Caste discrimination — U.K. Dalits win the argument, nearly

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Caste discrimination — U.K. Dalits win the argument, nearly

‘Interfacing for Emancipation: Dalit Thelogians and Activists in Conversation for Collaboration’

http://www.nccindia.in/news/pressrelease/n_182.htmRev. Raj Bharath Patta,Executive Secretary,NCCI -Commission on Dalits

reports: "An ecumenical reception on solidarity for Dalits has been organized on 8th August, 2010 at United Theological College, Bangalore in conjunction with a programme ‘Interfacing for Emancipation: Dalit Thelogians and Activists in Conversation for Collaboration’ which was held during 5-9 August 2010 at Ecumenical Christian Centre, Bangalore organized by CODECS, WCC, SCMI, SATHRI and ECC. Mr. Paul Diwakar, National Convener of NCDHR, Rev. Dr. Monica Melanchton, Head of the Department of Old Testament at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Dr. Sukumar from the University of Delhi gave glimpses of the Dalit reality and the conversations that took place between Dalit Theologians and activists. Rev. Dr. Deenabandhu Manchala, WCC Programme Executive, Unity, Mission and Spirituality, brought greetings and shared the role of the World Council in building just and inclusive communities across the globe. Rt. Rev. Dr. Taranath S. Sagar, President, NCCI spoke on the occasion and called on the Churches to join the Dalit Movement in bringing in a transformation both within and outside our communities. Several Church leaders in Bangalore attended this evening reception. Rev. Vincent Rajkumar from CISRS, Rev.A. Samuel Jayakumar, Dr. Hrangthan Chhungi from NCCI, Rev. Dr. Peniel Jesudason Rufus Rajkumar and staff members of the United Theological College and several Dalit activists participated and had conversation on Dalit solidarity. Rev. Dr. Joseph Prabhakar Dayam also shared the role of CODECS, Collective of Dalit Ecumenical Christian Colleges and proposed the Vote of Thanks. This ecumenical reception also created an interest among the participants to join hand in hand with the ongoing movements for justice, for all of them affirmed that justice is the core of the Christian Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Jacob's Ethics Reader: Day of Protest on 10th August 2010, denouncing Indian Constitution’s Scheduled Caste Order 1950,

Jacob's Ethics Reader: Day of Protest on 10th August 2010, denouncing Indian Constitution’s Scheduled Caste Order 1950,

Still Untouchable: The Politics of Religious Conversion

Still Untouchable: The Politics of Religious Conversion

The invisible capital of identity « Dalit News from Kerala

The invisible capital of identity « Dalit News from Kerala

Jimmy Carter's New Baptist Covenant message of racial reconciliation and cooperation on social issue

Carter draws huge church crowd for Baptist message

The Associated Press

Sunday, February 01, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Former President Jimmy Carter addressed a packed Sixteenth Street Baptist Church with his New Baptist Covenant message of racial reconciliation and cooperation on social issues.

Some 1,200 people filled the historic Birmingham church Saturday where four black girls died in a 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing.

Carter told the Southeast regional meeting of the new Baptist organization he helped found last year in Atlanta that there’s “no way for us to ignore Jesus’ emphasis on the poor, the brokenhearted.”

He said the evolution of the New Baptist Covenant is the “highlight of my religious life.” He spoke at a worship service that was followed by workshops on poverty and racism.

“It’s not an accident that God led us to Birmingham and this institute,” Carter said during a breakfast at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Carter recalled a time when racial prejudice was rampant in Baptist churches, and theologians defended separate worship.

“The Baptist church was a stalwart defender of segregation,” he said. “It was ingrained in our conscience.”

Carter said the meeting will help churches work better together.  Read it all

Orissa temple purified after low caste woman minister visit

Orissa temple purified after low caste minister visit

Fri Jan 16, 2009 12:16pm IST

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Hindu priests in Orissa are under investigation for conducting a purification ritual soon after a minister belonging to a lower caste visited a famous temple, officials said on Friday.

