Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 09.05.14
Tope visits village where Dalit sarpanch was murdered- Business Standard
1991 Dalit massacre: Committee to challenge HC verdict- The Hindu
Honour killing: Girl's father, brother arrested- DNA
Dalit, Left bodies to challenge Tsundur verdict- The Hindu
‘WILL CONTINUE TO WORK FOR WELFARE OF SANITATION WORKERS, DALITS, LABOUR CLASS’- The Pioneer
Caste on campus- The Indian Express
Breaking Brahmin monopoly: Hindu temple to have women, dalit priests- Odish Sun Times
Struggle against caste-based discrimination comes to the US- Two Circle
Resolution on Dalits Commendable But Outdated- Black Voices
Business Standard
Tope visits village where Dalit sarpanch was murdered
Minister for Higher and Technical Education and district guardian minister Rajesh Tope and Dalit leader Eknath Awad today visited Nanegaon in Badnapur tehsil where a dalit sarpanch was murdered.
Additional Director General of Police Vishnu D Mishra and Inspector General of Police Amitesh Kumar also visited the village.
Manoj Kasab, the sarpanch, was assaulted by some villagers on April 3; he died in hospital on April 5.
A former sarpanch has been accused of involvement in the attack.
The Hindu
1991 Dalit massacre: Committee to challenge HC verdict
More than 40 Dalit and Left organisations have joined to form the ‘Struggle Committee for Justice to Tsunduru Dalits’, in order to challenge the High Court verdict given recently, acquitting all the accused in 1991 Dalit massacre case.
“We are going to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court’s verdict. Also, a nationwide campaign has also been planned, under which seminars, public discussions, symposiums and other meetings will be held,” said Bojja Tharakam, the Special Public Prosecutor for the case in High Court and representing the Republican Party of India, at a press conference on Thursday.
Other members including individual writers and activists from various organisations who were present at the press conference, also condemned the acquittal of the 21 accused in the case pertaining to massacre of eight Dalits.
Organisations which are part of the committee include Republican Party of India, Kula Nirmoolana Porata Samithi, Progressive Organisation of Women, Human Rights Forum, Chaitanya Mahila Sangham, Kula Vivaksha Porata Samithi, Centre for Dalit Studies, Virasam, Dalit Camera, International Federation of Trade Unions, Progressive Democratic Students Union, Arunadaya, Anveshi and others.
DNA
Honour killing: Girl's father, brother arrested
Two family members of a girl have been arrested in an alleged honour killing case at Daleepur village in the district, police said today.
The girl's father Rajvir and one of his brothers Ajay have been arrested after a case was registered against five of her family members yesterday under the SC/ST Act, they said. The 24-year-old victim and the girl's paramour Punit Kumar was stabbed to death, a couple of days back after the girl's family members spotted them in an objectionable situation at their house. The girl was also seriously injured in the struggle is still battling for her life in a hospital, they said.
Rajvir's other two sons Dhiraj, Satish and son-in-law Jaivir Singh have also been booked in the connection but are absconding, police said. The boy had fallen in love with a girl belonging to a different caste leading to the strife.
The Hindu
Dalit, Left bodies to challenge Tsundur verdict
More than 40 Dalit and Left organisations have come together to form the ‘Struggle Committee for Justice to Tsundur Dalits’, in order to challenge the High Court verdict given recently, acquitting all the accused in 1991 Dalit massacre case “We are going to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court’s verdict. Also, a nationwide campaign has been planned, under which seminars, public discussions, symposia and other meetings will be held,” said Bojja Tharakam, the Special Public Prosecutor for the case in High Court and representing the Republican Party of India, at a press conference here on Thursday.
Other members including individual writers and activists from various organisations who were present at the press conference, also condemned the acquittal of the 21 accused in the case pertaining to the massacre of eight Dalits.
Organisations which are part of the committee include Republican Party of India, Kula Nirmoolana Porata Samithi, Progressive Organisation of Women, Human Rights Forum, Chaitanya Mahila Sangham, Kula Vivaksha Porata Samithi, Centre for Dalit Studies, Virasam, Dalit Camera, International Federation of Trade Unions, Progressive Democratic Students Union, Arunodaya, Anveshi and others.
