[ZESTCaste] Dalits demand equal representation in UP before LS election
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-37612.html Dalits demand equal representation in UP before LS election Lucknow, Oct 28 : With the Lok Sabha polls knocking the doors, demand for equal representations for the castes within the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh was gaining grounds. Now leaders of the Kori sub-caste of the Dalit community, under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Kori-Koli Samaj have raised their voice against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government in the state demanding political, economic and social rights for them. The leaders of the community, who have decided to oppose the BSP candidates in the coming Lok Sabha polls, have also announced that they will support the party, which will fight for their cause. Samaj's political awareness committee convenor Pradeep Kumar said population of 'Kori' was more than the 'Chamar,' but still the BSP government was neglecting the Kori's. An advocate by profession, Mr Kumar said while the Kori were more than five per cent of the Dalit population in the state, the Chamar were merely four per cent, but still enjoying the 'cream' of the politics as the BSP leadership belonged to their sub-caste. There are 65 sub-castes in Dalits with Kori. ''Our community people are spread out widely in the Bundelkhand, Agra, Saharanpur, Kanpur and Meerut regions, but still we lag behind in every field,'' he pointed out. Mr Kumar said the government should also implement quota within quota for the most backward Dalits as recommended in the Mandal Commission report and the Samajik Nyay Samiti report submitted to the state government in 2001 when BJP president Rajnath Singh was the Chief Minister of UP. Presently, the organisation was spreading its tentacles in the regions of Allahabad and its adjoining area of Kaushambi, Mirzapur and Fatehpur and were distributing pamplets among the people of the community to aware them about their rights. According to the leaders of the organisation, the population of Kori community in each of the 80 parliamentary constituency ranges from 30,000 to 70,000. The Kori community is known as Koli in other parts of the country, particularly in Rajasthan, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Besides demanding adequate reservation for the Kori community in the government jobs, education and other sectors, the organisation has asked setting up statues of Saint Kabir in all parts of the state and re-christianing Jhansi district in the name of great freedom fighter Jhalkari Bai. --- UNI
[ZESTCaste] Book Review: Anand Teltumbde's Khairlanji 'A Strange and Bitter Crop'.
Dalits versus State power By Rajesh Ramachandran The full story of the killings of Dalits in Khairlanji and the societal divisions that cause them Mail Today, 26 October 2008 AN EVENING almost two years ago, I got a frantic call from Raja Sekhar Vundru, a Dalit intellectual, who is also an influential bureaucrat. The usually unflappable friend was desperate. Nagpur police are picking up doctors and teachers, claiming that they are all Maoists. Can you please put this story out? If we don't do something right now many completely innocent Dalit middle-class people would be ruined, he pleaded. The shocking request from a bureaucrat ready with a solution for even strangers' woes makes sense now with the publication of Anand Teltumbde's Khairlanji 'A Strange and Bitter Crop'. Raj Thackeray faces some 50 cases, and was kept in police lockup for just a night, despite getting two Bihari boys killed in the violence of hatred that he spewed. Paediatrician Milind Mane runs a clinic in Nagpur and is also a public health worker tackling sickle cell disease in the Vidarbha region. The same Maharashtra police had slapped more or less the same number of cases against Mane in 19 out of the 20 Nagpur police stations. But unlike Raj, this Dalit doctor was kept in police custody for 14 days not for wanton destruction of public property or parochial hatred. Mane was the convener of the Khairlanji Dalit Hatyakand Samiti formed to seek justice to the Bhotmange family. Two Bhotmange sons were brutally attacked, genitals crushed and murdered and the mother and daughter were raped and beaten to death and a stick stuck into the daughter's vagina. Teltumbde's postscript was written just five days before the Khairlanji verdict, last month. He should have waited a week and analysed the judgment, which is a crucial miss for