said. And even the program's supporters admit it is hemorrhaging money. The cost of 400 billion rupees ($8.6 billion) accounts for nearly 4 percent of the central government's budget. Some economists says as much as 30 or 40 percent of the funds might be pocketed by unscrupulous officials - a relatively good track record for rural India. Program officials say the percentage of misused funds is far lower. But the program has also won accolades from surprising quarters. Political analysts credit it for the Congress Party's re-election last year. Citigroup says the money it pumped into rural areas helped India weather the global economic downturn. There is a huge amount of scope for improvement, said Himanshu, a professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, who goes by one name. But, it's working a lot. More than what we had expected. --- Pipari is so far at the bottom, its economy runs on cattle manure. It is mixed with mud to construct brittle homes baked pale yellow in the paralyzing heat. It is cut into logs, laid out to dry and burned as cooking fuel. It is stacked for safekeeping into 8-foot-high mounds scattered everywhere in the village. There is no electricity, no running water and not a single toilet or outhouse for the 179 families of this village, about 180 kilometers north of Lucknow, the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh. The villagers are chamars, from the untouchable caste of traditional leather tanners, and pasis, the slightly higher caste of watchmen. Before India gained independence from Great Britain in 1947, they were landless peasants tending farms on behalf of their upper-caste landlords. After independence, they were given tiny farms of
[ZESTCaste] Use of Dalit racism in anti-Hindu propaganda: How to deal with cunning Xtian missionaries
http://greathindu.com/2010/06/the-use-of-dalit-and-racism-in-anti-hindu-propaganda/ Use of Dalit racism in anti-Hindu propaganda: How to deal with cunning Xtian missionaries June 27th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Great Hindu Christian missionaries have cleverly used Dalits to divide Hindu society. They have played the caste card to negate whatever is positive in Hinduism. The way out is a heady mix of positive reforms and creative counter-propaganda. This is what Belgian historian Koenraad Elst says: http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/chr/christiandalit.html The use of Dalits and racism in anti-Hindu propaganda How to deal with clever Christian missionaries The ongoing commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in the British empire (1807) is being used by Christian missionary circles as an occasion for Hindu-bashing through the theme of caste oppression as a still-existing form of slavery. Hindu polemicists typically react by highlighting the human-rights abuses committed by Christians or in the name of Christianity through the centuries: witch-burning, persecution of pagans and heretics, racism, apartheid and of course the slave trade itself. The intended implication is that Christians are morally in no position to berate Hindus for their social injustices and had better not meddle in inter-Hindu matters. This may be a correct and convincing position to take in front of a neutral or as yet uninformed audience, but with Christians who know their religion, it is hopelessly ineffective. Whereas Christian missionaries have invested heavily in studying Hindu society and its subsets as defined by language, caste or social class, most Hindus including anti-conversion activists are unfamiliar with the Christian mentality. Hindu polemicists listen to their own and each other’s words and then think: how great, how clever. But if you want to get a message across to an audience, you should listen to the effect you’re having on this audience. So, as an ex-Christian and still daily in touch with Christian circles, I would like to point out certain beliefs and attitudes that immunize Christians against the charge of being no better than Hindus with their caste oppression. First of all, the historical facts and present eyesores which you want to shove into their faces and of which you expect that they will shock awe Christians into silence about caste, are already widely known and acknowledged. On the 900th anniversary of the Crusades, a perfectly justified Christian reaction against Muslim imperialism, numerous Christians indulged a guilt trip and said sorry to the Muslims. But most of all, they impressed it upon themselves (far more thoroughly than you could hope to do) what evil sinners they had been back then, and how this should spur them into being nice to today’s Muslims. To Christians, past sins are a matter for repentance vis-à-vis God, but ultimately only the normal course of things, since we’re all sinners. So they are not uptight about having sins on their record and won’t be blackmailed about this. Secondly, repentance about sins past is proven precisely by a commitment to avoid and combat similar sins in the present. It is not enough to say your confession of sins, you have to resolve to undo the sins’ consequences and go out of your way to remove them from this world. So, precisely because Christians have been guilty of slave-trading etc., they have a duty to combat similar inequality now. And this must not be limited to their own backyard, for sins are both by commission as by omission, i.e. standing by passively when others get away with committing them. Because of their past sins, they feel obliged to meddle in your sins today. Just as after abolishing the slave trade and then slavery itself in the British Empire, the British felt obliged to go out and impose its abolition on the Ottomans, the Arabs and others. This is a moral imperative. In missionary-speak: “We have been part of the problem so now we must become part of the solution.” Hindus could have guilt-tripped modern Westerners into leaving the injustices of Hindu society alone if they had been Africans or Muslims. More perceptive Westerners would not be inhibited versus these two either (Muslims traded black, white and Indian slaves; while Africans enslaved and sold off their own brethren to Arab and European slave-traders), but most of them, and especially politicians, don’t dare to speak against those two groups. But Hindus are a different matter altogether. Hindu polemicists talk about “white racism” as if they are totally oblivious to the torrent of anti-racist re-education that has swept Western society in the past half century. The problem is not just that Hindus cultivate an anachronistic world-view, apparently drawing a good feeling about themselves from pretending to live in the colonial age and occupying the moral high ground of the anti-colonial struggle. This is bad enough, for movements based on
[ZESTCaste] Despite best efforts, OBC seats vacant in colleges
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Despite-best-efforts-OBC-seats-vacant-in-colleges/articleshow/6096014.cms Despite best efforts, OBC seats vacant in colleges Manash Pratim Gohain Neha Pushkarna, TNN, Jun 26, 2010, 09.52pm IST NEW DELHI: Like the past two years, colleges are nervous over the OBC seats this year too. A large number of seats in the OBC category remain vacant across colleges one reason why almost all courses are still open for admission in the second list. At Kamala Nehru College, which has 232 seats for OBC this year, only about 15 students were admitted under this category in the first list. At Ramjas College, 77 students took admission in different courses against a total of 380 OBC seats. The situation is no better in off-campus colleges. Dyal Singh College has reduced the second cutoff by as much as 8% in BA (honours) economics and up to 5% in other courses. Principal I S Bakshi said, We have closed admissions for OBC students in just two courses. In the rest, we had to lower the cutoffs significantly hoping the seats would get filled. But it seems quite unlikely even this year.'' He added, As we don't expect all OBC seats to get filled up, these will be available for conversion to other categories after August 16. Students will have to apply afresh.'' A teacher from a south campus college, who did not wish to be named, said: The government should take stock of the situation now. The implementation of the OBC quota led to several infrastructural changes. But are there really any takers for these reserved seats?'' Rajendra Prasad, principal of Ramjas College, said: Trends are really unpredictable this time as unlike previous years a lot of interest has been shown for the science courses. We may be able to get enough OBC students after the third list.'' An indication of this unpredictable'' trend comes from Gargi College. It has closed admissions for honours courses in physics, chemistry and zoology. In fact, in physics and chemistry it has admitted students beyond its capacity. Principal Meera Ramachandran said: Even OBC admissions for these courses are over. But that doesn't mean we will be able to fill up all the OBC seats by the end of the third list. Though we have given OBC candidates relaxation of as much as 10% in most courses, except in commerce, we have not been able to fill up all the seats.'' There are many other reasons that make filling up of OBC seats difficult. According to deputy dean of students' welfare, Gurpreet Singh Tuteja, the eligibility criteria also makes it tough for OBC candidate to get admission. Only the popular colleges and popular courses will be able to fill up the OBC seats. While there is relaxation in cutoffs, riders such as a minimum of 55% in PCM or PCB and 50% in English makes it tough for the OBC candidates. Another problem we have witnessed in the past three years is that most OBC candidates are from outside and forget to bring original documents,'' said Tuteja. According to DSW estimates, about 30% seats in OBC category are expected to remain vacant.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit woman stripped, beaten up in Mumbai slum
http://www.thehindu.com/news/article487516.ece Published: June 27, 2010 01:07 IST | Updated: June 27, 2010 01:07 IST MUMBAI, June 27, 2010 Dalit woman stripped, beaten up in Mumbai slum Staff Reporter Rape of a minor girl triggered the attack ‘Neech jaat' (low caste) was a word Kavita (name changed) kept hearing when she was being stripped and beaten up. “They beat me with bamboo sticks. I kept saying ‘no.' They ripped off my gown, pulled my hair and dragged me out of the house to a nearby shop. Many were filming the act on mobile phones. In Hindi, they kept saying, ‘neech jaat [low caste], come, take your turn.' Men were beating me too,” Kavita told The Hindu on Saturday. From a polythene bag, Kavita's mother fished out a clump of hair plucked from the woman's head. The shocking incident took place last week in a Mumbai slum, where a group of upper caste women assaulted the 22-year-old Scheduled Caste woman. A case under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (POA) has been registered at the Sewree police station. The police have arrested 10 women and two men. The arrest of Kavita's brother in a case of the rape of a minor girl triggered the assault. However, deep-seated caste hatred towards the family runs a long way back. There are two water pumps in the locality. “The main reasons are water and house. Ours is the only Dalit Marathi family in this area, and they want to oust us from here,” said her mother. “It all began in 2007 when a water pump was sunk here. Sharda Yadav and Mumtaz [residents, now