anti-caste

MURDERED FOR DEFYING CASTE-BASED SEGREGATION

In heat wave, Dalit beaten to death for using water pump (AFP)

“Police in north India said Wednesday they were hunting for a village strongman accused of beating to death an ‘untouchable’ neighbour who broke strict caste-based rules by using a local hand pump.

“Mohan Paswan, in his late 40s, was lynched in Parhuti village in Bihar state last Thursday when he disobeyed an order by a local thug not to use the pump during a heat wave.

“‘Paswan was attacked and brutally thrashed by a village strongman Pramod Singh and his henchmen for taking water,’ local police official Saroj Kumar told AFP.”

PUNISHED FOR CROSSING THE CASTE LINE: TWO RECENT CASES

Dalit youth allegedly ostracised over affair (The Statesman (Calcutta))

“A 27-year-old Dalit man in Haryana was allegedly humiliated and sent into exile for 11 years over his love affair with a higher-caste girl.

“His face was painted black as he was thrown out by his village panchayat. The panchayat at Putthi Samain village near Narnaund police station of Hisar district also fined him Rs 21,000. [...]

“In his complaint, the man said he fell in love with the girl from the same village while they were studying at a coaching institution in Meham tehsil. He alleged that when the girl’s parents came to know of the affair, they took the matter to the village panchayat. When he appeared before the panchayat on 31 May, its members reprimanded him, blackened his face and exiled him. The girl’s father also married her off on 2 June.”

Dalit’s house set on fire for eloping with a Muslim girl (Indian Express, June 4, 2012)

“Some unidentified assailants allegedly set the house of a Dalit man on fire for eloping with a Muslim girl in Kithora village in the district, police said today.

“The Dalit man Prateek had eloped with the girl on May 24, they said, adding, the girl was rescued and sent to Nari Niketan, while he was sent to jail for abducting her. [...]

“The Dalit family alleged that the accused have threatened them to leave the village or face the consequences, they said.”

BOYCOTTED BY HER OWN CASTE FOR DOING “DIRTY” WORK

Indian woman ostracised for taking sweeping job (The Telegraph (UK))

“Pinki Rajak, a 22-year-old member of the Dhobi community, which traditionally washes and irons clothes, caused outrage among her group's elders when she accepted a lowly sweeper's job at a local school near Raipur, Chhattisgarh. [...]

“Sweeping work in India, including shoe polishing, is reserved for members of the Chamar ‘untouchable’ caste, along with other ‘dirty' jobs like ‘night-soil carrying’ of human waste and tannery work. The Dhobis however are regarded as a ‘cleansing’ caste, said Dr Vidhu Verma, a caste expert at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“[The caste] elders believed [Ms Rajak] had stigmatised them by associating them with one of India's lowliest and most shunned castes.”

See also:

Woman accepts sweeper’s job, faces social boycott (Hindustan Times, June 3, 2012)

“Nearly 300 km from Raipur, the stigma of a ‘menial’ job is threatening to blow apart the lives of 22-year-old Pinki Rajak and her family. A member of the dhobi samaj (washermen community) in Koriya district’s Bardiya village, Pinki invited the wrath of her people for accepting the job of a sweeper at a school.

“The community has handed the family an ultimatum: Forget the job or be ostracised for 60 years. Quitting the job is not an option for Pinki.

“Repeatedly ill-treated by her husband, she had returned home to her parents. But her father Budhulal Rajak, who has a small cycle repair shop, already has three daughters, a son and wife to support.

“After endless rounds of offices, Pinki finally got this job.

“Then the community struck — notwithstanding Budhlal’s position as a regional secretary of the samaj. Pinki’s husband Kapil Dev was told that he would not be allowed to live with her till she quits the job.

“‘No one can live without money. Why should the caste system be tied to employment now?’ said Pinki.”

THE “BUTCHER OF BIHAR”–LEADER OF UPPERCASTE LANDLORDS IN CLASS WAR AGAINST THE LANDLESS, ORGANIZER OF DEATH SQUADS THAT TARGETED HUNDREDS OF IMPOVERISHED, UNTOUCHABLE MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN–DIES IN THE MANNER IN WHICH HE LIVED

India upper-caste militia leader Brahmeshwar Singh slain (Los Angeles Times)

“Brahmeshwar Singh, a wealthy landlord known as the ‘Butcher of Bihar,’ was killed in a hail of bullets Friday while taking his morning walk, ending a notorious chapter in Indian history.

“Singh, 67, the leader of a banned militia of upper-caste members known as Ranvir Sena, hit the headlines in the 1990s after he and fellow landlords were accused of the massacre of scores of lower-caste Dalits, or so-called untouchables, in central Bihar state. [...]

“The Sena, or ‘army,’ was formed in 1994 by landlords who felt threatened by the state's changing political winds, including louder calls for Dalit rights and land reform as well as a growing number of attacks on the wealthy by Maoists.

“Singh, who took over the group a few months after it was formed, was suspected of planning or directly participating in as many as 29 incidents in which more than 200 Dalits were killed. In 1996, 23 were killed in a village in Bhojpur district and in 1997 about 60 were slain in the state’s Lakshmanpur Bathe area.

“Little effort was made to hide the killings in Bihar, a state with a serious law-and-order problem and a centuries-old feudal structure that viewed landholders as a law unto themselves, analysts said.

“The attacks ‘were carried out openly during the day and at night,’ said Ajit Kumar Singh, a research fellow and Bihar native with New Delhi’s Institute for Conflict Management. ‘Sometimes victims were shot, sometimes butchered.’

“Singh went underground for several years after the group was banned, but he retained significant support among Bihar’s upper caste and would periodically hold high-profile news conferences.

“‘He became sort of a celebrity,’ said Sankarshan Thakur, an editor with the Telegraph newspaper and author of a book on Bihar's political system. ‘He knew how to work the system.’”

See also:

Butcher of Bihar: Brahmeshwar Singh alias ‘Mukhiya’ (Firstpost.com (India), June 1, 2012):

“The Ranvir Sena, loosely translated as the army of the brave, is suspected to have been formed around 1994 by landlords of the Bhumihar caste to battle growing Naxalite activism in the region and perhaps owes its creation to a fight between landlords and Communist party activists in which one person was killed.

“Singh, a graduate from the Jain College in Arra who was named village ‘mukhiya’ (headman) at age 17, and another landlord Dharicharan Chowdhury are credited with forming the militia and ensuring that their supporters were well equipped with weapons, provided allowances and other benefits.

“Competing with other militia like Sunlight Sena, Savarna Liberation Army, Brahmarishi Sena, Kuer Sena and Ganga Sena around the same time and which drew their cadre based on caste, the Ranvir Sena stood out with brutal massacres that catapulted them into the national consciousness.

“Horrific massacres like that of Baithani Tola in 1996 in which 21 were killed, mostly women and children; the 1997 Lakshmanpur-Bathe village massacre in which 58 were killed and the 1999 Shankarbigha village massacre in which 23 villagers were killed, ensured that the Ranvir Sena were feared and reviled.

“Promising to claim 15 lives of opponents for every murder of their own group, the Ranvir Sena were equipped with automatic guns and were dreaded for their night attacks in which they stormed villages and murdered perceived enemies. Despite being banned in 1995, the militia continued to go on rampages for years later and are accused of taking close to 277 lives.

“As the Ranvir Sena's clout grew, so did Singh’s status within his Khopira village in Bhojpur district and areas well beyond. The biggest landowner in his village owning 100 bighas of land, Singh was held in high esteem despite being on the run from the police who claimed to be seeking to arrest him in one of the 22 cases registered against him. Not all believe he was on the run as claimed thanks to his political links which were extensive.

“Proof of this was the fact that he continued to address meetings and was arrested only in 2002 while holding one such public meeting of a Ranvir Sena wing in a building located in a crowded area of Patna. Many believed his arrest took place as a result of the political cracks that emerged between the Ranvir Sena and the political parties that supported it.

“After his arrest, a defiant Singh told reporters, ‘I don’t have any remorse over the massacres carried out by the Ranvir Sena in its fight against Naxalite groups such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, or the CPI(ML) Liberation, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the People's War (P.W.) and their supporters, particularly among the landless poor and the backward Dalit community.’”

And see:

Cast of Killers (Outlook India, June 18, 2012):

“Brahmeshwar Singh, alias Mukhiya, is said to have once publicly justified the killing of Dalit women and children. The self-styled chief of the Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper caste landlords which unleashed terror in the 1990s killing fields of Bihar, was quoted as saying that Dalit children grew up to be Naxalites and the women give birth to them.”

And see further:

Ranvir Sena's reign to terror: Bloodshed between 1995-2002 (India Today, June 1, 2012):

1995 - Khopira (Bhojpur district): It was at the ancestral village of Ranvir Sena founder Brahmeshwar Singh, aka Mukhiyaji, that the outlawed militia of the upper caste landlords first struck, killing three scheduled caste agricultural workers.

1995 - Sarthua (Bhojpur): Six farm labourers belonging to scheduled castes killed.

1996 - Bathani Tola (Bhojpur): 22 agricultural workers belonging to the scheduled castes and Muslim communities killed.

1997 - Laxmanpur-Bathe (Jehanabad): 58 people belonging to scheduled castes gunned down.

1997 - Haibaspur (Patna): 10 more farm labourers belonging to scheduled castes killed.

1997 - Ekwari (Bhojpur): 10 people belonging to scheduled castes killed.

1998 - Nagri (Bhopur): 10 farm workers belonging to the scheduled castes killed.

1999 - Sendani (Gaya): 12 poor people massacred.

1999 - Narayanpur (Jehanabad): 11 people from the backward communities killed.

1999 - Shankarbigha (Jehanabad): 23 people of the village executed.

2002 - Mianpur (Aurangabad): 35 members of the backward and scheduled castes killed.

And:

A lasting signature on Bihar’s most violent years (Indian Express, June 4, 2012)

And see anti-caste: FINAL VERDICT IN BATHANI TOLA MASSACRE CASE (April 17, 2012)

UPDATE ON ONGOING SOCIAL BOYCOTT OF DEFIANT UNTOUCHABLE COMMUNITY

Caste-based discrimination against ‘untouchable’ Ahirwar in Madhya Pradesh (Asian Human Rights Commission):

“Maregoan Village has a population of approximately 2000 individuals. Out of these, 100 families are of the Ahirwar community. Dalits make up most of the agricultural labourers in this area, where Ahirwars (Chamars) compose a majority of the Dalits. The Ahirwar are classified as a Scheduled Caste in India. Ahirwar are spread across Gadarwara and in nearly all adjoining villages, playing an important role in the socioeconomic activities of the region. The Lodhi community in Maregaon village belong to what is termed in India as the ‘Other Backward Class’ (OBC). They own farmland and generally hire Ahirwar to cultivate their fields.

“Division of labour in the community has resulted in the imposition of certain menial and lowly occupations upon the Ahirwar. For centuries, the Ahirwar have been tasked to do ‘dirty’ jobs such as carrying the carcasses of animals. Despite the necessity of such workers, and for forcing them to take up such jobs, the Ahirwar are seen as being polluted by death and greatly despised. The Ahirwar are made to live in a hamlet separated from the main village.