such a book. That doesn't detract from the book's significance at all. Teltumbde's contribution is a graphic account of the equally brutal oppression of the agitators by the state. In fact, paediatrician Mane was even arrested under the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Slumlords, Bootleggers and Drug Offenders and Dangerous Persons Act of 1981, which provides for a detention period of one year. The police normally protect their own, even if they are criminals like IPS officer R. K. Sharma who remains in service despite his conviction in a murder. But for a Dalit policeman or woman, the primary identity is only caste. During the Khairlanji protests, a woman Dalit constable Vishakha Bhaisane, with eighteen years of service, was severely beaten by an assistant police inspector and dragged to the police station. The police were only checking the caste of randomly picked up persons and arresting all those who said that they were Mahars or Buddhists. Just for this detailed account of the State's institutionalised anti-Dalit bias and its vulgar display in times of a crisis of confidence in the community, this book deserves to be part of the curriculum at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. Like Muslim youngsters who get pushed away from the mainstream by the police who randomly pick up terror suspects from ghettoes, the Nagpur Dalits were labelled Maoists for seeking justice. The police's explanation was that an anonymous pamphlet was circulated in Hindi and not Marathi and that only Maoists circulate anonymous Hindi pamphlets. It was immaterial for the police that all that the 'Naxal pamphlet' did was to give a call for a democratic, legal mode of protest, that too, just a sit-in on November 6, 2006 at Nagpur's Indira Chowk. The state's deputy chief minister R. R. Patil publicly endorsed the Nagpur police's conspiracy theory. Branding someone a Naxalite is like terming a Muslim as terrorist. It makes an individual a non-person, strips him of all fundamental human rights. In the Khairlanji case, a whole community's agitation against an instance of medieval barbarism was termed extremism. Teltumbde's scrutiny of the Khairlanji police repression is endorsed interestingly in a book written in 1995, of all people, by a police officer. The former chief of UP police, Prakash Singh, in his preface to The Naxalite Movement in India says Naxalism is a much abused term. The authorities playing second fiddle to vested interests in an area use this terminology to brand anyone crying for social or economic justice and justify repressive measures against him. The book however has a serious ideological flaw. It inadvertently falls into the Brahminical trap of theorising class conflicts in terms of positing Dalits against the new Shudra oppressors. Kilvenmani, Karamchedu, Chunduru and other examples are repeated at least seven times in the text to argue that new oppressors are Shudras. If that be, how does Teltumbde explain desperately poor tribals killing and raping Dalits in Kandhamal? The real oppressor is the caste hegemony perpetuated by the core Sangh Parivar constituency of the Brahmin-Bania- Thakur
[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Communal farming gives hope to dalits
http://nepaldalitinfo.net/2008/10/28/521/ Communal farming gives hope to dalits RSS KHALANGA (SALYAN), Oct 28 - Dalit families in Salyan district have been attracted to communal farming. Many ultra-poor Dalit families in Salebaltakura VDC-7, which is adjoined to district headquarters Khalanga, have been earning a decent living through the communal farming of off-season vegetables, goat raising and bee keeping. The families have created a fund and maintained a bank account of their own. The fund is used to lend loan to the members in times of need, said Nokhi BK, a member of Ghatterani Dalit Forest Group. The 20 Dalit families of the village collect Rs 25 daily from each family in the fund. They have maintained Rs 7,000 in a bank account and invested Rs 10,000 among the members. The Dalit families began communal farming some five years. The district forest office has provided 2.32 hectares of land to the group on land and district livestock services office has provided goats to the group for income-generating activities. The members of the group said they feel very happy to work in group and they were committed to develop the village into a model. Secretary of the group Durga Nepali however lamented lack of support from government bodies except the forest and livestock offices.
