anti-caste

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UNTOUCHABLE SCHOOLCHILDREN ASSAULTED IN TAMIL NADU

Dalit children beaten up for going to school (Express News Service)

"Twelve Dalit children aged between eight and 13 have been hospitalised here after they were allegedly beaten up by some youth belonging to an upper caste Hindu community.

"The attackers, who were allegedly not happy about the children receiving a formal education, wanted to send a message across to all the parents in the Dalit community, about the repercussions if they decided to send their children to school.

"When the children, most of them girls, were returning from school on Friday, they were stopped on their way and beaten up by a group of caste Hindu youth. They also reportedly hurled verbal abuses at the children by referring to their caste, before beating them up.

"While attacking the children, one youngster reportedly said, 'It is only because you people are getting educated that you rush to the police station all the time. This is to teach your parents not to send you to school.'"

"Police have registered a case under Prevention of Atrocities Act following a complaint filed by the Dalits. Earlier this year, three Dalits and as many caste Hindus were arrested here following clashes between the two groups."

25TH ANNIVERSARY OF CONGRESS-LED ANTI-SIKH POGROM IN DELHI

Delhi 1984: Memories of a Massacre (BBC)

"Nearly 3,000 members of India's Sikh community were massacred after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984. Rahul Bedi, one of the first journalists to reach the affected areas in the capital, Delhi, recalls events.

[...]

"Soon after news of Mrs Gandhi's killing by her Sikh bodyguards spread, Hindu mobs swung into action—like they did elsewhere in the city armed with voters' lists—in Trilokpuri against the low-caste Sikhs inhabiting one-roomed tenements on either side of two narrow alleyways barely 150 yards long.

"With local police connivance they blocked entry to the neighbourhood with massive concrete water pipes and stationed guards armed with sticks atop them.

"For the next three days marauding groups armed with cleavers, scythes, kitchen knives and scissors took breaks to eat and regroup in between executing their bloodthirsty mission.

"When as a reporter then with the Indian Express newspaper I along with two other colleagues visited the area on the eve of Mrs Gandhi' funeral, both lanes were littered with bodies, body parts and hair brutally hacked off, forcing us to walk precariously on tip-toe.

"It was impossible to place one's foot flat on the ground for fear of stepping on either a severed limb or a body."

"OPERATION GREEN HUNT": CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TARGETS TRIBALS AND GUERILLAIST LEFTISTS

India prepares to fight rebel Maoists (UPI)

"India is preparing for a prolonged counterinsurgency fight against Maoist rebels once discounted as a ragtag group of irrelevant ideologues, officials say.

"The Maoists, intent on overthrowing the government, are operating in 20 of India's states, and have become a strong and dangerous insurgency, The New York Times reported on its Web site Saturday.

"Indian leaders are prepared to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for the extended counterinsurgency effort.

"The Maoists say they represent the dispossessed of Indian society. Especially hard-hit, they claim, are indigenous tribal groups burdened with the highest rates of illiteracy, poverty and infant mortality.

"The insurgents charge the government wants to push tribal groups from their lands to grab valuable natural resources, the Times says. Maoists have escalated their efforts to sabotage roads and bridges, and even have attacked an energy pipeline."

The heart of India is under attack by Arundhati Roy (The Guardian (UK), October 30, 2009):

"Right now in central India, the Maoists' guerrilla army is made up almost entirely of desperately poor tribal people living in conditions of such chronic hunger that it verges on famine of the kind we only associate with sub-Saharan Africa. They are people who, even after 60 years of India's so-called independence, have not had access to education, healthcare or legal redress. They are people who have been mercilessly exploited for decades, consistently cheated by small businessmen and moneylenders, the women raped as a matter of right by police and forest department personnel. Their journey back to a semblance of dignity is due in large part to the Maoist cadre who have lived and worked and fought by their side for decades.

"If the tribals have taken up arms, they have done so because a government which has given them nothing but violence and neglect now wants to snatch away the last thing they have—their land. Clearly, they do not believe the government when it says it only wants to 'develop' their region. Clearly, they do not believe that the roads as wide and flat as aircraft runways that are being built through their forests in Dantewada by the National Mineral Development Corporation are being built for them to walk their children to school on. They believe that if they do not fight for their land, they will be annihilated. That is why they have taken up arms.

"Even if the ideologues of the Maoist movement are fighting to eventually overthrow the Indian state, right now even they know that their ragged, malnutritioned army, the bulk of whose soldiers have never seen a train or a bus or even a small town, are fighting only for survival."

anti-caste: Marxists in India would seek to mobilize the working class to defend tribals and leftist guerillas against this threat of massive state repression. Unlike liberals and reformists, they would not call on the capitalist state to better the conditions of tribals instead of killing and displacing them; to do so is to reinforce the illusion that this state does not necessarily act in the service of the Indian bourgeoisie and the imperialists. While defending them militarily against police and paramilitary forces, Marxists would give no political support to the Maoists who, despite their claims to Marxism, have nothing to do with the working class and base themselves entirely on peasants and the landless. As Trotsky explained, these groups lack the unity, organization, and social power to play an independent revolutionary role. The burning social questions of the region—including the liberation of tribals, who are among the most oppressed and marginalized populations on earth—will not be settled in the jungles.

AFTER ONE SMALL ACT OF SELF-ASSERTION, UNTOUCHABLE FAMILIES FORCED TO FLEE IN FEAR OF THEIR LIVES

Home out of bounds to 37 Dalit families (Express Buzz)

"The day before the Dalits left their homes, casteist tensions had run high at T Veppankulam [village, in Tamil Nadu] when some Dalits waiting in queue with their families to get photographed for the state government’s medical insurance scheme objected to some caste Hindus jumping the queue.

"The verbal exchange led to violence, when five Dalit men, including V Muniyandi, a daily wage labourer, were badly beaten. 'As usual, they made casteist remarks against us and began to thrash us,' Muniyandi told Express.

"The terror did not stop there. Fearing that the Dalits would file an FIR against them, the caste Hindus surrounded their houses and refused to let them out. Those who had got into state transport buses were also forcibly made to step down.

"Sources said Mukkulam sub-inspector Ramaiah, who came to the village to enquire about the incident, also had to bear the brunt of upper caste fury. The man in khaki was reportedly let off only after he told them that he belonged to their caste. He was transferred the same night, the sources added.

"Muniyandi was again beaten up by a 40-member group with slippers and sticks when he tried to meet his wife Pappa at a nearby house. Around 6 pm, he managed to escape to Kariapatti, 20 km away, when his wife wrapped him in her sari and smuggled him into a bus.

"On October 4, some 37 Dalit families similarly made their way to Kariapatti, where they enjoy some protection from some Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) activists, in small groups with just the clothes on their back. They now stay in a makeshift shelter. 'We have been reduced to begging for rice, pulses and vegetables and it is about 20 days since our children went to school,' they said.

"VCK councillor Iniyavan said the district administration and the police were not taking any steps for the rehabilitation of the families. 'As is the practice, the police filed the first FIR against the Dalits and then filed one against the caste Hindus,' he added.

"The Dalit villagers said none of the district officials had bothered to visit them and enquire about their plight. The police too had not taken any action on the FIR filed against the caste Hindus.

"'As the upper caste people have served an ultimatum on us, it is impossible for us to return to our village,' they added."

CASTE OPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANS, BY FELLOW CHRISTIANS

Dalit Christians to walk out of Eraiyur village (Express Buzz)

"Eraiyur was under media spotlight last year when the Dalits of the parish were on a fast-unto-death in March. They alleged that Vanniyars [an upper-caste Christian community] were not allowing Dalits to use the pathway to the cemetry and not sharing with them the cemetry and the hearse. Vanniyars had their separate burial ground and own hearse to cart the dead there.

"Besides, they had raised their voice against the sacred car with the idol of Our Lady of Rosary, taken out through the village streets during the main festival in May, not visiting Dalit colonies and the around 1,000 Dalit congregation not being allowed to contribute money for the conduct of the festival.

"When the protest in March last year led to a police firing, killing two persons, a peace meeting was called and the archdiocese of Puducherry and Cuddalore gave an assurance to put an end to the discrimination.

"But other than the common pathway issue, nothing else has been sorted out. A new hearse provided to the parish has not been touched by the Vanniyars, who have made one exclusively for themselves."

See also:

A house divided: Caste violence at Eraiyur in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district brings to the fore the issue of discrimination against Dalit Christians (Frontline, April 12-25, 2008):

"Dalit Christians of the village have been on a fast since March 7 demanding that the Archbishop recognise the Sagaya Matha Chapel they had built for a new Dalit parish in the village. Their complaint was that they were not treated as equals by the Vanniar Christians within the Church of Our Lady of Rosary, the present Eraiyur parish church, located in the centre of Eraiyur. Archbishop Anthony Aanandarayar was firm that there could not be two churches for the same order in one village.

"On the third day of the fast, on March 9, angry Vanniar Christians carrying sticks, poles, iron rods, stones and other weapons stormed the Dalit colony in the village. Over 30 Dalits were injured and about 80 of their houses were damaged."