Minutes after Pramila Mallick, a minister in Orissa, prayed at the temple this week, Hindu priests shut the doors and threw away holy offerings, washed the floors and changed the idol's clothes, one official said.

"Some priests opposed the minister's entry into the interior chamber of the temple," Upendra Mallik, a senior government official told Reuters. "We are investigating."

In India, millions of people formerly known as "untouchables" remain oppressed at the bottom of the ancient Hindu caste system.

The minister said the purification ritual, at the Akhandalamani temple in Orissa's Bhadrak district, could have been conducted at the behest of her political rivals.

"I have been visiting the temple for years now. Some politically motivated people want to create controversy," she said.

In spite of India's secular constitution banning caste discrimination, Dalits -- those at the bottom of the caste system -- are still commonly beaten or killed for using a well or worshipping at a temple reserved for upper castes.

More than 16 percent of India's 1.1-billion population are Dalits, occupying the lowest rank in a 3,000-year-old Hindu caste system.  source: Reuters India

Misuse of the Bible by the racists

Thomas O'Brien's book "Verboten" we glean from his commentary that, "Even the ability to blush (show blood in the face) is confined to the White race. This is caused by your subconscious which only God controls, as He breathed His Living Spirit into Adam who passed it on to you, his White descendants. You are an infinitesimal projection of your Creator, so when you do or say something embarrassing, your subconscious rushes blood to your face. The colored races, not having been endowed with God's Spirit, have no abstract sense of right or wrong, consequently are never embarrassed." It is a misnomer to call other races or species mankind. In the book of Genesis, God's Law of kind after kind was established, meaning species. The Bible we have in our hands today repeatedly teaches about 'seed after its own kind' in which each and every species of plants and animals propagate within their own kind. In the case of Adamkind, it is clearly the White race. The Bible interprets itself by declaring that "This is the book of the generations of Adam" (Gen. 5:1). Generations means the genetic posterity. You can read more details in the article "The Adamic Creation". 

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There are indeed two manners of people in the world: those who remain racially pure and those who don't. The problem again arises with the twin boys, Jacob and Esau, fulfilling their separate destinies from the time of their birth. History also shows that whenever these people sought to integrate and intermarry, the results were always the same: violence, confusion and judgment from God. On the other hand, when they lived separately as God ordered, each respectively lived in harmony apart from each other. History also shows that whenever the racially pure offspring of Jacob failed to assume their God-mandated office of taking dominion and administering God's Laws, conversely allowing the offspring of Esau to occupy and determine the law of the land, there has been nothing but trouble, chaos and God's judgment. Destruction of White Christian civilization is the primary purpose of the jewish drive towards racial amalgamation. They know that it has always been White Christian society that has proclaimed liberty throughout the land and are the custodians of freedom. So in order to control the world, this element of God's Spirit must go to the grave in various forms of genocide. Historians and social engineers know that a mongrelized people is easier to control, because they have a deformed spirit and no identity. These destroyers of mankind know that every White civilization (and there have been some 25 of these civilizations in the sixty centuries of recorded history) that has practiced race mixing, has destroyed themselves from within. You want to talk about fairy tales? There has never been a great Black civilization in Africa and mongrels have never been able to rule their subjects justly. South Africa enjoyed White Christian apartheid until its Christian faith was undermined by antichrist distortions of the Word. It is now the murder capital of the world.  read it all 

National Geographic: India’s “Untouchables” - 2003 article

India’s “Untouchables” Face Violence, Discrimination

Posted by samathain on January 3, 2009

Source: National Geographic

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News
June 2, 2003
More than 160 million people in India are considered “Untouchable”—people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human. more

will the caste system be destroyed?

How will the caste system be destroyed?
Justice Markandey Katju, a Judge of the Supreme Court of India, writes:

To my mind, the caste system will be destroyed (and is in fact being destroyed) in India by the advance of technology, through people’s struggles, and inter-caste marriages.

As regards the advance of technology, it has been pointed out above that in a modern industrial society the division of labour cannot be on the basis of one’s birth but on the basis of technical skills. Hence industrialisation destroys the caste system. In fact, the caste system has become weak in a State such as West Bengal, which was partially industrialised before most other States.