[ZESTCaste] We need one more Periyar
http://dblogmania.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-need-one-more-periyar.html Wednesday, October 29, 2008 We need one more Periyar Manivelan and Rajeshwari are moving out of their village in Tirunelveli to live in a near by hillock. This was the news reported by The Hindu dated Oct 29, 2008. They are moving out of their village not because they are affected by the Global Financial Crisis but because they want the to protect their life from the caste Hindus who are threatening to kill them. Sixty years after independence, as Indians we boost of our countries pride and practices, but still there is one community which is left alone in the growth phase of India. It's the Dalit community. It's a shame that this kind neglect is still persisting in our country. For any problem in the country the first people who are affected by this are the dalits. Because for centuries they ruled by all sorts of people. Though Periyar and Ambedkar had really dedicated their lives to uplift dalits, it is not enough to put them in the growth path. Dalits of Panthapuli in Tirunelveli are facing hardship every day. The government is not responding properly to solve their problems. Even Thirumavalavan is more concerned only with the Tamils living in Sri Lanka and totally ignored these people living in Panthapuli. People of India especially people of Tamil Nadu have to be strictly focusing on restoring unity and inclusive in our country. This is the need of the hour. There always leaders who play politics with people. Some body in the north killing people with people just by arousing the marathi sentiments. These leaders should be punished severely by bring them to the court of justice. Its time that we need one more Periyar and Ambedkar to bring in more reforms and equality in the society. People should be divided not even in the name of gender, there should be opportunities for all, there should be respect for all and there should be joy for all.
[ZESTCaste] 200 Dalits abandon village
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=200+Dalits+abandon+villageartid=Xi5hTtVYgwc=SectionID=vBlkz7JCFvA=MainSectionID=vBlkz7JCFvA=SEO=Hindus,+Dalits,+Panthapuli,+Tamilnadu,+KaarisaathtSectionName=EL7znOtxBM3qzgMyXZKtxw== By Express News Service 29 Oct 2008 01:44:00 AM IST 200 Dalits abandon village TIRUNELVELI: Fearing attack by upper caste Hindus, about 75 Dalit families with their children and cattle have fled from their Panthapuli village near Sankarankovil (under Karivalamvanthanallur police station limits) on Tuesday morning and took shelter at the nearby Kaarisaaththaan hillock. They have apparently taken this extreme step demanding the help of Police and Revenue officials to ensure their security as they claim that their lives are under threat by the upper caste Hindus. The efforts taken by the revenue officials to pacify the Dalits were in vain as around 75 families numbering about 200 persons left to the nearby hillock with their children and cattle. The families even tried to hand over their ration cards to the Sankarankovil Tahsildar, Thangadurai, on Tuesday, but he reportedly refused to accept it. On the direction of the District Collector, G Prakash, a meeting to resolve the issue has been called by the revenue officials at Sankarankovil taluk office on Wednesday. The clash between the Dalits and the upper caste Hindus has been regular feature for years in connection with offering prayers inside the temple. For long, the Dalits were denied permission by the caste Hindus to offer prayers at Kannanallur Mariamman Temple at Panthapuli, near Sankarankovil. The temple remained closed for 10 years. The Dalits approached the Sankarankovil sub-court and it directed the police department and village administration officer to ensure the entry of Dalits in to the temple. Following the court's directive, a peace committee meeting was held at Sankarankovil Taluk office on September 17. Officials from revenue and police department and representatives from Caste Hindus and Dalits participated in the meeting. It was decided at the meeting that Dalits would be allowed to enter the temple on September 23. The Dalits who went to the temple on September 23 were shocked to find that the temple door was kept closed. The officials then assured that the Dalits would be allowed to enter the temple on September 29, to offer prayers and that promise also did not materialise due to law and order problem. Finally, the district administration ordered to seal the temple due to continuous law and order problem. In this backdrop, on October 28, at around 7 pm, stones were reportedly pelted on the houses of Dalits and as a retaliation the Dalits also threw stones on the houses of the upper caste Hindus. Thayammal and Devi, both upper caste Hindus were injured and police registered case against two Dalits namely Nagarajan and Natarajan. Following this incident and fearing reprisal, all the 75 Dalit families having around 200 members vacated the village on Tuesday morning and left to a nearby hillock. The Dalits prepared food at the hillock and had food and rest. The Dalits who left the village claimed that their life was under threat as they were facing serious threats from the upper caste Hindus.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit appointed priest of Maniyari Mutt
http://bihartimes.com/Newsbihar/2008/Oct/Newsbihar26Oct1.html Dalit appointed priest of Maniyari Mutt Patna, (Bihar Times): Jagdish Das, a Dalit poet and singer, was on Friday appointed the priest of the famous Maniyari Mutt in Muzaffarpur district. Accoding to the administrator of the Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts, Kishore Kunal, the Mutt was established in 1733 by a wandering mendicant from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, and since then a galaxy of illustrious Mahanths, including Mahanth Darshan Das, who set up MDDM College in Muzaffarpur and an ayurvedic hospital and Sanskrit College at Maniyari, have been associated with the Mutt. Kunal, who made sepecail effort in this latest appointment, said Muzaffarpur district has witnessed social tension arising out of discrimination. In 2005, the problem was so acute that even the then minister in the Rabri Devi cabinet, Ramai Ram, a Dalit, was not allowed entry into a Kali temple managed by villagers. It needs to be recalled that Kunal had appointed the first Dalit priest at the famous Hanuman Temple near railway station in Patna in 1993.
