Against caste in Europe

Anti-caste campaigners in the United Kingdom score a major victory with the E.U. passing a resolution to put caste within a global rights framework. 

THE ringing indictment of caste-based discrimination and prejudice contained in a strongly worded resolution that the European Parliament passed last month has put this particular form of human rights abuse firmly on the international agenda. Equally importantly, the resolution has served to drag this pernicious institution out of the shadows of the South Asian migrant experience in Europe where it has long remained hidden and into the public domain of legal and institutional scrutiny.

Passed by an overwhelming majority of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the resolution received cross-party support. Its passage was preceded by a discussion in which members from all parties condemned the practice and made specific suggestions on how it could be eradicated.

Caste, according to the resolution, is a “distinct form of discrimination rooted in the social and/or religious context, which must be tackled together with other grounds of discrimination, i.e., ethnicity, race, descent, religion, gender and sexuality, in E.U. [European Union] efforts to fight all forms of discrimination”. It also called for the E.U. to include the issue in legislation and human rights policies while raising it “at the highest level” with the governments of caste-affected countries.

The resolution has had a positive impact for anti-caste campaigners in the United Kingdom, where caste practices and caste-based discrimination are widely prevalent among Asian populations. This is hardly surprising. British Asians now comprise 7.5 per cent of the population of the U.K. Those of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent—among whom the practice of caste is most prevalent —accounted for 3.07 million out of a total population of 63.23 million in the 2011 Census.

In the U.K., caste functions with impunity within a larger socio-political environment in which the rule of law and equality before the law are rights that are institutionalised. It operates in below-the-surface cultural spaces where institutional oversight does not usually reach. In the multicultural society that the U.K. has become, the growth of identity politics has consolidated the hold of traditional ties and practices among immigrant groups. These so-called personal spheres—the home, the joint family, places of worship—are fiercely protected by community bosses from “interference” of any kind. And it is here that the most discriminatory of traditional practices—caste among them—flourish.

Source: Front line 

The Dalits of India

Remembering the great

Messiah of the oppressed,

The exploited and the neglected, and

The Architect of the Indian Constitution.

Bharat Ratna

Babasaheb Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

On his

“57th Mahaparinirwan Diwas”'

Atrocities that no longer shock

While the Delhi rape incident saw mass protests for justice, crimes against Dalits hardly evoke such outrage, which is why the killers in the Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre have got away

The response by the state to the 2012 Delhi gang rape case was immediate and effective — a commission to review legislative protections and recommend amendments, and a new enactment. The judiciary responded similarly — death penalty for the accused and although there was indignation about the “leniency” towards the juvenile involved in the crime, there was overall a sense of satisfaction that the ends of justice had indeed been met. But all through this saga, a persistent voice from Dalit intellectuals and activists kept asking whyKhairlanji did not provoke this kind of national outrage and why India is unmoved by the most gruesome massacres of Dalits.

The October 9 verdict of the Patna High Court in the Laxmanpur-Bathe massacrebrings this question up yet again: a painful reminder of the continuing legitimacy of the caste system and aggravated assault, making a mockery of the rule of law.

On a plain reading of this judgment, it is not disputed that 58 persons — men, women and children, all Dalits — were killed after being shot by a mob of over a hundred men armed with guns, in a concerted attack on the intervening night of December 1-2, 1997. It is also not disputed that survivors in this village were eyewitnesses who had lost entire families in the massacre, and had narrowly escaped murder themselves. There was a delay by the police in recording the statements; persons identified by the eyewitnesses were not named in the statements in the first instance; there was a delay of three days in reaching the FIRs to the Chief Judicial Magistrate; there was blood in the homes of the victims and survivors; “copious blood” on the banks of the river Sone; and blood smeared on a boat on the riverbank; the murderous mob shouted slogans in praise of Ranvir baba and dispersed on the sound of a whistle; footprints of 100-150 persons on both banks of the river suggested to the investigating officer that the mob had crossed the river towards Sahar but he did not cross the river in his investigation. The investigating officers recorded statements by the survivors that several of the men named as perpetrators were members of the Ranvir Sena who had criminal antecedents.

DELAY

The case was committed to the court of sessions in 1999, but typically as with many atrocity cases, the trial did not begin for 11 years till the High Court issued fresh instructions in November and December 2008. By this time, of 91 witnesses, 38 had turned hostile. Of the 50 accused sent up for trial in 1999, 44 finally faced trial, some having died in the interim. The Sessions Court sentenced 26 persons to death in 2010 after convicting them of murder, criminal conspiracy and atrocity — 13 years after the massacre.

The witnesses cited dispute over wages and standing crop as the reason for the attack — a demand for an increase in wages from one-and-a-half kilos of food grain to three kilos. The perpetrators were not an unknown mob from a strange and distant land. They were landlords in the same and neighbouring villages, who the victims and their families knew well and worked for. They were all from the dominant, landowning castes.

They attacked in the dead of night, flashing torches to search for the victims, and the witness-survivors were hiding from attack — yet they recognised the men and named them. But they had also witnessed unimaginable violence and had lost several members of their families in the attack. Their testimonies through the investigation speak of their hurtling from one house to another discovering more bodies than survivors, and the sound of wailing that rent through the night.

