anti-caste

Links to outside sources below are offered for information's sake. We don't necessarily agree with the slant of any story included here or share the aims of its author.

Our own aims are described on our about page.

Want to get in touch? You can email us.

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)

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."

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."

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

CAPITALIST "DEVELOPMENT" IN WEST BENGAL

A photo essay on the de-industrialization of Bengal: Real estate SEZs over the ruins of factories (Sanhati)

"The real story behind the much-hyped industrialization of West Bengal is one of continuous de-industrialization, land grab and conversion to real estate.

"This has happened extensively over the last few years, with numerous examples like South City, built on the land of Usha factory and Diamond City, built on the lands of Reckitt and Coleman India Ltd. lying in front of everyones eyes.

"The latest phase is the setting up of real-estate SEZs, with a software company as a front and luxury apartments as the real thing. Two are coming up at two ends of Kolkata, the Sriram Hitec city in the north, being set up on the extensive wetlands (around 300 acres) adjoining the Hind Motors factory (originally designated for ancillary units) near Uttarpara and the other, Hiland-Bata Integrated city at the huge Batanagar factory of Bata India Ltd. near Budge Budge in the south."

photos of Shriram Hitec city and the destruction of Hind Motors

INSTITUTIONALIZED UNTOUCHABILITY IN TAMIL NADU RESTAURANTS

‘Double tumbler’ system still in vogue here (The Hindu)

"B. Veerabadran, a Dalit youth from Mavanatti village, told The Hindu that owners of eateries kept plastic tumblers near bins outside their shops. Mr. Veerabadran said Dalits were served tea or coffee in these tumblers. After drinking tea they had to wash the tumblers themselves and keep them at the designated place – near the bin. The tea would be poured to the tumblers by the hoteliers [hotel=restaurant in Indian English] who would take care not to touch them.

"Many times the food joints do not give Dalits tea or coffee even if the shops have enough milk, sugar and tea or coffee powder.

"Young members of the community find it hard to bear this. 'Why do we have to face this humiliation? We want the state government to totally eradicate untouchability in society. We want to sit with others in hotels,' they said. They alleged that when they complained to the police about this practice and atrocities against them the police intimidated them and foisted false cases on them."

CHINESE WORKERS' STATE, DESPITE ISOLATION AND POLITICAL DEFORMATION, IS PROGRESSIVE VS. CAPITALIST INDIA

As Indian Growth Soars, Child Hunger Persists (New York Times)

"Small, sick, listless children have long been India’s scourge — 'a national shame,' in the words of its prime minister, Manmohan Singh. But even after a decade of galloping economic growth, child malnutrition rates are worse here than in many sub-Saharan African countries, and they stand out as a paradox in a proud democracy.

"China, that other Asian economic powerhouse, sharply reduced child malnutrition, and now just 7 percent of its children under 5 are underweight, a critical gauge of malnutrition. In India, by contrast, despite robust growth and good government intentions, the comparable number is 42.5 percent. Malnutrition makes children more prone to illness and stunts physical and intellectual growth for a lifetime."

See also:

anti-caste: MALNOURISHED CHILDREN: INDIA—46%, CHINA—8% (February 10, 2007)

IN AFTERMATH OF POGROMS, THREATS BY HINDU RIGHT KEEP UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS FROM THEIR HOMES

Over 3,000 still in Orissa camps (The Hindu)

"More than seven months after Orissa’s tribal-dominated Kandhamal district experienced widespread anti-Christian violence, 3,100 people belonging to the minority community are still living in relief camps being run by the administration.

"About 25,000 people took shelter in 19 relief camps when communal violence was at its peak in the district in the aftermath of the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four others on August 23 last.

"The number of people living in the camps has decreased slowly but the 3,100 people in six camps are not willing to leave as they are being told by the communal forces that they can return to their homes only as Hindus."

POLICE "ENCOUNTERS": IN POOREST AREAS, EXTRA-LEGAL KILLINGS OF LEFTIST REBELS AND THEIR SYMPATHIZERS IS NORMAL

India Makes a Place for Dirty Harry (The New York Times)

"Numbering in the thousands every year, 'encounters' or 'encounter killings' are shootouts between the Indian police or army and any criminal element, from terrorists to petty thieves. Many Indians believe that at least some are stage-managed — with, say, a police officer placing a gun in the hands of a dead person — leading to the popular phrase, 'fake encounter killing.'

"The Singaram encounter was part of a long-running campaign to stem an insurrection in impoverished and isolated parts of eastern India by Maoist-inspired rebels known as Naxalites. Other cases, elsewhere in India, have involved Muslim militants and gangsters in Mumbai."

