Jats crush three dalits under tractor in Rajasthan

crush three dalits under tractor in Rajasthan

Incident Leads To Exodus Of Minority Community
Hundreds of dalits from Nagaur district's Dangawas and surrounding villages fled for their lives on Friday after the region's dominant upper caste, the Jats, mowed down three dalits under tractors, and grievously wounded a dozen others following the flaring up of a decades' old land dispute.
The Jat violence followed firing by dalits in which one dominant caste member was killed on Thursday . Heavy police was deployed at Dangawas, around 250km from Jaipur, to enable the funeral rites of those killed but no arrest was made despite some horrific crimes committed against dalit women, including their molestation, beating, and repeated attempts to disrobe them.

Many of them are battling severe injuries and are admitted to in different hospitals. The dispute relates to a 20ha farm land claimed by dalit families of Ratnaram Meghwal, Gutaram Meghwal and Khemaram Meghwal, but disputed by the family of Chimnaram Jat.The dispute has been pending in court for years.

Matters reached a head on Thursday when Dangawas's Jats held a panchayat and summoned the Meghwals. The dalit families, fearing that the Jats were assembling to attack them, fired shots at the two men sent to call them.

One Rampal died on spot. The crowd at Jat panchayat then went berserk, attacking the Meghwals, bulldozing their houses, assaulting their women and chasing the fleeing men on tractors.

Ratnaram Meghwal, 65, Pancharam, 60, and Pokaram, 45, were crushed to death while 14 others, including six women, were injured.

On Friday, armed attackers reached the hospital at Merta City and surrounded it to prevent doctors from treating the injured da lits. Police from half-a-dozen police stations had to be called to ensure medical treatment to the injured, some of whom were later shifted to Ajmer.

Dangawas's six dalit women are being treated in Ajmer's JLN hospital alleged that the attackers molested them. Some of them suffered multiple fractures in hands and legs.

A 25-year-old woman wept in the hospital speaking about how the attackers tore off her blouse and tried to strip her on the disputed land. She got 15 stitches on her head. “They tried to rape me and abused me,“ the woman said.

Another woman said, “Four attackers tried to remove my `ghaghra' (skirt) and tried to thrust a stick inside.“ A third woman said, “They pulled me by my hair for about 50 metres, tore off my clothes and hit my legs with ironrods.“ A DSP with a police team is now deployed to secure the injured dalits women.

Kishan Meghwal, the brother of one of the injured women, said, “We identified 13 among the 200 attackers, but the police hasn't acted so far.“ He added, “We've been suffering Jat atrocities for decades.“

Source: The Times of India dt 16-5-15 page No 12( Chennai edition)

Dhananjay Mahapatra
AjmerJaipur

Shankarbigha: A foregone verdict

When witness after witness turned hostile in the 1999 Bihar caste violence case, no effort was made to prevent their intimidation by the accused and their supporters. The acquittals that followed set a new low for justice

January 25, 1999:

On the eve of Republic Day , at about 8.30pm, an armed mob attacked Shankarbigha, an impoverished Dalit village in Bihar. They butchered 23 men, women and children. The police registered an FIR naming 24 accused persons on the basis of information provided by a survivor, Pragash Rajvanshi, who had lost six members of his family, including his wife, in the massacre. Citing the slogans raised by the mob, Rajvanshi alleged that Shankarbigha was part of a series of massacres in Bihar organized by Ranvir Sena, a private army of landlords drawn mainly from the upper-caste bhumihars.

December 18, 2000:

Rajvanshi testified in Patna before the Justice Amir Das Commission, which had been set up by the Bihar government to probe Ranvir Sena's alleged nexus with political leaders. Rajvanshi said that he could easily recognise the accused and name them before the police for two reasons: their faces were lit by the moon and their torches, and the attackers were mostly from a neighbouring village, Dobhibigha, inhabited by bhumihars. Residents of Shankarbigha had worked as labourers in the fields owned by those bhumihars.

September 12, 2014:

When he was finally called by the prosecution to testify before a trial court in Jehanabad over 15 years after the massacre, Rajvanshi turned into a hostile witness. This was, in fact, part of a pattern. All 50 prosecution witnesses in the case were declared hostile in the trial court, as they denied identifying any of the culprits. Rajvanshi went to the extent of saying that he was not even present in Shankarbigha at the time of the massacre and that the police had taken his thumb impression for the FIR without reading out its contents to him.

Following this dramatictur naround, the trial judge, Raghawendra Kumar Singh, acquitted all the 24 accused persons on January 13, 2015 saying that “the evidence of the prosecution has fallen short“. Though other Ranvir Senarelated massacres, too, had resulted in acquittals of all the accused, this was the first time that the prosecution's allegations were rejected in toto right in the trial court. Reason: Shankarbigha was the first instance of all the prosecution witnesses turning hostile.

Yet, while witness after witness was disclaiming all knowledge of o the involvement of any of the ac cused persons, the court showed no inclination to interrupt the pro ceedings at any stage to check whether extraneous factors were at play . In his 14-page verdict, the S trial judge expressed no misgiving about why all the 50 witnesses, without exception, had turned hos s tile. Focused as it was on maintain ing its neutrality, the judgment showed no signs of acknowledging any denial of justice for the mass murder of Dalits at Shankarbigha. For all the rhetoric of social just tice in Bihar, the prosecution, too, displayed little concern about the likelihood of witnesses being intimidated by the upper-caste ac cused and the Ranvir Sena network. When evidence was being recorded in the so-called “fast-track court“ from July 23 to November 22, 2014, at no point did the special public prosecutor, Arvind Kumar, ask the court to provide protection to witnesses. All that Kumar (himself a Dalit) did was that on November 14, 2014, by when most of the witnesses had already disowned their testimonies, he wrote to the district magistrate of Arwal about the need for protecting the remaining ones. The DM, in turn, forwarded Kumar's letter to the superintendent of police on January 9, 2015, when the court was just four days away from delivering its verdict.

Thus, the witnesses in the Shankarbigha case were denied protection despite precedents in Bihar and elsewhere. In the Lakshmanpur Bathe case, in which 58 Dalits were allegedly killed by Ranvir Sena members in 1997, the trial was transferred to Patna in a bid to insulate the witnesses from intimidation. In the 2002 Naroda Patiya case in Gujarat, witnesses could depose even against a minister, Maya Kodnani, mainly because the SC had ordered protection for them by a central paramilitary force.

There was a failure to apply such safeguards to Shankarbigha although at the time of the recording of evidence, the chief minister of Bihar was a Dalit, Jitan Ram Manjhi. The damage from that failure is evident from the contrasting testimonies given by Rajvanshi before the Amir Das Commission in 2000 and the trial court in 2014.

When contacted by STOI in Shankarbigha, Rajvanshi admitted that he had turned hostile in the trial court because he had been intimidated by the culprits living in the vicinity of his village. “We deposed fearlessly before the Amir Das Commission because the police had then been deployed to make us feel secure, to escort us to Patna and even give us food,“ Rajvanshi said. “But when it came to the trial in Jehanabad, none of the authorities bothered to dispel the feeling that we were entirely at the mercy of the accused persons and their influential backers.“

Another aspect of the cavalier handling of the Shankarbigha case came to light after the judgment.One of those acquitted, Sheodeni Sharma, filed an application before the Jehanabad court in March seeking the release of a licensed gun seized from him during the investigations into the massacre. Sharma's plea unwittingly betrayed the fact that although the police had recovered empty cartridges from the scene of the crime, as recorded in the judgment, the prosecution failed to place any ballistic report on record. Had any of those cartridges matched the bore of Sharma's rifle, the trial court would have found it hard to acquit him just on the basis of hostile prosecution witnesses.