LOOPHOLES

The High Court of Patna speaks of loopholes in the evidence on record: the delay in reaching the FIRs to the Chief Judicial Magistrate; the fact that names were not recorded on the first visit the day after the massacre by witnesses who had lost all their family members in the attack; the impossibility of recognising perpetrators from places of hiding; the impossibility of risking lives to go onto the terrace to identify people from the mob; the impossibility of fixing the identity of individuals in a mob from a distance; inaccuracies in recording the exact location of hiding during the massacre; absence of evidence on any dispute between the dominant landowners and the Dalit wage workers.

Where do these refutations leave us?

Fifty-eight people in a small Dalit hamlet were massacred. There is no denying that. The attackers, says the High Court, were unknown men from Sahar across the river Sone in Bhojpur district, who have not been apprehended. Instead the wrong people who bear no responsibility for the crime have been convicted, says the court. How can we be sure?

This is the trouble with caste atrocity. The fact that perpetrators are in an immediate relation of dominance with victims and survivors and are easily recognised counts for nothing. Can we even begin to understand the courage and determination of poor and traumatised Dalits? The outcome of this case demonstrates yet again how difficult it is to keep a case alive, to keep memories raw and open in the face of an almost certain betrayal by the state, and how tough it is to keep fighting against the conspiracy — between upper caste perpetrators, their collaborators in the establishment and their apologists in a caste-ridden society.

Why not Khairlanji? Why not Karamchedu? Why not Laxmanpur-Bathe? Why does this country not come to a grinding halt in the face of atrocity of the worst kind? Justice can only be said to be done when those that are most vulnerable are able to access it without difficulty. It is our collective failure and a national shame that we allow the space for this travesty again and yet again.

Source: The Hindu dt 15.10.2013

(Kalpana Kannabiran is professor and director, Council for Social Development.)

Caste discrimination a global evil, says European Parliament

 Resolution points out various forms of violence against Dalits,    especially women.

 An estimated 260 million people affected worldwide.

 In India, lack of protective non-discrimination measures in  labour market and private sector adds to inequalities.

The European Parliament (EP) has recognised caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation and adopted a resolution condemning it and urging European Union institutions to address it. The EP consists of 28 member-countries of the EU.

Acknowledging that caste-affected communities are still subjected to ‘untouchability practices’ in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the October 10 resolution stressed the need to combat discrimination based on work and descent, which occurs also in Yemen, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Somalia.

In December last, the EP passed a similar resolution, expressing alarm at the persistence of human rights violations against Dalits in India. Last week’s resolution recognised the presence of caste-based discrimination globally and pointed out various forms of caste-related violence against Dalits, especially women.

The EP reiterated serious concern over violence against Dalit women and other women from similarly affected communities in societies with caste systems, who often do not report it for fear of threat to their personal safety or of social exclusion. It pointed out the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination based on caste, gender and religion, affecting Dalit women and women from minority communities, leading to forced conversions, abductions, forced prostitution, and sexual abuse by dominant castes.

Caste discrimination continues to be widespread and persistent, affecting an estimated 260 million people worldwide, despite the governments of some affected countries taking steps to provide constitutional and legislative protection, the EP said.

It noted that caste-based discrimination occurred in diaspora communities, untouchability practices took on modern forms and the affected communities faced restricted political participation and serious discrimination in the labour market.

“In a few countries, such as India, mandatory affirmative action has to some extent contributed to the inclusion of Dalits in the public sector, but the lack of protective non-discrimination measures in the labour market and the private sector adds to exclusion and growing inequalities,” it said.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that an overwhelming majority of bonded labour victims in South Asia are from the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and that forced and bonded labour is particularly widespread in the agriculture, mining and garment production sectors, which supply products to a number of multinational and European companies.

The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights welcomed the EP resolution.

Source: The Hindu Dt 15.10.2013

Government Sets up a Committee to Find Out the Reasons For Backlog in Filling up of Reserved Vacancies

Government Sets up a Committee to Find Out the Reasons For Backlog in Filling up of Reserved Vacancies

The Government has decided to set up a Committee to make in-depth analysis of the reasons for backlog in filling up of reserved vacancies. A 20-member committee headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will suggest measures to enhance the employability of reserved category candidates. The Committee members are from various Central Government Ministries including Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Personnel & Training, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Ministry of Railways, UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment Board etc.

 

The Committee will submit its report within a period of three months from the date of its constitution.

 

The Government had launched a Special Recruitment Drive (SRD) to fill up the backlog reserved vacancies of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in November, 2008. Progress of the drive was reviewed in July, 2011 and it was decided to re-launch the drive so as to fill up the remaining identified backlog vacancies by 31st March, 2012. The progress of Special Recruitment Drive was reviewed by the Government in May 2013. It was noted out of a total of 64,175 backlog vacancies (DR quota and Promotion quota) which could be filled up, 48,034 vacancies were filled up, indicating overall success rate of the Drive at about 75%.

 

The analysis of data and consultation with various Ministries indicated that lack of finishing skills or interview skills, less availability of professionally qualified persons, less identification of posts for Persons with Disabilities, dearth of professionally qualified persons especially in Hearing impaired Category of disability etc. are some of the reasons for less employability of SCs, STs, OBCs and PWDs in Government Sector.