“In 2009, the Ahirwar Samaj Mahaparishad built a consensus among the Ahirwar community to abandon the practice of carrying the carcasses of animals and shake off the label of ‘untouchable’ imposed by the dominant castes. This decision was first acted upon by three or four individuals and was soon claimed by other Ahirwar. In response, individuals from dominant castes began a social and economic boycott against the Ahirwar. The Ahirwar were not permitted to pass through the village and were forced to take a longer route in order to travel to other villages. The Ahirwar were prohibited from taking rations from the local shopkeeper; even the local milk vendor was intimidated by the Lodhi into not selling milk to the Ahirwar. The Ahirwar were even more cruelly persecuted through the denial of water from the hand pump located near the village temple. Prior to their decision to abandon the practice of carrying animal carcasses, the Ahirwar were still permitted to use this hand pump because there had been two at the time and the villagers were not facing a shortage of water. Today, the Lodhi have fenced in and put wire around the temple and areas surrounding it – this includes the hand pump the Ahirwar depended on for their water. In addition to such mistreatment and deprivation, the Ahirwar were further prohibited from using water from a communal water tank. This tank was also fenced in with wire by the Lodhi. The Ahirwar's cattle were also not permitted to partake of water from the tank. The Ahirwar face a severe shortage of water at this present time.

“Children of the oppressed castes are forced to clean the school while children from dominant castes are not. The school also discriminates through seating arrangements in class. To exacerbate the situation, the cook engaged in preparing the Mid-Day-Meal in Maregaon Village is a Lodhi. Despite efforts by authorities to relieve malnutrition in the area by implementing a Mid-Day-Meal scheme, the Ahirwar children who most require the sustenance are discriminated against. They are served only leftovers, if there are any, and the food is given to them from a distance. The Ahirwar children are also forced to bring their own plates while other students from the dominant castes are served from plates provided by the school. The children from the Ahirwar community are also fed insufficient amounts of food and punished for asking for more.”

See also anti-caste on the social boycott of Ahirwars in Gadarwara, Madya Pradesh: HOW CAN THE CASTE SYSTEM FORCE PEOPLE TO DO WORK THEY DON'T WANT TO DO? THIS IS HOW (November 27, 2009)

And see all anti-caste posts on the practice of social boycott

SEPARATE CUPS FOR UNTOUCHABLE CUSTOMERS AT TAMIL NADU TEA STALLS

Madurai villages still practising the two-tumbler system (The Hindu)

“Selvam is a postgraduate who works in a private company. Neither his economic or educational status can guarantee social equality at a tea shop in his village where he will be served tea only in a separate tumbler. [...]

“The village has a population of 90 families belonging to Dalits and 400 belonging to Piramalai Kallars.

“The village had already earned notoriety for its practices of untouchability where Dalits were prevented from using footwear in the caste-Hindu area.

“A few months ago, police intervened and filed cases against those who practised the discrimination after which it was stopped.

“The practice of having two tumblers has undergone many changes with subtler forms to escape the attention of monitoring agencies. Citing pollution, once Dalits were served tea in coconut shells; then came separate glass tumblers for Dalits which they had to wash themselves, while everyone else was served tea in steel cups.

“Then, Dalits were given tea in separate glass tumblers and in order to prevent the mixing of tumblers owners used red/yellow/green paint marks on the bottom of tumblers meant for Dalits. In many places, they were asked to bring their own cups. Now, for Dalits, it is disposable plastic cups and for others it is stainless steel cups. In most cases, Dalits can't sit on benches in tea stalls but have to squat or sit on the floor.

“A recent study by an NGO, Evidence, found that the two-tumbler system is in vogue in 104 villages in Tamil Nadu. Its prevalence was found to be high also in 14 villages in Coimbatore district. The practice was found in 14 villages in Dindigul district and in 13 villages in Salem.”

DEPENDENT UNTOUCHABLE COMMUNITY FLEES “SOCIAL BOYCOTT”

‘Discrimination’ forces 70 Dalit families out of their village in Haryana town (India Today)

“Humiliated, harassed and discriminated against, around 70 Dalit families have claimed that hostile conditions forced them out of their village in Haryana's Hisar district. They alleged that they were facing a social boycott by some uppercaste villagers.

“Protesting the alleged discrimination, these families locked their houses in Bhagana village and moved to the district headquarters. They claimed that the boycott of their community has been going on for over three months and the harassment ranged from being denied water from the community well to the use of abusive language on the streets.

“The boycotted Dalits also claimed that the uppercaste locals had illegally occupied their farm lands while they had been driven out. Camping outside the deputy commissioner's office since leaving their village, they have been demanding justice.

“‘We are in a very bad condition... Upper-class people have threatened the local grocery shop owners not to sell any item of daily use to us otherwise they will be fined Rs.1,200,’ alleged a protestor.

“‘We just asked for some space in the village land where we can feed our cattle and do some farming to earn our daily bread, but we were denied that right also,’ claimed another villager.

“Past incident

“Only a couple of months ago a Dalit man's left hand was chopped off after he drank water from the field of an uppercaste person in Daulatpur village. The man who attacked 26-year-old Rajesh was arrested.

“‘I did not imagine he would attack me with a sickle. He took it out from his blanket and cut my hand. He asked me where I was from. I said Sinyana. Then he asked me which community I came from. He then abused me how dare I drink water from his earthen pot,’ Rajesh said.”

See also anti-caste: FOR USING (AND THUS RITUALLY IMPURIFYING) DRINKING WATER POT LEFT OUT IN FIELD, UNTOUCHABLE SUFFERS HORRIFIC VIOLENCE (February 17, 2012)

And see anti-caste posts on the practice of social boycott

WOMEN’S OPPRESSION IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE CASTE SYSTEM: SOME RECENT ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN DEFENSE OF FAMILY HONOR

Mob lynches woman, man forced to attempt suicide (The Hindu, May 10, 2012):

“Madhavan, a Dalit, has literally escaped the noose and is grateful that he is still alive.

“On Tuesday morning, he was dangling from a sari, after he was forced to attempt suicide.

“But, there was no such luck for Chitra, a 29-year old caste Hindu, who was lynched by a village mob for her alleged relationship with Madhavan.

“The honour killing took place on Tuesday just after dawn in Vandal in Vedaranyam. Chitra and Madhavan were bullied and beaten up. Their crime was that their ‘relationship' was not only extra-marital, but also inter-caste.”

Minor Dalit girl sent out of village for inter-caste affair (The Hindu, May 3, 2012):

“A minor Dalit girl from Bannirsarige in Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka was forced to leave the village by her family and local people for falling in love with a boy from a different caste and, in their view, bringing ‘ignominy’ to the community.

“Suma (name changed), 17, and pregnant, was left to fend for herself after her father and other family members threatened to commit suicide if she did not leave the house.”

Father kills daughter for family honour (Deccan Chronicle, May 2, 2012):

“In a bid to save family honour, a man strangled his daughter at Gedellanka village of Mummidivaram mandal in East Godavari on Monday night as she insisted on marrying her lover who belongs to another community.”

Dalit youth, victim of honour killing (The Hindu, May 1, 2012):

“In yet another case of suspected honour killing, the Tirunelveli district police on Friday arrested four persons on charges of murdering a Dalit youth who fell in love with a caste-Hindu girl.

“According to police sources, S. Elango (25) of Periyar Nagar in Erode was invited for a discussion by his girlfriend's maternal uncle and his former employer Saravanan. When he went to see him in a village near Munnirpallam on August 5, 2011, Saravanan and his associates took Elango to an isolated place and murdered him. The body was thrown into a pond.”

NEPAL’S UNTOUCHABLE PROSTITUTE CASTE CONFINED TO THEIR TRADITIONAL ROLE–AND REPRESSED FOR IT

Caste Blocks Revamp of Nepal's Sex Workers by Naresh Newar (IPS)

“Sabitri Nepali was initiated into the traditional vocation of the Badis before she turned 14. Now, at 30, she is baffled by the changes taking place in a country struggling to climb out of a feudal past and transform into a modern, democratic republic.

“‘My family has survived on this trade for generations. My mother was a sex worker and I continued with the family profession. It was normal for us,’ Sabitri tells IPS in this remote village in Kailali district, 700 km west of Kathmandu.

“Badis, estimated to number 50,000, live in the western districts of Nepal but find work in the towns and cities of Nepal and neighbouring India, including Kathmandu, Mumbai and New Delhi.

“Four years ago the Nepal government banned the Badis from pursuing their traditional occupation after it came under pressure from local communities fearing that the districts where there were Badi concentrations were turning into red light areas.

“But, the government made no move to implement the ban, with the result that local communities formed monitoring groups backed by vigilantes that used violent methods to compel the Badis to give up their sole means of livelihood.

“‘We defied the ban and continued with our traditional occupation. How could we survive without incomes? Think about our children,’ says Kalpana Badi, 35, who like many others uses a surname that readily identifies her caste and her profession.”

See also:

The Badi: Prostitution as a Social Norm Among an Untouchable Caste of West Nepal by Thomas Cox (Kailash: Journal of Himalayan Studies, 1990)

VIDEO SHOWS UNTOUCHABILITY IN A GUJARAT VILLAGE

Why Dalits cannot get a haircut in their own village by Sanjay Parmar (Yahoo! India)

[CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO (1:34)]

“‘The question is simple - why do the Dalits of the village have to go all the way to the nearest city for a haircut when there are three barber shops right there? I posed this question to both an educated Dalit boy from the village and a non-Dalit barber. The barber hems and haws until his prejudice is split wide open, even in his denials. The Dalit youth, ends up saying a lot, despite being in an understandable, evasive hurry. This is the silent vocabulary of caste, of both the oppressed and the oppressor. This is how people really speak when they speak of caste. This is the status quo that must be challenged. This is where the camera comes in between,’ says Parmar.”

REPORT: GARMENT INDUSTRY IN TAMIL NADU RECRUITS UNTOUCHABLE WOMEN AND GIRLS AS SUPEREXPLOITED LABOR

“Maid in India”: Young Dalit women exploited in Indian garment industry (SOMO [Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen]: The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (Netherlands))

“Recruitment is targeted at young, mostly unmarried, women and girls, aged between 14 and 25. The majority of these workers have a Dalit (so-called scheduled castes) or other low-caste background and come from poor, often landless and indebted families that depend on irregular income earned as agricultural coolies in the dry south of Tamil Nadu. Orphans and children of single parents are also targeted. When free education ends at the 8th grade (at the age of fourteen) parents or relatives lack the means to enroll children in school. Agents that recruit for spinning mills or garment factories are aware of the situation and may approach poor families at this precise time. Brokers convince parents to send their daughters to the textile and garment factories with promises of a well-paid job, comfortable accommodation, three nutritious meals a day and opportunities for training and schooling. Clothes and household articles are also given to attract the parents. Sending the girls to work in the mills where they will receive daily meals is a relief for the household; the (small) income girls bring in is a much needed addition to the means of the family. The lump sum offered to the girls is a way to meet the social pressure to purchase jewels for their daughters’ marriage. [These recruitment and employment practices are often referred to as 'Sumangali scheme.’]

The Tamil word sumangali refers to a married woman who lives a happy and contented life with her husband with all good fortunes and material benefits. Workers under this scheme are recruited with the promise that they will receive a considerable amount of money after completion of three to five years of employment. This amount could be used to pay for a dowry. In this report, these workers are referred to as ‘scheme workers’. [Often, completing the contract period is a condition to receive the lump sum amount, which is not a bonus but made up of withheld wages.] If the lump sum is added to the monthly wages, the total amount earned in the contract period in most cases does not equal the amount a worker would have earned if she had received the minimum wage for an apprentice in the garment industry.

“[Labour migrants often live in strictly supervised factory-owned hostels where they have little opportunity for contact with their families, let alone with trade unions or labour advocates. Workers make long hours, including forced overtime, in some cases even up to 24 hours on end, for low wages, and under unhealthy conditions. Verbal and physical abuse is frequently reported.]”

Read the full report: “Maid in India”

See also:

Young Dalit women exploited in Indian garment industry (SOMO press release)

DESPITE INCREASING ENROLLMENT, CASTE BIGOTRY HOLDS UNTOUCHABLE CHILDREN BACK IN SCHOOL

In school, biases remain entrenched (Hindustan Times)

“For Dalit students in Perali village in Tamil Nadu’s Perambalur district, the route to school is long and dangerous. To reach the Government Higher Secondary School in the village, they need to carefully avoid streets that run through upper-caste neighbourhoods. They must instead risk the busy traffic of a highway as they circle these localities.