Source: The Times of India dt 5-4-15

Dalit woman beaten to death by non-dalit husband, in-laws.

A 28-year-old dalit woman was beaten to death and buried by her non-dalit husband and in-laws at a village near Bhuvanagiri in Cuddalore district. The murder took place on June 3 but it came to light recently. Police on Saturday exhumed the body and sent it for postmortem.Police said P Seetha of Aathivarahantham village and Saravanan got married on May 5 after a brief courtship despite strong objections from Saravanan’s family. The couple started living in Keerapalayam. But the relationship turned sour after the marriage and Seetha started complaining of abuse by her husband and in-laws.
Seetha went missing on June 3. Her parents, after failing to get details about her whereabouts from Saravanan, lodged a complaint with the Bhuvanagiri police on July 8.
On July 16, Saravanan surrendered before the Panruti judicial magistrate and confessed to murdering his wife
with the help of his mother Selvi, sister Sakunthala and brother-in-law Venkatesan.Police arrested Selvi, Sakunthala and Venkatesan on July 17 and produced them before a local court which remanded them in judicial custody. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Seetha, who was invited by Saravanan to his parents’ house in Kadavacheri, was beaten to death by him, his mother, sister and brotherin-law. They later set her body on fire and buried it near their house, police said.
Various dalit rights organisations, condemning the brutal murder, have demanded that the district police book all the accused under the SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The activists also demanded that the postmortem be videographed.
Source: The Times of india dt 20-7-14

Woman killed by husband, in-laws

A 28-year-old dalit woman was beaten to death and buried by her non-dalit husband and in-laws at a village near Bhuvanagiri in Cuddalore district. The murder took place on June 3 but it came to light recently. Police on Saturday exhumed the body and sent it for postmortem.

Police said P Seetha of Aathivarahantham village and Saravanan got married on May 5 after a brief courtship despite strong objections from Saravanan’s family. The couple started living in Keerapalayam. But the relationship turned sour after the marriage and Seetha started complaining of abuse by her husband and in-laws.

Seetha went missing on June 3. Her parents, after failing to get details about her whereabouts from Saravanan, lodged a complaint with the Bhuvanagiri police on July 8.

On July 16, Saravanan surrendered before the Panruti judicial magistrate and confessed to murdering his wife

with the help of his mother Selvi, sister Sakunthala and brother-in-law Venkatesan.

Police arrested Selvi, Sakunthala and Venkatesan on July 17 and produced them before a local court which remanded them in judicial custody. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Seetha, who was invited by Saravanan to his parents’ house in Kadavacheri, was beaten to death by him, his mother, sister and brotherin-law. They later set her body on fire and buried it near their house, police said.

Various dalit rights organisations, condemning the brutal murder, have demanded that the district police book all the accused under the SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The activists also demanded that the postmortem be videographed.

Source: The Times of India dt 20-7-14

SC, ST Amendment Bill deferred amid din

A Bill that makes it a punishable offence for public servants to “wilfully neglect” duties on matters relating to atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Tribes was referred to a Standing Committee by the Lok Sabha amid strong objections by the Congress that wanted the Bill to be taken up immediately.

The Congress’ contention is that since the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014, replaces an Ordinance there is no precedent for sending it to the Standing Committee. The Ordinance was promulgated in March this year by the then United Progressive Alliance government.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan referred the Bill to the Standing Committee amid disruptions by the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Nationalist Congress Party MPs, who were demanding an immediate response from Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on journalist Ved Pratap Vaidik’s controversial meeting with Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot, who stood up to move the Bill, looked uncertain due to the Opposition protests, but when the Speaker told him to send it to the Standing Committee, he said he would go by her orders.

Objections overruled

Ms. Mahajan overruled all objections, saying she would not change what had already taken place. The Bill replaces an Ordinance that states that if a non-SC/ST public servant wilfully neglects duties required to be performed under this Act, he or she shall be punished with imprisonment for a term from six months to one year. The Bill also makes provisions for States to set up special courts to try offences under the Act.

Act makes “wilfully neglect” of duties on atrocities against these sections punishable

Source : The Hindu dt 18-7-14

Outrage in Bhandara

Afortnight after the bodies of three daughters of an impoverished Dalit widow were found in a well in a village in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district, the investigation languishes. The victims, aged 11, 8 and 6, went to school and never came back. After villagers gave up a nightly search, the police took their time to even accept a complaint. Two days later, the bodies were spotted. According to the police, the girls were raped before being murdered. The only arrest so far has been of a teacher of the school, who was found not to have realised that the children had missed their noon-meal, although she had earlier in the day forbidden two of them from leaving during school hours. It would appear from accounts of the sequence of events that had the police acted on time, the girls could have been found. Fifteen police teams were assigned to the case after the inspector who failed to act quickly on the matter was suspended. The insensitivity and class bias among sections of the law enforcement agencies are once again in evidence here. The sense of insecurity that poor policing and entrenched lawlessness could together engender varies only in scale between rural areas and urban regions. With the trauma of the gang-rape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi last December still raw, the Bhandara case once again highlights the distance this country has to travel.

Incredibly, Maharashtra’s Home Minister, who claimed a little too prematurely last week that the case was “80 per cent solved,” has since blamed the residents of the village for not cooperating with the police. Many VIPs have been visiting the victims’ family. But such visits seem to have only added to the agony of the family and the problems of the police force which, while facing the heat for slow investigation, needs to deploy personnel for the visits and to manage simmering popular protests in the area. Amid all this, the tragic loser is none other than the mother of the victims. Civil society has been showing a growing sense of outrage over such horrific incidents, but the structures of governance ought to respond to it on a matching scale. The enforcement of a benchmark of zero tolerance for violence against women, especially children, cannot wait any more. As the Parliamentary Standing Committee examining the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2012 that seeks to enhance punishment for crimes against women places its report before the House, with the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee forming the backdrop, the case for the enactment of the most stringent provisions for such atrocities stands further buttressed. The certainty and the severity of punishment should act as true deterrents.

Source: The Hindu dt 28.2.13

Here rape is a form of caste oppression

When a series of gang rapes rocked Haryana in October, Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited Sacha Kera village and met with Raj and Raja Kali, the parents of a 16-year-old girl who burnt herself after being gangraped by three village goons. Her visit, however, did not inspire any other Haryana politician to commiserate with the scores of similar cases in the State, nor has it stopped the occurrence of gang rapes. The last reported was one on November 28, in Ajaib village, which falls in Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s constituency, Rohtak.

Without a strong political will, rape cases flounder and often compensation is denied in Haryana. “No government functionary or representative of the ruling party bothers to visit the victims. Such a show of solidarity will automatically demoralise the accused, who are usually socially powerful. Now, they are emboldened to give threats and connive to be let off in the cases against them,” says Inderjeet Singh, president of the CPI(M) State unit.

With the Centre talking of setting up fast track courts to deal with rape crimes, activists across Haryana are also wondering why there is no such assurance from the State government so far. “Is it because many of the perpetrators are from the influential Jat community, who the government does not want to annoy,” asks Savita, who heads the Haryana Mahila Samiti.

Of the five people mentioned in the Ajaib village gang rape, the two key accused recognised and named by the woman have not been arrested so far. A newly married woman, gang-raped by four men on October 3, in Banwasa village of Sonepat district, has been abandoned by her family.