 

Source: All Inida Association of IP/ASP(CHQ)

Lack of unity a hurdle to abolition of untouchability: Thirumavalavan

Fighting for the abolition of untouchability is not the responsibility of Dalits alone but of all democratic forces, according to Thol Thirumavalavan, president of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK). However, while the Left parties and Dravidar Kazhagam were vociferously opposing it, Dravidian parties and Tamil nationalist groups were hesitant to do so, he said.

Mr. Thirumavalavan, who has completed 23 years as VCK leader since he took over in 1990, spoke about the state of Dalit politics in the State in an interview toThe Hindu.

Answering a criticism by Dalit intellectuals that his party lacked autonomy and had to depend on Dravidian politics, he said, “It is only in electoral politics that we are dependent on Dravidian parties; in matters related to policies, ideology and struggles, the VCK is not under the influence of Dravidian politics. We are not dependent on them, but we are staying with them (…saarndhu irukkavillai, serndhu irukkirom).

The Pattali Makkal Katchi’s move to form an anti-Dalit front and demands such as scrapping of the SC/ST (Prevention of Abolition) Act were not only against Dalits, but also a threat to democratic values and social justice. “When the whole world in the 21 century is speaking the language of human rights, strengthening democratic principles and wants to lend ‘voice to the voiceless’, the PMK is campaigning for such a retrograde move.”

He noted that in situations such as the Pappapatti and Keeripatti local body elections and the Dharmapuri inter-caste marriage issue, his party’s struggles were against the State government. “Annihilation of caste is our aim, and we are confidently treading the path, and so we are autonomous. In the case of electoral politics, even the Communists are part of the Dravidian party alliance.”

Speaking about the VCK’s growth since he took over in 1990, he said the party had a base in all districts and not confined to the north, as reported in the media.

However, the VCK was a party of the oppressed and the most vulnerable sections of society, so it is unable to build a strong infrastructure. “After the DMK and the AIADMK, the VCK is the party which has a mass support base. Post 2008 elections, many non-Dalits have become part of VCK and it is a welcome sign.”

Agreeing that lack of unity was a problem for Dalits, he said there should be unity based on uniformity. ‘Dalit’ was an all- encompassing political term, but in Tamil Nadu a few Dalit organisations were creating divisions among them. The VCK had no problem joining hands with Puthiya Tamilagam and was ready to work with it based on an identified uniformity.

“Dalit unity in terms of achieving political and social mobility is very important,” he said.

Talking about the Allahabad High Court ruling banning caste-based rallies, the MP saidcaste and religion-based rallies should be banned, but there was no clarity on what one meant by caste or religious rallies. Mobilisation of vulnerable sections like Dalits could not be seen through the same lens as one does of rallies of dominant castes which demand abolition of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the marginalised.

sOURCE: The Hindu dt 18-8-13

The birth of an idea

A hundred years ago, the hallowed halls of Columbia University and the roiling streets of Harlem gave B.R. Ambedkar a unique perspective into the struggles of his community in India. Raja Sekhar Vundru

In 1913, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, then only 22 years old, set sail to pursue higher education in the United States — a deviation from the natural choice of England for the predominantly upper caste Hindu Indian elite of that time. Ambedkar was, of course, neither upper caste nor elite. But that journey and the time spent at Columbia University and the upper Manhattan area of New York was to prove as monumental for the shaping of India’s future as Mahatma Gandhi’s voyage of self-discovery in South Africa.

Ambedkar was the first ever ‘untouchable’ to study in a foreign land — a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a D.Sc. at the London School of Economics. For him, it amounted to leaving the land of untouchability for a country yet to shrug off its past as a land of slavery.

Columbia was only a few blocks away from Harlem, the melting pot of Black America and the site of a great cultural reawakening movement that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. That movement was still in its incipient stages when Ambedkar was in Columbia.

A creation of the African-American real estate entrepreneur, Philip A. Payton, who took over unsold apartments for filling them up with Black tenants, Harlem symbolised the denial of the republican values that Ambedkar admired. The mass migration of thousands of Blacks from the Southern States — where they had worked predominantly as slaves in cotton and sugarcane plantations — to the more liberating city environments created a new cosmopolitan sophistication and sense of identity.

For Ambedkar, living next to Harlem in these culturally turbulent times provided a unique window into the deprivations and struggles of his own community back home.

On May 9, 1916, Ambedkar presented a paper ‘Castes in India; Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development’ at an anthropology seminar in Columbia University. It was the first of his many works into the origins of a “hoary institution” that defined Indian society and continues to do so even today.

While the fact that “there is so much similarity between the untouchables in India and the position of Negros in America” did not escape Ambedkar’s attention, he was, at the same time, convinced that untouchability was “far worse than slavery”. While the latter could be abolished by statute, “it will take more than a law to remove this stigma from the people of India.”

Equally significant was Ambedkar’s belief in the superiority of the basic American model of individual rights and representative government, notwithstanding the exclusion of the ‘colored’ people from this framework. In his testimony before the Southborough Committee on Franchise appointed by the British Government on January 27, 1919, Ambedkar — who was not even 28 then — made a vivid comparison between the U.S. and India: “Englishmen have all along insisted that India is unfit for representative Government because of the division of her population into castes and creeds. This does not carry conviction…The social divisions of India are equalled, if not outdone, in a country like the United States of America...If with all the social divisions, the United States of America is fit for representative Government, why not India?”