See also:

Chhattisgarh Killings: The Jungle Justice of the Trigger Happy (Tehelka, February 7, 2009):

“'They made us stand in a line and ordered us to bow our heads,” Deva says of those terrifying moments between life and death. “I was the last and that gave me just enough time to escape.'

"Four more proved lucky. But 19 others did not. A posse made largely of men from the Salwa Judum (literally, Peace Gathering), the tribal militia raised by the state as a quasi police force, killed 15 men and four women at this spot on the afternoon of January 8, 2009, triggering a massive furor across the state and worsening the battle lines between the armed Maoist insurgents, popularly called the Naxals, and the state police."

And see:

Rights Groups Probe India's Shoot-Out Cops (Time, February 14, 2009):

"That was when the media began to ask questions of the police account: Two terrorists tasked with staging a Republic Day attack on the national capital had stopped at a tea stall to seek directions; a police informer, who just happened to be present, spotted an AK-47 sticking out of a bag. An urgent tip-off prompted a dramatic chase and shootout, but the 'terrorists' lived just long enough to 'confess' their Pakistani nationality. Nor did it go unnoticed that this was the fourth such 'encounter' between police and suspects in the same area in less than a month."

NEW BOOK ON THE HINDU RIGHT'S POGROMS AGAINST UNTOUCHABLE CHRISTIANS IN ORISSA

quoted in VIOLENT GODS: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present – Narratives from Orissa by Angana P. Chatterji (Three Essays Collective, 2009):

“We did not convert because we are poor. If I am poor but accepted by my community, there is no [social] terror in that poverty.... We did not convert for money. We converted because of the society that saw us as lesser, not worthy. We were ‘lower caste’, ‘untouchable’, ‘lowly’. Now we are Christian. Our god wants us. We can walk into his temple. We are worthy. You understand?” [Spoken by a Dalit convert in Orissa.]

from the publisher:

"This pioneering research was conducted between 2002-2008 in urban and rural settings in the eastern state of Orissa, a primary arena for the onslaught of organized Hindu majoritarianism. Through situated reflection, storytelling, and ethnographic accounts, this genealogical excavation examines Hindutva/Hindu supremacist proliferations in manufacturing imaginative and identitarian agency for violent nationalism."

See also anti-caste: ORISSA: HINDU-RIGHT ATROCITIES.

REPORT ON ANTI-UNTOUCHABLE, ANTI-CHRISTIAN ATTACKS BY HINDU RIGHT IN ORISSA AND KARNATAKA

From Kandhamal to Karavali: The Ugly Face of Sangh Parivar (Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, Human Rights Forum, Organisation for Protection of Democratic Rights, Peoples Democratic Forum, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Karnataka State Unit, Federation for Peoples Rights, Committee for Protection of Civil Liberties, Peoples Union for Human Rights, Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights)

"This is a report prepared jointly by a number of Rights Organisations and individuals on the large scale violence against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka during August-September 2008. The violence was committed by Sangh Parivar organisations, mainly the Bajrang Dal. Their political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) happens to be in power in both the States, and that has ensured that the police watched benignly as the arson and murder took place in public. The ideology and the organization of their mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), pervades the media in both the States to such an extent that with a few honorable exceptions, the Press has reported the violence in a manner that puts the onus on the victims: they were at fault and had it coming."

SEVEN YEARS AFTER ANTI-MUSLIM GUJARAT MASSACRE

In a February 16 interview for TwoCircles.net, the director of an Ahmedabad-based NGO called the Islamic Relief Society of Gujarat reports:

"Of 1.5 lakh [150,000] people uprooted during the pogrom, around two-third are still not in position to return to their homes. About 50,000 people are still living in relief camps and there has been no proper arrangement for their rehabilitation. About 650 religious places were destroyed or desecrated but the government has not done anything to restore them. The central government has given its share of the compensation package for the riot victims but the state government is silent about its share."

A February 14 commentary for IANS praising some recent actions by the courts against a deputy police superindendent and a government minister in connection with their roles in the masacre, along with the ordered retrial of a couple of the most notorious atrocities, notes:

"More than 4,000 of cases relating to the outbreak were closed by the police either for lack of evidence or because the culprits could not be traced or because the cases fell through as the witnesses turned hostile, evidently on being threatened by the criminals, while the police failed to provide any protection."

The Gujarat High Court ruled on February 12 that the 80 or so Muslims still imprisoned in connection with the alleged burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra under the now-abandoned Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which provided for the indefinite detention of suspects charged with terrorist conspiracy, were eligible for bail because POTA does not apply to their case. According to this report posted on TwoCircles.net, the court said, "POTA is being lifted from the accused because no concrete proof could be found against them showing that train incineration was a part of any planned terrorism."