[ZESTCaste] Temple priest held for Dalit’s murder in Rajasthan village
http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/29/stories/2008102954050500.htm National Temple priest held for Dalit's murder in Rajasthan village Special Correspondent A fact-finding team which visited the village says he is involved in several cases Financial assistance and free education to the victim's children sought JAIPUR: A temple priest at a village in Dausa district of Rajasthan allegedly murdered a Dalit man over the weekend purportedly for answering the call of nature at some distance from the place of worship. The priest, known for his caste biases, used to misbehave with Dalits and would not allow them to enter the temple or worship there. Hanuman Das, priest of the Hanuman temple in Khartala Nayawas village, allegedly killed 35-year-old Ramphool Koli with a scimitar after verbally abusing him this past Saturday morning. He also mutilated the victim's body and disfigured his face. The priest had been living in the Dalit-dominated village, 22 km from the district headquarters, for five years and had himself built the temple on a piece of government land. Later he encroached upon adjacent government land and is said to be illegally occupying the 25-bigha plot of land. Police have arrested Hanuman Das after registering a case against him under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3(2) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The accused has been remanded to police custody. A fact-finding team of the Jaipur-based Centre for Dalit Rights (CDR), which visited Khartala Nayawas after the murder over the weekend, alleged that the police are now trying to weaken the case by diluting its caste angle. The case under the SC/ST Act did not mention that the Dalit victim was killed as a result of untouchability practised by the priest. The CDR coordinator, Ramdayal Bairwa, said on Tuesday that witnesses had deposed to having seen the priest's brother, Kailash Chand Rana – with a known criminal background – on the spot, giving rise to suspicion that he too was involved in the murder. However, the police have not registered any case against him. Despite being informed of the crime early in the morning, the police reportedly reached the spot four hours later, when Ramphool had bled to death. Hanuman Das was earlier involved in several cases of untouchability against Dalits, including one against former Sarpanch Maya Mahawar. Mr. Bairwa said Dalits in the village had brought the objectionable activities of the accused to the notice of the police, but to no avail. He used to demand money from Dalits for establishing a gausahla and constructing an inn on the illegally occupied land while not allowing them anywhere near the temple or a hand-pump nearby. The CDR has demanded immediate arrest of all the accused in the case and payment of financial assistance of Rs.2 lakh under Section 12(4) of SC/ST Act to the victim's family. The CDR has also demanded that the district administration make arrangements for education of Ramphool's daughter Lakshmi and son Mukesh in a residential government school and include them in the Palanhar Yojana and provide security to his family and witnesses in the case. 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED], 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Mayawati’s chances in ’09
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Mayawati%E2%80%99s+chances+in+%E2%80%9909artid=aHXTD4Ap/vo=SectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=MainSectionID=oHSKVfNWYm0=SectionName=m3GntEw72ik=SEO=Mayawati By Prakash Patra 29 Oct 2008 12:21:00 AM IST Mayawati's chances in '09 The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh is in a state of euphoric anticipation. In Uttar Pradesh, where huge cut-outs of chief minister Mayawati and her BSP's elephant symbol greet you across the state, the message of behenji's party is loud and clear: the next government at the Centre could be hers. Rhetoric apart, everyone knows that Mayawati's electoral fortunes in the state which accounts for 80 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, can drastically throw open the possibilities for various permutations and combinations for a realignment of forces at the Centre. It is for this reason alone that even the Left Front, supposedly against casteist politics, has given its tacit approval to her selfprojection as the prime ministerial candidate. Regional satraps like Chandrababu Naidu, H D Deve Gowda and Om Prakash Chautala too have