As regards people’s struggles, these are in fact going on everywhere in view of the harsh economic conditions in India (marked by price rise, unemployment, and so on). People in India are realising that united they stand and divided they fall, and that caste is certainly a dividing force.

As regards inter-caste marriages, I have stated in my judgment in Lata Singh vs. State of U.P. [2006(5) SCC 475, JT 2006(6) SC 173], that they are in the national interest and hence should be encouraged.

REad it all from the Hindu

Caste and Sri Lankan Politics by Izeth Hussain

I must mention some of the salient features of the Sinhalese caste system so as to bring out the essential contrasts with the Indian one. The top caste in the former is the Goyigama, the single biggest caste to which almost fifty percent of the Sinhalese belong. In his book on the Rise of the Karawa Elite, Michael Roberts writes that the numerical weight of the Goyigama caste, its control of the land and its resources, the positions of authority of its notables which continued under the early colonial regimes, and the backing given to the Goyigama by the coercive power of the monarchy, amounted to a very powerful system which prevented anything like social revolution. The Navandanna, Wahumpura, Berava, and other service castes were enmeshed in that system as inferiors with no prospect of change (p 238).

The challenge to the traditional caste system came from the three so-called low-country castes, namely the Karawa, the Salagama, and the Durawe, most of whose members are said to have come to Sri Lanka after 1505. They could not be absorbed as service castes in the traditional ritual order, and the upward economic mobility made possible under Western colonialism meant that they could improve their status and come to question the pre-eminent position of the Goyigama. However - according to Roberts again - the Portuguese and the Sinhalese kings channeled the KSD migrants into new areas of economic activity, establishing a tradition of exploitative labour services which was continued under the Dutch and the British. The areas were in weaving cloth, cinnamon peeling, toddy tapping, coir and rope production, fishing and the transport of goods. Some of these tasks were rigorous and dangerous, many were demeaning, and all were distasteful in the eyes of the established residents (Roberts - 232). So it would be correct to say that despite the challenges posed by the KSD the Goyigama managed to retain their pre-eminent position during the entirety of the colonial period. read it all

Khairlanji : A Strange and Bitter Crop by Anand Teltumbde

Literary Review

December 07, 2008 The Hindu

Trajectory of injustice

TAPAN BASU

Putting into perspective the outrages of caste oppression .

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The kharlanji massacre is... a paradigmatic event of violence against dalits in post-independence india.

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“Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.” Mark Twain, The Adventures of Hucklebury Finn.

Khairlanji : A Strange and Bitter Crop, Navayan Rs. 190.

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At the core of the story is the shocking episode of caste atrocity that happened in Khairlanji on 29 September, 2006, but came to light only a month later. The entire family of Bhaiyalal Bhotmange, a Dalit farmer of the Mahar caste –– comprising his wife, two sons and a daughter –– were lynched by a mob of caste Hindus of the village. The lynching was preceded by dastardly acts of sadism towards the victims, including thrashing, sexual abuse, gang-rape and mutiliation of parts of their bodies. The bodies of the four persons were dumped, following the massacre, into a canal that irrigated the farmlands of Khairlanji.

Teltumbde’s project is to put in perspective the Khairlanji massacre by reading it as a paradigmatic event of violence against Dalits in post-Independent India. Thus, after listing the notable cases of anti-Dalit violence in India since 1947 –– Kilvenmani (44 Dalits burnt alive in Tamil Nadu, 1968), Belchi (14 Dalits burnt alive in Bihar, 1977), Morichjhanpi (hundreds of Dalit refugees massacred by the state in Sunderbans, West Bengal, 1978), Karamchedu (6 Dalits murdered, 3 Dalit women raped and many more wounded, Andhra Pradesh, 1984), Chunduru (9 Dalits killed and dumped in a canal, Andhra Pradesh, 1991), Melavalavu (an elected Dalit panchyat leader and 5 Dalits done to death, Tamil Nadu, 1997), Kambalapalli (6 Dalits burnt alive, Karnataka, 2000) and Jhajar (5 Dalits lynched near a police station, Haryana, 2003) –– he states the purpose of his monograph :  more

Attracting Dalits has proved difficult for the BJP

Politics and violence in Orissa

Why have India’s tribal-majority districts witnessed the bloodiest anti-Christian attacks? The answer to this question indicates why at least 60 people were killed and more than 4,500 houses and churches destroyed in Kandhamal district of Orissa recently.