And see anti-caste: CHRISTIANS IN TAMIL NADU VILLAGE TREATING OTHER CHRISTIANS AS UNTOUCHABLE (June 12, 2009)

HINDU-RIGHT PROVOCATIONS BEHIND COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

Reading the Riot Act by Neerja Dasani (Countercurrents)

"The common element visible in the ‘communal’ confrontations in Sangli, Maharashtra in September and Shahpur, Gujarat, a few weeks earlier was been the uniformly formulaic and superficial coverage by the English press.

"English dailies predictably resorted to shorthand versions of the violence: ‘communal clashes erupt’, ‘mob fury breaks loose’, ‘police intervention’, ‘tense but under control’ and finally ‘limping back to normality.’

"The standard narrative for Sangli was that an arch depicting the Maratha warrior Shivaji killing the Mughal general Afzal Khan as part of the Ganesh Chaturthi decorations, had provoked Muslim outrage. But the media ignored a press conference held by various Muslim organisations where leaders categorically stated that Afzal Khan was unrelated to the teachings of Islam. Their request to avoid simplistic explanations remained unheeded.

"The fact that the arch was erected by workers of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine, despite warnings from the police, was similarly brushed aside. People’s Democracy was the only publication that drew attention to the polarising designs of a debilitated BJP under the guidance of the RSS.

"It is no coincidence that the violence in Shahpur, Gujarat too was centred on a procession. The most common ‘story’, sourced to the police, was that a temple had recently been constructed in close proximity to the Nagoriwad mosque. Despite police warnings a Janmashtami procession, coinciding with namaz timing, was taken out on the ‘irregular’ route before the mosque, leading to the clashes.

"A few follow-up reports noted the arrests of some of the ‘trouble-mongers’. None of them mentioned that among the arrested were BJP workers, who had initiated the move to construct the roadside temple adjoining the mosque.

"The average reader could therefore safely assume that some ‘communities’ in this country are mutually antagonistic; composed of mobs always on the verge of violence and that the slightest spark can raise a communal fire.

"But is this really the case?

"Rejecting the trope of ‘spontaneity’ over a decade ago anthropologist Peter van der Veer wrote in ‘Riots and Rituals: The Construction of Violence and Public Space in Hindu Nationalism’ (1997): 'However, riots in India I have witnessed or read about were more often than not well-planned and had well-defined targets and rules'. In ‘Writing Violence’ (1996), he notes: 'Communal violence in India has to be understood in the context of the politics of sacred space. Riots and rituals have come to be linked in the construction of communal identities in public arenas. Ritual processions through "troubled" areas often end in full-scale riots. Often one is confronted here with "rituals of provocation".'

"Veer’s work has revealed the nation and religious communities to be cultural constructs, most evident in his extensive analysis of the Babri Masjid dispute. The reflection of the Shahpur and Sangli violence in Veer’s words is stark. The seemingly innocuous procession suddenly represents a well-researched move, fine-tuned over the years in the conducive environs of the Hindutva laboratory."

FIRST GENOME-WIDE SURVEY OF HUMAN VARIATION IN INDIA

Indian ancestry revealed by Elie Dolgin (Nature)

"[A] team led by David Reich of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Lalji Singh of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, has probed more than 560,000 SNPs across the genomes of 132 Indian individuals from 25 diverse ethnic and tribal groups dotted all over India.

"The researchers showed that most Indian populations are genetic admixtures of two ancient, genetically divergent groups, which each contributed around 40-60% of the DNA to most present-day populations. One ancestral lineage — which is genetically similar to Middle Eastern, Central Asian and European populations — was higher in upper-caste individuals and speakers of Indo-European languages such as Hindi, the researchers found. The other lineage was not close to any group outside the subcontinent, and was most common in people indigenous to the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago in the Bay of Bengal.

"The researchers also found that Indian populations were much more highly subdivided than European populations. But whereas European ancestry is mostly carved up by geography, Indian segregation was driven largely by caste. 'There are populations that have lived in the same town and same village for thousands of years without exchanging genes,' says Reich.

"Indian populations, although currently huge in number, were also founded by relatively small bands of individuals, the study suggests. Overall, the picture that emerges is of ancient genetic mixture, says Reich, followed by fragmentation into small, isolated ethnic groups, which were then kept distinct for thousands of years because of limited intermarriage — a practice also known as endogamy.

"This genetic evidence refutes the claim that the Indian caste structure was a modern invention of British colonialism, the authors say."

The study, published as "Reconstructing Indian Population History" in Nature, also addressed the question "Is the ancestry of tribal groups systematically different from castes?" and concluded that it is not. According to a report in Reuters (September 23, 2009):

"'It is impossible to distinguish castes from tribes using the data,' Kumarasamy Thangaraj of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

"'This supports the view that castes grew directly out of tribal-like organizations during the formation of Indian society.'"

In their paper, the researchers say they "find significantly more ANI [Ancestral North Indian] ancestry in traditionally upper than in lower or middle caste groups [...] and find that traditional caste level is significantly correlated to ANI ancestry even after controlling for language [...], suggesting a relationship between the history of caste formation in India and ANI–ASI ["ASI"=Ancestral South Indian] mixture." However, one blogger points out that "that is only with 'all things equal.' Note that upper caste South Indian groups clearly have more ANI than lower caste South Indians, but they have a lower proportion than some North Indian lower castes, and are in the range of one North Indian tribal group." And no group except the isolated Andaman Islanders displayed an unmixed ancestry.

In a commentary in Nature accompanying the study, the geneticist Aravinda Chakravarti writes that this finding "provides a model of how diversity within India came about. As such, its details are imperfect and will surely be contested, revised and improved; but its implications are significant."

The authors of the study themselves make clear:

"We warn that 'models' in population genetics should be treated with caution. Although they provide an important framework for testing historical hypotheses, they are oversimplifications. For example, the true ancestral populations of India were probably not homogeneous as we assume in our model, but instead were probably formed by clusters of related groups that mixed at different times. However, modelling them as homogeneous fits the data and seems to capture meaningful features of history."

U.S.-BACKED PAKISTANI ARMY LEAVES A TRAIL OF BLOOD IN SWAT

Pakistan Army Said to Be Linked to Swat Killings (New York Times)

"Pakistan’s military operations against the Taliban in Swat, begun in May under public pressure from the United States, has been hailed by Washington as a showcase effort of the army’s newfound resolve to defeat the militants. [...]

"Now, concerns over the army’s methods in the area threaten to further taint Washington’s association with the military, cooperation that has been questioned in Congress and has been politically unpopular in Pakistan.

"The number of killings suggests that the military is seeking to silence any enthusiasm for the Taliban and to settle accounts for heavy army casualties, said a senior provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprimand by the army.

[...]

"A sullen, uncertain atmosphere prevails in Mingora, where people interviewed last week in shops, homes and government institutions nervously complained of the arbitrary and unpredictable army rule.

"Bodies, some with torture marks and some with limbs tied and a bullet in the neck or head, have been found on the roads of Mingora and in rural areas that were militant strongholds.

"Reports on Sept. 1 in two national daily newspapers, Dawn and The News, said the bodies of 251 people had been found dumped in Swat.

[...]

"A well-to-do landlord, Sher Shah Khan, who had criticized what he termed the army’s early reluctance to confront the militants, said he was not worried about the reports. 'If the security services kill in the same manner as the Taliban killed, people have no problem.'"

See also anti-caste: WHAT IS THE CLASS NATURE OF THE CONFLICT IN SWAT? (REVISITED) (July 28, 2009)

ANTI-WOMAN LYNCHINGS ORDERED BY CASTE COUNCILS DEFENDED

Honour Killings in Haryana by Kavita Krishnan (Countercurrents)

"'Only whores choose their own partners.... Recently an educated couple married against the samaj’s (community’s) wishes in Jhajjar. We hail the panchayat’s decision to execute them...The government cannot protect this atyachar (immoral behaviour).... (The law of the land) is the root of all problems... That’s your Constitution, ours is different.' – Mahendra Singh Tikait, farmers’ leader of Western UP

"'Yahan izzatdar woh hain jo ladki ko marte hain (Those who kill their girls are respected here).' – a teacher in rural Haryana

"'Khap leaders are keepers of Jat tradition.' - Justice (ret'd) Devi Singh Teotia, a former judge of the Punjab & Haryana HC, active member of the Sarv Khap Panchayat, demanding legalising of the khap panchayats

"Mahendra Singh Tikait’s outrageous and offensive remarks once again raise the question: why do the khaap panchayats of Haryana and Western UP which issue open ‘death sentences’ for couples who defy their caste-diktats on love and marriage, enjoy impunity?

"In the context of such executions, Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Hooda (whom the Congress proudly counts among its contingent of ‘young MPs’) had expressed sympathy for the 'sentiments and local customs of khap panchayats.' Will the Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh tell us why leaders of their party endorse such “sentiments” that mock the constitution and openly call for lynching?