Ambedkar’s genius, though, lay in his racing ahead of America in winning rights for the untouchables of India. While racial segregation in the U.S. ended only in 1964, Ambedkar secured the right to representation for untouchables through reservation of seats in the provisional legislative bodies in 1932. Ambedkar also used the Poona Pact to also introduce reservation in the services for untouchables, by making it a part of 1935 Government of India Act.

By 1950, Ambedkar had gone much further as the principal author of the Constitution of India that legally abolished untouchability, provided safeguards to the Scheduled Castes from discrimination, and provided them representation in government services through reservations.

Ambedkar was the pioneer in pushing forward the idea of universal adult franchise and one man-one vote.In his 1919 submission to the Southborough Committee, Ambedkar argued: “No person…should be denied the opportunity of actively participating in the process of Government. That is to say popular Government is not only Government for the people but by the people”. Not surprisingly, he encountered resistance from most political conservatives. Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who headed the Constituent Assembly’s Committee on Fundamental Rights, expressed apprehension that the States may not agree and may even view it as encroaching upon their rights. A distinct feature of Ambedkar’s approach was his preference for constitutional methods and seeking of legal safeguards, whether against untouchability or in fighting patriarchy through the Hindu Code Bill that he pushed, albeit without success. He abhorred resort to both “bloody methods of revolution” as well as Gandhian tools such as Satyagraha, civil disobedience and non-cooperation.

As he stated while presenting the Draft Constitution on November 25, 1949: “Where constitutional methods (for achieving economic and social objectives) are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us”.

No doubt, American republican values had a profound influence in all these thoughts. The idea of every person having the right to life, liberty, free speech and pursuit of happiness — and the duty of the State to guarantee these freedoms to its subjects — is something that appealed to Ambedkar. For him, “the individual is an end in himself” and has certain “inalienable rights” to be protected through Constitution. From these followed the most important premise for a political democracy: “The State shall not delegate power to private persons to govern others.”

America was important for Ambedkar even from a personal standpoint. As he was to write later, five years of staying outside India completely wiped out of his mind any consciousness of being an untouchable. But when he returned to work in the State of Baroda, nothing had changed. Hostels there wouldn’t take him. The only way of seeking accommodation was by impersonation, for which he wasn’t prepared, knowing the dire consequences if his identity were discovered.

In an article published on November 30, 1930, a correspondent of the New York Times described Ambedkar as the “most unusual ‘untouchable’, having the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia University, New York, and Doctor of Science from the University of London.” At the end of all this study abroad, he “returned to India as an ‘untouchable’, as when he left. He could not enter a temple or drink at a public well.”

Observing Harlem, cradle of the Black intellectual awakening, Ambedkar believed that the untouchables of India needed to be pulled out of villages to escape the tyranny and oppression of the caste system.

The nation owes it to Ambedkar for making India a much better place to live in after Independence, with a most forward-looking rights-based model of Constitution. For this, Columbia can take credit: It was the starting point after all!

If with all the social divisions, the United States of America is

fit for representative Government, why

not India?

Ambedkar in 1919.

source: The Hindu dt 28-7-13

No pink chaddis for PMK

Liberal secularists are quick to protest the excesses of Hindutva but are never as outraged by the equally brazen and violent assertions of caste superiority

…turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path.

B.R. Ambedkar, in Annihilation of Caste, 1936

In 2009, around Valentine’s Day, when Sri Rama Sene, a fringe Hindu chauvinist group led by Pramod Muthalik, targeted pub-going women in Mangalore, it became international news. Their infamy owed in no small measure to the “PinkChaddi Campaign” by the irreverently named Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women. From The New York Times to our raucous news channels, everyone enjoyed the spectacle of young, articulate, savvy, urban women neatly pitted against Hindutva bigots opposed to their drinking or dating.

Since November 2012, in northern Tamil Nadu, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has led a campaign with far worse consequences. S. Ramadoss, founder-leader of the PMK, and leaders of the Vanniyar Sangham — the caste outfit that is to the PMK what the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — have been making statements no less outrageous than Muthalik’s.Ramadoss believes that young Dalit men wearing jeans, T-shirts and sunglasses, riding motorcycles and wielding mobile phones are luring girls of Vanniyar and other “intermediary” castes. Last November, the actions of the cadres of the PMK and Vanniyar Sangham, and the hate speeches of Ramadoss, his son Anbumani Ramadoss, and other Vanniyar leaders such as ‘Kaduvetti’ Guru, resulted in a Salwa Judum-style torching of over 250 Dalit homes in three Dalit colonies of Dharmapuri district. In April 2013, there was another round of violence unleashed by the PMK cadre protesting intercaste affairs. According to a report in Frontline (May 31, 2013), they damaged about 500 public and private buses, setting fire to 13 of them, and also cut down over 160 trees. Everyday life was affected in 10 districts with a sizeable Vanniyar population.