The Pioneer
‘WILL CONTINUE TO WORK FOR WELFARE OF SANITATION WORKERS, DALITS, LABOUR CLASS’
After the end of his term as the chairman of the State Sanitation Workers Commission, Bhagwat Prashad Makwana thanked former chief ministers BC Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ while also suggesting pension, grade pay, salary hikes and other measures for welfare of sanitation workers.
Speaking at a farewell function following the end of his three-year term on May 7, Makwana said that new posts created for the workers could not be filled as these were abolished by the 6th pay commission after which attempts were made to re-create the posts because of which problems were created in various other departments. He had raised this issue and other problems faced by sanitation workers in front of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and at a seminar in New Delhi. He rued that he was unable to ensure justice for sanitation workers because of the Government’s apathy. Stating that he would continue to work for the welfare of sanitation workers, Dalits and the labour class, Makwana also exhorted the work of the SSWC secretary Harak Singh Rawat and other workers. He requested the present Government to look into the problems faced by the workers.
The State Sanitation Workers Commission vice-chairman Ajay Rajaur whose term also ended on Wednesday could not attend the farewell function. Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli praised the work done by Makwana for the welfare of the sanitation workers. The mayor also spoke about the problems faced by the workers while stressing on the need for measures to ensure the betterment of sanitation workers.
The Indian Express
Caste on campus
A survey of first-year students at IIT Bombay which found that 56 per cent of those belonging to the SCs, STs and OBCs feel the presence of subtle discrimination and extra academic pressure, has followed on the heels of a recent analysis of IIT-JEE results showing that the test is tilted towards those from urban, high-income backgrounds. This is the first time an IIT has tried to examine internal social bias. It’s about time more institutions began to pay attention to these dysfunctions.
The fact that caste is a cause of trauma is undeniable. There have been instances of bright, promising Dalit and Adivasi students being driven to depression and suicide in India’s best educational institutions, including the IITs, IISc and AIIMS. Entering these portals of technical education is seen as the ultimate measure of intellectual merit and a guarantee of professional success. It is no secret that many in the IIT faculty and student pool have appealed for it to remain unsullied by reservations, and suggested that the burden of having come in with the aid of a quota would make it more difficult to meet exacting academic standards. In this argument, the definition of meritorious and deserving takes place at the point of the test alone, oblivious to the ways in which educational capital reproduces itself, the way intellectual endeavours have been tacitly “reserved” for upper castes for so long. For a Dalit or tribal student, apart from schooling disadvantages, often families are not able to provide books, minimal assistance or even the leisure that better-off students take for granted. They fight ferocious odds to get past the entrance test, to join a system they believe in. And once in, quota students commonly face jokes, stigmatisation, assault, discrimination from faculty and insensitivity from the administration.
Higher educational institutions can redeem themselves only by first confronting what happens. In 2006, the Centre set up a committee under S.K. Thorat to study complaints at AIIMS. It recommended many steps, including transparency in grading, equal opportunity cells and punishment for instances of caste discrimination. Nothing came of those recommendations. But these exemplars of technical education, held up as the great dream by so many Indians, must examine the ways they carry on social biases and fail to be fully inclusive. That involves confronting caste.
Odish Sun Times
Breaking Brahmin monopoly: Hindu temple to have women, dalit priests
Solapur (Maharashtra), May 9 :
Here’s another traditional male bastion set to crumble. With a Supreme Court prod, the renowned 900-year old Vitthoba Temple in the pilgrim town of Pandharpur will script religious history when it appoints its first women priests as also priests from the backward classes as part of an inclusive mission.
“This is the first initiative in the country by any temple trust to break the centuries-old monopoly of the Brahmins over the temple puja and other rituals. We are keen that puja and rituals should be thrown open to all castes, especially non-Brahmins,” Anna Dange, chairman of the Vitthal Rukmini Temple Trust (VRTT) explained to IANS.