Says Jagmati Sangwan of AIDWA, “Out of the seven accused, the name of one has been removed from the FIR due to pressure on the victim. There has been no effort from the district administration to counsel the girl’s in-laws and husband to take her back. Her trauma has multiplied because of the insensitive government machinery.”

In Kalsi village in Karnal district, a 15-year-old Dalit girl was raped by two upper caste men in September, and when her mother raised the voice, she too was raped and murdered. “Though the police have arrested the two rapists, after a media outcry, there is no headway in the murder investigation,” says Dharampal, the girl’s father.

The gang-rape of Shiela (name changed) in Dabra village near Hisar in September and her father’s subsequent suicide when he saw a MMS of the incident made national headlines. The girl and her family have been forced to leave the village and live with her grandmother in Hisar town. Her brother had to drop out of his college course because he could not attend classes for two months.

“We can never go back to the village. They are powerful people and will force us to withdraw their names from the FIR. I want them to be convicted,” Shiela told The Hindu . After the trauma, the struggle against threat and intimidation is also a lonely one.

 Source:The Hindu dt 31.12.12

தமிழ்ச் சாதியை என் செய நினைத்தாய்?

அக்டோபர் 30-ஆம் தேதி பரமக்குடி அருகே நடைபெற்ற தலைவர் ஒருவரின் நினைவு நாளையொட்டி அங்கு சென்றுவிட்டு திரும்பிய வாகனம் ஒன்றின்மீது மதுரையில் பெட்ரோல் குண்டுகள் வீசப்பட்டு அதன் விளைவாக 7 பேர் இறந்து போனார்கள். பரமக்குடியில் மூவர் படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்டார்கள். கொல்லப்பட்டவர்களில் பெரும்பாலோர் ஒரே ஜாதியைச் சார்ந்தவர்கள்.

இந்தப் பதற்றம் தணிவதற்கு முன்பாக, நவம்பர் 7-ஆம் தேதி தர்மபுரி மாவட்டத்தில் உள்ள வெள்ளாளப்பட்டி என்னும் ஊரைச் சேர்ந்த நத்தம் காலனியில், நூற்றுக்கணக்கான பேர் கொண்ட கும்பல் நுழைந்து வன்முறைத் தாக்குதலில் ஈடுபட்டது. அந்தக் காலனியிலிருந்த வீடுகள் அனைத்தையும் கும்பல் அடித்து நொறுக்கிற்று. விலை உயர்ந்த பொருள்கள் மற்றும் வாகனங்கள் எரித்துச் சாம்பலாக்கப்பட்டன. தங்கம், வெள்ளி நகைகள் மற்றும் பணம் ஆகியவை கொள்ளையடிக்கப்பட்டன.

நத்தம் காலனியோடு இந்த வன்முறை வெறியாட்டம் நிற்கவில்லை. அருகிலுள்ள அண்ணா நகர் புதுகாலனி, கொண்டப்பட்டி ஆகிய கிராமங்களில் இருந்த வீடுகளும் தாக்கப்பட்டன. மொத்தம் 3 கிராமங்களிலும் சேர்த்து 268 வீடுகள் மற்றும் 50-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட வாகனங்கள் நாசம் செய்யப்பட்டன.

இவ்வளவு கலவரத்திற்கும் எது காரணம்? நத்தம் காலனியில் வசித்த இளவரசன் என்னும் இளைஞர் வேறொரு ஜாதியைச் சேர்ந்த திவ்யா என்ற பெண்ணைக் காதலித்தார். இரு குடும்பத்தினரின் எதிர்ப்பையும் மீறி அவர்கள் இருவரும் அக்டோபர் 14-ஆம் தேதி பதிவுத் திருமணம் செய்துகொண்டனர்.

இதன் காரணமாக பெண்ணின் ஜாதியைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள் ஆத்திரம் அடைந்தனர். திவ்யாவின் தந்தை நாகராஜ் தற்கொலை செய்துகொண்டார். இது ஆத்திரவயப்பட்டிருந்த ஜாதி மக்களுக்குப் பெரும் கோபமூட்டியது.

ஒரு ஆணும், பெண்ணும் ஒருவரையொருவர் விரும்பிக் காதல் மணம் செய்துகொள்வது இயற்கை. ஆனால், அதுவே ஜாதிக் கலவரங்களுக்குக் காரணமாக அமைவது என்பது எல்லா வகையிலும் நியாயமற்றதாகும்.

பெண்ணின் ஜாதியைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள் ஆத்திரவயப்பட்டு இளவரசன் வசிக்கும் வீட்டை அல்லது காலனியைத் தாக்கினால் அது புரிந்துகொள்ளக்கூடியதே. ஆனால், அதற்குப் பக்கத்தில் இருந்த கிராமங்களில் வசித்த அதே ஜாதியைச் சார்ந்த மக்களின் வீடுகளும் கொளுத்தப்பட்டது எதைக் காட்டுகிறது?

ஏதோ ஒரு திருமணத்தின் விளைவாக இது நடந்தது என்று சொல்ல முடியாது. மாறாகத் திட்டமிட்டு, குறிப்பிட்ட ஜாதி மக்களின் பொருளாதார நிலையைச் சீரழிக்க வேண்டும் என்பதுதான் இக்கலவரத்துக்கு நோக்கமாகும்.

நத்தம் காலனி உள்பட அருகில் உள்ள குடியிருப்புகளில் வாழும் பெரும்பாலான ஆண்கள் பெங்களூருக்குச் சென்று நன்றாகச் சம்பாதிப்பவர்கள். அந்தப் பணத்தின் சேமிப்பை வீடாக, வாகனங்களாக, நகைகளாக மாற்றி தங்களின் வாழ்க்கைத் தரத்தை உயர்த்திக் கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள். இதைப் பொறுக்க முடியாதவர்கள்தான், கலப்புத் திருமணத்தைக் காரணமாகக் காட்டி இந்தக் கலவரத்தை நடத்தியிருக்கிறார்கள் என்பது தெளிவாகத் தெரிகிறது.

திடீரென மூண்ட கலவரமாக இது இருக்க முடியாது. அக்டோபர் 14-ஆம் தேதி இளவரசனும்-திவ்யாவும் பதிவுத் திருமணம் செய்துகொண்டு காவல்துறையை அணுகிப் பாதுகாப்பும் பெற்றுள்ளனர். எனவே இந்தத் திருமணம் அந்த வட்டாரத்தில் சமூக அமைதியின்மையை ஏற்படுத்தும் என்பதை உணர்ந்து உரிய பாதுகாப்பு நடவடிக்கைகளை காவல்துறை எடுத்திருக்க வேண்டும். ஏனெனில், திருமணம் நடந்து 23 நாள்களுக்குப் பிறகே நவம்பர் 7-ஆம் தேதி கலவரம் வெடித்துள்ளது. எனவே, தக்க சமயத்தில் உரிய நடவடிக்கைகளை எடுப்பதற்குக் காவல்துறை அடியோடு தவறிவிட்டது என்பது இதன்மூலம் தெளிவாகிறது.

மேற்கண்ட ஜாதிக்கலவரங்கள் தமிழகத்திற்குப் பெரும் தலைக்குனிவை ஏற்படுத்திவிட்டன. வடமாநிலங்களில் அடிக்கடி மூளும் மதக்கலவரங்கள், ஜாதிக்கலவரங்கள் போன்றவை இல்லாத ஒரு மாநிலமாக தமிழ்நாடு விளங்கிவந்த காலம் மறைந்துவிட்டது.