This cycle of violence culminated in the July 4 death of E. Ilavarasan, a 23-year-old Dalit who married Divya, a Vanniyar girl. When found dead along a railway track, Ilavarasan was wearing sky-blue jeans, the attire Ramadoss loathed. In fact, it was their elopement and marriage last October that first instigated Ramadoss’s tirades against “love dramas” in which Dalit men were posing a threat to the “honour” of Vanniyar women.

In sheer scale — both of moral policing and damage to lives and property — Ramadoss and the PMK have far exceeded Muthalik and Rama Sene. And yet no one feels the need to send pink chaddis to these caste fanatics. Where Muthalik & Co. erred was in attacking the consumerist logic of both Valentine’s Day and the culture of pubs, antagonising a powerful class constituency. Had Muthalik opposed Vokkaliga-Dalit marriages, he would not have been bestowed pink chaddis. Muthalik courted controversy when he declared: “If we come across couples being together in public and expressing their love, we will take them to the nearest temple and conduct their marriage.” Surely, this is ridiculous, but compared to Ramadoss’s war against intercaste marriages, Muthalik sounds like a misinformed reformer. While the former speaks the language of Hindu supremacy, the latter embodies the logic of caste supremacy. Caste or rather jati dharma predates, and is a far more gruesome and pervasive reality than, Hindu dharma.

Caste and Hindutva

What we are witnessing is merely a restatement of the battle at the heart of India’s flawed democracy in the post-Mandal, post-Babri phase: the divisive discourse of jati assertion, where each jati demands its share in power structures in proportion to its share in the population, competing with the discourse of Hindutva that seeks to project a united force of all Hindus. At first, like many social scientists and commentators, I too believed that post-Mandal jati assertion had derailed and subverted the Hindutva agenda, but it is time we realise that caste majoritarianism is by no means in contradiction with communal majoritarianism (a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or PMK would happily align with either the BJP or the Congress, depending on what could be gained). The forces of destruction wielded by Mandalite politicos are just as bad as those unleashed in the name of Mandir.

Why is it that Hindutva’s excesses raise the hackles of India’s liberal-secular classes while the brazen assertion of casteism — whether by the Brahmins who defend the “made snana” ritual (where people roll on plantain leaves smeared with the leftovers of lunch served to Brahmins) in Karnataka’s Kukke Subramanya temple every December or by Vanniyars in Tamil Nadu — causes comparatively little outrage, and virtually no sustained national coverage? What is it that distinguishes the logic of caste from the logic of Hindutva in elite common sense?

Misinterpretation

In the early 19th century, the Madras Presidency witnessed the beginnings of the “Non-Brahmin” movement. This has largely been misrepresented as an anti-caste movement, which it certainly was not. In its first phase, the higher-level non-Brahmin castes — Naickers, Reddiars, Vellalars, Mudaliars, Chettiars — sought parity with Brahmins for job opportunities in the colonial government. The composition of the first Justice Party ministry of 1920 reflected this social reality. In 1967, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) formed the first post-independence non-Congress government in Tamil Nadu. Under this regime, only the higher order non-Brahmins were empowered, and the “Most Backward Classes” — such as Thevars in the south, Vanniyars in the north — were excluded. With the rise of the M.G. Ramachandran-led Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (later AIADMK) in 1972, the Thevars found a voice.

Meanwhile, the Vanniyars, who had vested faith in the Congress, felt left out. When two Vanniyar leaders broke away from the Congress in 1951 and launched the Tamil Nadu Toilers Party and Commonweal Party, controlling 25 councillors by 1952, the Vanniyars emerged as the first caste bloc to prove their voting power in independent India. The Congress, as it has always done, wooed back the two leaders to prove their majority in the Assembly.

The struggle of the Vanniyars regained momentum in 1980 with the formation of the Vanniyar Sangham, and peaked in 1987 when the PMK staged a successful weeklong roadblock in the northern districts to demand 20 per cent reservation. When the Ambedkar birth centenary reinvigorated Dalit demands for civil and political rights in 1991, Thevars, Vanniyars and other intermediary castes fiercely opposed them, even calling for the repeal of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989.

While the Pallar-Dalits in the south rallied behind the Pudhiya Tamizhagam, the Parayar-Dalits of the north hit back under the Dalit Panthers (VCK). By 2006, the VCK had elected an MP and two MLAs, and made peace with its principal antagonist, the PMK. However, when the PMK returned only three MLAs from the 30 seats it contested in the 2011 Assembly poll, it returned to aggressively jati-based politics, culminating in the current crisis. In politics today, jati identity cannot be reduced to the instrumental purpose it serves in electoral democracy. At the deeper, ideological level, what we are witnessing is the worst kind of throwback to jati as dharma, as a governing order. The forced separation of Ilavarasan and Divya (with the judiciary and the state shamelessly abetting), mirroring the acts of khap panchayats in Haryana, is a warning against any kind of transgression of jati laws. What binds the Marathas of Sonai village in Ahmednagar district—who killed three young Dalit men because of a Valmiki-Maratha affair on January 1, 2013 — with the Jats of Haryana and the Vanniyars of northern Tamil Nadu? It is their abiding faith in the supremacy and utility of caste.