"Tikait says women who choose their own partners are ‘whores’. The ‘dishonour’ of ‘whoring’, in his eyes, does not lie, it seems, in the act of buying sexual services. After all, men in the same region openly buy their wives (as reproductive machines) from other states, because women are in short supply due to female foeticide. The ‘dishonour’ according to him lies primarily in women choosing their own partners. This choice threatens the structures of property and land, and with it, the very edifice of the feudal order."

See also:

Honour killings: A blot on Indian culture, society (Merinews, September 19, 2009):

"Honour killings are not always committed by the family, often the announcement of the brutal punishment is done by a Khap Panchayat (prominent in western UP and Haryana) or a Caste Panchayat, a court which protects traditional norms of caste in a village. Even if a household agrees to the will of their children, this panchayat does not go with the decision of the family; instead such families are asked to leave the village.

"Ravinder Singh Gehlout’s family is the recent target of Khap Panchayat in Dharana village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district. Gehlout's family has been asked to leave the village as Ravinder has married a girl named Shilpa, who is of the same gotra.

"Being from same gotra means sibling like relationship, so according to the Khap, the marriage in the same category is equivalent to incest."

And see anti-caste: WOMAN-KILLING CASTE COUNCILS IN HARYANA WANT LEGAL COVER (September 8, 2009)

MEDIEVAL BIGOTRY IN TAMIL NADU CITY

Madurai's wall of shame still stands (NDTV)

"Six months ago, the state government chose to open a separate ration shop for Dalits than acting tough against the dominant Pillai community. There's also a school and a road meant strictly for Dalits only.

"'When we go to the shop, even if our dress touches them they'd take a shower because we are untouchables,' said a woman."

MARKETERS EXPLOIT THE STIGMA OF DARKER SKIN IN INDIA

Skin whiteners labeled racist (CNN)

"Skin whiteners were once targeted only to women. Now the products are a hot commodity for men.

"Many of the brands being advertised for men are well known around the world—including Nivea and Garnier.

"A marketing study found sales for skin whitening creams have jumped more than 100 percent in rural India and sales for male grooming products are increasing 20 percent annually.

[...]

"To get a good look at the pervasiveness of the stigma attached to dark skin in India all you have to do is look at the want ads for Brides and Grooms in the newspaper.

"Arranged marriages are still commonplace in India, and the advertisements for brides and grooms often list physical attributes of the person being sought. Many of the ads list 'fair' as one of the wanted physical characteristics."

WOMAN-KILLING CASTE COUNCILS IN HARYANA WANT LEGAL COVER

Khap panchayats seek legal claws (Times of India)

"Khaps are traditional area-based community organizations whose rulings have no legal sanction. In keeping with tradition, khap panchayats oppose marriages within the same 'gotra' (lineage) and are known to have meted out harsh punishments to 'erring' young couples.

"At a two-day meeting in Rohtak that ended on Sunday, the Sarv Khap Panchayat, a conglomerate of various khaps, decided to set up a core committee to suggest amendments to the Act to disallow same-gotra and same-village marriages as per Jat tradition.

[...]

"[Justice (ret'd) Devi Singh Teotia, a former judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, said:] 'One of the sections of the Hindu Marriage Act says that you can’t marry your brother or sister, unless custom permits.' This exception clause was added for some south Indian customs where sibling marriages are allowed under extreme circumstances. 'Since Jat custom doesn’t permit marriage within the same gotra and in the gotra of one’s parents, we can seek a similar clause.'

See also:

Pesticide pills for 'wayward' girls (Times of India, September 8, 2009):

"'With mobile phones and television, milna-julna (interaction between the sexes) is too much. What can parents do except kill a daughter who disobeys?' says a local teacher defensively.

"Girls who survive their mother’s womb are brought up as daughters of the village. Not just [one village's] daughters, but of 12 neighbouring villages, says a khap member. All 12 villages form the Khidwali Bara khap, a Jat territorial unit. It decrees that boys and girls within these 12 villages cannot marry. Interestingly, the entire onus of ‘siblinghood’ rests on the girl. She is the keeper of village honour. Exceptions may be made for a boy, if the khap decides, but a girl is never allowed to bend the rules. 'If a girl married in her community’s villages, she will be in purdah in her own house. How can we allow that?' asks middle-aged Bedo.

[...]

"Vidya, who teaches at a government school in Sanghi, says she has had students who died in mysterious circumstances. 'We are only told so-and-so is dead,' she says. The physical trainer in her school adds, 'Kaaran koi nai batata (No one gives reasons).' On average, 10 to 12 healthy girls die every year, locals reckon, but there are no reliable figures.

"Generally, it’s the parents or father-brother duos who kill ‘wayward’ girls. A sympathetic mother may plead with a daughter to take the goli herself. A protesting daughter may be force-fed a pesticide pill, the preferred mode. The other route is death by hanging, all the better to ‘show’ it as suicide. No police, no complaint, no records. 'Yahan izzatdar woh hain jo ladki ko marte hain (Those who kill their girls are respected here),' says another teacher.

"If a couple runs away, the women in their families run the risk of being raped, gang-raped, and boycotted. At times, khaps also ‘fine’ the families lakhs of rupees. For the locals, that is par for the course. 'What else can be done?' asks an old woman."

Sonia of Asanada village, Haryana stood up to a khap panchayat in 2004

And see:

Medieval justice just 50km from Delhi (Times of India, September 8, 2009)

"For its part, the state government grants them legitimacy. Its website reads: 'Khap Panchayats... would be requested to use their influence in combating various social evils.' Even CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda has defended them, saying they’re needed in times of crisis.

"But Ranbir Singh says the khap panchayats’ increasing assertiveness is a sign of the identity crisis within the Jat community. 'Their landholdings are fragmenting and many fear that they would lose their zamindar status.'"

Haryana, 2007: eloping couple Manoj and Bibli killed by Bibli's family

And see also anti-caste: COUPLE BELONGING TO THE SAME CASTE KILLED FOR BEING TOO CLOSE IN LINEAGE (July 14, 2007)

TABOO AGAINST SHARING DRINKING VESSELS IN A TAMIL NADU VILLAGE

Double-tumbler system alive and kicking (Express News Service)

"Express witnessed the discrimination at a teashop there. While Dalits were offered tea in disposable tumblers, caste Hindus got their hot beverage in steel tumblers. The Dalits didn’t muster courage to seek equal treatment.

"Azhagupandi, a Dalit from the village, told Express that though no one talks about the double-tumbler system existing here, the reality was it still exists, but remains subtle. 'One has to live with us to experience the discrimination we are subjected to,' he said."

Oklahoma City, 1939: "colored"-only water cooler
(Amistad Digital Resource)

NEITHER EDUCATION NOR CLASS POSITION ERASES CASTE STATUS

Doctors work together, but eat by caste (NDTV)

"By day, they work together, consulting with each other to help their patients.

"But at lunch, the 150 doctors at this medical college in Muzaffarpur [Bihar] head to seven separate rooms.

"The menu in each cafeteria is the same. Daal, rice, sabzi. But 'the kitchens are separate for Harijans, Thakurs and Brahmins,' says Shatrughan Rai, who works as a cook in the Yadav kitchen, one he describes as a kitchen for a backward class.

"The doctors say this is a tradition. 'Our seniors followed it. Now we do,' declares Dr. Aditya, who refuses to reveal his caste.

"The kitchen and dining rooms were separated at the height of the caste movement in Bihar in the 60s and 70s.

"The call for change is not deafening, even though the majority of the doctors today are from lower castes. They say they have to proceed with caution. 'It has been happening for a long, long time. It's not our choice, but a tradition. The government should intervene and stop it,' says Dr. Raman, President, and Junior Doctors' Association.

"The principal of the college insists that doctors eat together. A few hours later, we witness them filing into their separate cafeterias."

See also:

Caste-based food served at Muzaffarpur medical college (Times of India, September 14, 2009)

SOCIAL DISTANCE ENFORCED WITH HORRIFYING BIGOTED ASSAULT

Dalit tonsured, paraded for dialling wrong number (Times of India)

"A Dalit youth was beaten, tonsured and paraded through the streets in a Haryana village — for dialling a wrong number. Narrating his ordeal to the police on Wednesday, Suresh, a resident of Dani Ramjas in Bhiwani district, said, 'I was trying the telephone number of one of my acquaintances on Monday when I inadvertently dialled the number of Dharam Singh (another villager). The moment I realized my mistake, I apologized immediately and disconnected the phone.'

"The apology, however, did not help. 'On Tuesday, Dharam and his friends, numbering six, humiliated me publicly when I was on my way to Siwani town. They tonsured me after lifting and carrying me away bodily. That done, they tied me to a motorcycle and paraded me through the streets, thrashing me intermittently,' Suresh said."

"Not stopping at that, his tormentors threatened him with dire consequences if he reported the matter to police, he said. The police are yet to register a case though the Dalits have demanded action against the perpetrators."

