*NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS is an Advocacy Platform committed for Dalit Human Rights at the Grass root, National and International levels. Dalits In News aims at sensitizing Civil societies, HR Mechanisms and providing updates of HR violations on Dalits for their Intervention.***
*NATIONAL CAMPAIGN ON DALIT HUMAN RIGHTS* *NCDHR* *Dalits In News* *June 17, 2007* * **Stephen's gets only 6 Dalit aspirants- **The Times Of India* http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Stephens_gets_only_6_Dalit_aspirants/rssarticleshow/2128743.cms ***Together they steer the (life) vehicle!-** New Indpress* http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEA20070617034555&Page=A&Title=Southern+News+-+Andhra+Pradesh&Topic=0 ***Disconnected elite- **The Pioneer* http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=prasad%2Fprasad212.txt&writer=prasad *Caste calculations- **The Times Of India* http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Caste_calculations/rssarticleshow/2128499.cms ** *The last Gandhian in Tamil Nadu- **The Pioneer* http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=anantha%2Fanantha2.txt&writer=anantha * The Times Of India* * * *Stephen's gets only 6 Dalit aspirants** * http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Stephens_gets_only_6_Dalit_aspirants/rssarticleshow/2128743.cms 17 Jun, 2007 l 0226 hrs ISTlSonia Sarkar/TIMES NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: St Stephen's College has reserved 10 per cent seats for alit Christians but received applications from only six Dalits this year. The BA programme seems to be a popular choice though a few have also applied for English and History. A college official said, "We have received 12 applications from six Dalit candidates and most of them have applied for the BA programme. A couple of them have also applied for Economics, History, Physics and English." Principal Valson Thampu said not many applicants were expected this year anyway. "We didn't expect many applications this year from the Dalits as there were only three days available to apply after the new admission policy was declared. And this is a huge segment of socially and economically underdeveloped segment of society which is in the dark and has not been given opportunities for higher education. We expect more applications next year as the new policy will create some hope for them," he said. To accommodate a good number of Dalit aspirants, the college had lowered its cut-off to 60 per cent, but college sources said only a few candidates have met the eligibility criteria. Asked if the cut-off could be lowered further to accommodate all Dalit applicants, Thampusaid, "We cannot lower it further in order to maintain the academic standards of the College." All Dalits and Christians will be given admission only after verification of their certificates. To avoid any manipulation, the Church of North India has instructed the local churches to take appropriate measures before issuing any certificates. "We have instructed all local churches under the Diocese of Delhi to issue certificates only to those Dalits who have been registered with the church for at least six months. And I have also asked the priests to take up this job honestly to avoid manipulation," said Ret Reverend Karam Masih, Bishop of Diocese of Delhi. The College has been also cross-checking all quota applications and has rejected a couple of them. "I am going through the applications of each quota candidate and so far I have rejected three Christian applications as the certificates were not proving their caste status," said Thampu. * * *New Indpress* * * *Together they steer the (life) vehicle!** * http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEA20070617034555&Page=A&Title=Southern+News+-+Andhra+Pradesh&Topic=0 Sunday June 17 2007 14:07 IST A KONDURU: This auto rickshaw stands out from 400-odd other auto rickshaws in A Konduru, a remote mandal on Krishna-Khammam border! It is driven by not one, but two drivers - a man and his wife - together. While the man lowers the accelerator and presses the clutch, his wife shifts the gear. Together, they both steer the vehicle. This amazing coordination between wife and husband and their zero-accident record attracts passengers to board their auto rickshaw. Meet Prodduturi Pullaiah and his wife Rani of Pathakonduru village, who run this truly *Ardh Nareeswar* auto service! Pullaiah, a Dalit and a graduate, lost his left hand on June 12, 2005. He suffered severe burns due to electric shock while fixing a power cable. Doctors did save his right hand, which also suffered severe burns, but it is no more than a bunch of bones merely covered in skin. Even now, Rani has to clean, dress and feed Pullaiah as his right hand can't be raised to the level of his chest. Pullaiah had to be confined