“Violating the village’s unofficial diktat could cost Dalit families their employment, as upper-caste communities control most of the economic opportunities even in the state that, for the past four decades, has seen politics centred on backward communities. [...]

“Statistics offer a reason for optimism, with Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Muslim students increasingly as likely to enroll in schools as students from upper castes. [...]

“But these statistics also hide the challenges these students face once enrolled in school.”

See previous posts on caste bigotry in schools.

FINAL VERDICT IN BATHANI TOLA MASSACRE CASE

All accused in 1996 Bihar Dalit carnage acquitted (The Hindu)

“The Patna High Court has acquitted all the 23 persons accused of perpetrating the massacre of 21 Dalits at Bathani Tola in Bhojpur in 1996.

“The carnage took place on the afternoon of July 11, 1996. Upper-caste (Rajput and Bhumihar) landowners of the Ranvir Sena — a private militia of the landlords — stormed Bathani Tola in Bhojpur district's Sahar block in Central Bihar and ruthlessly hacked the Dalits, among them women, teenage girls and babies less than 10 months old.

“Ajay Singh was charged with brutally killing 10-year-old Phool Kumari, Manoj Singh was charged with the murder of the three-month-old daughter of Naimuddin (one of the prime eyewitnesses) and Nagender alias Narendra Singh was charged with slaughtering two women, Sanjharu and Ramratiya Devi. They were awarded the death sentence by the sessions court.

“Bathani Tola, along with Laxmanpur-Bathe (where more than 60 Dalit men, women and children were slaughtered by the Ranvir Sena), have since become bywords for caste massacres that engulfed central Bihar from the mid-1990s onwards.”

See also:

Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s Untouchables (Human Rights Watch, March 1999):

“The Ranvir Sena was founded by upper-caste Bhumihars in Belaur village, Bhojpur district, in 1994. It first made international headlines in July 1996 with its attack on Bathani Tola in Bhojpur district, Bihar, which left nineteen Dalits and Muslims, mostly women and children, dead. Sixty members of the sena reportedly descended on the village and set twelve houses on fire. Using lathis, swords, and firearms, the attackers continued the onslaught for two and a half hours. The attack was reportedly in retaliation for the earlier killing of nine Bhumihars in Nadhi village, also in Bhojpur district, by the CPI(M-L). The conflict began when CPI(M-L) began organizing the agricultural laborers to demand the statutory daily minimum wage of Rs. 30.75 (US$0.77). Landowners were only willing to pay Rs. 20 (US$0.50). CPI(M-L) members convinced laborers to refuse employment at that wage and called for an economic blockade against landowners. The attack on Bathani Tola, press reports claim, was an effort to weaken the resolve of CPI(M-L) cadres organizing in the village and to prevent a labor boycott on hundreds of acres of land. None of the Ranvir Sena leaders were ever arrested for the Bathani Tola massacre.

“Since its inception, the Ranvir Sena has been implicated in killings, rapes and lootings in the villages of Belaur, Ekwari, Chandi, Nanaur, Narhi, Sarathau, Haibaspur, Laxmanpur-Bathe, Shankarbigha, and Narayanpur. On April 22, 1996, the sena gunned down five members of a marriage party in Nanaur village. The victims were believed to be CPI(M-L) supporters. In 1997 the sena killed three Dalits in Jehanabad district for raising their voice against the rape of a Dalit girl by upper-caste youths.”

And see:

Agrarian Conflict in Bihar and the Ranbir Sena (People’s Union for Democratic Rights, October 1997)

And see further:

A travesty of justice (editorial) (The Hindu, April 25, 2012)

members of the Ranvir Sena responsible for the Bathani Tola massacre (Outlook India)

UNTOUCHABLE STUDENTS PROTESTING CASTE-BASED DIETARY CODE ON CAMPUS ATTACKED BY HINDU-RIGHT

Violence in Osmania University as right wing students groups attack Beef Festival of Dalit students (India Today)

“Violence erupted in the historic Osmania University in Hyderabad on Sunday evening, when student groups representing right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad clashed with the Dalit and minority student groups in protest against the celebration of the first-ever ‘Beef Festival’ in the campus.

“The Dalit students were celebrating the ‘Beef Festival’ (Pedda Koora Panduga in Telugu) - cooking and serving of beef in the open - on the OU campus as an expression of their cultural identity and constitutional right.

“The students have been opposing the imposition of what they call Brahminical culture on the food habits of SCs, STs and minorities in the educational institutions.

“However, the event was strongly resisted by the ABVP students stating that it was against the Indian culture and would hurt the sentiments of the Hindus who treat cow as a holy animal.

“The rightwing student groups distributed pamphlets in the last two days asking the students to stay away from the beef festival. They described the festival as a mischief being perpetrated by a few individuals who claim themselves to be Dalit intellectuals and scholars having a political agenda.

“Trouble began at around 6.30 pm, when more than 1,000 students assembled at the Ambedkar Hostel, where the Dalit Students Federation made elaborate arrangements for the festival. [...]

“As the Dalit students were raising slogans, singing songs and eating biryani made of beef, several ABVP students swooped on the venue and ransacked the area. This resulted in the two groups of students attacking each other and pelting stones. Several students and media persons covering the event received injuries.

“As the students continued with stone pelting, the police had to lob teargas shells to disperse the students. The irate mobs also set afire a vehicle belonging to a television channel. [...]

“Beef festival organizer B Sudarshan, a research scholar, said it was unfortunate that some upper caste students tried to disrupt the festival which was going on peacefully. ‘We have not made any slaughter of animals in the hostel premises but only distributed food among the students to acknowledge the age-old custom of Dalits and minorities. We wanted to remove the dirty image associated with beef, as spread by the Brahminical culture,’ he said.”

See also:

The right to eat by S. Anand (Business Standard, April 26, 2012)

And see:

Hyderabad: VHP, Bajrang Dal men purify Osmania University campus (Express News Service, April 28, 2012):

“Just when the dust seemed to have settled at the Osmania University following the controversial beef festival, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal on Thursday conducted a ritual at a temple adjacent the Arts College to ‘purify’ the campus.”

And see further:

Is it India’s Rosa Parks moment? by Ajaz Ashraf (Daily Times (Lahore), April 27, 2012):

“For nearly a century and a half, the cow wasn’t just a cow but an incendiary political issue, which periodically ignited many a communal conflagration all around India. Underlying the acrimony was the demand asking Muslims to eschew beef-eating in respect for the religious sentiments of Hindus, who considered the cow holy. It tacitly assumed a monolithic Hindu community united in its veneration of the cow and the need to save her from the Muslim butcher’s cleaver.

“This assumption stands challenged in Hyderabad, not by Muslims, but by assertive lower-caste Hindus who were contemptuously treated and referred to as Untouchables and who now have adopted the nomenclature of Dalit (oppressed) for defining their identity. On April 15, Dalit students organised a beef festival at Hyderabad’s Osmania University, where 2,000 of them publicly partook of the savoury beef biryani even as a singer belted the song: ‘Beef is the secret of my energy.’

“This demonstration of defiance was in support of their demand to have beef included on the hostel’s menu. Their logic was — beef is taboo for high caste Hindus, not the Dalits, sections of other backward castes, Muslims and Christians, whose diet includes beef. In excluding it from the menu, the university, they said, is guilty of showing an unjustifiable predilection for the religious sensitivity of high-caste Hindus. At one stroke was thus shattered the myth of the Hindu community being a monolith.”

“IF YOU DON’T CLEAN OUR SHIT, WHO WILL?”: CRUELLY INADEQUATE GOVERNMENT SCHEME A SOURCE OF MASSIVE FRAUD BUT NO RELIEF FROM INHUMAN PRACTICE

A Blot upon the Nation (The Hindu)

“Fourteen-year-old Ravi used to be a beneficiary under the Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) 2007 as his mother cleaned toilets in the village. One day, when she gathered enough courage to quit the job, Ravi's scholarship funds were stopped and she faced hostility from the villagers who said, ‘If you don't clean our shit, then who will?’ Belonging to a family of six siblings, daily life has become difficult for Ravi. His mother is not getting any other job due to the stigma attached to her past one.

“This scholarship, which requires families to be engaged in manual scavenging for at least 100 days in a year, provides a perverse incentive to Dalit households to continue in the occupation. Once the families stop practicing it, the scholarships are also stopped. [...]

“In the absence of a proper mechanism in the implementation of the scheme, the survey found the presence of scheming middle men working in connivance with fraudulent bank officials.

“Middle men or commission agents would visit Dalit bastis telling households to sign on so and so papers as the government had chosen them as beneficiaries of a new scheme. The beneficiaries would never get to know the loan amount, sanctioning officer or other details of the transactions. After a while, the middle men would revisit them and hand over Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500. Many of these people did not even know why they were being given the money or how much money had been borrowed in their names. In Madhya Pradesh, around 68 per cent of the beneficiaries were taken for a ride by the brokers, in Uttar Pradesh, 63 per cent and in Rajasthan 62 per cent. [...]

“It came to light that Muslim communities such as Hela and Halalkhor have been completely ignored by Government programmes. These caste groups inhabit several states and have been as much a slave of this exploitative tradition as the Dalit Hindu communities.”

MURDERED BY HER BROTHER FOR MARRYING AN UNTOUCHABLE MAN

Honour killing of assistant professor? (The Hindu)

“In what is being described as an ‘honour killing', a married woman was strangulated to death allegedly by her brother at her residence at Alanahalli Layout here early on Tuesday.

“The victim, Smruthi (28), was an assistant professor in Kannada at the Government First Grade College at Kuderu in Chamarajanagar district.

“The accused, Mahadeva, had strongly opposed her marriage to Sudeep Kumar (28), a Dalit, who is an assistant director in the Physical Education Department in Tumkur University.

“Smruthi, a Lingayat, and Sudeep had a civil marriage last November after a seven-year courtship. They wanted to hold a wedding ceremony after getting the consent of their families.

“Smruthi, a native of Periyapatna taluk, who lost her father a year ago, was staying with her grandmother Nanjamma and a friend Savita Hegde. She was pursuing doctoral studies, according to sources.”

FOR USING (AND THUS RITUALLY IMPURIFYING) DRINKING WATER POT LEFT OUT IN FIELD, UNTOUCHABLE SUFFERS HORRIFIC VIOLENCE

Dalit’s hand chopped for drinking water from upper caste’s field (The Pioneer)

“Rajesh was called by a private contractor at Daulatpur village for doing labour work in some fields there. The incident took place when he went to the field of Rajender alias Pappu for drinking water from an earthen pot kept there. Pappu was also in the field at that time.

“After coming to know that Rajesh is from a Scheduled Caste, Pappu in a fit of anger allegedly attacked Rajesh with a sharp-edged weapon that left his hand dismembered.”

LATHOR ATROCITY: COORDINATED ARSON ATTACK ON ASSERTIVE UNTOUCHABLE COMMUNITY–45 FAMILIES LEFT HOMELESS

Upper caste people torch Dalit houses (Times of India)

“At least 30 houses of Dalits were torched by the upper caste community at Lathor village in Balangir district on Sunday night, following a clash between the two groups over a petty issue.

“The situation had escalated beyond control, with people so incensed that they even torched the fire-fighting vehicle that was brought in to extinguish the fire. No media persons were allowed to enter the village. [...]