See also:

other stories on anti-caste about the aftermath of the Gujarat massacre

And see:

anti-caste: notes on the Muslim question in India—The 2002 GUJARAT MASSACRE

HONOR KILLINGS ORDERED BY ISLAMIC-TRIBAL LAW

PAKISTAN: A young couple is in hiding after a tribal court sentenced them to death for their inter-tribal marriage (Asian Human Rights Comission)

"Tensions between tribes are not uncommon in Pakistan, and Balochi tribes such as the Jatoi consider it a particular dishonour if their women marry into another group. The groups are strictly feudal and religiously conservative, with justice meted out by tribal courts or jirgas: illegitimate gatherings of elders, in which women have no voice and hearsay more often than not, replaces evidence. In cases of female dishonour these cases often result in a woman being marked as Kari. A Kari or 'black marked' woman can be killed by any member of the tribe with impunity, for the sake of honour.

"Recent statistics have reported that about 300 women are killed every year in Pakistan because of Kari, often in land distribution disputes, and often by male relatives. This kind of rural vigilante justice is generally tolerated by local police, due to the influence of powerful tribal leaders, and few cases reach the courts."

AFTER PAKISTANI GOVT ACCEPTS TRUCE WITH THE TALIBAN...

Class Dismissed in Swat Valley: The Death of Female Education (video by Adam Ellick and Irfan Ashraf for the New York Times)

A short documentary profiling an 11-year-old Pakistani girl on the last day before the Taliban close down her school.

In the course of this moving video, a young girl, her face veiled to conceal her identity, bravely reads the following speech at a school rally:

"Swat Valley: the land of waterfalls. Lush green hills and other gifts bestowed upon it by the nature. But my dear friends, today Swat has in the past few years become a heartland for Pakistan Islamic militancy. Today, this idyllic valley of peace is burning. Why the peace of this valley is destroyed? Why our future is targeted? Schools are not places of learning but places of fear and violence. Our dreams are shattered. And let me say, we are destroyed."

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

But see also:

Who are the "Taliban" in Swat? by Humeira Iqtidar (Open Democracy, April 30, 2009)

"Much media attention has focused on the worsening plight of women in Swat, particularly after the video-taped public flogging of a 17 year-old girl. Unfortunately, the kinds of atrocities perpetrated by the TNSM against women also occur in the feudal holdings of many of the "secular" political elite of Pakistan. Yet these incidents do not make headlines in the same way. Few Pakistanis can ignore the fact that restricting women's mobility and reducing their educational opportunities (as the TNSM intend to do) along with gang rape, abduction, and honour killing have a long history in southern Punjab and Sind, areas where both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani have vast landholdings."

DEADLY OFFENSIVE MAY SEAL NATIONAL OPPRESSION OF TAMILS IN SRI LANKA

[See also Defend the Tamil People! Army Bloodbath in Sri Lanka, Workers Vanguard No. 903 (13 February 2009)]

Sri Lanka: The war the world forgot (The Independent (UK))

"In what may be the final chapters of one of the world's longest-running civil wars, Sri Lankan troops say they are close to crushing the remnants of the once-potent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Yet the military operation comes at a high price for civilians.

"Aid groups and officials say that dozens of civilians trapped in the war zone are being killed and wounded every day. Determined to press ahead with its operation against a guerrilla force that has in the past ruthlessly attacked both military and civilian targets, the Sri Lankan government refuses to effect a ceasefire that would allow the evacuation of wounded people. It has also shut off the area from the outside world."

See also:

'How can people say this is peace?' by Stephanie Nolen (Toronto Globe and Mail, January 27, 2009)

"Yet as frightening as the disappearances, and perhaps more likely to cause further conflict over time, is the government's unabashed campaign of 'Sinhalization.' Historic sites commemorating ancient Tamil kingdoms have, in the months since the government took control of the area, suddenly become memorials to Sinhalese kingdoms. Some Tamils stopped at checkpoints can no longer give the names of their home villages, because those places have new Sinhala names, local and international human-rights monitors say."

And see:

Sri Lanka: End 'War' on Civilians (Human Rights Watch, February 19, 2009)

P. SAINATH ON THE AGRARIAN CRISIS

Neo-Liberal Terrorism in India: The Largest Wave of Suicides in History (Counterpunch)

"[T]he neoliberal model that pushed growth through one kind of consumption also meant re-directing huge amounts of money away from rural credit to fuel the lifestyles of the aspiring elites of the cities (and countryside, too). Thousands of rural bank branches shut down during the 15 years from 1993-2007.

"Even as incomes of the farmers crashed, so did the price they got for their cash crops, thanks to obscene subsidies to corporate and rich farmers in the West, from the U.S. and EU. Their battle over cotton subsidies alone (worth billions of dollars) destroyed cotton farmers not merely in India but in African nations such as Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, and Chad. Meanwhile, all along, India kept reducing investment in agriculture (standard neoliberal procedure). Life was being made more and more impossible for small farmers.