India saw its first large-scale attacks on the minority community in December 1998 in Gujarat’s Dangs district, where 93% of the population is tribal. In March 2004, anti-Christian violence broke out in Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district, where tribals constitute 85% of the population. Then followed the mayhem in December 2007, and again in August 2008 in Kandhamal, where nearly 52% of the population is tribal. These incidents took place during the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or its allies.  more

In India the upper castes celebrate progress while mass slaughter and bestial genocide await the Dalits

Yes, India, the second most populist nation in the world, moving swiftly into prominence in the 21st century. India, new leaders in almost all technology and engineering; where your phone call asking for tech support or product delivery may be answered; where an automobile that runs on compressed air reportedly has been built and will be marketed. India, where in April a successful space launch expanded the nation's importance in the solar system.

But also India, where, also in April, a 6-year-old Dalit (untouchable) girl was thrown into a roaring fire about 40 km from the temple town of Mathura and burned alive. The little girl was accused of the dastardly crime of walking through the footpath meant for only the upper castes, on the very day those "upper caste" people were exulting over India's successful new satellite launch – another devastating indictment of mankind.

It seems just unthinkable, rationally impossible, that these two vastly contradicting events could happen, in the same month, in the same country, and in the 21st century. But wait; you haven't heard the worst, not by a very long shot.  

While the upper caste elite in India is celebrating the technological progress going on in the major cities, mass slaughter and bestial genocide is raging in the "less modern" provinces of the huge country. India is considered a Hindu nation, in much the same way Arab states are Muslim and England and the U.S. are Christian. And most Indian citizens, while practicing their various faiths benignly, profess tolerance toward fellow citizens who may be different religiously. But shockingly, in this "modern" world, India is still committed to an ages old caste system, in which upper castes enjoy freedom and all contemporary advances, while over 300 million human beings who happen to have been born in India are considered "untouchable" and unworthy of anything more than bare existence and that grudgingly.

These people, this entire caste, are called Dalits. The Hindu scriptures refer to them as "the unborn," meaning it would be better for the world if they had never been born. They're literal outcasts, denied access to public wells, parks, basic medical services, and education. Though born in India, their homeland, they've had the misfortune to be born to Dalit parents and a whole class created long ago by Aryan invaders. In India, there is no way out, or up, from this bottom rung of society.

Dalits are trapped, imprisoned, faceless, and nameless, and of no concern to the upper classes, except as bondservants, menial employees, and burden bearers. They are considered to have been evil in a former life, and therefore justly banished to this humiliation. Their only hope is to accept their fate and somehow earn a "step up" in a future reincarnation.

I met with a young Dalit in my office just recently. He's a fine, good looking, very intelligent young man named Jyothi. He loves his country, his people and his God. He's a Christian.

Yes, in Hindu India, at least 2.5 percent are officially Christian, and some 11 percent, though cowed by public pressure and physical threat, are "unofficially" Christian. And 75 percent of the Christians are Dalits. And why not? A ray of hope, of freedom, of personal worth has been offered them by a loving God, through Jesus and his representatives. 

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Clash over wall preventing the entry of Dalits at Uthapuram village in Madurai

Groups clash in Uthapuram

Staff Reporter, The Hindu , October 2, 2008

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Trouble erupts over painting of wall adjacent to temple

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MADURAI: Two groups belonging to different castes clashed at Uthapuram village in Madurai district, hurling stones and country bombs at each other. Trouble erupted when the members of one group painted the wall adjacent to the Muthalamman Temple despite objections from the other group. Police resorted to a mild lathi charge and opened three rounds of teargas shells to disperse the mob.