“Police sources said four youths from Dalit basti in the village, under Khaprakhol police station, had gone to one Laxmi cloth store on Sunday evening to purchase some cloth. The shop owner Jaydev Meher, along with his two sons Daya and Bharat, reportedly had an altercation with the boys over the purchase, in which one of the Dalit boys was assaulted. The Dalit community took it seriously and decided to teach a lesson to the shop owner for assaulting a boy of their community. ‘The situation went out of control when the Dalits came in a group and attacked Bharat Meher, who was seriously injured and admitted to Khaprakhol hospital,’ said a senior resident of the village.

“According to him, the upper caste people then convened a meeting and marched towards Dalit basti at night. They torched the houses of the basti and within a short span the entire basti was ablaze. ‘We did not get time to save our belongings. We started running towards jungles to save our lives,’ said a resident of the basti.

“[A]bout 193 victims were rescued by police, which includes 33 boys and 85 women, all of whom were given shelter in a local high school.”

See also:

Fact-finding Report on Caste-Violence in Balangir, Odisha (February 19, 2012):

“We were taken straight to the Durgeshwari High School, which was providing temporary shelter to 193 people of 45 families. All of them are Dalits belonging to the Ganda caste. The entire Gandapara [Ganda neighborhood] of Lathore village was gutted down to ashes on the 22nd January by a mob of more than 500 people, most of whom belonged to the Meher caste. Since then, all of them are staying in the school building. We stayed with the affected families, spoke to them at length, visited their burnt locality and also spoke to people in the neighbourhood and in the Meherpara [Meher neighborhood]. What emerged from the variant conversations is that it was not a spontaneous incident, nor was it an incident of inter-caste feud. It was rather a planned attack on Gandapara, where the Dalits were economically, politically and educationally becoming assertive. It was a well thought-out attempt to demolish their growing prosperity and dignity. It was also clear that the people from the [backward] Meher castes were used by the [uppercaste] Marwari baniyas [merchants] and the RSS/BJP to unleash the violence on Gandapara.

“The incident: On 22nd January, a young Dalit boy Ganesh Suna had gone to the market to buy a new shirt. While coming out of the shop the shopkeeper Bharat Meher alleged him for stealing a shirt and beat him up. When Ganesh’s grandfather, an aged person came to confront Bharat, he was beaten up too. They reported the incident to the members of ‘Sri Krishna Club’ of Gandapara and a few men came and confronted Bharat. The people of Gandapara then went to lodge an FIR in Khaprakhol, police station which is 20 km from Lathor. The rest of the men of Gandapara were also in Khaprakhol attending a shradh ceremony. Back in Lathor a baseless rumour was spread that Bharat has been killed by the people of Gandapara. By 2 pm a crowd of around 500 people gathered near a temple. The belligerent crowd was provided with ample alcohol, petrol and kerosene. This crowd then was unleashed on the entire Gandapara where they targeted each and every household. Within the same locality there were houses of people belonging to other castes which were spared. The houses were completely looted first and then broken and finally set on fire. The carnage started at around 2 pm and the fire continued to burn till around midnight.”

NEW COW SLAUGHTER LAWS IN TWO STATES WITH HINDU-RIGHT GOVERNMENTS TARGET MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS, TRIBALS, AND UNTOUCHABLES

Of Laws, Cows and People’s Mutinies: Will the beef ban in BJP-ruled states fuel a new Mutiny? by Cynthia Stephen (Round Table India)

“The Gau-Vansh Vadh Pratishedh (Sanshodhan) Vidheyak (Prohibition of slaughter of cow-progeny Bill) just passed in Madhya Pradesh empowers the government to prosecute any person found slaughtering a cow or even transporting the calf for the purpose of slaughter. [...]

“In March 2010, the Karnataka assembly passed the The Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill 2010 by voice vote after uproarious scenes, and a four-hour acrimonious debate. [...] According to the Deccan Herald, the bill prohibits slaughter of cattle, sale, usage and possession of beef, puts restriction on transport of cattle and also prohibits sale, purchase or disposal of cattle for slaughter.

“The BJP governments in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh may have brought these laws with the intention of putting pressure on the lifestyle and livelihoods of the minorities. But are these bills acts of political bravado on the part of the BJP? According to the Economic Times, 6th Jan 2012, beef is the most popularly consumed meat in India – 26 lakh tons annually. In comparison, only 6 lakh tons of mutton and 14 lakh tons of pork were consumed in India. The article quotes the US Food and Drug Administration, saying India is in fact the third largest exporter of beef in the world, exporting as much as 1.28 million tons of it!

“In Madhya Pradesh, in particular, there is a large population of tribals - 13 million - for whom beef constitutes a staple. In Karnataka as well, large sections of the state's population will be affected directly once the bill passes into law, including farmers, milk producers, leather workers, most of whom are Dalits and Muslims, and of course the common man. [...]

“James, a young Dalit Activist, is more graphic. ‘You (upper castes) take the best of the cow - its labour, its milk, its offspring, and sell it after you have no use for it. When we find ways to use this resource, you attack us and even kill us (referring to the killing of 5 Dalits in Jhajjar, Haryana, in 2008, who were skinning the carcass of a cow after purchasing it). You are taking our livelihoods from us, even though we make it out of the waste you discard. Is this justice?’

“‘This law will take away food from the poor who cannot afford to buy chicken or mutton’, says another Dalit activist. ‘The cost of mutton, already high, will go up to one thousand rupees’, said Siddaramaiah, leader of the Opposition, during the Assembly debate. ‘Thus you will be thrusting vegetarianism on the people. This is only possible in Hitler's regime. Is yours a Hitler's regime?’”

See also:

Cow Dung Blocks Nuclear Radiation (and Why We Don’t Eat Horses) by Eric Randolph (Kikobor, January 12, 2012):

“An article in The Hindu newspaper yesterday made a pointed comparison to the condition of people in Madhya Pradesh, which has the country’s highest rate of infant mortality and lowest rate of literacy. [...]

“The law has come into force a decade after riots in the state that erupted when Hindu nationalists took to the streets over reports Muslims were secretly killing cows. The riots helped bring the BJP to power in Madhya Pradesh a year later, in 2003.

“The BJP’s campaign against cow slaughter is seen by some analysts as part of its ongoing attempt to create a pan-Indian nationalism out of the myriad identities that exist in India.

“‘Outside a small section of modernised Indians, many still think of themselves not as Hindus, but in terms of caste, language and sect,’ said Ashis Nandy, a leading social theorist with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi.

“Promoting a ban on cow slaughter, he said, ‘is an attempt to steamroll these other forms of identity and have people think of themselves purely as “Hindus”. It is a cynical attempt to consolidate political support.’”

And see:

Bajrang vigilantes cry cow-slaughter, beat, humiliate Muslim trader (Indian Express, January 7, 2012):

“A Muslim cattle trader’s son was beaten and part of his head, one eyebrow and half his moustache shaved off by alleged Bajrang Dal workers in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh after he refused to give them money to allow him to ferry cattle which the attackers alleged were meant for slaughter.

“Police rescued the 25-year-old victim, Anish Aslam Kureshi, but charged him with unlawfully transporting cattle for slaughter under a state law for preserving cattle, and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. A sessions court in Chhindwara ordered his release on bail today.

“His attackers, whom the police identified as Bajrang Dal workers, were also arrested, but were charged with minor offences. They were released almost immediately by the Bichhua police station.

“On December 22, a tough new Madhya Pradesh anti-cow slaughter law providing for seven years in jail for eating beef, empowering police to carry out raids on mere suspicion, and putting the burden of proving innocence on the accused received presidential assent.”

PRIESTS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL WALLOW IN THE FILTH OF CASTE-RIDDEN TRADITION

The Leftover God (Outlook India)

“The annual Champa Shasti festival held over November and December at the Kukke Subramanya temple in Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka has an unusual tradition. On all three days, the Shivalli Brahmins are served a multi-course meal in seclusion in the temple precincts. And after they are through, instead of clearing the spread plantain leaves on which the food’s served, Dalits, backwards and local tribespeople are allowed to roll on the leftovers.

“The belief is this ritual will cure the ‘devotee’ of ailments, especially skin-related ones, and will gift a child to those praying for a baby. It’s also considered an ideal form of thanksgiving to the local deity after ‘wish fulfillment’. The ritual, called ‘maade snana’ in Tulu and Kannada, is said to be over four hundred years old but there are no written records to prove such a claim.

“As the tradition reinforces and ‘enacts’ caste hierarchies, where even a Brahmin’s ‘jhoota’ [food ritually contaminated by contact with another’s mouth] is bestowed with powers to cure people from subaltern communities, it had been catching a lot of flak since last year from progressive groups in the state. Especially as this was being allowed in a temple that belongs to the muzrai department, a state-run body which administers Hindu temples.

“Last week, though, saw protests heating up more because after the huge outcry last year, the local administration had promised to end this ritual which violates basic human dignity. Apparently, under ‘pressure from devotees’, the administration allowed the practice from November 28 onwards. Nearly 4,000 people joined up to roll over the leftovers.

“What took the row beyond the usual temple affairs level was muzrai and higher education minister Dr V.S. Acharya’s statement that it was a ‘faith-based ritual and banning it was tantamount to hurting the sentiments of the people’. People immediately started questioning not only his credentials as a trained medical doctor, but also his RSS roots. They began asking if he would similarly allow dowry, child marriage and other social evils as they are also faith-based? [...]

“The complexity of the issue unravels itself when we take into consideration the largely illiterate Malekudiya tribe’s support for the ritual. When the local administration hinted at a ban, members of the ST community went on a rampage, even declaring that they would stay away from building the deity’s chariot, a traditional activity they have performed for years during the festival season. (If the chariot is not built, the festival will remain incomplete without the final procession of the deity.)”

LOW-CASTE NAMES, HIGH-CASTE NAMES

‘Dalit’ kids getting normal names (Republica (Nepal))

“In recent times, the Dalit community has started giving children normal names as opposed to past practice of giving kids odd names so that the names did not match with those of people belonging to higher castes.

“The recent political changes and the ensuing social changes have emboldened the community to give kids normal names.

“‘In the past, priests themselves did not give good names to our children,’ said Chokat Majhi, son of Aghan Majhi of Chorni-7, Parsa. ‘But I named my daughter Pooja,’ he added. Pooja, who is a nursery student, is very happy with her name, he further said.

“Many children who were given odd names are too ashamed to tell their names to people, said Matar Majhi. ‘My father´s name was Tula. But I names my son Raju,’ he added.

Dasai Chaudhary of Bakuliya, Bara, said the Dalit children, in the past, were named according to their color, build, month of birth, day of birth, or behavior.

India Dalit boy ‘killed over high-caste man's name’ (BBC News, December 2, 2011)

“A low-caste Dalit boy has been killed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for sharing a name with a man of a higher caste, police say. [...]

“Mr Chaudhary, who belongs to a higher caste, had given several warnings to Mr Sumer to change the names of his boys.

“On 22 November, Neeraj left home after dinner to watch television at a friend's house. His body was found the next day.

“Police said he was strangled.”

CASTE BIGOTRY KEEPS UNTOUCHABLE CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL

‘Untouchable’ in the classroom by Sukhadeo Thorat and Nidhi Sadana Sabharwal (The Globe and Mail)

“The pain is perceptible in nine-year-old Shankar’s voice as he recounts how he’s made to sit at the back of the class with other children from a ‘low caste’ group. He says his teacher doesn’t wish to accidentally touch them, keeping them as far away as possible from the rest of the children. His peers from the ‘upper caste’ call him an ‘untouchable’; when he complains to the teachers, they see no issue. ‘You are untouchable – what else should they call you?’

“His sister, who is 8, is asked to clean the classroom – that’s her task because she’s a girl and an ‘untouchable.’ At lunch, Shankar says the children from the other castes are served food provided by the government, while his fellow caste children are asked to wait outside the classroom; should any food remain after the teachers and ‘upper caste’ children have eaten, it may then be offered to Shankar and other children from ‘lower castes.’