There are stories that make lesser news. In 2010, in Pallinellinoor, Villupuram district, Kokila, a Parayar girl and Karthikeyan, an Arundhatiyar boy — both of different Scheduled Caste jatis — decided to get married. Fearing repercussions from Kokila’s family, the couple kept it a secret. In 2012, when the truth was out, Kokila died under suspicious circumstances in her parents’ house — a euphemism for honour killing. Neither the Dalit movement nor the media took notice. The deviousness of the caste system is such that it can quickly turn victim into perpetrator; the larger truth is that its amorality makes everyone — oppressor and oppressed — a victim. Caste is truly the monster that crosses our path in whichever direction we turn.

(S. Anand is the publisher of Navayana.)

comments

A well written article; must touch the conscience of every human being.
How to undo the injustices caused by the casteism, unique to Indian culture? Right thinking leaders of all castes must come together and encourage, support and protect inter caste marriage among people. Is it an impossibility to achieve in these days of high level of education?

from:  natarajan kanagasabai

Posted on: Jul 13, 2013 at 12:32 IST

Wow. What a synopsis of caste based politics in India, especially in TN!
We need strong modern value education system in place to remind us that
our forefathers fought for our unique identity which is being citizens
of one motherland. Such teaching should start from schools.
Unfortunately, those running the schools (public and private) indulge in
caste based discrimination (students refused to eat food in school as it
was prepared by a dalit, maybe amma canteens are the solution). The
state government must take strong actions in this regard.

from:  Vamsi Krishna Tumuluru

Posted on: Jul 13, 2013 at 12:14 IST

It is time for election commission to make an "ethical code of conduct"
for all political parties in non election times similar to the
"election code of conduct". The ethical code of conduct should ensure
that
1. All policital parties should profess and abide by the
constitutionally guaranteed rights of "equality with respect to
gender,caste, religion etc etc".
2. No polictical party should be formed on a caste basis and address
issues of "one caste only"
Failure to abide this ethical code of conduct should automatically
disqualify the politicians from contesting the elections at any level
for life.
Only these kind of drastic measures will save the "free will of people" guaranteed by democracy from caste mad mob mentality of politicians

from:  shekar

Posted on: Jul 13, 2013 at 12:11 IST

The Dravidian Brahmanism is continuously divided the Dalit political integration in the name Tamil identity past decades. But the PMK is diplomatically wearing touchable mask and regional wise identify with a savior of Dalits. In earlier stage VCK and PT political parties are unconsciously enjoying the PMK’s Dalit street performance. The problems faced by Dalit parties are not new. Throughout the history, they have been fighting against the planned conspiracy of the so called Dravidian dominant forces. My observation is that the headlong the identity of Tamil political alliance paved the way for the establishment of Tamil or Paattaali dravidian majoritarianism, because those Tamil identity based parties and Dravidian leaders who are upholding rather than negating their Tamil identity are in favour of this exercise. This is big mistakes prove by Dalit parties unconsciously dilute their political agenda and sidelined to down track for own survival reasons.

from:  Anbuselvam

Posted on: Jul 13, 2013 at 11:53 IST

The article is highly disturbing. It has appeared immediately after the ban on caste based rallies .The author has dared to rub salt on several jati communities and political groups risking retaliation from such groups by pointing out their hypocrisy explicitly. The article is very bold in revealing how fiercely even the sub castes among the scheduled castes cling to their caste hierarchical supremacy. It was always portrayed the scourge of caste system was perpetuated by higher castes in the caste hierarchy. But this article disproves that myth. It is telling to know that every caste wants to cling to their hierarchical rank and wants to assert their superiority over other sections but do not want to provide mobility to the sect lower than their rank to intermingle with their own. What a sorry state of affair to know even in this twenty first century instead of getting away from Caste based society to a classless society our politicians and casteteist organizations some of them are pioneers in the social reform movement of Tamilnadu are perpetuating the caste divisions for the lure of political dividends unmindful of the consequence on the society. What a paradox! 

from:  A.Thirugnanasambantham

Source: The hindu dt 13-7-13

Intellectual dishonest

 DMK chief wants to divert the attention of readers from the above article by reviving all community archakas issue.  Pl read the following articles appeared in Dianakaran daily dt 14-7-13.

அனைத்து ஜாதியினரையும் அர்ச்சகராக்க கோரி

திராவிடர் கழகம் போராட்டத்தில் திமுகவினரும் பங்கேற்பார்கள்

அனைத்து ஜாதியினர் அர்ச்சகராக நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க கோரி தமிழக அரசை வலியுறுத்தி திராவிடர் கழகம் நடத்தும் போராட்டங்களில் திமுகவினர் பங்கேற்பார்கள் என்று கருணாநிதி கூறியுள்ளார்.

இது குறித்து திமுக தலைவர் கருணாநிதி நேற்று வெளியிட்ட அறிக்கையில் கூறியிருப்பதாவது:

ஆலயங்களில் கர்ப்பக்கிரகம் வரையில் சாதிப் பாகுபாடின்றி அனைவரும் சென்று ஆண்டவனை தொழ வேண்டும்; அனைவருக்கும் அர்ச்சகராகும் உரிமை வேண்டுமென்று கோரி 1970ம் ஆண்டு ஜனவரி மாதம் பெரியார் ஒரு கிளர்ச்சியைத் தொடங்கப் போவதாக அறிவித்திருந்தார்.