cast their lot with her. Mayawati,who rode to power with a clear majority in UP last year, ending a more than a decade and half of unstable coalition politics, represents the most aggressive face of Dalit politics. Can she repeat the performance in the next general elections? Today's BSP under Mayawati and the Bharatiya Janata Party,which led the coalition government at the Centre for six years, have many striking similarities. The BJP grew and sustained its vote bank on the plank of an aggressive Hindutva agenda. Realising that exclusivist politics cannot take it beyond a point, the BJP under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, expanded its base by accomodating the conflicting and contradictory interests of regional as well as caste-based parties to cobble up a 24- party alliance to capture power. Pragmatic politics motivated the BJP to dilute, if not abandon, its hard-core agenda and this ultimately resulted in the erosion of the party's core support base. Today, the BJP is in a precarious shape in UP, directionless, as the state moves towards a bi-polar polity with Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav occupying centrestage. Mayawati surprised many when she deviated from her mentor Kanshi Ram's political strategy and succeeded in bringing the BSP to power on its own, by opting for a strategy of inclusive politics. The BSP's slogan Tilak, Tarazu aur Talwar, inko maro joote char— which targeted the Brahmin-Bania- Thakur communities radicalised the Dalits, particularly the preponderant Jadav community, to which Mayawati belonged. The provocative slogan became the rallying point for the oppressed segments of society to unite under the BSP platform, deserting their traditional ally, the Congress. Along with the Dalits, the dalit Muslims too formed a formidable core vote base for the BSP. A call by Kanshi Ram and Mayawati could ensure transfer of the votes of their core vote bank en bloc to others in electoral politics, a phenomenon that was hitherto unknown in Indian politics. But Mayawati too knew, as the BJP had already discovered, that the politics of exclusive interests could be useful only upto a point; to get to the next level she had to recast her USP. It would be too simplistic to say that in 2007, the BSP came to power only because of the success of Mayawati's social engineering in constructing an alliance of Brahmins- Dalits-Muslims, once thought to be the Congress' winning formula in the state. But statistics tell another story. In the Assembly, the break-up of her MLAs is: 62 Dalits, 51 Brahmins, 24 Muslims, 51 Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and 18 Thakurs.Of the 51 OBC MLAs, she has only four Yadavs, which means that non-Yadav OBCs have shifted towards her in a big way and away from Mulayam's SP. Immediately after her victory in the Assembly elections Mayawati herself said that, it was a vote against jungle raj. It was the perceived lawlessness and misgovernance by Mulayam that resulted in the electorate decisively opting for her. The BJP or the Congress were not seen as an alternative. The mandate clearly cut across caste and communal affiliations and Mayawati had ensured that she could cash in on all of these. But will the same electorate behave the same way in the national polls? Mayawati's success in positioning her politics in UP as an inclusive bandwagon could pose a problem when it comes to her own core vote base. Mayawati's pursuing a status quoist approach has the danger of giving a signal to her core vote bank that the party and the government have been taken over by what they see as traditionally manipulative upper castes. Such apprehensions are already there at the grassroots. Aware of the danger, she had announced that her successor a young Jadav leader, would carry forward the movement. But in reality when she recast the party organisation, an OBC leader, not a dalit, was given the No. 2
[ZESTCaste] Mayawati asks Centre, Maha to stop attacks on north Indians
http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/0/D4C14606C46787DE652574F1003B11B0?OpenDocument Mayawati asks Centre, Maha to stop attacks on north Indians Lucknow, Oct 29 (PTI) In the wake of killing of a youth hailing from Uttar Pradesh in Mumbai, Chief Minister Mayawati today asked the Centre and Maharashtra government to take immediate action to stop attacks on north Indians, saying they have failed to prevent such incidents. The Centre and Maharashtra government should initiate immediate measures to check attack on north Indians in Maharashtra, Mayawati said in a letter shot off to the union government and Maharashtra chief minister. Terming the attacks as unfortunate, the chief minister said that both Centre and Maharashtra government have failed to check such unconstitutional acts. Mayawati also announced an ex-gratia of Rs two lakhs for the family of the victim, Dharam Dev, who hailed from Sant Kabir Nagar district of the state. She also directed the district administration to provide all possible help to the family. PTI