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT FOR BOY'S LETTER IN A SEGREGATED VILLAGE

In Anekal, a love letter isolates a community (DNA)

"'The 15-year-old [dalit] boy's letter to the eight standard [upper-caste] girl enraged the girl's relatives. They came to our kheri and picked up a fight and bashed up at least eight members of our community,' a girl from the Dalit kheri told DNA.

"The Dalits thought it was over but the next day, when some women from their community went to fetch water from the farm, they were told to leave. 'They said they won't give water to people from the Dalit community. They abused us, and asked us how a boy from our community could dare to write a love letter,' the girl added.

"It got worse. The Dalits were shooed away from tea shops in the village. They were told to stay away from Gowda farms, from where they were drawing water. Nobody in the Dalit kheri wants to talk about the incident."

UNTOUCHABLE SCHOOLCHILDREN MADE TO DO DEGRADING CASTE-BASED WORK

Dalit students protest against manual scavenging (Times of India)

"Bharatkumar Chandubhai, 13, who lives in Aslali village said, 'I study in a government school in my village. Even I faced the wroth of being a Dalit. I am told to clean up urinals in my school once a week.'"

See also:

Dalit children treated as manual scavengers in Gujarat (CNN-IBN, August 18, 2009):

"'We have to drag away dead animals like cats and dogs. We are paid Rs 20 or Rs 25,' said another Dalit boy Jagdish Harijan."

INDIAN COPS DEFEND PRIVATE PROPERTY AND ENFORCE CASTE OPPRESSION

The following story is a good example of why we warn at the top of this page that "links to outside sources below are offered for information's sake." As valuable, if unsurprising, as the documentation in the report by Human Rights Watch described below is, we want to dissociate ourselves categorically from its political conclusions. In reality, by brutally enforcing class and caste oppression Indian cops are simply doing their jobs as agents of the capitalist state. This role does not "undermine" but epitomizes Indian "democracy." The working masses of India don't need police "reform"—they need their own state.

India's police undermine democracy, human rights - Human Rights Watch (Reuters)

"India's police discriminate against people on the basis of caste and financial status and consider themselves above the law, undermining the country's democratic ideals, a leading human rights group said on Tuesday.

"The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report that Indian police also stood accused of illegally detaining crime suspects, torturing them and even carrying out extra-judicial killings in custody with impunity.

[...]

"Official figures showed 23 policemen were charged with atrocities since 2005, but none has been convicted.

"[The Asia Director of Human Rights Watch] said Indians avoided contact with police out of fear because they perceived them as discriminating on the basis of caste and financial and social status."

See also:

Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse, and Impunity in the Indian Police (Human Rights Watch, August 4, 2009)

POGROM OF LOW-CASTE CHRISTIANS—SEVEN KILLED, HUNDREDS HOMELESS

Hate Engulfs Christians in Pakistan (New York Times)

"The attack in this shabby town in central Pakistan — the culmination of several days of rioting over a claim that a Koran had been defiled — shows how precarious life is for the tiny Christian minority in Pakistan.

"More than 100 Christian houses were burned and looted on Saturday in a rampage that lasted about eight hours by a crowd the authorities estimate was as large as 20,000 strong. In addition to the seven members of the Hameed family who were killed, about 20 people were wounded.

"The authorities, who said the Koran accusation was spurious, filed criminal charges in the case late Sunday and apprehended at least 12 people. Officials said a banned Sunni militant group, Sipah-e-Sohaba, was among those responsible for the attacks, the third convulsion of anti-Christian mob violence in the region in the past four weeks.

"Christians, who make up less than 5 percent of the entire population, are often treated as second-class citizens in Pakistan, where Islam is the official religion. Non-Muslims are constitutionally barred from becoming president or prime minister.

"While some Christians rise to become government officials or run businesses, the poorest work the country’s worst jobs, as toilet cleaners and street sweepers."

DIRTY WORK FOR "UNCLEAN" WORKERS IN DELHI

Most sanitation workers unaware of their rights: survey (Press Trust of India)

"The study, conducted by a team of city-based think tank Indian Social Institute, found that 97 per cent of the 'safai karamcharies' in Delhi do not know about the 1993 Act that prohibits employment of manual scavengers.

"It also revealed that though nearly all of the over 50,000 sanitation workers belong to the Dalit community, 88 per cent of them were unaware of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which was enacted way back in 1989."

WHAT IS THE CLASS NATURE OF THE CONFLICT IN SWAT? (REVISITED)

With Unrest in Swat, Landowners Remain in Exile (The New York Times)

"The landlords, many of whom raised sizable militias to fight the Taliban themselves last year, say the army is again failing to provide enough protection if they return.

"Another deterrent to returning, they say, is that the top Taliban leadership, responsible for taking aim at the landlords and spreading the spoils among the landless, remains unscathed.

"If it continues, the landlords’ absence will have lasting ramifications not only for Swat, but also for Pakistan’s most populated province, Punjab, where the landholdings are vast, and the militants are gaining power, said Vali Nasr, a senior adviser to Mr. Holbrooke, the American envoy.

"'If the large landowners are kept out by the Taliban, the result will in effect be property redistribution,' Mr. Nasr said. 'That will create a vested community of support for the Taliban that will see benefit in the absence of landlords.'"

See also anti-caste: WHAT IS THE CLASS NATURE OF THE CONFLICT IN SWAT? (April 16, 2009) and AFTER PAKISTANI GOVT ACCEPTS TRUCE WITH THE TALIBAN... (February 23, 2009)

And see:

report on peasant uprising in Swat (Pakistan Forum, June-July 1972)

UNTOUCHABLE WOMEN ATTACKED BY LANDLORD FOR REFUSING WORK

Car runs over Dalit women (The Statesman (Kolkata))

"Just days after a woman was stripped in public, an influential upper caste landlord ran a car over seven Dalit women for refusing to work in his farmland. The shocking incident took place in Sheikhpura district of Bihar last evening.

"Police said a local landlord Sonu Singh asked a group of female labourers to work in his field at low wages which the latter refused. Sources said, when the Dalit women were returning home in the evening after work, the accused drove his Ambassador car over them, injuring all the seven women. The injured have been admitted to the local government hospital in Sheikhpura.

[...]

"This is the third major incident of atrocities on women in the last one week. On Saturday, a Dalit woman was stripped and beaten up after her goat strayed into the field of a landlord in Sitamarhi district."

SURVEY CONDUCTED ACROSS RURAL INDIA FINDS NAKED UNTOUCHABILITY

Untouchability alive in rural areas: Study (Times of India)

"Dalit participation in social activities has improved, with 591 invited for wedding feasts. But the improvement stops there. Around 29% said they wait for others to finish eating before they can eat while 20% non-SCs said they expected SCs to wash their plates after eating.

"The primitive manifestations of untouchability still exist, even if they are on the wane. In the survey, 7% respondents said they were barred from entering main streets of villages while 7% said they could not wear sandals and walk in front of a dominant caste member. In fact, 9% revealed they had to talk with folded hands and 29% said they had to stand up in respect.

"A sore point of old caste segregation was bar on entry of SCs in non-Dalit houses. While 82% revealed they were allowed in, around 18% were still not.

"A big section of non-SCs said they would not allow SCs into their houses while an equal number refused to comment, showing the sensitivity was not easy to overcome. SC women work as maids in other caste homes but a majority said they were not allowed inside. Many in Karnataka, MP and Rajasthan named Brahmins and Konkani castes as barring their entry while in Bengal, 34 different OBCs were identified.

"As many as 20% said they were not served food and water in non-Dalit homes while 24% claimed being served in separate vessels. At least 25% non-SCs concurred with the claim.

"Dalit children are still growing with the stigma of being from inferior class. While seating arrangements are common in schools, SC kids in many cases are asked to take the back benches. Also, many are served midday meals separately from other children.

"The bias showed when over 40% non-SC respondents agreed there were no SC teachers in their village schools.

"Vestiges of mediaeval society became apparent when upper castes and OBCs, if only a handful, revealed they served SCs in towels or their upper garments; while some poured water directly into the cupped Dalit hands for drinking instead of giving a tumbler. A few cases showed that barbers used separate instruments for haircut of Dalits.

"The survey was carried out in six states and 24 villages, a mix of those with highest and lowest crimes under PCR Act. [...]

"For all the empowerment, Dalits in the countryside are still forced into services seen as 'menial' — 154 of 553 Dalits performed drumbeating, 42 grave digging while 97 were into making chappals [leather sandals]. As many as 78 said they were asked to carry out animal sacrifice and 57 said they were sweepers."

And see:

Drink your own water, dead dog or no (Times of India, July 31, 2009):

"Citing one instance, the study says a dog had fallen into this well and died. The dalits were left with no option, but to consume the toxic water after removing the carcass. 'Even in such inhuman conditions, dalits are not allowed to enter the main part of the village and fetch water from the tubewells situated inside the village, where the upper castes live,' the study says."