நான் பெரியாருக்கு ஒரு வேண்டுகோள் அறிக்கை கொடுத்தேன். அர்ச்சகர்களுக்கென சில தகுதிகள் இருக்க வேண்டும்; போற்றக்கூடிய புனிதத் தன்மைகளை அவர்கள் கடைப்பிடித்தாக வேண்டும்; அதற்குரிய பயிற்சிகளை அவர்கள் பெற்றாக வேண்டும் என்பதில் எனக்குக் கருத்து வேறுபாடில்லை. அப்படிப் பயிற்சி பெறுகிறவர்கள், எந்த வகுப்பினராயிருந்தாலும் அவர்கள் அதில் தேர்வு பெற்று அர்ச்சகராக ஆகலாம். அதற்கு விதிமுறைகள் வகுக்க அரசு யோசித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கிறது.

அதேசமயம் பரம்பரை அர்ச்சகர் வீட்டுப் பிள்ளைகள் அர்ச்சகராக விரும்பினால் அவர்களுக்கு முதல் சலுகை அளிப்பது பற்றியும் அரசு யோசித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கிறது. எனவே, கிளர்ச்சியினை நிறுத்தி வைக்குமாறு பெரியாரை கேட்டுக் கொண்டேன். உடனே போராட்டத்தைத் தள்ளி வைக்கச் சம்மதித்தார். 2&12&70ல் சட்டப் பேரவையில் அர்ச்சகர் சட்டம் கொண்டு வரப்பட்டு நிறைவேறியது. அர்ச்சகர் சட்டம் கண்டு, சமத்துவம் விரும்பாத சனாதனிகள் வெகுண்டார்கள். உச்சநீதிமன்றத்தில் வழக்குத் தொடர்ந்தார்கள். 12 ரிட் மனுக்கள் தாக்கல் செய்யப்பட்டன. 1972ம் ஆண்டு மார்ச் 14ம் தேதி உச்சநீதிமன்றம் தீர்ப்பு வழங்கியது.

கோயில்களில் அர்ச்சகர்களை நியமிப்பது வகுப்பு வேறுபாடற்ற நடவடிக்கை. அந்த நடவடிக்கைகளில் அரசாங்கம் தலையிட உரிமை உண்டு. மனுதாரர்களால் தவறு என்று கூறப்படும் இந்தச் சட்டம் மத சம்பந்தமான நடவடிக்கைகளிலோ விவகாரங்களிலோ தலையிடவில்லை. எனவே தமிழ்நாடு அரசு கொண்டு வந்த சட்டத் திருத்தம் செல்லுபடியானதே என்று தீர்ப்பில் கூறப்பட்டிருந்த போதிலும், நடை முறையில் இனிமேல் செய்யக்கூடிய காரியம் என்ற வகையில் அந்தச் சட்டத்தின்படி காரியங்கள் நடை முறைக்கு வராத அளவுக்கு முடக்கப்பட்டது.

அது நடைமுறைக்கு வரவேண்டுமென்றால் அரசியல் சட்டத்தில் ஒரு திருத்தம் கொண்டு வரப்பட வேண்டும். எத்தனையோ முறை மத்திய அரசுக்கு எடுத்துக் கூறியும் மத்திய அமைச்சர்களிடத்தில் விவாதித்தும்கூட அந்த அரசியல் சட்டத் திருத்தப் பணி நடைபெறவே இல்லை. இது கண்டு கொதிப்ப டைந்த பெரியார் 1973ம் ஆண்டு டிசம்பர் 8, 9 ஆகிய நாட்களில் நடைபெற்ற திராவிடர் கழக மாநாட் டில் நாடு தழுவிய போராட்டத்தை நடத்துவதற்குத் தீர்மானம் நிறைவேற்றினார். ஆனால், அந்தப் போராட்டத்தை நடத்தாமலேயே 1973ம் ஆண்டு டிசம்பர் 24ம் தேதி பெரியார் மறைந்து விட்டார்.

சென்னை அண்ணா மேம்பாலத்திற்கருகே 1977ம் ஆண்டு செப்டம்பர் 18ம் தேதி பெரியார் சிலை திறப்பு விழா அதிமுக சார்பாக நடைபெற்ற போது திராவிடர் கழகத்தின் சார்பில் அந்த விழாவில் கலந்து கொண்ட மணியம்மையார் அந்நாளைய முதலமைச்சர் எம்.ஜி.ஆர். முன்னிலையில் பேசும் போது, அர்ச்சகர் சட்டம் முடமாக்கப்பட்டிருப்பதைச் சுட்டிக்காட்டினார்.

1978ம் ஆண்டு நடைபெற்ற பெரியார் நூற்றாண்டு விழாவில் சென்னை கடற்கரையில் நான் பேசும் போது, மத்திய பாதுகாப்புத் துறை அமைச்சராக இருந்த ஜெகஜீவன்ராமையும் அந்த மேடையில் வைத் துக் கொண்டு பேசும் போது, பெரியார் நெஞ்சில் இருந்த முள்ளை அகற்றிடும் வகையில் திமுக மீண்டும் ஆட்சிப் பொறுப்பேற்றவுடனேயே 23&5&2006ல் அரசாணை பிறப்பிக்கப்பட்டது. அதன்படி தகுதியும், திறமையும் பெற்ற அனைத்து இந்துக்களும் சாதி வேறுபாடின்றி திருக்கோவில்களில் அர்ச்சகர்களாக ஆவதற்கு வழி வகை செய்யப்பட்டது.