"As costs rose, credit dried up. Debt went out of control. Subsidies destroyed their prices. Starving agriculture of investment (worth billions of dollars each year) smashed the countryside. India even cut most of the few, pathetic life supports she had for her farmers. The mess was complete. From the late-’90s, the suicides began to occur at what then seemed a brisk rate.

"In fact, India’s agrarian crisis can be summed up in five words (call it Ag Crisis 101): the drive toward corporate farming. The route (in five words): predatory commercialization of the countryside. The result: The biggest displacement in our history."

ROUTINE BRUTALITY CAUGHT ON VIDEOTAPE

UP Dalit girl was beaten over a false complaint of theft by police (Zee News)

"It now turns out that the six-year old Dalit girl Komal was brutally beaten up by the police, television images of which sent shockwaves across the country, on a false complaint of theft.

"The theft case against her with the Jaswantnagar police has been dropped and a case under CrPC 182 for registering a fake complaint has been lodged against Anju Katheria, police said.

"Katheria had alleged that Komal had stolen Rs.280 [about US$6] from her wallet at a market in Jaswantpur area."

See also:

Cop’s merciless “bravery” on six-year-old girl (Digital Journal, February 3, 2009):

"The video showed that a sub-inspector was beating the girl by pulling her ears and hair over and over again and once grabbed her hair and kept her hanging in the air, while the girl was crying in pain. One Inspector and six other policemen just looked on.

"However police initially tried to justify the incident.

"'A crime has been committed here. The offender is a minor. Cash worth Rs 280 has been stolen. The girls has confessed to the crime. She was handed over to the police by the person whose money was stolen. It's significant that the police have seized the cash. If the police resorted to unfair means in dealing with the girl, I will seek appropriate probe,' said Kripashankar Singh, special superintendent of police, Etawah."

And see:

Cops are villains who make our lives miserable: Street children (NDTV)

PURITANICAL, ANTI-WOMAN ASSAULT BY HINDU RIGHT

Hindu zealots attack women in raid on bar party (The London Times)

"The young customers at Amnesia: The Lounge were enjoying a Saturday afternoon of drinking and dancing in one of the hippest spots in the city of Mangalore when a mob of 40 Hindu radicals barged in.

"The activists from Sri Ram Sena (SRS) – or Lord Ram’s Army – screamed abuse and attacked several dozen men and women, mostly students, and smashed up the bar.

"They chased the girls into the street, slapping them, pulling their hair and pushing at least two to the ground. The incident was recorded on CCTV.

"Their reason? 'We are the custodians of Indian culture,' said Pramod Mutalik, the founder of SRS, who claimed responsibility for the assault.

"The incident, which was broadcast across India, was one of many recent cases of Hindu moral policing that has also focused on Valentine’s Day, kissing in Bollywood films and cheer-leaders at cricket matches.

"The attack shocked middle-class India and prompted one Government minister to decry the 'Talebanisation' of the country. It has also brought attention to the links between violent Hindu militants and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."

See also:

Facebook women say 'knickers' to pub ban bullies (The London Times, February 11, 2009)

FIRST BLOOD FOR OBAMA

Pakistan protests to US over air strikes (Dawn (Pakistan))

"Twenty-two people were killed in two missile strikes in Waziristan on Friday.

"The two missile strikes, coming three days after the new administration assumed office, are being taken as an indication that President Obama has endorsed drone attacks on Pakistan.

"President Obama, during his campaign for the White House, had called for attacks against high-value targets in Pakistan.

"The outgoing administration had increased the frequency of drone attacks in the dying weeks — about two dozen attacks occurring over five months. Some top Al Qaeda leaders were killed in these attacks."

UMA SINGH, 26, SPOKE OUT AGAINST DOWRY AND THE CASTE SYSTEM

Nepal: Four Charged for Brutal Murder of a Journalist (Impunity Watch Asia)

"According to international media watchdog, Reporters without Borders, around 15 men broke into Singh’s apartment and repeatedly battered her with blunt objects and then stabbed her to death. Singh died from the injuries sustained on her way to the capital when local attempts to help her failed. Singh was only 26 when she died.

"Singh had criticized the caste system and written on a number of political issues. Her articles criticizing the dowry system, a tradition where the bride’s family has to pay significant sums of money and land to the groom’s family, created shock waves in Southern Nepal.

"However the motives of her attackers are still unclear. Although four men have been arrested, an underground group claimed responsibility for Singh’s attack but stated it was ‘a mistake.’ Singh was working in a part of the country where there are many militants connected to an ethnic separatist movement. The militants want regional autonomy from the Maoist government."

See also:

Uma Singh, 26 (Nepali Times, January 12, 2009):

"Journalists all over Nepal staged protests and bore black bands to mourn Uma's killing."