to the couch for nearly a year and whatever they managed to save by plying the auto rickshaw, subsidised by the SC Corporation, was soon depleted. And they have three more mouths to feed. "There was no alternative to us. I had nothing except the auto rickshaw and there were loans of Rs 70,000 to be cleared. So I taught Rani how to shift the gears, while I manage the clutch, accelerator and brake. Together, we are pulling on," Pullaiah said. The couple have chosen the 35-km long A Konduru-Vissannapet route for their perations as not many heavy vehicles ply on that road. "I do not bother about the road. My eyes are focussed only on my husband's right hand. When he lowers the accelerator and presses the clutch with his left leg, I shift the gear," Rani said. Though she knows how ply an auto rickshaw on her own, social taboos in a rural setting are holding her back. "I know double-driving is illegal and could be highly dangerous. But, show me an alternative! Though I am eligible for a fair price shop, the authorities have awarded to an undeserving candidate. When the joint collector re-awarded it to me, the rival candidate, who is backed by powerful people, managed to get a stay order from the courts," he said. One cannot but wonder at this couple's steely resolve to survive and the perfect sychronisation witnessed negotiating the roads and steering through life. Will the Dalit duo's joint driving signal anything those who rush for split-second separations and dime-a-dozen divorces. *The Pioneer* * * *Disconnected elite** * http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=prasad%2Fprasad212.txt&writer=prasad Chandrabhan Prasad Returning to the assessment of India's elite, let me once again reiterate the point that the elite does not have any ulterior motive. After all, some of the people who own or head news channels are very liberal. The elite in its academic role also fails much like the media does. In other words, the Indian elite as a whole is a problem. Therefore, the hung house campaign for UP should be understood with compassion. The UP election exposed a deeper crisis the elite are trapped in. Their growing irrelevance to India's needs is cultural. As said in previous columns, India's elite didn't evolve through a logical social process. It is thus vulnerable in decoding the social processes at work today. As products of privileges - the elite skipped India's cultural connections in the course of time. As legatees of abundance, it skipped situations of scarcity. This twin nuisance deprived it of opportunities to involve into a productive labour. Since it remained motionless in the march of history, it lost the capacity to understand things in motion. Since the elite didn't get any opportunity to move, it failed to relate to things in motion. The elite therefore, failed in mapping the speed of Mayawati's January 2003 birthday cake which was a spirited speedometer mirroring the new mood of society. Those who had failed in appreciating the import of this had every reason to fail in mapping the speed of the BSP win in the UP elections. The failure to decipher this implication was thus culture-predestined. The elite does not have experience of sharing anything with Dalits. Because of this, it remains unfamiliar with the languages Dalits speak. To the elite, Dalits were always social aliens. This massive cultural disconnect makes the elite intellectual vagabonds. Condemned to living in an absurd cultural environment, the elite sees Dalits through the prism of the past. The previous elite generations had seen Dalits from a distance where they were perceived to be subservient, disparaging pollutants and worthless. Unaccustomed with the life and aspirations of the newly emerging Dalit middle class due to the State's affirmative action, the present day elite continues to retain a stereotype impression of Dalits. In it imagery, a Dalit can't be a winner, independent, acceptable or an achiever. Sandwiched between the past and present where time moved while elite remained motionless, Mayawati's cake or her winning status during the Uttar Pradesh elections, thus, didn't quite fit into the elite's culture-regulated psyche. What was to be a mere cultural question, due to near total cultural-disconnects, the problem became acutely psychosomatic. It is hence not for nothing that a Dalit can become President of India, but not CEO of even a mediocre company. A Dalit can shine as a physician in Washington DC, but he may not be able to enter the news room in India as a journalist. A Dalit can become the employer of non-Dalits in the Silicon Valley, but may not become even an assistant cameraman in news channels back home. Since the elite is mesmerised by its sacred thread, antiquity remains segregated from a large Dalit world and the former becomes incapable in savouring the culture of Dalits. The