The VRTT advertised this week, inviting applications for eight posts of priests from all practising Hindus and women well-versed in the two-or-three special pujas for Lord Vitthoba and his consort Rukmini, besides other temple rites and rituals.
“We shall interview the candidates May 18 and finalise the appointments which shall be purely temporary and contractual with the remuneration depending on the merits of those selected,” said Dange.
The VRTT move was prompted by a Supreme Court judgement in January in a four-decade- old litigation dismissing the claims of exclusive ancestral rights over the earnings and rituals at the temple by the Badve and Utpat families here.
The two families had challenged the decision of the state government to take over the temple in 1968 after the recommendations of the B.D. Nadkarni Committee.
A former cabinet minister in Maharashtra, Dange said that the apex court’s verdict has already brought about a seachange in the past few months in the earnings of the temple, situated around 350 km southeast of Mumbai.
“Earlier, the two families used to auction the daily pujas for the two presiding deities starting at Rs.7,000 ($117) for Rukmini and Rs.20,000 for Lord Vitthoba. They kept the daily earnings which were around Rs.150,000 and grew manifold on special occasions and festivals. Now, all the money is coming to the VRTT. This year, the temple income will be more than five crore rupees,” Dange said.
The VRTT has been flooded with applications and many are ready to work free as they consider it a “divine service”, Dange said with a smile. The excited applicants are said to hail from OBCs, Marathas, the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other castes.
The temple hosts the idol of Lord Vitthoba, a local version of Lord Krishna, and his consort Rukmini, and is revered by the 150,000-strong population of the town.
It has a unique scripture on its walls dating to 1195 on which the devotees would rub their backs to free themselves from the cycles of re-birth.
Attracting around 30,000 devotees from Maharashtra and other parts of India every day, the temple atmosphere is festive during four annual pilgrimages when around nearly two million devotees daily throng there.
On Navratri and Dassehra, the deities look spectacular daily with new clothes and jewellery, with lights and decorations that reflect in the serene waters of the Bhima river on whose banks the temple stands, Dange told IANS.
Incidentally, the world-famous 200,000 dabbawalas of Mumbai are staunch devotees of Lord Vitthoba and Rukmini and they take a brief vacation for their annual ‘jatras’ to Pandharpur.
The dabbawalas belong to the clan of ‘Varkaris’ who walk hundreds of kilometres from different parts of the state in processions taking two-three weeks during the Hindu months of Chaitra (March-April), Ashadhi (June-July), Karthik (October-November) and Maghi (January-February).
A trip to Pandharpur means a visit to some other famous temples in and around the town, including the Goddess Tulja Bhavani Temple, the family diety of the great Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji; Shri Swami Samarth Temple; Lord Shri Kshetra Temple and Lord Dattatreya Temple.
Two Circle
Struggle against caste-based discrimination comes to the US
Washington, DC: The struggle against caste-based discrimination practiced in South Asia has come to the shores of the United States with the introduction of House Resolution 566 by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.
The resolution introduced last week “condemns the practice of untouchability and the
discriminatory treatment of the Dalits in South Asia and the Asian diaspora.”
discriminatory treatment of the Dalits in South Asia and the Asian diaspora.”
Norton who is a non-voting member of the House of Representatives linked the plight of Dalits with slaves before they were emancipated and DC residents who like the Dalits “are treated like second-class citizens in their own country, without the same rights as others.”
Norton first announced about her plan to introduce this resolution on April 16th, the day that slaves in DC were emancipated in 1862.
“In commemoration of Dr. Ambedkar’s birthday and life’s work, and with the continuing acts of gross inequality against the Dalit people, my resolution calls on Congress forthrightly to oppose the discrimination and condemn the practice of Dalit untouchability in all of its forms throughout the world,” said Norton. “District residents, who are treated as second-class citizens, are particularly sympathetic to the mistreatment of the Dalit people in their own country.”
In January, three organizations – The Quander Historical Society, Gye Nyame and Dalit Freedom Network – held a Declaration of Empathy Signing Event for the modern day slaves in India in cooperation with Norton’s office. The organizations drafted a Declaration of Empathy for the Dalits calling for an end to their enslavement. Norton delivered remarks at the event and was among the first signers of the declaration.