The situation is now under control, said Inspector-General of Police (South Zone) Sanjeev Kumar. Adequate police strength, led by the Deputy-Inspector General of Police S.S. Krishnamoorthy, had been deployed at the village, he told The Hindu.

Superintendent of Police M. Manohar said that they were on the lookout for some suspects behind the incident. Security had been strengthened and combing operation was on, he added. The village had been witness to animosity between these two groups over the construction of a wall preventing the entry of Dalits. A portion of the wall was later demolished on the initiative of the State government.  read 

Social justice minister Meira Kumar: More laws to Protect Dalits and Tribals

'States must act on crimes against Dalits' 24 Sep 2008, 0358 hrs IST, Subodh Ghildiyal,TNN

The amendment proposed to the Prevention of Atrocities against SC/STs Act is serious as it is believed that it would push the states to act. Social justice minister Meira Kumar told TOI: "We have to make the PCR and POA Act more stringent."

According to the proposal mooted by the Union ministry, the states would have to submit reports for three types of crimes, which involve — fabricating evidence to implicate a Dalit in a crime providing for life sentence or death; using explosives or fire to damage property belonging to SC/STs, or commiting an offence which is punishable for a term of 10 years or more. The proposal is to insert a clause in section 21 of the POA Act dealing with "duty of government to ensure effective implementation of the Act".

In another key move, the Centre is seeking to cut down on the time of trial in crimes against SC/STs by completely doing away with the first level of scrutiny — the magistrate. The MSJ has proposed that special courts designated to try cases under the POA Act shall be "competent to try the offences as a court of original jurisdiction without the case having been committed to it by a magistrate under the said code (CrPC)". 


Link 

Story of Resistance and Caste Victimization

Verdict in Khairlanji Dalit killings

IANS

Sunday, September 14, 2008  14:31 IST

BHANDARA (Maharashtra): Almost two years after the killings of Dalits in Khairlanji village here caused a nationwide outcry, a court will give its ruling on Monday.

A frenzied mob of about 50 villagers attacked the house of Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, a Dalit farmer, Sep 29, 2006, and lynched four members of his family including his wife Surekha, young daughter Priyanka and two sons Dilip and Roshan.

Initially treated as a gory fallout of a village feud, the murders were later seen as a case of atrocity against a Dalit family by caste Hindus, inviting nationwide media attention.

With the case turning into a volatile political issue, the state government transferred investigations from the local police to the state Criminal Investigation Department and then to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The government also suspended four police officers and three medical officers for dereliction besides offering Bhaiyyalal Rs.1.2 million as compensation, a house and employment.

After taking charge of investigation, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 11 of 46 accused in the court of First Ad-hoc Sessions Judge S.S. Dass Dec 27, 2006 but had a tough time marshalling clinching evidence.

That was because there were virtually no witnesses to the killings apart from Bhaiyyalal.

The immediate provocation for the attack was said to be the evidence given by Surekha and Priyanka against 15 of the villagers in a case of beating up of their kin and well-wisher Siddharth Gajbhiye a fortnight earlier.

After the framing of charges March 2, 2007, the trial court recorded the evidence and statements of 36 out of 74 witnesses (originally listed in the case). It heard arguments from both sides and announced Sep 15 as the date of pronouncement of verdict.

Link

End fraudulent conversions of Dalits and Tribals: Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM)