UPPER-CASTE PARENTS WON'T SEND CHILDREN TO SCHOOL WHERE UNTOUCHABLE WOMAN COOKS LUNCHES

Low school attendance as Thakurs and Dalits at loggerheads (Times of India)

"On Monday, the team TOI found that out of the total 62 students barely 26, mostly Dalit and Muslim were eating the meal. The remaining 36 students were found to be absent from their respective classes, in order to avoid eating the meal being prepared by a Dalit.

"The situation has worsened to such an extent that now both the Dalit and Thakur communities of the village are at loggerheads over the issue.

"'We have now learnt that parents of Dalit students have even further threatened to withdraw their wards, if any attempt to remove the Dalit cook will be made by the authorities,' said a school teacher on condition of anonymity.

[...]

"Meanwhile, the upper caste people of the village said that there is no question of sending children to school, where a woman belonging to scheduled caste has been appointed by the school authorities to cook food for their children.

"'Us school mein apne bacchon ko bhejkar hame apna hukka-paani nahi band karwana hai,' said a villager, Ram Pal Singh adding that we will not allow our children to even touch the food."

See also yet another instance of this form of bigotry:

UP school sacks dalit cook after students refuse to eat (DNA, August 27, 2009)

And see anti-caste: MAYAWATI'S GOVERNMENT UPHOLDS FIRING OF UNTOUCHABLE OVER CASTE-BASED TABOO (February 27, 2008)

150 YEARS AGO TODAY, WOMEN OF THE UNTOUCHABLE NADAR CASTE IN KERALA WON RIGHT TO COVER THEIR BREASTS

A struggle for decent dress by R. Ayyappan (Express Buzz)

"The victory of the Channar Lahala or the Upper Cloth Mutiny (Maaru Marakkal Samaram), after half-a-century of violent struggle, is widely seen as the transformative event that triggered a wave of renaissance movements that shaped modern Kerala.

"'Cries for equality began to rise not just from various parts of Kerala, but from the whole of South India after the Channar Mutiny. The agitation to end ‘oozhiyam vela’ or work without pay, the agitation to secure entry into temples, the agitation to secure the right to walk on public roads, all these struggles that went on to change the face of Kerala were inspired by the success of the Upper Cloth Mutiny,' writes historian Joy Balan Vlaathangara in his book ‘Vaikuntaswamiyum Samoohika Navothanavum’. [...]

"It was western influence and the work of Christian missionaries like Charles Meed and Malt during the early part of the 19th century that revealed to the Nadars the indignity of their existence.

"There are historical accounts of labourers who had migrated to Sri Lanka to work in colonial tea plantations returning with enough money to lead European lifestyles. Converted Nadars, too, started wearing upper clothes and saw it as a sign of social progress.

"The upper castes, including the royalty, did not take kindly to these progressive thoughts. An account says that a lower caste lady who went to the palace of the Attingal Rani wearing an upper cloth had her breasts chopped off by royal decree. Out on the streets, the upper castes unleashed violence on Christian Nadar women who had their breasts covered."

July 26, 1859: declaration by ruler of the princely state of Travancore (modern Kerala)

NEW COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON TASLIMA NASRIN

(Re)Reading Taslima Nasrin: Contexts, Contents & Constructions Edited by Ali Riaz

"Taslima Nasrin is one of the most controversial authors to emerge from South Asia in recent decades. She has been exiled twice — first from her home country, Bangladesh, in 1994 and then from her adopted home, India, in 2008. Both her work and personal life have attracted media attention in South Asia and worldwide.

"The articles of this edited volume give importance to the content of Nasrin’s work, but also to the contexts in which her poems, novels, short stories and newspaper columns were written. The overriding issue, however, is the construction placed upon her words and deeds by the many people who have used her story for their own ends."

published by Shrabon Prokashani (Dhaka)

See also previous stories on anti-caste about this courageous writer and activist

RAPE/MURDER IN SHOPIAN TURNS SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL OPPRESSION OF KASHMIR: INDIAN, PAKISTANI TROOPS AND SECURITY FORCES OUT!

Court orders arrest of 4 police in Kashmir murders (AP)

"The discovery of the women's bodies triggered widespread anger in Shopian, where the residents believed the killings were carried out by security forces. Two people were killed and more than 400 injured in weeklong violent demonstrations and clashes between residents and police in Shopian [a town outside of Srinagar, the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir].

"On Wednesday, Ghosh asked Shopian residents to end the complete shutdown that has paralyzed normal life in the town since the bodies were found.

"Human rights groups and separatist leaders have long accused Indian security forces of using rape and sexual molestation to intimidate the local population. Rights groups say investigations into such crimes rarely yield results and are often meant only to calm public anger."

See also:

Militarization with Impunity: A Brief on Rape and Murder in Shopian, Kashmir by the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-Administered Kashmir (IPTK) (July 19, 2009) (via Kafila):

"While investigations have emphasized the procedural conduct of the police in their handling of the investigation, they failed to focus on the actual crimes that were committed, or the conduct of state institutions. The investigations in Shopian have not focused on the identification and prosecution of perpetrators or on addressing structural realities of militarization in Kashmir that foster and perpetuate gendered and sexualized violences, and undermine rule of law and justice. The investigations have instead concentrated on locating ‘collaborators’ and manufacturing scapegoats to subdue public outcry. ‘Control’ rather than ‘justice’ has organized the focus of the state apparatus, including all processes related to civic, criminal, and judicial matters."

And see:

2 Killings Stoke Kashmiri Rage at Indian Force (New York Times, August 15, 2009)

SRI LANKA: 300,000 "LIBERATED" TAMILS TRAPPED IN GOVERNMENT CONCENTRATION CAMPS

Tamils Now Languish in Sri Lanka Camps (The New York Times)

"Hundreds of thousands of Tamils remain locked in camps almost entirely off limits to journalists, human rights investigators and political leaders.

[...]

"The Sri Lankan government has portrayed its final battle against the 26-year insurgency by the Tamil Tigers, which ended in late May with the killing of the group’s leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, as a rescue mission to liberate civilians held hostage by one of the world’s richest and most ruthless armed groups, branded terrorists by governments across the globe.

"[Sri Lankan president Mahinda] Rajapaksa said that the residents of the camps, which the government refers to as 'welfare villages,' must be confined, because anyone could be a hidden rebel."

See also:

Tamil death toll ‘is 1,400 a week’ at Manik Farm camp in Sri Lanka (Times Online (UK), July 10, 2009)

"The death toll will add to concerns that the Sri Lankan Government has failed to halt a humanitarian catastrophe after announcing victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorist organisation in May. It may also lend credence to allegations that the Government, which has termed the internment sites 'welfare villages', has actually constructed concentration camps to house 300,000 people.

[...]

"Most of the deaths are the result of water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhoea, a senior relief worker said on condition of anonymity.

"Witness testimonies obtained by The Times in May described long queues for food and inadequate water supplies inside Manik Farm. Women, children and the elderly were shoved aside in the scramble for supplies. Aid agencies are being given only intermittent access to the camp."

And see:

Tamil refugees may end up in permanent camps, say aid workers (Times Online, July 3, 2009)

And see also anti-caste: "NO-FIRE ZONE" A MASS GRAVEYARD FOR SRI LANKAN TAMILS (May 29, 2009) and DEADLY OFFENSIVE MAY SEAL NATIONAL OPPRESSION OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA (February 15, 2009)

FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF BALOCHISTAN WITHIN A SOCIALIST ECONOMY!

Another Insurgency Gains in Pakistan (The New York Times)

"Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Baluch were rounded up in a harsh regime of secret detentions and torture under President Pervez Musharraf, who left office last year. Human rights groups and Baluch activists say those abuses have continued under President Asif Ali Zardari, despite promises to heal tensions.

[...]

"The discovery of the bodies [of three Balochi political leaders believed to be assassinated by Pakistani intelligence agencies] on April 8 set off days of rioting and weeks of strikes, demonstrations and civil resistance. In schools and colleges, students pulled down the Pakistani flag and put up the pale blue, red and green Baluch nationalist flag.

"Schoolchildren still refuse to sing the national anthem at assemblies, instead breaking into a nationalist Baluch song championing the armed struggle for independence, teachers and parents said.

"For the first time, women, traditionally secluded in Baluch society, have joined street protests against the continuing detentions of nationalist figures. Graffiti daubed on walls around this town call for independence and guerrilla war, which persists in large parts of the province.

"The nationalist opposition stems from what it sees as the forcible annexation of Baluchistan by Pakistan 62 years ago at Pakistan’s creation. But much of the popular resentment stems from years of economic and political marginalization, something President Zardari promised to remedy but has done little to actually address."

Baloch women protest

HANDLING THE DEAD IS STILL CASTE DUTY OF UNTOUCHABLES

Bringing Out the Dead (Tehelka)

"Across Tamil Nadu, mortuary work seems to be set aside exclusively for dalits. The only members in post-mortem rooms from other castes, are doctors. Due to an acute shortage of mortuary staff, hospitals engage casual workers to do autopsies and to remove unclaimed bodies, in addition to using the services of the in-house sanitary workers. Casual workers too are mostly relatives of dalits working in the hospitals. Their only source of income is the occasional ‘tip’ from relatives of the deceased who come to collect the bodies after post-mortem. [...]