under arrest] would routinely demand money for the water supply. It's a community pump. We refused to pay up. I would fight against these illegal practices all the time. I have complained to the police several times about it. The women would say, ‘These people have gotten too big for their boots. Sticks should be shoved inside them.' They have used such abusive words that I cannot even utter them,” she said with difficulty. “The rape case was just a pretext. Owing to the fights over water, there was already much anger [against the family]. So they targeted her [Kavita]. Her mother was also beaten up. The mother ran to the police, and they called the police control room,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Dilip Waghmare told TheHindu on telephone. On the day of the incident, the victim's mother was the first to be beaten up. “They had a meeting somewhere. All of them entered together. The whole lane was packed with people. After I ran to the police chowky, help arrived on time. The molesters were arrested. They were laughing even while being taken away,” Kavita's mother said. In 2008, she had written to the police about the death threats her family had received and the harassment her daughter suffered. “As my son was here, nobody dared touch us, but when he was arrested, they saw an opportunity.” The family said Ms. Yadav, who led the attack, was a Shiv Sena worker, a claim Mr. Waghmare has denied. None came to the rescue of Kavita, except her neighbour Sayeeda Quazi, who put a dupatta around her. Sayeeda's statement has been recorded. The entire neighbourhood, meanwhile, is tight-lipped. “Something happened, but I was on work,” said a resident. Some said they were away at their native places, or away from home. “Basically women were enraged by the rape of a girl. When they went to [Kavita's] house, her mother shot back, saying [it wasn't as if] it had happened to them. Any woman would be enraged by that, won't she?” asked a shopkeeper, who claimed to know nothing of the incident. Kavita and her mother have been given police protection. “A police guard has been posted here. He checks on us at regular intervals,” her mother said. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com
[ZESTCaste] Honour killings: Chickens of identity politics come home to roost (Comment)
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/honour-killings-chickens-of-identity-politics-come-home-to-roost-comment_100386636.html Honour killings: Chickens of identity politics come home to roost (Comment) Sunday, June 27, 2010 11:22:37 AM by IANS By Amulya Ganguli Even a decade ago, khap panchayats - the caste-based village councils with their kangaroo courts functioning mainly in Haryana - were virtually unknown, and sporadic “honour killings” were reported only from northwest Pakistan. Now, these make headline news in India almost every day. To understand this regressive phenomenon, it may be necessary to go back to 1990 when caste-based identity politics received a boost. Although caste was always a feature of Indian politics, except in areas like West Bengal, it was generally a muted affair before that fateful year. Even if the parties selected their candidates on the basis of the caste composition of the constituencies, especially in the Hindi heartland, they pretended that they were motivated more by merit and organizational strength than by caste. It was the same where the religious communities were concerned. A seminal change took place with the V.P. Singh government’s implementation of the Mandal Commission report on reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in government jobs in 1990. This was followed by L.K. Advani’s rath yatra to “remove” a mosque at the supposed birthplace of Lord Ram in Ayodhya to prevent the Hindu vote bank of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being split by the upsurge of casteist sentiments. The BJP’s rise at the time was accompanied by the rise of parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Samajwadi Party, which championed the cause of the OBCs, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which was associated with the Dalits. The politics of identity, based on religion and caste, had suddenly acquired more importance than ever before. A key feature of the segmented politics was the aggressive flaunting of one’s religious and caste identity. Since aggression requires a target, the minorities faced the BJP’s provocative campaign while the parties of the OBCs and Dalits targeted the upper castes. “Tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro jootey char” (beat the Brahmins, Banias and Rajputs with shoes) was the BSP’s belligerent advice to its followers. Indian politics had never before seen such vituperation in public life. Inevitably, the strengthening of such divisive sentiments infected the social scene as well. Hence the appearance of khap panchayats, which are not strictly legal entities like the three-tier panchayat system which operates in the rural areas. Instead, they are an informal gathering of village elders of one community, mainly the Jats. Had these been a congregation of wise old men giving sage advice against moral turpitude, there would have been no cause for alarm. But the boost received by the caste system in 1990 has strengthened their traditional prejudices, resulting in the issuance of directives against inter-caste or even inter-village marriages. These panchayats have also forbidden marriages between boys and girls of the same gotra, a system of clans in Hindu society. What is ominous is that these illegal bodies haven’t stopped after issuing their regressive diktats. The excessive importance which the caste system has received has emboldened the khap panchayats to order even the killings of