“The children’s parents point out that a child who’s gone hungry for several meals is unlikely to be able to pay proper attention to classroom instruction. Shankar’s eyes well up with tears as he responds to questions about life as a Dalit child attending the local school. Other Dalit children tell of similar discrimination, complaining that the teachers don’t pay attention to them, call them outcasts and run down their abilities and enthusiasm for education. That’s why the Dalit children rarely go to school; their visits reinforce the feelings of persecution and discrimination.”

See also anti-caste: CHILDREN BOYCOTT SCHOOL WHERE TEACHERS TREAT THEM AS UNTOUCHABLE (April 25, 2011)

BARRIERS TO CIVIL MARRIAGE IN INDIA TARGET INTER-CASTE AND INTER-RELIGIOUS COUPLES

Thwarting a union (Communalism Combat)

“It is important to mention that any unmarried, sane, consenting adults (where the bridegroom is over 21 years of age and the bride is over 18 and who are unrelated within the degrees of prohibited relationship), irrespective of faith or caste, can get married under the Special Marriage Act. The couple from Rajasthan, who come from an inter-caste background, could have done so too. So why did they decide to have a religious marriage ceremony? It was almost certainly because they wanted to make sure their parents did not receive any intimation about their marriage through the official notice – as would any couple who anticipated threats to their life and liberty. [...]

“Barring Delhi, all other states follow the dangerous practice of sending a copy of the notice of intended marriage to the permanent addresses of the marrying couples [in non-religious ceremonies under the Special Marriages Act]. Thanks to the initiatives of the Delhi government and a landmark judgement by Justice S. Ravindra Bhat of the Delhi high court in April 2009, the practice of sending notices to the homes of couples desirous of solemnising their marriage under the Special Marriage Act was curbed. However, it has not been completely discontinued, as the officials fear the wrath of the parents of marrying couples.

“The administrations in Ghaziabad, Noida and Gurgaon in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are not even willing to bear the expenses of dispatching notices and they insist that couples provide pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes beforehand. Couples also have to publish an advertisement of their proposed marriage in a leading newspaper and submit a copy of the published advertisement to the marriage officer’s office. In Gurgaon, the concerned deputy commissioner’s office has taken the pains to add a column for specifying the applicants’ religion in the ‘Intent to Marry’ form and an additional point about the citizenship of the applicants in the declaration form. I wonder why religion should be mentioned at all in the one legally recognised marriage procedure intended to be outside the realms of faith or caste.

“The Gurgaon office also requires that couples provide envelopes bearing the names and designations of the marriage officers in districts where the applicants permanently reside. I can only speculate on the amount of homework a couple has to do before they file their application. A marriage cannot be solemnised under the Special Marriage Act without receipt of a verification report from the concerned tehsildar; and the report will not, of course, be issued as a matter of routine. The couple has to take great pains to ensure that the report is in fact released by the tehsildar’s office.

“Looking at just a few of the requirements essential for marriage under the Special Marriage Act, one can safely say that no couple would choose to go through the traumatic experience on its own. So those couples who are still determined to get married under the Special Marriage Act are forced to engage an advocate and shell out a large sum of money for his/her fees. Unfortunately, the majority of couples cannot afford the services of an advocate and thus, confronted by various hostile and complex sociopolitical pressures, they are forced to opt for a religious form of marriage.”

UNTOUCHABLE, BACKWARD-CASTE, AND MUSLIM HOUSE-SEEKERS ROUTINELY TURNED AWAY

Hyderabad: Caste and religion of the tenant come into play
(The Hindu)

“What usually begins as the rider ‘Vegetarians Only' scribbled on the rental sign, progresses further into the name, surname, home-town and antecedents of the home seekers till the caste is narrowed upon.

“‘Restrictions in terms of diet are often a ruse. If the prospective tenant has an upper caste tag to his name, he will be given the house despite his diet. The sign is put up only to keep Dalits off,’ says Mallepally Lakshmaiah, a noted Dalit journalist, who found himself in many such situations.[...]

“‘I was spurned by at least 12 landlords in Gachibowli-Madhapur vicinity apparently due to my caste. Majority among them directly enquired about my caste, while a few others said they would prefer vegetarians. It proved to be a Herculean task for me to obtain a house,’ says P. Sudhakar (name changed), a scholar from University of Hyderabad.[...]

“‘I had harrowing experiences during my search for house. An upper-caste landlord in Alkapuri invited us inside the house, and offered coffee before accepting the rent in advance. But once he came to know of our caste, he began to sound evasive. He first said his wife had to be consulted, and asked us to wait. Next day, we went only to receive the money back, that too from outside the main-gate,’ says N. Srihari Madiga, preparing for his Civils exam.[...]

“Faith begets a blunter refusal. Muslims are more often than not ghettoised to specific localities, whereas for Christians it gets more difficult if they are also Dalits.

“‘I encountered many refusals during house-hunting due to discrimination based on my faith. People seemingly willing to rent out hearing my fluent Telugu, would come up with all kinds of excuses after knowing my name. Some bluntly said they didn't want Muslims,’ recalled Syed Mohiuddin, a media professional.

See also:

Urban rules of untouchability (Media Voice, November 3, 2010)

HORRIFIC KILLING IN THE NAME OF CASTE PURITY AND PATRIARCHAL HONOR

Village watched as woman was set on fire by husband, in-laws (NDTV)

A married woman who tried to elope with her Dalit lover met a gruesome death when her husband and in-laws tried to hang her, then set her on fire in Madhya Pradesh.[...]

Guddi, who was married to Dhaniram, was trying to escape from their village with her lover. Her husband and his parents tried to hang her from a tree. When she survived, they allegedly beat her up, poured kerosene over her, and then tried to set her on fire. When that attempt to kill her also proved unsuccessful, they placed her on a wooden pyre and then lit a match.

She was finally killed near a temple while the whole village watched, police said.

See also:

Married woman killed for eloping with dalit (Times of India, October 25, 2011):

Guddi's younger sister Brijesh is married into the same family. She remained a mute spectator while Guddi was tortured to death. Police were surprised that Brijesh, an eyewitness to her elder sister's murder, refused to give a statement or talk about the incident. [...]

Guddi was married into the influential family of farmers more than a decade ago. She was about 15 years younger than her husband. She fell in love with a dalit youth Kamal Valmiki, who visited their village often. On October 2, Guddi eloped with Kamal to Delhi so that her husband and in-laws could not find her.

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT FOR DEMANDING PAYMENT TO PERFORM TRADITIONAL CASTE-BASED ROLE IN FESTIVAL

Dalits face boycott for refusal to beat drums (Express News Service)

“Dalit families in Kasuvanahalli village of Nagamangala taluk who demanded money to beat drums during the Ganesha idol immersion have been socially boycotted. Upper caste members had approached two Dalits, Shivaraj and Seetharam, to play drums during the Ganesha idol immersion procession.

“When they demanded Rs150 per person as wages, they were summoned near Mayamma temple by the village headmen and abused. When they further refused to play the drums, village headman Mudde Gowda, Parigowda and others abused their caste. They were forced to fetch water from a borewell were cattle are fed.

“The Dalit families were denied entry into the village. In fact, Dalit women have been removed from the self-help groups and humiliated constantly.

“As there was no electricity, the Dalit women had to collect water from a tank only to be threatened by upper caste youths that they would be paraded in nude.

“Meanwhile, MLA Suresh Gowda, who hails from Kasuvanahalli, held a meeting with the two groups and appealed to them to bury their differences. Shivaraj and Mayanna lodged a complaint with Nagamanagala town police station, charging that they fear for their lives and property.”

See also:

‘Rebel’ Dalits ostracised in Mandya (Deccan Herald, October 11, 2011)

DISGUSTING ATTACK TO ENFORCE SYSTEMATIC REFUSAL OF SERVICE ON THE BASIS OF CASTE

Barber cuts dalit’s nose in Mandya (Times of India)

“A barber and his father allegedly severed the nose of a dalit when he went to them for a shave in Kirugavalu of Malavalli taluk on Sunday.

“Police said Chikkamanchaiah, 51, requested Mahadev and his father Mariyayya to shave his beard. The duo not only refused to do it, but also asked him to leave the shop. A quarrel ensued, and Mariyayya grabbed Chikkamanchaiah's hands and Mahadev chopped off his nose. He was rushed to the district hospital where doctors reattached the nose.

“Chikkamanchaiah said poor dalits in the village are not allowed to enter shops. According to him, only rich and powerful dalits have access to barber shops. He requested police and the district administration to act against the culprits and put an end to untouchability.”

COMMENT ON A REFERENCE TO CASTE in William Dalrymple’s “Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India”

“One of Dalrymple's strengths is his refusal to render judgment, but when it comes to the question of caste, he throws in the towel. In a section about a sacred dance form called theyyam, he tells us that the performers who take on the aspect of the gods are ‘the shunned and insulted Dalits.’ When the performers remove their costumes, he tells us, they're no longer treated like gods but, once again, like untouchables:‘In the presence of persons of the upper castes,’ he writes, ‘Dalits are still expected to bow their heads and stand at a respectful distance.’”

–Miranda Kennedy (NPR)

NEPAL: UNTOUCHABILITY MAKES ORDINARY LIFE A MINEFIELD

Dalit family thrashed for touching non-dalit's feet (The Himalayan Times)

“Members of a dalit family at Kalyanpur VDC-7 have been mercilessly roughed up after a daughter of the family happened to touch the feet of an upper caste woman. [...]

“Roji complained that Narayan Khadka, Yasoda Khadka, Bikas Khadka, Deepak Khadka and Bishnu Maya Khadka Rimal barged into her home and thrashed the family members. [...]

“The unruly group attacked Roji's family after Sujana Pariyar inadvertently touched the feet of Bishnu Maya while boarding on a bus. Sujana is a tenth grader at Ajingare higher secondary school, Kalyanpur.”

OPEN OR COVERT, UNTOUCHABILITY IS A FACT OF LIFE IN HISTORIC TEMPLE DISTRICT

2-tumbler system in a new avatar in Pollachi (Express News Service)

“The scenic environs of Pollachi-Coimbatore’s most well-known tourist destination may welcome outsiders with open arms, but when it comes to treating their own Dalit villagers, tea stall owners here follow the socially abhorrent practice of the two-tumbler system.[...]

“In many stalls, tea is served in disposable plastic cups to Dalit villagers, whereas for customers belonging to the so-called upper castes, it is served in a glass. Worse, tea shops in villages such as Guruvekoundenpalayam, Kappilipalayam and Mettuvavi, have come up with an innovative two-tumbler system to deceive authorities in case of a surprise inspection.

“‘At the tea stalls in these villages, separate tumblers for Dalits are identified by dots marked in green or yellow at the bottom. In some cases, there is a cut mark on the top edge of the tumbler for Dalits,’ alleged K Marimuthu, president, Makkal Viduthalai Munnani, a local outfit which fights for the rights of Dalits.

“Tea shop owners, however, are hesitant to admit that Dalit customers were discriminated against and claim that they do not have separate tumblers for the caste Hindus. But a visit to most tea stalls proved otherwise.

<blockquote>
“While elders belonging to the oppressed sections have accepted the practice, presumably out of fear for caste Hindus, Dalit youth have begun to assert themselves against the practice.”

ANNA HAZARE: SINISTER “ANTI-CORRUPTION” CAMPAIGNER PUSHES PRO-IMPERIALIST NEO-LIBERAL AGENDA WHILE SALUTING COMMUNALIST BIGOTRY AND AGE-OLD CASTE OPPRESSION

I’d rather not be Anna by Arundhati Roy (The Hindu)

“Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People? Oddly enough we've heard him say nothing about things of urgent concern. Nothing about the farmer's suicides in his neighbourhood, or about Operation Green Hunt further away. Nothing about Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, nothing about Posco, about farmer's agitations or the blight of SEZs. He doesn't seem to have a view about the Government's plans to deploy the Indian Army in the forests of Central India.