Norton applauded Dr. Ana Steele, the Dalit Freedom Network’s former executive director, for working with her office to bring the organizations together to sign the Declaration of Empathy, and all of the organizations for carrying on Dr. Ambedkar’s mission and leading the effort to abolish discrimination against the Dalit people.
March planned in DC
The International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR) and Ambedkar International Center (AIC) along with a group of organizations are planning to organize a one-day Global March against Caste-based Discrimination on June 21st, 2014 in Washington, D.C.
Black Voices
Resolution on Dalits Commendable But Outdated
For many years, the complex social practice of caste in the Indian subcontinent (and to a lesser degree, the South Asian Diaspora) has been the subject of activism and reform efforts.
Since the 19th century implementation of the census by the British in what is now modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal (and other countries such as Sri Lanka and Bhutan), the notion of caste has been one of the most widely misunderstood and misinterpreted concepts within the subcontinent and in the West. Especially problematic was the notion of untouchability and the role of those called Dalits, Harijans or Scheduled Castes.
Last Friday, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) introduced a resolution "Condemning Dalit untouchability" and "the practice of birth-descent discrimination against Dalit people." The resolution is a follow up to her involvement several months ago with a Dalit empathy event co-organized by the Dalit Freedom Network, an Evangelical organization that has worked closely with the controversial Joshua Project -- an initiative to try to convert non-Christians throughout the world.
While Holmes Norton's efforts to highlight caste-based oppression are admirable, the resolution is couched in outdated views of how most South Asians living in that part of the world conceptualize caste. In fact, historians such as Valerie Hansen and Kenneth Curtis suggest that "most outside observers tend to exaggerate the rigidity of caste in modern India" and other parts of the subcontinent. In fact, many Indians -- impacted by rapid urbanization and migration away from rural areas -- don't view caste as an essential part of their identity or a basis for social interaction.
The Dalit Freedom Network has tried to win over African-American lawmakers by comparing the condition of Dalits in countries such as India and Nepal with the oppression faced by Black South Africans during apartheid, which parallels comments made several years ago by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Those comparisons, however sincere, are simply not accurate.
As the Hindu American Foundation noted several years ago in its exhaustive study, caste divisions in the Indian subcontinent have absolutely nothing to do with skin color, a specific religion, or even economic status.
Many of our contemporary understandings of the caste system in the Indian subcontinent were derived from colonial era interpretations. Unfortunately, "caste-ism" is practiced by people of all faiths in the Indian subcontinent, despite both governmental bans on the practice and religious doctrines forbidding such discrimination. And while caste discrimination is abhorrent, scheduled castes have had equal votes and quotas for education and economic opportunities since independence of South Asian nations from British rule.
Holmes Norton's resolution, while paying homage to Indian freedom fighter and caste activist B.D. Ambedkar, misunderstands his legacy. In fact, in correspondences with W.E.B. Du Bois, Ambedkar -- who vigorously criticized Hinduism, Islam and Christianity for what he perceived to be their sanctioning of inequality --lamented a lack of opportunity for Untouchables. Interestingly enough, Ambedkar was also one of the most vocal opponents of the now debunked Aryan Invasion Theory, which was advanced by Orientalists to explain the development of ancient Indian civilization.
To be sure, Holmes Norton has embarked on a well-meaning attempt to highlight social injustices in other parts of the world. But comparing caste discrimination to Apartheid or Jim Crow both oversimplifies a long social history in the subcontinent and obscures the actual suffering of Black South Africans during the brutal years of white rule (or violent and systemic oppression of African Americans prior to the Civil Rights Act). Perhaps Holmes Norton can use the resolution to learn -- as well as educate others -- about the complexity of caste and other forms of social division across the world, just as pioneers such as Du Bois did in their interactions with Ambedkar.
News Monitor by Girish Pant
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
Pl visit on FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/
..............................
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of “Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC”)
Pl visit on FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/
..............................
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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