[ZESTCaste] Bainsla may play kingmaker
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jaipur/Bainsla_may_play_kingmaker/articleshow/3641534.cms Bainsla may play kingmaker 26 Oct 2008, 0149 hrs IST, Palak Nandi, TNN JAIPUR: In these polls, Col Kirori Singh Bainsla could well play the role of kingmaker in Rajasthan. With just over a month to go for the December 4 election, and with no clear trend on who could emerge winner, Bainsla is believed to be considering floating his own party. He hasn't confirmed it yet, but sources said there's a huge pressure building on him to float a party for Gujjars. Members of the community are sore with chief minister Vasundhara Raje and BJP for not granting them an ST status. While the state did carve out a special quota for them, Gujjars — who lost over 60 lives in their agitation this year — feel that they have been let down by the ruling party. Bainsla, if he finally takes the plunge, could field some 17 candidates in Gujjar-dominated belts where they have a fair chance of winning. This could put him the role of kingmaker in case no party fails to get an absolute majority. Sources, however, said Bainsla has still not taken the final decision, but feel that he is veering round to the view that the Gujjars need their own party. There is a possibility that he will announce the new party soon after Diwali. The pressure — from the community and also others — is building up. Bainsla, though, is in two minds, said a senior Gujjar leader. The Gujjar Aarakshan Sanghash Samiti — the banner under which Bainsla spearheaded the agitation demanding ST status for the community — is expected to meet soon. Less than a fortnight after Bainsla said at a public meeting in New Delhi that the state BJP had done whatever best it could for the Gujjars and that it was Congress-led UPA which was being the spanner in the wheels, the colonel on Saturday claimed that BJP had done nothing. At a press conference at Karauli, Bainsla said: Neither the BJP nor the Congress has done anything for us. He dodged a question on whether he would launch a political party, but maintained that personally he would support BJP. 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED], 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[ZESTCaste] Dalits refuse to attend peace talk
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Dalits+refuse+to+attend+peace+talkartid=MVwFGYwRdY4=SectionID=vBlkz7JCFvA=MainSectionID=vBlkz7JCFvA=SEO=SectionName=EL7znOtxBM3qzgMyXZKtxw== By Express News Service 30 Oct 2008 02:50:00 AM IST Dalits refuse to attend peace talk TIRUNELVELI: The Dalits of Panthapuli village near Sankarankovil refused to participate in a meeting that was convened by Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) Mariappan at Sankarankovil taluk office on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Dalits had left their village and taken shelter at a nearby Kaarisaaththaan hillock demanding that the police and revenue officials ensure their safety. On October 28, around 7 pm, stones were reportedly pelted on the houses of Dalits and as retaliation the Dalits also threw stones on the houses of the upper caste Hindus. Thayammal and Devi, both upper caste Hindus, were injured and police registered case against two Dalits, Nagarajan and Natarajan. Following this incident and fearing reprisal, all the 75 Dalit families having around 200 members vacated the village on Tuesday morning and left for a nearby hillock. The District Collector, G Prakash, had informed that a meeting in this connection would be convened by the revenue officials at the Sankarankovil taluk office on Wednesday morning. However, the Dalits did not turn up for the meeting. Even after the RDO Mariappan changed the meeting venue to a place near the hillock, they refused to attend the meeting. The Dalits who had spent an entire day at the hillock refused to participate in the meeting as they wanted either the District Collector or the District Revenue Officer to come to their place for peace talks.
