Pa. Ranjith’s outburst sparks debate on caste

Dravidian ideologues unhappy after he spoke against invocation of Tamil identity

Tamil film-maker Pa. Ranjith of Kabaliand Madras fame has triggered an ideological spat between Ambedkarites, Periyarists and Tamil nationalists after his public outburst against director Ameer for seeking to delink late medical aspirant Anitha from her possible identity as a Dalit girl.

At a meeting here, Mr. Ameer had said that there was no need to underscore the Ariyalur girl’s caste while fighting against the NEET. Instead, she should be seen as a Tamil girl.

Strongly disagreeing, Mr. Ranjith demanded that Tamil society accept that Dalits are oppressed and must not gloss over the issue by invoking Tamil identity.

This has led to an intense debate over the issue of Dalit suppression and Tamil identity.

Writer and Dalit intellectual Stalin Rajangam said that Mr. Ranjith’s emotional outburst “stripped the fake masks worn by Dravidian ideologues and Tamil nationalists”, which explained why sympathisers of Dravidian ideology and Tamil nationalist ideology were united in their criticism of the Kabali director.

“Both Dravidian and Tamil nationalist politics favour the backward castes. In my opinion, if Dravidian parties give power to backward castes to maintain their hold on political power, the Tamil nationalists provide ideological justification to caste hierarchy,” Mr. Rajangam said.

Mr. Ranjith touched a raw nerve by stating there is no social justice in Tamil Nadu. “The questions that he raised against Tamil nationalists can be asked of the Dravidian movement as well. If the former talks of Tamil identity and suppresses any talk about caste, the latter talks about non-Brahmin identity and does not talk about caste,” Mr. Rajangam said.

Dr. Satva, who organised an event last year in which some doctors embraced Buddhism, said, “Tamil nationalists try to discredit Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and Periyar by saying that they are non-Tamils. Not only that, they also try to alienate Arundhathiyars, one of the most oppressed castes amongst the Dalits, by positing them as Telugu or Kannada speaking community.”

‘Credit to Periyarists’

Arul Mozhi, spokesperson, Dravidar Kazhagam, said that while Mr. Ranjith’s outburst distorted the focus of the event to make it an ideological fight between Dravidian ideology, Tamil nationalist ideology and Ambedkarism, she agreed that the grievances of Dalits have to be taken into account.

“Let me tell you that there were no brutal killings of Dalit boys for marrying upper caste women in the 1990s like how we see today. The shift among the backward classes towards violent casteism happened after Dalit intellectuals and Tamil nationalists started attacking Periyar and his ideology. Slowly they began projecting Periyar as anti-Dalit and non-Tamil. Both these approaches resulted in Dharmapuri and Naickenkottai,” she contended. It was unacceptable to say that Periyarists/Dravidian parties did nothing for the welfare of Dalits. “It is a fact that leaders such as Thirumavalavan could rise because of Periyarists,” she said.

Stressing that all kinds of ‘identity politics’ need re-evaluation, Karthick RM, assistant professor, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, felt that it is not useful to pitch narrow strands of Dalit politics and Tamil nationalism against each other.

“We cannot be forced to take sides after pitching a narrow Dalit politics against a narrow Tamil nationalism. Instead, we should work towards a broad politics of solidarity that recognises caste and national questions, but is not constrained by them,” he said.

Source: The Hindu dt 17.9.17

ABOLITION OF CASTE

AID TO INTER CASTE COUPLE FROM AMBEDKAR FOUDATION

No inter-caste couple selected for Central aid in TN

The Dr. Ambedkar Foundation has not released financial assistance under “Dr.Ambedkar Scheme for Social Integration through Inter-caste Marriages” to any applicant from Tamil Nadu.

The foundation was established in 1992 under the aegis of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to implement programmes for furthering the ideology of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar.

Under the scheme, which was implemented on a pilot basis for two years from 2013-14, an assistance of Rs.2.50 lakh was extended to inter-caste married couples to settle down in the initial phase of their life.

It was planned to extend incentives to 500 such marriages in a financial year throughout the country and the target for Tamil Nadu was fixed at 36 couples a year.