And see:

Nepal radio journalist murdered (BBC, January 12, 2009)

UNTOUCHABILITY IN JAPAN

Japan’s Outcasts Still Wait for Acceptance (New York Times)

"[...]Ms. Tanaka encountered discrimination only when she began going to high school in another ward. One time, while she was visiting a friend’s house, the grandparents invited her to stay over for lunch.

"'The atmosphere was pleasant in the beginning, but then they asked me where I lived,' she said. 'When I told them, the grandfather put down his chopsticks right away and went upstairs.'

"A generation ago, most buraku married other buraku. But by the 1990s, when Ms. Tanaka met her future husband, who is not a buraku, marriages to outsiders were becoming more common."

INDIA'S TOP CAPITALISTS ENDORSE THE BUTCHER OF GUJARAT

Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal promote Modi as PM (DNA)

"If India Inc had its way, Narendra Modi might well be the country's next prime minister. A day after Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata hugged the Gujarat chief minister and showered praise on his leadership, holding Modi and his state up as an example for the rest of the country, corporate bigwigs Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal added their voice to the growing chorus."

See also:

Modi locks adoring business in bear hug - Tata leads the charge in showering praise (The Telegraph (Calcutta), January 13, 2009):

"By the time Tata was through, the industrialist found himself locked in a hug with Modi who strode across the podium with open arms.

"'I have to say that today there is no state like Gujarat. Under Modi’s leadership, Gujarat is head and shoulders above any state,' Tata, who last year moved his small-car project from Bengal to Gujarat, told the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit in Ahmedabad."

And see:

Tata Motors Move to Gujarat Less Than Secular by Praful Bidwau (IPS, October 23, 2008)

As Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat and a leader of the fascistic Hindu-right BJP party, Modi presided over the 2002 Gujarat massacre, a state-sponsored paramilitary assault on the Muslim population of Ahmedabad led by Hindu-right organizations. Two thousand were killed, tens of thousands maimed, hundreds raped or sexually tortured, and as many as 100,000 made homeless.

AMANDEEP DHILLON MURDER: DOWRY DEATH IN CANADA

The sorrow of Amandeep by Michelle Mandel (Toronto Sun)

"Conflicts over dowries are such a serious problem in India that the crime of 'dowry death' was created in 1986 just to deal with the suspicious deaths of women within the first seven years of their marriage. Newly married brides are often subjected to vicious demands from their husbands and in-laws for additional money or gifts after the wedding and the abuse becomes so intolerable that some women choose suicide while others are eventually murdered for not complying with their new family's demands.

"According to India's National Crime Bureau, an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 women die annually in dowry deaths. Few of the perpetrators are ever brought to justice, and the grooms' families go on to secure new dowries as the sons marry again."

ATROCITY IN MADYA PRADESH

Indian girl beaten to death because mother took water from well without washing feet (Telegraph (UK))

"Saroj Lal, 25, was first turned away from the handpump in Adrouni village in Madhya Pradesh, when she approached wearing slippers. A higher caste villager told her Dalits were dirty and not allowed to draw water without first washing their hands and feet.

"He began abusing her over her low caste until she left to complain at the local police station along with her husband and daughter. According to police, the villager, known as Makhan, called six of his friends and headed them off en route. He attacked Saroj, grabbed her baby and threw her to the floor, killing her instantly."

CONGRESS-LED GOVT'S NEW "ANTI-TERROR" LAWS THREATEN WORKERS, MUSLIMS, SIKHS, UNTOUCHABLES WITH STATE TERROR

New Anti-Terror Laws Draconian, Say Activists by Praful Bidawi (IPS)

"Parliament - meeting under the shadow of the November 26-29 attacks on India’s commercial hub resulting in close to 200 deaths - approved the legislations on Thursday with no considered debate and the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pushing them past amendments tabled by several parliamentarians.

"One law, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act, seeks to establish a new police organisation to investigate acts of terrorism and other statutory offences.

"The other, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment (UAPA) Act, radically changes procedures for trying those accused of terrorism, extends the periods of police custody and of detention without charges, denies bail to foreigners, and the reverses the burden of proof in many instances.

[...]

"'The UAPA Act is particularly vile, and will have the effect of turning India into a virtual police state,' says Colin Gonsalves, executive director of the Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network. 'It basically brings back a discredited law, the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2002 (POTA), except for admitting confessions made to a police officer as legal evidence.'

"POTA was an extremely unpopular law, which the UPA government abrogated upon coming to power in 2004 in response to innumerable complaints of its selective and discriminatory use against India's Muslim minority, and its cavalier and irresponsible application to offences not even remotely connected with terrorism.

[...]