[ZESTCaste] Dalit leaders dream of rejuvenation
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Dalit+leaders+dream+of+rejuvenationartid=G0IBkvsfLHo=SectionID=7GUA38txp3s=MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=SectionName=zkvyRoWGpmWSxZV2TGM5XQ==SEO= By Arun 30 Oct 2008 10:35:00 AM IST Dalit leaders dream of rejuvenation BANGALORE: Dalit movement in Karnataka, which caused diametric change in the outlook of the society towards the dalits, is now looking for a revival. Dalit activists, who were closely associated with the founder of the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsh Samithi (KD) the late Prof B Krishnappa, have planned to meet all the likeminded dalit activists to convince them how important it is to rejuvenate the movement again. ``Till mid-1980s dalits were united. Now there are hundreds of dalit organizations. Dalits are confused, demoralized, frustrated and depressed. It is essential to instil confidence in them and to bring their morale back. o, we are aiming to polarise all dalit organisations in the state and to revive the movement to its earlier glory,'' said Gurumurthy, who is dreaming the rejuvenation effort. A general body meeting of the KD, held in himoga on October 19, decided to hold D-34, a programme to celebrate the 34th anniversary of the organisation in January next year. It had appointed one of the founders of the organisation N Giriappa as the state convener. But the people, who have been watching this movement since its inception, are still cynical about the efforts being going on in the state. Because, the major issues like the relation between the Dand the Bahujan amaj Party (BP) have not yet been settled. Old timers want dual membership while the BP activists want nothing less than the merger of the two organisations. Pro-BP activists, who met in Nandi Hills early this month, felt that the BP could not be strengthened in Karnataka unless both were merged. They had even written a letter to various Dleaders to this effect. ``But, our aim is to revive the dalit movement in the state rather than going for any political gains. We would like to remain as a voice of the dalits and a pressure group,'' pointed out Gurumurthy. Dalit movement in Karnataka, unlike similar movements in other states, could force Karnataka Government to take many historic decisions. For instance, to make the dalits self-reliant government gives land to the dalits under Darakhast system. But the upper caste people used to snatch the lands from them paying meager amount. This was very rampant in Karnataka. D' movement forced the government to bring in Prohibition (Transfer) of Certain Lands (PTCL) Act 1978. This Act prohibits the buying of any land granted to or owned by the dalits. In 1986 Government banned the nude worship of deities in the temples. Atrocities on dalits used to go unnoticed in the state till the dalit movement was initiated. Krishnappa could not only create awareness among the dalits but also taught them to live with self-respect. Gurumurthy and his team want to bring back vigour of the bygone days back to the KDSS.
[ZESTCaste] A letter to the editor: Ugly politics by Maya
http://www.centralchronicle.com/20081028/2810322.htm Have your say Ugly politics by Maya All constitutional measures including through judicial system should be taken to effectively prevent UP Chief Minister Mayawati from misusing power in obstructing her political rivals to hold functions in the state. First she obstructed UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi from performing Bhoomi Pujan of Rail Coach Factory in Raibareilly. Now programme of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi in Chandrashekhar Azad Agricultural University at Kanpur had to be cancelled though with excuse in name of Vice chancellor of the University. Similar unpleasant incident was there earlier in the year when Rahul Gandhi was obstructed in meeting with Commissioner of Jhansi. In present incident, Vice Chancellor of Chandrashekhar Azad University should be questioned for sudden canceling of Rahul Gandhi's programme at the University. Even Congress could file a case when Mayawati had in her public-speech leveled unfounded charges that Rahul Gandhi was given bath with special soap, and purified after he mixed up people of some particular communities. Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Via e-mail