வெண்மணி, கொடியங்குளம், திண்ணியம், பாப்பாபட்டி, கீரிப்பட்டி, நாட்டார்மங்கலம் முதலிய நிகழ்ச்சிகளைத் தொடர்ந்து இப்போது தர்மபுரி மாவட்டத்தில் ஜாதியின் பெயரால் கலவரம் மூண்டுள்ளது.

பிறப்பின் அடிப்படையில் ஜாதி தீர்மானிக்கப்படுகிறது. ஒருவன் மதம் மாறலாம், ஆனால், ஜாதி மாறமுடியாது என்ற நிலைமை நிலவுகிறது. ஆனால் இன்றைய தமிழகத்தில், "பிறப்பினால் மட்டுமே சமூக வாழ்வின் சிறப்பு தீர்மானிக்கப்படுகிறது' என்னும் புரையோடிப்போன மூடநம்பிக்கை ஆழமாக வேரூன்றியுள்ளது.

"பிறப்பொக்கும் எல்லா உயிர்க்கும்' என்றார் வள்ளுவர்.

"ஒன்றே குலம் ஒருவனே தேவன்' என முழங்கினார் திருமூலர்.

"ஜாதி இரண்டொழிய வேறில்லை', "இட்டார் பெரியோர், இடாதார் இழிகுலத்தோர்' எனப் பாடினார் அவ்வை.

"ஜாதிகள் இல்லையடி பாப்பா' என முரசு கொட்டினார் பாரதி.

63 சைவ நாயன்மார்களில் 5 பேர் ஒடுக்கப்பட்ட ஜாதிகளைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள். 12 வைணவ ஆழ்வார்களில் ஒருவரும் அவ்வாறே. சைவ, வைணவக் கோயில்களில் இவர்களுக்குச் சிலைகள் வைக்கப்பட்டு பூசிக்கப்படுகின்றனர்.

சித்தர்கள் முதல் வள்ளலார் வரை ஜாதிச் சழக்கர்களை மிகக் கடுமையாகச் சாடியுள்ளனர். ஜாதிப் பாகுபாடற்ற சமரச நிலைச் சமுதாயத்தை உருவாக்க அவர்கள் தங்களை அர்ப்பணித்துக் கொண்டார்கள். ஆனால், இன்று அவர்கள் வாழ்ந்த தமிழ்நாட்டில் ஜாதி வெறி நச்சரவங்கள் தலைதூக்கிப் படமெடுத்து ஆடுகின்றன.

இந்தியக் குடியரசுத் தலைவராக ஒடுக்கப்பட்ட வகுப்பைச் சேர்ந்த கே.ஆர். நாராயணன் பதவி வகிக்க முடிகிறது. ஆனால், ஊராட்சிமன்றத் தலைவராக ஒரு ஒடுக்கப்பட்டவர் வருவதைச் சகித்துக்கொள்ள மறுக்கும் சூழ்நிலை சில ஊர்களில் இன்னமும் நீடிக்கிறது.

தென்னாப்பிரிக்க வெள்ளையரசின் நிறவெறிக் கொள்கைக்கு எதிராக ஐ.நா. பேரவையில் இந்தியா போராடி இறுதியில் தென்னாப்பிரிக்காவை உலகப் புறக்கணிப்புக்கு ஆளாக்கியது.

ஆனால், நிறவெறியைவிட மோசமான தீண்டாமை, இந்திய நாட்டில் இன்னமும் தொடர்கிறது. நீண்ட நெடுங்காலமாக இந்திய நாட்டிற்கு இழிவைத் தேடித்தரும் பிரச்னையாக ஜாதியம் இருந்து வந்துள்ளது. ஜாதியம் இன்றைக்கு நமது ஜனநாயக அமைப்பிற்கே சவால் விடும் நிலைமையில் வளர்ந்துகொண்டிருக்கிறது.

தென் மாவட்டங்களில் குறிப்பிட்ட இரு ஜாதியினருக்கு இடையேதான் அடிக்கடி மோதல் நிகழ்கிறது. ஆனால், காவிரிச் சமவெளி மாவட்டங்களில் இதே இரு ஜாதியினரும் வாழ்கிறார்கள். ஆனால், அங்கு ஜாதி மோதல்களோ, கலவரங்களோ அறவே இல்லை. இது ஏன் என்பது சிந்தனைக்குரிய கேள்வியாகும்.

தென்மாவட்டங்களில் வாழும் மக்கள் எந்த ஜாதியைச் சேர்ந்தவராக இருந்தாலும் வறண்ட பகுதிகளில் வாழ்பவர்கள். அவர்களுக்கு வாழ்வாதாரம் என்பது மிகமிகக் குறைவு. இந்தச் சூழ்நிலையில் அவர்கள் ஒருவரையொருவர் தாக்கிக் கொள்கிறார்கள்.

ஆனால், காவிரிச் சமவெளி மாவட்டங்கள் செழிப்பானவை. எந்தச் ஜாதியினராக இருந்தாலும் அவர்களின் பொருளாதார நிலைமை நன்றாக இருக்கிறது. எனவே மோதல்களுக்கு இடமில்லை.

மண்டல் கமிஷன் இடஒதுக்கீடு பற்றிய தனது ஆய்வறிக்கையில், மேற்கு வங்காளத்திலும், கேரளத்திலும் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ள நிலச் சீர்திருத்தங்கள் ஜாதி ஆதிக்கத்தைத் தகர்க்க உதவி உள்ளதாகவும் இதுதான் சரியான தீர்வு என்றும் பாராட்டியுள்ளது. இந்த இரு மாநிலங்களிலும் சமீப ஆண்டுகளில் குறிப்பிடத்தக்க அளவுக்கு தீண்டாமைக் கொடுமைகளோ, ஜாதிய மோதல்களோ வெளிப்படவில்லை என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கதாகும்.

ஆனால், தர்மபுரி மாவட்டத்தில் அண்மையில் நடைபெற்ற கலவரங்கள் இந்தக் கருத்துக்கு எதிராக உள்ளன. பொருளாதாரத்தில் ஏற்றமடைந்த ஜாதிமீது மற்றொரு ஜாதி பொறாமை கொண்டு தாக்குதல் நடத்தியுள்ளது.

இந்தியாவில் வேறெந்த மாநிலத்தையும்விட ஜாதிய எதிர்ப்பு முழக்கம் தமிழ்நாட்டில்தான் மிக அதிகமாக ஒலித்தது. ஆனால், அவை வெற்று முழக்கங்களாக அமைந்தனவே தவிர, செயல்பாட்டுக்கு உரியவைகளாக மாற்றப்படவில்லை என்பதைத்தான் தர்மபுரி சம்பவம் எடுத்துரைக்கிறது.

தமிழ்நாட்டில் ஜாதி அடிப்படையில் உருவாக்கப்பட்ட கூட்டணிகள் பெரும்பாலும் வெற்றிபெறவில்லை. அரசியல் அடிப்படையில் உருவான கூட்டணிகள்தான் வெற்றி பெற்றிருக்கின்றன. ஜாதி அடிப்படையில் அமைக்கப்பட்ட கட்சிகளும் ஏதாவது ஒரு அரசியல் கூட்டணியில் சேர்ந்து சில இடங்களில் வெற்றிபெற முடிகிறதே தவிர, அவர்கள் தனியாக நின்று தங்கள் ஜாதி வாக்குகளின் பலத்தினால் வெற்றி பெறுவது இல்லை. இதை நாம் நடைமுறையில் பல தேர்தல்களில் பார்த்தோம். ஆனால், ஜாதி கடந்து அரசியல் காரணங்களுக்காக மக்கள் அளித்த ஆதரவைப் பயன்படுத்தி ஆட்சி பீடத்திற்கு வந்தவர்கள் அமைச்சரவைகள் அமைக்கும்போது ஜாதிவாரியாக அமைச்சர்களை நியமித்தார்கள்.