“He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and has praised the ‘development model’ of Gujarat's Chief Minister who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims. (Anna withdrew that statement after a public outcry, but presumably not his admiration.)

“Despite the din, sober journalists have gone about doing what journalists do. We now have the back-story about Anna’s old relationship with the RSS. We have heard from Mukul Sharma who has studied Anna’s village community in Ralegan Siddhi, where there have been no Gram Panchayat or Co-operative society elections in the last 25 years. We know about Anna's attitude to ‘harijans’ [Gandhian term for untouchables]: ‘It was Mahatma Gandhi’s vision that every village should have one chamar, one sunar, one kumhar and so on. They should all do their work according to their role and occupation, and in this way, a village will be self-dependent. This is what we are practicing in Ralegan Siddhi.’ Is it surprising that members of Team Anna have also been associated with Youth for Equality, the anti-reservation (pro-‘merit’) movement [that opposes affirmative action on the basis of caste]? The campaign is being handled by people who run a clutch of generously funded NGOs whose donors include Coca-Cola and Lehman Brothers. Kabir, run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, key figures in Team Anna, has received $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last three years. Among contributors to the India Against Corruption campaign there are Indian companies and foundations that own aluminum plants, build ports and SEZs, and run Real Estate businesses and are closely connected to politicians who run financial empires that run into thousands of crores of rupees. Some of them are currently being investigated for corruption and other crimes. Why are they all so enthusiastic? [...]

“At a time when the State is withdrawing from its traditional duties and Corporations and NGOs are taking over government functions (water supply, electricity, transport, telecommunication, mining, health, education); at a time when the terrifying power and reach of the corporate owned media is trying to control the public imagination, one would think that these institutions — the corporations, the media, and NGOs — would be included in the jurisdiction of a Lokpal bill. Instead, the proposed bill leaves them out completely.

“Now, by shouting louder than everyone else, by pushing a campaign that is hammering away at the theme of evil politicians and government corruption, they have very cleverly let themselves off the hook. Worse, by demonising only the Government they have built themselves a pulpit from which to call for the further withdrawal of the State from the public sphere and for a second round of reforms — more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources. It may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee.”

See also:

Converging agendas: Team Anna and the Indian Right by Rohini Hensman (Infochange, September 2011):

“Questions were raised about the dangerously authoritarian character of the bill they were backing, with its creation of an unaccountable, unelected body that would have the power to tap phones, intercept emails, and remove every government functionary from the Prime Minister and Chief Justice to the lowest peon. Access to judicial review for those targeted by this all-powerful body would be meaningless, given its power to remove judges it did not like. By defining corruption as the disease rather than seeing it as merely a symptom of a deeper disease–power without accountability, power to commit crimes with impunity–the JLB was a formula to introduce a new source of corruption rather than eliminating it. It was also, potentially, an assault on India’s democratic institutions, one heightened by the demand that either the law should be passed by parliament by August 30, or the government should quit. [...]

“The enthusiastic participation of the RSS and other members of the Sangh Parivar also disturbed many.”

And see:

What is the real goal of the Anna movement? by Rohini Hensman (InfoChange India, November 2011)

DEADLY ECONOMIC ISOLATION OF DEPENDENT UNTOUCHABLE LABOR IN VILLAGE SHOWS MATERIAL ROOTS OF CASTE OPPRESSION

Socially boycotted dalits file case (Express News Service)

“Upper-caste people have allegedly socially boycotted these [thirty-two] families [in Nayakanur village] under the pretext that they refused to sweep cow dung at the house of an upper-caste family. Though the controversy has been there it came to light now since one of the dalit families lodged a complaint at Navalgund police station alleging their social boycott.

“According to police sources Basappa Madar, 64, was working as servant with Andanigouda Patil. Basappa and his wife recently refused to continue working for Patil family. Then, Patil allegedly asked the other families in the village not to give Basappa and his wife any employment. When dalit families questioned this, Patil asked his fellow villagers not to give work to any of the dalit families and even to boycott them socially.”

See also:

Dalits ostracised in Navalgund (Deccan Chronicle, August 18, 2011):

“The landlord instructed shop owners in the village, not to provide any foodgrains and tea to the dalits. They were prevented from fetching water from the tank, and threatened with hefty fine and other punishment for disobeying him. This prompted all dalits to desert the village, and evoked strong criticism from religious heads and the public.

“‘We don’t have any agricultural land, and earn our livelihood by working under the landlords, as bonded labourers. All dalit men are working as farm labourers, in the lands of landlords, and women are employed as maids in their houses. Our children are also employed in the houses of landlords. They get food grains instead of wages in return. We have been living under fear, and the harassment has been going on for many years,’ said forty-two year old Dalit Basappa Madar.”

AT INDIA’S ELITE UNIVERSITIES, SYSTEMATIC HARASSMENT OF UNTOUCHABLE STUDENTS

Protect-shun (Times of India)

“Anti-dalit sentiment erupted in 1991, when the V P Singh government decided to implement 27% reservation for OBCs. In the capital’s “left-leaning” university, JNU, caste clashes took place between students; in the dining-halls of IIT-Delhi, dalits were forced to sit on separate tables, and the walls of urinals in Delhi University were covered with puerile graffiti. And the authorities just watched. ‘The atmosphere in our institutions is very brahminical as the upper castes dominate the faculty. In such an environment, the lower caste students automatically become outcastes,’ says Dilip Mandal, who teaches at Delhi's Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). [...]

“Many, however, have fought back. Dr Ajay Singh, who joined AIIMS in 2002 with the same marks as the cut-off for "general" students, was the only dalit in his hostel wing. He was barred from entering the carrom-board room and one day someone scrawled ‘Nobody likes you here. F**k off’ on his door. But Dr Singh fought back and that led to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointing a three-member committee, headed by University Grants Commission chairman Sukhdeo Thorat, to look into caste harassment in the country's top medical institutes. The report was shocking: dalit students were bullied into vacating their hostel rooms, leading to a ghetto being formed on two floors of a hostel; they were specifically targeted during ragging; they were not allowed to play cricket and basketball; they were not allowed to eat in the ‘upper-caste mess’; and the teachers ignored them in class, sometimes deliberately failing them in exams. Shamed by the damning report, AIIMS took some remedial steps. ‘Now the hostels are allotted through a lottery system and general harassment has come down a bit, but all the recommendations of the panel are yet to be implemented,‘ says Dr Singh, who now works with a government hospital in Delhi.”

See also anti-caste: VICIOUS CASTE BIGOTRY IN HIGHER EDUCATION (May 8, 2011)

B.R. AMBEDKAR’S “ANNIHILATION OF CASTE” 75 YEARS LATER

Annihilating caste by Bhalchandra Mungekar (Frontline)

“The Jat Pat Todak Mandal, a social reformist organisation of Lahore, had, in 1936, invited Dr B.R. Ambedkar to deliver the presidential address of its annual conference on the topic of the caste system in India. Ambedkar sent the manuscript of his speech titled ‘The Annihilation of Caste.’ However, the organising committee found some of his views, particularly his critique of the Vedas and his inclination to leave the Hindu fold, unacceptable.

“It, therefore, suggested to Ambedkar that he delete these views, to which he replied that ‘he would not change a comma.’ The speech thus remained undelivered. Ambedkar subsequently published it in May 1936. [...]

“In The Annihilation of Caste, Ambedkar, probably for the first time, raised many profound questions with respect to caste. First, he rejected the defence of caste on the basis of division of labour and argued that it was not merely a division of labour but a division of labourers. The former was voluntary and depended upon one's choice and aptitude and, therefore, rewarded efficiency. The latter was involuntary, forced, killed initiative and resulted in job aversion and inefficiency. He argued that caste could not be defended on the basis of purity of blood, though pollution is a hallmark of the caste system. [...]

“But most importantly, according to Ambedkar, caste destroyed the concept of ethics and morality. To quote him: ‘The effect of caste on the ethics of the Hindus is simply deplorable. Caste has killed public spirit. Caste has destroyed the sense of public charity. Caste has made public opinion impossible. A Hindu's public is his caste. His responsibility is to his caste. His loyalty is restricted only to his caste. Virtue has become caste-ridden, and morality has become caste-bound.’ [...]

“Ambedkar did not spare the socialists or the communists either. He vehemently attacked the communists for their doctrinaire approach to caste in treating it as the superstructure and argued that unless they dealt with caste as a basic structural problem, no worthwhile social change, let alone a socialist revolution, was possible.”

Read The Annihilation of Caste in this excellent online edition by
Prof. Frances W. Pritchett of Columbia University

CASTE-BASED SLAVERY IS COMMONPLACE, NOT TREATED AS A CRIME

Cops ignore dalits in bondage (Express News Service)

“Police have failed to book perpetrators under the SC/ST atrocities law in the case of a Dalit family that was allegedly harassed and publicly beaten by caste Hindus in K Thattumal Village, Kumbakonam. In fact police helped the main accused get an anticipatory bail.

“K Rajamanikkam (39) and his wife Radha had worked as bonded labourers at a brick kiln owned by Thalaiparamasivam of Devanachery. Thalaiparamasivam had promised the couple Rs 15,000 for one year’s work. But, after a year, he refused to let them leave. Instead he claimed they owed him money [...], Rajamanikkam’s sister 44-year-old Vijaya said. [...He] demanded Rs 10,000 rupees to free them from his control.

“‘We borrowed Rs 10,000 and paid him. But in five days, he and his associates Murugan and Loganathan, came and beat us with logs. My brother sustained a head injury and my hand was broken,’ she said.

“‘When they approached the Swamimalai police station, the police recorded Vijaya’s statement, but obtained her signature without even reading out the statement to her,’ said A Kathir, Executive Director of Evidence, an NGO that works for Dalit rights. When the Evidence team examined the case, they found the police had invoked neither the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the aggressors nor booked them under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act.

“According to Kathir, most Dalits and other people from the subaltern community worked as bonded labourers in the brick kilns owned by caste Hindus in Kumbakonam, but action had not been initiated by the police or district administration.

“Worse, Rajamanikkam moved from Thalaiparamasivam’s brick kiln only to end up a bonded labourer in another brick kiln.”

UNTOUCHABLES OPPRESSED BY DOMINANT CASTE IN VILLAGE–THEMSELVES LOW-CASTE

TN dalit boy thrashed for fetching water from public tap
(Times of India)

“Caste Hindus of a nondescript village on the outskirts of Coimbatore allegedly assaulted a 16-year-old dalit boy on Sunday for attempting to fetch drinking water from a public tap in the area.

“The boy, A Vasanthakumar, is now recovering at a government hospital in Annur, about 25 km away from Coimbatore. A Class X student, Vasanthakumar belongs to the dalit Chakkiliya community. He resides at Nallichetty Palayam, a dalit hamlet outside Annur town. The area is reeling under extreme water scarcity.

“As per the complaint lodged with the police, Vasanthakumar on late Sunday evening went on his bicycle with empty pots to Karikkilipalayam, about 4km away from his home, to fetch water. Dominated by Kongu Chettiyars, classified as a most backward caste, Karikkilipalayam is blessed with round the clock water supply as a pipeline of the Pillur water scheme passes through it. He reached a public tap located at around 9 pm and started collecting water. Three women of the Chettiyar community, who had come to the tap, started abusing him using caste names. When he protested, they beat him up. The women told him that they would not allow any untouchable to fetch water. A local butcher named P Damodaran Chettiyar also roughed him up.

