Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 14.04.12
Die is caste: Villagers elect first dalit woman sarpanch - The Times Of India
UP govt cancels appointments made by BSP to SC/ST commission - Zee News
Villagers begin indefinite protest - Deccan Herald
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/241882/villagers-begin-indefinite-protest.html
Panel set up on SC/ST sub-plan - IBN Live
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/panel-set-up-on-scst-subplan/248554-60-121.html
Periyar Dravida Kazhagam to protest bias against dalits at anganwadi, post office on April 16 - The Times Of India
UPA given ultimatum on Ambedkar Parinirvan Bhumi - The Times Of India
Dalits get their own VC fund - Business Standard
http://business-standard.com/india/news/dalits-get-their-own-vc-fund/471314/
The Left's Untouchable - Out Look
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?280545
The grammar of politics and anarchy - Pune Mirror
The Times Of India
Die is caste: Villagers elect first dalit woman sarpanch
Vijaysinh Parmar, TNN | Apr 14, 2012, 03.40AM IST
HAJIPAR (BHAVNAGAR): In 2005 this village gained notoriety when a dalit youth was torched to death by some locals for raising issues of injustice to his community. Seven years later, a change of heart in Hajipar is so much that they elected a dalit woman unopposed as a sarpanch, that too on a general category seat.
Shantuben Jitiya (45) has made history by becoming the first dalit woman sarpanch in this village, which has only two dalit families in the 2,000-odd population. It does not end at Shantuben. All members of her executive committee are women, a first in Hajipar.
Interestingly, Vijay, a 25-year-old youth murdered, was her husband Rajubhai Jitiya's nephew. Rajubhai, who was working as a sanitary worker in Surat till 2005, decided to come back to his native village and start a fight against untouchability and rights for dalits and the underprivileged.
After persistently working for rights of backward communities, Shantuben and Rajubhai have won the hearts of people. Majority castes in village are Prajapatis, Ahirs and other OBC communities.
"We were not allowed take drinking water from village's well as we are untouchables and we had to wait for hours to get water. We were not allowed into the temple," Rajubhai said.
"We are determined to bring the change in the village. For us, it's a great change as most of the villagers (Prajapatis) have supported us despite the fact that some of their community brutally murdered our nephew. Now, they come to our home and do not believe in untouchability," Shantuben said.
Drinking water for those living below poverty line (BPL) is Shantuben's priority. "My first priority as a sarpanch will be to provide drinking water facility to BPL families as they have not been provided water since years,'' she said.
Dalit rights activist Martin Mackwan, who recently visited Hajipar, termed the village as a real 'samras' gram panchayat. "This is the best example of samras village in which dominant castes support dalit woman as sarpanch. This is the real change in village and people put faith in those who have been neglected since years,'' Mackwan said.
Jasmat Gohil (60), who belongs to Prajapati caste, said, "The couple has done a lot for villagers. We have great faith in them for betterment of this village. Hence, we decided to support his wife's candidature as sarpanch."
"We have supported her as we are hopeful that she and her husband will devotedly work to solve the basic problem of villagers as they have always done,'' a villager Irfan Pancha said.
"Shantuben and her husband are working selflessly. We have no electricity connection in our homes since years. She has promised us electricity once she becomes the sarpanch. So, we supported her irrespective of the caste. We want development in the village,'' a villager Bahadur Prajapati said.
"There are some cases in the state where dalit candidates were elected as village sarpanchs even on general category seats, but this one is the best among them,'' Mackwan added.
Zee News
UP govt cancels appointments made by BSP to SC/ST commission
Last Updated: Saturday, April 14, 2012, 12:56
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has cancelled all appointments in the state Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribes Commission made during the BSP regime with immediate effect.
Appointments of the chairman, vice chairman and members which were done in the commission by the previous government from time to time have been cancelled, principal secretary social welfare Sadakant said in an order.
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He said that the government has also accepted the resignations of chairperson of State Women's Commission Abha Agnihotri, vice-chairpersons Namrata Pathak and Sunita Devi with effect from March 14.
Sadakant said that chairman of Samaj Kalyan Nirman Nigam Indrajeet Saroj has also resigned which has been accepted. PTI
Deccan Herald
Villagers begin indefinite protest
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/241882/villagers-begin-indefinite-protest.html
Chikmagalur, April 13, 2012, DHNS:
Opposing the district administration for following the double standard in issuing permission for felling of silver trees in the district, the residents of Gupthashetty Halli began indefinite strike in front of Deputy Commissioner's office on Friday.
The Dalit families who had staged an indefinite strike for 62 days in front of Mudigere taluk office in the past are now staging protest in front of the DC's office.