Newly married couples, where one of the spouses belongs to Scheduled Caste and their marriage registered under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and with a total annual income of less than Rs.5 lakh, were eligible to apply for the assistance within one year of their marriage.

Applications recommended by the sitting Member of Parliament or Member of Legislative Assembly or the District Collector/ Magistrate should have to be submitted by the State/UT Government to the Foundation.

However, none of the inter-caste couples, who have entered into the wedlock in the financial year 2012-13 or 2013-14 in Tamil Nadu, seemed to have qualified to receive the financial assistance as per the reply given by the Foundation to a question raised in this regard under RTI Act by G.R.Ravi of Thamizh Makkal Panpattu Kazhagam, Kancheepuram.

Meanwhile, official sources in the district said that they were unaware of this scheme, as they had not forwarded any proposal.

Source: The Hindu dt 15-4-15

Fight against untouchability, caste system goes global

Miss Arab USA 2014, Others To Raise Awareness
While a large section of middle-class India remains oblivious to castebased discrimination, the battle against untouchability has drawn a motley crew of supporters from around the world: African-America lawyers, Russian models and `untouchables' of Japan's caste system.

Kevin Brown, a faculty at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law, has connected African-American intellectuals with India's dalit intellectuals. “We want to share our experience of overcoming racism in America with dalits in India. We want to help build a culture of resistance to the caste system,“ says Brown, who first visited India on a Fulbright scholarship, where he grew friendly with S Japhet, the sole dalit faculty member of a law college in Bangalore. Brown has had many interactions with influential members of India's dalit community , including Chandra Bhan Prasad, a proponent of dalit capitalism and mentor for the Dalit India Chamber of Commerce and Industry .

“I spoke to him about the importance of dalits setting up businesses. One thing that helped African-Americans was that they began setting up businesses in the country ,“ says Brown. Jalil Dozier, Brown’s former student at Indiana University and a practicing lawyer in Washington, has researched America’s battle against racism and the Indian caste system.

Retired American social worker Johanna Shafer is part of an advocacy group that raises awareness about the system. She feels discrimination against dalits is a serious violation of human rights.

“There are more opportunities for African-Americans to better their lives than there are for dalits in India,” she adds.

“I’ve heard hair-raising stories of the caste system,” says an American who retired from the fashion industry.

Growing up amidst America’s civil rights movement, the prevalence of caste discrimination in this day and age makes her furious. She now works with dalit women labourers in India, to help them think out of the box and discover their rights through the creative use of art.

“Dalit women often face triple discrimination, based on can’t imagine how hard it can be to be a dalit woman. When I see pictures of the hanging of dalit women in India, carried in US newspapers, I feel very sad,” says model and actress Lika Osipova, founder, producer and director of the Miss Russia Los Angeles beauty pageant, who has thrown her lot behind fighting caste discrimination.

Osipova wants more Bollywood celebrities to stand up against caste discrimination.

“I haven’t heard of Bollywood stars talk of the issue,” she adds.

Hollywood actress Rolita Fakih, winner of the Miss Hollywood Image contest this year, says she can’t believe people still think this way. She hopes to raise awareness about caste discrimination by talking about it wherever she goes and raising the issue at shows where she performs.

Guinwa Zeineddine, winner of the Miss Arab USA 2014 contest, is set to make a video on India’s caste system. “The system forces people to remain separate. It negatively influences people’s social stability. I plan to raise awareness on what’s going on in India because unfortunately, not many are aware of how the system negatively affects others,” she says. “I will promote the cause via social media and speak about it at public platforms,” says Zeineddine.

Sushant Godghate, who has a doctorate in engineering and is based in Japan, is part of the Ambedkar International Mission. Godghate says Japan’s Buraku Liberation League has pledged support for the battle.

Just 5% of Indian marriages are inter-caste: survey

30 per cent of rural and 20 per cent of urban households said they practised untouchability

Just five per cent of Indians said they had married a person from a different caste, says the first direct estimate of inter-caste marriages in India.