“Vasanthakumar, who sustained injuries in the attack, was admitted to Annur hospital. His father Anandan, a coolie, said dalits were prevented from cutting hair at saloons in the locality and prevented from using mobile phones outside their huts.”

CASTE HINDUS AND THE STATE REINFORCE AGE-OLD SEGREGATION

Untouchability wall sparks tension in TN village (Express News Service)

“An Uthapuram-like situation is developing in a small village at Srivilliputhur in Virudhunagar district following the construction of an ‘untouchability wall’ by a dominant community there in the aftermath of violent caste clashes that rocked the hamlet on May 15.

“Strongly segregated in terms of caste, W Pudupatti, near Sivakasi, has seen conflict and tension between the Naidus, Saliyars, Pallars and Paraiyars since the 1960s. The series of clashes, the latest between the Pallars (backward Hindus), numbering about 500 families, and Paraiyars, comprising 300 Dalit Christian families, was the result of a ‘hidden apartheid’ prevailing in the village, rights activists have alleged.

“Signs of the confrontation were visible in the Dalit settlement, which bore the brunt of the attacks, even after a fortnight. The clash reportedly broke out when a Dalit youth Jayaram Anthony (24) went to buy a mirror from a shop near a Pallar street and was threatened and beaten up by two Pallar youth. [...]

“Claiming that the State machinery was siding with the higher-caste groups, the villagers said after the incident, a wall, segregating the higher caste Saliyars and the Dalit quarters, was constructed under the supervision of the district SP and tahsildar. Official line: The new wall marked the boundary of a Saliyar-run school.

“Describing the structure as an ‘untouchability wall,’ the Dalits, however, said they had been using the path for several years without causing inconvenience or obstruction to anybody. They alleged that the real purpose behind the sudden construction of the structure was to cut off the main escape route for the Dalit men in the event of caste clashes, which have become an annual feature.

“A life lived in perpetual fear, the status of Dalits in W Pudupatti reflects the general pattern—discrimination and abuse at the hands of higher-caste groups. Denied access to land, they roll cracker sticks for their livelihood. [...]

“Nevertheless, academic forte appears to be the silver lining as well as the sore point. A Jayakumar (28), a B Ed graduate, said the higher-caste groups could not digest the development of the community through education.

“It has also inculcated in them a deep awareness of their rights and intolerance to oppression.”

See also: anti-caste: SEGREGATION OF UNTOUCHABLES STILL REINFORCED WITH BRICKS IN TAMIL NADU VILLAGE (May 13, 2009)

VICIOUS CASTE BIGOTRY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

In Dalit student suicides, the death of merit (The Hindu)

“He killed himself in his college library, unable to bear the insults and taunts. The suicide note recovered from his coat pocket charged his Head of the Department (HOD) with deliberately failing him and threatening to fail him over and over. Seven months later, a three-member group of senior professors re-evaluated his answer sheet and found that he had in fact passed the test.

“Medical student Jaspreet Singh, a Dalit by birth, wanted nothing more than to become a doctor. Tragically, he fulfilled his ambition posthumously. A year later, his young sister, a student of Bachelor of Computer Application, also committed suicide, heartbroken at the injustice done to her brother.

“Shocking details about the January 2008 suicide of the Chandigarh-based student have emerged following recent investigations by Insight Foundation, a Dalit-Adivasi student group that has compiled a list of 18 suicides by Dalit students studying in reputed institutions of higher education across India in the past four years. [...]

“The evidence is clinching in this case. Jaspreet's suicide note; a certificate affirming Jaspreet's handwriting from the Directorate of Forensic Science, Ministry of Home Affairs, Shimla; testimonies from Jaspreet's friends; and finally, the re-evaluation of the answer sheet by a three member body of doctors from PGI, Chandigarh.

“All three doctors, Rajesh Kumar, Amarjeet Singh and Arun Kumar Aggrawal, specialised in Community Medicine – the subject in which Jaspreet was failed. Yet till date, no action has been taken against the guilty HOD or the college.”

See also:

“The Death of Merit”: A Documentary

UNTOUCHABILITY IN A TAMIL NADU VILLAGE

A village where dalits can’t wear footwear or ride bikes (Times of India)

“When G Thangapandian (27), a dalit youth, decided to challenge the caste diktat that dalits should not ride motorcycles on Kaliamman Street, it ended in a brutal attack on his house by a mob of over 500 persons, including women armed with broomsticks.

“‘If I am alive now it is because of this grill gate,’ pointed out G Murugan, Thangapandian’s brother. The gate was damaged in several places. ‘The mob tried to break open the gate with boulders, but left later on Saturday night,’ said Murugan, fear still evident on his face.

“The dalits, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and economic status of the more influential Thevars, obeyed the diktats: they did not wear footwear and they did not ride bicycles or motorcycles on Kaliamman Street. ‘We are served tea in different tumblers and we are not entertained in the barber shops in the village,’ said Murugan’s father Guru.

“The village has been a witness to the worst forms of caste discrimination, as even schools have become a platform for such practices. ‘My non-dalit classmates would demand that I address them as Ayya [sir]. If I call them by their names they would abuse me with filthy words and threaten me,’ said M Palani, who just completed his Plus-Two in the higher secondary school in the village.”

See also:

Dalit thrashed for riding bike in ‘upper caste’ lane (Mumbai Mirror, May 4, 2011)

And see:

Untouchability taking new forms, says study (Deccan Chronicle, May 5, 2011):

“A survey conducted by Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) in 22 districts has revealed the prevalence of 86 forms of untouchability in the state’s villages.

“Dalits are not even allowed to use ringtones of movie songs. ‘A dalit in Coimbatore was beaten by caste Hindus for using MGR movie song Naan Aanaittal Adhu Nadanthu Vittaal as his ringtone,’ TNUEF convenor P. Sampath said.

“The discrimination against dalits even exists in matrimonial websites. ‘We have come across entries made by upper caste persons stating that dalits need not apply,’ he said.

“In the survey, Mr Sampath said they come across the practice of dalits being prevented from walking on the public road wearing slippers, riding bicycles, wearing dhotis folded or polyester dhotis, wearing towels on their shoulder, wearing cloth headgear, sporting thin line moustaches and getting clothes washed or ironed.”

And see further anti-caste: OVER 80 FORMS OF UNTOUCHABILITY FOUND IN PRACTICE IN TAMIL NADU (June 12, 2010)

CASTE-BASED FORCED LABOR: REFUSAL IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH

Caste killing exposes India’s secret shame (The Australian)

“A mere 100km from the shiny malls and housing estates of New Delhi, three upper-caste men murdered a Dalit labourer this week for refusing to obey an ancient feudal law demanding he toil their land for free.

“The body of 42-year-old Karam Chand was then paraded on a bicycle through the village of Nirgajani, in Uttar Pradesh, as a macabre warning to other ‘untouchables’ that the writ of a modern state did not extend into the heart of rural India.

“The system of begari–in which low-caste Indians were obliged to provide unpaid labour to landed classes–was officially outlawed by the Indian government in 1976.

“According to reports this week, Chand was attacked after refusing the demands of three brothers–former employers–to help harvest a wheat crop.

“Chand’s son Monu, who was working alongside his father on their own land when the attack occurred, said: ‘My father refused them because they didn't pay him anything for earlier work. They had declared that we would have to follow their order or leave the village.’

“When he refused, the trio attacked, chasing Chand into a temple, where he was shot. ‘They hauled his dead body on to a bicycle and took out a procession. They were shouting that anyone who defied their order would be killed,’ said Monu.

“While local police spokesman Jawahar Singh confirmed the son's account, he insisted ‘such incidents are far and few between.’

“But he conceded the village was predominantly a stronghold of the Jat caste, a group which continues to defend the caste Panchayat system of local governance, which doles out summary justice, such as honour killings, for alleged caste crimes.”

CHILDREN BOYCOTT SCHOOL WHERE TEACHERS TREAT THEM AS UNTOUCHABLE

Dalit kids: “Untouchables” and uneducated too (Times of India)

“Dalit children at a school in Jagatsinghpur district do not know where they went wrong with their studies because teachers refused to check their notebooks. ‘Ame achuta (We are considered untouchables). The teachers refuse to touch our books and our homework is never corrected,’ said Bijaya Mallick, a student of Class IV at the school at Keutapala in Balikuda block. ‘If we even touch our teachers by mistake, they scold us for polluting them,’ he added.

“The 40 odd Dalit students in the school were allegedly singled out and made to clean classrooms and toilets. ‘I clean toilets at school,’ said Samir Mallick, a Class V student. He looked puzzled when asked why he agreed to do so. ‘The teachers tell me to do it,’ the 11-year-old boy said. ‘We are not even allowed to take water from the drinking pot at school,’ he added.

“Several students and their parents complained that they were victims of caste discrimination by the school staff since long. The final straw, however, was when teachers refused to serve mid-day meals to the children. This prompted incensed parents not to send their wards to school for the past one week.”

See also:

Dalit school children prevented to take mid-day meal with upper-caste students (OrissaDiary, May 2, 2011)

And see anti-caste: SEGREGATED AND HUMILIATED IN THE CLASSROOM (November 28, 2009), REPORT ON CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION IN SCHOOLS (June 25, 2009), and CASTE BIGOTRY IN INDIAN SCHOOLS GOES UNPUNISHED (September 27, 2008)

COW SHIT PURIFIES WHAT A HUMAN BEING MADE UNCLEAN

Retired dalit officer’s room “cleansed” using cowdung water (PTI)

“In a shocking incident, the office room and furniture used by a senior government official belonging to a scheduled caste community here were ‘cleansed’ by sprinkling cowdung water, allegedly by some employees shortly after his retirement from service. A K Ramakrishnan, who retired as Inspector General of Registration on March 31, has moved the State Human Rights Commission seeking an inquiry into the incident. He said in the complaint that he had reliable information that some employees in the office sprinkled ‘cowdung water’ over the tables, chairs and even inside the office car used by him while in service. He said he believed that the ‘cleansing’ was performed as he belonged to an SC community and it amounted to violation of his human rights and civil liberties. [...]

“Asked about the incident, Ramakrishnan said he would vigorously pursue the case as he considered it as an insult to the socially depressed class. ‘I take this not just as a personal insult. This is a humiliation heaped on the socially depressed classes as a whole. If this is the experience of a person who had held the topmost post in a government department, what would be the situation of ordinary people belonging to the lower rungs of social strata?’ Ramakrishnan told PTI. ‘All these five years when I worked as IG of Registration I had bitter experiences. But I have suffered them without getting worked up. But what has happened even after my retirement is really painful,’ he said.”

NEPAL: IMPOVERISHED LOW-CASTE WOMEN THROWN INTO TRADITIONAL CASTE-BASED SERVITUDE

Dalit women into Balighare profession (The Himalayan)

“An increasing number of Dalit women in Banke district are attracted towardsan annual labour contract called Balighare Partha locally under which so-called high caste people give food in return to their hard work and service.

“Until recently the age-old Balighare occupation was dominated by Dalit men. Prem Kala BK of Chisapani-9 is an example of increasing number of women taking up this profession mainly by women from Bishwokarma community among other Dalit castes.

“Lately she has started working in her forge, where only her husband used to work till some time ago. She melts metal in the forage and crafts kitchen utensils and sickles, knives, hoes and other traditional weapons of neighbours. In return, she gets rice, maize or millets (as per her choice) for her whole year’s works from them.

“Sewing clothes as well making hand drums and other musical instruments are also part of Balighare system in existence in the district from ages taken up by Dalit people as their one of the major sources of livelihood.”

anti-caste: In the balighare partha system, one of several traditional forms of caste-based labor extraction in Nepal, members of (low-ranking) artisan castes provide services to upper-caste landholders in exchange for one meager allotment (perhaps ten, fifteen, or twenty-five kilograms) of inferior food grain annually at harvest time.