அப்போது வேத விற்பன்னரும், தமிழ் அர்ச்சனைக்காக பல்லாண்டு காலம் போராடியவருமான அக்னிஹோத்ரம் ராமானுஜ தாத்தாச்சாரியர், இப்போது தேர்ந்தெடுத்திருக்கிற கருணாநிதி மந்திரிசபை எல்லா சாதிக்காரர்களும் அர்ச்சகர் ஆகலாம் என முடிவெடுத்து அறிவித்திருப்பது வேதவாக்கு. ஆகமத்தைச் சொல்லி மற்ற சாதிக்காரர்களை பிராமணர்கள் கோவிலுக்குள் விடாமல் இருந்தார்கள்.

ஆனால், உண்மை என்னவென்றால் பிராமணனுக்கும், ஆகமத்துக்குமே முரண்பாடுதான். பிராமணன் தனக்கு எதிரான ஆகமத்தின் பெயரைச் சொல்லியே மற்ற சாதிக்காரர்களை உள்ளே விட மறுத்து வந்தான். பிராமணர் இதையே, தன் தொழிலாக்கிக் கொண்டதால், மற்ற யாரையும் உள்ளே விடவில்லை.

ராம சாமி நாயக்கர் அந்தக் காலத்தில் என்னிடம் தாத்தாச்சாரியாரே எங்க கையால ஒரு பூவை எடுத்து உங்க சாமிக்குப் போடக்கூடாதாய்யா? என்று கேட்டார். அந்தப் பூவை இப்போது கருணாநிதி எடுத்துப் போட வைத்திருக்கிறார். இது வரவேற்க வேண்டிய ஒரு சீர்திருத்த விஷயம். இதை யாராவது ஆட்சேபி த்தால் அவர்கள் மக்கள் முன்னேற்றத்தைத் தடுக்கிறார்கள்னு அர்த்தம். அவர்களுக்கு நாம் தான் நல்ல புத்தி சொல்லித் திருத்த வேண்டும் என்று பதிலளித்தார் பெரியார்.

திமுக ஆட்சியின் அரசாணை அடுத்து பழனி, திருச்செந்தூர், மதுரை, திருவண்ணாமலை ஆகிய 4 இடங்களில் சைவ அர்ச்சகர் பயிற்சி நிலையங்களும் சென்னை, திருவரங்கம் ஆகிய 2 இடங்களில் வைணவ அர்ச்சகர் பயிற்சி நிலையங்களும் தொடங்கப்பட்டன. பயிற்சி முடித்த நிலையில், அனைத்துச் சாதியினரும் அர்ச்சகராகும் பிரச்னை உச்சநீதிமன்றம் வரை எடுத்துச் செல்லப்பட்டது. அதன் காரணமாக அவர்களுக்கு உடனடியாக திருக்கோவில்களில் வேலைவாய்ப்பு உருவாக்கிட இயலாமல் போயிற்று. அதற்குப் பின்னர் அதிமுக ஆட்சி தமிழகத்தில் பொறுப்பேற்றது.

உச்சநீதிமன்றத்தில் தமிழக அரசு அர்ச்சகர் பிரச்னையை முடிவுக்குக் கொண்டு வர 6 மாத கால அவகாசத்தைக் கேட்டுப் பெற்றது. 6 மாத காலம் முடிந்த பிறகும், இந்தப் பிரச்னையில் எவ்விதமான நடவடிக்கைகளையும் அதிமுக அரசு மேற்கொள்ளவில்லை. அர்ச்சகர் பயிற்சி பெற்ற மாணவர்கள் சங்கத்தைச் சேர்ந்தோர், உச்சநீதிமன்றம் 6 மாத கால அவகாசம் வழங்கியும்கூட மாநில அரசு இதுவரை எவ்வித கலந்தாலோசனையையும் நடத்தவில்லை.

எனவே மாநில அரசின் நோக்கத்தை நாங்கள் சந்தேகிக்கிறோம். 2006ம் ஆண்டு வெளியிடப்பட்ட அரசாணையை தற்போதுள்ள தமிழக அரசு என்ன செய்யப்போகிறது என்று எங்களுக்கு தெரிய வில்லை. இந்த நிலையில்தான் திராவிடர் கழகம் இதை வற்புறுத்தும் வகையில் ஆகஸ்ட் முதல் தேதி ஆர்ப்பாட்டம், மாநாடு, கருத்தரங்குகள் மற்றும் 3ம் கட்டமாக மறியல் போராட்டத்தை நடத்துவது என்று முடிவெடுத்துள்ளது. இந்த போராட்டங்களில் திமுக உறுப்பினர்கள் பங்கேற்று அந்தப் போராட்டத்திற்கு எழுச்சியூட்டும் வகை யில் தேவையான நடவடிக்கைகளிலும் ஈடுபட வேண்டுமென்று வலியுறுத்துகிறேன்.

இவ்வாறு கருணாநிதி கூறியுள்ளார்.

Source:dinakaran-14-7-13