சர்வீஸ் கமிஷன் தலைவர், உறுப்பினர்கள் மற்றும் அரசு தலைமைச் செயலாளர், காவல்துறைத் தலைவர் போன்ற முக்கியமான பதவிகளுக்குரிய நியமனங்களையும் ஜாதி அடிப்படையில் செய்து அதை விளம்பரப்படுத்தி, அந்தந்த ஜாதி மக்களின் ஆதரவைப் பெறுவதற்கான முயற்சிகளும் வெட்கமில்லாமல் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டன, இன்னமும் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டு வருகின்றன.

ஜாதிச் சங்கங்களின் நிகழ்ச்சிகளில் அமைச்சர்களும் உயர் அதிகாரிகளும் தங்குதடையில்லாமல் கலந்துகொண்டு ஜாதிக்கு உரமூட்டினர். அரசு ஊழியர்களே ஜாதிய ரீதியான சங்கங்களை அமைக்கத் தொடங்கும் போக்கு வளர்ந்தது.

ஜாதித் தலைவர்களின் பெயரால் மாவட்டங்கள், போக்குவரத்துக் கழகங்கள் ஆகியவற்றை அமைக்கும் மலினமான முயற்சியும் நடைபெற்று அந்தந்த மாவட்டங்களில் அந்தந்த ஜாதி மக்களின் ஆதரவைப் பெற்றுவிடலாம் என பகுத்தறிவுப் பாசறையில் பயின்றவர்கள் நம்பியது நகைப்புக்கிடமாக அமைந்தது. ஆனால் இது எதிர்மறையான விளைவையே ஏற்படுத்தி பல்வேறு ஜாதிகளுக்கிடையே மோதலை உருவாக்கிற்று.

இதன் காரணமாக ஜாதிக்கலவரங்கள் வெடித்தவுடன், மாவட்டங்களுக்கும் போக்குவரத்துக் கழகங்களுக்கும் சூட்டப்பட்ட ஜாதிப் பெயர்களை அவசர அவசரமாக நீக்கவேண்டிய அவசியம் ஏற்பட்டது.

தேர்தல்களில் ஆதாயம் தேடும் ஒரே நோக்கத்துடன் கொஞ்சங்கூட தொலைநோக்குப் பார்வை இல்லாமல் அரசுப் பொறுப்பில் இருந்தவர்கள் நடந்துகொண்ட முறைதான் ஜாதிக்கலவரங்கள் தொடர்வதற்கு அடிப்படைக் காரணமாகும்.

கடந்த காலத்தில் ஜாதிகளுக்கு அப்பாற்பட்டு தங்களின் தொண்டு, தியாகம் ஆகியவற்றினால் மக்களிடையே மதிப்புப் பெற்ற பல தலைவர்கள் மறைந்த பிறகு அந்தத் தலைவர்களை ஜாதி வட்டத்திற்குள் குறுக்கும் வெட்ககரமான நடவடிக்கைகள் பகிரங்கமாகத் தொடர்கின்றன. இன்றைய ஜாதிச் சங்கங்களின் தலைவர்கள் பலருக்கும் சொந்த முகமில்லை. மறைந்த தலைவர்களை முகமூடிகளாகப் பயன்படுத்திக்கொண்டு தங்கள் செல்வாக்கை வளர்க்க முயலுகிறார்கள்.

ஆட்சிப் பொறுப்பில் இருப்பவர்களுக்கு சமுதாய வளர்ச்சிக்கான சமுதாயக் கொள்கை இருக்க வேண்டும். அப்போதைக்கு அப்போது ஜாதி உணர்வுகளுக்குத் தீனிபோடும் வகையில் சில சலுகைகளை அறிவிப்பது நிரந்தரமான பயனைத் தராது. ஜாதிகளைக் கடந்து சகல மக்களுக்கும் பயனளிக்கக்கூடியதுமான ஒரு கொள்கைத் திட்டம் இல்லாததன் விளைவே, ஜாதிய மோதல்களுக்குக் காரணமாகும். இந்தப் போக்கு அடியோடு மாற்றப்பட வேண்டும்.

வெளிநாடுகளுக்குக் கொத்தடிமைகளாகப் போன தமிழரின் நிலை குறித்து "விதியே தமிழ்ச் சாதியை என் செய நினைத்தாய்?' என பாரதி மனம் நொந்து பாடினார். பல ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்னால் அவர் பாடிய பாடல் வரிகள் இப்போது தமிழகத் தமிழர்களுக்கும் பொருந்துவதாக உள்ளன. ஜாதிகளைத் துறந்து தமிழ் ஜாதியாக நாம் அனைவரும் இணைவோம், ஜா""தீ''யை அணைக்க ஒன்றுபடுவோம்.

 

நன்றி : தினமணி நாள் 5.12.12

Sisterhood triumphs over caste in Hisar The Hisar Rape Case Offers A Glimpse Of A Rural Society In Transition: Caste Hierarchies Have Endured And Yet Gradual Shifts Are Underway He sat at the back of the crowded bus, hiding part of his face with an angochcha, looking away at the passing countryside. But one glance and she knew it was him. She got off the bus, rushed home, told her elders. They made a call, and at the next stop, the police stood waiting to take the young man away.      And thus Baljeet, better known in Dabra as Sittu, one of the dozen-odd jat boys on the run after allegedly raping a 16-year-old dalit girl on September 9 and filming the act to blackmail her not to squeal, was finally arrested on Saturday. The case has roiled Hisar, the district of Haryana infamous for jat-dalit tensions. But in small mercies, Baljeet’s arrest — the first in the case — took place on information shared by a jat girl.      The college student prefers to be anonymous. Baljeet is her neighbour. So are the other boys still on the run. It is not easy to act against your own community, her mother explains, even if they are goondas. “But these boys should be punished,” says the girl. “She (the victim) was my junior in school. What happened to her could have happened to me. It could have been any of us.”      In the dalit quarter, not everyone agrees. “They would not have touched a jat girl. Aag lag jaati. They could only do this to a poor girl,” says Ommi, a young woman from the victim’s extended family.      According to the FIR, the girl had been forcibly picked up from the road and taken to a secluded spot near a canal, where seven boys took turns to rape her, while five others stood watching.      At the small brick house of the victim, a group of women have huddled around her mother, who sits statue-like, mourning what is a double loss — her daughter’s trauma and her husband’s suicide. She remembers the fateful afternoon when her daughter, a student of 12th grade, had stepped out to meet her granny, only to come back in the evening listless and subdued. “She didn’t eat for days, complained of fever. Her father finally sat her down and asked her what is wrong. When she finally spoke, he could not handle it. He consumed poison the same evening,” the mother narrates, her voice breaking. The girl’s father, 42-year-old Krishna, was a gardener and worked at the bungalow of a prominent, politically influential jat family.      In the dalit quarter, there is constant refrain of how some of the boys belong to powerful jat families — erstwhile zamindars, modern-day politicians —who are now trying to influence the investigation. “The assistant sub-inspector handling the case is a jat. Intially, he tried to fudge the facts, by inserting in the FIR that the girl was friendly with the boys and had gone with them willingly. But we ensured that he could not do that. Now, they are trying to falsely implicate other village boys who are innocent,” says Sanjay Chauhan of the Bahujan Samaj Morcha, a local group. The superintendent of police, B Sateesh Balan, denies this. “We have made another arrest. The young man is yet to be identified,” he says.      But the villagers claim the second boy to be arrested is from the Yadav community. “He is innocent. He was not even in the village when the incident occurred. He was with me in Udaipur, transporting material,” vouches Baljit Kumar, a dalit youth. “By arresting the wrong people, the police are spreading dushmanayi(enmity),” said a Dalit woman. “Already, we are living in fear,” she adds. The fear is not just of a backlash but also of a breakdown of economic ties. Dalits are landless and work in the fields of the jats. If tensions were to rise between the two communities, their livelihoods would be jeopardized.      While the incident shows how caste hierarchies have endured, it also offers a glimpse of the gradual shifts underway. In recent years, the region has seen a resurgence of dalit groups and parties like the BSP. Oustide the district headquarters, dalits from Bhagana village have been sitting on a strike, demanding access to the village’s common land, blocked by jats. Since last week, they have been joined by dalits from Dabra, who have been taking out candle-light processions in the city, protesting police inaction in the rape case. As TV cameras crowd the village, the young Dalits speak forcefully and articulately. “Earlier, our community would take all the injustices without a murmur,” says Baljit Kumar. “But the educated youth are no longer willing to cow down.”      If education has empowered young dalits, it has also created spaces of empathy among the jats. When it came to choosing between her schoolmate and her caste-cousin, the college girl who tipped off the police says she didn’t have to think twice. Source: The Times of India dt 27-9-12