See also:

Dalits continue to be exploited in Nepal (Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle, October 24, 2010):

“Dal Man Bishwokarma, a resident of Rautaha village in Udayapur, not only manufactures domestic weapons and equipments used in farming but also repairs them. He provides his service to 21 Bishta families. However, he gets only 10 pathis [about 50 kilograms] of maize once a year from each of them.

“During festivals like Dashain and Tihar, Bishta families provide Dal Man with a mana (one mana is roughly equal to half a kilogram) of rice and Rs 20 each. His family has to survive on this meager income for the whole year. ‘With this income, I find it difficult to make ends meet even for six months,’ he said. ‘For the rest of the year, I have to go somewhere else to work as a laborer.’

“The tradition, which exploits Dalits’ labor, is still in fashion mainly in Bhutar, Nametar, Bhalayodada, Panchawoti, Dumre, Barre, Iname, Jante, Thanagau and Laphagau villages. Harka Bahadur Pariyar, a resident of Jaate village where 24 Dalit families are stuck in this tradition, said, ‘We have been surviving like this for generations.’”

UNTOUCHABLE COMMUNITY DENIED LIVELIHOOD AND BASIC SUPPLIES OUT OF BIGOTED CONCERN OVER RITUAL PURITY OF VILLAGE’S DRINKING WATER

‘Caste’ Hindus boycott Dalits in Hosapura (The Hindu)

“The scourge of untouchability has raised its ugly head in Hosapura village of Malavalli taluk, Mandya district, where a group of ‘caste' Hindus allegedly created ruckus over the appointment of a Dalit as a valve-man.

“The incident took place early last week and threatened to split the community on caste lines. Police have arrested three persons in this connection but this served only to escalate the tension as ‘caste' Hindus questioned the ‘temerity’ of the Dalits to lodge a police complaint against them.

“Sources said the genesis of the tension could be traced to the decision of the Gram Panchayat Secretary Siddaraju, who appointed Venkatesh, a Dalit, as the valve-man to release water to the village. When a group of persons saw Venkatesh releasing water, they raised a hue and cry on the ‘propriety’ of using the water released by a ‘Dalit valve-man,’ said sources.

“As a result, tension built up in the village and a section of the aggrieved community lodged a police complaint, following which three persons, identified as Shivu, Basavaraj and Prakash were arrested and later released on bail. Irked by the ‘audacity’ of the Dalit community, they have been allegedly boycotted by people from other communities, sources said.

“However, Shivaramu, Social Welfare Officer of Mandya told The Hindu that he had visited the village and inquired into the incident which presented a different picture.

“He said the village community had strong political affiliations and was split along party lines. ‘It transpired that the appointment of a Dalit was not the issue. The warring groups wanted one of their confidantes to be given the job of the valve-man. However, a few outside elements gave a caste twist to the appointment of Mr. Venkatesh, which led to tension following which three persons were arrested and later released on bail,’ Mr. Shivaramu said.

“‘I visited the village twice after the incident was reported and the allegations of Dalits being denied work in agricultural farms was false. Landlords and landless labourers are mutually dependent and one could not do without the other,’ he added. Mr. Shivaramu said the situation was now under control and the district administration has ensured supply of groceries and other essential commodities to the Dalit colony.”

CHILDREN AND CASTE-BASED BONDED LABOR IN NEPAL

Most of Jajarkot Dalit children deprived of education (The Himalayan Times (Kathmandu))

“Based on the findings of a three-month study that it conducted in the district from December-end, the NGO Dalit Women Empowerment Forum states that roughly 60 per cent of the district’s Dalit children — 8,000 of 13,300 — are deprived of education.

“Children from poor Dalit families make the most of the illiterate children.

“According to Gita Sunar, the forum chairperson, most of these children are from landless families. They have been working as khaliya and haliya (farm labourers) to make a living. The report states that 468 Dalit families of the district have been working as haliya and 126 families have been working as khaliya.”

See also:

NEPAL: The Haliya bonded labour slavery system must be abolished without further delay (Asian Legal Resource Centre, August 26, 2010):

“The Haliyas (literally, ‘one who tills land’) are enslaved within a system of bonded labour, and are forced by a landlord or ‘master’ to execute various hard labour duties (usually agricultural) for many years, often for an entire lifetime. Other than the agricultural work, Haliyas fulfil a range of duties, including making tools (such as spades, knives, and sickles) out of iron, grazing animals, sewing clothes, making utensils and pots, and so forth. The labourers are not paid a wage for their extensive work; often they are only provided with a small amount of food. Extreme poverty and debt in the western and far western regions of Nepal has relegated many members of the lower castes, known as Dalits, to Haliya status.

“Haliyas are forced to till a small patch of land in order to repay a debt, and are often held captive with their entire families. The enslaved Haliyas typically have no direct association with any debts; in the overwhelming majority of cases, the laborers are held because of debts accumulated by their ancestors over many generations. Such debts are often so excessive that a Haliya’s work over an entire lifetime will not generate sufficient revenue to even marginally reduce the interest incurred on the debts. [...]

“Despite being malnourished, Haliyas are expected to perform extraordinarily demanding labor duties. According to a custom known as Doli, they must carry exorbitantly heavy wooden carriages on their shoulders for hours at a time. Another custom (Khali) dictates that Haliyas are entitled to no fresh food at all–only leftover goods from the harvest. Despite working excessively long hours to fulfill grueling tasks, Haliyas typically receive only a bowl of white rice per day for their labor. [...]

“The overwhelming majority of Haliyas are Dalits. In fact, Nepal’s system of caste discrimination remains a direct factor leading to both the origins and continuation of the Haliya system.”

And see:

Policy spoke in Haliya rehab wheel: Ad hoc approach exacerbating their woes by Kamal Raj Sigdel (Kathmandu Post, April 25, 2010):

“Although the government outlawed Haliya practice on September 6, 2008, unsurprisingly most of them are still working for their landlords.

“‘When the Kamaiya system [of bonded labor in the Tarai region] was outlawed in 2000, it actually liberated the landlords, not the bonded labourers,’ says Laxman Kumar Hamal, member secretary of the Freed Kamaiya Rehabilitation Execution Committee at the Ministry of Land Reform (MoLR). ‘The same mistake has been repeated in the case of Haliyas.’

“For instance, the form that is being used to collect data on Haliyas does not require landlords to express commitment to help rehabilitate the tillers, which officials say is a serious oversight that will create problems in rehabilitation.”

UNTOUCHABLES RESIST TRADITIONAL SEGREGATION

Dalit woman attacked over burial ground dispute dies (The Hindu)

“The dispute over access to burial ground was on for quite sometime in the village and on December 22, 2010, the caste Hindus of the village had organised a meeting which was presided over by the panchayat president, in which, Revenue Inspector Kodangipatty, Inspector of Police Palani Chetti Patty and Sub-Inspector of Police Veerapandi participated. In the meeting, it was decided that the Dalits should not use the common burial ground and even if there was a dispute they should refer it only to the revenue authorities and police and decide on the place of burial.

“Meanwhile, on January 2, when an elderly Dalit person died, the Dalits of the village decided to bury him in the common burial ground meant for Hindus, but the dominant castes objected to this and attacked them. The Dalits staged a protest, following which the government authorities organised a peace meeting. However, the dominant caste members did not allow the Dalits to bury the deceased in the common burial ground. The body had to be buried in Dalits'own land.

“Tension between the Dalits and caste Hindus had been brewing for sometime and on January 27 a group of caste Hindus attacked Chinnayi [a 55-year-old-Dalit woman] by hurling petrol bombs, in which she suffered injuries [and died]. Raja (35), son of Chinnayi, lodged a complaint with the Veerapandi police who registered cases against Rasu Thevar, Damodaran, Markandan Singam and Dhanasekaran under Sections 147, 148, 436, 307 of IPC and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 3(1)(10), 3(2)(5) and [they] were arrested.”

CASTE-BASED HONOR KILLING IN TAMIL NADU

For marrying a Dalit, man slits daughter’s throat in police station (Times of India)

“Following a complaint by Joshua and Kalaivani that they feared for their lives as her family was against their marriage, Red Hills police inspector K Kumaran called Ezhumalai for talks. ‘Ezhumalai, a real estate businessman, came to the station dressed in a pair of trousers and shirt. As soon as he entered, he walked towards Kalaivani, pulled out a knife from his pocket and slit her throat,’ Kumaran said.

“Kalaivani, an undergraduate student, fled home on January 21 to get married to Joshua in a city church. She had met Joshua, an employee of a private firm in Ambattur, some 18 months ago through a common friend. Fearing opposition, she did not disclose her relationship to her family and registered her marriage at the sub-registrar's office in Egmore last week.”

A COMMENT ON AMBEDKAR’S LEGACY

Caste of millions by Pankaj Mishra (Financial Times)

“Other noble dreams of collective emancipation and glory, too, were compromised by the many exigencies of postcolonial nation-building. The colonial state, with its aloof bureaucracy and repressive apparatus, was retained, and radical new institutions of universal adult franchise and social welfare uneasily grafted on to it. Not surprisingly, torture and extrajudicial execution remain as commonplace a feature of contemporary India as free and largely fair elections, and the red-taped state still struggles to provide effective education and healthcare.

“The hierarchies underpinning India’s older cruelties of caste and gender have also survived the egalitarian proclamations of the constitution; universal franchise has yet to lead to a civil rights revolution. Dalits are still being lynched and raped by upper-caste feudal lords, and thousands of women burnt to death for bringing insufficient dowries, even as Dalit and female politicians move into the highest offices in the land. Indeed, Ambedkar’s battle against the inequities of the caste system has had the strangest afterlife.

“Beneficiaries of en bloc voting by previously subordinate groups, a generation of low-caste leaders has now enjoyed political power in India’s most populous provinces. Accused of corruption and incompetence, they have ended up advancing group claims and identities rather than individual rights for all. The most conspicuous of the new profiteers of caste is Mayawati, the Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh’s 180m citizens. She has amassed a great personal fortune; her penchant for solitaire diamonds and huge statues of herself has further undermined the state’s investment-starved economy.”

UNTOUCHABLES AND TRIBALS: LAST HIRED, FIRST FIRED

SC/STs missing in private sector jobs: India Inc’s first caste census (Indian Express)

“The first-ever caste census of India Inc’s human resources has revealed that the proportion of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees in the private sector in some of the most industrialised states of the country hardly reflects their strength in the general population of those states.

“The only exception is Tamil Nadu, which ranks number one in industrialisation and employment (by number of factories and persons, according to the Annual Survey of Industries 2008-09). SCs/STs account for almost 18 per cent of the industrial workforce and 20 per cent of the state’s population.

“In sharp contrast are some of the other most industrialised states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal, which show a sharp mismatch between SCs/STs as a percentage of the total workforce in the private sector and as a percentage of the states’ total population.”

THE DIRECTOR OF THIS VIDEO IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER HIS VILLAGE TEMPLE

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Director: Amit Kumar | Producer: Video Volunteers Produced In: 2010 Synopsis: In the state of Haryana, Dalit communities (including the correspondent filming this video) are forbidden to enter temples. In Barot village, the temple allows only the villagers who belong to upper castes to worship, though most of the villagers belong to the Dalit community. The Constitution of India ensures equal rights for all citizens. This includes the right to “opt, embrace and practice any religion.” However, in Barot the Dalits have always been denied this right. They have been treated as “dirty” and asked by both the upper caste and the temple priest to keep away from the temple. Amit says that though the older generation have accepted this denial of rights as fate, youth in his community are angry about being treated as untouchables. Amit shot this video to share with viewers the humiliation he is made to feel every day for being a “Dalit youth.”