"Among permanent hospital workers, few non-dalits volunteer for mortuary duty. “Only dalits are assigned work in mortuaries. Others refuse to work there. For them, it is taboo to even touch dead bodies,” says Viduthalai Veeran, a dalit activist. Veeran is a senior leader of Adhi Thamizhar Peravai, an outfit that works among Arunthathiyars, a dalit sub-sect in Tamil Nadu.

"Many Arunthathiyars are employed as sweepers and scavengers in municipal corporations and other local bodies. They also work in government hospitals doing the same work. Many take up the work after futile hunts for ‘respectable’ jobs."

REACTIONARY LAW CRIMINALIZING CONSENSUAL SEX ACTS IS "READ DOWN" BY DELHI HIGH COURT

The Delhi High Court has ruled that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal," should not apply to consensual relations between adults.

The decision that "penile, non-vaginal sex" should not in itself be considered a crime is good news. While few were prosecuted under Section 377, a People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) report noted that it has been commonly used "by the police mostly to victimize gay and bisexual men whom they catch in public areas to extort money and blackmail, despite the fact that blackmail and extortion are criminal offences. Section 377 has also been used to intimidate lesbian women, particularly in the cases of women who have run away together, or if they make their relationship known." The law is a direct legacy of British rule, having been introduced in 1861 by the colonial state.

However, the social effects of this formal extension of democratic rights should not be overestimated. It is not suddenly "OK to be gay in India," as many headlines have suggested. No more than the article in the Indian constitution prohibiting "discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth," on which the court's ruling was based in part, has in fact removed such discrimination. Like the liberation of women and those oppressed by caste, real sexual freedom will require a profound reorganization of the material basis of society. It will take nothing less than the replacement of the family as an economic institution within a collectivized, socialist economy.

Section 377 has not been repealed. It remains on the books and the court, as part of the same ruling, affirmed its application to cases involving people under eighteen. In a country where forced child marriage remains commonplace, young people are "presumed not to be able to consent to a sexual act."

It's unclear whether the ruling applies outside of the city of New Delhi. While the Delhi High Court is not a federal court and has no direct jurisdiction in other parts of India, there is a precedent for high court decisions to apply on a national basis. The decision may also have a broader influence on other courts and on the central government.

See also anti-caste: CONGRESS-LED GOVT DEFENDS REACTIONARY, COLONIAL-ERA LAWS (September 27, 2008)

DEBT BONDAGE AND CHILD LABOR IN PAKISTAN

Pakistan's Kiln Workers Bricked In by Debt (The Washington Post)

"'This work shortens your life. No one would do it by choice,' said the man, Abdul Sadiq. 'The problem is that you can never earn enough to leave. If your wife needs an operation or the rainy seasons lasts too long, you have to borrow from the kiln owners. You try to repay it, but the debt stays with you, sometimes for your whole life. It's like a pair of invisible handcuffs.'

"Brickmakers toil near the bottom of Pakistan's economic and social ladder, forever at the mercy of heat, dirt, human greed and official indifference. By law, they cannot be compelled to work or be kept in bondage; in practice, the great majority are bound to the kilns by debt. The work is seasonal and families move often, but if they leave one kiln for another, their debt is transferred to the new owner. If they try to escape, they said, they are hunted down.

"At least 200,000 Pakistanis, many of them children, work in more than 2,500 kilns across the country, according to studies by labor advocacy organizations. Their plight is well known and often described as a national disgrace. Human rights groups have exposed cases of kiln owners chaining or imprisoning workers; reformists have initiated programs to forgive their debts and educate their children.

"But resistance to change has been stubborn. Kiln owners tend to be economically powerful and politically well-connected, while many brick workers are illiterate, nomadic, cut off from modern society and unaware of their rights."

See also anti-caste: ESTIMATED 8 MILLION BONDED LABORERS IN PAKISTAN (June 26, 2006) and CASTE-BASED BONDED LABOR IN PAKISTAN (March 13, 2006)

PEOPLE WITH LOW STATUS ARE EASY PREY TO MONEYLENDERS

1,337 Dalit families deprived of houses (Express Buzz)

"Gowri, of Dharmapuri pan chayat, had borrowed Rs 2,000 from one Pavun Thevar and repaid Rs 1,500. The moneylender had calculated an interest of Rs 12,000 as the balance amount and seized her land and house.

"In most cases, backward class and low-income groups, mainly the Arundhathiyars [an untouchable caste], fell prey to these usurious moneylenders, who get their thumbprint on plain bond paper. This is later filled in with whatever they want.

"Hapless victims pledge documents such as ration cards, bonds of LIC and Provident Fund, bank passbooks and even ATM cards.

"Most of these usurers belong to caste Hindus and are either from the locality or neighbouring districts like Madurai. There have been instances of moneylenders compelling women debtors for sex, AMMI activists said.

"On many occasions, husbands who borrowed the money flee the village leaving the women to bear the brunt. An adolescent girl near Bodi attempted suicide after being sexually assaulted by a lender.

"There have been cases of suicides near Periyakulam and Muthurengapuram of Andipatti region because of torture from moneylenders."

SKIN-COLOR DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA FROM A BLACK AMERICAN'S EXPERIENCE

'India Is Racist, and Happy About It' by Diepiriye Kuku (Outlook India)

"The writer is a black American PhD student at the Delhi School of Economics."

"Racism is never a personal experience. Racism in India is systematic and independent of the presence of foreigners of any hue. This climate permits and promotes this lawlessness and disdain for dark skin. Most Indian pop icons have light-damn-near-white skin. Several stars even promote skin-bleaching creams that promise to improve one’s popularity and career success. Matrimonial ads boast of fair, v. fair and v. very fair skin alongside foreign visas and advanced university degrees. Moreover, each time I visit one of Delhi’s clubhouses, I notice that I am the darkest person not wearing a work uniform. It’s unfair and ugly."

MILITANT MASS STRIKES NEAR DHAKA

50,000 Bangladesh garment workers in wage protest (AFP)

"Two people have died and scores have been injured in violent clashes as protests entered a second day and spread to scores of factories at the Ashulia industrial zone 30 kilometres (19 miles) outside Dhaka, police officials said.

"'More than 50,000 workers have joined the protests. They have become violent and hurled stones and rocks at our officers. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters,' Dhaka district police chief Iqbal Bahar said.

"The new clashes came a day after one garment labourer was shot and killed and several injured when around 7,000 workers clashed with police over wage cuts and unpaid salaries. Police officer Rehana Begum said the body of another labourer was recovered from the area Sunday, taking the death toll to two.

"Scores of officers and workers were also injured in the clashes, she added.

"Factories in the South Asian nation have been hit hard by the global economic crisis with several reportedly cutting wages to compete for orders with other producing countries, such as Vietnam, China and India."

Bangladesh textiles unravelled by price war, protests (AFP, July 1, 2009)

"Kamaluddin, 18, has seen his factory salary slashed from 7,000 taka (100 dollars) a month, to around 3,000 taka, although he is still expected to put in the same gruelling hours.

"His shift involves standing all day at his sweater knitting machine—exhausting work that he blames for his deteriorating health, including two recent bouts of hepatitis. 'Before, it was bearable because I was sending 3,000 taka home to my mother each month, now there's barely enough to live on for me, let alone for her,' he said.

"In leaving his home in northern Bangladesh, Kamaluddin had been following in the footsteps of hundreds of thousands of rural labourers, lured to Dhaka's clothing factories by the promise of doubling or tripling their wages.

"Bangladesh has a legal minimum wage of around 25 dollars per month. With overtime, a skilled garment worker can earn up to 150 dollars—or rather he could.

"Since early 2008, salaries have been cut by an average of up to 30 percent, according to union leader Tauhidul Islam who said this week's violence had been fuelled by desperation.

"'The workers hit the streets because their backs are up against the wall,' Islam said."

See also anti-caste: IN MASS WILDCAT SRIKES, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS SHUT DOWN GARMENT INDUSTRY (May 23, 2006)

REPORT ON CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOLS

Dalit kids cannot use school loo but have to clean them (Times of India)

"The report says physical access to schools is the biggest problem for Dalit children. In Bihar, UP and Rajasthan, most of the schools are situated in the dominant caste localities and Dalit children have to travel on an average half-an-hour to reach school. In the case of middle and high schools, Dalit children have to travel almost 3-4 kilometres in all the states. It is only in Maharashtra that Dalit children do not have to travel that far. But here too, the schools are located in dominant caste areas.

"Asked why they came late to school, Dalit children gave various reasons including household chores, school distance, inability to keep track of school time and also the fact that they had to wait for other friends to go in a group due to fear from dominant caste children. In the school, it was found that participation of Dalit children was minimal. The morning assembly was invariably always conducted by upper caste children. In the class, Dalit children were made to sit at the back and in some schools of Bihar on the barren floor while mats were given to upper caste children. Even the notebooks and homework of the Dalit children were not checked by teachers.