The India Human Development Survey (IHDS), conducted by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland, also reported that 30 per cent of rural and 20 per cent of urban households said they practised untouchability. The IHDS is the largest non-government, pan-Indian household survey. It covers over 42,000 households, representative by class and social group. Its findings, yet to be made public, were shared exclusively with The Hindu. When married women aged between 15 and 49 were asked if theirs was an inter-caste marriage, just 5.4 per cent said yes, the proportion being marginally higher for urban over rural India.

There was no change in this proportion from the previous round of the IHDS (2004-05). Inter-caste marriages were rarest in Madhya Pradesh (under 1 per cent) and most common in Gujarat and Bihar (over 11 per cent).

source : The hindu dt 13 Nov-14

Breaking caste barriers.

Dalits in Kolar welcomed into homes of upper castes

Known for its large population of Dalits, Kolar district is set to witness a different kind of social reform movement. It employs a traditional event — ‘Grihapravesha’ — to eradicate untouchability, which is rampant in the region.

The Dalits have been facing inhuman social conditions here. Even six decades after Independence, they are not allowed into public places such as temples. In spite of Kolar being a reserved Lok Sabha constituency, it has not been possible to remove the curse of untouchability.

Undivided Kolar witnessed a number of heinous incidents: killing of Dalits by caste Hindus, the Kambalapalli incident being the most horrific among them. Seven people were burnt alive at the village.

Persistent efforts by organisations such as the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) notwithstanding, the curse still continues. The majority of Dalits here are landless farm labourers and workers engaged in cleaning towns and cities.

Of late, a social activities centre, Arivu (meaning awareness), founded by G. Shivappa, a lecturer with Government College for Women in Kolar, has been working on a novel means of creating awareness against untouchability, and making possible the entry of people from other castes into the houses of upper caste people. Titled ‘Grihapravesha’, the programme began with allowing Dalits to enter the house of Tatwapada singer, the late Gattappaswamy, Mr. Shivappa’s father. Hundreds of Dalits from nine villages in Mulbagal taluk entered the house on the occasion of his seventh death anniversary.

Arivu plans to carry out the campaign under the slogan ‘Ellarigoo pravesha, Dalitarigoo pravesha’ (Entry for all, Entry for Dalits too) at different panchayat centres every Sunday, Mr. Shivappa told The Hinduon Thursday.

A special programme is being organised on Friday to coincide with Independence Day celebrations at Hebbani. The Constitution will be taken out in the procession to uphold the secular aspirations of the country.

Source: The Hindu dt 15-8-14

Top religious leaders vow to end modern slavery in India

Three of the world’s top religious leaders – Pope Francis of the Vatican, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Grand Imam of Al Azhar Dr Mahmoud Azab have joined hands in the biggest ever push to eradicate modern day slavery and human trafficking in India by 2020. 
    This is the first time in history that the global Christian and Islamic leadership –with a reach of over 3 billion people have joined hands for a common cause. A significant part of the campaign by this new Global Freedom Network launched on Monday will be to rid India of both these modern ills. 
    According to the recent Global Slavery Index released in 2013, India was ranked 4th worst country indulging in modern day slavery and human trafficking. India, the report states, exhibits the full spectrum of different forms of modern slavery, from severe forms of inter-generational bonded labour across various industries to the worst forms of child labour, commercial sexual exploitation and forced and servile marriage. 
    The formidable challenge, it said, is the enormity of the problem, both in number of trafficked persons and increasing number of locations. An estimated 20 to 65 million Indian citizens are believed to be in forced labour within India as a result of debt bondage. 
    The World Bank estimated in 2012 that 32.7% of Indians lived below the international poverty line of less than $1.25/day (PPP). Poverty and India’s caste system are significant contributing factors to its modern slavery problem. The index found that between 13,300,000 and 14,700,000 are enslaved in India. This means India is home to nearly half of the world’s entire number of 30 million slaves worldwide. 
    India stands fourth as per proportion but right on top of this shameful list when it comes to absolute numbers. The Network launched on Monday has been initiated by Walk Free Foundation’s founder — Australian billionaire philanthropist Andrew Forrest. The religious leaders will use their clout to make their supply chains and investments modern slaveryproof besides mobilising their youth sections to support programmes.

source: The Times of India dt 18.3.14