National Shame-Shocking story

Caste bias against students in Delhi med college

 A comprehensive ennquiry by Bhalchandra Mungekar, Rajya Sabha MP, has found blatant caste-based discrimination against SC/ST students in Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.

    Mungekar, who was appointed commissioner of enquiry by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, apart from making wide-ranging recommendations, has suggested that Rs 10 lakh be paid as compensation to student Manish and others towards court and other expenses. “The mental trauma that they were/are made to undergo is not measurable in terms of money,” Mungekar said in his report.

    He also demanded legal action under Prevention of Atrocities against SCs/STs Act against former principal V K Sharma, head of physiology department Shobha Das, principal Jayashree Bhattacharjee and Raj Kapoor, professor of physiology and a liaison officer for “resorting to caste based discrimination and neglecting the duties assigned to them, not by omissions, but by commissions”.

    The case relates to 35 SC students who appeared for the first professional examination in July 2010 and failed in the subject of physiology. Twentyfive of them failed again in the same subject despite the fact that many passed in other subjects. Mungekar said when students tried to meet college authorities, they were not entertained and had to resort to RTI to get information.

    It was found that one student’s mark in physiology was shown lesser in the marksheet than what he had actually got. But, he said, no action was taken against the head of the department Shobha Das who said it was a typographical error. Even liaison officer Raj Kapoor refused to entertain them.

    Students who failed in physiology requested the then principal V K Sharma to allow them to attend classes for the second year but were refused. The students went to Delhi high court which allowed them to attend classes but the college took a long time to implement the order. As a result, most of them did not have requisite attendance. Students again approached the HC requesting that they be allowed to take supplementary examination.

    Students were not permitted to appear for the examination to be held in November 2011. Again, Delhi HC intervened and asked the college to take students who had cleared supplementary in second year and factor in their attendance. But the college did not relent.

    More shocking was the revelation that four students of general category, detained for inadequate attendance, were allowed to take the examination.

Source: The Times of India dt 24-9-12

Land and caste

Jatav residents of Ramgarh in U.P. resist attempts by members of a powerful community to grab their land by violent means.

Jatav victims of an attack by some members of the Gujjar community in their village on March 14.

IN what could be considered one of the worst incidents of vendetta against Dalits in the National Capital Region (NCR), members of the Dalit Jatav community were beaten up brutally by some members of the dominant Gujjar community in Ramgarh village in the Greater Noida area of Uttar Pradesh on March 14. The assailants, backed by the gram pradhan who belongs to the same caste, went to the Dalit colony on the margins of the village armed with sticks, countrymade pistols and axes, and beat up its residents in broad daylight, severely injuring many of them. During the rampage, which lasted more than three hours, the Gujjars did not spare even women and children. According to the Jatavs, the police did not arrive in time despite several phone calls to them.

The incident has only strengthened an ongoing struggle by the Jatavs in the village for the right to live peacefully and with dignity. The Jatavs have once again organised themselves to fight the age-old oppression, while the Gujjars are waiting for an opportune moment to strike again. Nearly two months after the incident, there is an eerie calm in the village as the various caste groups have polarised.

The main reason for the attack is 4.75 bighas (one bigha equals 0.25 hectare) of panchayat land allocated to the 60 Jatav families by the State government. The land has been allegedly occupied by the gram pradhan, Kuldeep Bhati.

The Constitution mandates the allocation of a fixed share of panchayat land in every village to Dalit families so that they can build houses or cattle sheds on them. The government had even issued pattas (title deeds) for the land in 1982. But the Gujjars, who are financially stronger, built a seven-foot-high wall around the land last December, restricting the movement of the Jatavs into their own land.

DALIT ASSERTION

This led to a conflict in the village. The March 14 incident was the culmination of the violence perpetrated systematically against the Jatavs, who for the first time showed tremendous courage in resisting the land encroachment. The resistance surprised the Gujjars, who had not anticipated any form of protest by the traditionally exploited Jatavs. Soon after the encroachment, the Jatavs approached the gram pradhan and warned that if the compound wall was not demolished they would register a complaint with the authorities in Dadri tehsil, under which Ramgarh comes, in Gautam Buddha Nagar district.

Brahma Jatav, a 25-year-old leader of the Jatav community, took the lead in asserting the community's right after the Gujjars did not pay heed to the warning. He gave a written complaint about the encroachment to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate on January 24. The Gujjars felt offended and took on the Jatavs, subjecting them to abuses and threats. On February 1, when a Gujjar leader beat up a Jatav for refusing to carry the carcass of a buffalo calf on his shoulders, Brahma filed a first information report at the local police station. After a few stray incidents of individual abuses, the Gujjars accosted Brahma when he was proceeding to attend a family function in a neighbouring village.

“Four Gujjar boys shot at me with a countrymade pistol. A friend came and rescued me and I fled,” Brahma said. This was on March 14. The same afternoon, the Gujjars organised themselves and went on the rampage.

When this correspondent visited Ramgarh, he saw one in three Jatav residents injured: some of them had their arms or legs broken or had suffered minor skull injuries. Shakuntala Devi, a 60-year-old woman, said: “They dragged me out of my house and hit me on my stomach and arms with iron rods.” Doctors have implanted a steel rod to support her left limb. A 30-year-old construction worker was attacked with axes when he was returning home. He was rushed to a local hospital with a broken skull and fractured leg. Although he has been discharged from the hospital, he is bedridden and hardly speaks. He may take almost a year to recover.

Women, who are easy targets in every act of violence and suppression, gave an account of the brutal treatment meted out to them that day. Even today the Jatav women suffer verbal abuse with sexual connotations every day. With safety in view, the Jatavs move around in groups. After the March 14 incident, the administration deployed a police contingent in the village to prevent further violence. However, the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist-Liberation) party members, who visited the place, have mentioned in their fact-finding report that the police are monitoring the Jatavs more closely than they are the Gujjars. The claim may not be off the mark because the police have failed to make any arrests so far. A few people whom the Jatavs had named in their complaint have obtained anticipatory bail. The report also states that the police charged the accused under minor sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and as a result, they got bail immediately.