The protesters have questioned the decision of the district administration which has given a strict order against the felling of silver trees in the land on which the destitutes live. On the other hand, there is no ban on felling and transporting of silver trees in other places.
The Dalits who were the residents of Hullemane, Bairigadde, Thalavara, Mandagulihara and Kundra villages that come under the reserve forest area were displaced and rehabilitated in Yalagadi village.
However, even after shifting to Yalagadi, they were not provided with basic amenities.
The district administration had made temporary arrangements for the residents after they staged two-month long protest demanding the basic facilities. The residents alleged that the district administration is not allowing the residents to develop the land on which they reside.
The protesters have urged the district administration to withdraw the order on felling of trees and provide title deeds to the residents.
IBN Live
Panel set up on SC/ST sub-plan
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/panel-set-up-on-scst-subplan/248554-60-121.html
Express News Service
HYDERABAD: Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has approved constitution of a cabinet sub-committee to examine matters relating to the implementation of the SC, ST sub-plan under the chairmanship of deputy chief minister C Damodara Rajanarasimha.
The other members of the committee include ministers: J.Geetha Reddy, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, Pithani Satyanarayana, P.Balaraju, S.Sailajanath, Dokka Manikya Varaprasada Rao, Erasu Prathap Reddy and Kondru Murali Mohan.
The terms of reference of the cabinet sub-Committee are to evaluate the concept of Scheduled caste sub-plan and tribal sub-plan (SCSP/TSP) with reference to the guidelines issued by the Planning Commission, identify the impediments in realising the objectives of the sub-plan, including putting in place an appropriate legislative framework, duly keeping in view the core recommendations of the NAC on setting apart plan funds.
The Times Of India
Periyar Dravida Kazhagam to protest bias against dalits
at anganwadi, post office on April 16
TNN | Apr 14, 2012, 03.12AM IST
COIMBATORE: Periyar Dravida Kazhagam (PDK) leader K Ramakrishnan announced an agitation on April 16 against the disallowing of dalits, especially arundathiars, from entering the post office in Chinnavadavalli village in Vadavalli village panchayat. Addressing a news conference, Ramakrishnan said an agitation and march will be held to protest the discrimination.
Dalits said they were not allowed into the post office and had to wait in queue outside to get letters and postage stamps. They said letters addressed to them were not delivered properly. They were also not allowed to enter the post office to perform any function including making savings in the monthly deposit scheme. N Easwaran, a PDKfunctionary, said that only people from upper castes were allowed into the post office.
When dalits questioned this, they were told that this was the system followed through the ages and they better reconcile with it. He said the dalits hoped that the agitation will highlight the plight of the dalits and bring about an end to the discrimination.
Also, dalit children were being discriminated at the local anganwadi in Thathampalayamin Vadavalli village panchayat. He said as both the post office and the anganwadi functioned under the central and state governments, the discrimination was incriminating on them. A complaint has been filed at the Karamadai police station, Easwaran said.
The Times Of India
UPA given ultimatum on Ambedkar Parinirvan Bhumi
TNN | Apr 14, 2012, 03.52AM IST
INDORE: Enraged over delay in starting of the work for Parinirvan Bhumi, Dr AmbedkarParinirvan Bhumi Samman-Karyakram Samiti on Friday gave a May 30 ultimatum to the government.
"Congress-led UPA government has failed to keep its promise of developing the memorial. If the work is not started by May-end, a nation-wide agitation on the lines of the Gurjar agitation of Rajasthan, would be launched," said Indresh Gajbhiye, Chairman of MP Scheduled Castes Commission.
Gajbhiye was in city on the eve of Ambedkar jayanti to be celebrated in Mhow.
"The NDA government had sanctioned Rs 100 crore for developing the Parinirvan Bhumi during its regime, but the Congress government seems to have spent it on some other work. The issue was emotive and various organizations cutting across party lines have come together fight for the cause," said Gajbhiye.
He said there are four important places for Ambedkarites in the country viz Dikshabhumi in Nagpur, Chaityabhumi in Mumbai, Mhow which is the birthplace of Dr Ambedkar, and Parinirvan Bhumi. "Though the other three have been developed, Parinirvan Bhumi has become a victim of negligence of the government," he said.
About a solution to stop scavenging among Dalits in the state, the chairman said that he was studying the figures provided by the government officials and would look into the complaints. The state government maintains that scavenging has been eradicated from across the state. However, sundry NGOs claim that the practice still prevalent in the state.
Business Standard
Dalits get their own VC fund
http://business-standard.com/india/news/dalits-get-their-own-vc-fund/471314/
Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi Apr 14, 2012, 00:26 IST
Parliament Street in New Delhi leads to some of the biggest banks in India — the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India and the Standard Chartered Bank. Tomorrow, this road will be open to a new set of faces.