defiant couples to save the “honour” of their families. This repulsive practice has now spread from the villages to the towns, including Delhi. It will be a mistake to believe that such outrages are the result of a generation gap or of a religious or class divide, the usual reasons of disagreement between parents and grown-up children. Such divergence of views can lead to estrangement, but not murder. The killings are the result of the whipping up of an intense antipathy towards perceived opponents. The belief at the time of independence was that the caste system would gradually wither away with the spread of education and modern, scientific ideas. There was wide agreement among the intelligentsia about the reprehensible nature of the system with its concepts of ritual purity which made the Dalits untouchables in the eyes of the upper castes. As a form of affirmative action, therefore, the founding fathers of the constitution had called for reservations in jobs and education for only the Dalits and Adivasis - the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - and that, too, for a period of 10 years. Unfortunately, not only has this restriction been consistently bypassed with extensions being provided every 10 years, but the scope of reservations has been widened to include, first, the OBCs, and then the women in panchayats, which will be extended to parliament and state assemblies as well. Quotas for the OBCs along with those for Dalits and Adivasis are also being set aside in the higher educational institutions. Now, to give further importance to the
[ZESTCaste] A contrasting story of Brahmin migration
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/77862/a-contrasting-story-brahmin-migration.html Palakkad Iyers and Mysore Iyengars had fluctuating fortunes, says study A contrasting story of Brahmin migration M R Venkatesh, Coimbatore, June 27, DHNS: ''Palakkad Iyers'' are as well known as ''Mysore Iyengars'' as two prominent Tamil Brahmin groups migrated under similar circumstances. But the two communities had to encounter contrasting situations, a research into the communities presented at the World Classical Tamil Conference here on Sunday revealed. While “Palakkad Iyers” had to face the vicissitudes of history until their absorption in modern times into mainstream Kerala society, adaptation of the “Tamil Iyengar” families from Srirangam—“invited” to the erstwhile princely State of Mysore when the Wodeyars consolidated their kingdom — with the local community was smoother, said Dr Lakshman Singh, Bharathiyar University’s former head of sociology department, who presented his findings on the communities at the sociological session of the WCTC. In his paper on “Plight of the Palakkad Iyers” in the migration’s aftermath, Singh said they were originally a group of Brahmins mainly from Kumbakonam in the heart of Cauvery delta. They (the “Iyers”) in good numbers migrated possibly from the early part of the 18th century to Palakkad in Kerala and set up “agraharams” there under encouragement by the local “Nair chieftains,” Dr Singh said. The Nair chieftains had a reason to welcome them to Palakkad, as the dominant land-owning “Namboodhri Brahmins” there refused to “cooperate in the coronation of Nair chieftains on the ascendant then,” Dr Singh said. The immigrant Brahmins from Thanjavur district set up over 75 “agraharams” (traditional residential area) in and around Palakkad though the “Namboodris” resented their entry and their mode of temple worship. Shedding their age-old Brahmin self-image, the “Palakkad Iyers” took to all kinds of works; such as domestic servants, cooks in “Namboodri illams” and even entering into marital relations with Nair women “to sustain their prolonged stay,” he said. “These migrant Brahmins thus readjusted to the new situation and yet took care of their kith and kin in the agraharams of Palakkad,” Dr Singh who studied the sociological history of 120 families of “Palakkad Iyers” over three generations, highlighted. Of those families surveyed in his field research, Dr Singh found that 36 of them had produced an IAS officer each. One of them was the inimitable former chief election commissioner TN Seshan’s family, he noted. The Wodeyar Kings of Mysore ,too, facing “resistance to their coronation” from the local Brahmins at one time, encouraged a group of “Tamil Brahmins” from the Vaishnavite bastion of Srirangam, to migrate to Mysore. AIADMK leader and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa traces her ancestry to one such migrant “Iyengar” family, he said. Nonetheless, the “Mysore Iyengars” did not face the same level of hostility as the “Palakkad Iyers,” as the political transition of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore to British control and then into independent India was relatively smooth, Dr Singh added. INFORMATION OVERLOAD? Get all ZESTCaste mails sent out in a span of 24 hours in a single mail. Subscribe to the daily digest version by sending a blank mail to zestmedia-dig...@yahoogroups.com, OR, if you have a Yahoo! Id, change your settings at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/join/ PARTICIPATE:- On this list you can share caste news, discuss caste issues and network with like-minded anti-caste people from across India and the world. Just write to zestcaste@yahoogroups.com TELL FRIENDS TO SIGN UP:- If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a blank mail to zestcaste-subscr...@yahoogroups.com OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join/ Also have a look at our sister list, ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: zestcaste-dig...@yahoogroups.com zestcaste-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: zestcaste-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