"As per the report, Dalit children in UP were also assigned menial caste-based tasks like cleaning the yard, filling up water buckets and cleaning the toilets. This led to other children treating them badly and considering them inferior. And what was shocking was that Dalit girl children were seldom allowed to use toilets. Dalit children are kept out of even functions like Independence Day."

See also:

Kerala: Dalits discriminated against in schools: study (The Hindu, August 3, 2009)

CHRISTIANS IN TAMIL NADU VILLAGE TREATING OTHER CHRISTIANS AS UNTOUCHABLE

Bigotry alive for Christian Dalits (BBC)

"The dominant Vanniyar [Christian]s created rules which restricted the movement of the Dalit [Christian]s.

"When they visited the parish church they were not allowed to walk on the main street leading to the building. Instead they had to use a side street that led to the church gate.

"When Dalits died they were not allowed to be buried in the cemetery. Their burial ground is beyond the village and can only be accessed through a broken path.

"In addition, the funeral cart parked inside the church building can be used only by Vanniyars.

"'We were told not to touch any upper caste person, not to get too close to them, not to talk to them,'" says Mrs Peraiyamaka, 60, a farm labourer who has been visiting the parish church since childhood.

"'It is no different now.'"

"NO-FIRE ZONE" A MASS GRAVEYARD FOR SRI LANKAN TAMILS

The hidden massacre: Sri Lanka’s final offensive against Tamil Tigers (The Times (London))

"The Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 and observed the no-fire zone where 100,000 Tamil men, women and children were sheltering. They have blamed all civilian casualties on Tamil Tiger rebels concealed among the civilians.

"Aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony tell a different story. With the world’s media and aid organisations kept well away from the fighting, the army launched a fierce barrage that began at the end of April and lasted about three weeks. The offensive ended Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers, but innocent civilians paid the price.

"Confidential United Nations documents acquired by The Times record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April. UN sources said that the toll then surged, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until May 19, the day after Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers, was killed. That figure concurs with the estimate made to The Times by Father Amalraj, a Roman Catholic priest who fled the no-fire zone on May 16 and is now interned with 200,000 other survivors in Manik Farm refugee camp. It would take the final toll above 20,000. 'Higher,' a UN source told The Times. 'Keep going.'"

See also Asylum Now for Tamil Refugees! Massacre in Sri Lanka: Defend the Tamil People!, Workers Vanguard No. 938 (5 June 2009)

ARMED GROUP OF SIKH FUNDAMENTALISTS ATTACK UNTOUCHABLE SECT IN VIENNA

Is caste behind the killing in Vienna and riots in Punjab? (Reuters)

"'Via Vienna, Sikh caste war returns, sets Punjab aflame' ran the headline of the Hindustan Times.

"The preacher, Guru Sant Rama Nand, 57, was killed in a gurdwara in the Austrian capital in an attack by six men armed with knives and a gun.

"He was from the Dera Sach Khand, a religious sect separate from mainstream Sikhism that has a large support base of Indian Dalits, or “untouchables”, and other lower castes.

"The leader of Dera Sach Khand, Guru Sant Niranjan Das, 68, was wounded in the attack.

"The thousands who went on the rampage in Punjab on Monday were mainly Dalits. Authorities have imposed a curfew in parts of the state, in which three protesters died on Monday in clashes with security forces.

"The Dera Sach Khand sect was inspired by the 15th century spiritual leader Ravidas, himself from a lower caste. It differs from mainstream Sikhism, for example, in that it reveres living gurus such as Sant Niranjan Das. Some pious Sikhs find this concept offensive.

"Sikhism does not recognise caste, but 'the clash in a Vienna gurdwara and the mob fury are yet another manifestation of simmering discontent that Dalits in Punjab feel due to increasing social inequality and oppression in a society that was supposed to be free of it,' writes the Times of India."

See also:

Making Sense of the Ravi Dasis by Surinder S. Jodhka (Kafila):

"The recent attack on the head of Dera Sachkhand Ballan in one of their gurudwaras in Vienna and the ensuing shoot-out between Dalit and non-Dalit Sikhs, spilling over in India into angry street demonstrations in Jalandhar by followers of Dera Sachkhand and other Dalit bodies, forces us to confront the question of caste in contemporary Punjab. We asked SURINDER S. JODHKA, sociologist and Director, Institute of Dalit Studies, who works in this area, to give us a background note."

ON THE EARLY WRITINGS OF A YOUNG REVOLUTIONARY

Bhagat Singh’s writings against communalism and untouchability by S. Irfan Habib (The Friday Times (Pakistan))

"In the June 1928 issue of the Kirti, published from Amritsar, Bhagat Singh wrote two articles titled Achoot ka Sawaal (On Untouchability) and Sampradayik Dange aur unka Ilaj (Communal riots and their solutions). What Bhagat Singh wrote in 1928 appears to be contemporaneous even in 2008, which unfortunately proves how precious little has been done to resolve these questions. In the first piece, Bhagat Singh starts by saying that

our country is unique where six crore citizens are called untouchables and their mere touch defiles the upper castes. Gods get enraged if they enter the temples. It is shameful that such things are being practised in the twentieth century. We claim to be a spiritual country but hesitate to accept equality of all human beings while materialist Europe is talking of revolution since centuries. They had proclaimed equality during the American and French revolutions. However, we are still debating whether the untouchable is entitled for the sacred thread or can he read the Vedas or not. We are chagrined about discrimination against Indians in foreign lands, and whine that the English do not give us equal rights in India.

"'Given our conduct,' Bhagat Singh wondered, 'do we really have any right to complain about such matters?'"

SEGREGATION OF UNTOUCHABLES STILL REINFORCED WITH BRICKS IN TAMIL NADU VILLAGE

Everybody’s walled up against Dalits here (DNA)

"Uthapuram has the most humble of demands. The 3,000 Dalits who live in this sun-burnt village off the Madurai-Theni highway seek the shade of a neem tree that stands in the courtyard of the Mutharamman temple. The administration, however, is reluctant to demolish the long wall that was built by upper caste men to keep Dalits away from the temple and their colony.

"'We had decided not to vote. Then the district collector called us for talks and assured us that everything will be taken care of once the elections are over,' says Sundara Pandi, whose father died in a caste clash in 1989. Six Dalits were killed — either by the upper caste Pillais or the police — when they tried to build a bus shelter at the only opening to their hamlet.

"The 20-year-old 'theendamai chevaru' (untouchability wall) was built by the Pillais to cut off Dalits from the rest of the village. It reduces their access to the road to one muddy opening. The Dalits wanted a bus shelter to protect themselves from the sun. But they were denied that. Just before CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat’s visit here in October 2008, the local administration forced open a small passage through the wall at another spot.

"'We don’t use that path unless we move in a group,' says Mari Muthu, who expects more trouble any time. The community marks time by the many clashes — in 1962, 1989, 1991 and 2008, when the police chased away all men and took into custody all women and children in the Dalit quarters."

See anti-caste: TAMIL NADU VILLAGE DIVIDED ON CASTE LINES (May 4, 2008)

REPORT: UNTOUCHABILITY IS COMMONPLACE IN MADYA PRADESH SCHOOLS

Apartheid funded by the Indian tax-payer (Hindustani Times)

"According to a survey on social discrimination conducted by Jansahas, an NGO, and Unicef, in 24 villages across four districts – Ujjain, Sheopur, Katni and Jhabua – in Madhya Pradesh, more than 63 per cent of Dalit children are subjected to caste discrimination while being served mid-day meals in government schools.

"They are forced to sit in separate rows, bring utensils from home or given food in plates marked boldly with permanent ink to distinguish them from the rest.

“'As many as 40 per cent of Dalit students facing discrimination were given mid-day meals in plates specially set aside for them,' Jansahas activist Ashif Sheikh told Hindustan Times.

"While some were asked to bring utensils from home, most were served their mid-day meals on leaf plates. Non-Dalits, however, were served on metal plates.

"The survey found that most teachers were insensitive to the discrimination against Dalits because of caste-based traditions being followed in rural areas, he said.

"In a majority of the schools surveyed, Dalit students were not allowed to sit in the front row. As many as 78 per cent of school-going Dalit students were backbenchers or forced away from the front row and subjected to casteist abuses.

"And 79 per cent of such students were compelled to clean the schools. In some schools, this chore was given only to Dalit girls."

MANY UNTOUCHABLES DENIED VOTING RIGHTS IN NATIONAL ELECTIONS

Dalits in India face attacks and intimidation in polls, fear more violence to come (Minority Rights Group International)

"In the last two phases of voting NCDHR’s National Dalit Election Watch (NDEW) has recorded 263 incidents of election violence against Dalits, formerly known as ‘untouchables’ in India. The violence manifests in several forms with Dalits being threatened, abused and prevented from voting and also violently attacked after the polls.