"In its desperation to be seen to be taking a tough stand against terrorism, the Manmohan Singh government also tabled the NIA Bill earlier this week. The new agency will specifically investigate offences related to atomic energy, aviation and maritime transport, weapons of mass destruction, and Left-wing extremism, besides terrorism.

"Significantly, it excludes Right-wing terrorism, which has become a greater menace in India.

[...]

"POTA and its predecessor, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), were extensively abused. They typically targeted the religious minorities, specifically Muslims, and allowed for their harassment and persecution.

"The TADA story is especially horrifying. Some 67,000 people were arrested under it, but only 8,000 put on trial, and a mere 725 convicted.

"Official TADA Review Committees themselves found the law’s application untenable in all but 5,000 cases. In 1993, Gujarat witnessed no terrorism, but more than 19,000 people were still arrested under TADA.

"Religious minorities were selectively targeted under both Acts. For instance, in Rajasthan, of 115 TADA detainees, 112 were Muslims and three Sikhs.

"Gujarat had a worse pattern under POTA, when all but one of the 200-plus detainees were Muslims, the remaining one a Sikh.

"The passing of the two new laws is certain to increase the alienation of India's Muslims from the state. They have been the principal victims of India's anti-terrorism strategy and activities in recent years.

"Muslims are first to be arrested and interrogated after any terrorist incident, even when the victims are Muslims, and although strong evidence has recently emerged of a well-ramified pro-Hindu terrorist network, in which serving and retired army officers were found to be key players."

See also, on UAPA's predecessors:

Anti-terror laws: Tools of state terror (People's Union for Civil Liberties, March 2007):

"A survey of TADA cases reveals many instances of false arrests, police excesses, and extortion. People were imprisoned under the act for matters entirely unconnected with violent political acts. In 1987, six workers of Reliance Industries Limited in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, were arrested under TADA for legitimate trade union activity."

REGISTERED ATROCITIES AGAINST UNTOUCHABLES GOING UP

Atrocities on SC/ST (Government of India Press information Bureau)

"The number of cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was 31,387 in the year 2005, 32,407 in the year 2006 and 35,352 in the year 2007."

AGRARIAN CRISIS DEEPENING

Report: Over 16,000 farmers committed suicide in India in 2007 (The Earth Times)

"Most of the farmers in Maharashtra, who are engaged in cotton cultivation, had committed suicide owing to crop failures and falling prices.

"Although the national total represented a slight fall from 17,060 in 2006, the broad trend remained unchanged, the report said, adding that the total farmer suicide toll in the country since 1997 stood at 182,936.

"Besides Maharashtra, southern Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and central Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states report nearly two-thirds of the farm suicides in the country.

"According to Indian Agriculture Ministry officials, the main cause of the suicides is indebtedness. Many farmers who work on small land holdings have taken loans from private lenders who charge up to 120 per cent annual interest from the farmers."

See also:

anti-caste: AGRARIAN CRISIS IN INDIA: A SUICIDE EVERY 32 MINUTES (November 17, 2007)

And see:

the Indian Together page on farmer suicides

ON THE SEPTEMBER 26-29 MUMBAI ATTACKS

We're told that this atrocious assault on several sites in the city was the work of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba. Vijay Prashad ("The Fires in South Asia," Counterpunch) points out:

"The Lashkar is one of those organizations that emerged in 1991 out of the detritus of the Afghan jihad (it was formed in Kunar province). Carter’s Brzezinski vowed to 'sow shit in the Soviet backyard.' His Afghan toilet overflowed into South Asia."

But was it them? Ayesha Ijaz Khan ("Mumbai Terror Attacks," Counterpunch) writes:

"The fact that the Indian government is accusing Pakistan is taken with a grain of salt as this is not the first time the Indian government has blamed Pakistan, only to find later that Pakistan had nothing to do with the violence it was being accused of. Interestingly, four times previously the Indian government falsely accused Lashkare Taiba directly as the organization sponsoring violent incidents in India, and Pakistan indirectly for harbouring the militant group, although Pakistan officially banned the outfit in 2002.

"In each of the incidents, namely, the Chattisinghpura massacre, the attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001, the Malagaon blasts and the Samjhota Express incident, investigations were either refused or revealed that neither Lashkare Taiba nor Pakistan but groups from within India were responsible."

Alexander Cockburn, writing in The Nation, raises the question of perspective:

"No Western journalist chose to bewail a huge human catastrophe when that same chief minister of Maharashtra, Deshmukh [who resigned last week, accepting 'moral responsibility' for the attacks], supervised the destruction of 84,000 homes in Mumbai back in 2004-2005, nearly three times the number rendered homeless in Nagapattinam by the tsunami. 'Many people will be inconvenienced and will have to make sacrifices if the city has to develop,' Deshmukh said then. Once again, the lowly were making sacrifices in the interests of the mighty, many of them real estate gangsters in league with Deshmukh and the ruling Congress party."