elite's cultural segregation makes it needlessly fearful of Dalits. The perverse fear of Dalits makes it paranoid of everything Dalit. The hung house campaign of news channels ought to be seen in this context. Even if some of them knew that the BSP was going to win, they could not adjust to the exceptional situation in their mind as Dalits, they were convinced, ought to be losers or dependents at best. India's elite is, thus, a victim of a colossal cultural disconnect which makes it utterly incapable of adjusting with the emerging social realities. Uplifting the elite from its cultural segregation is one of the biggest challenges modern India faces. * The Times Of India* * * *Caste calculations** * http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Caste_calculations/rssarticleshow/2128499.cms 16 Jun, 2007 l 2313 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK Running eateries which can dish out the best benne dose (butter dosa), staking India's place in the IT sector globally, running the most classy airliner, promoting the banking sector or fashioning government policies. Brahmins have been pioneers and often in the driver's seat. But when it comes to politics, Karnataka is not a Uttar Pradesh (UP) where they were wooed assiduously during the elections as chief minister Mayawati did recently. Brahmins in Karnataka are a minuscule minority 3% compared to their UP counterparts 10%, which prompted Mayawati to conjure up the BDM (Brahmins-Dalits-Muslims) formula. Of the total 403 assembly seats in UP, she gave 86 tickets of the 139 reserved for upper caste to Brahmins in the April-May elections. Compare this with the BDM caste scenario in Karnataka and the combinations that emerge are of a Lingayat- Vokkaliga- Backward Classes- Minorities- Scheduled Castes/Tribes in variations of dominance but unlikely of the Brahmins.Karnataka had two Brahmin CMs — R Gundu Rao (1980-83) and Ramakrishna Hegde (1983-88) — who got the post not because of their caste, but their charisma. In Rao's case, it was his proximity to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Hegde was a dark horse who emerged out of political exigencies. For one Bangalore South parliamentary seat or Ankola assembly constituency in Uttara Kannada tagged for getting only Brahmin candidates elected, there are several constituencies where other castes are the deciding factor for a Brahmin nominee's victory. Classic examples are of former legislative assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar (Srinivasapur in Kolar), former minister R V Deshpande (Haliyal in Uttara Kannada) and Congress MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao (Gandhinangar in Bangalore city). In contrast, Bangalore South Lok Sabha seat has been electing a Brahmin MP except in 1991 when it was won by K Venkatagiri Gowda (BJP). One of BJP's sure-shot seats in Karnataka, even when it lost, it went to another Brahmin — Gundu Rao. They were the landed gentry until the '70s but land reforms propelled them into the education sector. These reforms, introduced on March 1, 1974,where the tiller became the owner of the land was actually a blessing in disguise. After losing their land, the Brahmins had no choice but to turn to education, according to Deshpande. When this happened, banking and business, politics got relegated to the background. While giving tickets during elections, if a Brahmin has to be accommodated, the question asked is, 'How many votes can he/she mobilise?"' Deshpande said. Defending parties' apprehensions of their winnability factor, Ramesh Kumar said: "Democracy is a game of numbers. But Brahmins have got more than what they deserved in Karnataka. I don't think any political party can think of applying the UP strategy (BDM) in Karnataka. At best, they can take a leaf out of it." Some time ago, former deputy CM Siddaramaiah came up with the Ahinda (Kannada acronym for backward classes, minorities and dalits) combination. It is unlikely a Brahmin politician will flaunt his caste tag. Ramesh Kumar studiously avoids identifying with his caste. During the Chamundeshwari assembly bypoll, he declined to campaign in the Brahmin pockets when asked by the Congress leadership. Dinesh Gundu Rao says, "As an individual, I am casteless. But as a person who represents a community, I want to help because I am in a position to do so." Even as political parties slot castes by their numerical strength, the Brahmins here take pride for having succeeded in other fields. A case in point is engineer K N Vasudev Adiga, president of Bangalore Hoteliers' Association. Denied a US visa in 1993, he opted to follow his father and started the Adiga chain of eating joints. *The Pioneer* * * *The last Gandhian in Tamil Nadu** * http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=anantha%2Fanantha2.txt&writer=anantha *"A pig with feathers behind its ear is still a pig and not a bird of paradise."