A district official told Frontline on condition of anonymity that the Gujjars, who constitute not more than 20 families, were politically powerful and that his department had been trying to keep a check on their activities. “This is not the first case of encroachment by the Gujjars in Ramgarh. The shops that they own along the village street are constructed on panchayat lands. We have been planning to take some action in this regard too,” he said. The gram pradhan refused to talk to Frontline despite repeated requests.

REAL ESTATE

Ramgarh, like many other villages of western Uttar Pradesh, is surrounded by lush agricultural fields and irrigation canals. Scores of cattle sheds managed by the villagers mark its territory. Like most villages in the vicinity, it is shaped by innumerable asymmetrical bylanes running through a number of big and small semi-plastered houses. However, what makes the village crucial in terms of its location is its proximity to Greater Noida, which has become one of the biggest destinations in the NCR for real estate businesses. One may recall that last year farmers of the villages around Greater Noida had organised themselves to protest against the indiscriminate land acquisition for the Yamuna Expressway and a hi-tech city that was proposed along the highway. But Ramgarh, where farmers have already sold most of their lands, is witnessing an internal conflict that might contribute another dimension to the understanding of the problems fuelled by land acquisitions across the country.

Around Ramgarh, a private construction company has acquired most of the lands to build a mega city consisting of housing societies, shopping malls, private schools and hospitals and large sports facilities. It has named the proposed town Sushant Megapolis. Like in most other western Uttar Pradesh villages, agricultural lands in Ramgarh are owned by Jats. Most of the Jats of the village have already sold their land to the company. The other dominant caste, Gujjar, is a backward community, but the Gujjars have traditionally been powerful in the region owing to their money and muscle power. Their wealth comes primarily from moneylending.

As is the case with most of rural India, the traditional moneylenders charge exorbitant rates of interest. Dalits, the most vulnerable community in Ramgarh, have been historically exploited through this process and they continue to be caught in a debt trap. This is also the reason that the land allotted to them is their only property. Most of the Jatavs are landless and work as farmhands in the fields of the Jats. As the Jats have sold their lands, the Jatavs have been forced to take up menial jobs in Delhi or Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The conflict over land is inevitable in the context of the booming real estate business in the NCR. The mad rush to buy land has made land prices go up sharply. The 4.75 bighas of encroached land can fetch at least Rs.5 crore at the current market value.

In most of the land acquisition cases in India, construction companies operate through middlemen from the village from where they intend to acquire land. Middlemen generally try to land a deal at the minimum possible price for a fixed commission. They first spread rumours that the government plans to acquire all available lands for a particular project, and this would make a farmer hastily sell his land at a low price.

LARGE-SCALE LAND acquisition by big construction companies has led to a severe land crunch in Ramgarh, which is in the National Capital Region. In the backdrop, high-rise buildings under construction.

If this trick does not work, the middlemen would employ musclemen to threaten the farmers. In this, the middlemen are helped by the gram pradhan, the patwari (village's official clerk) and other village officials, often leading to a complicated builder-official-middleman nexus. In Ramgarh, it is alleged that some members of the Gujjar community have become the middlemen for construction companies.

The Bhatta-Parsaul or Tappal struggles over land acquisition last year saw organised resistance from the landowning Jats, but Ramgarh did not see much protest as the farmers there were offered better prices because of the village's proximity to Delhi. The Jats were heard by the media and politicians as the community is socially and politically powerful. However, the Ramgarh case indicates that a severe land crunch in the region has assumed multiple dimensions and has become one of the primary reasons for the exploitation of Dalits. The land crunch has pitted the Gujjars and the Jatavs against each other. However, despite an exploitative relationship between the two communities, organised violence, such as the one witnessed in March, was unheard of.


The Jatavs complained that the Gujjars were selling part of their land to outsiders who they suspect would eventually sell the land to builders. The power to convert the panchayat land into freehold land rests with the gram pradhan, that is, if he gets the approval of the Dalits. Brahma Jatav told Frontline that the pradhan had been trying to get their signatures so that the land could become freehold and he could sell it.


In western Uttar Pradesh, Dalits are forced to live on the margins of villages. Ramgarh is no exception. In fact, the village has a history of forcible eviction of members of the Valmiki community (extremely backward Dalits who work mostly as manual scavengers in northern India) from their lands, which made them leave the village. However, after the March 14 incident, the Jatavs organised a convention for the first time to pledge that they would continue to fight against such injustices. The Jatavs are planning to appeal to all the high offices until they get their lands back.


One of the biggest results of such rapid urbanisation driven by private companies is the escalation of conflicts in rural India, among communities and with external forces. These conflicts can take a vicious form in villages already plagued by an exploitative caste system, as in Ramgarh. The incidents in Ramgarh, which is less than 40 kilometres from New Delhi, prove that urbanisation alone cannot be the solution to end the power-driven caste system, as some Dalit activists have been proposing. It is also interesting to note that the Ramgarh violence occurred around the same time as the State Assembly elections.

SOME DALIT WOMEN who were injured in the attack.

The incident was projected in the regional dailies as the Samajwadi Party's (which had just come to power) retaliation against Bahujan Samaj Party workers. However, the sequence of events proves that the violence had its roots in the age-old exploitation of Dalits, who have undoubtedly become assertive.


A poem by the revolutionary Hindi poet Gorakh Pandey and eloquently narrated by Kavita Krishnan of the CPI(ML) at the Jatav convention sums up the resistance in Ramgarh: Hazaar saal purana hai unka gussa/Hazaar saal purani hai unki nafrat/Main toh unke bikhrey hue shabdon ko/ Tukh aur Laya ke saath lauta raha hoon/Tumhe darr hai ki aag bhadka raha hoon. (Their anger is a thousand years old/ Their hatred is a thousand years old/ I am just returning their scattered words/With rhyme and reason/And you fear that I am inciting rage.)
Source:Front Line may-19-June1

NHRC to hear grievances of Scheduled Castes

      The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will hold a three-day public hearing in Chennai on August 7 to deal with grievances of Schedules Castes.

Those belonging to SC category who have a complaint of atrocity committed by a public servant or of negligence by a public servant in prevention of atrocity can send their complaints to the commission by June 25. The complaints deemed fit for enquiry shall be taken up at the public hearing, the commission said. AGENCIES
Source: The Times of India dt 6-6-12