Under the canopy of the leafy trees, 121 smartly dressed Dalit entrepreneurs will cut a 121-kg birthday cake in honour of B R Ambedkar, the community's icon, to mark his 121st birth anniversary. And, announce a Dalit venture-capital (VC) fund.
The idea of a VC fund to support Dalit entrepreneurs was first discussed in January 2011, at a meeting between the Planning Commission's deputy chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and 35 Dalit entrepreneurs led by Milind Kamble, an engineer and one of the leading lights of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI). Ahluwalia mooted the idea of such a fund and put the offer on the table: for every rupee DICCI put in, the government would match it with Rs 3.
The fund was envisaged as a way to finance the expansion and modernisation of Dalit-run businesses and also fund prospective Dalit entrepreneurs. What grabbed the Dalit entrepreneurs' attention was a new principle. Under existing schemes for scheduled castes and tribes, the state has been the giver and the community the recipient. But via the VC fund, the state will become a partner by buying stakes in Dalit-owned companies and will have a share in the profits.
The fund will be in addition to the Planning Commission's schemes already in place to help develop Dalit entrepreneurship.
Launching the fund was not easy. DICCI needed to create a new business entity to get certification from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
To fulfill that requirement, it set up an independent company called DICCI Venture Capital Fund (DVCF). To qualify, DVCF needed to have a pledged fund amounting to Rs 5 crore. It managed to raise this money and is now entitled to raise Rs 100 crore from the market. This means the government will now be required to put in Rs 300 crore. An entity called Varhad Capital Pvt Ltd will structure, raise and manage DVCF. "Now, DVCF is ready to be registered with Sebi. Thereafter, DVCF will be entitled to raise money from financial institutions, both private and government," said Chandrabhan Prasad, mentor of DICCI.
"This is the Dalits' greatest tribute to Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar on his 121st birth anniversary," says Kamble.
DICCI Delhi unit president N K Chandan (who will provide the birthday cake), says, "Now, Dalit entrepreneurs need not worry about collateral and make rounds of banks, as we have our own venture fund."
"With DVCF turning into a reality, the Dalit movement has stepped into a new future," said Chandrabhan Prasad.
Out Look
The Left's Untouchable
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?280545
Why was Ambedkar's critique of caste anathema for Indian Marxists?
It's an abiding mystery of Indian politics: why the Left has consistently shown an uneasy reluctance to seriously engage with B.R. Ambedkar's thoughts. When Ambedkar pushed for the Poona Pact in 1932, demanding separate electorates for Dalits, the Indian Left kept its distance from the issue. Symptomatically, E.M.S. Namboodiripad wrote: "This was a great blow to the freedom movement. For this led to the diversion of people's attention from the objective of full independence to the mundane cause of the upliftment of the Harijans."
EMS's reaction to the Poona Pact was in consonance with his reading of Indian history in Marxist terms. Borrowing crudely from Marx's understanding of the history of slavery, EMS found the caste system, despite its exploitative structure, to be "a superior economic organisation", which facilitated organised production through a systematic allocation of labour. He didn't note Ambedkar's sophisticated distinction between "division of labour" and "division of the labourer" (including the hierarchy within that division) in the casteist relations of production. The eternal fixedness of the labourer with regard to his birth (as the "subject" who "will bear its Father's name"), and the religious sanction behind such an identity, were deemed unimportant. Being mostly from the upper castes, Left scholars avoided examining the assumptions of caste.
Since before Independence, the mainstream Left framed the class question safely within the nationalist question; for EMS and his comrades, this issue was not a diversion.
Ambedkar had the courage to push for a radical division within the framework of nationalist politics, by asking for separate electorates. By calling Ambedkar's cause "mundane", EMS drew a specious distinction between the working class and Dalits, holding the former to be "superior". Through this, EMS betrayed his predominantly upper-caste mindset. He is an exemplar of progressive casteism in the history of Left politics and thinking in India. This led to lower castes and Dalits not finding a place in the party hierarchy.
The most insidious form of caste solidarity ignores and hides the stark fact that caste is part of what Althusser calls the "apparatus" of ideology and is based in material existence. Every form of social practice (and exploitation) in India is contextually casteist. It creates conditions of multiple prejudice between the bourgeois and the working class (where the scavenging class/caste goes unnamed). And this prejudice becomes part of the relations of production as caste introduces elements of segregation and humiliation within those relations. In the case of untouchables, one might in fact call it relations of waste, where the disposing of sewage, etc, is not accorded even the minimum standard of dignified working conditions.