* This saying will take a beating in Tamil Nadu. Here, persons of porcine disposition routinely decorate themselves with feathers behind their ears and the Tamils have no hesitation in accepting them as birds of paradise. A few real birds of this genus that remain in the Tamil country have no interest in making an exhibition of themselves in public. Fortunately, perhaps, they are unheralded and unnoticed. Krishnammal is one of them. Krishnammal was born in a Dalit family 84 years ago. I first heard about her, and her upper caste Gandhian husband, some 40 years ago, in the backdrop of the Kilvelmani massacre - when 44 Dalits, mostly women and children, were burnt alive in a remote village of Tanjore district by the goons of a landlord. The Communists were very angry with this Sarvodaya couple and I was with the Communists. Kilvenmani was a Communist village and we thought that Jagannathan and Krishnammal were meddling there and blunting the revolutionary sword. We were nowhere near the scene. Krishnammal stayed there for more than a year. She worked ceaselessly in the teeth of opposition from all her opponents and succeeded in getting 74 acres of fertile land for that many landless Dalit families. Today, the villagers of Kilvenmani consider the Jagannathan couple Shiva and Parvathi incarnate. Krishnammal was fortunate in that she was in Mahatma Gandhi's entourage when he travelled in Tamil Nadu in 1946. Gandhi's magic cast an abiding spell on her and she married a fellow Gandhian, Jagannathan, to lead a life of continuous struggle in support of ordinary people. It was this spirit that took her to various corners of our country and to its prisons. She was in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with Vinoba Bhave at the height of the Bhoodan Movement, speaking in public meetings in Hindi and pleading with landowners to gift away land. What she and her husband achieved in the Tamil country during the movement was stupendous. They redistributed 100,000 acres of land to the landless. One hundred thousand acres! Today, a square foot of fallow land in Chennai's suburbs is close to Rs 3,000. This quiet couple came to limelight recently for their spirited fight against the mushrooming prawn farms in the coastal villages of Tamil Nadu. In 2000, the 87-year-old Jagannathan underwent a 56-day fast against prawn farming and was imprisoned by the State. The 2004 tsunami proved the couple right. The destruction of tidal estuaries and the green belt to make way for prawn farms was one of the reasons why the damage was colossal when the tsunami hit the Nagapattinam coast. It was the couple's organisation - LAFTI (The Lands for the Tillers Freedom) - that provided succour to thousands of Dalit families rendered destitute by the tsunami. I have had the privilege of observing closely two followers of Mahatma Gandhi and they both had a unique, indefinable radiance. I saw it in Sarat Sinha of Assam. I saw it in Krishnammal when my wife and I called on her recently. It was clear within a few minutes that she had no trace of bitterness and hate. When I told her of my link with the Communists in the 1960s, she immediately pointed out it was the selfless groundwork of the Communists that made the landless gather courage and ask for higher wages. "We often work together, though they are often angry with me," she said with a smile. She was happy she could recently acquire more than 300 acres of land - received voluntarily from landlords - and give it to Dalit families. "Krishnan, the land has been transferred to women and not men," she proudly proclaimed. She had no illusions about men. "In rural India, the immediate oppressor is the husband, who is forever short of money and usually very drunk. Land gives the wife what she is short of - confidence." Krishnammal was in Chennai to raise funds for cultivation of the land. "We require only Rs 1,500 per acre for cultivation. The land, then, will take care of itself and of the families that toil on it." Her optimism was amazing and it gave me a clue as to why the followers of Gandhi are a special breed. As we hit the Mount Road while returning home, I saw Rajinikanth glowering at me from giant hoardings. It occurred to me that the black market rate for a single ticket to his latest film could well be Rs 1,500 ARUN KHOTE National Secretary National Campaign On Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) 8/1, 2nd Floor, South Patel Nagar, New Delhi-110008 Ph: 011- 25842249 /25842250 0- 9350183802 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.ncdhr.org -- Subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a BLANK email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join 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! 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