Finally, in "Hotel Taj: Icon of Whose India?" the Tamil writer Gnani Sankaran questions where the cameras were pointed, and why. Which is the true icon of Bombay, the Hotel Taj, "where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe congregate," "the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India," or the first site attacked, the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station [better known by its old name, Victoria Terminus, or VT]? It's through the latter that

"Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamilnadu have poured into Mumbai over the years, transforming themselves into Mumbaikars and building the Mumbai of today along with the Marathis and Kolis.

"But the [TV] channels would not recognise this. Nor would they recognise the thirty odd dead bodies strewn all over the platform of CST. No Barkha Dutt [NDTV English news editor] went there to tell us who they were. But she was at Taj to show us the damaged furniture and reception lobby braving the guards. And the TV cameras did not go to the government-run JJ Hospital to find out who those 26 unidentified bodies were. Instead they were again invading the battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop shot of the dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities.

"In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by train at CST without cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even after 60 hours after the CST massacre, no channel has bothered to cover in detail what transpired there."

FIFTEEN-YEAR OLD BEATEN AND THROWN UNDER A TRAIN

Teenager murdered for writing love letter to girl of higher caste (The Times (London))

"Manish died because he was a member of the Ravidas community, a Dalit sub-caste that has been confined historically to working with leather – a profession deemed unclean by Hindus, for whom cows are sacred.

"Another term by which the group is known, chamar, is considered a grave insult.

"Three months ago the boy sent a letter 'expressing his interest' in a girl from the Dhobi community, another Dalit sub-caste, which has traditionally washed clothes for a living – but is fractionally above the Ravidas in the Hindu hierarchy. The note was discovered by the girl’s parents."

UNTOUCHABILITY AND WATER RIGHTS

In most parts of India, where water for drinking and irrigation is scarce, control of water sources is an index of class dominance, which is linked in turn to caste status. And in the ritual scheme which legitimizes the caste system, water is a carrier of the pollution that lower castes and untouchables spread.

So water rights in the Indian countryside is a chronic site of caste oppression, which, when resisted—as it increasingly is—often leads to atrocities like the ones collected below, all from the past eleven months. In no way exceptional, these stories stand in for any number of others that might have been chosen, as well as for countless more that surely never made it into the press:

Uttar Pradesh, January 16: The upper castes are not allowing Dalits to draw water for irrigation from a government tubewell.

Rajastan, January 26: When Dalits won the right to use the village pond, caste Hindus turned it into a sewer.

Orissa, March 26: Upper caste residents allegedly denied a woman from drawing water from a tube well because she was a Dalit.

Bihar, May 6: A Dalit youth was tortured and beaten to death for allegedly stealing a water pump.

Himachal Pradesh, May 13: They are prevented to draw water from the village tube-wells and even to sit on verandas of the upper caste.

Bihar, May 30: In the scorching summer, Janpatia Devi's family doesn't have a drop to drink. That's because she is a Dalit, and the well in the village meant only for her community has gone dry.

Madya Pradesh, June 6: An elderly Dalit woman was burnt alive allegedly by three members of an upper caste community over a dispute on fetching water from a village hand pump.

Uttar Pradesh, June 9: 15-year-old Daya Shankar and three fellow villagers were arrested for allegedly trying to capture a tanker delivering drinking water to their village.

Gujarat, July 31: If there is water in a well, Dalits have to wait for other villagers as we can't touch their wells.

Karnataka, November 8: The “upper castes” in the village had stopped the supply of water from a tank located in the Dalit colony on the grounds that the water from the tank was not fit to be used to conduct puja [Hindu ritual worship].

Uttar Pradesh, November 12: An old Dalit woman was beaten up by upper caste people for using a hand pump installed in their locality to draw water.

UNTOUCHABLE STUDENTS ATTACKED ON CAMPUS

Caste clash rocks Law College (Indian Express)

"CHENNAI: Three students were seriously injured in a violent caste clash that broke out between two groups of students at Ambedkar Law College on Wednesday.

"The students waged a pitched battle, even as a posse of policemen waited outside the gates and news photographers clicked pictures.

"Knives, iron rods, wooden logs and tubelights were freely used by the clashing students. The police remained silent spectators, waiting for a call from the college principal for help."

The background of this unbelievable attack is as follows. A group of caste-Hindu students were putting up posters around campus for a celebration related to their own caste. On the posters the name of the college was given as "Government Law College," dropping the name "Dr. Ambedkar." B.R. Ambedkar was an untouchable leader who drafted the Indian constitution. Untouchable students confronted them about the omission, and a fight broke out. The caste-Hindu students threatened to prevent untouchable students from sitting for exams in two weeks' time to teach them a lesson. What happened on the day of the exam is captured in the picture above and even more graphically in the news video at this link: Blood bath in a law college.