Ambedkar pointed out how the class system had an "open-door character", whereas castes were "self-enclosed units". He gave a brilliant explanation of caste's forced endogamy: "Some closed the door: others found it closed against them." The image throws up a phenomenon opposite to the Kafkan idea of law: the (Hindu) gatekeeper of law, in Ambedkar's explanation, is also the lawgiver, and he allows entry by birth, but no exit. Once entry has been secured in Hindu society, as Ambedkar argued, everyone who is not a Brahmin is an other. Hinduism is a uniquely self-othering social system, whose (touchable) norms are secured by declaring a brutal exception: untouchability.
In his comparison of Buddha and Marx, Ambedkar bypasses Marx's idea of private property and keeps out the question of capital ownership. He also does not complicate the relation between 'law' and 'government'. These appear to be limitations of the historical conjuncture of Dalit politics. But Ambedkar finds the materialist and non-violent character of Buddhism to be evoking another thinkable historical version of a Marxist society.
Some critics in the Indian Left see the Dalit movement as being merely a 'politics of recognition' and having no revolutionary potential. It is a shallow view of the movement against segregated exploitation that seeks to penetrate entrenched hegemony. The politics against untouchability demands more than good wages and working conditions: it asks for a reconfiguration of the socio-cultural space and the elimination of a violated and untouchable 'bare life'.
Ambedkar had warned that the Indian socialist would have to "take account of caste after the revolution, if he does not take account of it before the revolution".
In a discussion after the screening of his film, Jai Bhim Comrade, Anand Patwardhan said that even though Gandhi erred on the caste system, he did more against untouchability than the Left. Under the stark light of this observation, the Left must rethink its ideological history. Or else, the crisis of its political legitimacy may not outlive the warnings.
Pune Mirror
The grammar of politics and anarchy
On Ambedkar's birth anniversary remembering his prophetic words about protecting constitutional methods
Ajit Ranade, Posted On Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 02:41:44 AM
Bhimrao Ambedkar, the fourteenth and youngest child of Dalit parents, whose father served as a sepoy in the British military cantonment at Mhow (near Indore), was born on April 14, 1891. He was twenty-two years younger than Mohandas Gandhi, and died in 1956, just a few years after Gandhi. But together these two had a lion's share in the making of modern India.
Their origins, upbringing, experiences, language, world view and strategy were very dissimilar. Gandhi romanticised about the self-sustaining village life and economy. For Ambedkar, life in a village under the scourge of caste and untouchability, was nasty and brutal.
Gandhi strived to rid untouchability through moral purification, and change of heart of upper-caste people. Ambedkar would rather depend on instruments of the state and rule of law. Gandhi did not support a separate electorate for the Dalits, but agreed for Muslims, Sikhs and others. Ambedkar wanted a separate electorate, but couldn't prevail.
Gandhi threw away western clothes, and preferred a simple loincloth, whereas Ambedkar's suit and tie was symbolic, and inspirational to his millions of followers. They also differed deeply on their view of Hinduism, with Gandhi seeking spiritual guidance, whereas Ambedkar considering it deeply flawed (especially because of social stratification). There are other differences too numerous to list here, but the remarkable thing is the unity of the ultimate goal that both sought.
They both looked to a future society based on justice, equality and compassion. On the issue of caste, it can be said that such was their influence, that they together changed in sixty years, what was entrenched for more than two thousand years. They also had many commonalities, such as their law degrees, and stints abroad.
Gandhi also had an indirect role in ensuring that Ambedkar became the father of the constitution. This great document, on the basis of which the Indian republic was born, was a thoughtful and scholarly synthesis of all the great democratic traditions of the world.
During the historic concluding meeting of the Constituent Assembly (charged with creating the republic), on November 25, 1949, Pattabhi Sitaramayya said, "What after all is a constitution? It is a grammar of politics, if you like, it is a compass to the political mariner."
In that same session, Ambedkar, using similar metaphor (of grammar), warned against the dangers to democracy: He famously said: "If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do? The first thing, in my judgment we must do, is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives.
It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution… abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and Satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods.
These methods are nothing but the grammar of anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us." These words are prophetic, for they warn us of dangers that are alive even today. Whether it is 'taking to the streets', or 'spontaneous outburst of emotions', or dharnas and riots, the dangers of breakdown of constitutionality are still real. It was one thing to fast against the British rule, but quite another to fast against a constitutionally-elected government.
In that same speech, he had prophetically warned against hero-worship and blind idolatry (read sycophancy). He said, "Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship."
Finally, he also warned against social and economic inequality. He said, "How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.
We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this (Constituent) Assembly has so laboriously built up." Spoken decades before the scourge of the Maoists, Ambedkar was prescient and prophetic.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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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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