Caste haunts them even in death

In Tirupur, Dalit Families Fight For Decent Burial Of Their Kin

Caste tension is mounting in Ammapalayam, near Uthukuli in Tirupur district, with non-dalits opposing the burial of a 70–year-old dalit in a vacant plot located in the heart of the village. Last week, the Madras high court had ordered the district administration to provide the dalits of Ammapalayam a permanent burial ground in the village, which is about 20km from the hosiery town of Tirupur. The 60 dalit families residing here have been burying their dead along a 30-feet stretch beside the Kunnathur-Adiyur road since the majority community refused to let them have a burial space in the village. 
    On Tuesday, when the death of C Maral was confirmed, community representatives told district authorities that they would not bury the body by the road in light of the court order. They said the body ought to be buried in a 30-cent vacant plot in the village, but close to a non-dalit settlement. However, the non-dalits objected. The district collector, the superintendent of police and the revenue divisional officer were unable to work out a compromise despite holding several rounds of talks between the two communities through the day. 
    Tension continued on Wednesday too as dalits from nearby localities gathered in the village and raised slogans against the non-dalits. Over 300 policemen were posted in the area after this. The body of Maral is yet to be buried. Dalits in the village said the district administration and non- dalits were forcing them to use a burial ground located 3km from the village. 
    Ammapalayam has been in focus after a high court order brought to light the simmering caste tension here. Dalits claim that non-dalits had asked local barbers not to provide their services to more than 50 dalit families, who are now forced to walk more than 10km to access shops in Kunnathur and Perumanallur. They are also barred from entering the local temple. 
    Tirupur superintendent of police V Balakrishnan said the Kangeyam DSP had been instructed to inspect the area and find out whether caste discrimination was prevalent there. “If such a situation exists, we will file a case against caste Hindus under the sections of Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act,” he said. 
    Dalits here alleged that members of the “upper caste” did not permit them to use the village burial ground, forcing them to bury their dead along the state roads. 
    “We have no option but to use the same area for every burial. Because of this, bones resurface at the burial site. We want to erect shrines and remember the dead. But because the bodies are all mixed up, we cannot do this,” said M Mani, 34, a coolie. 
    After the court intervened on behalf of the dalits, following a PIL filed by a human rights organization, collector M Mathivanan ordered a probe by the Avinashi tahsildar. 
    “The tahsildar has identified two sites for the burial ground. We will finalize one of them and the government will ensure a link road and a compound wall for the burial ground,’’ said Mathivanan. One of the sites identified by tahsildar G Poongavan is located close to the site used by the Gounders to bury their dead. 
Source: The Times of India Dt 1.3.12

Man stabs daughter to protect family ‘honour’

Engg Student Wanted To Marry A Dalit Boy

An engineering student escaped with injuries in her neck and abdomen after her father attempted to kill her on Monday after she refused to end her love affair with a dalit youth. 
    S Sundaramoorthy, 46, wanted his daughter S Gnanavalli, 21, to marry a groom from their community. He attacked her on Monday morning as she was proceeding to her college in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of north Tamil Nadu. 
    Sundaramoorthy, a farmer, belongs to a dominant caste in Melavalaiammadevi village near Vriddhachalam. Gnanavalli was staying in her relative’s house in Chidambaram and studying final year civil engineering at a private college. She was going to the college when Sundaramoorthy stopped her at Annamalai Nagar and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and abdomen and escaped. 
    Passersby, shocked by the violent incident, rushed Gnanavalli to a nearby private hospital. 
    A police team from Annamalai Nagar police station reached the spot and began inquiries. They managed to trace Sundaramoorthy and arrest him. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Gnanavalli was in love with a dalit youth but her parents and relatives were pressuring her to marry a person chosen by them. Her parents had even fixed the date for her engagement. 
    In a last-ditch attempt, her parents and relatives met her on Sunday evening at a temple in Chidambaram in an effort to convince her to marry the groom they had chosen. However, Gnanavalli refused to heed their request. 
    Upset over her defiance, Sundaramoorthy decided to murder her “to protect the dignity of the family”. Armed with a knife, he reached Chidambaram on Monday and waited at a bus stop near her college. He stabbed her repeatedly as soon as he noticed her coming out of a shop. 
    “It is a clear case of attempt to murder to protect family honour. Sundaramoorthy said he wanted to murder his daughter to safeguard the dignity of the family. He was upset and angry as his daughter refused to heed his advice,” Annamalai Nagar inspector A Arokiyaraj said. 
    Gnanavalli, undergoing treatment at the private hospital, was out of danger. 
    Police booked Sundaramoorthy on charges of attempt to murder. He was remanded in judicial custody by a local court.

An engineering student escaped with injuries in her neck and abdomen after her father attempted to kill her on Monday after she refused to end her love affair with a dalit youth. 
    S Sundaramoorthy, 46, wanted his daughter S Gnanavalli, 21, to marry a groom from their community. He attacked her on Monday morning as she was proceeding to her college in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of north Tamil Nadu. 
    Sundaramoorthy, a farmer, belongs to a dominant caste in Melavalaiammadevi village near Vriddhachalam. Gnanavalli was staying in her relative’s house in Chidambaram and studying final year civil engineering at a private college. She was going to the college when Sundaramoorthy stopped her at Annamalai Nagar and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and abdomen and escaped. 
    Passersby, shocked by the violent incident, rushed Gnanavalli to a nearby private hospital. 
    A police team from Annamalai Nagar police station reached the spot and began inquiries. They managed to trace Sundaramoorthy and arrest him. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Gnanavalli was in love with a dalit youth but her parents and relatives were pressuring her to marry a person chosen by them. Her parents had even fixed the date for her engagement. 
    In a last-ditch attempt, her parents and relatives met her on Sunday evening at a temple in Chidambaram in an effort to convince her to marry the groom they had chosen. However, Gnanavalli refused to heed their request. 
    Upset over her defiance, Sundaramoorthy decided to murder her “to protect the dignity of the family”. Armed with a knife, he reached Chidambaram on Monday and waited at a bus stop near her college. He stabbed her repeatedly as soon as he noticed her coming out of a shop. 
    “It is a clear case of attempt to murder to protect family honour. Sundaramoorthy said he wanted to murder his daughter to safeguard the dignity of the family. He was upset and angry as his daughter refused to heed his advice,” Annamalai Nagar inspector A Arokiyaraj said. 
    Gnanavalli, undergoing treatment at the private hospital, was out of danger. 
    Police booked Sundaramoorthy on charges of attempt to murder. He was remanded in judicial custody by a local court.

An engineering student escaped with injuries in her neck and abdomen after her father attempted to kill her on Monday after she refused to end her love affair with a dalit youth. 
    S Sundaramoorthy, 46, wanted his daughter S Gnanavalli, 21, to marry a groom from their community. He attacked her on Monday morning as she was proceeding to her college in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of north Tamil Nadu. 
    Sundaramoorthy, a farmer, belongs to a dominant caste in Melavalaiammadevi village near Vriddhachalam. Gnanavalli was staying in her relative’s house in Chidambaram and studying final year civil engineering at a private college. She was going to the college when Sundaramoorthy stopped her at Annamalai Nagar and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and abdomen and escaped. 
    Passersby, shocked by the violent incident, rushed Gnanavalli to a nearby private hospital. 
    A police team from Annamalai Nagar police station reached the spot and began inquiries. They managed to trace Sundaramoorthy and arrest him. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Gnanavalli was in love with a dalit youth but her parents and relatives were pressuring her to marry a person chosen by them. Her parents had even fixed the date for her engagement. 
    In a last-ditch attempt, her parents and relatives met her on Sunday evening at a temple in Chidambaram in an effort to convince her to marry the groom they had chosen. However, Gnanavalli refused to heed their request. 
    Upset over her defiance, Sundaramoorthy decided to murder her “to protect the dignity of the family”. Armed with a knife, he reached Chidambaram on Monday and waited at a bus stop near her college. He stabbed her repeatedly as soon as he noticed her coming out of a shop. 
    “It is a clear case of attempt to murder to protect family honour. Sundaramoorthy said he wanted to murder his daughter to safeguard the dignity of the family. He was upset and angry as his daughter refused to heed his advice,” Annamalai Nagar inspector A Arokiyaraj said. 
    Gnanavalli, undergoing treatment at the private hospital, was out of danger. 
    Police booked Sundaramoorthy on charges of attempt to murder. He was remanded in judicial custody by a local court.

Source: The Times of India dt 22.02.2012