See also:

Caste Violence in Ambedkar Law College, Chennai

Clashes at Law College: A Fact-Finding Report (November 24, 2008)

HONOR KILLINGS IN HARYANA

Two Girls in North India Brutally Murdered by Community for Visiting Boys on Festival Day (MedIndia)

"The festival of lights snuffed out the two young lives as villagers of Kaluvas set upon the girls with machetes, axes and stones and later set them on fire.

"They had waited for them on the night of Oct.28 after getting wind of their movements. The fathers of the two girls too were part of the hysterical mob, it is reported.

"When they found the battered girls were still alive though unconscious, some rushed to fetch kerosene cans. The bodies were then promptly doused and set on fire.

"One of the villagers, Rajender Shivran, who says he couldn’t sleep under the weight of the unspeakable crime, eventually ventured to make it to the office of the Bhiwani Superintendent of Police with a complaint.

"However authorities have remained indifferent, reports the Times of India."

CONGRESS-LED GOVT WON'T PROTECT MUSLIM ARTIST FROM HINDU RIGHT

An Artist in Exile Tests India’s Democratic Ideals (New York Times)

"Maqbool Fida Husain, India’s most famous painter, is afraid to go home.

"Mr. Husain is a Muslim who is fond of painting Hindu goddesses, sometimes portraying them nude. That obsession has earned him the ire of a small but organized cadre of Hindu nationalists. They have attacked galleries that exhibit his work, accused him in court of 'promoting enmity' among faiths and, on one occasion, offered an $11 million reward for his head.

"In September, the country’s highest court offered him an unexpected reprieve, dismissing one of the cases against him with the blunt reminder that Hindu iconography, including ancient temples, is replete with nudity. Still, the artist, 93 and increasingly frail, is not taking any chances."

See also:

Shiv Sainiks attack Husain exhibition, vandalise paintings (Times of India (December 27, 2008))

New York: Husain's paintings auctioned amid protests (rediff (March 21, 2008))

A Muslim Artist and Hindu Images: It's a Volatile Mix (New York Times (June 16, 1998)): "Early last month, members of the far-right Bajrang Dal, upset at a stylized portrait of a Hindu goddess, slipped into Mr. Husain's Bombay apartment, destroyed one painting and mauled several canvases before being arrested by the police."

It's time to stop harassing M F Husain by Shashi Tharoor (Times of India (July 29, 2007)): "The question of why Husain doesn't paint Muslim figures in the nude is a red herring. The Islamic tradition is a different one from either the Hindu or the Western; what causes offence in one is different from what causes offence in another. Islam, after all, prohibits any visual depiction of the Prophet, whereas visualising our gods and goddesses is central to the practice of Hinduism."

And see:

M.F. Husain in Museum of Contemporary Indian Art

Epic India: Paintings by M.F. Husain at the Peabody Essex Museum

M.F. Husain at Spear Art Museum

POLICE IN BANGALORE ARREST HIJRAS AND SEXUAL-MINORITY-RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

Which is the real menace?: People whose bodies and sexualities put them beyond the pale of social norms are without rights in the eyes of Indian police by Dipika Nath (Guardian (UK))

"Early on October 20, Bangalore police arrested five hijras – a traditional cultural identity for working-class transgender people who, born as men, identify as women. Such arrests are sadly routine. Throughout India, many hijras cannot get identity papers: the state will not let them change their legal sex and denies them IDs if their appearance does not match their birth gender. As a result, they often cannot work, go to school, find jobs, vote, or even move around freely. Social prejudice against 'men' or 'women' who are not 'masculine' or 'feminine' enough makes them ready victims of violence.

"Denied viable opportunities for work, hijras are forced to resort to begging or demanding goodwill funds during marriage or birth celebrations. That way of life has been part of several regional Indian cultures, where blessings of a hijra were considered a good omen. But as these traditions erode, many hijras have had to survive as street beggars or sex workers. In both cases, police slap them with fines, jail them, sometimes physically or sexually abuse them."

See also:

India: Stop Abuse of Sexual Rights Activists (Human Rights Watch, October 29, 2008)

And see:

this encyclopedia article on hijras by Serena Nanda

HINDU-RIGHT ACTIVISTS ARRESTED FOR ANTI-MUSLIM BOMBINGS IN MALEGAON

Hindu extremists held over deadly bombings (Guardian (UK))

"Five people died in one of the explosions, in a crowded market near a mosque in Malegaon, 175 miles north-east of Mumbai, while a teenager lost his life in Modasa, in neighbouring Gujarat, when a bomb exploded in a predominantly Muslim area.

"Both came after a wave of deadly bombings apparently directed at middle-class Hindus in Indian cities and claimed by Islamists."