As the menace of conversions is perpetuated with the receipt of foreign funds, the Poor Christian Liberation Movement (PCLM) has steadfastly demanded that the church utilize all foreign funds exclusively for the welfare and uplift of poor Christians who are suffering from terrible discrimination within the community. Indeed, this is the reason why PCLM has been petitioning the Government of India not to appoint Bishops, priests and nuns to official Commissions and Committees, and instead appoint ordinary Christians.    The church annually receives so much money that we want the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and the National Christian Council of India (NCCI) to set up a Rs. 1000 crore “Dalit Christian Development Fund” to ensure the integrated social and economic development of this huge populace that was lured to Christianity on the promise of a better life. ....>Read more   Considering the confusion created by propagation activities in remote areas, the PCLM demands that church authorities defer mass conversion programmes for at least a century. It is our view that evangelism cannot be a measurement of a society’s socio-economic development. Rather, the evangelism programme funds should be utilized for the welfare of Dalits and Tribals who have already been converted to Christianity, and whose lot has not been improved by the church.    There should be reservation of seats for Dalit and Tribal Christians, as well as other Dalits, in Church-run schools, colleges, technical institutions and other vocational organizations. As of now, the reality is that a handful of priests and bishops are monopolizing Church funds and property in the country. This has led to sharp deterioration of the conditions of   neo-converted Christians who are living in a pitiable condition, deprived of basic necessities.   Instead of worrying about their living conditions, the church leadership is interested only in increasing the numbers of its flock. Even worse, a large chunk of foreign funds are being utilized for purchasing land and for the luxurious lifestyles of a few Christian leaders in India. Bishops are monopolizing the Church estates and treating it as their own property and are indulging in its sale-purchase without the consent of the community....>Read more   

Race row erupts again

Scotland Yard's race row erupted again yesterday after the head of the National Black Police Association, Commander Ali Dizaei, was suspended from duty for allegedly wasting police time, perverting the course of justice, assault and unlawful arrest.

Dizaei is a close adviser to the force's assistant commissioner, Tarique Ghaffur, who is suing the Met for racial discrimination, and who was suspended last week.

Dizaei's supporters reacted to the news by accusing the Met of a "witch hunt".

He was suspended yesterday at the offices of the Metropolitan Police Authority and given the news by its chief executive, Catherine Crawford.

The main reason for the suspension is said to be an arrest he made outside a West London restaurant after he was allegedly assaulted by a man. Dizaei says he was approached by a man who shouted at him and then attacked him with the mouthpiece of a sheesha pipe. He arrested the man who has now made a complaint that is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Authority.

Dizaei was also suspended because of claims that he gave advice to a solicitor whose client was being prosecuted after a case brought by the Met, and because of allegations concerning the use of a police credit card.

Dizaei was previously suspended in 2001, when the force alleged he was a danger to national security, had consorted with prostitutes and taken illegal drugs. He was cleared unanimously by an Old Bailey jury after a £4m inquiry involving covert surveillance and undercover surveillance teams. The unit that investigated him then was headed by Sir Ian Blair, who is now the commissioner of the Met.

Blair's allies insist that their treatment of Dizaei has not been not influenced by the fact that he is a vocal and persistent critic of the Met's record on race. But Alfred John, chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, said: "Without doubt it is a witch hunt. It is an attempt to destabilise our movement. It is a farce."

The Metropolitan police authority said it had unanimously decided to suspend Dizaei, adding: "Suspension is not a disciplinary sanction and suspension should not be taken as a presumption of guilt."

Last year the Met apologised to Dizaei for putting him on trial at the Old Bailey, and for aspects of the £4m inquiry. After his acquittal, he was reinstated and paid compensation.

He won promotion earlier this year to the rank of commander and oversaw the operation which led to the barrister Mark Saunders being shot dead after allegedly firing at police and neighbouring homes.

As the NBPA's head, Dizaei was planning further protest action against the Met over its treatment of Ghaffur. 

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Poor pay more for Groceries - Indian Researcher

Low-income? No Car? Expect To Pay More For Groceries

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — Households located in poor neighborhoods pay more for the same items than people living in wealthy ones, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Author Debabrata Talukdar (Columbia University) examines the impact of what has been dubbed the "ghetto tax" on low-income individuals. His study found that the critical factor in how much a household spends on groceries is whether it has access to a car.

"Arguably, as the bigger, more cost-efficient stores move out, the poor increasingly are likely to find themselves choosing between traveling farther to purchase nutritious, competitively priced groceries or paying inflated prices for low-quality, processed foods at corner stores," Talukdar writes. Read full story