"According to NDEW the largest number of incidents was recorded in Bihar, which so far has been one of the areas worst affected by post election violence. In one horrific incident on 23 April, 74 houses in Musahar (Dalit) Tola in Ranti Panchayat (Madhubani District of Bihar), housing over 300 people, were burnt down. Another 70 houses were looted.

"In Andhra Pradesh in Guntur district on the same day a ‘social boycott’ was imposed on a village barring Dalits from shopping or accessing any village services.

"Before elections Dalit communities are threatened and ordered not to vote or vote for candidates against their choice. On some occasions they have found their names deleted from voting lists and/or their proof of identity has not been accepted at the polling station preventing them from voting.

"In Orissa, which saw a spate of attacks against Dalit Christians throughout 2008, politicians ‘threatened to cut off people’s hands, burn houses, and chase them out of the village, if they did not vote as instructed,’ NDEW reports."

See also:

Dalits harassed, stopped from casting vote (Hindustan Times, June 27, 2009):

"A just-released report has claimed that 499 Dalits from 264 constituencies across 13 states were not allowed to cast their votes during the recently concluded 15th Lok Sabha polls."

REVIEW OF "THE HINDUS: An Alternative History" By Wendy Doniger

Another Incarnation by Pankaj Mishra (New York Times)

"During a lecture in London in 2003, Doniger escaped being hit by an egg thrown by a Hindu nationalist apparently angry at the 'sexual thrust' of her interpretation of the 'sacred' 'Ramayana.' This book will no doubt further expose her to the fury of the modern-day Indian heirs of the British imperialists who invented 'Hinduism.' Happily, it will also serve as a salutary antidote to the fanatics who perceive — correctly — the fluid existential identities and commodious metaphysic of practiced Indian religions as a threat to their project of a culturally homogenous and militant nation-state."

TALKING ABOUT CASTE IN INDIA

From the personal blog of a young Indian-American woman working in Gujarat with an NGO that does social work among untouchables:

The Other Side of the Conversation (Living, Learning, and Serving)

"On the journey to the village, we began discussing some of the challenges the staff members faced in their work. Again and again, they said the most difficult thing for them was to stand directly in front of non-Dalits speaking of their work and the reality of the injustices they saw. Though certainly not all, they said that many non-Dalits are still quick to deny the practice of untouchability.

"During the train ride on the way home that day, I saw exactly what the staff members meant. In our train compartment, some of the men began asking the Navsarjan fieldworker I was with who he was and what work he did. He was careful in his response -- initially only painting a broader picture of working on 'human rights.' After the other men pressed him further, 'What kinds of human rights?', he finally respond and said, 'We work on issues for whomever needs them, women, kids, or Dalits--'

"At that point, the rest of the men started retaliating, denying the practice of untouchability and claiming that the fieldworker's work was meaningless. It was an intense argument - 1 against 7! - where they accused the fieldworker of working with criminals and saying that his work was unto no purpose!

"In my seven months in Ahmedabad, I have so clearly seen the impact of untouchability practices and a number of caste-based atrocities on Dalits throughout India. I simply can't deny that these practices continue unabated. Hearing the men's perspectives on the train was certainly hard to swallow -- Is there any room for dialogue and reconciliation when denial is so rampant?"

WHAT IS THE CLASS NATURE OF THE CONFLICT IN SWAT?

Taliban Exploit Class Rifts in Pakistan (New York Times)

"In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power.

"To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said.

"The approach allowed the Taliban to offer economic spoils to people frustrated with lax and corrupt government even as the militants imposed a strict form of Islam through terror and intimidation.

“'This was a bloody revolution in Swat,' said a senior Pakistani official who oversees Swat, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the Taliban. 'I wouldn’t be surprised if it sweeps the established order of Pakistan.'

"The Taliban’s ability to exploit class divisions adds a new dimension to the insurgency and is raising alarm about the risks to Pakistan, which remains largely feudal."

See also:

Behind the crisis in Swat by Sartaj Khan

reply: No class war in Swat by Farhat Taj

rejoinder: The nature of war in Swat by Sartaj Khan

And see:

Taliban push Robin Hood image in Pakistan (CNN, April 27, 2009)

VISIT TO A LOCAL BJP OFFICE IN ORISSA AT ELECTION TIME: ACTIVISTS FOR RULING HINDU-RIGHT PARTY DENY MASS ATROCITIES AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS AND THREATEN MORE

A campaign where hate is integral by Siddharth Varadarajan (The Hindu)

"As the BJP activists warmed to the discussion, one young leader told me that the scale of the violence had been exaggerated and that many Christians had burnt their own 'toota-phoota,' or dilapidated, homes in order to get government compensation. 'You have to understand that they are lazy,' he said. 'If they stay in camp instead of going home, they get free food and relief. They don’t have to work. And then they know the money they are getting from America will stop the minute they leave the camps.'

"Ashok Sahu, a young RSS activist (not to be confused with the BJP candidate currently in jail for hate speech) then listed out a number of sins that he said the Christians were guilty of. These included falsely accusing Hindus of committing crimes, abducting Hindu girls, grabbing adivasi land and reservation quotas, and, of course, engaging in religious conversion."

See also:

Orissa: Tragedy Continues by Ram Puniyami (Countercurrents, April 19, 2009):

"Recently the Archbishop Cheenath of the state said that the elections in the Kandhmamal district should be postponed as the refugees living in the camps are not able to return. The reason is that many of them who returned were threatened by the local Bajrang Dal workers and associates. They were told to renounce Christianity, convert to Hinduism, pay the fine, withdraw the cases and vote for the candidate who they will be told to, obviously BJP candidate. Many of those who tried to return with such hostile conditions awaiting them if they return, came back, some to the camps others to unknown destinations."

See anti-caste: ANOTHER MASS ATROCITY LED BY HINDU RIGHT AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA (September 2, 2008)

COURAGEOUS SIKH JOURNALIST PROTESTS CANDIDACY OF CONGRESS-PARTY CADRE INVOLVED IN CONGRESS-LED 1984 ANTI-SIKH MASSACRE

P. Sainath on Jarnail Singh (Counterpunch)

"Jarnail Singh, a veteran Delhi reporter, tossed his shoe—a solid Reebok trainer—at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram. Jarnail works for the Hindi newspaper, Dainik Jagran (The Daily Awakening). For the Home Minister, it was a rude awakening. Jarnail Singh was miffed with the Congress Party for fielding two tainted candidates from parliamentary constituencies in Delhi in our ongoing national elections.

"The two, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, are tainted by allegations of having participated in the anti-Sikh violence that followed the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1984. That violence remains one of the ugliest chapters in independent India’s history. As many as 3,000 people were slaughtered in a few days, with some being burnt alive by mobs who also looted Sikh properties and homes of billions of rupees."

See also:

Exorcising 1984 (The Hindu, April 13, 2009)

YOU CAN'T SEE CASTE WITH A MICROSCOPE

Childless Indian couples demand to know 'caste' of sperm donors (The Telegraph (UK))

"One of the Bihar's leading gynecologists told a local newspaper the demand from couples to know the caste of sperm donors was insistent. 'Name, address and contact details are kept anonymous, but people are insistent, almost fanatical about caste. We can't give it to them on paper, but we find we have to tell them,' said Dr Saurav Kumar, who owns the sperm bank, Frozen Cell, in Patna, Bihar."

See also:

Playing God in caste-crazy Bihar (Hindustan Times, April 6, 2009):

"'Neither features nor height nor even IQ concerned us as much,' says Anuradha Rai (36), an Internet marketing manager from the Bhumihar community. 'My husband felt if the sperm donor was from a different caste, the baby would not get the right genes.'

"It is a stunning statement of how even young, urban, educated Indians, their lives transformed by the emerging India, have been unable to unshackle themselves from the centuries-old caste consciousness despite their desperation to have a child."

FREE BINAYEK SEN, CIVIL-RIGHTS ACTIVIST WHO SPOKE OUT AGAINST STATE VIOLENCE IN CHHATTISGARH!

Why Is Binayek Sen in Prison? by Arundhati Roy

"That Dr Sen should continue to be in prison when the case against him has almost completely fallen through says a great deal about the very grave situation in Chattisgarh today. There is a civil war in this state. Hundreds are being killed and imprisoned. Hundreds of thousands of the poorest of the poor are hiding in the forests, fearing for their lives. They have no access to food, to markets, to schools or healthcare. The thousands who have been moved into the camps of the government-backed peoples’ militia, the Salwa Judum, are also trapped in sordid encampments, which have to be guarded by armed police. Hatred, violence and brutality is being cynically spread, pitting the poor against the poorest.

"There is very little doubt that Dr Sen is in prison because he spoke out against this policy of the State Government, because he opposed the formation of the Salwa Judum. His incarceration is meant to silence dissent, and criminalize democratic space. It is meant to create a wall of silence around the civil war in Chattisgarh. It is meant to absorb all our attention so that the stories of the hundreds of other nameless, faceless people—those without lawyers, without the attention of journalists—who are starving and dying in the forests, go unnoticed and unrecorded."

See also:

PUCL Campaign to free Dr. Binayak Sen